Michael Tolliver Lives by Armistead Maupin (2007)

Last entry for 2009. Don't remember why I didn't read this when I bought it - maybe some thoughts of rereading the earlier Tales of the City or catching up on the books I have missed from Maupin's world. I forgot how much I loved Maupin's books in the 1980's. I was going to head to San Francisco after college, but got sidetracked in the Midwest and stayed. It is still one of my favorite cities, though I haven't been there for years. I wanted to live amongst those crazy Californians (as opposed to those from LA). Maupin created a world I could totally relate to, even if it was quite a bit wilder than my own, but it still was full of young people looking for love, sex, where they belong, what they want to do. And it was largely a gay world. Though I felt pretty comfortable with what I knew of the gay world, this helped me understand it better and become even more comfortable with it. I would have loved to have lived on Barbary Lane.

In this book the main character is Michael Tolliver and he is 55, settled in a profession he likes (taking care of other people's gardens),with a partner he married in city hall, an aging mother in Florida, etc. Again, I totally relate (well, except for having a partner next to me.) Maupin and his characters have mellowed. We no longer jump around following 20 different people. This is Michael's story, though he catches us up with most of the others, when appropriate. I just liked being in that middle aged space with him. There were very few references I didn't get, so it just felt comfortable - and Maupin is always fun. Anna Madrigal is still around, Brian and his daughter Shawna, we hear about Mona's fate and even meet Mary Ann. The new characters are Ben, Michael's husband, Jake, his partner at work, and Michael's brother Irwin, his wife Lenore, and Michael's mom, whom we probably met at some point, but now that she is at her life's end, we get to see more of her.

What a wonderful year of books!

2009 in review

So I've done my year end review (one more book will be added by the end of the day) - put all the books in my Excel file. I'm keeping up with my average of 5 books a month - these last few days have helped - so I have 66 books in my list. I am not sure I have even entered everything I read this year. Other than my unhealthy obsession for Nora Roberts for quick getaway reading, I think I have read a good selection of current books. Not enough non-fiction - only 6, a few young adult, a few science-fiction/fantasy, quite a few mysteries, but a solid lot of historical fiction, which is my current favorite genre. I do notice I did not read a single classic or anything published before 1979, so maybe I can set that as a goal for next year.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer (2008)

Thank goodness Elaine suggested this book to me, it was just delightful - as is the feeling that I can afford to just read book after book on my holiday. There actually is a second author - Annie Barrows, but after reading the afterward, I am going to say this is mainly Mary Ann Shaffer's book, though her niece helped her finish editing it, when health prevented her from doing this herself.

World War II or it's aftermath seems to be a current theme lately - Lacuna (large part of it), Day After Night, even Japan, and then there were those wonderful Maisie Dobbs books by Winspear (OK, that was WWI).

Did you know that the Germans invaded part of England - the Channel Islands, or at least Guernsey (the other bigger island being Jersey) - 8 miles in diameter? I didn't, I don't think I really knew where those islands were or who they belonged to. Well, they belong to England, though seem to have a fairly independent history, and are located closer to France than England. They were invaded by the German army, and though they did not suffer bombings and battles, they were starving much of the time, they felt they had to send most of their children to England, and those that defied the Germans were arrested, some sent to camps in Germany, some executed. Those are the bare facts.

Though covering a difficult historical time, it is made delightful by the author and it's main character Juliet. Juliet is a writer in London, who has been writing regular columns and has just published those columns in a book Izzy Bickerstaff Goes to War. She has somehow made it easier for people to endure the war with her sunny disposition and light-hearted touch. She is contacted by Dawsey from Guernsey, because he has one of her former books and wants to read more from the author Charles Lamb. This begins a correspondence between Juliet and Dawsey and other people from Guernsey and draws her into their experience during the war.

I must point out that the whole book is in the form of letters throughout 1946. Many of them are letters from Juliet to her publisher and good friend Sidney or to her best friend, Sidney's sister, Sophie, or her answers to the people in Guernsey. But many are to her from all these people, including telegrams. A very interesting way of telling a story, and I understand the author was a great story teller.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was formed when a few of the islanders were caught after curfew (after eating an illegally kept pig) and one of them conjured up a literary society meeting as an excuse. To make the excuse stick, they actually formed a literary society, borrowed books from each other, bought out the local bookstore, and gathered regularly to share what they had read, as well as support each other in getting through the very difficult times. The Potato Peel Pie indicates the shared meals--when they had no flour, they used potato peels as the pie crust. Each person has a unique tale to tell, and they all tell their stories to Juliet. They communally raise a child, when her mother is arrested and sent to Germany. They all encourage Juliet to visit them and take her warmly into their fold. I won't say more - I just feel so warm inside, like they have welcomed me too - and I gather that is the affect this book has been having on readers around the world.

I just want to quote one paragraph, which just hit home from my short-lived experience as a book store owner:
"I love seeing the bookshops and meeting the booksellers--booksellers really are a special breed. No noe in their right mind would take up clerking in a bookstore for the salary, and no one in his right mind would want to own one--the martin of profit is too small. So, it has to be a love of readers and reading that makes them do it--along with first dibs on the new books." (pg. 15)

Reader Goddaughter

Since my son does not read, it is good to have a goddaughter that does. She is twelve and had her nose in a book most of the time she was visiting us with her family. She started reading one of her gift books almost as soon as she opened her gift. Last night her family stopped by again on their way back home from Wisconsin, and I found her curled up in my favorite reading chair, reading Mercedes Lackey's book that I had left out for her. It seemed totally appropriate for her, with all those strong women characters, and I liked to see her chuckling in places. When I asked her how she liked Princess Andromeda, she said that her name was from Greek mythology, which they had just been studying. This book is ideal for a reader, so she understands the references to various tales and other writings. When we went to bed, she was about halfway done with the 393 page book, but she said she would stay up to finish it - it would only take her an hour or so. So... my godchild not only loves books, but even reads faster than me! Librarians really need godchildren like this.

Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (2009)

Had to read/listen to Barbara Kingsolver's latest book. Will buy it when it comes out in paperback. Though she get's too preachy or quotes doctrine too much at times, this is another good one.

Harrison Shepherd is born in America with an American father and Mexican mother. She leaves his father and takes him to Mexico when he is 12, where he is raised mostly by his mother's lover's staff. He learns to cook, which becomes a useful skill. Since he is bilingual, he can also read and write in both languages. He becomes a part of the Diego Rivera household, befriends Frida Kahlo, and ends up working for Leon Trotsky as a secretary. He is highly affected by Trotsky's assassination. When Frida asks him to bring some of her paintings to New York, he does so and stays in the US. He finds out his father has died and left him a car, which he drives until the highway runs out in Asheville, NC. He has been writing a novel about ancient Mexico, which gets published and he becomes famous.

Two things I really enjoyed about this book. One is again, learning about history through fiction. I hate to admit I didn't know Trotsky ended up in Mexico and was killed there. Actually, Trotsky was a pretty murky figure in my mind already. I liked learning how he differed from Stalin and how he failed to take Lenin's place. I already knew quite a bit about Rivera and Kahlo, but this filled in more gaps. Then in the US, it was interesting to get a small town look at the hardships Americans suffered during WWII, and then horrifying to watch how the anti-communistic wave washed over sweeping up so many innocent people in the process. This is where Kingsolver gets too preachy and too detailed for my taste, but it did give me a clear sense of the hearings for the House Un-American Activities Committee.

The other thing I liked was the construction of the novel, though at times a bit hard to follow in an audio book. Slowly you find out that this is a compilation of diaries, letters, newspaper articles, and other notes, supposedly by and about Harrison Shepherd. In the beginning you hear the initials VB, but have no clue who that is. When he gets to Asheville, he ends up getting a secretary - Violet Brown, who works with him to the end and is the one who is supposedly compiling all these papers for this book. I enjoyed her as a character.

I did not get the title - Lacuna - supposedly the "missing piece" or the most important part of any story is the part you don't know. Now that I've written my piece, I read some reviews and not everyone liked this last Kingsolver book.

One Good Knight by Mercedes Lackey (2006)

Found this delightful fantasy book on my "not read" shelf. It is a great twist on various fairy tales and other fantasy books. Princess Andromeda or Andrea is a book lover and has a nasty mother the Queen, who just wants her out of the way. Her best friends are the guards. She finally get's her mother's notice by writing an astute report on the foreign merchants coming into their port, one of the few sources of income for the small kingdom. So Andrea gets her own household and duties, but when a dragon starts endangering the kingdom, virgins need to be sacrificed, and Andrea becomes one of them, but is saved by her Champion George.

I don't want to say more, because I don't want to spoil this for anyone else, but it is delightfully full of strong women characters, and nicely incorporates fantasy creatures like dragons and unicorns (a surprising twist to those.) The main "force" in this world is Tradition (i.e. fairy tales), so if you can align yourself with the right flow of underdogs and champions, you can win. Many great references to tales of all sorts - and of course, it is the book lover that knows the most or can find them.

First Impressions by Nora Roberts (2008)

Quick reads in between holiday busyness.

First Impressions (1984)
Shane Abbott moves back to her grand or is it great-grandmother's home in rural Maryland, and renovates it into a museum (battlefield close by) and antique store. Vance Banning has bought a fixer-upper to get away from his high pressure job of running a major construction company. Shane hires Vance as her carpenter, believing he is out of a job. Worked for me.

Blithe Images (1982)
This one did not work, this was one of those awful formulaic romances (not that the other Roberts'books are not, but I usually like something in the others.) Here is a small town girl who is making it big as a model, because she can be a chameleon and look innocent or elegant, soft or hard, etc. So this rich guy hires her to model for his magazine for a few months and gets personally involved and to first base...

Japan: A Traveler's Literary Companion ed. by Jeffrey Angles (2006)

This anthology of prose pieces put together by our Japanese language professor was a delight. I have known that Japan is a large country, but never thought about how different all the regions might be. (Just looked it up, Japan is over 1800 miles long, the same distance as from Bangor, ME to Key West, FL.) I liked the idea of reading stories from the different parts of Japan, with a map (I love maps) to guide me. All were 20th century writers, many still alive today. Some of the stories were fictional, some not, but each was a gem. The mountains were an important part of many of the stories, for some, so was the ocean. Though each reflected the personal of experiences of the people mentioned, each gave a flavor of the history and place, whether it was excavating a mass grave from the war, or the reality of earthquakes.

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger (2009)

Read a while back, so I'll just quote Amazon for now:
"Following her breakout bestseller, The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger returns with Her Fearful Symmetry, a haunting tale about the complications of love, identity, and sibling rivalry. The novel opens with the death of Elspeth Noblin, who bequeaths her London flat and its contents to the twin daughters of her estranged twin sister back in Chicago. These 20-year-old dilettantes, Julie and Valentina, move to London, eager to try on a new experience like one of their obsessively matched outfits. Historic Highgate Cemetery, which borders Elspeth's home, serves as an inspired setting as the twins become entwined in the lives of their neighbors: Elspeth's former lover, Robert; Martin, an agoraphobic crossword-puzzle creator; and the ethereal Elspeth herself, struggling to adjust to the afterlife. Niffenegger brings these quirky, troubled characters to marvelous life, but readers may need their own supernatural suspension of disbelief as the story winds to its twisty conclusion. --Brad Thomas Parsons"

My only quick comment is that is was strange that I read two cemetery focused books (the house is next to the cemetery and Robert is a guide to famous graves) so close together. The other being Gaimon's Graveyard Book. And yes it was strange, but so was the Time Traveler's Wife. Did I really like it? I don't know.

MacKade Brothers: Devin & Shane by Nora Roberts (2009)

Here's one I missed recording. Two short reprint novel from 1996 - The Heart of Devin MacKade and The Fall of Shane MacKade. The usual brother (or sister) set-up. The setting is small town Maryland. Devin is the sheriff and his heart is set on Cassie, who married the wrong guy out of high school and has two kids. Devin saves the day. Shane, a womanizer, falls for a PhD who is researching the mystical phenomenon of the area. Again, a combination of magic and romance. There are more brothers, so I am sure there stories are out there to find.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (2006)

Best book I've read in 2009. One friend said she didn't think it was well written, but I found it fascinating, because the work that Greg Mortenson is doing is really changing the world in a profound way. He was a mountain climber, who while coming down off of a failed climb in Pakistan, spent some time in a small mountain village and befriended the people and saw a great need for a school there. This has become his life's work, building schools in Paksitan and Afghanistan with the people of the communities, for the education of their girls and boys.

Bed of Roses by Nora Roberts (2009)

Second in the Bride Quartet, where three friends who have played "wedding" since childhood, now run Vows, a wedding service out of Parker's mansion-like home. Mac, the photographer found Carter in the first book. Now Emma, the flower girl finds Jake, the architect. I do like the tight knit friendships of these girls and those around them. I am amazed that they can pull of numerous weddings in a weekend. I got a bit of a glimpse into flower arranging, but not as much as I would have liked. I know Roberts is an expert on flowers from the garden store trilogy, so she was naming all the flowers, but I still wanted more. I thought Emma had a greenhouse going, and very little was mentioned about that. I liked the cold feet about commitment form Jake's side, and the reasons behind it. Of course it is always too pat, but none of her characters have ideal pasts, which I like.

Day After Night by Anita Diamant (2009)

I can't remember if I have ever finished a book by Diamant, but I know she writes about historical women. This is an incredible story about four Jewish women, who are at a transition camp in Israel after escaping from Europe after World War II. I had never even thought about this transition stage for anyone other than the Latvian exiles. They each had seen so much, lost so many friends and family, had traumatic escapes, and now, before they could start their new lives in the newly created Israel, they were held at a camp, before being assigned a kibbutz or other assigned role. Each has their own coping mechanism. They are starting to feel alive again and flirting with men. This was deeply touching, sad in ways, but hopeful in others. One of my top books this year.

Windfall by Nora Roberts (2009)

This consisted of two reprints:
Impulse (1989)
Temptation (1987)
Just two of those quickie novels that usually I would hate, but Roberts makes them readable. The first takes place in Greece, where Rebecca has headed to find adventure and finds her rich love Stephen Nickodemus.
The second is about a woman proving that she can make it on her own by running a girl's camp and running into her neighbor, the orchard owner Chase Elliot.

Simple Genius by David Baldacci (2007)

Needing to get my mind off my tenure folder, this was another of my escapism books. We see Michelle Maxwell lose it, pick a fight with a big guy in a bar, and almost kill him. She ends in a psych hospital - and she is definitely not a talking therapy kind a gal. She ends up reluctantly talking to a psychiatris and solving a problem at the psych place. But she really just wants to get back out working with Sean King. Sean is down and out financially, so he takes a job through and old flame Joan, which lands him in a super-secret think tank, which is right next door to a CIA facility. A couple of people have lost their lives, so he investigates and gets involved with much larger issues.

Hot Ice by Nora Roberts (1987)

I just reread the first Nora Roberts book I ever read - from a freebie shelf at a library I worked one night a week. I remember being thrilled by the constant chase and the fact that the location was Madagascar, a place about which I know nothing. I haven't run into any other Roberts' books with such an exotic setting - most are in different parts of the U.S., some nice detailed settings in Ireland, and an occasional mini-novel in Greece. I don't know how accurate the author's description was of the countryside, the people, their cultures, but I felt I got a sense of them. I have missed seeing more exotic locales in her books. The thrill ride was still as exciting as I remembered it. Douglas Lord is a professional thief and is going after a mother-load of jewels, supposedly from the days of Marie Antoinette. He inadvertently involves wealthy and bored Whitney MacAllister. I did find Doug's constant reiteration that he wants to find the jewels so he can settle down in luxury to be tedious. The main characters were a bit too stereotypical, the plot twists too improbable, but hey, it was fun. I did enjoy watching the spoilt rich girl become more aware of the rest of the world.

Blue Notebook by James A. Levine (2009)

This was very hard to read, as the child sex slave in India shares her miserable life, but at times in the most beautiful language. She has a wonderful way of looking at the world and there are bright moments, as when she learns to read and write in a hospital as a child. She was raised in a normal family, but her father sells her into slavery, and she doesn't even realize it. It is incredibly hard to read as she gets deflowered by man who has payed well for the priviledge. This moment is described eloquently - not grotesquely, not sensually, but we do feel the horror of it. It is amazing that this is written by a British-born male doctor from Mayo Clinic. I understand he wants to raise awareness of this issue and the world still has a long way to go.

Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore (1997)

The title sounded silly and fun, and the book was silly and fun, sexist, but in the end endearing. Partying pilot Tucker Chase totals his employer's pink jet, and takes a questionable job as a pilot for a doctor out on an island in Micronesia. I enjoyed the incredibility of the story - the typhoon, talking bat, ghost of a WWII pilot, sky goddess, shark people etc. Just fun.

The Three Incestuous Sisters by Audrey Niffenegger (2005)

I think I read that Niffenegger was coming out with a new book, so I just wanted to see what else she had published besides The Time Traveler's Wife and randomly asked for this one through interlibrary loan. Wow! Wasn't expecting this. This is a visual novel, as opposed to a graphic novel, that the author spent 14 years completing -each page spread has a large aquatint on one side and a few words of the story on the other - in neutral taupe tones, except for the long hair of the three sisters, which is yellow, blue and red. The story is definitely strange, but beguiling. Three sisters live alone, one falls in love with the lighthousekeeper's son... My favorite image is the last double spread.

Promises in Death by JD Robb (2009)

I guess I'm giving up on reading these in any kind of order. Missing too many of the recent ones. Nora Roberts writes more books than I can read of hers, so I will stop trying.

I like to keep track of life changes. Eve Dallas and Roark are in a comfortable place in their relationship. Mavis has a baby - and Eve reacts predictably freaked out by the kid. Peabody and McNabb ar living together. There seems to be a new female character from the prosecutors' office. The social thing Eve was avoiding most of the book was a shower for Jean(?), who is marrying Charles, who I remember from previous books as a licenced companion friend of Eve's. The party is a sleep-over at her place and inbetween solving her crime, Eve actually does enjoy herself.

The DB (dead body) is Amarylis Coltraine, a recently transferred cop and love interest of Morris the ME. I thought I'd get bored of a formulaic approach to the Lt. Dallas mysteries, but this didn't follow patterns I remember. It wasn't a series of bodies, and there was no last fight where Eve almost gets killed and Roark saves her. It was good solid detective work, asking various team members to help out with different aspects, and the climax was actually in the interviewing room. (Maybe we have seen those so much on TV cop shows.)

The Calder Game by Blue Balliett (2008)

Signed copy from ALA. I enjoyed her Chasing Vermeer, a kids book incorporating art. It is obvious from the title that the artist involved is Alexander Calder. Three kids from Chicago go to a Calder exhibit, the kid named after Calder gets involved in playing the Calder Game, which is just to take five things - physical object or ideas and to balance them out into a mobile like structure. I guess the game concept did not draw me, but the story was OK. Calder goes with his dad to England, where they stay in a town where a Calder statue has been recently erected by an anonymous donor. Calder, the boy, disappears and his friends get flown over to help find him. We get a bit of a feel for an English town. I wasn't blown away by the story, but I still like the way she intertwines a kid story with art.

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson (2009)

I'd been waiting for the second of Larsson's books to come out in English. I don't know what it is about this crime novel, but it just feels different from others, and not just that it is set in Sweden. We see our "girl" Lisbeth Salander at the end of a year traveling around the world, the last months on a tropical island, returning to Stockholm, getting comfortable in a large fancy apartment, but then she ends up the prime suspect in a series of murders. Mikael Blomkvist, our journalist from Millenium magazine, tries to help. Loved the professional boxer that she used to spar with. The evil guys are really nasty, but with backgrounds that make them interesting. I should probably say a lot more about this book, but out of time, so I will just have to say, one of my favorites of the year. Just have to wait for the last one.

Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman (2009)

Free uncorrected proof from ALA. Gaiman, the Newberry winner tells this tale of Odd, a crippled boy in Norway, who runs away with a fox an eagle and a bear, that turn out to be Norse gods bewitched by Frost Giants. You know the way of tales, the kid comes through, and all live happily ever after. It was interesting that Gaiman wove various mythical characters as well as history into his tale. Of course I knew Vikings went a raiding, but didn't think about the fact that they probably brought back prisoners - women and children, and that their blood would be mixed in the gene pool.

Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant (2009)

Dunant really researches women in historical times, so this story is set in convent in Italy in 1570. It was difficult to read at times, when noble women had no choice, but to enter a convent, if there wasn't a sufficient dowry for them (usually only one daughter was married off.) But then again, it gave some women opportunities they would never have had outside the convent. One woman had learned medicine next to her father, and was able to continue to heal and experiment further while keeping the convent healthy, as much as possible in those times. Others devoted themselves to music or baking or transcribing books.

The other piece that I had a very hard time listening to were the dogmatic religious statements. I understand that was the understanding at the time, but it still drove me nuts to hear the warped explanations of what God expects of us, and how to become closer to him. I am glad the book started with a listing of the different hours and devotions held to in the convent. That too seemed over the edge to me, until I recently talked to a minister who found a spiritual home in a convent in Germany that continues similar devotional times and found that good for meditating.

The story is about Serafina, who has been put in the convent against her will, and who loves someone on the outside. She is defiant, and only Suora (sister in Italian?) Zuana, the apothocary-medic seems to get through to her.

Killer Smile by Lisa Scottoline (2004)

This book was suggested to me because I really enjoyed learning about the Japanese internment camps. Did I know that Italians and Germans were interred too? No. So this is crime novel with the same humor as Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books, except Mary DiNunzio is a lawyer, and this happens across the river in Philly rather than Trenton. Mary is trying to clear a man's name who died in one of the internment camps in Montana, by going through archives and even visiting the historic camp site, interviewing a few who were still around at that time. Again a senseless incarceration of innocent people, and then later, taking away their assets. I liked the writing, fun mystery, with personal life thrown in - friends always setting Mary up for blind dates, etc. I liked Mary's character, so I may try more of Scottoline's books, when I am in that kind of mood.

First Ladies by Margaret Brown Klapthor (1979)

Discarded from Women's studies collection, probably meant for children. I really liked these one page biographies of all the first ladies, going though 200 years of US history through them. I didn't realize how many wives had died before or during the presidency or were ill, and then someone else, usually a relative, took over the social duties: Jefferson's daughter, Andrew Jackson's niece, Van Buren's daughter-in-law, and more. Buchannen never married, so his niece was hostess for him. Cleveland married in office - a woman 27 years younger and his partner's daugher for whom he was guardian. I can imagine how that would have played out today. Some wives had long lives after the death of their famous husbands. All fascinating.

Last of the Dandies by Nick Foulkes (2003)

Subtitle: The Scandalous Life and Escapades of Count d'Orsay. One of those interesting titles I found while browsing the library shelves, I checked it out, skimmed it, but never did read it. This is a researched book on an interesting character. "D'Orsay dominated fashion during the 1830's and 40's, scandalizsing the part of polite society that he did not charm. ... His dress sense aside, he painted, he sculpted, he gambled, he shot, he rode, he involved himself in the literary and political life of the day. It is fair to assume that he had affairs with his patron, the free-spending Earl of Blessington, and the earl's wife, prominent hostess Lady Blessington. He also married Lord Blessington's daughter. ... in many ways he was the first modern celebrity..." (from the Preface, ix) My father had a bit of the dandy in him - he like white pants in the summer and liked to be social. But my pile of books to read is too high, so this will just have to go back to the library shelves. Looks like no one else has ever checked it out.

The Lost Lake by Allen Say (1989)

A beautifully illustrated book of a boy and his too busy father, who bond during a camping trip looking for the Lost Lake.

The Bicycle Man by Allen Say (1982)

I was just showing someone the children's books on Japan that we have and ran across author, illustrator Allen Say. When I went up to show her the books, I took a couple to read myself, and would like to read all of his books.

This is a picture book about Japanese students after WWII. A couple of American soldiers come by their school and even without language skills break down the anxiety among the students.

Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg (2009)

I seem to have been avoiding listening to Berg's books, but for some reason this one looked appealing, maybe it was the bluejay on the cover. Helen Ames is a writer, who recently lost her husband and seems to have lost her ability to write. She obsesses over her 26 year old daughter Tessa and I am sorry, but this character just drove me nuts. She seemed to be so helpless in practical things, so whiny, so overbearing as a mother, so nosy. Any one of those traits would have been OK, but the combination just made her very unappealing to me. Often I would just cringe or be saying to myself: "Oh, just shut up" or "get over yourself," though I fully realize I have my own insane conversations going on in my head. I understood that Berg was actually presenting this character working her way out of grief, but I still had very little patience for her.

The only part I really liked was when she was teaching a writing workshop to a very diverse group of people, and Berg gave wonderful fictional examples of their writing. She can write, so maybe I should try one more book before I put her on my list of authors to avoid.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (2008)

Picked up this latest Newberry Award winner at the ALA conference. Wonderful, unique, a total delight to read something quite different.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford (2009)

This is a potential "gift to friends" type of book, a lovely bitter and sweet story alternating between war time (1942-45) and 1986 Seattle. (I understand the need for using this year for the plot, but the Internet was not widely available at that time, but I guess that is literary license.)

Henry is a Chinese-American boy who befriends Keiko, a Japanese-American girl when they are the only non-whites in a private school. Henry's father hates the Japanese, because they have invaded his homeland. Henry and Keiko feel more American than Chinese or Japanese, but during the war, the US government saw all people of Japanese descent as potential spies, so they were moved out of their homes into internment camps. I knew about this, but never could visualize the hatred people had towards the Japanese. This well researched novel shows this in a wonderful way, through the eyes of a Chinese boy. We see three generations - Henry's father, Henry's own experience, and his son Marty. Each Chinese in his own way.

I loved the descriptions of the jazz scene in Seattle during the war. I like the way a jazz record is woven in throughout the book, though that particular recording is fictional. The friendship between Henry and the jazz musician was very touching.

The hotel in the title is an old boarded up hotel that gets bought by someone in 1986 and they find piles of Japanese family belongings from the wartime in the basement, which gets Henry thinking of his old friend. Since his wife has died, he is looking for some new meaning in his life.

Reader's Advisory by Bill Barnes & Gene Ambaum (2009)

Another delightful volume (7) of Unshelved library comics. Liked this one better than the previous one - Frequently Asked Questions. I especially liked the riffs on searching for information in print vs on the Internet and when a library school intern works in the library.

Frequently Asked Questions by Bill Barnes & Gene Ambaum (2008)

Picked up a couple of the Unshelved library comic strip books at the American Library Association conference. Delightful as usual. Some of the issues are more public library ones, but I can still appreciate them. The last third of the book was full page color book review panels, mostly of books I have never heard of - seemed like mostly graphic novels and newer SF-Fantasy stuff I am no longer following.

Hot House Flower: Nine Plants of Desire by Margot Berwin (2009)

I just grabbed this, because it caught my eye and had something to do with plants. I was listening to it on my way to the American Library Association Conference in Chicago and was surprised to find that the author was autographing these books at the ALA exhibits. I couldn't time it right to get an autographed copy, but I liked the coincidence anyway.

Details to follow, I hope.

Ceremony in Death by JD Robb (1997)

Fifth in the series, I distinctly remembered the ending, but not how Lt. Eve Dallas got there. This looked at Wicca and black and white magic.

Vision in White by Nora Roberts (2009)

Since weddings are the goal of all romance novels, and I would guess 90% of girls dream about their fantasy wedding (much less so about actual life with a guy afterwards), it only makes sense that Roberts would set a book in the middle of the wedding world. Weddings have become such elaborate affairs that we are all aware of the wedding planning business and have seen it in action in numerous movies.

We have four women, who have been friends since childhood when their favorite games was planning weddings, who have now formed a wedding business. Parker is the planner who also owns the estate they use for the weddings. Her parents were killed in an accident, so she has inherited it and it makes sense to put it to use, plus it pays for the upkeep. Emma does the flowers and decorations and has her own greenhouse. Laurel does the food, especially the cakes. And Mackenzie - Mac - is the photographer. I can see this turning into another one of Roberts'quadrilogies, and the title lends itself to X in color - Vision in White, Petals in Pink, etc.

As usual i like the strong women - the businesswomen and learned a bit about how a good photographer might think about her/his subject, plus all the work that has to be done after the pictures are shot. Mac is a dedicated professional with a problem mother, who falls for the most geeky love interest yet (I loved it) - an English teacher with a Phd. What I realized after the New Yorker article is that Roberts also takes time to develop the male character, so you see both sides - this guy was great in his lack of self confidence, asking for dating tips from his colleague.

Changing Planes by Ursula LeGuin (2003)

Strangely enough, while I was reading Tepper's book about an alternative reality, I was listening to LeGuin's short stories on numerous alternative realities. They are tied together by the concept that waiting in airports to change planes, people have started entering another altered state of consciousness and actually are changing worlds or planets. This allows LeGuin to play with numerous alternate cultures. In one, the people don't speak after early childhood, except in very rare occasions. In another everyone is so angry, that they get violent and tend to not live long lives. One world has a bird analogy, people migrate north and south (except one year = 24 years) with spring and summer in the mountains and fall and winter in the city, they have beaks, perform a mating dance. In another all were royalty except for one common family. (I keep forgetting that short stories are better read than listened to, as it is hard for the mind to jump in and out of these various realities aurally.)

The Fresco by Sherri Tepper (2000)

Sherri Tepper used to be one of my favorite fantasy writers and this book had been sitting on my "to read" shelf for years. I picked it up since I was wanting to read something different than what I had been reading, and was thoroughly delighted.

Benita is an abused woman in New Mexico that is fighting her way to independence, when she is approached by some aliens to bring a message to someone in charge and given money to do so. She goes to Washington and becomes not only the messenger, but main contact with this alien race. Earth is given a limited time in which to get its shit together, so it can become part of a galactic federation, so it can be protected from invasion by bad aliens. The wonderful part of the book was the things that did get changed on earth - environment, violence, education, hunger - you name it, she solves it all. (I hope I have time to elaborate, but I am very behind on entering books into my blog.)

Wakefield by Andrei Codrescu (2004)

Picked this up in the humor section, but thought it wasn't engaging enough for a long trip, but ended keeping it, because of the East European slant. There was only one place that I found myself laughing out loud - when Wakefield tries to find an outlet in an airport to charge his phone, and finds every one of the miserably small number of outlets already used to charge phones, computers, i-pods and all sorts of electronic devices. I have definitely developed a talent for finding outlets in strange places.

Our alienated hero Wakefield is visited by the Devil, and they strike a deal that he has to find a fulfilling direction in life within a year. Wakefield travels around the country as a motivational speaker, who never prepares speeches, but meets with some of the people and then does a stream of consciousness type speech I rarely found amusing, but most probably do. He travels to unnamed cities, but they are pretty easily identifiable as New Orleans (his home), Chicago and Seattle. He has a Russian taxi driver buddy back home, he is now divorced from a Romanian woman, and ends up meeting various other East Europeans along the way.

The other part I thoroughly enjoyed was the mention of librarians descending on his home town for a national conference. Since there was an American Library Association conference in New Orleans in 2006, I was convinced that this was what he was talking about, though I didn't catch any references to the devastation from Katrina in 2005 - well, it turns out the book came out in 2004, so pre-Katrina and pre-ALA conference. Oh well, maybe he just thought he would use us for some laughs - that I highly appreciated.

All in all I stuck with the book and found it enjoyable in enough places to maybe try something else by the author.

Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey (2001)

Looked interesting, so I picked it up for listening, but found I couldn't listen to this because the plot was too complicated - a new fantasy world, supposedly based in a European like territory, mostly France and some England, but all the names were new, the political intrigue a big part of the book, and I just couldn't keep the names straight aurally. Plus I had a hard time listening to the S&M erotic places while driving. Rather than try to explain it myself, I'll quote from the Wikipedia: "In Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy novels, an anguissette is one of Kushiel's chosen mortals, picked to "balance the scales" against those who impart suffering without compassion. Anguisettes feel pain and pleasure as one. Additionally, the wounds of those who bear Kushiel's Dart always heal clean."

I did get hooked into the plot, so I went and bought the book, so I could follow the story of the two children who were trained by nobleman Anafiel Delaunay to observe, listen, speak numerous languages, read plenty of books and become his eyes and ears in the world. Phedre, the Kushiel's Dart is the main character, and I like her spunk if not her amorous liaisons. I like her best friend, a gypsy named Hyacinthe, and her body guard Joscelin. It seemed to recreate historical Europe, and as in all good fantasies of this nature, culminated in a huge battle.

I found that this series has a cult following, with many people puting Phedre's tatoo from the book cover on their backs or bodies. Bonded servants in the book would get paid for their services and with this money they would start paying for pieces of a tatoo that started at the bottom of their spine. When it reached their neck they would be free.

I am not likely to follow up on this series, unless I forget the parts I didn't feel comfortable with.

Hour Game by David Baldacci (2004)

Note to self: Do not listen to abridged versions of Baldacci. This was my stay awake book as I drove through the night home from Toronto, and it did the trick, but Baldacci's plots are way too complicated to be condensed. This was the second King and Maxwell book, where they are trying to find and stop a serial killer, who emulates different historical serial killers with each murder. Too many bodies in this one, bute I still like the characters, the town.

Geometry of Sisters by Luanne Rice (2009)

Just picked this up and enjoyed this story of the closeness of sisters, and what happens when they are separated. The "geometry" related to one of the young sisters, who was a wiz in math and could see the math in everything. Hopefully will expand on this.

March by Geraldine Brooks (2005)

I am now convinced that this was the March that someone once recommended. I read another The March by Doctrow that was also about the Civil War, and OK, but not like this. Brooks never ceases to amaze me. I kept putting of reading it, as I knew it wasn't going to be an easy read. March is the fictional character, the father of the girls in Little Women. We see him writing home and remembering his war time years, and his youth, when he wandered around the South selling things. Brooks manages to touch on so many essential aspects of that war.

I was thankful that she explained the types of things she looked at for her research and what was real (descriptions of specific battles) and what was imagined. I loved that we saw numerous real historical figures like Henry Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and John Brown (I read another book about him not too long ago.) The whole abolitionist movement is much clearer to me now.

The Art of Dale Chihuly by Tijothy Anglin Burgard 92008)

I saw the cover of this book on the display wall of our library, so I went and found it. This was the book published for an exhibition of Chihuly in San Francisco in 2008. As Chihuly is one of my favorite contemporary artists, I thought it was time to read up on him some more, though I have read some shorter pieces, seen videos, and combed the Chihuly Web site. This gave a nice overview of his career with explanations of his communal studio methods and his various styles - Navajo blanket cylinders, baskets, seaforms, Macchia, Persians, Venetians, Ikebana, Niijima floats, and chandeliers. It was the chandeliers that totally blew me away when I first saw them in the Milwaukee art museum, and his exhibit of them throughout Venice I thought was one of the most brilliant installalations (in picutres) I had ever seen. Up until now I had less appreciation of some of his other forms, though I have enjoyed all of his exhibits I have seen (Kalamazoo Institute of Art & Meijer Gardens) plus individual pieces I have seen in other museums. I had never seen his work with neon pieces, and the Saffron tower looked amazing.

The photos in this book were just exquisite. I looked through them numerous times and just sighed over the colors, the lighting, the combinations. Just had to look for Chihuly's exhibits and found that there is one coming up in Flint of his seaforms starting in June. Will try to go.

On reading in spurts

I recently had a conversation with a woman who only reads when she is on vacation or has a whole day free, so she can read continually. She didn't understand how I could listen to books in short spurts commuting to work, driving around doing errands. Maybe I was like that at one point, but I would never get any reading done if I had to wait for a free day. I have definitely gotten into absorbing books in short spurts - both reading and listening, even doing multiple books at a time - at least two - one that I listen to in the car and at least one I am reading at home. Recently I even was listening to more than one book at a time. Friedman's Hot, Flat and Crowded was just too intense to listen too continually, so I would do one or two CD's of that and then listen to a few CD's of some fiction.

The Law of Love by Nora Roberts (2009)

Two of her Silhouette romances: Lawless (1989) and The Law is a Lady (1984). I recently read up on Roberts and found out she had started writing for Silhouette books and even after she started writing full length books, she sometimes likes to return to these shorter versions, good for a quick read by a busy mother. I also found out she writes 8 hours a day, even writing on vacations. I don't get her obsession with writing. I am sure she has no more financial concerns, so why be writing constantly, unless that is what she really likes to do. The other interesting fact I came upon, was that she researches most of her settings on the Internet, because she doesn't like to fly. She does visit Ireland, which is probably why her Irish books are so compelling, but I have found most of her other settings quite believable too - so she knows how to research.

Both of these books were about the West - Arizona in particular. Lawless was an historical story about a refined young woman Sarah Conway, who heads out West to be with her father, who is working a gold mine out there. She shows up finding that her father has died in the mine, and the large house he described was still a fantasy, and that all he had was a small cabin by the mine, but she finds her inner grit and perseveres, learning new skills and making friends in the small forgotten town. Jake Redman, a half Apache, listless man is fascinated by Sarah and keeps showing up just when she needs some help. Of course there is the slimy gentleman, who tries to win Sarah's hand, but she finds she is much more attracted to Jake. I kinda like the way this relationship played out, and I definitely liked the strong character of Sarah.

The Law is a Lady was set in present day Arizona, where Victoria is a lawyer temporarily the sheriff of the small town of Friendly, filling in for her sheriff father, who has died unexpectedly. Phil Kincaid is a Hollywood movie director looking for a small forgotten town as the setting for his latest film. I liked the way these two played off each other, and this book was full of other characters and situations - hapless deputy Merle, abused kid Tod, troublesome twins, distance with Victoria's mother, the daily grind of making a movie. So all in all a good read. I also liked that the love scenes were set in unusual places - a pond, hayloft, police cruiser. My only complaint is that I caught Roberts on a couple of very unrealistic details. As romantic as a hayloft may sound, hay and straw are very itchy and uncomfortable, and no way can a comfortable romp be had without a blanket to cushion it. Similarly with the car - OK, most of us have made out in cars, but do you remember how uncomfortable that was, and to spend a whole night? Maybe Roberts just hasn't tried these variations herself.

Split Second by David Baldacci (2003)

This is the first book of the King and Maxwell series, where Sean King and Michele Maxwell have both worked for the Secret Service, but both have lost the presidential candidates they are supposed to be guarding. Their situations and lives intertwine, as they both work at solving the mysteries of what really happened. I liked both characters, but I have to say things got confusing, as I was listening to this book on a long ride. Way too many characters and variables, but still a fun read.

Immortal in Death by JD Robb (1996)

In keeping with wanting to read these Lt. Eve Dallas futuristic murder mysteries in order, and needing keep me awake books for the drive to Florida and back, I re-listened to this. Eve is getting married to Roarke in this one. Mavis meets Leonardo. This is where we get the back story to Somerset, which I missed the first time around. Somerset was another con and had a daughter a bit younger than Roarke, who got killed. Seems Somerset was somewhat a father figure to Roarke, but we don't get when the roles switched. Eve remembers the details of her horrid childhood. The story - a model gets murdered and the main suspect is Eve's friend Mavis. This book has four dead bodies before Eve figures things out.

Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear (2004)

Read this back to back with the first in the series - Maisie Dobbs. Both wonderful, psychological portraits of post-WWI England, set within a classical mystery story with the bright, intuitive, meticulous, but lonely character of Maisie Dobbs. This time she is asked to find the adult daughter of a rich self-made man, who has run away. When her friends start turning up dead, Maisie involves herself further. I am amazed at how well she can paint all the pains felt by people after the war - the pain of lost loved ones, the pain of lost health, the shame of survivors, the lack of men to marry, the distancing of some, drug addictions, etc. Painted with today's sensibilities, but in seemingly yesteryear's genteel language. One of the other things that surprised me in this series, is that Maisie was trained in meditation for calming and focusing and picking up the energies of other people and even of what may have happened. I can't remember another book where this is used without attributing it to magical elements.

Bartimaeus Trilogy - Ptolemy’s Gate by Jonathan Stroud (2005)

This somehow was never entered into the blog, but I definitely finished this wonderful trilogy, probably in 2006.

Last Siege by Jonathan Stroud (2003)

This actually was a pretty good young adult book, it was just that after reading Stroud's Bartimaeus trilogy, which was about magic, but with a fresh twist, I was expecting something more extraordinary. Three kids from today's England don't really belong with any group and are bored on Christmas break. They start hanging around a partially ruined castle near the town and with the help of Marcus' great imagination and knowledge of history, they start exploring the closed castle. It turns into a real siege at one point. The story is written from Emily's point of view, and it is interesting to observe the coolaboration between her and Simon and Marcus. It turns into a pretty touching story in the end.

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear (2003)

A very interesting take on the private-eye genre, lent to me by a colleague. Maisie Dobbs opens up her own investigative office in 1929 London - obviously quite an accomplishment. We see her investigating a possibly wandering wife, which leads to some questions about recently deceased WW I vets. Then the middle of the book takes us back to Maisie's childhood, where she starts working as a maid in a house of aristocrats, when he mother dies and her father can no longer take care of her. Her bright mind is noticed and she is sent to Cambridge, but she feels an obligation to help in the war effort and works as a nurse in France. This was the most intense part for me - seeing the war from a woman's point of view, sort of like a female shorter version of All Quiet on the Western Front by Remarque. Then we return to London in 1929 and now we see how her war experiences have affected her life, and the mystery is strongly tied to the aftermath of the war. So in a sense, this was a historical novel. Plus I loved the London and Cambridge settings, both places I have been.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (2006)

I love it when books come my way through serendipity. A student was looking for this book, we couldn't find it in the library, so I put out a search slip on it. Since I had requested the search, they brought me the book. It looked interesting enough to read.

This is a fascinating graphic novel about the Chinese-American experience intertwined with a traditional Chinese tale. There are three stories being told at once. One is the time-honored fable of a monkey king that wants to be a god. The second is about a Chinese-American boy who's family moves to a new neighborhood and he has a hard time making friends and finding his place in the school. The third is about a teen, who's life is being ruined by a crazy Chinese cousin, who displays all the negative Chinese stereotypical traits. I really liked this combination of traditional wisdom with today's world and a good glimpse into the experience of Chinese-Americans, in an appealing graphic novel format.

Hot Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman (2008)

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution-- and How it Can Renew America (full title). Friedman's The World is Flat was a major eye opener for me, that pulled together many of the bits and pieces I knew and filled in the gaps on how the world is connected. This book has done the same for me on energy and going green. Actually there were a lot of things I didn't know on how our energy grid and system work. He is calling for a major shift in thinking, especially in politics. I do hope people in Washington and the state capitols will listen.

I can't even begin to list all the things Friedman covered in this book. For me, it has given me hope that people are ready to go green. I was trying to be green back in the 70's and back then it was such a counter culture sort of thing, and people didn't get it, that over the years I gave up except for small things that everybody does like recycling. (I had been recycling for years, but when I got to Kalamazoo, there was no place to recycle, except for papers that you could take to the paper plant.) I think this book is making me think more of how I live my life - what appliances I should be replacing with more energy efficient ones, to really go through my house and replace all bulbs with energy efficient ones, etc. Plus I have been thinking about my footprint on this planet in this huge house for a while now.

The Last Kasmiri Rose by Barbara Cleverly (2001)

As Maria wrote in her note as she gave this to me for my birthday, this is not great literature, but the setting was definitely worth it. This is the first book by Cleverly from England. It fills in a piece of my big question about who did the English think they were declaring half the world their empire. This is about India in 1922, and the story goes back to 1910. It showed the life of the British in a military outpost in Bengal, and the relation to the local Indians. (American Indians were referred to as "red Indians.") I heard for the first time, or at least understood better, that the English were starting to divide the Muslims and Hindus (later Pakistan and India) which up until then had gotten along fine. The events in the book have the potential to be politically disastrous, as there are rumblings about Indian independence. Some of the British had grown up in India, and definitely considered it their home, even if they had to go study in England. Some of these knew Hindustani and other local languages and became friends with the Indians, though one of the points made in the book is that most British didn't even see the Indians around them, didn't look at them closely, couldn't recognize them, as they were just the servants. We get a glimpse of the Indian point of view from some of the Indian characters, but I'd like to get a better sense of this. When did their rage get big enough to struggle for independence"?

The book is full of foreign terms. I don't know if they are Hindustani or otherwise, but it took a while to get used to it. Sahib refers to an English gentleman, memsahib to a married English woman, ayah is a nursemaid. But there were times when I didn't understand the sentence, like "The burra sahib is in the kutch erry." A little dictionary would have been nice, but the language did contribute to the setting.

The story itself actually got better towards the end. A woman has supposedly committed suicide, but a friend of hers feels it was murder that is tied to the deaths of four other women in earlier years, so she gets her big-wig uncle to bring in Joe Sandilands from Scotland Yard. Joe goes around the town and countryside seeing where the deaths occurred, interviewing various people, which is how we learn their stories. From this he ties them all together, and in saving the last victim finds the culprit. Again it was the individual stories that I liked the best. How they got to India, how they lived, how men had local wives until they were forced by society to take English women as their wives and what happened to the others. Fascinating country.

Book of Unholy Mischief by Elle Newmark (2008)

I can't resist novels about books, so this is historical fiction from late 15th century Venice, with word of the New World in the background. Seems like Venice has been the setting of quite a few books I've read, and I will have to visit it some day.

Luciano is an orphan, who gets nabbed while stealing a pomegranate in the market by the chef of the doge (chief magistrate) of Venice. But the chef makes him an apprentice, instead of punishing him, thus getting him off the streets, and he is even able to pass food scraps on to a couple of his friends still outside. Obviously the author is a lover of food, as the descriptions of the chef's meals and cooking just makes the mouth water. One can see she has researched food of those times, when potatoes had been recently introduced, tomatoes were considered poisonous by most, chocolate and coffee were not well known, etc. Though this was interesting in and of itself, the food and it's preparation has a deeper meaning in the book.

The buzz around town and in the palace halls is that there is a book out there that contains the secrets of alchemy, the elixir of youth, and love potions. Interesting that most of the people we meet want the book for just one of these purposes. It turns out to be knowledge being passed on through an unofficial network of guardians, and it contains things like the gnostic gospels. The powers of Venice are afraid of whatever knowledge it might contain and offer a huge reward to anyone who finds it, thus creating a frenzy among the populace.

Luciano is a clever lad, learns not only about the kitchen work, but spies on the doge and his guests to learn more about what is going on in Venice. He also is besotted with a novice in a nunnery. As he gets to know the chef better, they get involved in adventures surrounding "the book." All in all a fun read.

A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World by Tony Horwitz (2008)

I discovered that my favorite writer from last year - Geraldine Brooks, has a husband who is also a writer, so I just wanted to check out what he had written.

This book is an early history of the United States that ends with Jamestown and Plymouth Rock. Though I took my time getting through this, it was a pleasant read. I was definitely interested in this part of our history. In my travels out West I would come across historical monuments or museum displays mentioning the Spanish in the early 1500's - almost 100 years before Jamestown and Plymouth Rock. It all remained very vague to me. Tony Horwitz realized the chasm in his own knowledge between Columbus and the Pilgrims, so he started researching - starting in the library, then turning to letters and journals of earlier explorers. But then he did what I would love to do - he traveled to all the places, retracing the travels of the early explorers, trying to locate the places, visiting archives, museums, historians and regular people who are interested in the local history. The chapters include historical facts he has unearthed interspersed with stories of Horwitz's travels and the people he met, the celebrations he participated in. He expands on the things we might have learned in school or what we are told in tourist centers and how that differs from what really happened.

Horwitz starts with the Scandinavians and there was more than Lief Eiriksson, but seems like New Foundland was just too harsh for colonization, but they kept fishing the shores. Then of course there is Columbus. I remember reading some alternative histories of his voyages back around 1992. I guess it never ceases to wrench my gut on how many native peoples were totally annihilated in the Caribbean. But I just never knew the destruction the Spanish brought about on the mainland. Coronado was violent throughout his travels, but De Soto just wiped out whole Indian tribes throughout the Southeast. 

I marked off a passage which epitomized much of the book for me: "In history class, all we heard about was the Forty-niners and mountain men and Pike's fucking Peak," Walter (an Arizonan who can trace his ancestry to the Spanish) said. "Anglos called us 'chili eaters' and looked down on us as newcomers, even though we'd been there three hundred years before the so-called pioneers came west." (p. 147)  When I looked at the map, it was amazing how much of the US the Spanish explored before the English got there - along the California coast, then NM, AZ, TX, OK, KS then FL, GA, SC, NC, TN, AL, MS, AR, LA and only after all of those was St. Augustine settled.

There were many things that set off my thinking, so I am glad I took my time with this book. I'll just mention one. What were these conquistador guys thinking? They traipse around a huge foreign land without any skills to provide for themselves except to steal from the Indians. Very unlike Louis and Clark who explored with hunters and gatherers. Seems like I've heard this in other historical books and novels - the supply line is critical to armies - and that is what these men were.

Another thing that is slowly getting clearer in my mind, is why, though I learned about Indians while growing up in New Jersey, they didn't really permeate my consciousness until I started traveling West. I didn't realize how many were destroyed - even before the English got here, and that many of the rest were forced westward. I learned about the Trail of Tears when visiting the Great Smokey National Park, but obviously that was not the only time Indians were cleared out of Eastern states. One of the most evil recent men was a registrar of vital statistics in Virginia, who altered records to weed out Indian bloodlines.

All in all a very fascinating story, but Horwitz ends his tale on a melancholy note (maybe not quite the right emotion), when he notes that though he has gathered all these updated facts, people till cling to and maybe need the myths like Plymouth Rock, Thanksgiving turkey and the Fountain of Youth.

Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer (2007)

Stephanie Meyer continues her story of Bella torn between her two loves - vampire Edward and werewolf Jacob. My favorite part was when she attends a ceremony with Jacobs clan and hears the story of how their forefathers got the ability to change into wolves. I knew the vampires would end up working together with the werewolves against the evil from the outside - and I liked that. The description of the fight was bizarre, but interesting. What I couldn't handle was Bella and her obsession with Edward. I found "gaimangirl" on Amazon agreed:

"What in the world do all of these people see in Bella? ... She's whiny, hypocritical, self-obsessed, co-dependent, moody, childish, sulky, I could go on, you get my drift. She has no goals, ambitions, hobbies, dreams, or talents. She shows no interest in the world around her."

I have similar complaints - what does she think she is going to do for "eternity" if she doesn't have a job, an interest, a goal, a hobby? She seems smart - when she was grounded, why didn't she read books, why reread Wuthering Heights a 100 times, when there are so many good books out there? Anyway, I guess I want to see how Meyer resolves everything, but I think I'll wait a while to pick up the fourth book. This is not Harry Potter, where the characters are richly developed. Harry got whiny for one book, but that was just that age, and he got over it.

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008)

Another incredible book for young adults, that sounded fresh to me. This takes the oft used post-apocalyptic scenario and combines it with reality shows of today. America is reduced to one wealthy city in Colorado and twelve outlying districts that each provide something for the common good. They each have to send a boy and a girl to play in the annual Hunger Games - a survivor type reality show, except the winner is the last person left alive. Our heroine Katniss comes from the impoverished coal mining area in the Appalachians. She has learned to hunt wild game to provide for her family, a skill that increases her chances of survival, but the officials who run the games always provide situations to challenge even the best contestants. There is an underlying theme of standing up to the oppressor, so I was thrilled (and a bit frustrated) when I read after the last page "end of book one."

Charmed (1992) & Enchanted (1999) by Nora Roberts (2004)

I don't think I've read any of her Donavan stories before, but I liked these. The magic is pretty blatant, but it is set in today's world with Wiccan lore thrown in. The Donavan clan are magical folk from Ireland and they fall in love with non-magical people and have to see if their love can survive the revelation that they are different. In Charmed Anstasia is a healer who falls for Boone, a children's book writer and illustrator who moves next door with his daughter. And in Enchanted Rowan Murray rents a cottage from a friend on the coast of Oregon to get away from it all, she befriends a wolf, which she seem to trust more than the neighbor guy, who just happens to turn into that wolf every so often. I liked her finding what she really wants to do with life.

Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin (2007)

This is the first book to Serpents Tale, a gift from a colleague. Adelia, trained in medicine in Italy, but especially skilled in reading the dead, is sent by her king to England to help King Henry with some murdered children. This was a fascinating look at 12th century England. It was scary to see the belief in the healing power of religious artifacts. Mind over matter can only go so far. I was again amazed by the level of medical knowledge of Adelia. I also liked her companions Simon, a Jew, and Monsuer, a Moor. I was looking for the person I knew she was going to fall in love with, but I didn't recognize him till the very end.

Finer Points of Sausage Dogs by Alexander McCall Smith (2003)

I wanted a change of pace in my reading and knew McCall Smith could provide one. I really liked the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series better, but Dr. von Igelfeld was entertaining as a pompous academic (know a few of those) of the Portugese language, who ends up addressing veterinarians in Arkansas, hobnobbing with high clerics in Rome, and being mobbed on a cruise ship. I like it anytime someone uses a library in a book, and he did spend time in the Vatican library. The book was funny, so I don't know why it felt so disconcerting at times, why I was uncomfortable with von Igelfeld's awkward situations. The words "sausage dog" were funny in and of themselves and McCall Smith plays with them quite a bit. I had to look the term up and find they are a humorous British term for dachshunds.

Library Card by Jerry Spinelli (1997)

Someone asked me go get a Spinelli book from our shelves and I just saw this and had to read it. I read a couple of Spinelli books before I started this blog, the one I remember is Maniac Magee, that got a Newberry medal. He definitely looks at the world from the not so rosy side of the tracks. The Library Card is actually four different stories, on how this magical library card made a difference in each of the kids lives. Mongoose was ready to get into a life of crime and dropping out of school, Brenda was addicted to TV, Sonseray lives in a car with his uncle, April works on a mushroom farm. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Foundation by Mercedes Lackey (2008)

I was wanting to read something different, and decided to go back to fantasy, but thought I like Lackey, this was not quite as satisfying as I hoped. This is book 1 of the Collegium Chronicles - set in a school for new heralds, healers and bards. The main character Mags gets rescued from a miserable life in a gem mine and slowly discovers his talents and makes friends. My favorite part was the description of mid-winter celebration.

Sum of Our Days by Isabel Allende (2008)

I was surprised to find Allende in the non-fiction section, so I thought it would be interesting to read her own story, as I wanted to understand having one foot in Chile and one in the U.S. It was amazing to read how open she was about her life, her family's joys and difficulties. The book is written as if to her daughter Paula, who died in the early 1990's. Allende has already published a book about Paula, but this is about the life of the family after Paula's death and her own struggles to keep going after the enormous grief. She lives in the San Francisco area with her husband, who seems to be a saint. I loved the way she kept pulling her family around her - even no longer family, like the widow of her daughter and his new wife, or her son's ex-wife and her new female partner, or her husband's granddaughter's adoptive parents - another lesbian couple. Allende realizes that at times she meddles too much in people's lives. I didn't believe she went looking for a wife for her son, and found one! She talks of writing, of family, friends, political situations, all with humor and insight.

I have enjoyed Allende's books, her novels Daughter of Fortune, Portrait in Sepia, Inés of My Soul, Zorro, and novels for children, which I learned she had written for her grandchildren City of the Beasts and Kingdom of the Golden Dragon. (The first two I read before I started this blog.) So now I still have to read Aphrodite : A Memoir of the Senses, The House of the Spirits, Paula, My Invented Country : A Nostalgic Journey through Chile, The Infinite Plan, The Stories of Eva Luna, Of Love and Shadows , and the last of the children's books - Forest of the Pygmies. All in good time, and I believe I will start with the first two.

Pagan Stone by Nora Roberts (2008)

I had to finish the Sign of Seven Trilogy, and this one focused on Gage, the boy who lost his mother early and was raised by an alcoholic father who beat him, but who was good friends with Cal and Fox - all born on the same day. Gage is a professional gambler, who loves to travel around the world and can read people well, but doesn't like to get too close to anyone (except Cal and Fox.) Of course the third remaining woman in the series, Cybil, is also an independent person who likes to travel and whose father committed suicide, thus deserting her family. Besides their evolving romance, most of the book centers around preparing for the showdown with the Big Evil One. Gage and Cybil are the ones who can see into the future, and their skills are used to outguess what will happen and to find the weaknesses in the Evil One. Though I am a great supporter of research, I wasn't convinced that so much of it could be done online (though they do mention a professor who actually read books and gave them information from those), and I wasn't sure how useful it would be in this case. I have to admit, that some of it did come in handy, like determining safe zones from mapping out where all the evil incidents had occurred before. Again, I don't really enjoy reading about this type of magic and evil, but Roberts continues to spin a decent tale, though very predicatable, and I did like this unusual last couple.

Rough Weather by Robert B. Parker (2008)

Sometimes the random books you pick up are duds, and this was one. At least it makes me appreciate well written books more. Maybe it was worse in the audio version, but I thought I was going to lose it if I heard one more "I said, she said, then he said" conversation. It was only 5 CD's long, so I just finished it. Private investigator Spenser is hired by Heidi Bradshaw to support her at her daughter's wedding, but he is allowed to take his girlfriend. (huh?) A major storm overtakes the island off the coast of MA during the wedding, impeding but not stopping the kidnapping of the bride. The kidnapper is the Grey Man, an old nemesis of Spenser's. As Spenser tries to find the kidnapped bride, he uncovers all sorts of family secrets...

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron (2008)

Wonderful real life story about a cat in a library and how he made a difference in the lives of the staff, patrons, and even the whole town. The main author is the librarian who for many years headed the library in Spencer, Iowa, but she had help from a professional writer, Bret Witter, who I am sure helped her craft this into a charming, not too sentimental tale. We get the story of the kitten found in the library drop box and cared for by the staff, and all the people the cat affected, but we also get an insight into life of a small town in Iowa, the hardships they suffered through the various farm crises, the decisions they made as a town to support each other and not take on industries that would be unhealthy for the community. We also get the story of Myron's life, which has not been an easy one, but quite fulfilled with working in the library and raising her daughter. I bought this for a friend in Latvia, but read it myself first and passed it on to a vet friend, as I think this book epitomized the best in both of our careers. (Read in 2008)