2011 in Review

Another good year for reading books. Thank goodness for audio books, or I would never find the time to go through the five books per month that I continue to average. OK, nine of them were kids books, but I always include those in my numbers. My favorite genre continues to be historical fiction, though looks like I only read seven of those this year. Thirteen of the books were non-fiction, a good thing, as my goal was to read more non-fiction. The most powerful one of those was Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and I also continue to follow Thomas Friedman with his latest - That Used to be Us. I am happy to say I only read four Nora Roberts or J.D. Robb books this year, and a couple of Baldacci ones. Among my favorite authors, Geraldine Brooks came out with Caleb's Crossing, Ann Patchett with State of Wonder, and Susan Vreeland with Clara and Mr. Tiffany. All of them made my best of the year list, but only Clara was on my best of the best list. I also returned to Clarissa Pinkola Estes, but she no longer spoke to me as she once did. I discovered local author Bonnie Jo Campbell and Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, and want to read more from both of them. I was on a Paris kick after visiting the city recently, plus I was helping a friend do research on Paris of the 30's, so I read about five books about Paris.  One of my other goals was to read more classics, non-contemporary books. Well, I read Walpole's Hieroglyphic Tales from 1785, an Edgar Rice Burroughs SF book from 1917, Hemingway's Sun Also Rises from 1926, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn from 1943. Otherwise 17 books were from this year, 26 from 2000-10, 10 from the 1990's and one 1978. Looks like none were from the BBC 100 list, but there is always next year.

American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell (2009)

I bought this National Book Award book at a book signing by local author Bonnie Jo Campbell.  After I read her Once Upon a River and wrote it up in this blog, I received a comment from her thanking me for my review. I replied and found she was doing a book signing a few weeks later.

It is hard to comment on a book of short storie, as I might react to each one differently. Though these stories are not tied together, they could be, as they all reflect that part of rural Michigan that works hard, loves, hates, but finds it hard to prosper or to maintain healthy relationships.

"Family Reunion is the story that becomes the starting point for Once Upon a River. "Winter Life" is about two couples, where all four people probably married the wrong person. "Bringing Belle Home" was heart-wrenching story of two people - each with his own addiction, loving each other, but unable to make it work. "Storm Warning" starts with a boating accident. "Fuel for the Millennium" reminds me of the survivalists I have met, and "Boar Taint" tells of a woman who has studied agriculture in Ann Arbor, but finds it hard to make her ideas work on a real farm. Many of the stories ended in quiet despair, though a few, like the last one did end on a hopeful note.

I keep wondering how Bonnie Jo can describe these characters so well, what kind of world she lives in, but then I remember being drawn to people like she describes when I was living in rural Southeastern Ohio. Strider comes to mind as one I got to know quite well, and whose life could easily make a story in this book. Maybe I should write up their stories some time.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (1943)

What a wonderful holiday treat full of human tenacity, striving for something better. This book was on the employee favorites shelf at the audio book store. I had heard the title, so I looked it up in my blog and found that I had answered a reference question about it and it was in the list of books read by the women's group in Lorna Landvik's Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons. I understand that there is a revival in the popularity of this book, as it is being read by book clubs and in high schools. Well deserved.

This is mostly Francie Nolan's story - we see her growing up in Brooklyn from being 10 in 1912 to  being 17 with plenty of back stories of her family and other folks in the neighborhood. Her grandparents were immigrants and illiterate, but understood the power of an education. Their oldest daughter never learned to read, as they were not aware that schools were available for free. The other two daughters were sent to grade school. When Francie was born, her mother Katie asked her mother what to do about raising a child, and her mother answered to read one page from the Bible to the child every day, and one page from Shakespeare. When Francie's younger brother Neely reluctantly went to high school, he had heard Julius Caesar so many times, that it was a breeze for him. Francie read lots of books from the library, even if the librarian never looked up at her. I guess librarians weren't always service oriented. She educated herself, found herself a better school, helped the family by gathering junk and reselling it, and taking a job, when she would rather have gone to high school. It was interesting to watch her slowly leave the family fold and start socializing. Her mother Katie is an amazing character, as is her father Johnny - a singer with too much of a taste for alcohol, but very fairly treated.

The book is so rich with details of the social, economic, educational, political life of Brooklyn in the early 1900's. Obviously this comes from personal experience, as the author was born just five years before her heroine, and from the short biography I read, has intertwined her own life with Francie's. I know there is something special about Brooklyn - my cousin's daughter is a recent immigrant and lives in Astoria - another close knit Brooklyn community north of Williamsburg depicted in this book. I had friends from Brooklyn as I grew up, and a lot of Latvian events happened in Brooklyn in my early childhood, before people started dispersing further into the suburbs. I was confirmed in Brooklyn at the church the Latvians rented for years from the Swedes.

The stories were touching, so much the story of all immigrants to the U.S.  On Christmas Eve I read to my guests the story of Francie and Neely trying for one of the throw away Christmas trees. It would be great to continue this tradition of finding a great passage about Christmas, from books I have been reading, to read at Christmas time.

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick (2011)

OK, I've found the book to give my goddaughter for Christmas. I just went to see the movie Hugo, which reminded me how wonderful the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret was. The movie was great too, but the story it is based on had to be phenomenal to begin with, full of history, plus I had forgotten that it was set in Paris (this year's theme.)

Wonderstruck is again half text and half illustrations - Ben's story is told mostly in text and Rose's story is all in images until their stories meet. Technically it is more illustrations as it takes more pages of illustrations to tell the story, so it will be 2-4 pages of text, then 6-10 pages of illustrations - these charcoal drawings, often moody, but so expressive, from various angles, zooming in on a detail like a movie might do. It all adds up to another wonderful hefty book at 637 pages, but can be read quickly.

Ben has lost his mother and lives with his relatives on Gunflint Lake in Minnesota in 1977. He is deaf in one ear and likes to collect things. One stormy night he goes to his old house and starts looking for his past, maybe some clue to the identity of his father.

Rose is a young deaf girl in Hoboken, NJ of 1927. She keeps a scrapbook of her mother, a famous actress that has left them. Rose is lonely, wants to run away, and likes to build models of New York City's tall buildings that she can see from her window.

Obviously these two stories will get intertwined in some way, but I don't want to spoil the adventure for the next reader. I will just mention just a few things that struck a cord with me.

• I like places like Gunflint Lake in northern Minnesota, on the border with Canada. There actually is a Gunflint Lodge and I put that in a place for notes on good travel suggestions. 
• I remember collecting things, especially from nature. My cousin had a whole tiny room full of them, and I started up again when I had a son to raise. I have now confined my nature collection mostly to one small case in the TV room.
• Selznick is obviously interested in the history of cinema - we get another glimpse, this time the move from silent to talkie movies
• I love museums, but nowadays it is mostly art and historical. I was more fascinated with natural history museums in childhood. I know we went to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC when I was a kid, maybe even as a field trip from school. I have always loved dioramas - I fantasized about making them myself.
• I liked that Ben's mom was a librarian and that another character runs a bookstore.
• I was at the 1964 World's Fair, but don't seem to remember the Panorama of NYC - it still exists and another thing I can put on my list of things to see when I travel.
• I liked being reminded about the deaf world. I am somewhat aware, having a deaf family friend when I was little and working with deaf a bit in my State Hospital job in Ohio many years ago. Just have not run into Deaf culture lately. Liked how Selznick had researched it.
• I am always amazed when a fiction book has references - I wish more did, as I know authors have to do research to come up with the settings and historical background. Selznick has a lengthy acknowledgments section that explains his research process, and then a solid list of references.

Now just have to wait for this to come out as a movie too.

American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin (2010)

I like period novels and this was set in the 1890's in the world of the rich in Newport, RI and New York and in England - in London and a country estate. I was not thrilled to be reading about the fictional richest heiress in the U.S. of her time, but Cora Cash, the lead character was spunky and endearing, even if spoiled. It was an interesting concept, that Cora's mother felt she needed to buy her daughter "class," by marrying her off to a titled duke in England. And the duke was happy to marry a rich heiress to infuse his estate with much needed cash. There were moments when this book felt a bit like a regency romance, but one of those would end with the wedding. This book showed the realities of living together and getting to know each other, each other's past histories, which make life complicated.

The book was also richer with period detail - maybe not quite as detailed as Philippa Gregory's books about England, but it had enough about the clothing, architecture, travel, social structure, servants' world. There was a moment when I imagined the author as a girl playing dress-up with her dolls, as she described all these luxurious gowns worn by Cora. I keep wondering how they packed, stored and transported these massive gowns. The complexities of entertaining royalty were shown, and I believe exist to this day.

The characters were not one dimensional. Cora is well educated and surprisingly strong after living under the tyranny of her mother. Maybe that is why she can usually take care of her husband's double duchess mother. Her husband Ivo,  Duke of Wareham, is complex, moody, though seems to really be in love with Cora, but with a past that haunts him. The two mothers were stereotypically nasty. Cora and Ivo both have past romances that play their roles. Bertha was Cora's maid that she brings with her from the U.S. and is her only familiar from home. I like the subplot about Bertha and her life.

The Boy of a Thousand Faces by Brian Selznick (2000)

The movie Hugo has come out, so it is time I read more of Brian Selznick's books. This was a short one about a boy who loves old monster movies and likes to dress up, make-up his face into a monster and then take pictures of himself. And then a monster shows up in town...  Wonderfully illustrated, as was The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

From the book I learned about Lon Chaney, a movie star that played the Hunchback of Notre Dame, the Phantom of the Opera and more. I also vaguely remember that there was a series of postage stamps with this actor as well as other movie monsters like Dracula and Frankenstein.

A sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead (2010)

I try to make sure I have read the latest Caldecott Medal winners, so this is the latest one. My first reaction was that it had such an old fashion look and feel, like picture books from my childhood - the pencil drawings with minimal color, the old fashion wood stove in the kitchen. An elderly man getting dressed for work in the zoo. The first thing that caught my eye was his little blue house squeezed between large apartment buildings. And then it started getting whimsical, as Amos does unusual things with his animal friends at the zoo, like racing with the tortoise. But when Amos got sick, I just had to start smiling, until there was a broad grin on my face at the end of the book. Well deserved award.

Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell (2011)

This was a random book by local author picked up at the Michigan Library Association Conference - wonderful choice. It has been ages since I have sat down in the morning with a book, and actually finished it by the end of the day - doing other things in between. The luxury of a long weekend.

It was really fun to read about the local area and the Kalamazoo River. I even started driving out along the Kalamazoo River and was wondering where the tributary was, that was in the book, as there was a map at the front of the book. (I believe I have mentioned before how much I love maps in books, that help me place where things are happening.) But then I realized, that other than Kalamazoo and the Kalamazoo River, the rest of the places were fictional.

The story itself was engaging - about a modern day Annie Oakley - who had learned to live off the river and land from her grandfather, and was a crack shot. I once had fantasies about living off the land, but the concept of hunting has never appealed to me, and I have done very minimal fishing, and have never even gotten very far with growing my own vegetables, so obviously this was much more fantasy than reality. But it doesn't mean I can't appreciate and admire someone who can do these things, especially a young girl.

Margo Crane has a tough life, her father is the illegitimate son of Grandpa Murray of Murray Metal. Her mother deserted the family a year and a half before the story starts. She has a good relation with her aunt across the river from them and one of her cousins, but gets bullied by cousin Billy, and though her uncle Cal teaches her about shooting guns and hunting, that is not exactly a healthy relationship. Life gets complicated, and Billy ends up killing her father, when he thinks his father is in danger. Margo takes the boat her grandfather gave her and travels upriver and finds ways to survive.

Jaimy Gordon, a National Book Award winning author at Western, said it very well on the cover of the book: "A lot of us, not only women, were looking for a fictional heroine who would be deeply good, brave as a wolverine, never a crybaby, as able as Sacagawea, with a strong and unapologetic sexuality."

Aleph by Paulo Coelho (2011)

Looks like it was time to read something spiritual. This was just asking the right spiritual questions for me.  I liked that the author was Brazilian and that this had been translated from Portugese and that most of the book took place in Russia. I understand that the novel is autobiographical, that Coelho was suffering from a crisis of faith and took on a three month journey, with the last leg being a trans-Siberian train ride. His job as an author gave him the excuse and opportunity, as he traveled to talk to his readers and sign his books. He felt the need for self-rediscovery and had a wonderful wife who let him go to discover on his own, when she felt she was impeding this process, plus she had her own art to get back to. In Russia he meets a Turkish girl Hilal - a promising young violinist, who is determined to travel with him. They are deeply connected, which she knows from the beginning, but he takes a while to realize. They experience things together, which heal both of them.

Turns out they were connected in previous lives and had to resolve what had happened those many years ago. This was the hardest part to listen to, as those times were so incomprehensible, and my blood just starts to boil when I hear what is done in the name of God. I understand that people were doing what they thought was right, but with the incredible damage they did to their fellow humans, I keep wondering about their karma in my view of the world - or even in theirs. I would like to think they burned in hell for their pious deeds, or spent many life times resolving their crimes against humanity.

I feel I have neglected my spirituality for a while, but then remember everything we do, every choice we make has some spiritual consequences. I once spent more time thinking about spirituality, about whether I am being the best person I can be. Seems that life has become so busy, that I have forgotten to take time to focus on that. I love to travel myself, and feel truly alive when traveling - each trip gives me the opportunity to grow and connect. I have lived a free flow life in many ways, and have found it mostly fulfilling, and this book made a lot of sense to me. As was written in the Amazon review: "Some books are read. Aleph is lived."

That Used to be Us by Thomas L. Friedman & Michael Mandelbaum (2011)

Friedman is probably the only non-fiction author, whose latest books I try to make sure and read. He didn't disappoint. Maybe a bit wordy, otherwise I would really have my son read his books, but his analysis of the economic world we live in makes sense. He has co-authored this book with Mandelbaum, and they say they would start discussing the world and end up talking about what is not working in the U.S. So this is a continuation of The World is Flat and Hot, Flat and Crowded.

These two guys believe that the U.S. can be great once again, if it gets back to the ways that made it great - full of innovators, but those need a better education, a better infrastructure, more research, we need to get away from our dependence on oil from other countries (very strong focus on alternative energies and dealing with global warming), and straighten out politics (including revamping regulations - weeding old, impractical ones, strengthening others to control excesses), oh and immigration, since so much of what has been innovative in the U.S. has come from bright, hard working immigrants. I am not going back to the book or other reviews on purpose. I want to see what stuck in my mind.

A couple of surprising things - they explained that unions may shoot themselves in the foot and be the cause of jobs going overseas. They had a great example of a manufacturer in Buffalo, who is the oldest continual manufacturer in the city, and how the owners worked with the unions to make sure the jobs did stay local, but it was a lot of give and take from both sides. Having gone through our contract negotiations this summer ourselves, I am aware of some of the issues, and at times did not agree with the union's approach.

The other thing that Friedman and Mendelbaum explained were the problems with Republicans and Democrats, and that one cannot promise to continually cut taxes (these Mideast wars are the first the U.S. has fought without raising taxes and duh, we now have an incredible debt). I loved it that they called the W. Bush years the "Terrible Two's". But the democrats can't keep promising to never cut any programs or benefits. Looks like Social security and Medicare both need some trimming, so there would be enough when I get around to using them. But these are sacred cows and the AARP has a strong lobby. I don't think I will be spoiling the plot of the book if I say, that the final recommendation is to get a strong third party candidate to run for president in the next election and to tell it like it is. Not to win, that would be impossible, but to force the other two parties to work together and incorporate these centrist ideas that the people would support. He gave examples of Teddy Roosevelt (in 1912), George Wallace (1968) and Ross Perot (1992) influencing those who actually became presidents.

A Picnic in October by Eve Bunting (1999)

Last one of my relaxing with a kid's book today. Just grabbed this from a pile, knew Eve Bunting was one of the good children's book authors. A grandmother wants to celebrate her late October birthday every year at the Statue of Liberty. Nice mild immigration story, with the grandson wondering why it is so important for grandma to celebrate there, but by helping another young immigrant family he understands. Nice views of the ferry and statue itself. Turns out Eve Bunting came into that same harbor, as did my parents.

What Can You Do with a Paleta? by Carmen Tafolla (2009)

Illustrated by Magaly Morales. Beautiful, colorful children's picture book about a neighborhood in Mexico, where a man with a cart brings around paletas or Mexican popsicle sticks. Full of Mexican cultural references.

Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh (2011)

This was a very intriguing book with a different kind of heroine. This girl wandered the foster home and orphanage circuit, but did learn the language of flowers from one of her foster mothers. This is a language I know nothing about - except something about yellow roses not being a good thing to give someone. I really enjoyed following this woman's way to finding a way to make a living doing something she loves and does well - working with flowers, but also finding the right flowers for people and their situations. She also learns to relate to people and even open up for love - though excruciatingly slowly at times.

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (2011)

Suggested by the audio book store as something another patron liked, who was also from New Jersey, and who seems to like the same kind of books I do.

New York City in 1938. Interesting setting and times. Katey, Eve, and Tinker are three friends that enjoy jazz clubs and hanging out. Katey and Eve work in low paying jobs available to females of the times, but aspire to more. Tinker moves in higher society circles. Katey is a really interesting character with a lot of drive and intelligence, working her way up, with a little help from friends.

The title comes from a book by George Washington, where he lists 110 Rules of Civility, which Tinker seems to be following. At the end, the author lists all 110. Some were just etiquette and manners issues, but others seemed more like ways to ingratiate yourself with upper classes. I wasn't quite sure why this offended Katey so much. I also happened to watch a movie that had this same theme of where people weren't quite what they said they were while I was reading the book, so it seemed a bit too coincidental.

Skunkdog by Emily Jankins (2008)

I am tired, so I just grabbed a few kid's books to read. This one was very cute about a dog who did not have a sense of smell and who runs into a skunk. I totally remember the difficulty of getting skunk smell out of dog hair, and yes it took a lot of tomato juice.

Know it All by A.J. Jacobs (2004)

Subtitle: One man's humble quest to become the smartest person in the world. 

This journalist, who seems to take on experiments with himself, decided to spend a year reading the Encyclopedia Britannica. I could not handle this book straight through, so I would alternate a chapter of this with a few chapters or even a whole book of something else. I admired the idea itself, and wouldn't mind tackling this kind of project, but not in the short time frame Jacobs set for himself. Luckily this isn't a dry rehashing of what he learned while reading the Britannica, but told with humor, with many sidetracks exploring some aspect of what he has read or the process, and interspersed with his personal life - trying to conceive a baby with his wife, and trying to become the smartest man on earth. The latter attempts sometimes drove me nuts - I am not fond of that kind of delusion, but it was interesting to learn about Mensa and some other smart folk activities.

I am sure I learned all sorts of things by Jacobs' retelling of what he learned (I am writing this months after I read the book), but I am not much for retaining distinct facts in my brain, and was surprised that the author thought he would retain them. What I did find fascinating was the story of what Britannica has chosen to put in its many volumes. Jacobs does discuss the evolution of the Britannica and encyclopedias in general, how articles have been rewritten over the years, and the complex structure of the Britannica itself - with the macro and micropedia parts. I love the Wikipedia, since it is evolving according to people's interests, so that music groups and movie stars have extensive entries. I would love to see how they plan the entries for the Britannica - "Well, we have to include all the Greek, Roman, Chinese, Japanese, Indian ancient gods. We have to balance entries between the various religions of the world today. Do we have or need every ruler of every country? How many of the kings and queens of England do we include with separate entries? Have we covered Africa, Australia, and South America enough? Do we have enough entries on women? In how much detail do we cover science, medicine, business concepts? How many plants and animals get their own entry?" Some things sounded very trivial and peripheral and not important in today's understanding of the world. How will the Britannica evolve in the future?

As a reference librarian I think this book was fascinating, and I have to remember to recommend this to my colleagues. 

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (2011)

When two of my favorite authors come out with a new book the same year, it is time to celebrate. With Geraldine Brooks' Caleb's Crossing and now Ann Patchett's State of Wonder, I don't have to make choices about what to read, these will always be worthwhile.

Without looking up how someone else has characterized Ann Patchett, it is hard for me to say what makes her so appealing. I've liked her from the first books of hers I read about terrorists in Peru holding a whole elaborate party hostage in Bel Canto and the non-fiction story of her friendship with Lucy Grealy in Truth and Beauty. I can't say that her books are earth shattering, but something about them appeals to me, their humanness, most of them are somewhat off the beaten path, the interactions in them are interesting.

State of Wonder is about Marina Singh, a doctor who left gynecology and went into pharmaceutical research is sent to the Amazon to find out what happened to a colleague that died of a fever down there, and how the research is going on a fertility drug her company is sponsoring. She has to face Dr. Anneck Swenson, her former professor, now a fanatic jungle researcher.

I don't know how to describe this book or to definitely say what it is really about, but I like the unique characters. Marina was complex with a focus on her career, but very human - the way she cared about her colleague and his wife, the clandestine love she has with her boss Mr. Fox, the way she got attached to the child in the forest, how the natives connected with her. Dr. Swanson was  very brilliant, dedicated, secretive, commanding, a bit unscrupulous, gets her way, but also became human as we learn about her past - someone that Katharine Hepburn would have played in a movie.

And then there was the Amazon as a character with its oppressive heat, insects, humidity and drenching rains, but at the same time, great beauty. I liked getting a closer feel for the place and for what it would take to develop new medicines from its wealth. But, I have to say that I am not drawn to visit the place.

On Amazon.com (as opposed to the river) I found an interview of Patchett by Elizabeth Gilbert - another author I enjoy, and turns out they are great friends. I found out that Patchett had visited the Amazon to research this book, but liked it for about four days, the rest was not fun anymore.

Treachery in Death by J.D. Robb (2011)

Just needed something to keep me awake on a couple of night drives, and police Lt. Eve Dallas with her sidekick Peabody and computer wiz husband Roark manage to do this. Only (!) two deaths during the course of the book, lots of techno outmaneuvering. I like the maturing of Dallas' relationship with Roark, where they actually take a walk in the garden and talk about putting a fish pond. Peabody gets to be primary on one of the homicides, so she too is evolving. But this is after she overhears two cops discussing a deal of theirs that has gone sour. Eve takes on removing the corruption from the department. Somehow Roberts/Robb can never finish one of these books without Eve getting in a physical fight - this time a cat fight. Ah well, kept me from falling asleep at the wheel.

The Latvian National Costume: A Guide for Families by Liena Kaugars (2011)

Other title: Mūsu tautastērps: Ieteikumi valkāšanai.
This book should have been published years ago. When I was growing up and we had all these discussions about how the Latvian folk costume should be worn. Wonderfully illustrated by Linda Treija, this book is in Latvian and English, providing guidelines for all the pieces of a Latvian costume that should or should not be worn. I like the simple suggestions for clothing children - it is unnecessary to gear them up in full blown national costume. The folk costumes differ greatly in the different regions of Latvia and many of these regional differences are portrayed in the book. If someone decides to make a costume, they will still need to look at other reference materials, but if someone is looking to buy one, this gives enough guidelines on what is needed. A folk costume is a major invenstment, and usually you have one in your adult life. My mother made my mine in 8th grade. I have obviously grown out of it and have little opportunity to wear one, but I did some fantasizing this month about making a new costume for myself - kind of a 10 year project.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (2010)

The last of the Hunger Games trilogy was great. I really like the main character Katniss Everdeen, a reluctant heroine, who seems to never do what people expect of her and spends a lot of time in this book recovering from various injuries and traumas. I am not going to try to retell the plot or even explain the alternative future world that Collins has created, just that it is a nice commentary on our world today and I understand why Hunger Games gets chosen as a common read or discussion book. In the audio version there was an interview with the author at the end where she explained where she got her ideas. I had not picked up on all the green mythology this series is based on, but definitely her criticism of reality TV. Turns out that some of her ideas came when watching news scenes from the Iraq war juxtaposed with reality TV programs. Powerful.

Paris Wife by Paula McLain (2011)

Another incredible historical novel told in the voice of Hadley, Hemingway's first wife. They met in Chicago in 1920 and spent their short married years in Paris. 

One of my favorite books of the year, but have to find time to describe it. Ended up reading Hemmingway's Sun Also Rises because of this.

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See (2009)

Few more pieces for my personal jigsaw puzzle of understanding the world. Mine is a four dimensional puzzle that not only covers places and people, but time. I now have a small glimpse into pre WWII Shanghai, the Paris of the East, a personalized view of the communist revolution in China, the Japanese - Chinese dynamic, Los Angeles in the 40's, America's historically confused understanding of immigration, Chinese and Chinese immigrants to the US, the world of Hollywood extras, family businesses and more.

Two sisters, May and Pearl are forced to flee Shanghai in 1937, when the Japanese invade and land in Los Angeles as arranged brides to two Chinese men. Their lives change drastically from ones of privilege and parties and modeling for beautiful girl calendars, through life threatening occurrences during the war, months on Angel island being interrogated and waiting to be allowed into the U.S., and then the hard work of making a life in a new country. See does a wonderful job of sharing their life stories with us - as told to us by Pearl, who doesn't always understand her more beautiful and flighty sister May, but loves her dearly. The experiences they share just bring them closer, and help them survive the totally strange world they are thrown into.

Though I have never had a sister to live with and love, I get it - my mom had this love with her sister. They too were very different, like May and Pearl, and they too had lived through the horrors of war, losses of family and friends, of established lives, and had to build lives from scratch. My mother and aunt had the one advantage of being Caucasian, so slightly less prejudice against them. They too had their ethnic community as support. My aunt chose to use her husband's Italian community more than the Latvian one, but the same concept.

I had forgotten that there is another book after this one, as I did feel I was left a bit hanging at the end.

The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough (2011)

The Paris theme continues. My audio bookstore owner suggested this for me and then I found out it was on NPR, best seller lists, etc. Non fiction is not as easy a read as a novel, but this was still gripping. I was listening to it and found I really, really wanted to reread some sections, so I went and bought the book. I was thrilled that the book responded to my need for images of the people and paintings described. I had already started looking some of them up on the Internet.

Historian McCullough looks at the Americans that went to Paris between 1830 and 1900, an earlier time  than I have been exploring, but still fascinating. This is a time after Ben Franklin and Jefferson, but Lafayette is still around and visited by various Americans. McCullough covers hundreds of people from all walks of life, but focuses the most on artists, writers and the "medicals." Only a few of the names were well known to me - P.T. Barnum (and Tom Thumb), Buffalo Bill, Mary Cassatt, James Fenimore Cooper. Thomas Edison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes,  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, George Sand, John Singer Sargent, Harriet Beecher Stowe, the French impressionists - Degas, Manet, Monet, Renoir, etc. and some of the French writers. Many sounded vaguely familiar - like Samuel Morse, who is introduced as a painter, but was the Morse of the Morse code. Or Charles Sumner, who saw a black man amongst the medical students and had the great "aha" moment that intelligence was a matter of education, not race or genetics and  became one of the first abolitionists. And of course Eiffel, but i didn't realize that was a name of a man, or that he built the Eiffel Tower as a temporary structure for one of the Universal Expositions or that he planned the internal structure of the Statue of Liberty. There are others I never had heard of, e.g. artist George Healy, sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens,  Elihu Washburne - the US embasador during the Franco-Prussian War and siege of Paris, and Elizabeth Blackwell, the fist woman doctor.

I learned a lot from this book and McCullough pulled things together for me. I didn't realize that many Americans came to Paris to study medicine, because we did not have adequate medical schools, with no opportunities to see real patients, etc. The Americans returned and founded schools, improved existing ones, and I thus learned one more piece of Harvard history. (Caleb's Crossing giving me a glimpse into very early Harvard history.)

I always like reading about artists and did not know that in those days they spent a lot of time copying masterpieces, so the Louvre was full of art students painting. I've never seen that in a museum, so do they not allow that anymore? Or is is just not artists learn today? Wonder what ever happened to those copies? Are they out on the market? What if one famous artist copied another in his early days? Are they labeled as such? Rembrandt's copy of daVinci, Picasso's copy of Rembrandt, etc. I also loved the fact that the Louvre was open to the general public. I had never heard that artists would sell admission to see one of their paintings. Always the struggle of artists to make ends meet.

An evolving topic of interest for me is World's Fairs or Universal Expositions, as they were called back then. They were obviously an important place for artists to show off their work, as I learned in this book and Clara and Mr. Tiffany. Countries showed off their progress, as in Paris Between the Wars, and as I learned when visiting the Lithuanian Archives in Putnam CT, where they still had pieces of the Lithuanian exhibit from 1939. Inventions were shown off. Some of the fairs had themes. It is a crazy phenomenon, when a whole vilalge is built for a short period of time and then torn down. It is a good thing the Eiffel Tower was so popular, they decided to keep it. I remember the New York Word's Fair in 1964/65 - only the Unisphere (a huge globe) and the observation towers are left standing. I guess they try to make money off of these fairs and attract a lot of visitors, but they are expensive to create and I know the New York fair lost money.

One overarching thought that I took away from this book is how important it is that people travel and exchange ideas. I know that we are so much more connected nowadays than they were then, but it makes a difference if you go to a different place and interact with people, get new ideas in a different environment, and then can bring them back home - or choose to stay. A friend of mine recently said he feels that Paris is his city. I don't know what city is mine, but I support study abroad and other traveling to find out.

Someone to Watch Over Me by Lisa Kleypas (1999)

(Another write-up found from 2006)

Book from the dumpster. Well, I guess I have to read some bad ones to appreciate the good ones. This is your basic hot steamy romance with the thrill of danger and nothing much else. The only thing I learned from this Regency London romance was about runners, a sort of a detective or police force that patrolled streets and looked for thieves, murderers and other criminals. The upper, middle and lower class differences were there, but without the details and level of understanding as done by Philippa Gregory.  OK, so Grant Morgan is the over six foot hunk, who was orphaned, but worked his way up to be the most respected and well paid runner. He rescues a woman from the Thames and realized she is a famous red-haired courtesan, but has lost her memory, and seems very innocent instead of brazen. You know how it goes from here.

The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike (1984)

(Found this write-up from 2006)

From the give-away pile of a Chicago friend. I think I’ve never really read anything by John Updike, and I liked the movie years ago, so I thought I’d try reading the book. Updike’s language is very rich and enjoyable. The story, though, is a bit strange. Three single women, two with kids that get neglected throughout the story, who are close friends and find they have some extraordinary powers, especially when they are together. Jane is the musician, Sukie writes, though mostly for a paper, and Alexandra sculpts. Into their lives comes Darryl Van Horne, who moves into the local mansion, sets up an alchemy lab, and invites them to hang out regularly with him. He has a hot tub, tennis court, booze, etc. They each have their own relationship with him, as he encourages each of them to expand their artistic talents, but I don’t quite get it. I remember him being a devilish figure – and with Jack Nicholson playing the part, he was very deliciously devilish. Darryl seems to thrive on their energy, but he really doesn’t help any of them, and later takes on a different trio of even younger women. Updike seems to get at some of the issues of single women, their fairly run-down homes, their frustration with exes, their concern about making ends meet, and I didn’t mind their ways with men, but something was missing.  Their witchiness was also not satisfying. They used their powers in mostly random ways. I guess I’ll try reading what others have said about this. I do want to see the movie again, but am not tempted to read any more Updike.

A Dinosaur Named Sue by Pat Relf (2000)

Subtitle: The Story of the Colossal Fossil

I had the wonderful experience of meeting this author at our Cornell reunion. We had graduated the same year, but never knew each other back in college. She lives close to me, so we met for lunch, where I discovered she is the author of many non-fiction children's books. WorldCat lists her as the author of 87 (there are duplicates in that list) and my library has three of her kids books, her masters dissertation, and a book of local World War II memories in Archives. Two of the kids books are Magic School Bus books and over in the Education library (one checked out), so I checked out this one on Sue, the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton over in the Chicago Field Museum.

I believe I have mentioned in this blog, that I love children's and young adult books, and sometimes turn to kids books when I want a clear explanation of something. When my son was studying the Civil War in grade school, I realized that I didn't really "get" the Civil War, especially after we visited Gettysburg and saw the massive destruction that occurred in this three day battle. So I went to our kid section and took out a few books that made the war much more understandable to me. Obviously it is an art to take complex topics and make them clear to others. The best teachers do this, good children's authors do this, and Pat Relf definitely does this.

This tells the story of Sue, the largest and most complete set of Tyrannosaurus Rex bones - how they were found, the legal battles, how they were auctioned off, how they were stored, cleaned, studied, and put together for a display. What did we know about T. Rex before, what new things we learned from these bones. Just enough information for me with the things that interested me and plenty of pictures.

Now I have dozens of questions for Pat - how did she work on this book, did she get to interview the people, see the scientists work on the bones, or was she just given a pile of "stuff" and asked to make sense of it into a book?

Happy Ever After by Nora Roberts (2010)

Though I wasn't thrilled with this series, just had to finish it with the fourth friend Parker, the organizer brains behind Vows, the wedding planning and hosting company and her unlikely beau Malcolm, the mechanic. But somehow it worked, they worked. When I saw the organized way she worked I realized I would not necessarily want to be her friend, definitely would not want to work for her, but would hire her to organize something that needed to be organized perfectly - but not necessarily a wedding. I don't like things that are timed perfectly, I like free flow, and definitely would not want to be herded out because the time was up. I am not much into fashion, but do see the point of helping a woman find the wedding dress in which she looks the best. I do like Parker's commitment to her friends, and her clients, her fast thinking and problem solving, and not just technical details, but things like keeping two feuding exes separated during an event. Or seeing the sorrow in a father's eyes, because his wife is no longer alive to see their daughter's wedding - and taking time to talk to him and make him ready to appreciate the day.

And then Roberts makes Malcolm the former stunt man and wildman attracted to this rich, high-class gal, but gives him a heart of gold - good with kids, helps one of his employees get going on an education, very straighforward, but as a guy has a hard time sharing feelings. And then how in the world did he know what shoes to buy Parker? In Roberts' world these things happen.

I wish this fantasy quartet all the best. Now that they all are getting married, I am trying to imagine all the fancy weddings with a possie of their kids running around. Of course they will have a special playground/room/whatever for those kids. I still don't see where they fit in their social obligations - attend other parties, benefits, fundraisers, but I guess the author knows best not to dilute a book.

Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (2010)

In the last of 20 CDs it dawned on me that this was only the first of most likely a trilogy, and I mentally groaned. I am hooked on this story, even if it is about vampires. It helped that the first third of the story was mostly in the Bodleian Library at Oxford and that the main character is a historian, researching alchemy in old manuscripts, and that a major focus is on an old manuscript - Ashmole 762, which had seemed to disappear from sight and now was rediscovered by Diana Bishop, a reluctant witch. The structure of the world in this book is that there are humans and three other types of beings - vampires (which are nearly immortal), witches with extra powers, and demons, which seem to be unpredictable, but not necessarily evil. Seems like a lot of important powerful figures were one of these, most often witches or demons, as vampires tended to lie low with their long lives. Now there is a council, which governs their interactions, and one rule is that they cannot have relations across types of beings. So of course, our witchy heroine falls in love with a vampire. He seems to be drawn to protect her, and others are intent on doing her harm. He's been around for centuries, which intrigues Diana - to hear about history from someone that was there. Then there are the two great aunts that raised Diana when her parents were killed. Lots of intriguing ideas and a fun read.

The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas (2011)

What a delightful book! Was recommended to me through Get Glue. Had to get it through interlibrary loan, and thought I would be reading it on vacation, but found time to read it in just a few days. I later read on the back cover that this book was "like biting into a perfect piece of pistachio-flaked baklava." (Rief Larsen) Strangely enough, this describes the book perfectly.

Time - late 19th century, places - Constanta (Romania, on the Black Sea) and Stamboul. (From Wikipedia: "Stamboul was used in Western languages as an equivalent of İstanbul, until the time it was replaced by the official new usage of the Turkish form in the 20th century. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, English-speaking sources often used Constantinople to refer to the metropolis as a whole, but Stamboul to refer to the central parts located on the historic peninsula between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara."- from H. G. Dwight) Historic period - Ottoman empire, with the Russian and German empires vying for more territory - I know very little about this time and area. When I was in the Lithuanian Museum in Chicago last week, I realized how little I know of Lithuanian history and their time as part of the Polish-Lithuanian empire.

Our main character is Eleonora Cohen, born in 1877 to Yakob Cohen, a Jewish rug merchant in Constanta. Her mother dies in childbirth, so she is raised by an aunt/stepmother and her father, who teaches her to read and write in various languages, when he realizes the girl is bright. (I love bright girls.) Turns out she is more than bright, she is a savant, and at age eight follows her father secretly on a trip to Stamboul, where they live with a Turk - Moncef Bey, she gets tutoring from an American rector of a college - Reverend James Muehler. One of my favorite moments in the book is when Cohen and Muehler first meet, they try speaking English, French, Russian and some other languages and settle on Turkish as the best language to use for communication. The whole book is a rich blend of cultures and languages - in a way I think Europe and various other metropolitan areas of the world operate today, but I don't see in the U.S. How many of us are fluent in more than two (or even one) languages and can jump freely between them, depending on the person we encounter?

The whole story is rich, and colorful, and touching. The Sultan's growling stomach at Ramadan, or his love for birds. Eleonora is followed by a flock of purple and white hoopoes from birth. (I am attaching an image from a hoopoe, though I found no references to purple and white ones - must be literary license.)  Eleonora gets to meet the Sultan and it seems to me, if circumstances were different, they would have gotten along quite well.

The Sea Wedding and Other Stories from Estonia ilus. by Inese Jansons (1978)

By Selve Maas and Peggy Hoffman.

My artist friend Inese Jansons died in February. I finally framed the piece of art she sent me a couple of years ago, and as a group of friends remembered her, I thought to look up the books she had illustrated. This is one that came up and that was available used through Amazon. Ineses illustrations are delightful, as usual, and since she is illustrating Baltic tales, all the characters are wearing ethnic clothes and feet shod in pastalas, kind of like moccasins, but laced up the leg like a ballet slipper. The main animal characters are also dressed this way. The book is from the 70's, so early in her career. She was so talented, I wish she had done more.

I have read a lot of folk tales in my day, and as a child, plowed through the 15 volumes of collected Latvian folk tales. These twelve tales felt familiar, but none of them was exactly like any Latvian tale I remember reading. There were tales of the sea, of justice, of fairies. One of my favorites was Six Hard-Boiled Eggs - about a man who hadn't paid for his hard-boiled eggs at an inn, and the innkeeper never forgot that debt. When years later the man returns to repay the innkeeper, the innkeeper declares he owes a thousand coins, for if those eggs had hatched, he would have many more hens and eggs to sell. On his way to court, the man meets a farmer, who promises to help him. The farmer rushes in late to the court, says he was planting peas, but had to cook them first. Dah! Cooked peas won't grow and boiled eggs won't hatch. I love these kinds of logic fairy tales.

Kristaps Ģelzis, text by Mark Svede (2005)

I have to admit I have had this book for a while, and had looked at the images of Ģelzis' work, but not read Mark's text (shame on me.) Mark always write so well, and brings in his knowledge of the art world in so many different ways. I think what amazed me the most is how well versed my friend Mark is in what is and has happened in Latvia. He is half Latvian, but hasn't followed the normal path of doing all things Latvian, so his grasp of the nuances there are quite astounding. (At least to me, my own grasp of nuances are probably minimal, as I don't keep up with events in Latvia regularly, and just have spurts of immersion with my family, the library world, etc.)

As much as I appreciate art, I do like it when someone explains things to me, so it was great to have images of Ģelzis work, especially his installations, along with Mark's explanations and interpretations. I know he is good friends with Ģelzis, and I recognize a couple of the pieces from Mark's home, so I assume he has a pretty accurate take on what Ģelzis is trying to say.

I chose to read the text in English, as I know that was the language in which it was written, but I did glance over to the Latvian text occasionally, especially when it was an especially complex concept or passage. It was fun to see how it translates into Latvian.

Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse (2011)

Suggested by the audio book store guy. I actually have a couple of her books sitting in my "to read" pile.

Post World War I, Freddie, who has lost his brother in the war and is now lost himself, has an accident on a deserted road in the Pyrenees of southern France, finds himself in a small sad village while looking for help with his car. He seems to hear voices in the woods and at a village party has a deep connection and conversation with Fabrissa, a lovely young woman, who seems to understand his pain. Very interestingly woven story, that ends up telling not only about post WWI, but also centuries before, when villages were destroyed by soldiers of various rulers.

The Sixth Man by David Baldacci (2011)

Obviously I can't stay away from Baldacci, though I wasn't totally thrilled with my last read. But the audio book store had mistakenly put this book on hold for me, so I just decided to go with it. One more Sean King  & Michelle Maxwell story. Again well told.

I liked the main premise, that there might be certain people with the ability to use more of their brain capacity and they could absorb exorbitant amounts of information and analyze it, that they could take all the data that is gathered by our various security agencies and grok it into some valuable actions and policies to protect our country and our world. For example, destroying the opium crop in Afghanistan just makes the Taliban richer, but bringing in seeds of poppies that don't produce good opium and takes them out of being a player in the drug production world actually sounds like a good idea.

Edgar Roy is such a person who can process floods of information, but he is sitting in a high security prison, because six bodies were found buried in his barn. King and Maxwell have been hired by Roy's lawyer to help prove his innocence. When they get to Maine (nice setiing), they find the lawyer dead - and they are off.  The book is full of interesting characters - Peter Bunting, who invented this concept and who got government agencies to actually share information. He is a rather unlikable character in the beginning, but I grew to like him. I liked Kelly Paul and James Harkes, though for the longest time I didn't know which side they were on. At times they seemed to take over the action from King and Maxwell, and I wouldn't be surprised if Baldacci brings them back in future books. Baldacci even creates interesting small characters, like the owner of the inn where King and Maxwell stay - she doesn't care for Maxwell and chides them on spending time together in his room.

With Nora Roberts I know how many dead bodies to expect (usually 3), but with Baldacci, they kept piling up - a bit out of my comfort zone. Strange - I have a comfort zone to how many dead bodies I am willing to read about? How about watch? Many of my TV shows are violent. I guess it ups the ante on the gravity of the situation. The characters are literally facing life and death situations. Wonder if I could find non dead body mysteries? Or maybe ones that just have one? I'll have to start keeping count and see if Lisa Scottoline or other writers are less bloody. Probably someone has already done that on the net. (A quick Google search came up with a sentence in a readers advisory book about amateur detectives often being in less violent books. Authors mentioned were Diana Mott Davidson, Karen Greenland and Elizabeth Peters. I've read a couple by the latter, but hasn't intrigued me.) I also had strong moments of discomfort when the head of Homeland Security was being ultra nasty - ready to kill absolutely anyone who stood in her way. This was actually very similar to Baldacii's first book, Absolute Power (the last book of his I just read), where another highly placed government woman went beserk trying to hold on to her power.

Overall - a good read, but I think I'll take a break from Baldacci for a while.

Raymond Duncan by Adela Spindler Roatcap (1991)

Subtitle: Printer... Expatrieate... Excentric Artist.

This is one of those delightful limited edition monographs from The Book Club of California, and as far as I can tell, the only book about Raymond Duncan, Isadora Duncan's eccentric brother - not that she wasn't eccentric herself. He was born in 1874 in California, but moved to Europe, lived in Greece for a while where he married a Greek woman and started wearing Greek tunics and invented a type of sandal. He wore both exclusively until his death in 1966. For many years he lived in Paris, and after the death of his first wife, he married a Latvian. He seems to be one of the first hippies and simple life advocates, running an academy to teach his life style and promoting arts and crafts in his studios and galleries. Fascinating.

Paris Between the Wars by Carol Mann (1996)

I've been fascinated by Paris since visiting it and reading The Paris Wife. This book provided a great overview of what Paris was like between the two world wars, why it was so appealing to artists of all types. I love the abundance of photos, so I could visualize the place, the art deco, etc. My favorite photo was of two women dancers in shrimp costumes. Even though the photo was black and white, I could just image the bright colors. The most powerful photo was of the 1937 World's Fair, where Germany and the Soviet Union were posturing and squaring off against each other with massive pavilions that dwarfed everything around them, except for the Eiffel Tower. I must have been a strange and tense time. They also provided work for artists in hard economic times. World's Fairs were also an important event in the Tiffany book I read recently. My parents took me to the one in New York in 1964-65 numerous times, and Expo 67 in Montreal.

The Exception by Christian Jungersen (2004, trans. 2006)

This was one of the Danish novels suggested to me at AABS. I am returning it to the library, but I never did finish it (got to 323 of 500 pages). It has been a while, so I had to look up the plot summary. It was about four women at Copenhagen’s Danish Center for Information on Genocide, who were very nasty towards each other, especially the librarian, Anne-Lise. They gather information on genocide around the world, publish articles, some of which are included in the book. Evil and its causes has fascinated me as a topic, but I don't recall what I thought of the essays. I know I couldn't stand the women trying to drive Anne Lise insane, so I just stopped reading. (And as I have recently noted, I can depend on most American books to end fairly well, but no so European ones.) Ah well, there are plenty of books out there to try.

The Gift of Story by Clarissa Pinkola Estes (1993)

Subtitle: A wise tale about what is enough.

Just a slip of a book that has been in my office for a while and needs to be returned. This is just one tale within a tale within a tale, but always uplifting. The innermost tale is one I have heard before where two young impoverished people want to gift each other, so she cuts her hair to buy a chain for his watch and he sells his watch to buy her a comb for her hair. They laugh at their foolishness, but realize that they have given each other love and trust. And that is enough.

Absolute Power by David Baldacci (1996)

Somehow Baldacci's preface on how he had decided to quit law and write novels was as compelling as his fiction. I was so engrossed I forgot that this part was non-fiction and that it was his real story. I am glad he chose to share his gift of storytelling with the rest of the world.

This was great for a first novel - and with the culprit being as many say, the most important man (so far) on earth - the president of the United States, one whose secret liaison becomes a little too rough, and the woman is killed. Now this is before Clinton got caught with Monica, but I guess people thought Baldacci had seen into the future. A slick thief who steals only from the very rich happened to see the tryst and murder. I loved the complexity of the plot. You had the thief Luther, his estranged daughter Kate, and her former boyfriend Jack, a lawyer. Then there is the president, his chief of staff and secret service men. Then there is detective Seth Frank and his crew. The murdered woman Christine and her very wealthy husband Walter Sullivan. The law firm Jack works for, their machinations, wealthy customers, including Jack's fiance. It all came together very nicely.

Note to self: Just do Baldacci as audio books, especially for long trips where you have to stay awake. He does keep my heart pumping, and at times I had to stop reading, as it seemed one more awful thing was going to happen. And then I told myself, remember this is an American novel, most of the good guys, and especially the main character will be OK.

Dangerous Old Women By Clarissa Pinkola Estes (1996 book, 2010 audio)

Subtitle: Myths and Stories of the Wise Woman Archetype

I believe this audio version is based on Pinkola Estes' book, but it was set up as six sessions with the author, where she talked, told stories, explained them and ended with a prayer or meditation. I found her book Women who Run with the Wolves really valuable and inspiring. These stories and her explanations didn't quite talk to me as much, but I really like Pinkola Estes herself, her throaty laugh, and being told that being unique and different is good. She took stories from various cultures, starting with an extensive analysis of Snow White, touching on Baba Yaga and other stories, some that I had never heard. I also found out that some of her ancestry was from Eastern Europe. I would love to meet her.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (2010)

This was the book the Gender & Women's Studies department chose for discussion for Women's History Month. Great choice, again! Henrietta Lacks died in 1951 of cervical cancer and doctors took cells from her tumor and were surprised that they grew and did not die off, like no other human cells to that point. They were named HeLa cells after the woman, and were grown and distributed throughout the world for medical research that has resulted in drugs for herpes, leukemia, polio and many other diseases.

Rebecca Skloot first heard of Henrietta Lacks in 1988, when she was 16, in a community college biology class, and was intrigued. Who was this Henrietta Lacks? No information was out there. As Rebecca went through college getting her biology degree, she kept searching for information on Henrietta. In graduate school she studied writing and kept thinking she wanted to write Henrietta's story. Eventually she spent more than 10 years researching the Lacks family and the scientific research around tissue samples that culminated in the publishing of this book.

The story itself is haunting - how an energetic poor black woman from the tobacco fields of Virginia moves to Baltimore, raises a family and dies young, leaving 5 kids behind to struggle without her. Meanwhile her cells take on a life of their own in the scientific laboratories, making careers and money for many along the way.

I am amazed by the perseverance of Skloot, her ability as a young white woman to earn the trust and respect of this black family, especially the daughter Deborah. I don't always read the acknowledgements, but this chapter was fascinating in an of itself. Skloot talked to hundreds of people, bout the Lacks' life and the scientific side of this book. She researched in libraries, archives, governmental, hospital, laboratory records. Sounds like dozens of people read the manuscript. When someone in the discussion group questioned the timeline in the book that is not quite linear, I realized this was thought about in depth and the decision was made to offer the story in the best way possible. It worked for me.

The big question that Skloot tackles is medical and research ethics. Back in 1951, there were no institutional review boards checking over research with humans. Research and its guidelines have evolved over these decades, but there are still many unanswered ethical questions about the use of human tissues - the rights of the donors - do they have a say how their tissues are used, for what kinds of research - and who gets to profit off of these tissues? Is the patenting of genes and tissues a good thing or does it encumber research? Skloot raises these questions throughout the book, but then spends the whole afterward pulling these issues together.

Very powerful book. It is being considered for first year experience as a common read book.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (2009)

I was actually intrigued by the cover and description of the latest Flavia DeLuce mysteries, but it looked like I needed to start from the beginning, so I listened to this book. I actually didn't like 11 year-old Flavia that much in the beginning, but she grew on me. I just read an interview with the 70 year old first book author about why he choose to have the book narrated by a girl in England in the 50's. He remembers his own passionate interests at that time, and Flavia is an avid chemist with a special interest in poisons. As a young girl, she is not taken seriously and has access to people in a way that they don't realize she might actually do something with the information they give her. England, because his mother was from England, and he felt he grew up in an English household. And the 1950's, because he wants to look at some aspects of British life that has vanished. In this book it is about postage stamps.

Flavia finds a dying man in their garden, a man her father had an argument with just earlier that night. Flavia takes it upon herself to solve they mystery of who he is and who killed him, especially when her father gets arrested for the crime. She lives in a large house with her father, two older sisters with whom she does not get along, a cook, and Dogger, the handyman, who is the only one with whom she really has a solid relationship. Flavia ends up researching her father's past in boarding school and the plot centers around two stamps that were printed in an orange color protesting Queen Victoria, if I am not mistaken. One was recently stolen from the King and the other from a school's headmaster years ago.

I just had to get used to Flavia spouting off chemical facts, though I did like her working in her own private lab. One of the first things we see her do is poison her sister's lipstick with poison ivy extract. I also loved that she used the library - looking things up in old newspapers. Another fun thing was that she traipsed all over the countryside either on foot or on bike. I still did some of that when I was growing up, but don't think my son has done that very much. I can't say that I am totally enamored by this book, but will probably pick up the others in due time.

Cup of Friendship by Deborah Rodriguez (2011)

Another good one. This book helped me get a sense of what life is like in Afghanistan now or at least very recently. Sunny has opened up a coffee shop in Kabul, and though it was hard for me to fathom why an American woman would do so in such a dangerous place, where being a woman and a foreigner can be such a liability, but the story was finally convincing and very moving. I wasn't quite ready for another heavy book, and kept wondering if it was going to become a realistic bummer or have a reasonable happy ending. I think Rodrigues did a nice balancing act between the harsh realities of death, the abuse of women and children, the terrorist bombings AND the message of hope, friendship and love. I really enjoyed the evolving group of friends at the cafe. Starting with those working or living on the premises - there is Halajan, the widowed owner of the building, who likes to smoke in secret and wear jeans under her traditional dress and has a secret passion for her childhood friend the tailor; Halajan's traditional son Ahmet, who takes care of security at the cafe; Yazmina, who was kidnapped by drug lords from her uncle's house, but taken in by Sunny when she sees her at a government office and realizes Yazmina is pregnant (from her husband who has been killed) and has a very bleak future; and the local Afghani cook. The interesting visitors to the cafe include Isabel, a BBC reporter; Candace, recently divorced from a diplomat, mistress of a handsome Afghani; Jack, an American who knows many languages; Tommy, Sunny's boyfriend that drops in every so many months between assignments as a sniper; and others. The cafe is the place for foreigners to meet and sometimes drink wine out of the tea pots. Sunny throws these elaborate parties for Christmas, Easter and other holidays. But it is a time that the Taliban is regaining strength, and the Americans and other foreigners slowly pulling out. Definitely one to suggest to friends.

Secrets by Jude Deveraux (2008)

Quick read as I couldn't concentrate on anything heavier while waiting for my son to get out of a surgery to fix his broken nose. Cassie falls in love when she is 12 years old and accompanies her distant mother to a highly charged work retreat. She notices Jeff, who seems to be the calm in the middle of the storm. After college she finds that he is living in historic Williamsburg, VA, goes to work in the school his child attends, and becomes his nanny. Then there is the elderly movie star living next door, and Cassie starts helping her organize her memorabilia. But Jeff isn't quite the quiet engineer he pretends to be. Liked the image of a history buff living in this historical town. Since I have been there, I can see that it could be fun to brush with history on a regular basis, and have a fun place to take kids. I liked the precocious little girl,  the live in grand father, even the reclusive movie star. Good fluff book.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (2006)

This appeared on a few "books to read" lists, so I got it from the library and almost did not make it though. Way too heavy for me right now. This is supposed to be a young adult book, but I have no idea how young adults read it, understand it, respond to it. It was the heaviest of the heavies on World War II, on all the deaths, the annihilation of Jews, the Hitler youth, the lack of food - it is all there. I like books about books, which is partially why I picked this up, but though books and words play a major part in this story, it was very difficult to read.

The narrator is Death, who gets very busy during the war. An interesting perspective. It reminded me of Brightest Star in the Sky , but that was a different kind of spirit seeing into everyone's souls. Death is fascinated by the life of this one girl Liesel, our book thief. 

The book is written in strange ways, with chapter headings giving sort of a table of contents, e.g. Prologue: a mountain range of rubble, in which our narrator introduces: himself -- the colors -- and the book thief. There are lots of interspersions, like *** A Strange Word *** or *** The Book's Meaning *** and these are followed by some explanation. A lot of German words are used throughout the book, including slang. Most of them are explained and give flavor to the book. In three places there are illustrations, as we have one of the characters writing and illustrating his own thoughts and stories - and we get a sample of those. Other than the last piece, I found these interspersions annoying, but maybe they help slow down the story, so it is easier to deal with the heaviness of the material.

There are so many references to the events and situations in history, I am really not sure how kids understand this. And though I know that time period fairly well, I felt that much of what the writer was trying to convey was going over my head.

Liesel's little brother dies of a cough, when they bury him, she finds a handbook of the graveyard diggers, which is her first stolen book. Her mother can't take care of her and she is sent to a foster home with Hans and Rose Hubermann. Hans is a painter, plays the accordion and teaches Liesel to read. Rose takes in other people's laundry. Liesel's best friend is Rudy, next door, who is obsessed with Jesse Owens and loves to run. Hans takes in the son of a war-time buddy - Max, a Jew, whom he hides in his basement. People die, people get whipped for trying to give Jews some bread. I don't know what else to say. I think I want to try reading something else by this author, but only if it is lighter.

Louis Comfort Tiffany by Jacob Baal-Teshuva (2004)

As I mentioned in my previous post, I needed a visual companion to Clara and Mr. Tiffany. The introductory text is also in German and French, and illustrated with photos and examples of Tiffany creations. But the main part of of the book is a luxurious rendition of many of Tiffany windows, lamps and vases. Tiffany also oversaw the production of mosaics and smaller items, including jewelry, but these three main areas were of greatest interest to me. When anything was described in Clara's story, I would find it in this book and drool over it. My favorites were the dragonfly, peacock and wisteria lamps.  This book showed the things mentioned the best of all those we had in the library. I read the introductory text, getting some more details about Louis Comfort Tiffany's life, his relationship with his father Charles Lewis Tiffany, who was best known for his jewelry. Maybe I will buy a copy of this book for myself. The end of the book contains a catalog of where all these items are located. I will definitely have to put the Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, FL on my travel list.

Clara and Mr Tiffany by Susan Vreeland (2011)

Best book of the year, so far. Love those art history fiction books, and this is about one of my favorite art forms - stained glass. I have admired stained glass since I was a kid bored during church services, and have liked Tiffany style lamps, seen Tiffany windows (at least in a small chapel off the coast of Georgia), bought Tiffany note cards. Then, while living in Ohio, I bought my first piece of stained glass with a rainbow and mirror from a street artist in San Francisco (so he could get his car out of the parking garage). My next piece was a round night scene with a tree that I bought an an Ohio art fair, where I felt I had walked into a fantasy land, when I walked in the booth of these glorious stained glass windows. The $80 round piece was the cheapest thing there, and though outside my budget, I have never regretted purchasing it. Then I met Luna Mountainsea, a stained glass artist, from whom I have purchased numerous pieces over the years. As I was reading this book and yearning for a Tiffany lamp, I realized i have my own - not shaped like a typical Tiffany lamp, but a three sided lamp made of glorious glass and shells, and amber, and it is one of my prized possessions.

This book is obviously based on historical information - mostly letters from Clara Driscoll, that have recently come to light, and that describe her time with Tiffany from 1893 to 1908 (I'm not going to go back to check the accuracy of these years, but they are about right.) Louis Comfort Tiffany had women working for him, as long as they were not married. They mostly had some artistic background, as they were the ones to design some of his windows, choose the glass, and cut the glass. Only the soldering was not done by them. Clara had worked for Tiffany earlier, but left when she got married, then when her husband died, she returned to run the women's workshop. It is thought that it was her idea to create lamps our of the stained glass pieces instead of just blown glass, and she received an award in Paris for her dragonfly lamp.

I loved reading about how these glass pieces were made, how Tiffany struggled to get the glassblowers to create iridescent glass - mostly for vases, but also for the windows. Since I have had glassblower friends and Luna showing me excitedly her various glass samples, and seen how much work goes into creating a stained glass piece, I could visualize much of the descriptions.

As with previous art history novels, I need to see what is being described, so I took out a few books on Tiffany from the library and found one that had all the windows and lamps mentioned. If I give this book as a gift to anyone, I will have to give the book of images too.

Vreeland goes far beyond just describing Clara's work with Tiffany, she describes her life and the times at the turn of the century, which I found as fascinating as the story of her work with glass. Clara lived in a boarding house filled with interesting characters. One of her best friends is George, a gay artist. I was fascinated by the description of gay life in those days. Of course it was kept out of the public eye, but it flourished, and Clara helped out by being the female date to operas and other events. George tried to make her a part of his family by setting her up with his brother, but that relationship ran into problems. We do see him working in a social worker type capacity with the poor immigrants. Clara herself does an amazing job overseeing her "girls" in the workshop, dealing with their various life problems, and when the men's union gets mad because the women finished a job the men refused to do, she fights for the right of the women to continue working. You get a good sense of her own relationships from this book, undoubtedly quite accurate, since they were based on her letters.

Plus, we get ring side seats to history - the World's Fairs in Chicago and Paris, the opening of the New York subway system, and much more. Just love it!