The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (2005)

This book was a Christmas present from a colleague, given to me because it is about Eastern Europe and it deals with libraries and archives. And these are the things I really loved about the book. The three generations of characters are constantly looking for clues in primary documents in libraries and archives. And the book itself, though labeled a novel, has an engagingly realistic Note to the Reader, explaining that this was all compiled by the author from letters and notes in her possession, as if she herself were a middle aged scholar, and the events described were from her youth, and that of her father and his teacher. I loved the map of Europe on the end papers of the book. Novels rarely have this touch of reality, especially when they are describing real places and buildings. Their travels through Eastern Europe were both fascinating, and at times a bit familiar - when dealing with travel restrictions in the former Soviet Union. Istanbul seemed exotic to me.

I liked the basic story too. A motherless girl lives and travels around the world with her father. Then he takes off on a trip without her, and she feels she has to follow him, as he is searching for something relating to Dracula, following old paths he trod before looking for his professor, who had disappeared mysteriously. On that long ago venture he was with Helen, the professor's daughter, who travels with him through Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. Anyway, there is enough suspense, romance, and all good things a novel needs.

What I did find disconcerting at times, was the juxtaposition of these academic, research focused characters in this mystical world of vampires. I didn't mind that one of the librarians turned evil, and I believe in a little bit of mysticism - the power of mind over body, of good spirits, maybe even guardian angels of sorts, and I know there is evil in the world, mostly created by us mortals, though I do not understand the depths of it at times, but vampires just don't fit into my world view.

In the middle of reading this book I couldn't resist looking up Dracula and vampires in the Wikipedia. The Dracula entry is on Bram Stoker's 1897 book, though it links to many other related articles. It is interesting where Stoker got his inspirations - a bit from folklore, a bit from Romanian history, though it is not clear that he knew much about Vlad Dracula, or Vlad the Impaler from the 15th century. But what I also found interesting, having never read the original Dracula, was that it consists of journal entries, letters and news clippings, a technique also used by Kostova. I will have to read the original to see. Another book that used this method of telling the story was Myla Goldberg's Wickett's Remedy.

Looks like many different cultures have had some type of myth about vampire-like creatures. I don't think the Latvians do. Their evil never gets that evil - it is mostly an expansion of negative human traits like laziness, dishonesty, cruelty. Even the devil is a not too bright trickster. So maybe that is why these really deep evil creatures are so repulsive to me and I do not enjoy horror movies or books, and keep wondering how I keep stumbling into books on this theme.

This time it was worth it.

Everybody into the Pool by Beth Lisick (2005)

An unexpected gift from Andris in Washington with the statement that I will probably like it better than he did. Probably true. I mostly enjoyed this funny and edgy collection of true stories from a San Franciscoan. I especially appreciated the setting, since San Francisco was where I was going to go and live after college, though life landed me solidly in the Midwest. I have lost my yearning for the West Coast, though I still love to visit it. In some ways I felt some similarities with the author - we both were raised in solid families, but tended to find friends and adventures in the more edgy world - though I never got anywhere near as edgy as Lisick.

I loved some of the early stories the best, like the one where she become a prom princess, and when a cute older guy hit on her, she learned to avoid "people who were suave, classically attractive, and socially adept." And her obsession of ferreting out phonies stuck with her. The ladies tea story was funny too and I enjoyed her flirtation with bi-sexuality. I also liked the last story with her take on raising a baby. In the middle, her life in the world of drug addicts was less appealing, but still a good description of these various groups in our culture. I thought she was remembering a lot of the same things as I did from my younger days, but at some point, I realized she was talking about the 90's and must be quite a bit younger than me. I just went on an exploratory mission and found she 13 years younger. Lisick has a new book Helping Me Help Myself, as she takes a year to work on different aspects of herself each month (Is there a theme going? See Eat, Pray, Love.) I think I'm going to find this book and read it - I seem to be in a similar stage.

I brought this with me to Latvia in March as a gift for someone, but my friend Inta was desperate for something American to read, so she read most of it before I had to pass it on. She mostly liked it too, but found the prom chapter too long. I believe she just couldn't relate to the American high school scene, which I found so funny because I do remember it that way.

Blood Brothers by Nora Roberts (2007)

I found a new way of reading. I had been listening to this book in my car, was almost done with it, just a couple of more chapters, but I needed to go away to a conference. So in my hour and a half layover in Detroit, I found this book was one of the few books in all the newsstands. I felt uncomfortable standing at any one of the newsstands reading for too long, and since every other store in the airport is a newsstand, I had plenty of places to stop. I walked from newsstand to newsstand found the book and read a few pages until I was done.

Another interesting phenomenon at the airport newsstand was that the books were "Rent to Read." That means you can return them to a participating airport newsstand for half off your next book. Good idea!

The book itself? This is the first in Roberts' latest trilogies. Another perfect matching of three best friends with three women (this does get old), brought together by mysterious phenomenon that occur in Hastings Hallow, MD every 7 years. I don't like the premise, but the characters are OK. Cal runs the local hangout - the bowling alley - in this small town. Fox was raised by hippie parents, but turned small town lawyer. Gage had a rough childhood, now he wanders the globe playing poker. Quinn is a writer that investigates unexplained phenomenon. Layla works in a boutique, and I'm not sure what Cybil does, but she might be an interesting character.

The setting is not that important this time, as is the mystical phenomenon. And that is what I enjoy the least. Again, I'm reading an interesting combination of books - listening to this and reading Historian - a fiction book about people looking into the "true" history of Dracula and vampires. Blood Brothers has an evil being that was confined hundreds of years ago by a good guy. The three friends released this evil energy, and it is wreaking havoc in the town. I have liked Roberts putting in whiffs of magic in her stories, but this is major evil that I don't like. I know there is evil energy in the world, I just don't think it manifests in these ways, so this reduced my enjoyment of this book.

Torpedo Juice by Tim Dorsey (2005)

(Found I had written up this description on paper for this book that I read last summer.) This would have been the perfect book to listen to while on a Florida vacation, especially one to the Keys. Though listless characters doing drugs is not my favorite scenario, I found myself breaking into a smile quite often. Serge heads down to the Florida Keys to get married, though he doesn't have a wife picked out yet. He hooks up with his old buddy Coleman (sounds like these two characters have been in previous books), a pretty worthless druggie, but he makes an entertaining side-kick for Serge. Serge finds mousy Molly working in the library and asks her to marry him on their first date. I couldn't understand how an intelligent woman like Molly could go for such a con artist as Serge, but maybe she was desperate. I can't complain about stereotyping librarians, as the other librarian is a beauty. Though Serge is a con-man, I have to admit he grew on me, The riffs on buying towels with his new wife and then their session with a marriage counselor I found hilarious.

I really loved the references to specific keys, the small Key deer, mangroves, Key West, etc. I should have had a map in from of me while listening to this. I remember my one vacation in the Keys back in 1984 - and there really was a lot of back and forth on Route 1 - the string that holds the pearls of keys together. I seem to recall mile markers, as you never knew which key came when, so for directions, people gave you mile markers.

The book is full of colorful characters, and since this is a thriller/mystery, there are drug pins, cops, mysterious sharpshooters, and murderers. The book is so lighthearted that you don't notice how many murders have occurred until the end.

The Spanish Bow by Andromeda Romano-Lax (2007)

Once more I am faced with the knowledge of how little I know. This time it is about how little I know about Spain, the Spanish Civil War, Spain in World War II, and Franco. So I learned a little about all of this from this novel about a cellist inspired by the real life Spanish cellist Pablo Casals, as I found out from our library catalog. I had to find out about Casals too, and see that a few things are parallel with the book's main character, but much is not. Feliu Delargo is a child prodigy musician, who falls in love with the cello when he first hears it in a concert. (Though I am fairly unmusical, the cello is my favorite string instrument and I actually took lessons on it for about a year in high school, so I can understand his enchantment with the instrument.) His father had died and his mother sacrifices a lot to give him the opportunity to study cello in Barcelona. He lands in the court, playing for the young queen. (Seems some other books I have read addressed young English princesses married off to young Spanish kings.) He meets pianist Justo Al-Cerra (pronounced very strangely by the reader of the book), who convinces Delargo to tour with him in a trio with a violinist. This is the start of a long, complex relationship - both musical and personal. On a voyage back from America, during the great crash of 1929, they meet Aviva, an Italian violinist, that they both fall in love with , each in his own way. They travel as a trio, attempting to avoid the political upheavals in Spain and throughout Europe. Their lives are affected by numerous real historical incidents, and they meet historical persons like the royals, Franco and Hitler. I got a good sense of what it is like to be a musician constantly on the road, and enough glimpses into the historical time, to want to look things up in books and atlases when I was done. Very good, all in all.

Playing for Pizza by John Grisham (2007)

I was told that the author had enjoyed traveling in Italy, so wrote a novel so he could describe Italy in detail. That part I liked, though please don't tell me all about churches and architecture without photos or illustrations - which of course is an impossibility when listening to a book, but I'm quite sure the novel wasn't illustrated. (That's why I liked that illustrated Da Vinci Code book so well.)

What surprised me was, that this was a football story. Rick Dockery, a third string quarterback makes major mistakes in a major game and escapes to play in Italy. I could really do without the play by play descriptions of the games, though I did learn something about the game - it has been just a bunch of guys bashing into each other to me. I admit to total ignorance of one of America's great pastimes.

I did like the Italians and their enthusiasm for the game without expecting any pay, and the support and friendliness they showed to Rick, the down and out quarterback. I enjoyed seeing him regain his confidence. I understood more of my uncle Frank, who married my mother's sister. I now regret that I didn't take the chance to be with him and his Italian friends more. The seemed louder than my family, and I didn't understand their joking style. This book has helped clarify that.

A major part of the Italian culture is food, and Grisham did a good job of describing eating in Italy, which just enforced what Gilbert had said in her book Eat, Pray, Love. As with the architecture, I was wishing for a visual, or actually, a taste of all he mentioned. Again, I got insight into my aunt, who was very food focused. She was a great cook and took care to feed us well, though pasta wasn't usually part of her holiday meals.

Down River by John Hart (2007)

Wasn't a favorite, so I forgot to write down, that I had listened to this book this fall. Adam Chase returns to his home town in North Carolina, which he has left as an acquitted murderer, but returns to a mystery intertwined with family secrets and mis-communication. I must just be tired of reading guy books, as I found the main character unsympathetic, though the tale was intriguing. Publisher's Weekly commented that Down River "should settle once and for all the question of whether thrillers and mysteries can also be literature." So I guess it was well written, on the bestseller list, but not for me.

What do I know, I just found out (May 2008) that this book got the Mystery Writers of America 2008 Edgar Allen Poe Award.

Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee (2007)

Another book I had missed entering into my blog. I believe it was the title that grabbed me - and it refers to the free lunches provided to wealthy at an investment bank. I liked this glimpse into the Korean American culture - the hard working parents putting their bright daughter through Princeton, but she can never find satisfaction, and is obsessed with clothes and accessories, which I just can't relate to. The high pressure business world has always repulsed me, but I understand that it is very attractive to numerous emigrant groups. Latvians went more for doctors and lawyers, though we have our share of business men. It was interesting to read about the Korean church and community - with some similarities to Latvians. Not a great read, but again I learned about one more ethnic group. I found a review on Amazon from a Korean American, who felt that too many negative stereotypes were brought out in the book, but that is the way with writers, the negative aspects of our lives are often more interesting to describe.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (2006)

I had been looking at this book for a while, finally bought it in paperback. Fascinating, it seemed unlike anything I have read, but when I read the "discussion points" in the back, I realized it does have a lot of similarities with classic gothic novels, though I haven't analyzed those since high school. Jane Eyre and other classic books are mentioned and play a part in the story. Didn't I just read Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict? How do Austen (1775-1817) and Bronte (1816-1855) fit together? May need to look that up.

There is a story within the story. Margaret Lea works with her father in an antique book store and is asked to write a biography of Vida Winter, who is a famous author on her deathbed, but has never revealed her own life story. The bulk of the book is Winter's strange story of growing up in a crumbling mansion, raised by the employees as the family was non-existent or mentally unstable. There are ghosts, and twin sisters, faint glimpses of romance. Interestingly, Winter became such a prolific author, because she was escaping her own memories and living in the world of her imagination and her characters. The life story of Winter is interspersed by Margaret's story. She too has a past that is unresolved, but we see her get involved in Winter's story. She goes beyond listening to Winter herself, and checks facts where she can, and goes back to the mansion that burned many years ago to unearth more of it's secrets.

The disturbing family life was exacerbated by my parallel reading. As I was reading this at home, I was listening to Virgin Suicides in the car, which parallels the dysfunctional family keeping children imprisoned in an very unhealthy home environment. Both made me very uncomfortable. There was an interesting statement in The Thirteenth Tale, which I was going to mark, but didn't, about having to wait until you get one book out of your system before starting the next. You feel attached to characters, live with them, and it takes a while to let go of them. By reading two or more books at the same time, I really confuse things, and sometimes mix them up, or as in this case, it intensified my feeling of despair.

I loved that this was again about the book world - Margaret helping her father sell old books gave me a glimpse into the rare book market. I wasn't thrilled that she limited her reading to classics, as there is so much interesting literature coming out today. Margaret had to read Winter's contemporary books before she interviewed the author, so she knew something about her subject. At one point Margaret is given Sherlock Holmes' books to read to lighten her up, though much has been published since Sherlock. Of course Winter is an author, and a lot of the stories happen in the libraries of either the mansion of the past or Winter's current residence.

Final answer? Though depressing at times, still one of the best books I've read this year.

An Orange for Frankie by Patricia Polacco (2004)

I haven't picked up any children's books lately, and with the Christmas season I saw this book from one of my favorite children's book authors and bought it - otherwise my kid book collection is getting stagnant. This is another one of Patricia Polacco's wonderful poignant historical stories about one of her ancestors (lucky she has a huge family). Set in Michigan, the father takes the horse and buggy to Lansing to pick up oranges, while everyone else gets ready for Christmas. They live at a railroad stop, feed the hobos traveling on the train, go to the woods for the tree, and get ready for Christmas in the old fashioned big family way. I have always loved Polocco's stories and her illustrations. She pulls you into the story with her animated characters of all ages. Makes me a bit wistful...