Thieves of Ostia by Caroline Lawrence

I am again having a hard time finding the right kinds of young adult books for my 12 year old son. I want to try something different, plus we have listened to every book available by his favorite authors. There has to be enough of an interesting story, not too girly or romantic, and I’d like a new setting. This book is a bit simplistic, though there is some gruesome parts to it. This is about a girl living near Rome in 79 A.D. She is a ship captain’s daughter who tries to unravel a mystery with the help of her neighbor, a slave and an orphaned beggar. Again, my personal interest is in the historical setting – the houses, the living conditions, the daily routine (washing in the public baths), the scrolls (instead of books), the classes of people – slaves, freed slaves, born free, Jews and Christians in early Rome, etc. Not as well told as some I’ve read, but OK. I’ll have to listen to the second half again, when my son returns from Latvia.(finished listening to June 12)

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik

This was one of those books I knew nothing about when I picked it up at Borders in Louisville, because it was on sale, but I had a hard time putting it down – kept reading it in the mornings and evenings, not just before going to bed. The thing that holds the women in the book together is a book club – they get together once a month to discuss a book - one the host of the month has suggested. The women are quite different in the beginning of the book – though they live in a good neighborhood of Minneapolis and have or have had husbands earning a decent salary. Faith came from a drunk mother and a father who left when she was born. Merit was the beautiful one that escaped from her family led by a strict minister and married Eric, a doctor who abused her. Audrey was the sexy one who had some wealth of her own. Slip was tiny in size, but very strong physically and mentally. She was the great liberal who fought for all sorts of causes. Kari was older and had lost her husband and had never been able to have children, but loved them. This book takes us through the lives of these women, their families and those around them from 1968 to 1998. They create a supportive family for each other through the book club, as they each go through various crises. I liked the way each time period was depicted – they all smoked and drank, even when pregnant, in the beginning. Their children were a big part of their lives and the novel. Many issues were raised, the anti-war movement, effects of Viet Nam on vets, homosexuality, biracialism, abuse, and much more that is dear to my heart. These were life stories, and not sappy romances (like Nora Roberts ends up pairing people too perfectly.) Some had great partners, some divorced, some stayed single and found happiness anyway. And of course, I loved the book theme. Though the books sometimes don’t even get mentioned in a chapter, each chapter begins with the host, name & author of the book, why it was chosen, or food served with it. I have pulled out the titles as a potential reading list for myself. And I know I will try reading Landvik’s other books. (finished reading this early June)

The books mentioned in Angry Housewives and my comments if I’ve read them:
Hotel by Arthur Hailey – maybe I’ve read this, I’ve forgotten
Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver – read long ago
Middlemarch by George Eliot
On the Road by Jack Kerouac – tried reading in the last few years, but couldn’t get into it
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis – I’ve read Lewis
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion – I’ve read Didion
The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather – I’ve read a few by Cather
Dr. Faustus by Thomas Mann (a banned book)
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe – read in mid-late 1970’s
Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask by Dr. David Reuben – read in high school and hid under my mattress
Fear of Flying by Erica Jong – read
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The Total Woman by Marabel Morgan – I think I tried to read this, I was definitely aware of it
Roots by Alex Haley – saw most of it on TV
The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank by Erma Bombeck – read this and a few of her other books
Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell – sounds so familiar
Terms of Endearment by Larry Mc Murtry – saw the movie
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith – just had to answer a reference question about this the other day
My Home Is Far Away by Dawn Powell
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Matthiessen
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole – read, but can’t say I liked
Out on a Limb by Shirley MacLaine
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler – read last year
West with the Night by Beryl Markham – read
The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Handling Sin by Michael Malone (funny)
The Stand by Stephen King – I’ve read some of King and don’t want to read any more
My Antonia by Willa Cather – read
Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway – read
The Beginning and the End by Naguib Mahfouz
Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset – I have read something of Undset in Latvian
Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler
Eastward Ha! By S.J. Perelman (funny)
Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy
Others mentioned:
Martian Chronicles - read
Age of Innocence
The Drifters by Michner – read a few of his books
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor

The Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith

This is the fifth book of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. I have read two other books in the series, but entered them with no description. I again enjoyed this slow paced, but wonderful book about Botswana. As is quoted from the Seattle Times on the back of the book: “The author’s deceptively simple prose…is as supple as ever. His gift for effortless description of dusty, sun-bake Africa is undiminished.” The main characters:
Mma Precious Ramotswe – a wise middle aged woman, traditionally built, has her own detective agency. In this book she looks into a few beaus of a rich woman who hires her to check if these men are after her or her money. Most of the story is told from her point of view, with a beautiful, traditional view of the world, which has a lot to teach us today.
Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni is engaged to Mma Ramotswe and has his own car repair shop. He is concerned about not having refused to jump out of a plane with a parachute as a fundraising event for an orphan farm he helps. He also notices a fine Rover owned by a butcher has been fixed with cheap replacement parts by another mechanic.
Mma Makutsi is Mms Ramotswe’s assistant and secretary, who graduated from secretarial school with a 97%. She has opened a typing school for men and has a bit of money left over, so in this book she moves to a new living space.
Mma Silvia Potokwane runs the orphan farm and manages to talk people into doing things they did not necessarily intend to do. There is also a great scene where she talks down a bully. (finished reading this 5/30/05)

Vacu ordenis un Livonija (The German Order and Livonia) by Kaspars Klavins

I feel very strange that this is the first Latvian book I have entered in this list. I’ve read things for Latvian school, and some poetry, which I will have to record later. This book was written by a friend, who recently stayed with me during the Medieval Conference at Western Michigan University. This is a thin scholarly volume, with many quotes in German and Latin, extensive notes and a bibliography. Though reading a scholarly work in Latvian was not easy, the topic was of interest to me. Kaspars has read all the ancient Chronicles about Latvia and the Baltics from the 13th and 14th centuries and has looked at the ideology and attitudes of the German Order in Livonia or what today is Latvia and Estonia. He talks of their motivation to be fighting, their level of religiousness, what pagan beliefs they stilled adhered to, and the burning of bodies (contrary to Christian custom of the times), which he explained in more detail at a session of the Medieval Conference. As you can see from my other reading choices, I love historical fiction, and this would be ideal background material for a novel or even series of novels. I am intrigued and would like to tackle reading those Chronicles (in English or Latvian translation, of course) at some point in time. If I was really ambitious, I’d write a young adult novel out of those stories. (completed reading 5/28/05)

The Illuminator by Brenda Rickman Vantrease

I picked up this book at TBW, because it was about an illuminator of medieval manuscripts. The librarian in me loves novels about books, libraries, librarians, and anything to do with books. Having those illuminated texts in our rare book collection helps. Again, there was an engaging story, lives brought together and torn apart, set in 14th century England. We see some historic figures: Bishop Henry Despenser, the “warring bishop,” John Wycliffe (the first to translate the Bible into English), Julian of Norwich (first woman to write in English – I picked up a book of her writings in the library), and John Ball. But again, though engrossed in the story, I liked the description of the historical setting: the nobility vs. clergy vs. peasants/slaves; the way a manor was run in those days; the role of women; the attitudes toward religion including Jews; the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381. Of course I was most intrigued with all that had to do with the manuscripts - translating of the Bible in English – doing in secretly, transcribing it, illustrating it. How Finn encouraged Julian of Norwich to write. Even details about making the ink and colors. This was also a story about an actual five-panel painting rediscovered after 400 years in the Norwich Cathedral. Finn, the illuminator is forced to paint this while in the captivity of Bishop Despenser. The central character in this book seemed to be Kathryn of Blackingham. She has been recently widowed and has two sons coming of age – Alfred takes after his father and goes on to serve the sheriff Sir Guy. Collin, the gentle blonde one plays the lute, comforts his mother, and falls in love with Rose, the illuminator’s daughter. Kathryn is a strong, fair woman, but these are difficult times, though she gets a brief respite in loving Finn.

This is a time when I went to get the physical book from the shelves of the library to check on a few things like the spelling of the town of what I heard as “Norridge.” Turned out to be Norwich, so I could find Julian’s writings. There was also an Author’s Note that was not in the tape version, but the tape had an interview with the author, and it turns out she is a retired school teacher, who loves to write, but this is her first novel since she never had time to complete a whole book. One of her interests is the early history of the church. (finished listening to this 5/26/05)

Maker’s Mark: My Autobiography by Bill Samuels

I picked up this coffee table book in Louisville after I had gone to the Maker’s Mark lounge. It was a different kind of bar – with comfy couches and stuffed chairs for seating, some behind light curtains. They are cigar friendly and the air was filled with the not unpleasant smell of cigar smoke. Maker’s Mark is a local bourbon and they have a whole list of bourbon’s you can try – you can even compare them by ordering “flights” that is smaller shots of three brands at a time. The book is colorful and fun about a family tradition of distilling bourbon and how they make and market the drink now. They have a distinct red wax hand dipped on the cap and neck of the bottle. As an old Jack Daniel’s drinker I found this fascinating and the bartender told me about differences between the different whiskeys. Bourbon is one of them and can only be made in Kentucky because of the water. Not a book I need to keep, so I’ll either have to find someone to gift it to or donate it to the library. (read on 5/15/05)

Master Butcher’s Singing Club by Louise Erdrich

I had been eyeing this book at Talking Book World for a while. Long ago I read her co-authored book Crown of Columbus and in the last few years I listened to Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, about a woman who takes on the role of a priest in an Indian community in Wisconsin or someplace in that part of the country.
This book is about Fidelis, a man who is trained as a master butcher by his father in Germany, but leaves for America sometime after WWI. He lands in Argus, ND, where he ends up starting his own butcher business, brings over his wife and sons, and starts a singing club. Singing clubs in Germany were organized by guilds or professions (strangely enough, historian Kaspars Klavins told me about these guild singing clubs when he came to the Medieval Conference, while I was still listening to the book), but in the US, men of various professions gathered to sing and share songs they knew.
The other main character in the book is Delphine, who comes back to her home town to take care of her alcoholic father, and she is accompanied by Cyprian, a juggler and balancer with whom she had an act together. Though they get along very well, he is gay, and she wants a partner in all aspects. (An interesting glimpse into what it meant to be gay at that time.) Delphine goes to work for Eva, Fidelis’ wife, in the butcher shop. She loves Eva, spends a lot of time with her, helps her with all the chores and the boys, and when Eva gets sick, takes over the household.Enough about the story – I just enjoyed the detailed description Erdrich gives of this time, about the way relationships worked, how the community worked. It was really poignant with the coming of WWII, and Germans in Germany versus Germans who had moved to the US. (finished listening to 5/12/05)

The Calhouns: Suzanna and Megan by Nora Roberts

Fluff reading, but I needed something light. This is the third and fourth book of a series about 3 sisters who lost their parents and were raised by Aunt Coco in a castle built by their great-grandfather. Their great-grandmother Bianca died by falling out of a window and there is a mystery intertwined in all of these books about her difficult life with her husband, her love of a painter that painted on the coast. (This is all on an island in Maine – see previous note on The Calhouns.) There is an emerald necklace involved, which is sought by a nasty thief with skills to disguise himself. The necklace gets found in the third book: Suzanna’s Surrender. The fourth book, Megan’s Mate is about Megan, the sister of Sloan, who also has had a son by rogue ex-husband of Suzanne. The couplings are way too predictable in this series – only one man appears in each woman’s life, they hate them, but of course fall in what appears to be soul-mate love each time, and soon after have babies. All live happily ever after in or around the big castle. But I still like Nora Roberts’ characters and her details. (finished reading 5/10/05)

Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks

This was a hard one to listen to. It is a fictional account of John Brown, as if narrated by one of his sons. I have heard his name in history accounts, have sung the song about him, but didn’t really know who he was. Turns out he was a religious white man who felt a strong compulsion to fight slavery by working on the Underground Railroad and often killing those who were slave owners or supported slavery. In 1859 he led an attack on Harper’s Ferry, VA to steal weapons for the slaves and their supporters to use in an uprising. Most of his men were quickly killed or captured. He was tried and hanged. By the end of the book I appreciated this insight on a piece of history, but it was hard to swallow, as the book was quite graphic in its violence. And I find I have a hard time with zealots, especially religious zealots who will break all sorts of laws and commandments to attain their goals. Even Frederick Douglas cautioned John Brown and did not support his plan for Harper’s Ferry. If I were to take this further, I would read some of the books on the black take on John Brown, as it seems that his actions did help nudge the country into the Civil War and the abolition of slavery. From the titles of books in the library, John Brown was a hero to the blacks. (finished listening to late April, May, 2005)

True Betrayals by Nora Roberts

Not my favorite book of hers, though it did grow on me. Setting – horse farms and horse racing with the Triple Crown at stake. Kelsey thought her mother died when she was little, but it turns out she had killed a man in self defense, and had gone to prison for 10 years. They reconnect on her mother’s horse farm. Her love interest is Gabe, who won his horse farm in a card game, and is trying to make an honest go at raising horses. This turns into a pretty convoluted murder mystery, but with Roberts’ eye for detail I learned about one more world I knew nothing about. (finished listening to in April, 2005)