The Things They Carried by Tim Obrien

This is the Reading Together selection for our town this year, which even brought the author to town. Great way of getting accross the feel for the VietNam War.

The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman

This book was recommended by the International Education Council at my university and had been read by our president, so I thought it a good idea to read. I ended up both buying the hardback and listening to it on CDs. This book has created a paradigm shift in my thinking. Friedman brought together a lot of details that I sort of knew and painted a coherent picture of where the world is going. For a while I thought him too capitalistic, too business oriented, but he redeemed himself, as when offering thoughts on the future, he did consider the environment and other issues important to me.

Cordinia's Royal Family: Gabriella & Alexander by Nora Robers

Two of Roberts' books from 1980's reprinted. I still like her, but don't enjoy the early books as much. They mystery plots in both are weak, and this whole prince and princess stuff gets old. I did like the setting in the theatre world in the second book, though I think she would research it in more detail next time. The plays she mentioned were too cliche for me. Europe is aware of American playwriters.

Swan by Frances Mayes

Something about this book didn't work for me. Maybe it was the pacing, maybe listening to the story told from different views without visual cues made it more difficult. I did like the uniqueness of the opening event - a woman is found unearthed from her grave, and we never do find out for sure who did it or why, but the situation brings back her two grown children who have not coped well with her suicide. The sister leaves her archeology site in Italy to come back to Georgia, and her brother is pulled out of a life of fishing and turning away from the world. As the life of the dead woman unfolds, the brother and sister start letting go of the past to be able to commit to life and relationships. The main setting is the deep South - Swan, Georgia, the extreme heat and the pace of life. There are glimpses into Italy and the Palo Alto area. I sometimes felt the descriptions were overdone.
(Finished listening in early March.)

Plays by Susan Glaspell

Motivated to read at least one play by Susan Glaspell from doing library instruction for an English class, I found a 1920 book with eight of Glaspell's plays first performed between 1916 and 1918 in Provincetown, MA. One of the fascinating things about this brittle edition was, that it included the original cast for each play, and I found that Glaspell herself had played in almost all of them and her husband George Crook was in a few. One even included Edna St. Vincent Millay.

I understand why Trifles is the play that is reprinted the most, though I enjoyed almost all of the one act plays. The only one I really didn't care for was the three act Bernice. Bernice has just died and her father, husband, sister in law, friend and maid thrash things out, a bit long windedly and mellodramatically. it works better in the short plays.

In Trifles a woman has shot her husband and the sheriff , attorney and a neighbor have come to investigate, The sheriff's wife and neighbor's wife fome to get some things for the woman in jail. The "official" investigators don't uncover anyuthing, while the women discover the evidence and realize the woman had been abused and decide to keep this evidence from the men. Very interesing for a 1916 play.

The People is about a publication "The People" ready fo fold and various types (artist, firebrand, philosopher) offer suggestions for saving it. But only a woman, touched by the editor's words has the power to move it forward.

Close the Book is a comedy about the class system. Jharsi is the rebel in love with Peyton, but his family is stuck-up, but then someone brings out a book of family histories with some interesting facts - which is the book that they want closed at the end of the play.

The Outside was a bit strange. A woman has moved to an abandoned life-saving station to run away from her past and has hired a soman who speaks only when absolutely necessary. An incident makes them reevaluate their choices.

Woman's Honor is a silly comedy where a man arrested for murder refuses to give an alibi, because he is shielding a woman's honor. a whole line of women show up as the one being shielded.

I really enjoyed another silly comedy - Surpressed Desires, which pokes fun at psychoanalysis, which cames close to destroying a marriage.

Tickless Time, another comedy poking fun at intelletualization, didn't come off as well. One couple tries to give up clocks and watches and relies on a sundial.

The Safe-Keeper's Secret by Sharon Shinn

For some reason I didn't like this one quite as much as the Truth Teller's Tale (one of most recent posts), but I still liked the world in which they lived. Damiana is a safe-keeper, who listens to people's secrets and doesn't pass them on. She gives birth to Fiona, but on the same night Reed is brought to her, supposedly a bastard son of the king. Damiana raises them both. Fiona loves herbs, but expects to be a safe-keeper like her mother. Reed tries out numerous professions, but none seem to fit him. One of my favorite parts of this book is the sense of family that gathers at the main holidays - Wintermoon and Summermoon. This family doesn't consist of many blood relaties, but of friends that support each other. This is the way my holidays have been happening recently. The ending is again too pat, with a happily ever after feeling for all.
(finished reading 2/16/05)

The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer

Read by Scarlett Johansson. It was actually Scarlett's name that caught my attention, and with an abridged version, what did I have to lose. Carrie and her fiance Mike and friends live in Madison Wisconsin, have know each other for years, have done things together for years, but there is some miscontent in her life. She wants something different, but doesn't quite know what that is. When Mike has an accident and becomes paralyzed, she withdraws and has an even harder time figuring out what she wants to be doing. She runs away to New York and meets Kilroy. (I never knew "Kilroy was here" was from WWII.) I remember that feeling of not knowing what I want to do with my life. it was nice to see things starting to clear up for Carrie.
(finished listening 11/15/05)

The Truth-Teller's Tale by Sharon Shinn

A new author to explore! This young adult book was again suggested by Maria, and she says that Shinn has a whole series of great adult books.

I was fascinated by this new mildly magical world created by Shinn. It could be a pre-industrial England with a strong connection to nature and a celebration of winter and summer solstices. Wintermoon is a time for reflection with a large bonfire in which an elaborate wreath is tossed. All present have the chance to tie on something that represents a wish for the future.

In this world we have twin sisters Adele, the safe-keeper and Eleda the truth teller. Opposites, but very close. We see them growing up in this magical world from about 12 to 17, through cycles of celebration, affecting people's lives through their talents, dreaming their dreams. I just ended up feeling wonderful at the end - even if everything did come together too patly.
(Finished reading 2/11/06)

Taliban by Ahmed Rashid

Not the best book to listen to, because it is so full of names, dates and other specific facts, that I think I would absorb better visually, but I just let it flow over me and didn't try to keep track of the details. This was written by a Pakistani journalist pre 9-11, so it is interesting how he speculates about the future. Rashid looks at Afghanistan - historically, economically, and politically. It is a difficult task, as their history has been very convoluted, with many powers fighting for this crossroads. I think Afghanistan might have been left alone, except it was important to many countries for oil pipelines (which, if I understood properly, have never been built) and as a crossroads for transportation of goods in the region. Rashid had chapters on the drug trade, the oil economy, and the countries surrounding Afghanistan and their relations.
It was hard reading about their treatment of women, though the explanation that the Taliban evolved from a war culture, made sense. In war culture there were very few women, so men didn't know how to relate to them. And now they have destroyed the rich social culture of families and communities that women weave together. I ended up being very angry towards the stupidity of the males in the Taliban. Maybe it was best that Rashid didn't get into more detail about the suffering of women, it already upset me. I had fantasies that the rest of the world could bring all the women out of there and let the men just kill each other off, instead of having a constant supply of new boys to use as cannon fodder. I also found myself getting hard-hearted about the humanitarian aid offered. By feeding the people, taking care of their injuries and needs, they took away that responsibility from the Taliban leaders. For them to say "Allah will provide" was just ludicrous. I did learn that the women in the U.S. protesting the treatment in Afghanistan did make a difference.
Another case if no one had given anyone any modern weapons, they might be in a better palce right now, but I don't know how they will ever build a functioning country at this point. I will have to read up how the US is rebuilding Afghanistan, we hear mostly about Iraq these days.
I also want to reread Kite Runner, as I will now understand the setting better.
(Finished listening to 2/7/06)

Rapture in Death by J.D. Robb

My favorite series of books to keep me awake on late night drives, this time to DC and back. As I heard in a radio ad, J.D. Robb is Nora Roberts' dark side and she looks at the dark side of humanity. Lt. Eve Dallas is a homicide cop in the mid 21st century, married to Roarke, one of the richest and most powerful guys on the planet. As he is running his empire, I keep wondering where he finds time to help Eve on all her cases, but whatever... This time it is four seemingly unrelated suicides that die with big smiles on their lips. Eve feels they were nudged. Exciting and psychological, as always.
I can never keep this series of books straight. I have listened to quite a few of them, but I can't differentiate them by title. I think it will help me just to keep track of what is going on with the individuals. This starts off with Eve and Roarke's honeymoon (c. 1996), so it's pretty old. Eve's friend Mavis is with Leonardo and her singing career, AKA screaming with little clothes on, is starting to take off. Peabody is the dutiful sidekick. If I ever do a retro of books I've read, a list of JD Robb's death books would be useful to me. (Finished listening to it 2/5/06)