Bookaroo

The Rook

2012-02-07T18:59:00.000-08:00

She used to be Myvanwy Thomas, Rook of the Checquy, the super-secret agency that harnesses and manages those who have special abilities. Now her memory has been permanently erased, and she can only go by the letter in her pocket that begins: Dear You, The body you are wearing used to be mine... As she resumes the identity of Myvanwy, she rebuilds herself and forges alliances, never forgetting that whoever did this to her is still out there.

Tremendous fun, and a great first novel by Daniel O'Malley. Men in Black meets the X-Men, with a dollop of The Bourne Identity and a twist of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I look forward to the sequel.

A Jane Austen Education

2011-11-13T21:15:00.000-08:00

How six novels taught me about love, friendship, and the things that really matter.

The title is telling, but I was deceived by the playful jacket illustration. I believed I was going to read a trendy life-according-to-Jane-Austen confection, more sugar and air than substance. Instead, A Jane Austen Education allowed me to eavesdrop on a college course intended for English Lit majors.

William Deresiewicz was an English professor at Yale until recently, and his literary criticism cred shows. Each novel is treated carefully as a jewel: the critical overview of the story is interwoven with events from Jane Austen's life, and the meaning Deresiewicz took and applied to his own life. Each novel is credited with teaching him an essential life lesson, helping him mature from an angry young man to an adult who says, at the end, "Reader, I married her."

If an abbreviated course on the novels of Jane Austen sounds appealing, this is the book for you. I could see myself, in the right mood, reading this again.

The Night Circus

2011-11-03T12:07:00.001-07:00

I struggle with this sort of book, because usually they are disappointing. But Erin Morgenstern wove an exceptional tapestry of magic, character, and mystery as she unfolds the story of The Night Circus. The main characters, Celia and Marco, have been magically bound by dueling enchanters to a game that centers

on Le Cirque des Reves. Only gradually do they see how complicated the game has become, and what the stakes mean to them and to those they love.

How did I like it? Like the story itself, my opinion of it gradually unfolded.

On page 10, when Prospero swore, I had half a mind to stop reading, because books filled with swearing annoy me. On page 28, when Celia tries to heal her sliced fingers, I had 3/4 of a mind to stop reading, because books filled with pain and abuse hurt me. But Morgenstern's storytelling had already captivated me, and I persevered with the quarter-mind I had left. And before long, I was, like so many of the characters, enchanted.

Not-as-bad-as-they-might-be things:
The Night Circus is not filled with swearing. There is the one afore-mentioned f-bomb.
The overt pain and abuse end quickly, and...are like the brutality in fairy tales, demonstrative of villainy but not the stuff of monstrous nightmares and broken lives.
The single semi-explicit scene is short and near the end. But you can easily skip it altogether and not miss a thing. You can see it coming on page 295, and it ends on the next page, at the asterisk. Do read the part after the asterisk; there are plot points there.

Good things:
A plot that unfolds richly, beautifully, and subtly, much like Le Cirque des Reves. Characters that are likeable (mostly), multi-dimensional, and compelling. The imagery is stunning, with mesmerizing images that linger--a cauldron burning with white fire, spell-binding rings, red scarves, and an entrancing clock.

If this sounds like something you will like, read it. Because you will.

Shelf Life

2011-06-08T20:10:00.000-07:00

Romance, mystery, drama, and other page-turning adventures from a year in a bookstore

I started reading this once, lost interest, forgot about it, and tried again several months later. This is a note to self: even though the concept sounds interesting or intriguing, this book will grate on your eyes because of the voice that just likes to hear itself go on and on. Remember this and do not try again.

Note to everyone else: this may not apply to you. You might really like Suzanne Strempek Shea's voice. She wrote six other books that were published before Shelf Life, so somebody likes her voice. Suzanne worked in a bookstore as a way to get outside of herself after spending a year battling breast cancer, ending in remission. I don't know what happens after that.

Good luck.

Lisa and Lottie

2011-06-07T09:58:00.000-07:00

I sought out this book because it is the book upon which The Parent Trap is based. The copy I read, unearthed from the archives of a county library, was published in 1969, a translation by Cyrus Brooks from the original by Erich Kastner.

This juvenile book is short and sweet, less dramatic than the movies, and so a more realistic fantasy. Lisa is bubbly and a bit unruly, who lives with her father, a successful composer and conductor, in Vienna. Serious and domestically talented Lottie lives in Munich with her mother, an overworked editor. When they meet at summer camp, they discover their relationship and switch places per the movies, but what comes next is a little different, but still very satisfying. There is a certain European quality that I cannot quantify, but that I have perceived in certain movies such as Mostly Martha, the German movie that begat the American film No Reservations.

Caution: kids who are not accustomed to reading older novels may find Kastner's style off-putting. You have to know your child. I found it charming, and not least because of the delightful illustrations by Victoria de Larrea.

Dinner is Served

2011-06-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

An English Butler's Guide to the Art of the Table

Arthur Inch retired after 50 years of "private service," meaning he worked as a traditional servant in a wealthy British household, culminating in the august position of butler, which he held for decades. Now he consults with people who want to know how it once was, such as the producers of Gosford Park. Inch wrote this book to be a how-to for those who want to give a formal dinner party without embarrassing themselves, but the how-to is liberally interspersed with stories of how it was--what a pain Winston Churchill was, and what a groom of chambers did, back in the day when such a position existed outside of royal households.

As a companion piece for The House: Living at Chatsworth, this would be a complete resource for those who wish to explore the English Great House in its 20th century heyday. But naturally it works very well as a stand-alone.

The House: Living at Chatsworth

2011-06-07T09:33:00.000-07:00

or Chatsworth: The House

The book I read is The House: Living at Chatsworth by the Duchess of Devonshire. This book was revised in 2002, and published as Chatsworth: The House, by the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire. Of course, the authors are the same; the former Deborah Mitford (one of the famous Mitford sisters) was the Duchess of Devonshire in the 1980s when she wrote the book originally. By the time the book was rereleased, her husband had died, leaving their son to be the Duke, his wife to be the duchess, and Deborah to be the Dowager Duchess.

I dearly love a book that is a slice of life not my own. The Duchess's engaging style illuminates the world of Chatsworth, one of the Great Houses of England. Chatsworth has avoided becoming part of the National Trust, and has made itself a travel destination, with tours, a shop, restaurants and accommodations. She covers the house in magnificent detail, which makes the book worthwhile by itself, but her irrepressible personality makes it real, not just a house, but a house inhabited by a duchess, with delightful anecdotes, such as the one about trying to buy a picture at auction, being outbid, and so framing the catalog picture and hanging it on her wall so she could enjoy it every day.

I cannot say how the updated version is. But it's worth checking into. And I will.

The House in Good Taste

2011-06-07T09:15:00.000-07:00

I have tried to read this interior design classic by Elsie de Wolfe twice. Despite her enormous influence on the way we Americans decorate our homes even today, I find this reprinted compilation of her articles to be tedious.

Perhaps it is because she speaks of things that have nothing to do with my life. The placement of the piano and the writing desk, the blessings of chintz. Wonderful as an abstract, but my piano has to go where it is, and a writing desk? In the drawing room? I don't think drawing rooms are legal on the West coast. And my husband is irrevocably opposed to chintz.

But if you are a fledgling interior designer, interested in the underpinnings of today's fashions, this volume could be of interest to you. But, note to self, not to me.

The Meaning of Sunglasses

2011-06-07T07:24:00.001-07:00

And a guide to almost all things fashionable

First, a little background.

Books seek me out. They fill my bookshelves, and bundle themselves into boxes and stacks. Books-to-read accumulate in lists on my computer and on my iPhone, in laborious hand-written notes and scrawled post-its that litter my desktop. In a desperate attempt to organize them, I have created pages of potential reads, organized by library. I carry three library cards, and am negotiating with the holder of a fourth for borrowing rights.

Imagine my shock when one of my libraries announced that, as of July 1, all out-of-area card holders would be charged $80 a year. I am not going to spend $80 a year for a library card.

So I pulled out my list of books available at that library and went to work. After culling and tweaking, I narrowed the list to 25ish books to request from outlying branches, intending to read them before the deadline.

I cannot possibly read 25+ books in six weeks on top of my other responsibilities. The sad truth is that most of these books will be tossed aside after a brief once-over. Some are trivial, outdated, overly academic, or tediously formulaic. Some reflect former interests. I expected to actually read 2 or 3 of the whole list.

So you will understand when I say that this book, The Meaning of Sunglasses, is the one that claimed the most time, that I nibbled from cover to cover, savoring each part. Over time I have read many beauty and fashion books, hoping for something special, accumulating a sparse few over the years. This is one of the best. Hadley Freeman, the author, writes for British Vogue, and she clearly has writing skills on top of fashion credibility. The book consists of essays on fashion topics, organized alphabetically. Thus, Accessories: going to hell in a handbag, to Yoga, detoxes, and other euphemisms for exercise and diets.

Not that I agree with her unilaterally. Her polemic against fur is understandable, if a bit harsh, but against jewelry? Sorry, dear. I cannot recall all the little areas of disagreement, but I like her voice so much, I look over these blips and keep reading.

Just look at this, the last sentence in the essay about boots, which ends with a caution against certain types of boots: And as for pirate boots, my rising wave of despair somewhat swamps the necessary flame of outrage, leaving only mute distress.

Maybe this isn't your thing, but it is certainly mine, and I need that. No, not pirate boots. The Meaning of Sunglasses, by Hadley Freeman.

Homer and Langley

2009-09-04T15:04:00.000-07:00

E. L. Doctorow has written one of my all-time favorite short stories, and I have always found the Collyer brothers intriguing, so I eagerly immersed myself into his newly-released novel, which is based very loosely on their history. Homer and Langley Collyer were famous for barricading themselves in their New York mansion in the early 20th century, filling it with hoarded miscellany, and dying--one under a collapsed heap of trash, the other, crippled and unable to care for himself, shortly thereafter of starvation.

But I found I could not finish the book. While Doctorow has a wonderful voice and storytelling skills, I found that knowing how it all ended made it incredibly depressing. Sometimes we really don't want to know that they don't live happily ever after. Also, sexual relationships are described in some detail. But with those caveats, you could enjoy a well-written story that I, alas, could not.

The Probable Future

2009-09-04T14:43:00.001-07:00

Alice Hoffman has made a name for herself with such novels as Practical Magic, but I have not read her before this. The Probable Future touches on the lives of the Sparrow women, residents of Unity for generations, and definitely different. Each receives a gift on her thirteenth birthday: Elinor is able to smell a lie, her daughter Jenny dreams other people's dreams, and Jenny's daughter Stella can look at a person and see how they will die. Stella's inexperience in dealing with her gift results in her father being jailed for murder, and sets in motion a series of events that transform the Sparrow women and those who love them.

Alice Hoffman writes beautiful and compelling prose. Her characters are distinctive and, for the most part, sympathetic. "Magical" comes to mind--not just the peculiar gifts held by the Sparrow women, but Alice's entrancing voice and spellbinding narrative make this novel one I can highly recommend. The Probable Future is certainly an adult novel, although a mature teen could well enjoy it. I rate it no more than PG, since it eschews sensuality or graphic details.

Making Peace with the Things in Your Life

2009-05-06T09:55:00.000-07:00

Why your papers, books, clothes, and other possessions keep overwhelming you--and what to do about it.

Cindy Glovinsky is a licensed psychotherapist and personan organizer, so her take on getting your things in order has a different take: first, get inside your head and see why you have this problem. The advantage with this approach is two-fold: (1) by accounting for the individual hard-wiring of our brains, we can find strategies to work around any specific brain glitches, and (2) we can recognize that clutter is not a sin, merely a problem to be solved. I was relieved to find that I am not as dysfunctional at decluttering as I thought.

I read most of this weeks ago, so not all my memories are crystal clear. But I kept this book around so I could execute some of the strategies in the back, which indicates that there is more to this book than just a high-level discussion--there are exercises and solutions. Worth rereading if circumstances warrant.

A Dedicated Follower of Fashion

2009-03-07T12:13:00.000-08:00

Holly Brubach knows fashion and writing, and this collection of her essays and articles proves it. After two or three pieces, though, a bolt from the blue clarified a few points for me.

First, this book is now ten years old, and many of the pieces are much older than that. So the insights on fashion will be long-term and philosophical, rather than commentary on current trends. Caveat Emptor.

Second, midway through the third piece I realized I had read this before. This piece, this book. How did I not realize this sooner? Clearly the book did not hold its place in my mind.

So I cannot recommend it, except for the good writing, and clear insights on fashions that are no longer relevant.

Full Dark House

2009-02-09T16:29:00.003-08:00

Christopher Fowler launches his Bryant & May mystery series with an explosion that destroys the headquarters of the Peculiar Crimes Unit in London, along with Arthur Bryant, the elderly and eccentric detective that spent most of his waking hours there. John May, his colleague of many years, determines to discover the perpetrator of this outrage, following clues that force him to revisit the first case they solved together. So we follow two storylines--Bryant and May as fresh-faced novices exploring a string of theatrical murders during the London Blitz, and the modern-day May, painstakingly reconstructing the circumstances of the loss of his long-time partner in crime-solving.

Good things: Excellent characterizations, writing, and story line. Fowler skillfully manages the jumps between time periods without signposts--an impressive feat. And his development of the story is equally impressive--he neither clumsily tips his hand nor springs his surprises out of thin air, but smoothly brings you to the satisfying and clever resolutions of the parallel story lines.

Bad things: The crudeness of some of the conversations is not to my taste. Also...(trying to avoid a spoiler here, but not succeeding entirely)...the nature of the murders suggested a cruel, even sadistic, mastermind, yet the unmasked villains are portrayed as pitiable, even pathetic.

I'm still trying to decide if I will continue with the series. But if crudeness is not an issue for you, you could do much much worse.

Burn Unit

2008-09-12T20:56:00.000-07:00

Saving lives after the flames

Did I give up reading in the last year? Not really. I have been preoccupied with moving and convalescence, and reading helps restore balance to my universe. This book is a prime example.

When my nephew and his wife, Christian and Stephanie Nielson, were badly burned in a plane crash in August, in the midst of tears and prayers, I found myself with far more questions than answers. Up to this point, I have known no one who was a major burn victim. And somehow I couldn't see pestering all the loved ones on the front line with my gazillions of questions, when they had far greater demands on their time and thoughts and hearts.

So I reverted to habit and sought out books on the topic. Burn Unit was by far the most readable and helpful of all the books I read. Barbara Ravage takes the reader into the burn unit of a major medical center/teaching hospital, and shows us the devastation wrought by burns on not only the affected area, but the whole body, the whole person, and the whole family.

Besides a unflinching stare at the physiological process of burn damage and healing, we see the committed personnel who work in a burn unit, the procedures, such as debridement and skin grafts, that are peculiar to burn treatment, and follow two victims through the entire process. Add a comprehensive history of burn treatment, and the last question I have is: how did she make it so compelling?

I don't know, but I am grateful. This is the book to read on major burns.

Beatrix Potter's Nursery Rhyme Book

2007-11-24T08:43:00.000-08:00

I have found a new respect for Beatrix Potter, who seems to be currently in vogue, what with a movie, a mystery series featuring her as the sleuth, and a biography emerging in the last few years. Part of my appreciation is surely tied to my rediscovery of all things child-related (even a new blog addiction), but the greater part is learning that not only did Miss Potter write her own charming stories and illustrate them with meticulous precision and adorable whimsy, but she did formidable work as an amateur botanist/mycologist, developed tie-in merchandise for the children who clamored for her books, and successfully farmed in the Lake District.

This nursery rhyme book is an attractive pastiche of classic nursery rhymes, her adaptations of nursery rhymes, and her own original poems, accompanied with her characteristic art. For those among us (for I am surely of this number) who cannot resist a good nursery rhyme book, Beatrix Potter's Nursery Rhyme Book is well worth acquiring.

Deluxe

2007-11-10T07:41:00.000-08:00

How Luxury Lost its Luster

The Vuitton luggage, the Chanel bag, the Dior dress--all come from a tradition of luxury and exclusiveness. That tradition has evolved into a powerhouse industry that has changed luxury to a commodity that anyone can possess. Dana Thomas documents that evolution in Deluxe, which will change the way you see this season's Prada bag.

Thomas begins by noting the beginnings of luxury, the foundation of the great luxury product houses, and their corporatization, if you will, in recent decades. There are chapters on marketing through Hollywood celebrities, scent and its profitability, handbags, designer clothing, mass production and marketing, and the enormous problem of counterfeiting.

There is, however, a final chapter on The New Luxury. Because when luxury gets democratized, the elite consumers--those who have always patronized luxury--will find someone to provide something truly exclusive. So if luxury is your passion or your profession, you need to read this.

Classics for Pleasure

2007-11-09T10:23:00.000-08:00

Michael Dirda is not only a Pulitzer-Prize-winning literary critic, but is becoming my personal guru for book recommendations. Not that he is aware of this, of course. But I have a special place in my heart for a (a) literary (b) man who can, in print, refer to Georgette Heyer as "as witty as any writer of the past century, as accomplished as P. G. Wodehouse in working out complex plots, and as accurate as a professional historian in getting her background details right." Dirda is not only discerning, but an original thinker and brave.

This quote was lifted from his most recent book, Classics For Pleasure, which posits the premise that one can read classics for entertainment rather than drudgery or course requirements. His list focuses on the less obvious because, as he points out in his introduction, "Who will argue against the merits of Shakespeare's plays or Dickens's novels? It seemed more useful--and fun--to point readers to new authors and less obvious classics."

These classics are grouped by genre: "playful imaginations," heroes, romance, "everyday magic," horror, adventure, and more. Thanks to Dirda's persuasive arguments, Ivy Compton-Burnett is high on my reading stack, and I am even pondering Beowulf, debating the merits of translators--entertaining Seamus Heaney or precise Michael Alexander? Perhaps even Frankenstein or Dracula, though horror is not my genre of choice. But certainly G. K. Chesterton, S. J. Perelman, and Max Beerbohm.

And I can revisit Georgette Heyer with my head held high. Thank you, Michael Dirda.

Into the Minds of Babes

2007-11-06T20:33:00.000-08:00

How Screen Time Affects Children from Birth to Age Five

One of the peculiarities of becoming a grandparent (pardon me while I mist up again) is the sudden revival of interest in issues relating to infants. Hence the phenomenon in which I read this book with genuine interest.

Lisa Guernsey is a mother, but also a writer specializing in science and technology, which helps her decipher all those intensely technical papers. The happy result is Into the Minds of Babes, in which we learn how watching television affects the preschool set, according to scientific studies instead of advertising hype. It is remarkably readable considering all the research she cites, which adds credibility for the research savvy and reassurance for the rest of us.

The book is organized into questions, one per chapter, such as: What Exactly Is This Video Doing To My Baby's Brain? and Will Screen Time Make My Children Fat?, while other questions address such topics as education, white noise, scary TV, interactive media, foreign language, vocabulary, social skills, and making intelligent choices. The coverage is comprehensive, the findings in turn surprising, reassuring, and (occasionally) ominous.

This book is a must-read if you've got a tot you love dearly, and a television.

First Among Sequels

2007-08-23T06:18:00.000-07:00

I gave myself a breather between this one and Something Rotten, and a good thing I did. I found this one a lot more readable. Thursday is employed by Acme Carpets, which is a front for her Spec Ops group (Spike, Stig, et al), which is a front for her Jurisfiction activities. As Thursday tries to work with assorted versions of herself, she tackles issues of falling Outworld readership, Goliath Corporation's upcoming Austen Rover, and her dead Uncle Mycroft, who has been making ghostly appearances. Meanwhile, she tries to pretend she's laying carpet everyday to her husband, writer Landen, and her children--truculent Friday, who is resisting his Chronoguard future; brilliant Tuesday, who considers her seminars with the world's greatest mathematicians to be tedious tutoring sessions with slackers; and elusive Jenny, who never seems to make it to the dinner table.

Maybe you just have to be in the mindset. I found this a lot more readable than the last one. I'm not so thrilled about the ending. All but one storyline tied up nicely, but that last one--! "To be continued" is one of my least favorite endings. What if the intelligent Mr. Fforde dies in a car accident? How will we know what happens to--oh, never mind.

But I liked it.

Something Rotten

2007-08-16T19:04:00.001-07:00

Jasper Fforde launched a memorable and quirky series when he wrote The Eyre Affair, starring Thursday Next, a Literary Detective who saves Jane Eyre from a kidnapper, and introduces a peculiar world in which the lines between reality and fiction are blurred if not invisible. Thursday's adventures continued with Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten, and most recently, First Among Sequels.

I was psyched to read the newest, but thought I'd better refresh my memory of where we last saw Our Heroine, so I reread Something Rotten, and it's a good thing I did. I had completely forgotten how it all went, so I'm reviewing this book instead of First Among Sequels.

In this, the fourth of the series, Thursday Next is coming out of the book world, where she has been in charge of Jurisfiction (the organization that polices fiction from within) to renew her search for her husband Landen Parke-Laine, who has been eradicated, and to make sure her son Friday, age 2, knows how to live in the real world. Her adventures feature an assassin called the Windowmaker, a disturbingly infallible monk named St. Zvlkx, and an apocalyptic professional croquet match, as well as coworkers such as Bowden Cable, Victor Analogy, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, and Emperor Zhark, and the enemy du jour Yorrick Kaine.

Good things: The plot advances more than I remember. Certain questions about Landen, Friday, and Granny Next are neatly resolved, and it becomes clear that, the Chronoguards being the time travelers that they are, just because a character dies doesn't mean they actually leave the series. Thursday's father died in an earlier book, but hey, that's in a far distant future, and he's free to keep wandering in and out of this timeline for the rest of our natural lives. Fforde's world has an endearing charm that has carried it this far, and his ingenious working of literary references into action/adventure can be beguiling.

Bad things: I would like to say that Fforde is in ffine fforme (there, I said it), but I don't really mean it. I loved the first book, but each subsequent book adds to the insanity. In Something Rotten, reality slips away completely from time to time, like Alice going Through The Looking Glass--from the starting point of Wonderland--after having had one too many tokes from the hookah--and it's hard to keep the story line(s) straight. Like, were the Neanderthals playing croquet just for Thursday, or did it have something to do with the Shakespeare clones in Area 21? In addition, Fforde's wry commentary on government and bureaucracy brings the story to a standstill at times. I thought for while that I would just have to close the book and walk away before my brain exploded, but I managed to hold things together until the end, at which I was relieved to find all the story lines tied up into a nice tidy package, without a loose end in sight. But I'm still going to wait a while, until my head recovers, before I read First Among Sequels.

So, my recommendation? If the idea intrigues you, read The Eyre Affair. With suitable intervals between, continue the series until you get tired of it.

Or until your head explodes.

The Sunday Philosophy Club

2007-08-09T18:06:00.000-07:00

Alexander McCall Smith is best known for his No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, of which I am a fan. He has another series featuring Isabel Dalhousie, a cultured and wealthy Scottish lady (and I use the term advisedly), which sounds far more like my usual preference than a genial African woman. So I began the first book in the Dalhousie series, The Sunday Philosophy Club, with great anticipation.

Alas, my hopes foundered. It started off well enough; Isabel sees a man fall past her, from the top level of the concert hall to his death on the lowest level. Stricken, she cannot leave it alone, and soon discovered that he had an excellent head for heights, a happy and forward-looking disposition, and a reason to fear for his safety. Isabel reluctantly decides she has a moral obligation to solve the mystery of his death.

With such a promising start, it wasn't until about halfway through the book that I realized I was getting bored to death. Isabel's penchant for philosophy results in an unfortunate tendency to ramble on about all manner of moral dilemmas or other philosophical ephemera. Sometimes this actually propels her to action, but not enough action to justify following her constant existential posturing.

And another thing: there were far too many dead ends in the first half of the book. The police inspector, sporting a navy windbreaker and a forbidding expression, promised to be an excellent competitor or co-conspirator for the amateur Isabel, but his cameo was too brief. Likewise, the smarmy journalist threatened to create a world of trouble for our hapless heroine, but--he didn't. Instead, we become acquainted with Isabel's niece Cat, Cat's boyfriend Toby, Cat's ex Jamie, and Grace the maid. And Hen and Neil, who were the deceased's roommates. None of them are particularly interesting, and nothing much happened before I finally gave up and read the end. Which was quite a let-down, in keeping with the first half of the book.

So I give McCall Smith points for consistency, but that's it. I cannot recommend The Sunday Philosophy Club. Just writing about it makes me sleepy.

A Play of Dux Moraud AND A Play of Knaves

2007-08-09T17:32:00.001-07:00

These are two books, part of a series by Margaret Frazer about the player Joliffe and the acting troupe to which he belongs, and how they go about solving murders in medieval England. (This troupe of players is introduced in Frazer's other series, the Dame Frevisse books) Dux Moraud is the second in the series, and Knaves the third, and I read them back-to-back. I quite liked the first book in the series, A Play of Isaac, so I was ready for more. And I like the series, on the whole, but with some few reservations.

Good things: the characterizations are good to a point, the milieu convincing, the stories interesting. Each story is based on a play performed by the troop, which seems to have some historical justification.

Not-as-good things: Dux Moraud turns out to have a lot of incestuous overtones, which I don't much care for. Sir Edmund and his family don't work for me. After laboriously pointing out that Sir Edmund's character will be reflected in the attitudes of his household and community, we find a normal community and household presided over by a cold man and his cold wife, a child that could be psychopathic and a child who is normal. Normal child seems to fit in with the gang, but Dad, Mom and Other Child definitely inhabit their own weird world. And Knaves has its own set of crazy people. How is it that all these mentally ill people are in positions of authority, meaning they're not outcasts or homeless or even unsuccessful?

Having said all this, I will probably read the next Joliffe book, which came out this week, entitled A Play of Lords. But if you're interested in medieval mysteries, I would recommend the Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2007-07-25T20:32:00.000-07:00

If you are a fan of the Harry Potter series, as I am, you will either have read the book already and be anxious to discuss it, or will not have, and will be plugging your ears and singing "La La La, I can't hear you" at the top of your voice. So, no spoilers.

I find this book to be a satisfactory conclusion to a delightful tale. Ms. Rowling has rounded out the story of Harry, Ron, Hermione, et al, thoroughly and with style. Some joy, some heartache, and no looming question marks to spark ire and outrage in the fan base. Although, considering the size and fervor of the fan base, I'm certain there are ephemeral questions that, like the Crumple-Horned Snorkack, will never quite go away despite their irrelevance.

In the next year or so, I will undoubtedly read the whole series again, so I can appreciate the foreshadowing. Meanwhile, enjoy, enjoy, and hope that Ms. Rowling will eventually feel a desire to pick up where she left off.

Brown's Guide to the Good Life

2007-07-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

without tears, fears, or boredom

David Brown, besides being 89, is a successful Hollywood producer and married for 39 years to Helen Gurley Brown, who is far more famous than he, having written Sex and the Single Girl, and was editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine for years. I expected, therefore, a warped POV from a man so nearly connected to Hollywood and to the sexual revolution of the 1960s, and was surprised to discover how often I found his perspective perceptive and valuable. For example, the sexual revolution never made it inside his front door, at his wife's insistence.

Fine, but what about the book? Mr. Brown is a top-notch raconteur, with a delightful writing style, and his book is short, comprised of 27 tiny chapters filled with excellent advice on such topics as money management, gentlemanly manners, success and failure, and avoiding the crazy people. You may find that some of it is a bit frank, as in "Chapter 10: Sex, Love, and Marriage--the Potency Myth," his language is uncensored but only occasionally, and of course you will not agree with all of his opinions. But I found it worthwhile, and since the chapters are stand-alone, you could go straight from "Chapter 9: Hollywood, Under the Tinsel" to "Chapter 11: Stress-Makers" without missing a beat.

So yes, I can recommend this, with the above mentioned caveats on frankness and language. Let me know if you learn something from the genial Mr. Brown.

Dispatches From the Edge

2007-07-16T23:13:00.001-07:00

A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival

I have always thought of Anderson Cooper as a thoughtful-looking self-contained news guy, and expected this book to be a fair amount of self-promotional blather interspersed with a few biographical details. Instead, I found that Anderson Cooper, in addition to being a t-l s-c news guy, writes like one. This memoir is thoughtful, self-contained, filled with news-that-was, and surprisingly well written. (My expectations are seldom high.)

The wars are comprehensive--Bosnia, Somalia, Niger, Iraq. The disasters are earth-shattering news--Sri Lanka after the tsunami, Rwanda at the beginning of the starvation, Hurricane Katrina--and life-shattering personal tragedies--the death of his father when he was ten, and the harrowing suicide of his only brother while he was at college. The survival is his own, both personally and professionally.

Stories of his childhood and personal life are interspersed with behind-the-scenes reviews of the headline news he covered, from his first post-college foray into Thailand as a freelancer to his four-week CNN coverage of Hurricane Katrina damage from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. Cooper's knack of stringing these seemingly-disparate stories into a cohesive whole is a testament to his intelligence and skill. Add to that his ability to completely sidestep any personal life he might have had since 1991, and his skills ratchet up even higher. (You think I exaggerate? Careful reading reveals the existence of a dog, friends, and a phone call to his mother.)

So, if you think you could like this, read it. You will.

Her Royal Spyness

2007-07-13T20:38:00.001-07:00

Rhys Bowen, who has already achieved a certain notoriety because of Evan Evans, a Welsh policeman, and Molly Murphy, an Irish immigrant, launches a new series and a new heroine with Her Royal Spyness. The lady in question is a lady indeed--Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, thirty-fourth in line for the British throne. Georgie, as she is called by her intimates, has a position to uphold, but no income upon which to uphold it. Her family offers the unappetizing options of unpaid governess for her step-nephew, or marriage to an unattractive sprig of European royalty, so Georgie bolts to London to find her fortune. And does she? She finds old friends (Beatrice, Whiffy, and Tristram) and relations (her mum and her granddad), attractive new acquaintances--and a body in a bathtub. Oh, and a special assignment from Her Majesty...

This new series has a certain cachet--a whiff of England-between-the-Wars that has a peculiar charm--and Georgie is a delightful new character. I would rate this book PG for a irritating fixation on virginity, or lack thereof, but can still recommend for an afternoon's entertainment.

Funny in Farsi

2007-06-30T10:23:00.000-07:00

A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America

I am not one much for middle grounds. Either I am among the first to read the new new book, or among the last, long after the buzz has moved on to a far distant land. And so it is that Funny in Farsi, published in 2003, has come to the top of my reading list. Firoozeh Dumas (she is married to a Frenchman) describes how her family came from the warm extended family network in Iran to the delights of California. Her affectionate ribbing of her family's maladjustment to American culture brings to mind My Big Fat Greek Wedding, only with Persian instead of Greek sensibilities.

I admit that I put off reading this for a long time because I have an innate distrust of best-selling memoirs; they tend to be dishonest, dysfunctional, or heavily populated with familial sex offenders. Fortunately, this one is the exception. The humor is charming, and the dysfunctionality is all in the culture clash, with nary a felon in sight. I can recommend this to anyone, and suggest locating a reprint with "a new final chapter," so you can get the epilogue.

The Extra Large Medium

2007-06-20T16:38:00.001-07:00

Helen Slavin tells the story of Annie Colville, who has been talking with dead people since her earliest childhood, and can only distinguish them from the living by their chocolate brown wardrobes. Despite her expanded acquaintance, Annie is very much alone, and struggles to deal with first her promiscuous mother and then Evan Bees, who disappeared one day, as she wrestles with the problem of the restless hoards who come to her with unfinished business, such as the Crown Derby china, who's going to let out the cat, and where the shed keys are. Oh, and the Extra Large Medium is her great-great-something grandfather, who cashed in spectacularly on his apparently hereditary gift. Although he wasn't extra-large either.

I have mixed emotions about The Extra Large Medium.

Good things: well written, pleasant voice that moves the story along nicely without bogging down the plot with detritus. Interesting characters, interesting device of plugging in bits of commentary from other characters, some of whom are introduced long after they begin commenting. Satisfactory conclusion, with some startling developments but which were foreshadowed after all.

Bad things: altogether too much crudeness at the beginning, centering around Annie's mother's promiscuity, which is to say, the bedroom door is pretty much left ajar, and swings wide open once. Fortunately, this tawdry story line fades away Annie grows up, along with one chocolate-brown dressed character with an incredibly foul mouth. Then, too, there is a disconcerting tendency for people to drift into homelessness--and I cannot say more without spoiling the plot--but to me that's a somewhat abnormal reaction to the vicissitudes of life. And Annie has a tendency to set off on quests and then abandon them, not because she's achieved any sort of resolution, even in her mind--she just starts doing something else. Is this a part of the character development, or is Ms. Slavin a sloppy constructionist? And, in reference to the Startling Developments (which I will not divulge here), my discerning son points out--what are the odds?

So...I can recommend this with a pair of rather large "if"s: (1) IF you don't mind the supernatural premise, and (2) IF you can look past the crudeness, you could enjoy this unusual story.

It's All Too Much

2007-06-15T20:44:00.001-07:00

An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff

If you are a fan of TLC's Clean Sweep, you may be familiar with Peter Walsh, who authors this book on decluttering. I have read innumerable books on decluttering, and this one includes the time-honored strategies for getting rid of the excess. But there is an important variation here. Walsh requires you to Imagine the Life you want to Live, and then tailor your living space to make that possible. There is, for example, no point in keeping rooms full of needlepoint supplies if needlepoint has no place in the life you want to live.

Having just endured a forced implementation of the principles (six weeks ago we moved into a smaller place), I can vouch for the soundness of Walsh's advice. If you need an impetus to start a necessary decluttering, this could be it. Dig in.

The Culture Code

2007-06-15T19:54:00.000-07:00

An ingenious way to understand why people around the world live and buy as they do

This intriguing book by Clotaire Rapaille posits an interesting premise; that very often we prefer or purchase things for reasons not apparent to our rational minds. OK, actually we all kind of know that, but his analysis and findings are revealing. His background as a psychoanalyst in Paris working with autistic children turned out to be a goldmine when he developed a clientele of Fortune 500 companies. His skills were ideal for getting past the answers from the conscious mind ("alibis", which also matter) so often garnered in market research, and delving into what he calls "the reptilian mind," where the earliest experiences are recorded, as well as the emotions attached to them. Rapaille considers these emotions to be of prime importance, because the emotions determine our preferences, even for such mundane items as cars and coffee.

His means of getting to the reptilian mind is painstaking. First, an hour of playing space alien, getting his subjects to describe to him, say, coffee. What is it? Can you wear it? Oh, you drink it? How? Where? Then, an hour of collaging words about coffee. The third hour is spent laying on the floor on pillows, while he talks them back to their earliest memories about coffee, the first time they consciously experienced it, and their most significant memory of it. Uncovering these imprints, which are formed by age seven, helps determine how to position a product.

The coffee research took place in Japan, where Nestle was trying to sell coffee without success. Rapaille's research showed that most Japanese have no imprint of coffee at all, so trying to replace tea with coffee was doomed to failure. Nestle's strategy, based on this research, was to start selling coffee-flavored desserts for children, which allowed them to literally grow their market, a strategy which ultimately succeeded for them.

Rapaille also explains that these imprints are not only individual, but also cultural, and these cultural imprints have codes that bring the emotions associated with these imprints to the fore. If you tap into the code, you can use it to sell a product. For example, Chrysler was trying to sell the Jeep as an SUV without success. Research indicated that the American culture code for a Jeep was Horse - transportation across rough terrain with the wind in your hair, free-spirited etc. because this was the earliest experience most Americans had with a Jeep. Thus, advertising a Jeep as a vehicle that would rescue you from a crumbling cliff ledge resonates strongly with Americans. In Europe, however, the Jeep is associated with Freedom, based on the European World War II experience, so freedom-based advertising was far more effective in Europe.

So, here are some culture codes for Americans:
toilet-paper = independence
peanut butter = mother's love & nurture (comfort food)
cheese = dead
cars = identity
love = false expectation
seduction = manipulation
sex = violence
beauty = man's salvation
fat = checking out
health & wellness = movement
doctors = heroes
hospital = processing plant
youth (the appearance) = mask
home = the prefix "re-"
also, home = where your "stuff" is
Betty Crocker = the soul of the kitchen
dinner = essential circle
work = who you are
money = proof
perfection = death
quality = it works
food = fuel
alcohol = gun
shopping = reconnecting with life
luxury = military stripes
US President = Moses
American = dream

and for the French:
wedding = gustatory excess
cheese = alive
shopping = learning your culture
Americans = space travellers
France = idea

and the Germans:
cars = engineering
Americans = John Wayne
Germany = order

and the English:
Americans = unashamedly abundant
England = class

and the Canadians:
Canada = to keep

Naturally, all this is presented with compelling evidence. The above notes are to jar my memory. But perhaps they will intrigue you, and if they do, consider reading The Culture Code.

The Empty Nest

2007-06-11T15:05:00.000-07:00

31 parents tell the truth about relationships, love, and freedom after the kids fly the coop

I happened across this one while I was browsing at the library and, since I'm still in the throes of empty-nesting myself, decided to give it a whirl. It's a compilation of essays, and the variety of stories and styles keep it fresh.

At least, for a while. After eight or ten of them, a certain predictability creeps in. Youngest or only child is going away to college, parent reminisces on the upbringing experience with a dollop of parent's own upbringing thrown in for ballast. At the end of the day (week month year decade), parent and child adjust and life is fine, for richer or for poorer, with or without spouses, in-laws, grandchildren. Oh, and the writer (funny how all these essayists are career writers--what are the odds?) continues to write, once even converting the now-empty bedroom into an office.

I just can't see myself plowing through the other 21 essays right now. Somehow, I don't think I'll see one where the child runs away on a motorcycle half-way through high school, leaving the empty-nester to convert the extra bedroom into a marijuana farm or an espionage center while launching a new career as Katie Couric or Emeril.

But since the writing is good, I may be back. I just need to remember that I've already read "My Cart," so next time start with "Time Traveler."

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

2007-06-01T15:15:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to read this for well over a year, having received this large, severe-looking volume as a much-coveted Christmas present. But it was too heavy for traveling, and a first-effort convinced me that I wouldn't be satisfied by sandwiching it in between other activities, an hour here and a half-hour there. So I have reserved it for a time when I could clear the decks and really get into it.

The story begins with the emergence of Mr. Norrell, a reclusive magician, from obscurity. Mr. Norrell feels the need to help with the war effort (the Napoleonic War effort, that is), and to restore magic to its rightful place as a respectable profession, to be practiced only by gentlemen such as himself. But when Jonathan Strange turns up, unquestionably a gentleman and equally unquestionably magically talented, the two forge an uneasy alliance that ebbs and flows with events both personal and political, with an ending that was wholly unexpected and perhaps inevitable.

But did I like it? At first I did, charmed by Susanna Clarke's Jane-Austen-meets-J-K-Rowling voice. Then I decided it was too gothic and depressing, but I wanted to finish it anyway since I had to see how it ended. Then, as the storyline began gathering all the threads together, I began to appreciate the Dickensian characterizations more, and by the time I read the last page, I decided to join in the throng of reviewers who have called it "an instant classic," among other lavish praises.

So, yeah. Read it.

The Cuckoo in Spring

2007-05-25T21:24:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth Cadell, as I think I have mentioned before, is high on my list of most rereadable authors. Her romantic comedies, now out of print but standard at most civic libraries, hark to a simpler day when writers, reluctant to exploit sex and bad language, had to resort to plot and dialog to move the story along.

The Cuckoo in Spring is one of which I wish to make particular note, because I vaguely recollected the plot but couldn't find it anywhere. There was, of course, a handsome young man and a girl, but there were also missing paintings and the girl turned up at the end right under his nose. Try as I might, I couldn't locate it, until I browsed around Saratoga Library and found it in the Large Type section. Something in the synopsis caught at my memory and I checked it out, discovering, to my delight, that this was the missing half-remembered story.

As I said, there is a handsome young man, an art dealer and man-about-town named Julian. He goes to the end of nowhere to evaluate some paintings which may or may not have value, and discovers a gorgeous cook named Alexandra. They fall in love in a matter of days, and he proposes to meet up with her in London, as soon as he completes a social engagement in Scotland. When he returns, he discovers Alexandra has disappeared, along with the four valuable paintings she brought back for him. After a frantic search, he discovers his lost love, and the rest of the story, right under his nose (as I said before). The tale is light-hearted and fun from beginning to end and I'm glad I found it, poetically enough, right under my nose.

But no, I don't know why it's called The Cuckoo in Spring.

Remember Me, Irene

2007-05-19T17:31:00.001-07:00

Jan Burke is a current author whose Irene Kelly series has a well-deserved following. This one, my most recent read, begins with Irene's chance encounter with Lucas Monroe, her former statistics professor, now homeless and trying to recover his good name. Irene becomes increasingly aware that Lucas's emergence is tied to suicides, resignations, vicious attacks, and even murders, and tries to piece together the story before it's too late--for her.

Ms. Burke delivers a satisfying tale, a great escapist read. Some quibble with the extraordinary number of life-threatening adventures Irene encounters in the course of her lifetime (yes, there is a chronology to the stories), but this is FICTION, folks, so I say go with the flow and enjoy.

Briarpatch

2007-05-19T17:22:00.000-07:00

Ross Thomas won an Edgar award for this one (named after Edgar Allen Poe, and awarded to mysteries), copyrighted in 1984, so I had high hopes.

The title, derived from the Uncle Remus stories, refers to one's home turf, in which one can expect to be safe. This is not immediately apparent, as the story begins with the murder of a young police detective, and continues with her brother, Benjamin Dill, trying to unravel who did it and why. As he draws nearer to the answer, he finds that it all hinges on who is in whose briarpatch.

Good things: excellent writing, interesting story, compelling characterizations.

Bad things: language and gratuitous sex--not constant, but enough for an "R" rating. Indeterminate ending, which may be more realistic, but is less satisfying.

In the end, I really enjoyed it, but I won't be seeking out his work in the future.

Walking on Eggshells

2007-04-22T15:03:00.000-07:00

Navigating the Delicate Relationship Between Adult Children and Parents

If you are parenting an infant, a child, or a teen, you can unearth a plethora of books advising you on every conceivable aspect of the job. But once the little darling turns 18, you are on your own. And when you are like me, and have five adult children, each with his/her own complicating factors, you see yourself in the midst of a delicate minefield with no map in sight. Thus the title Walking on Eggshells, and Jane Isay, the author, makes a mighty effort to roadmap the challenges of dealing with your progeny who have achieved their majority.

The main points that I remember are that you have to treat your children like the adults that they are, and that if you have issues that divide you, and you make an effort to repair the damage, the kids tend to be amazingly ready to let bygones be bygones. The unspoken assumption here is that the parents are also in a forgiving mood, probably because the book is written for those parents who wish to have good relationships with their adult children.

Other specific topics, such as giving advice (don't), money, in-laws, grandchildren, and holidays are touched on. There are no bullets and no to-do lists. I don't know if this is because the author is touchy-feely by inclination, or because adult family relationships are too precious and tenuous to attempt to apply one-size-fits-all solutions.

In any case, I enjoyed the book, and may reread it someday when the family constellation has rearranged itself and I need a refresher course. If relationships with your adult children are deteriorating, you could do worse than read this, and see if you can find yourself and/or your child in its pages.

Made to Stick

2007-04-13T17:54:00.000-07:00

Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Chip and Dan Heath are really on to something here. Why can we all remember the somebody-stole-your-kidneys story, but not how mitosis works? The Heath brothers have pooled their expertises (organizational behavior and education consulting) to show us how to make our ideas "sticky"--that is, memorable. (I so could have used this--wait. I can still use this! Woo Hoo!)

The book is enormously worthwhile, and even has a reference guide in the back. But as an enticement, let me state the Six Principles, which spell SUCCESs:
* Simple: how to find and share the core idea
* Unexpected: how to get and hold attention
* Concrete: make abstraction concrete (see Aesop)
* Credible: help people believe you
* Emotional: make people care (I especially like appealing to identity)
* Stories: why shop talk is important, and why you care.

So, read this book. Better still, buy this book, and refer to it often. Better yet, buy me a copy. I will thank you again and again.

House Thinking

2007-02-20T12:00:00.000-08:00

A room-by-room look at how we live.

I haven't actually read this book, but this is the second time I have checked it out from the library. The first time I started to read it, decide it wasn't what I was looking for, and took it back. When I started reading it this time, a severe sense of deja vu recalled my former foray.

House Thinking, by Winifred Gallagher, is a historical-sociological look at how the rooms we have in our houses came to be, and how their usage has evolved over the years, whether centuries or decades. Since I was looking for something a little different, I didn't finish it. But if you like the sound of it, you'll probably enjoy it. The tone and writing style are well enough.

The Looking Glass Wars

2007-02-20T11:48:00.000-08:00

Princess Alyss Heart is the only daughter and heir to the throne of Wonderland, through her mother, the powerful Queen. When her parents are killed and her throne usurped by her aunt Redd, Alyss disappears into the Pool of Tears and emerges in Victorian England, to become Alice Liddell, the muse of the Reverend Charles Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll. Though Alice adapts to her new home, her former life eventually reclaims her and she must resolve the matter of her destiny. Will she become the rightful Queen of Wonderland or remain Alice Liddell? Or will her choices have other, darker results?

This novel by Frank Beddor is the first in a series, and it is not what I was hoping it was. I should have remembered that it is categorized as juvenile in the library, for the tone is certainly geared to the teen crowd, with less depth than I imagined. However, it is good enough for its genre, with plenty of well-placed references to the Lewis Carroll classics Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. And since this is the first of a planned trilogy, with book 2 in the works, there is still time to develop the story in greater depth. Or meander into tedium. Stay tuned.

The Shape Shifter

2007-02-04T20:01:00.000-08:00

Tony Hillerman has added another volume to his Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee series, with happy results. This story turns around a famous accursed Navajo rug, thought to be destroyed, but suddenly appearing in a magazine photo. As Leaphorn investigates the strange events surrounding its (possible) destruction and (reputed) survival, he considers the possible involvement of a shape-shifter, the most feared of Navajo witches. Leaphorn solves the mystery with his usual acumen, while Jim Chee and Bernie appear only briefly.

I am a fan of the series, and found nothing lacking in this latest addition. I particularly liked Hillerman's exploration of retirement, an experience that Leaphorn must deal with, as well as other characters from previous stories.

If you like Hillerman, settle down and enjoy the latest installment.

The Body on the Beach

2007-02-04T19:47:00.000-08:00

Simon Brett gets great reviews and has more than one murder mystery series going. I decided to give him a try, and so checked out The Body on the Beach, the first in the Fethering mysteries.

Good things: he writes well, the setting is interesting (a self-satisfied village on the southern coast of England), the characters are diverse enough without being too weird. Such supporting cast as the Vice-Commodore and poisonous Winnie Norton are drawn with a spare deft hand.

Bad things: I didn't really like either of the lead characters. Carole is stiff and stodgy but starts to loosen up, newcomer Jude is breezy and freewheeling but surprisingly discreet about her past. Neither of the two roused my empathy, and after a while I got tired of them. I finished the book in case the ending was super-satisfying, but it wasn't. Not that it was bad. It just ended.

Maybe I'll try another series of his in a while. This one just doesn't appeal to me.

A Christmas Caroline

2007-02-04T19:31:00.000-08:00

Author Kyle Smith, who is a guy, writes this chick lit homage to Charles Dickens. A send-up of A Christmas Carol, this story stars Caroline, a misanthropic fashionista in New York City. Her supporting cast, sporting such names as Ursula Heep and Nic Nickleby, do their own bits to help the story along, but on the whole, I found it inadequate and tedious.

Caroline is plenty self-centered, and her Christmas Eve is wholly disastrous, but more for herself than anyone else. Her three ghostly visitors appear right on schedule, but became dull in no time at all. Caroline manages to reform without getting a clue, and the would-be climax, which includes a surprising appearance by Miss Havisham, is lackluster at best. Even the ending, which should have been satisfying, was not-quite-resolved, which I found unsettling.

So if you, like me, found the premise intriguing, don't waste your time. The original is superior in every way to this pallid wannabe.

About Alice

2007-01-29T10:28:00.000-08:00

Calvin Trillin has written for the New Yorker for 30 years, which should give you an idea of his facility with words. This spare volume, which can be read in an hour but deserves more, is indeed about Alice, his wife, who died a few years ago. This tribute, tender without being maudlin, is clear-eyed look at their love and marriage. I can highly recommend it, and will soon be looking for Mr. Trillin's back titles.

Words Words Words

2007-01-20T15:48:00.000-08:00

So, you like words? How much? This book is all about words. It's small, and the chapters are small, so it's more readable than you would think. But the author, David Crystal, is a top-flight linguist--and a Brit, hence the OBE and the UK-slant that creeps in--and he knows how to use words to discuss words.

Here you will find information on practically every word-related topic: origins, diversity, evolution, and enjoyment. The last section, Becoming a Word Detective, shows you how to find out the history of a word and the meaning of names, how to get involved with dictionaries and dialects, how to estimate the size of your vocabulary and keep a record of your child's words, and how to find out more about words, in case this wasn't enough.

Perhaps it is. It's pretty comprehensive, although short. And I like short.

Blind Submission

2007-01-19T19:03:00.000-08:00

This first novel from Debra Ginsberg has an intriguing premise. Angel Robinson joins a literary agency as assistant to the legendary Lucy Fiamma, a soul sister to The Devil Wears Prada's Miranda Priestley. As she learns to deal with Lucy's outrageous demands and her own crumbling personal life, Angel discovers she has a flair for spotting and refining talent. And then an anonymous manuscript appears and everything changes.

I liked it at first. The characters are distinctive enough, the plot moves along and the milieu is fascinating. I was just going to read the first chapter, and some time later realized that I was half way through the book. Oh well. Guess I'll have to finish it.

Only I didn't. Soon after that, I tripped over an Obligatory Sex Scene, which bores me to death, so I lost interest, and took a peek at the end to see whodunnit. Resolution achieved.

But this chick lit subgenre is getting old for me. The Nanny Diaries, The Devil Wears Prada, two or three Hollywood versions, clone each other too much. Energetic young thing takes a demanding job from an over-the-top boss, loses or nearly loses everything, then pulls it together and triumphs in the end, or gets fired, parting ways from Devil Boss Lady (usually), who continues wreaking her satanic will on hapless subordinates, but at least not on Our Heroine. Meh.

I'm done with this genre.

The Pocket Stylist

2007-01-19T18:55:00.000-08:00

A new twist on the how-to-look-good book. Author Kendall Farr is a stylist and former fashion editor, and her experience shows. Her mantras are: (1) wear what is flattering on your body, and (2) everything has to fit.

The book is progressive. First, figure out your body type (A, B, C, D, E, or F), then clean out your closet, shop for what you need, and take your finds to the tailor for alterations. Farr coaches you through this process, helping you figure out what works and what doesn't. She winds up with a chapter on underclothing, and a chapter on accessories.

I really liked this book. I think it would be useful to me as I navigate my changing size, and hence, wardrobe. I may even buy this book. If I do, borrow it from me. If I can let it out of my hands.

The Museum of Lost Wonder

2007-01-13T09:35:00.000-08:00

I had high hopes for The Museum of Lost Wonder, by Jeff Hoke. Beautiful volume--all the elegance, color, and quality paper of a coffee table book, but small enough to actually use. And the title sounded like there would be some fun creative explorations.

The museum format is clever; each topic is encapsulated in a room. Each room is presided over by a Muse, and has a latin name, and a cut-out model to build yourself, and a Gnomon comic, and a lot of short pieces of pithy commentary. It was, indeed, very promising.

Alas, the promise does not fulfill. Take the first topic, "Calcinatio," The Hall of Technology, defined as "Home of all our hopes, fear, and preoccupations with what civiliation has brought us." Whaaaat? OK, let's look a little closer. The Muse is Clio, for history. There are blurbs entitled "The Fire Within," "The First Fire," and "Let There Be Light." It's starting to come together. Until we turn the page, and launch into a spiral model of the universe and a flippant discussion of four creation myths. Then an experiment with a reverberating yawn, jumping rope, and making your own creation myth. Finally, a cut-out model of the universe. And then on to the next topic/room/Muse.

I found the whole thing to be incoherent, albeit beautiful to look at, which at some level made it worse. All that elegant confusion. And the self-aware tone made it impossible to dip in for nuggets of interest, because any relevant facts are obscured by mockery, so nothing can be taken at face value.

To wrap up, I quote the following from the introduction:

Warning: The weary, bored, and disenchanted are welcome in the Museum of Lost Wonder, but there are elements here that are not suitable for closed minds and cold hearts. Side effects may include doubt, irrationality, and synaptic pathway realignment. Enter at your own risk!

Sorry, Mr. Hoke, your expertise in designing museum exhibits does not translate to the literary medium. The side effects are turning out to be boredom, confusion, and irritation.

Memoirs of a Book Snake

2007-01-12T13:38:00.000-08:00

Forty years of seeking and saving old books

So, does seeking and saving old books make one a book snake? Turns out David Meyer has been a book scout, and "snake" was a language mangling by a friend who meant "worm." Whatever. Book scouting, it appears, is an absorbing avocation, but you'll never get rich that way. The thrill is in the chase.

This is a tidy, friendly volume about how Meyer has been engrossed with old books since the dawn of (his) time, and has made a buck on it now and then. It's a glimpse into another world, one in which experience and instinct count for much, and the love of books is all-pervasive.

I'm always interested in books about books, as well as glimpses into another world, so I enjoyed this book. But not so much as I expected; there was an air of pathos about it, as though he was dabbling in the shallows of book dealing, neither in nor out of that world.

The Book of Lost Things

2007-01-11T11:40:00.000-08:00

I liked the concept of The Book of Lost Things, and certainly what I read was well written and compelling. Young David mourns his dead mother, and turns to his well-loved books that his mother so loved to read to and with him. In time, he is drawn into their world, and faces danger and terror there.

That is as far as I got, although the Crooked Man is heavily foreshadowed. But I do not care to cultivate the part of myself that resonates to the dark and violent undertone of this book. So I skipped to the end and resolved the story to my satisfaction, although not without regret. John Connolly is certainly worth reading, but his work is not for me.

The thematic elements of fairy tales and stories appeal to me enormously, and if they appeal to you, and you don't mind the darker elements, you will probably enjoy this book as much as I'd hoped to.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

2006-11-24T21:30:00.000-08:00

When Precious Ramotswe's father was dying, he told her to sell his herd of cattle and buy a business and a house. She agreed with him, but instead of buying a butcher's shop, she started a detective agency. As the clients began coming, Precious used her commonsense and her listening heart to solve cases of suspected witch doctors, missing children and husbands, and an erratic doctor whose behavior disturbed his peers.

Alexander McCall Smith has created a sleuth who is as cozy as a teapot and as exotic as an African sunrise. The slow rhythmic pace of the book is charming and compelling, even seductive. You could lose yourself in this prose, and disappear without a struggle. I highly recommend it.

I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This!

2006-11-24T21:18:00.000-08:00

and other things that strike me as funny.

Bob Newhart has been a fixture in comedy for lo these many years. From his best-selling comedy albums in the sixties, to his two long-running sit-coms, to his current penchant for character roles in comedy movies, he has been ever-present on the Hollywood scene as the wry long-suffering accountant (or dentist or innkeeper).

In I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This! (which is a punchline for a joke), Bob talks about his early years, how he gave up accounting for comedy, his marriage, and his career--all with his characteristic deadpan humor. I have always been a fan, so I enjoyed it very much.

Things I learned from this book:
1. Bob has been married for 40 years to the same woman, which I really admire.
2. Bob had two top-selling comedy albums in the 1960s.
3. Bob is, underneath it all, a subversive person, and believes all comedians are.

I can recommend this book to the Bob Newhart fan. And who isn't?

Jane Austen and the Man of the Cloth

2006-11-24T21:09:00.000-08:00

Being the second Jane Austen mystery

Stephanie Barron has developed a charming premise for a mystery series: follow Jane Austen though her well-documented life, and fill in the blanks with a murder and an opportunity for Miss Austen to discover the truth and bring the true criminals to justice.

Having read both the first (JA and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor) and the second, I can say that they are pleasant and well written. The author manages to avoid making Jane Austen too modern, for the most part, and she carefully follows the real timeline of Jane's life, adding an element of realism to a decided fantasy. But she is no Jane Austen, and must unavoidably suffer by comparison.

If you like Jane Austen, you could well like this series. If you don't, hmm, well, you could still like it if you like your mysteries in a historical setting. But do read them in order; there is a certain continuity that helps.

Under Orders

2006-11-24T20:58:00.000-08:00

Dick Francis is one of the most prolific mystery writers around today, with many dozens of novels that feature horse racing sooner or later. After the publication of Shattered, and the death of his beloved wife, it seemed that he was done writing forever, but now, six years later, Under Orders shows that he is back and in fine form.

This book features Sid Halley, jockey-turned-sleuth, who once again, despite or because of physical threats, relentlessly seeks out the criminals at large in the horse racing world. Halley still has the crippled hand and the dogged determination that so distinguishes him, but he now has a beautiful Dutch girlfriend, which brings him both happiness and vulnerability. Can he have the same disregard for her physical well-being as he does for his own?

Dick Francis has done it again. I hope he will keep writing; I have missed his work, and enjoyed Under Orders thoroughly.

Miss Buncle's Book

2006-11-02T10:13:00.000-08:00

D. E. Stevenson's crowning achievement, in my opinion, is Miss Buncle's Book. This charming story takes place in a small English village in the 1930s, when Barbara Buncle discovers that her income, like much of the world's financial resources, is disappearing. Desperately she tries to think of a way to boost her cash flow--raising chickens?--and finally decides to write a book. And, oh, the book she writes!

The characters are delightful, the story and setting picturesque, and the book-within-a-book a remarkable recurring decimal. If you can find Miss Buncle's Book--and it is difficult these days--and enjoy it, see if you can locate its sequels, Miss Buncle Married and The Two Mrs. Abbotts. Then you'll know how it ends.

Evanly Bodies

2006-10-26T11:05:00.000-07:00

The Constable Evans series by Rhys Bowen features Evan Evans, a Welsh policeman who lives in the fictional town of Llanfair and solves a remarkable number of murders for such a small village. In Evanly Bodies, Evans, now married to Bronwen and settled in a shepherd's cottage, joins a newly-formed task force that takes on a series of similar murders, while Bronwen investigates the disappearance of a teenaged Pakistani girl.

Like M. C. Beaton, Rhys Bowen is going to remain on my B-list, but I will still read her pleasant mysteries because I like the characters and the milieu. In addition to the Constable Evans series, she has a Molly Murphy series featuring an Irish immigrant in the early 20th-century. Both are good for a quiet afternoon's entertainment.

Ingathering

2006-10-25T08:13:00.000-07:00

The Complete People stories

Zenna Henderson began writing science fiction in the early 1950s and continued for decades. Her best-known work (though she was never a household name) is comprised of the stories of The People, who fled their dying planet in search of a home. Those who came to Earth had to bail out of their spacecraft at the last minute, and the survivors, alone in their lifeboats, were separated. The stories reflect their (and their descendants) efforts to survive and adapt, to find each other and to preserve their own startling abilities without inspiring fear and hatred in the locals.

There are two collections of stories about The People: Pilgramage: The Book of the People and The People: No Different Flesh. Ingathering is the combination of both these books, plus at least one other addition.

I have been a fan of The People since, oh, junior high. Henderson's people are warm, loving, and resoundingly people of faith. Her style is pleasant, certainly not au courant. It's sci-fi for the warm and fuzzy of heart. Enjoy.

The Knowledge Deficit

2006-10-18T16:39:00.000-07:00

Closing the Shocking Education Gap for American Children

E. D. Hirsch, Jr., author of the best-selling Cultural Literacy and founder of the Core Knowledge Foundation, takes a steely look at the failure of the American education system to teach a generation of children to read at a proficient level. His culprits are not the beleaguered teachers or the underfunded schools, but the educational philosophy that separates reading comprehension from content. He insists that in order to read with understanding, one must have a basic understanding of the body of knowledge upon which our society is based.

That just about covers it; it's a small book, and Hirsch eruditely restates his position from different podia in each chapter, each time taking another incremental step towards his final position: that the Core Knowledge Foundation has figured out what the knowledge is that children need to know at each stage, and that information is available to schools, teachers, even parents.

I can't disagree with his position, and I won't delve into the minutiae. If you're serious about literacy for children whose lives you influence, you may find this interesting.

The Line Between

2006-10-18T16:20:00.000-07:00

Peter S. Beagle, probably best known for his classic fantasy novel The Last Unicorn, has an impressive body of work and collection of awards. He entitles this short story collection The Line Between in reference to the "invisible boundary between...reality and fantasy...where I have almost always lived." These eleven stories certainly straddle the boundary with a charm and an illogical sense that is uniquely his.

Here we meet Gordon the Self-Made Cat, who was born a mouse but had greater ambitions; Angie and Marvyn, who discover in themselves a talent for witchcraft; Henry Lee, who makes salt wine; Mr. Sigerson, better known by another name; an assortment of brief fables, and encore performances by previously written characters--Schmendrick the Magician and his troupe, Soukyan the wanderer and his fox-ish companion, and Jacob Sam and Emilia who shared a deathless (for a time) friendship.

If you like fantasy, and not everybody does, you could do worse than slip this book into a pocket and dip in when time permits. A glimpse into another reality can be refreshing.

iWoz

2006-10-18T16:03:00.000-07:00

How I invented the personal computer, co-founded Apple, and had fun doing it.

A personal memoir, and a necessary counterpart to all the Svengali-like portrayals of Steve Jobs as the evil genius behind Apple. Because in the beginning there were the Two Steves, each a necessary part of the original Apple, and in this book, Steve Wozniak steps out from behind Jobs' shadow with a grin and a wave.

Woz is a study in stereotypes--a brilliant engineer who thinks in electrons, and a socially-inept geek who can't talk to girls. A guy who wants to change the world for the better, and a gleeful early-adopter of cutting-edge technologies just because they are so COOL! He forgives chicanery and donates stock, he blows a bundle on a neo-Woodstock that he recalls with great fondness, he crashes an airplane, he teaches school and invents the universal remote and devotes massive amounts of time, money, and attention to the arts and to his beloved children. He's Thomas Edison, Santa Claus, and Gandhi all rolled into one.

Bad things: the voice is difficult for me to read. Probably it sounds just like him, and in real life that would be doable, but on paper it comes across as juvenile and simplistic. Also, the flights of engineering enthusiasm are eye-glazing. Probably not for engineers, though. But I'm not one, and chances are, you aren't either. Eventually, I just skipped over the parts where he describes schematics, and that helped a lot.

So, for it me it was a one-timer. But I'm glad I looked in.

The Arrogance of the French

2006-10-18T15:48:00.000-07:00

Why they can't stand us--and why the feeling is mutual.

Richard G Chesnoff, journalist and inhabitant of France, tries to explain why America and France aren't getting too well. According to Chesnoff, any time we do get along is an aberration. First of all, philosophically the French are incapable of team play, so getting along is not a huge motivating factor, and graciousness in triumph or defeat is unthinkable. Second, they think American influence in the world is an abomination, since the French should be the leaders of food, fashion, the arts, and diplomacy. Third, even when we weren't leading the world, we were allies of England, whom the French hate on principle (and the feeling is mutual, to be honest). Fourth, their philosophy is very "I am right, so you must be wrong," with all the endearing traits such an attitude fosters.

To be fair, Chesnoff seems to like the French anyway, but he doesn't expect any other Americans to share his feelings. At the end, he includes a few appendices, such as a phrasebook of responses to French rudenesses, and a list of French-owned concerns that could be boycotted if the occasion demands.

Having said all this, it was interesting, but made me feel like discarding my Dijon mustard and my Dior lipstick. So I probably won't read it again.

Green Money

2006-10-18T15:33:00.000-07:00

D. E. Stevenson is a niece of Robert Louis, and has inherited a portion of his literary talent. Green Money is one of dozens of her stellar novels, noted for its cozy friendliness and low-key romance: English between-the-wars at its best.

Green Money features George, an average gentleman of moderate means and decent instincts; his mother Paddy, Irish and horse-mad; his father Mr. Ferrier, a warm and detached scholar; and a host of neighbors, acquaintances, and chance-met Greens whose money sends George careening on hitherto unsuspected paths and finally into the arms of true love.

Completely anachronistic and entirely satisfying.

Laura Bush

2006-09-26T07:12:00.000-07:00

An Intimate Portrait of the First Lady

I read the magazine profiles; I was familiar with the biographical outline. Only child, Texas native, ordinary upbringing, tragic car accident, school teacher & librarian, met George at a barbecue, married in her thirties. And I had a sense that Laura Bush was pleasant, reserved, and good, and that her husband adored her. But what was missing? What is the real deal?

Surprise. She is what I thought she was. Oh, the picture is fleshed out a little. But Ronald Kessler writes no rabid expose or tabloid speculation piece. He is friendly, completely uncritical. That would bother me if there weren't already Stepford-Wife biographies out there; many people are happy to dismiss Laura Bush as subservient and--shudder!--traditional. Kessler does not quote the family, but he quotes many of Laura's close friends, apparently from lenghthy interviews. The Laura Bush portrayed is warm and spiritual, who has grown from her White House experience, and who is a devoted mother. And I get the sense that in her marriage, there are two strong people who love, respect, and tease each other with warm delight.

So, if Laura Bush is a mystery to you, read on. But if you're looking for the inside scoop, you already have it. Laura is what she appears to be: that forgotten icon, a lady.

Blink

2006-09-21T22:52:00.000-07:00

The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

The Tipping Point has become a modern business classic, and Malcolm Gladwell's next book, Blink, has recently joined it on the bookseller's shelves. Blink posits the notion that our first two-second judgments are based on intuitive knowledge, and if that knowledge is based on what we really know and is not subverted or corrupted, it can be extremely valuable to us.

Gladwell is thought provoking, and his examples are compelling. But I'm having a hard time keeping this all together in my mind as a cohesive whole. For example, the failure of New Coke seems to discount the value of the "thin slice." Maybe it's because I didn't read the whole book in one sitting. But then, how often can one actually do that? Or maybe I'm just dense. Or maybe I should read it again.

It probably would be worthwhile. Gladwell has an entertaining style, and I suspect everyone will have to read it because The Tipping Point has so much credibility. So go ahead and read it too. You'll gain some insight. Though it will take more than 2 seconds.

Town & Country Modern Manners

2006-09-15T11:18:00.000-07:00

The Thinking Person's Guide to Social Graces

Sounds like an etiquette book, doesn't it? But it's really a compilation of essays published in Town & Country magazine's Social Graces column. So Charles Osgood discusses the virtues of winning and losing gracefully. David Brown shares insights into the etiquette of a spendthrift living with a tightwad (spouse Helen Gurley Brown). Hugh Downs reveals the joys of great-grandchildren. And Peggy Noonan talks about post-9/11 attitude shifts.

Some are more interesting than others, but I suspect the interest shifts with the reader. The writing is good, the topics fresh, friendly, and within the scope of normal existence, meaning there are no discussions about seating charts when you're entertaining both the French ambassador AND the Sultan of Brunei.

I probably won't read it again, but I enjoyed reading it once. If modern manners are your thing, enjoy.

Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life

2006-09-07T17:33:00.000-07:00

Amy Krouse Rosenthal writes nonfiction, and has published innumerable magazine articles and some children's books (I may have left something out, but I don't care). This small book is her commentary on life, specifically hers, organized alphabetically. Which means it's all about Amy.

It was OK. There were a few times where I said Yes! That is exactly how I feel! But mostly it was a study in not-like-ness. Oh, there were a few times when I said Ewww! or (eyebrows raised, eyes half-closed, mouth scrunched up) You Are Weird. But mostly I was saying You are not like me because you grew up in a different time and place and subculture. Not that I would dislike you, but we would not really understand one another most of the time. Other than being American and wives/mothers, we don't have very much in common. And after a whole book of that, I felt kind of aloof, because everybody gets it but me, and I don't want to get it.

And she can be a bit vulgar. Mostly it was at the beginning, but that's another not-like, off-putting thing. It's like the one scene in a movie that takes the rating from PG to R.

And then there's the part(s) where she invites you to email her about certain specific things. So I thought, why not? (still looking to find alikeness; consistent if not bright.) So I went to the website and did the little email thing and then--voila!--the email bounced. Not connected or something. Kind of like someone saying, Call me, and then leaving the phone off the hook. Even more alienating.

So...I wouldn't read it again because it's not all about me? I suppose. At some level, I read to connect to the author, to discover alikeness, to find myself or validate the self I have already found. To discover a profound disconnect, then, is not satisfactory.

But at least it was organized.

Death du Jour

2006-08-31T12:00:00.000-07:00

I knew there was a reason why I wanted to blog the books I read. This book is the reason.

Death du Jour is the second book in Lou Jane Temple's Spice Box series (the first is named, oddly enough, The Spice Box). When I saw this second one, I remembered the first one positively, but with reservations. Since I couldn't remember what the reservations were, I decided to read this one.

The link between the two books is the spice box--a box of unspecified antiquity, built to hold spices, now furnished with recipes in many languages. In the first book it comes into the possession of a servant girl in 19th century New York. In Death du Jour, the possessor is Fanny, a cook in revolutionary France. In Fanny's case, though, the spice box contains spices as well as recipes--and something far more desirable and dangerous.

Good things: Intriguing premise--a spice box is a fun focal point from which to trace culinary developments, and the occasional murder, across centuries. Exciting story--Fanny is caught in a twisted plot of allies and family, murderers, thieves, and revolutionaries, and struggles to distinguish friends from foes--or lovers. Strong and attractive historical flavor--the setting of Paris after the fall of the Bastille is intense and dangerous in its own right, and the details of life among the citizens and particularly those who are involved in professional cooking are rich and believable.

Bad thing: The characters don't work for me. Fanny is a prime example of one of my most unfavorite characters in murder mysteries: the one who, seeing a dangerous situation, stupidly jumps in the middle of it for no good reason other than to advance the plot. Head chef Henri is flip-flopped without adequate foreshadowing, as is maman Martine. Fournier is a mere bodice-ripper cover illustration.

Another bad thing: Anything to do with physical intimacy. The story points out that servants can be fired for extramarital sex, yet 18-year-old Fanny has few qualms about sleeping with her boyfriend on a routine basis. Far too 21st-century for me. And the relationship between Fournier and Fanny is a joke. Sounds like lust to me, but elements of modesty and sentimentality keep creeping in, which is jarring and unbelievable. Whatever. It would have been smarter to stay away from this sort of thing, which is what I prefer anyway, I say as I climb back on my soapbox labeled "Close the bedroom door!"

So, note to self: Next time a Spice Box mystery comes out, don't waste your time. There are plenty of better books out there to read.

Beyond the Blonde

2006-08-30T09:41:00.000-07:00

Is there a genre called gossip lit? There should be. All you need to know is that author Kathleen Flynn-Hui is "the star colorist at Salon AKS, [and] the wife of acclaimed stylist Kao Hui." Certainly her inside story of a small-town girl that becomes a top-flight colorist at a celebrity salon resonates with authenticity. But her deftly-penned sketches of the employees and the clientele make you wonder who she's really talking about.

The story line is not complicated: Georgia Watkins, daughter of the owner-operator of the number-one salon in Weepeekeemie, New Hampshire, wants to follow in her mother's footsteps. She leaps from beauty school to the bottom rung at a hot new salon in Manhattan, and never looks back--or does she?

But as I said, it's not so much the story as the milieu and the personalities. And despite the inside-scoop gossipy flavor, it is remarkably discreet. An occasional burst of language, a brief and not-too-explicit bedroom scene, but probably not more than a strong PG-13.

So if you've ever wondered what it's like on the other side of the stylist's chair, take a seat. Georgia will be with you in a moment.

Godless: The Church of Liberalism

2006-08-28T09:55:00.000-07:00

If one could liken William F. Buckley to a boxer, sparring elegantly but with devastating effect with his opponents, Ann Coulter would be a street fighter. Sean Hannity is a gentleman, yes, and we all appreciate it, but Michael Moore and Al Franken are not, and someone has to mix it up with them in the ring from time to time, and Michael Savage is just too--well--savage. Ann Coulter, on the other hand, is not afraid to mix it up, and her rapier wit not only slices their arguments to pieces, it makes short work of their intelligence and ethics as well.

So Ms. Coulter's newest book, Godless, made significant media waves upon its release. It has taken some time for me to get to it, but I was not disappointed. She likens the liberal credo to a religion and demonstrates how its adherents rely on, not intellectual, but pseudo-intellectual, emotional and--no, not spiritual, but definitely irrational arguments to justify their positions. Abortion, criminal rights, education, Darwinism, and science all have their place in the liberal faith construct.

It was interesting and illuminating, and exposed quite a bit of charlatanism that I suspected was out there but hadn't glimpsed. Once again, Ann exposes the most glaring inconsistencies of her liberal counterparts. Touche.

The Little Lady Agency

2006-08-14T10:04:00.000-07:00

Hester Browne's first novel is Brit chick lit at its best. Melissa Romney-Jones, at loose-ends after being downsized, launches The Little Lady Agency to profit from what she does best: tidying up people's social lives by handling wife-girlfriend tasks such as shopping, party-hosting, and playing girlfriend for social events. No, none of that naughty stuff, thank you very much--Melissa is terrified of the type of headlines generated by her womanizing MP father, going so far as to adopt an alter-ego for work named Honey, with a blonde wig, a sultry wardrobe, and a heaping helping of self-confidence.

But things begin to get interesting when Jonathan Riley arrives on the scene. He is Honey's client, Melissa's best friend's boss--and starting to look like the kind of man Melissa has always dreamed of. But how can Honey's client ever learn to know and love Melissa?

This is a cheerful and madcap party of a book, frothy fun from beginning to end. Melissa is clueless without being inane, and her world is full of delightful characters and fun plot twists. Enjoy.

San Francisco As You Like It

2006-08-04T22:39:00.000-07:00

Bonnie Wach is on to something here. Her 20 customized tours of San Francisco are designed to please a broad variety of guests who want to see The City.

Specifically:
* Parents
* Grandparents
* Weary Young Families (the kind with small children)
* Avant-Garde Aunts (eclectic eccentrics)
* Nieces, Nephews, and Other Pesky Kids (older kids and preteens)
* Cynical Natives (been there, done that)
* Impressionable Dates
* San Francisco Virgins (never been there before)
* Extroverts
* Foodies
* Green Types (earth-savers)
* Cheapskates
* Shopaholics
* Fitness Freaks and Heavy Sweaters
* Yuppies
* Current & Former Hippies
* Queer & Curious
* Neo-Bohemians (Beatniks)
* The Politically Correct
* Culture Vultures

These all have great ideas, and seem to be onto a lot of the good stuff. In addition, I see these as completely blendable, so you could combine elements of the Shopaholic and the Extrovert for the former college roommate who wants to shop and club. I could even take some of these tours for myself, if I wanted to explore The City with a little more depth or breadth. A great resource.

The Itty Bitty Kitchen Handbook

2006-08-02T15:34:00.000-07:00

Everything you need to know about setting up and cooking in the most ridiculously small kitchen in the world--your own.

This is the subtitle of this organizing/cooking book by Justin Spring. I love this book, and I want this book, despite the fact that I have a ridiculously spacious kitchen, and I don' t really like to cook. Maybe it's because Gordon and Karren had a small kitchen in their first apartment--not ridiculously small, just small enough to discourage cooking. Maybe it's because I expect that someday we will empty-nest it down to a little tiny place with (perhaps) a ridiculously small kitchen. Or maybe I just like to explore an alternative path--what if?

Anyway, when Spring thinks ridiculously small, he's thinking all the way down to closet-sized or little-bitty-boat-galley size, so he's really looking into space saving. And the recipes look like good ones for the person who's cooking for him/herself most of the time, doesn't want to devote every waking moment to cookery, but doesn't want to eat out every meal either. And may occasionally entertain.

So if the idea intrigues you, it's worth it. It's all I hoped it would be.

Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life

2006-08-02T00:21:00.000-07:00

Another book about books. I must be in a rut. Having said that, I can recommend this book as something to be nibbled at from time to time, not blasted through as I was compelled to do; it's much too rich for that.

Michael Dirda, a long-time book reviewer and Pulitzer Prize-winner for criticism, has built a small book filled with big ideas. Each chapter addresses a topic, such as "Learning," or "Work and Leisure," featuring some discussion by Dirda himself, who frequently cites the Great Minds as reference points. The chapter may also include a selection of quotations, or a recommended reading list, or both.

And at the end of the book, "A Selective and Idiosyncratic Who's Who," to identify all those clever people he referenced along the way. This list can also be used as a roster of authors whose works one might choose to read.

So by all means, read Book by Book. But it would be better bought than borrowed from a library. It's more a truffle than a Twinkie, after all.

To Hell with All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife

2006-08-01T23:42:00.000-07:00

Caitlin Flanagan writes essays on modern family life for the New Yorker, which explains why this book is long on charm and short on tirades. Despite the inflammatory title, Mrs. (dare I call her?) Flanagan takes a friendly look at all things domestic as experienced by today's at-home mother.

Just take a look at these chapters:

The Virgin Bride tries to explain how it is that today's not-likely-virgin bride gloms onto the most elaborate wedding rituals.

The Wifely Duty notes the lack of romance, and often sex, of the two-career family, with a fair amount of discretion.

Housewife Confidential compares the at-home mother with the housewife of the 1950s, with a roster of the writers who documented and defined the housewife in the contemporary press. Such underrated luminaries as Jean Kerr, Shirley Jackson (yes, she wrote The Lottery and The Haunting of Hill House, but she also wrote Raising Demons in the housewifely vein), Peg Bracken, and the superstar Erma Bombeck.

A Necessary Person explains how Walt Disney both defined and destroyed the nanny for this generation, while That's My Woman describes her experience with having a nanny for her children.

Executive Child looks at the highly scheduled lives of today's children (and thus their parents).

Drudges and Celebrities examines the propensity for the at-home mother to have drudges for the down-and-dirty cleaning, and celebrities (aka Martha Stewart, et al) to teach them how to sweep floors and fold napkins.

Clutter Warriors takes a wry look at the anti-clutter movement, and the at-home mother's need for a hired organizer.

To Hell with All That describes the day that her mother, a competent and content housewife, suddenly threw in the towel and got a job, and the effect it had on then-12-year-old Caitlin. This segues into a discussion of working moms vs. at-home mothers.

My Life Without You deals with the death of her mother and her own bout with breast cancer.

And finally, in the middle of the acknowledgements, as she thanks her twin sons, she answers the question that bothered me throughout the book:

"Patrick and Conor: We did it! Thanks for your excellent help and advice. I don't know why the publisher didn't call it "To Heck with All That," like we decided. I love you."

And that's why I will read this book again, despite the title.

The Stolen Child

2006-08-01T17:19:00.000-07:00

This is a novel told in parallel, the story of Henry Day who was stolen by fairies and renamed Aniday, and the story of his changling, who became Henry Day from that day forward. The author, Keith Donohue, follows their lives from that time as they each learn to make their way in their new life, and come to terms with the life that might have been.

It is well-written and oddly compelling. These are no gossamer-winged fairies, but feral and detached. While the story is riveting and the end satisfying, it is not charming; no Disney animated feature in this story. Proceed at your own risk.

Very New Orleans: A Celebration of History, Culture, and Cajun Country Charm

2006-07-22T01:06:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Katrina swept through New Orleans, destroying a legacy of charm and color that cannot be fully repaired. This little volume by Diana Hollingsworth Gessler is almost prescient in its elegant documentation of the distinctive food, history, and environs of New Orleans that has since been altered, perhaps forever.

Each page--every single page!--is illustrated with charming pen-and-ink drawings colored in with watercolors. Even the text is done in a hand-lettered-looking font, so the effect is of a journal kept by an exceptionally talented tourist who explored New Orleans with unmatched thoroughness.

Very New Orleans is organized by geography, with each district lovingly described and illustrated, including shops, restaurants, quaint hotels, points of interest, and bits of local color and trivia. This book, intended to be a tribute to a fascinating city, turns out to be a eulogy to the New Orleans that once was.

The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life: How to get more books in your life and more life from your books

2006-07-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

Steve Leveen is the co-founder of Levenger, a catalog founded on offering "tools for serious readers," and the author of this How To book about reading. I found his voice oddly off-putting, rather brisk and energetic, like a motivational speaker; not at all what I'm looking for when I read about reading. So I quickly skimmed the book for useful information. The following paragraphs are my notes.

There is a chapter on how to find books you want to read. Resources include the Reader's Advisory librarian, who helps you find what you want to read, even if it's a novel you once read but you can't remember the title or the author, just that it was a spy thriller set in the 1930s in Budapest.

There are also books of suggestions. Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason, by Nancy Pearl, is a treasure trove of suggestions, as is its sequel, which I believe is called Book Lust 2 .

Good Reading: A Helpful Guide for Serious Readers was compiled by a committee; the committee chair, Professor Atwood H. Townsend advises: "Never force yourself to read a book that you do not enjoy. There are so many good books in the world that it is foolish to waste time on one that does not give you pleasure and profit."

There is also The Lifetime Reading Plan by Clifton Fadiman, whose impressive credentials included editor of Encyclopedia Brittanica, judge for Book-of-the-Month Club, and book review editor for The New Yorker.

There is a chapter on how to read, which favorite part for me is the mention of the learning technique known as SQ3R: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review, by Francis Robinson. I'm pretty sure someone taught me this in school once, but obviously it didn't stick. There are also mentions of Edmund Bordeaux Szekely's Sorbonne Method and Walter Pauk's Cornell System.

There is a chapter on audiobooks, of which Mr. Leveen is an enthusiastic proponent. He mentions four surprising things that were discovered about audiobooks in the early years of their development:
1--They do not merely occupy your mind, but calm it. This would help me in traffic, for sure.
2--Authors are usually not the best narrators. Actors tend to be better.
3--Music is a distraction in audiobooks, unlike TV, radio and movies.
4--One narrator is best, even for different characters and lots of dialogue.
Audiobooks are best compared to the ancient art of storytelling.

He also discusses the pros and cons of audiobooks:
Pros--Easier to track & enjoy dialogue and dialects, easier to deal with foreign words and names, can reinforce experience if listening and reading at the same time, some people prefer listening.
Cons--Some people prefer reading to listening, takes longer.

There's a chapter on book clubs. Not really my thing, but a reference to Nancy Pearl's "One Book, One Community" program intrigues me, since I am such a fan of her Book Lust volumes.

And that's pretty much it.

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop

2006-07-19T15:25:00.000-07:00

This is a book about bookstores. An easy sell, to the passionate book lover, because not only is it about books (which populate bookstores), which I love, but it IS a book, which I love. And a book about bookstores is an interesting twist in the book-about-books genre.

Lewis Buzbee explores his topic with style. Each chapter intertwines the history of books with Buzbee's own memoir of book reading, book selling, and book shopping. And because he grew up in San Jose, and currently lives in San Francisco, many of his reference points are on familiar turf.

The best part, though, is the chapter entitled "The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop," which is the next-to-last chapter. Here he lists his own favorite bookstores worldwide, and why. I must take copious notes. Such as: The Booksmith in the Haight, City Lights Bookstore (near Columbus & Broadway in San Francisco), Kinokuniya Books in Japantown (not English language), Powell's City of Books in Portland Oregon, Hay-on-Wye in Wales, the Tattered Cover in Denver, the Grolier Poetry Book Shop in Cambridge by Harvard Square (yes, just poetry), and the One Book Bookstore in Bisbee Arizona (yes, just sells one book). And Paris bookstores, children's bookstores, airport bookstores, and books-and-something-else stores. And imaginary bookstores.

So, why the title? A quote from Vincent Van Gogh: "I think that I still have it in my heart someday to paint a bookshop with the front yellow and pink in the evening...like a light in the midst of the darkness."

An apt reflection on Buzbee's view of the bookstore as a hallmark of civilization.

First Families: The Impact of the White House on Their Lives

2006-07-15T08:43:00.000-07:00

This book will be forever associated in my memory with the day David had his wisdom teeth out. I read it start to finish (more or less) in one day while I waited for the surgery and then nursed David through the first day of recovery. But I digress.

What would it be like to live in the White House? For some it was the highlight of their lives; for others it was a nightmare. This book by Bonnie Angelo examines the effect that life in the White House had on the families that have come and gone over the years, annotating her anecdotes with extensive references for the scholarly reader, but with a conversational tone for the rest of us.

The information is arranged by topic, without consideration for chronology. Religious observance touches on LBJ, Nixon, the Carters and George W Bush; the next page dives into FDR's swimming pool, later removed by Nixon. Birth and death, raising children and pets, romances, marriages, fashion, entertainment, high society, tragedies, scandals, and interior decoration are all addressed with charm and candor.

The treatment is relatively even-handed; Jefferson and Eleanor Roosevelt are often referenced, but Lou Hoover, Nancy Reagan, Edith Roosevelt and Helen Taft appear frequently as well. Dolley Madison, Jackie Kennedy, and the Lincolns, yes, but also the Grants and the Hoovers, and even such footnotes as the Fillmores and the Fords.

I enjoyed it; trivia in narrative form is a favorite of mine, and I am a White House afficionado. I'm not likely to read it again, but I certainly don't regret this time.

(By the way, my favorite book about the White House is Flowers, White House Style by Dottie Temple and Stan Finegold. Ms. Temple did flowers for the White House for years, and her insights on the White House, and entertaining behind the scenes, are fresh and unique.

The Restless Sleep: Inside New York City's Cold Case Squad

2006-07-12T21:55:00.000-07:00

This nonfiction book takes a long look at the Cold Case Squad of the NYPD, the group that follows up on murders that were never solved when they were current events. How was it started? What kind of detective works these cases? How many are finally solved?

A sampling of cases are examined closely, including the murders of a young teen in 1988, a troubled wife from Alabama in 1951, a drug-dealer and his wife in 1996, and a policeman in 1977. Ultimately, one leads to a whole network of interconnected murders, one leads to the conviction of the four who did it, one points to a likely murderer but all the parties involved are dead or untraceable after 50 years, and one continues to be a maze of dead ends.

I found it interesting, but depressing. The operations of a police department, like the making of sausage, should not be examined too closely by the squeamish. The bureaucracy, the territorialism, and the human foibles of the police officers at every level leave me amazed that anything is resolved at all. But they keep on plugging away at these cold cold cases, so that a murderer won't continue to walk the streets and kill again, so the victim's families can find another increment of justice, so they can feel the satisfaction of knowing they didn't give up.

If it interests you, read it. You will learn something and you might like it. But once was enough for me.

Home Therapy: Fast, Easy, Affordable Makeovers

2006-07-11T09:48:00.000-07:00

The author, Lauri Ward, has apparently made a name for herself with the concept of Use What You Have (r) decorating. Home Therapy has a promising premise: that you can redecorate with what you have, and addressed some problems that interest me: decluttering, creating a home office, downsizing, etc. So I dove in.

Well, I probably had unrealistic expectations. But it seemed like the solution to most problems was rearranging the furniture and placing the area rug at an angle. There were also some tidbits of advice that to me were fairly obvious, such as: Tavor's souvenirs from his travels are all large scale indigenous artworks, and they have taken over the apartment. What to do? Create an attractive display with some, and store the rest. Well, duh.

I didn't actually read the book cover to cover; it's not that kind of book. But I read enough to know that I have exhausted the possibilites for me.

Among the Shadows

2006-07-04T19:44:00.000-07:00

Anne of Green Gables and the six books of that series are the cornerstone of the reputation of L M Montgomery, but she has written many other books as well, sought out and enjoyed by her many fans. I ran across Among the Shadows and was diverted by the premise that ties together this collection of short stories. These are tales from the dark side, the jacket promised, showing a grimmer edge than Montgomery's fans are likely to expect.

Truth to tell, I am not one of her die-hard fans. I liked Anne of Green Gables, but that's as far as I got, to the shocked indignation of my daughters, who have read and reread her works. So I cannot comment on how Among the Shadows compares to her better-known works. But I enjoyed it. I dislike horror intensely, but, as one Amazon reviewer put it, these are "ghost stories for people who don't like ghost stories." Within these stories are ghosts, pseudo-ghosts, tragic characters, bad people, redeemed sinners, and the strong flavor of the Canadian Atlantic coast that I find very satisfying. I would definitely read this again.

The Magic Circle

2006-07-04T19:11:00.000-07:00

Katherine Neville's The Eight is much admired, and her second book A Calculated Risk not so much. So I started her third novel, The Magic Circle, with moderate expectations, partly because of the jacket blurb made it sound a bit over the top.

Alas, I could never get into it. The first bit, about an intrepid woman archeologist in the late Victorian era (almost lost on that premise already) unearthing the mythic oracle of something-or-other didn't engage me like it should have. And when I dozed off in the bath and dropped the book in the water, I watched the cover curl up like a rose petal and tried to feel some regret. Didn't happen. Clearly the story had failed to grip me, and the book went into the trash unmourned. So if the story makes a dramatic recovery in the second quarter, I didn't get that far. Someone else will have to tell you.

A Sudden Wild Magic

2006-06-26T19:15:00.000-07:00

Diana Wynne Jones is a prolific writer of children's fantasy, most notably Howl's Moving Castle. She has also written a few books targeting the adult reader, and A Sudden Wild Magic is one of this select group.

In this book, the most powerful magid in England, Mark Lister, detects an alien influence on Earth events, and is forced to work within a very tight circle to deal with it. Maureen the dancer, beautiful Amanda, and eccentric Gladys are the wielders of magic that he turns to, but it is Amanda's sister Zillah who makes everything right when she taps into a sudden wild magic.

I enjoyed the book; I like Ms. Jones' voice and the touches of humor that infuse her stories. Seemingly coincidental events turn out to be interconnected after all, and events right themselves in the end with near-cosmic precision. The author tends to gloss over some of the details, which may bother some, such as the mechanics of skipping from one universe to another, the identity of the Great One who is so negatively affected by all the piracy, and how Mark and Herrill are reunited. I am the first to recognize that too many explanations can become unwieldy, and allow her these incomplete answers because they don't hurt the story.

The book is a curious mixture of adult and G-rated sensibilities. On the one hand, such matters as affairs, lovers, intended seductions, and homosexuals are openly discussed. On the other hand, the prurient details are not, and the descriptions are decidedly suitable for all audiences.

So, I liked it. I will read more of hers from time to time. But I still prefer Howl's Moving Castle and its sequel Castle in the Air.

The Corner Shop

2006-06-12T16:55:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth Cadell was a prolific writer of frothy romantic comedies from--oh, the 1940s or so into the 1970s. For those who prefer to keep the bedroom door firmly closed, Cadell is a worthwhile find. The settings are modern and mostly English, with occasional forays into France and Portugal. Although long out of print, her books can be found in most civic libraries and are worth checking into and out.

The heroine of The Corner Shop is Lucille Abbey, the beautiful and all-business owner of a secretarial agency. When three of her employees throw in the towel on a seemingly innocuous job for a distant professor, Lucille decides to handle it personally, as much to avoid her would-be fiance as to protect the sterling reputation of her business. The personalities are deftly sketched with a light touch, the dialogue is sure, the plot ricochets from London to remote Hampshire to Paris, with stolen goods, dodgy relatives, a glittering seahorse brooch, and a certain corner shop each playing their part in this amusing romp.

journal entry

2006-06-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

The other day, as I considered what to read next, I thought about how it would look on the blog.

I caught that thought and looked at it a minute with distaste. Many of the small decisions I make are designed to meet the expectations of others--and we all make these efforts to oil the wheels of society; who could function as a total anarchist?--but I have always reserved for myself the freedom to read according to my tastes and my mood, setting my own boundaries for what I wanted to read and/or felt I should read.

So as I look at my previous entries, I see a trend towards escapist lit. Not an ounce of redeeming intellectual value in the bunch. I could make an argument for The Maltese Falcon, but the genre of which it is definitive is--hardboiled detective fiction, hardly a tower of literary respectibility. I considered arguing the psychology of it, but why bother? I may submit my own reading list to the public or semi-public eye, but I am not going to justify it. One person has their escapist lit, another their TV remote. I read what I read, and while my interests are varied, I explore them at my whim.

Suum cuique. Or, cada loco con su tema.

Artemis Fowl

2006-06-09T17:52:00.000-07:00

This children's best seller and modern-day semi-classic by Eoin Colfer has, until now, not really been on my radar. Although I have always been a fan of children's literature, both picture books and chapter books, this one came along after my children were out of the market, so I'm a little behind. Of course, I have read the Harry Potter series and the Princess Diaries series, even The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (not the series, one was enough), but I am a little skeptical of what passes for children's literature these days (she said as she adjusted her hearing aid). Too many people who ought to know better are recommending, or even requiring, books that offer depressing themes and plots guaranteed to cause nightmares.

But, well, Artemis Fowl drifted across my radar, and I read it, albeit with one eyebrow lifted. It sounded too much like Inkheart, frankly, and I found Inkheart's tone so depressing I finally just skipped to the end and got rid of it. And indeed, as I started the first chapter of Artemis Fowl, with Artemis being this millionaire genius criminal-mastermind-in-the-making, I was pretty sure it would be dismal and/or amoral. Fortunately, it was neither. I really did like it, after all.

Yes, Artemis is a budding criminal, although he's only twelve and still in school. But his attempted crime (and does he succeed? sorry, spoiler.) is on a scale that takes it firmly into the realm of fantasy, so any would-be copycat criminals will struggle to find a way to plunder the leprechaun's legendary golden hoard. At the same time, the morality of crime and of Artemis himself is gently examined, adding richness and texture to the characters and plot, instead of dwindling into a heavy-handed morality tale.

The cast of characters is relatively small. Artemis Fowl has a few allies--Butler, his personal servant; Juliet, Butler's sister, and Angeline, Artemis's mother. There are rather more on the magical side of things, predominantly fairies, with the occasional troll, goblin and dwarf.

All in all, I approve. I'm already eying the first sequel.

The Thing about Jane Spring

2006-05-29T09:47:00.000-07:00

In general, I am not a great fan of Chick Lit. This book, written by Sharon Krum, is an exception. Jane Spring is an assistant DA who was raised under, and wholly embraced, total military discipline. Dissatisfied with her persistent single status, she decides to morph into Doris Day.

Good things: Pleasant upbeat voice. Cute plot. Better written than the usual Chick-Lit novel. Explicit is not in the story, unless you count the noisy upstairs neighbors, and they're just noisy.

Not-so-good things: ...I'm thinking....It's not Literature. It's definitely a fantasy, but is that bad? It stays barely within the bounds of believability, until when it steps over the line, I was hooked, and decided to enjoy the ride. Which I did, all the way to the end.

Jane Spring would be a fun role for Reese Witherspoon or Kate Hudson. I think either could play Jane pre-Doris Day. Think "Legally Blonde." Think "Just like Heaven." And think "How to Lose a Man..". And that's The Thing about Jane Spring.

The Penelopiad

2006-05-28T20:13:00.000-07:00

The story of the Odyssey is the story of the hero Odysseus and his lengthy travels following the Trojan war, as he tries to hurry home to his long-suffering wife Penelope. This book, written by Margaret Atwood, tells her story.

Good things: it's short. It has an interesting point of view: Penelope in the 21st century, long dead and accustomed to the realm of the afterlife. She has a wry and somewhat disgruntled voice, and the story is well told.

Not-as-good things: the maids. Apparently Odysseus, after he killed all the suitors who were hanging around Penelope, hanged 12 maids for some reason or another. The maids do Greek Chorus numbers between the chapters, and seem to take up a lot of space in the story. I'm not familiar with this footnote to the story, so I cannot get into their claims of injustice, but considering how much death and destruction take place in the Iliad and the Odyssey, it's hard to get terribly worked up about it. If you're going to defend the maids, what about the shepherd, and the suitors, and Cyclops? It's a slippery slope to try to apply 21st century ethics to Greek hero myths.

One of my most unfavorite parts is an analysis of the Odysseus/Penelope reunion story as "represent[ing] the overthrow of a matrilineal moon-cult by an incoming group of usurping patriarchal father-god-worshipping barbarians." Naturally, the maids' chorus does this one. How like them.

So. I'm not reading it again. Once was enough. But it wasn't all bad.

Once Upon a Day

2006-05-26T21:43:00.000-07:00

This novel, by Lisa Tucker, has been only recently published. This story has a great "what if" premise: "What if you were raised in complete isolation, protected from every possible threat, and then suddenly had to cope with the modern world?" Of course, the plot is rather more complicated than that, and with the viewpoint shifting from time to time, it's hard to know where to start. With Stephen the cab driver? Or Dorothea, who knows only Father, Jimmy, and Grandma for as long as she can remember? Or Lucy, whose fairy-tale life took a tragic turn once upon a day?

I have mixed emotions about the whole thing, but looking back, mostly negative. I liked the storyline, by and large, but not enough to read it again. Father was a well-developed character, Lucy and Stephen less complete, Jimmy a mere cipher. Dorothea I find somewhat unbelieveable. How could a girl so sheltered and so willing to accept the reality her father presented adapt so completely to the modern world? She has panic attacks with disturbing frequency, and yet she drops the manners and morals of her Ozzie-and-Harriet upbringing without a qualm and embarks on an affair with remarkable speed and self-possession. Right. That would happen. And, while we're on the topic, I am bored bored bored with all the open discussion of everyone's sex life. Can we stop pretending that a relationship is defined by the physical, and close the bedroom door?

And in the end, after all the sordidness and upheaval, all the mental illness, drug addiction, kidnapping, near-death, heart-wrenching grief, rebellion, hostility, anger, blah blah blah---all this is tied up in a neat little package in the end. Oh, there is a disclaimer--all this will take time, etc., but you know everything is on the right track after all, and everyone will settle down to a pleasant and healing reality. Pardon me while I lift a skeptical eyebrow. Life just isn't that simple.

And so, I cannot recommend this story. If you find the premise intriguing, and it was, ask me and I will give you the short version, complete with thematic elements. Meanwhile, go read something else.

Death of a Dreamer

2006-05-23T22:34:00.000-07:00

I liked this book by M. C. Beaton, and found it satisfactory. Part of it was timing; I was in the mood for harmless entertainment, and while I hadn't read this book before, I knew what I was going to get.

Death of a Dreamer is the latest in a series of murder mysteries set in a remote village in the Scottish Highlands, and featuring the local policeman, a lanky redhead named Hamish Macbeth. This is a B series, not to be compared with Ellis Peters or Dick Francis or Anne Perry, my A-list favorites. No, this is more like Hostess Snowballs or Cupcakes or Twinkies--they're good enough if you like them, dreadful if you don't, but in no way comparable to a good homemade brownie or toasted almond cake.

But I confess a certain guilty pleasure in Hostess Snowballs, and I like this particular B series. I like Hamish and Priscilla, and the other characters are reasonably distinctive if annoying. The setting is interesting enough, the plots are reasonably cohesive, and they're not so long that the imperfections get to me. It was good enough, and I still liked it when it was all over.

And I won't regret the calories later.

The Maltese Falcon

2006-05-20T13:52:00.000-07:00

I had always thought of The Maltese Falcon as a movie starring Humphrey Bogart, and so it is, but the movie was preceded by the book, and both are classics of their genre. Though I haven't seen the movie (yet), I have not escaped the gazillion spoofs and cultural references, and so reading the book was a unique experience. Sam Spade is described thoroughly on the first page of the book, and so I have a vivid mental picture, but as Sam Spade plies his craft in the dark streets of San Francisco, I sometimes catch flashes of Humphrey Bogart and Peter Falk, who played Sam Diamond in Murder by Death. It is disquieting, and central to my experience of the book.

The plot twists and turns--I was not certain how it would end until the last page. The characters are crisply defined, with Sam Spade looming over all, flaws blazing and cold cynicism unabated. The setting, San Francisco, is almost a character itself, an integral part of the story--and I am glad I started reading it while I was in San Francisco. But again, because of its classic status, the story seems also to parody itself, and how do I escape this illusion? Like the Shakespeare student who complained that the Bard used too many cliches, it's hard to distinguish the freshness in a story that has been photocopied so many times.

The real question, to the newcomer to film noir and the literary genre from which it sprang, is: should you watch the movie first, or read the book? I usually spring for reading the book first, but in this case I might suggest watching the movie, which is supposed to be a faithful renditon of the book. Perhaps then the ghosts will become the characters, and Humphrey Bogart will fill your mind's eye when you read the book for the first time.

But I can't be sure. Ask me after I've seen the movie.

Saddle Up, Bookaroo

2006-05-16T10:13:00.000-07:00

Reading a blog about what someone else is reading can be weird at best, so this is more like a journal where Karren & I record our thoughts about what we are reading--an open public journal, that is.

Why Karren and me? Because we were both thinking about doing this at the same time, and when we found out we were on the same wavelength, we went with it. We hope that combining our book-blogging efforts will make the sum greater than its parts, kind of like Reese's peanut butter cups.

Who is chocolate and who is peanut butter? you decide.