Monday Malarkey

It's a good thing I got rid of a nice little stack of books, last week, because I'd feel really bad about this pile of arrivals, otherwise:

For review:

• Starfire by Dale Brown - from William Morrow
• Don't Try to Find Me by Holly Brown - from William Morrow
• I'm Nobody by Alex Marestaing - from MyMilou Press

Purchased:

• The Humans by Matt Haig
• Echo Boy by Matt Haig 
• Jericho, Season 4 (graphic novel) - pre-ordered about 2 years ago and delayed at least half a dozen times. Now I need to find the previous graphic novels and watch the TV series, again. 

Swap books:

• Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler (from a friend)
• My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead (short stories) ed. by Jeffrey Eugenides (via PBS)
• We Were Liars by E. Lockhart (from a friend)

Surprise (unsolicited) Books from Sterling Children's Books:

• I'm Not Cute (picture book) by Jonathan Allen
• Fact or Fib and Fact or Fib 2, both by Kathy Furgang  

Last week's posts:

• Ode to Childhood: Poetry to Celebrate the Child, ed. by Lucy Gray (review)
• Poetry for Young Children: Robert Frost, ed. by Gary D. Schmidt (review)
• Poetry for Young Children: African American Poetry, ed. by Rampersad and Blount (review)
• April Reads in Review (2014) incl. a poetry month wrap-up (list and some 1-paragraph reviews)
• For Such a Time by Kate Breslin (review)
• Quotations from recent reads (quoted from 3 different books)

Books finished:

• Fidelity (poems) by Grace Paley
• Fact or Fib by Kathy Furgang
• I'm Not Cute by Jonathan Allen
• For Such a Time by Kate Breslin
• Fact or Fib 2 by Kathy Furgang

Currently reading:

• Outrageous Fortune: Growing Up at Leeds Castle by Anthony Russell - almost done.
• Acts of God (short stories) by Ellen Gilchrist - Have only read one story. I thought it was excellent.
• Echo Boy by Matt Haig

No movies, this weekend, but I've been watching Emergency! on MeTV while walking on the treadmill.  I was disappointed to find out that Almost Human has been canceled. Bummer. I really liked that show. 

Last week was not a great reading week, focus-wise, so I was extremely excited to get an unexpected shipment from Sterling Children's Books. Reading something short and sweet -- or, in this case, several somethings -- is great for a lift.  And, it was a good blogging week, so I'm happy.

I have no specific plans for the blog, this week, other than continuing to try to catch up on reviews.  What's up in your world?

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Quotations from recent reads

From A Single Breath by Lucy Clarke
Copyright 2014
Simon and Schuster

Grief is physical, she thinks. If feels like something corrosive is burning through her insides, dissolving layers of herself, leaving her raw. 

~p. 23

From Birds of America by Lorrie Moore
Copyright 1998
Alfred A. Knopf

Perhaps fairy folk lived in the trees! Abby saw immediately that to live amid the magic feel of this place would be necessarily to believe in magic. To live here would make you superstitious, warm-hearted with secrets, unrealistic. If you were literal, or practical, you would have to move -- or you would have to drink.

~from "Which is More Than I Can Say About Some People", p. 30

It housed a large collection of rare and foreign books, and she had driven across several states to get there, squinting through the splattered tempera of insects on the windshield, watching for the dark tail of a possible tornado [ . . . ]

~from "Community Life", p. 60

But there was in the air that kind of distortion that bent you a little; it caused your usual self to grow slippery, to wander off and shop, to get blurry, bleed, bevel with possibility.

~[ibid] p. 61

They never really spoke to you. They spoke toward you. They spoke at you. They spoke near you, on you.

~[ibid] p. 66

She had already -- carefully, obediently -- stepped through all the stages of bereavement: anger, denial, bargaining, Häagen-Dazs, rage. Anger to rage -- who said she wasn't making progress?

~from "Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens", p. 112

Ever since he began living in the present tense, Bill sees the Constitution as a blessedly changing thing. He does not feel current behavior should be made necessarily to conform to old law. He feels personally, for instance, that he'd throw away a few First Amendment privileges -- abortion protest, say, and all telemarketing, perhaps some pornography (though not Miss April 1965 -- never!) -- in exchange for gutting the Second Amendment. The Founding Fathers were revolutionaries, after all. They would be with him on this, he feels. They would be for making the whole thing up as you go along, reacting to things as they happened, like a great, wild performance piece.

from "Beautiful Grade", p. 132

Because everything is behind glass and cannot be touched, Quilty grows bored. " ' The city of Vicksburg,' " Mack reads aloud, " ' forced to surrender to Grant on the Fourth of July, refused to celebrate Independence Day again until 1971. ' " 

"When no one cared anymore," adds Quilty. "I like a place with a strong sense of grudge  [ . . . ]"

~from "What You Want to Do Fine", p. 167


From The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Copyright 2008
Free Press (Simon and Schuster)

My eyes were burning from squinting at books. I should have been heading back toward Delhi Gate to catch a bus. There was a foul taste of book in my mouth -- as if I had inhaled so much particulated old paper from the air. Strange thoughts brew in your heart when you spend too much time with old books. 

~p. 218

The OED says it would have been okay for me to use the word "quotes" rather than "quotations" as the subject of this post because the informal use has become more common. See explanation, here:

Quote vs. Quotation: What's the Difference?

Finding information like that quickly is one of the reasons I'm fond of the Internet, even though -- and apparently science has proven this -- "The Internet is where productivity goes to die." 

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

For Such a Time by Kate Breslin

For Such a Time by Kate Breslin
Copyright 2014
Bethany House - Historical Fiction/WWII - Inspirational/Christian elements
Source: Bethany House via TLC Tours

Updated on 5/4/14.  Update is below the section entitled "My thoughts, so far."

This one is an "oops" post.  For Such a Time is over 400 pages long and this hasn't been a good reading week because of the changing weather (a day of running back and forth between safe room and TV as tornadoes hit all around us and 3 days of migraines -- ugh). 

So, I'll just tell you a little about the book and what I think, at this point.

Brief synopsis:

Stella was on the verge of being shot by a firing squad when a stranger saved her from certain death. Held prisoner in a small room after her rescue, she is still unable to eat. Her time in Dachau concentration camp has made her weak and unable to stomach much of anything. But, then an SS man takes her to his home next to Theresienstadt in Czechoslavakia and makes sure she gains strength so that she can work as his secretary.

Theresienstadt is where Stella's uncle Morty now resides. And, with a Red Cross inspection imminent, new prisoners are going to be imported, the sickly and thin ones taken to Auschwitz, where they'll undoubtedly be marched straight to the gas chambers.  Can Stella, whose real name is Hadassah,  convince her boss, the Kommandant, to help her save her people?

My thoughts, so far:

I'm currently on page 153.  At the beginning of the book, I liked the dialogue and the writing, in general, but thought some of the set-up sounded iffy. I was concerned it was going to be a book that ended up irritating but by about page 120 I had changed my mind. This is definitely a well thought-out book. There is, at this point, only one plot point that I have difficulty buying and I'm no longer dwelling on it because I'm enjoying the reading so much.

The author makes it clear, via the scriptures at the head of each chapter and the name Hadassah (which was the Biblical Esther's Jewish name), that the story is patterned after the story of Esther in the Bible, one of my personal favorites, and I'm eager to see where the author takes this story.  I'll let you know when I finish.

Update! ---------------------------

I finished reading For Such a Time, late last night. Toward the end, there's a great deal of action but I don't want to give away what happens so I'll just say I enjoyed the faster-paced portions toward the end, for the most part, but found that there were moments I thought, "Could that really have happened?" or was disappointed that the author recycled a bit of action by having a different character do the same exact thing another had done mere pages before. But, in general, I really enjoyed the book.  I couldn't decide what rating to give For Such a Time so I slept on it and I'm thinking it falls somewhere between good and very good but I enjoyed it enough that I'm giving it a 4/5. Although For Such a Time is Kate Breslin's first publication, I'd be willing to bet she has at least 4 or 5 other manuscripts in a drawer, somewhere. It doesn't read like a beginner's writing.

The problems I had with the book are mostly minor. But, I will say that I agreed with a reviewer at Goodreads who said the verses from Esther at the head of each chapter, the fact that Stella's real name was Hadassah and Uncle Morty was Mordecai, etc., ended up being more distracting than helpful or necessary. The story bears similarities to Esther but it isn't the same; it can't be. So, being hit on the head with the Esther parallels was a touch annoying. And, the romance didn't work for me entirely, especially passionate kisses at inappropriate moments, when I can't imagine I'd be able to even think about romance if I was in those characters' shoes.

I didn't find the book preachy -- since it's a Bethany House book and they publish Christian/Inspirational fiction, I expected the Christian references and anticipated some sort of big conversion to happen to the Jewish character. There was no conversion, which was a tremendous relief because it wouldn't have been plausible in this particular story.  

Recommended - An enjoyable WWII story that parallels the Biblical tale of Esther, I found the conclusion satisfying, the romance a little heavy-handed, the setting well drawn. In general, I enjoyed the reading but would have liked it better if it had been a little less wordy so while I recommend the book and think it's one of the better Christian WWII novels I've read in recent years, it does have its flaws. They weren't enough to stop my enjoyment but occasionally I did find myself questioning the plausibility, here or there.

End update ------------------------

Of course, because it's Friday, a cat photo is obligatory:

This photo was taken in Isabel's new favorite sleeping spot inside a clothing cabinet. In the evening I open one door and let her jump in. She'll climb into the dark side and settle down, happy to have a dark place to settle that's reasonably near me. You can tell I had to open the door that's normally closed to snap her photo by that, "You're disturbing my calm," look.  

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

April Reads in Review (2014) incl. a poetry month wrap-up

Wow, April flew by pretty quickly, didn't it?

April reads (with links to reviews, where applicable):

46. Itch Rocks - Simon Mayo

47. 50 Children: One Ordinary American Couple's Extraordinary Rescue Mission into the Heart of Germany - Steven Pressman

48. Tooth and Claw - Jim Arnosky

49. The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga

50. Femininity - Susan Brownmiller

51. How to Lose a Lemur by Frann Preston-Gannon

52. Ode to Childhood, ed. by Lucy Gray

53. The Accidental Caregiver - Gregor Collins

54. A Single Breath - Lucy Clarke

55. The Other Typist - Suzanne Rindell
56. When the Cypress Whispers - Yvette Manessis Corporon

57. The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

58. Poetry for Young People: Robert Frost, ed. by Gary D. Schmidt, illus. by Henri Sorensen

59. Poetry for Young People: African-American Poetry, ed. by A. Rampersad and M Blount

60. Birds of America (stories) - Lorrie Moore

61. Fidelity (poems) - Grace Paley

I'm quite happy with my April reading -- a little less thrilled with my reviewing rate but I did manage to catch up on all of the reviewing I needed to do for March. Only 5 of the books without links to reviews, above, are from publishers so hopefully I'll be finished with those, soon.  I actually have read more than 61 books, this year, but some of the children's books I still need to review are so shy on words that I didn't feel right listing them as books read. I might list them in May, just to create a convenient place to link back to them. 

Itch Rocks, Tooth and Claw, How to Lose a Lemur, When the Cypress Whispers and The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry are the books I still need to review for publishers. I either liked or loved every single one.

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga is from my home library. It's a fascinating book about a man who is part of the servant class in India. He is able to get a better than average education and training to become a driver. But, even working for a fabulously wealthy man, he's still poor and very much aware of his place in society, so he decides he must take charge in order to lift himself out of the poverty chain. A strangely upbeat book with a sinister undercurrent, The White Tiger is a fascinating read. I really enjoyed it.  I don't think I'll review it separately, though. This is it.

The same goes for Femininity by Susan Brownmiller and Birds of America by Lorrie Moore. Heck, I'll just do one paragraph for each:

Femininity is a book about how women are viewed, both by men and other women. It has sections on the body, hair, and clothing, among others. While parts of it were quite dated, it's still a terrific feminist read because it makes you think about what's changed, what hasn't and why.

Birds of America is Lorrie Moore's award winning collection of short stories and I was kind of stunned at how disappointing I found it.  She's a sharp writer with a witty sense of humor so you can't help but admire her clever sentences; but, I found it very difficult to relate to, like, or understand the characters in a way that made me feel like the stories were in some way meaningful or fulfilling. The final story is an exception. "Terrific Mother" is both painful and beautiful, the story of a woman who blames herself for a baby's death when the bench she's sitting on while holding her friend's baby breaks. I loved "Terrific Mother" because if was one of the few stories that ended with the ray of hope I always seek in short stories.

And a wrap-up of my reading for National Poetry Month:

I read 4 poetry books: Ode to Childhood, Poetry for Young People: Robert Frost, Poetry for Young People: African American Poetry and Grace Paley's last volume of poetry (and final work), Fidelity. Of the 4 books, 3 were set aside at some point. So, while I already know myself to be a moody reader, this month I came to the realization that poetry can be even trickier when it comes to timing. And, incidentally, I loved them all. Naturally, there were some poems that meant more to me or which I liked more than others but in general I really loved the reading and came out of it thinking that I need to work harder at injecting more poetry into my reading life.  

Fidelity by Grace Paley was given to me by my lovely daughter-in-law and I don't know if I'll bother reviewing it but I definitely recommend it. Since she was nearing the end of her life when she wrote the book, Paley's poetic reflections were a mixture of sadness for her losses, love of family, reflections on life and humorous looks at being old or being a writer. Fidelity is a lovely little book.

I think there must be a Star Trek line or phrase that applies to every facet of life. This, for example, is about the distance to the bottom of my TBR pile:

At least, it feels that way. So, I'm back in catch-up mode and ignoring review requests. No idea how long that will last, this time.  How was your reading month?

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

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Poetry for Young People: African American Poetry, ed. by A. Rampersad and M. Blout, illus. by K. Barbour

Poetry for Young People: African American Poetry, ed. by Arnold Rampersad and Marcellus Blount, Illustrated by Karen Barbour
Copyright 2012 
Sterling Children's Books - Poetry
Source: Sterling

Brief synopsis:

An anthology of African American poetry from as early as the 18th century, including both well-known poets and some not as widely read. Includes an introduction describing the evolution of African American poetry, intros to each poem, and vocabulary that explains the usage of some of the words in the context shown. Children's picture book sized, 48 pp.

My thoughts:

I was totally excited to see an anthology of African American Poetry in the envelope Sterling sent me because I enjoy passing on children's books to schools and my youngest son's girlfriend is currently teaching in the Mississippi Delta, where the children are mostly African American and resources are appallingly limited. They can use any book but I think this one will be especially meaningful to the children.

Poetry for Young People: African American Poetry is worth buying for the introduction alone, as it is truly eye-opening. Editor Arnold Rampersad (from Princeton University) beautifully describes the history of African American poetry, its influences (poverty, slavery and racism as well as everyday life), its writers and how some were able to write as early as the years of slavery, even though teaching a slave to read was against the law. I loved the learning experience as well as the poetry itself.  I had no idea, for example, that a volume of poetry by an African American (Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phillis Wheatley) was published as early as 1773.

The editors have done a fabulous job of selecting poetry and placing it in chronological order, earliest to most recent. The illustrations are bold and colorful but I must admit I didn't love them. They remind me a little of both Eric Carle and primitive art but they're a little flat for my taste, yet definitely well-suited to the individual poems. "Apollo", shown below, is one of my favorite poems. This is not my favorite spread for illustration but the one I liked best didn't turn out -- the battery died on my camera and I had to use a lower-quality camera. Will try to replace the image and update later; there are definitely better examples of the illustrations.

The intro to "Apollo":

[Elizabeth Alexander] is a professor at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. She is also a graduate of Yale, Boston University, and the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a doctorate in literature. An acclaimed writer, she was chosen by President Obama to read one of her poems at his inauguration in 2009. Her poem "Apollo" takes us back to July 20, 1969, when men landed on the moon for the first time. The U.S. spacecraft Eagle touched down with Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr.  Eager to watch the event on television, an African American family traveling by car stops at a roadside restaurant frequented by white customers. For a moment, the drama on the screen seems to put racial tension in its proper perspective.

And, the poem (in case you can't view it by enlarging):

Apollo 

by Elizabeth Alexander

We pull off

to a road shack

in Massachusetts

to watch men walk

on the moon. We did

the same thing 

for three two one

blast off, and now

we watch the same men

bounce in and out

of craters. I want 

a Coke and a hamburger.

Because the men

are walking on the moon

which is now irrefutably 

not green, not cheese,

not a shiny dime floating

in a cold blue,

the way I'd thought,

the road shack people don't

notice we are a black

family not from there,

the way it mostly goes.

This talking through

static, bounces in space-

boots, tethered

to cords is much

stranger, stranger

even than we are.

Highly recommended - A fabulous anthology with an exceptionally informative introduction, a great selection of poetry, terrific intros to each poem and some vocabulary words.  My only quibbles with Poetry for Young People: African American Poetry are minor. I thought a couple of the definitions were good descriptions of the author's meaning without strictly defining in a dictionary sense. The fact that they weren't dictionary definitions bothered me a tiny bit but that choice is arguably correct because usage trumps definition in poetry. While he illustrations are not a style I like all that well, I do love the eye-popping color. Another great book for teaching, I think it would be especially wonderful to use as a reference during Black History Month because, being an anthology, it goes beyond talking about the better-known poets. I've heard some complaints from youngsters about having to study the same African Americans over and over, again, during their years of schooling. Variety is a very fine thing.


©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Poetry for Young Children: Robert Frost, ed. by Gary D. Schmidt

Brief note:

A few days after my computer problem was allegedly fixed, I am still having difficulty with sluggishness and occasionally getting suspicious pop-up messages asking me if I want to add files with strange names.  So, unfortunately, this isn't probably going to be the productive week I hoped it would but I want to review the poetry books I've read before April ends.

I adore April for National Poetry Month, an excellent reminder to read more poetry. Poetry is a form of writing I don't indulge in as much I should.  

Poetry for Young People: Robert Frost, ed. by Gary D. Schmidt, illus. by Henri Sorensen
Copyright 2014 (reprint, originally published in 1994)
Sterling Children's Books - Poetry
Source - Sterling 

Brief synopsis;

A collection of poetry by Robert Frost with an introduction describing his life and poetry as well as intros to each individual poem. Children's picture book sized, 48 pp.

From the cover flap:

Meet Robert Frost -- one of the best-loved American poets. The winner of four Pulitzer Prizes, he is most known for his ability to capture the beauty of nature and his surroundings in  evocative, yet uncomplicated language.

My thoughts:

When I was contacted by a Sterling rep about the Poetry for Young Children series, I replied saying I'd be happy to review any they wanted to send without specifying any particular author or book. So, the two books I received were selected by the publicist.  When I opened the envelope, I was excited to see Robert Frost's collection. I'm a nature lover and I like what I've read of Frost but haven't read enough. You don't have to be a youngster to enjoy the added benefit of an introduction describing Frost and the brief intros to each poem.

Intro to "After Apple-Picking":

Apple picking can be slow work. Each apple must be picked by hand, while you  hold yourself secure on the ladder with your legs. Any apple that falls or is dropped will bruise and then rot, spoiling any other apples that are stored with it. In this poem, the weather is starting to turn wintry -- there is already ice on the water trough -- and Frost is looking forward to a long winter's sleep.

The poetry in Poetry for Young Children: Robert Frost is divided by seasons and beautifully illustrated with watercolor paintings that are topical, not just generic images of nature.

I read Poetry for Young Children: Robert Frost on the patio with a light breeze blowing, birds and bumblebees flitting around then slowing in the gathering darkness -- definitely the best way to read Frost. Occasionally, I read a poem aloud (quietly, because it was the weekend and the closest neighbors were outside, as well) and I listened to the actor Robert Lansing reading "Birches" (which is included in this collection) on YouTube. Although my intent was to locate a video of Robert Frost reading his own poetry and I failed at the time, I've since discovered there are a few; I must have chosen the wrong search terms.

Highly recommended - I love everything about this book: the selections, the illustrations, general introduction and intros to each poem. Great for teaching a unit about Robert Frost, to give to a poetry-loving child, to supplement your own education if you feel it's lacking or to read aloud to younger ones you want to acquaint with poetry.

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Ode to Childhood: Poetry to Celebrate the Child, ed. by Lucy Gray

Ode to Childhood: Poetry to Celebrate the Child, ed. by Lucy Gray
Copyright 2014 
Batsford - Poetry (anthology)
Source: Sterling Children's Books

Brief synopsis: 

. . . a celebration of children, of childhood, and in many ways, of being a parent. [Ode to Childhood] covers some of the best poetry ever written about the charms and beauty of children, as well as the magical time of childhood. The poems range from the humour of childish talk and wonderment and the formation of childhood memories through to the pain of losing a child, and the profound love that a child can bring.

Featuring much loved poets such as Wordsworth, Betjeman, Blake and E E Cummings.

~ quoted from the cover

My thoughts:

When I first picked up Ode to Childhood, I had it in my head that it might be the kind of book you buy for a new parent, but then I got to, "A Child Ill" (that's "ILL") by John Betjeman, which begins, "Oh, little body, do not die," and I chucked that idea out the window.

I think, perhaps, I was also in the wrong mood when I first opened Ode to Childhood. I set the book aside and waited a bit, letting my mind-set change and reading from Inside Poetry Out, a book about how to read poetry, understand and enjoy it. Wow, has that book been helpful! On the second reading of Ode to Childhood, I found myself absolutely falling in love with this little anthology, picturing the little hands and tousled heads, the joyful moments of discovery. And, I got every bit as much out of the poems that are about the fear a child might die, the horror of being the victim of bullying, etc.

The illustrations are absolutely wonderful - bold, blocky, colorful illustrations that are nicely consistent, throughout.

Ode to Childhood is the kind of poetry book that you keep to read over and over and over, again, when you want to be reminded of what it was like to feel the bliss of childhood as you explored with your fat little hands and wobbly legs, to remember when your little ones were around and how much light they brought into your world (if you're a parent) or just to read for pleasure.

Highly recommended - I smiled almost all the way through this book; I absolutely love Ode to Childhood.  The poetry is nicely varied, covering a broad perspective of childhood's joys and fears (more heavily focused on the positive side) and with absolutely beautiful illustrations. It's truly a little gem.  My only caution is that it's not a book I'd wrap up and give to a poetry-loving new parent, if only because they might not appreciate being reminded that bad things happen to children while they're still counting fingers and toes. Then again, a new parent probably won't get around to reading it for a long time!

Most of the poetry in Ode to Childhood was new to me, although I did recognize some.  A couple of the poems are a little tricky to read because of their age but after reading some of Inside Poetry Out, which advises you to read a poem twice silently and then again aloud, I found myself relaxing into the poetry and actually realized the oldest poems were quite clear when read aloud or even imagining someone reading them aloud. Amazing what a difference that makes.

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monday Malarkey - Up and running

Last week was a week I planned to hit the poetry and children's backlog I've amassed but then my computer was invaded by something nasty and I ended up offline most of the week. This best-laid plans thing keeps recurring. I object.  

Last week's arrivals:

For review:

• Time and Again by Jack Finney - Finney has been one of my favorite authors for decades. I've read this before and I'm thrilled to have an excuse to read it again.

From Paperback Swap:  

• The Spirit Keeper by K. B. Laugheed - No idea where I heard of this one but it sounds terrific.

From a friend:

Everything else. You should be able to click to enbiggen the photo.

Last week's posts:

• A Single Breath by Lucy Clarke
• The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell

Totally unnecessary side note on last week's posts:

I was unable to find a cover image in a decent size when I went hunting on Google Images for the cover of A Single Breath. But, when I went searching for a cover image of The Other Typist, there were pages and pages of images in varying sizes (and a little variety to the designs). I presume this is partly because The Other Typist has been available longer and because it's been heavily promoted but of the two I'd most highly recommend A Single Breath. The Tasmanian setting made for a wonderful armchair travel interlude and I enjoyed theorizing about what had happened to the drowned husband, as I read. Don't overlook A Single Breath if you like reading about new places!

Books finished:

• The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell
• When the Cypress Whispers by Yvette Manessis Corporon
• The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
• Poetry for Young People: Robert Frost, ed. by Gary D. Schmidt
• Poetry for Young People: African American Poetry, ed. by A. Rampersad and M. Blount
• Birds of America (short stories) by Lorrie Moore

Wow, look at what not having access to the Internet can do for a gal!

Currently reading:  


Outrageous Fortune: Growing Up at Leeds Castle by Anthony Russell - Rather an impulse purchase, I'm finding that this book is entertaining but suffers some things I consider fledgling writer flaws, like trying too hard to inject humor into the narrative. I do think the author's family is fascinating and my eyes opened a little wider when I discovered the author went to a private school just around the circle from the flat we occasionally borrow from a friend in London. There's still a school there; I was just surprised by the stunning wealth of the children who attend it, I suppose.

I'm not sure which fiction title I'll begin, next. 

Weekend movies:

None!  But, we did watch a tiny bit of random TV.  I watched part of an episode of an early-Sixties show hosted by Mike Douglas and Florence Henderson because I was looking for videos of Robert Frost reading his own poetry (no luck finding any). Instead, I got to listen to the late actor Robert Lansing (who met Robert Frost when his poet/actress wife attended Frost's annual Bread Loaf writer's conference) reading Robert Frost's "Birches".  And then, because Robert Lansing played Gary Seven in my all-time favorite classic Star Trek episode, "Assignment: Earth," we streamed the episode for fun.

Blogging plans:

I should probably call that "blogging wishes".  I'm hoping to tackle all the poetry books I've read for National Poetry Month, tomorrow (that was also last week's plan, haha). Doing so will involve a string of posts on one day . . . you know, assuming we don't get blown away by the big storm headed our way. When MEMA (the state disaster agency) and FEMA sit down over coffee 3 days before a storm, it's time to take notice and toss blankets into your safe room.  

After that, I plan to focus on my backlog of children's books.  If I don't have the time or fortitude to write a full days' posts of children's books, I'll just alternate between children's books and other reads. I'm going to go back to a slightly more formal reviewing style with info at the top, brief synopsis and thoughts, as I did with The Other Typist, for ease. 

At least, that's the plan.  You just never know what's going to happen from one day to the next.  
©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell

The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell
Copyright 2013 
Berkley Books - Historical Fiction (1920s)
Source: Penguin Books for Tour

My doctor says it is our animal nature to judge the weak more harshly, owing to how survival depends upon weeding these creatures out.  He says I have highly developed animalistic tendencies. The way he says it, it does not sound like a compliment. 

p. 222

Brief synopsis:  

Rose works as a typist for the New York City Police Department, recording confessions. When a new typist named Odalie arrives at her precinct to help with the increased work load caused by a crackdown on bootlegging, Rose is fascinated by Odalie's chameleon-like charm and becomes aware of her own power to cause a criminal's conviction with the alteration of a few key sentences. And, when Odalie sweeps Rose up into her illicit world of speakeasies and lies, Rose finds herself willingly following along in her shadow, becoming the kind of person she would normally judge.

My thoughts:

I didn't ever feel like I could relate to or sympathize with Rose because her weakness and vulnerability make her annoying.  "Stop, Rose! Don't go with Odalie!" is the way I felt throughout the entire book. There's a mystery dangled from the beginning but I was constantly tempted to put down the book because I didn't feel it was so much compelling as a tease. You know practically from the beginning that something has happened to Rose that led to her incarceration in a mental facility and because she's in a mental facility, she is clearly an unreliable narrator. But, you can't help but assume that everything will eventually be clarified.

Unfortunately, the ending is something on the order of a "What the hell just happened?" kind of ending. Even knowing Rose is unreliable, a single paragraph calls the entire novel is into question.

There are also two completely different ways to look at the writing style: overwrought or deliberately haughty in tone. Was the narrator trying to double up on the confusion factor, lending a haughtiness to the tone through the use of too many adjectives and adverbs or was the author simply going overboard in an attempt to sound "of the time"? It's hard to say but I personally found the writing style exhausting.

Iffy on recommendation but good for discussion - I like an unreliable narrator when the facts of a story are, at some point, clarified. Nabokov's Transparent Things is probably a good example. Whereas the author of The Other Typist throws unreliability in your face with her repetitive comments about the mental institution, there is a subtle undercurrent of something sinister in Transparent Things and it's only when you get to the end of the book that the "Aha!" light goes on and you realize the author has been slowly revealing an equation and its solution is right in front of you. It makes you want to read the book all over, again. I would have preferred to throw The Other Typist at a wall rather than reread it because the sensation was less an adding-up than a tearing-down of everything you've grown to believe when you reach the end, which I found very unsatisfying.

However, I do believe there's a certain amount of skill involved in the setting of the scene and that the overwrought style, such as it is, may have indeed been deliberate.  It's that probability that's had me waffling between giving the book 2 or 3 stars out of 5.  I felt used and let down, so I want to give it a 2 for the sense that the author wasted my time. The story is not a subtle one. But, the idea that the style may have been entirely deliberate makes me feel like it's not quite fair to go that low. Waffle, waffle.  

The fact that I feel so torn about the rating and there's so much that is left unanswered (plus the fact that I noticed the reviews are polarized) does make me feel like The Other Typist would be a knock-out choice for book club reading. The moment I closed it I thought, "I want to talk to someone about this," and I can visualize a nice, noisy argument about who really was narrating and whether the narrator was obsessed by the other woman's skill at deception or the obsession was something entirely different. So, while I'm iffy about recommending the book, the fact that there's much to discuss lends me to give it a nod for book group discussion.

Cover thoughts:

I like the cover but when I did an image search I discovered that there's an alternative version of the same exact head shot in black and white with only the flapper's lips (red) and the title of the book colored and a New York skyline rather than blurred hands at the bottom. I thought the black and white image was much more striking.

In other news:

My desktop is down with either a virus or worm so I've had to find another way to post and I don't have access to photographs. So, there will be no Fiona Friday post, even on the wrong day, this week. I also had some children's books I planned to review but they require access to the interior photos I snapped. Hopefully, the spouse will figure out the problem over the weekend.

Happy weekend!

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

A Single Breath by Lucy Clarke

During last week's miserable reading slump, I picked up A Single Breath by Lucy Clarke, a book that had just arrived from Touchstone and which was originally sent to me unsolicited (but did not arrive - a second copy then arrived at the wrong house at my request, so who knows . . . a dog might have dragged off the first to use as a toy; they do that in our old neighborhood).

A Single Breath is about Eva, a midwife who has been married to Jackson for a mere 8 months when Jackson is swept off an outcropping of rocks while fishing on the English coast. Deeply grieved, Eva decides to take some time off from her job in London and travel to Tasmania to meet Jackson's father and his estranged brother, Saul.  But, things don't go as expected. Jackson father Dirk is not welcoming and Saul is still angry about an incident that happened several years ago.

However, events conspire to keep Eva in Tasmania longer than expected and she ends up staying in a shack just down the bay from where Saul lives. As she gets to know Saul, the truth about Jackson slowly emerges and Eva realizes she really didn't know the man she married at all. Why did Jackson leave Tasmania? Did he really love Eva? Is he truly dead?

There are bits of writing by Jackson interspersed throughout and those both confuse the reader and add mystery to the story. If he's able to write, isn't he really alive?  Or are those little bits something that Jackson wrote before his untimely death in a letter that Eva will later discover?

There's a lot I think I shouldn't mention about A Single Breath because it's best to enjoy the slow reveal but I can tell you that I felt like this as I was reading:

Sucked into the mystery of what became of Jackson in A SINGLE BREATH by Lucy Clarke. Washed into the sea or not? Dying to know. #fridayreads
— Bookfoolery (@Bookfoolery) April 18, 2014

And, I loved the way Eva gradually got to know Saul as she stayed near him on an island off the coast of Tasmania, loved the way he taught her how to "free dive", checked on her when she was ill, even eventually brought her along to work.  Saul and Eva are likable characters. I did feel as if the story dragged on a little bit longer than necessary and what I expected occurred, all-around, but I enjoyed the reading and am grateful to Lucy Clarke for yanking me out of my book slump with A Single Breath.

Recommended - I particularly loved the characters, the setting, and the tug of mystery.  There were some repetitive tense-change errors and I did find the story predictable in many ways but none of the book's flaws were significant enough to spoil the reading. Love, love, love the setting. Reading A Single Breath will definitely make you want to hop a plane to Tasmania.

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monday Malarkey - Easter, a lousy reading and blogging week and beautiful arrivals

Easter was, I confess, pretty dull in this house.  I managed to decorate a little using a plaster bunny I already owned and some tiny Ukrainian eggs just purchased. But, only one of our children came home and he spent the weekend recovering from a flight to and from Florida for a job interview (meaning, like most college kids, he pretty much slept all weekend).  Here's the bunny:

As to reading and blogging, last week was terrible!  I enjoyed the two books I finished but I ended up abandoning the new Matthiessen book, In Paradise, because it just wasn't doing anything for me -- too vague at times, too sad for the moment. I'll give it another go, later.  I missed my book group meeting so I decided to also set aside The Forest Unseen for later, as well. It's beautifully written but I needed something to really grab me hard and not let me go.  Nothing called out to me for days.

The book that finally captured me was A Single Breath by Lucy Clarke, the only book that arrived week-before-last (and not even at the right house).  I finished A Single Breath on Saturday night and immediately began reading The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell, so it certainly seems like A Single Breath has broken the slump. We shall see.

Last week's arrivals were so pretty I decided I should photograph them:

• Outrageous Fortune by Anthony Russell (purchased)
• Confessions of a Self-Help Writer by Benjamin W. Dehaven - from Lagniappe Publishing via Shelf Awareness

From Algonquin Books:

• The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
• The Time Fetch by Amy Herrick
• Anton and Cecil, Cats at Sea by Lisa Martin and Valerie Martin
• The Transcriptionist by Amy Rowland (unsolicited - the rest were by request)

Last week's posts:

• 50 Children by Steven Pressman, The Accidental Caregiver by Gregor Collins and Children's Wartime Diaries, ed. by Laurel Holliday
• Fiona Friday: Izzy helps with the laundry

Books finished (links lead to Amazon for the sake of easy access to book descriptions; I am not an associate and will not profit if you purchase after visiting via these links):

• The Accidental Caregiver by Gregor Collins
• A Single Breath by Lucy Clarke

Currently reading:

• The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell - Really, this is the only book I'm actively reading.
• Birds of America (short stories) by Lorrie Moore
• Poetry for Young People: Robert Frost ed. by Gary D. Schmidt
• Inside Poetry Out by John O. Hayden 

Weekend movies:

Wahoo, husband found our copy of The Princess Bride!  So, naturally, we watched it as soon as we had a spare moment.

Some movies are timeless and The Princess Bride comes perilously close.  There's that bit at the beginning when Fred Savage is playing a video game, which unfortunately does date the movie a tiny bit. Otherwise, it's all swashbuckling fun, great lines and true love.  I wondered aloud how many people say, "As you wish," to their significant others because of this movie. We do, at times.  Love The Princess Bride.

That's actually the only movie we watched and neither of us was apparently in a television mood. We watched enough of last week's episode of The Bletchley Circle to fill in the gaps as we missed about the first 20 minutes of it, last week.  Husband watched a little hockey.  I remember when my mother used to write to me and her letters were all about sweeping the walk, weeding and watching Dancing with the Stars (which I've only recently begun to watch). I thought she was dull as paste.  Ack, tell me I haven't become my mom!!!

That's all for now.  Happy Monday!

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Fiona Friday - Izzy helps with the laundry

Both cats actually helped but Isabel did the best job of posing.

I've got family home for the holiday weekend so I'll be back next week. Happy Easter!

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

50 Children by Steven Pressman, The Accidental Caregiver by Gregor Collins and Children's Wartime Diaries, ed. by Laurel Holliday

I've decided to combine 50 Children and The Accidental Caregiver with Children's Wartime Diaries in one post because they have WWII as an element in common. 50 Children: One Ordinary American Couple's Extraordinary Rescue Mission into the Heart of Nazi Germany by Steven Pressman is about the rescue of 50 Jewish children from Vienna, Austria after the Anschluss (the peaceful but harrowing occupation of Austria by Nazis).  The Accidental Caregiver is a memoir about an actor who became one of several caregivers to an elderly Jewish woman who escaped Vienna, also after the Anschluss.  So, they have escape from the Nazis in common. The third book is mostly about children who were not so fortunate. Although they have the war in common, they're entirely different books.  I just thought it was very cool when I realized Maria Altmann, the elderly woman, was also a Viennese Jew, after reading 50 Children and then it occurred to me that this would be a perfect time to mention Children's Wartime Diaries. I love it when there's an unexpected tie between reads.

50 Children (an ARC received from HarperCollins) is one of the best-written and most surprisingly gripping books set during WWII that I've read in a while. 

Gil and Eleanor Kraus were living a fairly quiet life in Philadelphia, Gil as a lawyer involved in charitable organizations, his wife a socialite who adored their two children. When Gil was approached by the head of a Philadelphia Jewish organization with the request to head up an effort to rescue 50 children from Nazi Germany, he said "yes" without even giving it any thought. Eleanor was heavily involved as she had to persuade a number of people to divulge deeply personal information necessary for the affidavits needed to prove that there were people able and willing to care for the children when they arrived in the U.S.  

After the Anschluss, it became clear that children in Austria were at even greater risk so the origin changed but not the mission. 

Gil, being a lawyer, realized that the only way the rescue could possibly occur during a time when immigration was strictly limited would be to stick to the letter of the law. Consequently, there's a great deal about the red tape, the detailed paperwork and the people Eleanor and Gil Kraus had to deal with. So, I was a bit surprised that I never found 50 Children dull.  Instead, I really found it quite gripping and beautiful but a little sad -- sad because not every child who applied for a spot could be taken, sad because the heads of other Jewish organizations who had failed to do similar were envious enough to speak out against them, sad because you can't read about those left behind without knowing the fate of the majority. 

But, how beautiful the stories of the children themselves, told toward the end of the book, about how much fun they had during their summer together at a camp building and how lovely the reflections of the rescued children, now grown, still living.  And, how amazing that 3 Jewish adults (they were accompanied by a pediatrician, who actually fell in love in Berlin . . . that's a great story, as well) were willing to risk their own lives, going into Nazi-occupied nations to interview children and parents, dealing with paperwork and interviews to obtain visas, and then accompanying the children from Vienna to Berlin and onward to the U.S.

There is a photograph at the head of each chapter and my favorite is a photo of Gil Kraus reading to 4 of the children, with the following quote:

While the number 50 is but a small drop among the hundreds of thousands of lives yet to be saved, still in all each life is worth a world unto itself.  ~ Gil Kraus

Highly recommended - I get a little soppy just thinking about this book. It is a heroic tale, brilliantly researched and told in compelling narrative that makes the story feel quite tense, even though you clearly go into the reading knowing the outcome. 

The Accidental Caregiver: How I Met, Loved, and Lost Legendary Holocaust Refugee Maria Altmann by Gregor Collins is not merely about an escape from Austria, although Maria Altmann's escape story is told. Rather, it's about how Gregor, an actor, became one of Maria Altmann's caregivers, his time working with her, and his journey abroad after her death. 

When I was updating my progress reading The Accidental Caregiver -- a rare e-book purchase whose reading took me a few days because my iPad is crashing frequently -- I glanced across a few of the reviews at Goodreads and found that some people considered the author egotistical. I didn't feel that way at all, although there are moments that Maria humorously whips her head to the side to indicate that she wants to see Gregor's handsome profile.  Even when those moments happen, they're about Maria rather than the author.  At least, that's how I saw it.  

Maria Altmann was in her 90s when Gregor Collins became one of her caregivers.  She was quite a feisty, vigorous woman but during the 3 years Gregor worked for her she went into a sharp decline and passed away. The author had dated a number of shallow women who confused him; he wasn't even sure what he was looking for in a woman.  But he fell in love immediately with Maria's fearless, happy-go-lucky, sometimes raunchy and definitely life-affirming ways.  Sometimes Maria could be a bit shocking but it's the fact that Gregor and Maria both felt an immediate rapport that makes the book such a joy.  

Highly Recommended - I loved The Accidental Caregiver enough that I deliberately dragged out the reading a bit (aided by regular iPad crashes) and found both author and subject charming in their own ways. There are some misused words but I loved the light writing style and, no, I didn't feel like the author was uncomfortably self-centered. I gave it a 4.5/5 at Goodreads -- not much taken off for minor editing problems. The Accidental Caregiver is, after all, a memoir so it's not just about Maria Altmann but about the author's feelings about her as the author cared for her and then (briefly) his couch-surfing journey around Europe.  Loved it and wish I had the chance to know Maria. The book is currently being made into a film, which I hope will be widely released so I'll have the opportunity to see it.


Children's Wartime Diaries: Secret Writings from the Holocaust and WWII, ed. by Laurel Holliday, is a book I've meant to mention and which ties in to the other two books pretty well.  It's a set of diaries (some complete, others partial) written by children during the Holocaust.  I have the full versions of some of them on my shelves. 

I read Children's Wartime Diaries a couple months ago.  The surprising thing about the writings in Children's Wartime Diaries is that most of them (with only a couple exceptions) are every bit as well-written as Anne Frank's diary.  Some are even more jaw-dropping. Such skilled writing from children so young!  Many of the children died, their writings retrieved later by a friend or relative, so it's a heartbreaking read and the cruelty they experienced is . . . well, it leaves me speechless just to think about what some of them endured. Two diaries written by British youngsters lend a little levity to the book (those two are both on my shelves in complete form) although they do eventually begin to feel the full impact of war on their own home turf. 

Again, highly recommended - Surprisingly mature writing in most cases but definitely a rough read because of the horrors experienced by the children who wrote the entries in this book. I cried a lot while reading Children's Wartime Diaries but at the same time I was mesmerized by some of the writing. There were only a couple excerpts that were simplistic enough to feel as if they matched the age of the writers. If you were captivated by Anne Frank's diary, you really must try to find a copy of Children's Wartime Diaries.  I bought my copy secondhand and I'm pretty sure it's no longer in print, but there were plenty available. Prepare to have your heart broken if you do chase down a copy.


©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.