Mini reviews - The People Speak, ed. by H. Zinn, Cat Knit by Jacob Grant, and Writers and Lovers by Lily King

None of these books felt like they needed a page of their own but after writing the mini reviews, I find that I wrote more than expected about all of them. Sorry about that. Bit wordy. 

I'm not going to repeat all the subtitles on this book and just leave it big enough for you to read them. The People Speak, edited by Howard Zinn, is a slim book of readings that were dramatized by well-known people at a celebration of the anniversary of Zinn's A People's History of the United States. I have not yet read the original book but figured this was a way to dip into it and get an idea of how Zinn views history after A People's History of the United States was panned by our current president. 

Each reading has an introductory part and then a writing or speech from the book, which apparently uses primary source documents. Zinn takes the actual words of either the oppressed or the oppressor, giving the reader a clear viewpoint of how those who suffered did so because they had no voice. 

The most glaring and horrifying example, to me, was a letter by Christopher Columbus in which he describes the Arawak natives of Hispaniola as generous, well-built, handsome, and unfamiliar with weapons. His conclusion: "They would make fine servants. . . . With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want." He did more than that. He wiped them out entirely. 

Recommended especially if you want to get a taste of Zinn's way of viewing history without diving into the longer book. I'm looking forward to reading A People's History of the United States but I have quite a few other nonfiction titles ahead of it in the queue, so it was nice to at least get a peek at what I'll be getting into. 

Cat Knit by Jacob Grant is a picture book about a cat (Cat) with a human (Girl) who is into knitting. When Girl brings home a ball of yarn, Cat finds that it's a delightful toy and has a great time playing with it. Then, Girl takes it away and turns it into something entirely different: a sweater. 

Frustrated with the new shape of his old toy, Cat wriggles out of his sweater with the help of a branch. But, it's snowy and cold outside and once that sweater is off, Cat becomes aware of just how nicely it suited the purpose. He decides it's OK to be friends with Yarn in its new form.

Finally, Girl brings home several more colorful friends and the final image is one of Cat wearing not only his new sweater but a hat and booties. The expression on Cat's face is golden. 

Highly recommended - There are few words in Cat Knit and simple but expressive illustrations of the cat. I loved it and I'm glad I happened across this book and bought it on a whim. It'll be a fun one to read to the grandkids when I see them again. 

Writers and Lovers by Lily King is a book that I've been looking forward to reading since its release, mostly because I was so completely blown away by Euphoria. And, I liked it a lot but I didn't love it. Maybe my expectations were a little too high. 

It's 1997. Casey has had a crushing experience with a lover and lost her mother. She has been working on a novel for years. To support her writing habit, she's living in a moldy garage apartment that used to be a potting shed and working as a waitress in a fancy restaurant. Casey begins dating two different men but each comes with his own complications. 

I'm going to stop there. There are some other things going on, like the fact that Casey can't pay her bills even while living in a crappy little hovel, but I think it's worth saying what I liked and didn't like and leaving it at that. 

What I loved: Writers and Lovers could easily be used as a lesson in writing. While Casey is finishing her novel and then pitching it to an agent, you get a very good look at the craft of writing. I also liked the realism of the love triangle. It didn't feel manufactured. In fact, I was certain that Writers and Lovers is a fictionalized account of the author's own experience and when I looked her up, I found that I was likely correct. Maybe the countries she lived in were different but it sure seemed like there were some parallels. 

What I disliked: There were times I had no idea what she was talking about when Casey was at work — and I've been a waitress. I guess waiting tables isn't the same across different types of restaurant. There was also a picky detail about a health crisis Casey went through that ticked me off because it was just wrong; I've experienced it and that's not how it works. Again, I think she has likely had a similar experience but she just didn't look into how that particular thing would be handled. It's a little harder to write off mistakes when you've been through what's written wrong and know it would be pretty easy to find out the details. 

I read Writers and Lovers specifically to discuss it with an Instagram friend. She liked it a lot more than I did. We have both written fiction and appreciated the technical details about writing. When you write fiction, you will often hear that it's self-indulgent to write about writers; we'd both heard that advice. But, we agreed that she handled the characterization of a writer better than most and it didn't feel annoying in any way. The writing aspect was quite informative. 

Recommended, but not a favorite

©2020 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 Boat Runner by Devin Murphy

In 1939, Dutch brothers Jacob and Edwin Koopman are sent to Hitler Youth Camp in Germany. They'd really prefer to spend the summer helping their Uncle Martin, who runs a fishing boat in the North Sea so their father agrees to divide their time, instead. First, the camp, then some time learning how to fish and operate Uncle Martin's boat, and finally some time spent learning about their father's lightbulb factory from the ground up.

At camp, they find that the other boys are fiercely competitive, often violent, and many already know the routine. Some have won a particular prize that Jacob covets. Edwin, an artist, spends all his free time drawing but can be surprisingly competitive, during the games. Although their time is divided, the lessons learned from all three of their experiences will continue to linger.

Back home, their father is determined to get a contract selling lightbulbs to Volkswagen. Against their mother's wishes, the two teenagers tag along with their father to Rotterdam, where the first of many tragedies strikes when Rotterdam is bombed, Holland is occupied by Germans and their hopes to escape Europe quickly become impossible.

From here on out, the major plot points feel like spoilers to me, so I won't mention them. Instead, I'll keep it generic and tell you that The Boat Runner is Jacob's story, the tale of his emotional and physical journey through the war. Faced with numerous tragedies and traumatized by loss, bombings, and the many horrible things he witnesses, he makes a fateful decision. But, has Jacob made the right choice?

I think what I liked best about The Boat Runner was the emotional honesty. At Jacob's age (teenager/young man), many don't have a grip on their emotions and I thought the author did an excellent job of showing the shock, trauma, pain, and (sometimes misplaced) blame that came of his experiences. Also, The Boat Runner is definitely a plot-heavy book - a lot happens. And, I learned a few new things about the WWII era. I'd never heard of potato masher grenades and I didn't know RAF pilots carried barter kits containing gold coins and rings.

I did have some problems with the book like occasionally feeling like the prose was flat, although at other times I found myself stopping to reread a beautiful sentence. It might have been that I simply didn't fall in love with the author's writing style, coupled with the rawness of the story. There are some gruesome scenes; it's worth mentioning that The Boat Runner is not for the faint of heart.

Having said all that, I liked the point-of-view and I think The Boat Runner would make an excellent discussion book. The decisions Jacob made, the emotions he experienced, the historical perspective, and the situations in which he was placed are all ripe for conversation. I wondered, for example, if at times certain situations were resolved a little too easily, or the consequences didn't necessarily fit the actions, or even if other people squirmed at some of Jacob's conclusions - and a couple times, whether a scene was plausible given the surroundings.

Recommended but not a favorite - A very good WWII book, extremely emotional, sometimes beautifully written and sometimes a little too descriptive for my taste, definitely worth discussing. I would have preferred to know precisely when the events were occurring without having to look them up. Dates at the chapter headings would have been helpful. My copy was an ARC sent by Goodreads, so I can't say for sure dates were not added but the only date I saw was in the cover blurb.

Note: I looked up a lot of images while reading The Boat Runner and I found it particularly interesting that there were images of boys in Hitler Youth Camp doing exactly the activities that the author described. If you read the book, I highly recommend looking up images from the time period. While the author has been called out for some inaccuracies, I found a lot of what I looked up matched the descriptions and seeing the images always adds an interesting dimension to the reading.


©2017 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.

Tales of Accidental Genius by Simon Van Booy

After being alone for a few days, she would feel some pull of inspiration. It could come from anywhere: lemons in a bowl were enough; the blowing trees in the park were enough; the migration of clouds; the color of water; words from a passing conversation she carried with her like loose stones. 

~ p. 52, from "The Muse"

And that was the problem with Michael Snow's screenplay, she realized, seeing the manuscript on her desk--that it worked so hard to conjure love, when love was most felt in its absence.

~ p. 58, from "The Muse"

When they landed at LAX, a uniformed driver from the hotel was holding a sign. "We should have told him our last name was Godot," David said. "Just for fun."

~ p. 73, from "Infidelity"

Let me just get the swooning part out of the way . . . Ohmygosh, how I love Simon Van Booy's writing.

OK, I can go on, now.

I read Tales of Accidental Genius in January, so this is a reread but not a second review. I don't know why I do this, but I always blast through Simon's books when I first get them and then I take my time slowly reading and absorbing, a second time. And, then I return to favorite short stories when I need an upper. I love his writing that much.

Tales of Accidental Genius is every bit as wonderful as Simon's other short story collections but a tiny bit different in that the last story is long enough that it appears to be a novella. On the blast-through reading, I was so surprised to find that the last story was the last story that I kept flipping to see when it would end. That final story begins about 1/3 of the way into the book . . . and yet, the stylized printing with fewer words on each page is maybe slightly deceptive (so I'm not certain that it's a novella). I think, for that reason, I loved it the second time in a way that I couldn't the first, simply because the surprising length of the final selection unbalanced me.

At any rate, I loved Tales of Accidental Genius on the first reading and I adored it the second time around. And, this happens every single time I read a book of Simon Van Booy's short stories. I always end up appreciating the nuances and rhythm and depth of heart even more when I reread. But, I just have to do the blast-through read, for some reason.

Counting the story that serves as an introduction to the final maybe-novella, there are 7 stories in Tales of Accidental Genius. Some favorites:

"The Menace of Mile End" - Elderly Mr. Baxter goes through the motions of living, occasionally bitter about the young people who make noise outside his solitary London flat, the back part of a former church wedged in an upscale business district. But, when a homeless man is attacked outside his home, Mr. Baxter discovers that he isn't such a curmudgeon, after all.

"The Goldfish" - Piper, an old man's goldfish, has gone belly up in his tank. Concerned, he goes to the aquarium and the vet but is unable to find answers. So he stops at a pet shop, where the compassion of a young man who understands pain leads to a beautiful ending.

Really, there's only one story I don't consider a favorite. But, I liked it. So, Tales of Accidental Genius is a 5-star read. The only problem I've really have had with the book, lately, is that I keep sitting down to write my review and as I'm thinking about the stories I think, "Wait. I want to read that, again," and dash off down the hallway with the book in hand. That's why I decided I'd better stop after describing two of the stories.

The "Genius" in the title is not regarding intelligence, at least not the kind that's measured with tests and numbers. Instead, it's about the genius of finding the perfect way to show compassion. I'll give you an example but since it tells what happens to Piper, the goldfish, I'm going to set it off with a spoiler warning . . .

*****SPOILER - SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU WANT TO BE SURPRISED*****

The perfect way that young Akin finds to show compassion to an elderly man who doesn't realize his fish is actually dead? He tells the man Piper had twins and died in childbirth after slipping two new fish into the tank.

*****END SPOILER*****

It's those moments of brilliant emotional genius that make the book such an uplifting read, of course.

Highly recommended - One of my favorites, so far in 2016. I've read it twice (some stories 3 times) and I know I'll return to Tales of Accidental Genius many, many times. There's at least a little heartbreak in every story, but there's also an act of kindness. Tales of Accidental Genius is the kind of book you press to your heart when you finish it. Also, I think it's notable that Simon's sense of humor really shines through (as in that comment by the character, David, that he should have told the driver their name was Godot, so he'd have been waiting for Godot).

©2016 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.

Three mini reviews: In a Handful of Dust by M. McGinnis, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by M. Spark, Signs Preceding the End of the World by Y. Herrera

I bought all three of these books and don't have a lot to say about them, so I figured they're good candidates for mini reviews. [Note after writing the so-called "mini reviews": Apparently, I had more to say than I realized. Apologies for the length of this post.]

In a Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis continues the story of Lynn and Lucy from Not a Drop to Drink (link leads to my review). I never did find out what exactly it meant when I heard the first book was marketed as a "cross-over" novel, but In a Handful of Dust, like its predecessor, is not for the faint of heart. If you haven't read Not a Drop to Drink, this brief review may act as a spoiler, so be wary.

Ten years have passed since tragedy struck and Lynn had to make a crucial decision about whether to join up with neighbors to defend her stream or fend for herself. A community of sorts has been built up but now disease has struck the area and is rapidly killing off everyone Lynn and Lucy know and love. In an effort to save her surrogate daughter, Lynn decides that she and Lucy should walk from Ohio to California, where she's heard desalination plants allow for abundant drinking water.

Walking for that great a distance in a dystopian world obviously poses its challenges. And, some of the things they encounter are truly gruesome. But, that didn't bother me so much as two plot points. Both are spoilers but I can tell you that one of them had to do with the ending. It felt almost perfect and then I thought it was ruined by a decision by Lynn that made little to no sense. Beyond that, I can't say without ruining it but the ending disappointed me enough that I don't intend to hold on to the book for a reread. Not a Drop to Drink, on the other hand, was a 5-star read that I intend to revisit at some point. I'm glad I read In a Handful of Dust and I recommend it. I just didn't fall in love with it.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark has been sitting on my classics shelf for many years. I saw the movie starring Maggie Smith when I was quite young -- maybe 8 or 10 years old -- and it left such a strong impression that I've wanted to read it since I found out the movie was based on a novel. I'm presuming my copy of the book is one of many books that I bought from a salvage store when they got the remaining stock from a bookstore fire. That salvage stock was discounted so dramatically that it made a huge impact on the size of my home library. I've probably been hacking away at the books I purchased for at least 15 years.

At any rate, I chose The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie after ditching my first classic selection, earlier this month. Miss Brodie is an unorthodox teacher in a private girls' school. Rather than sticking to the prescribed curriculum, Miss Brodie tries to prepare her students for life by teaching a broad range of subject matter through storytelling and experience. A certain number of her students are known as the "Brodie set", the girls that she has chosen to invite to her home, to play golf with her, and to attend other weekend activities and whom she favors for reasons I never really could quite discern.

The book is told in retrospect by Sandie, one of the Brodie set who in later life became a nun. Miss Brodie's teaching method is often challenged and a number of people want to find a reason to fire her, but she's able to continue teaching for many years . . . until she's betrayed by one of her set, the girls she kept close and so completely trusted. As Sandie tells the story, the mystery of who betrayed her and why unfolds.

As young as I was when I saw the movie, I remembered the movie because of the betrayal. It so thoroughly shocked me that I've never forgotten it. The book was somewhat less shocking, maybe because of the expectation. I enjoyed The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie but it's definitely not my favorite by Muriel Spark. That would be A Far Cry from Kensington, a book I've read more than once. I read Spark's memoir, Curriculum Vitae, back in the 90s and from that I learned that she had a teacher who taught like Miss Brodie, so it was particularly fun revisiting her teaching method

Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrara, translated by Lisa Dillman, is a book that came highly recommended by a friend who reads a very wide variety of international material (unlike me . . . I tend to stick a little too closely to the Anglo world). It had been sitting on my wish list for probably a year when I read an article that compelled me to go ahead and buy a copy.

Makina's brother crossed the border from Mexico to the U.S. when he heard that there was a parcel of land that belonged to his family. He never returned. Now, Makina's mother has decided the time has come for him to return, so she sends Makina to ask favors of three dangerous men who will help Makina cross the border and find her brother.

Makina is her tiny town's telephone operator. She speaks three languages (or, perhaps, two languages and a second dialect that is almost a third language) but she's discreet and never divulges the information in the conversations she overhears. She's a strong woman and knows she's important to the town because of the trust she's earned. She plans to return to Mexico.

But, when Makina arrives in the U.S., nothing quite meets her expectations. Her brother is elusive, the land the family allegedly owned clearly does not exist, and the crossing was much more dangerous than she anticipated. When she finally locates her brother and hears his story, she makes a startling decision.

Signs Preceding the End of the World is a pretty amazing book. Stylistically, it's very understated and minimalist but there's an immediacy to the writing that leaves you feeling like you were there. I gave it 4 stars because of one particular word that the translator used repeatedly, but upon reflection I think it's really a 5-star book and the translator's interference was its only problem. The word is "versed" -- a word that she used generally to replace other action words like "walked" or "exited" or other words involving movement from one place to another. I didn't like it but after realizing it was kind of a made-up word, I started playing a game, of sorts, trying to mentally pick out the best word that could have been chosen in its place.

My favorite paragraph:

Makina had no idea what so-called respectable people were referring to when they talked about Family. She'd known families that were truncated, extended, bitter, friendly, guileful, doleful, hospitable, ambitious, but never had she known a Happy Family of the sort people talked about, the sort so many swore to defend; all of them were more than just one thing, or they were all the same thing but in completely different ways: none were only fun-loving or solely stingy, and the stories that made any two laugh had nothing in common. 

~p. 79

Author Daniel Alarcón  (whose book War by Candlelight I read and loved in 2005) says Signs Preceding the End of the World is a "haunting and moving allegory about violence and the culture built to support and celebrate that violence." That kind of comment makes me want to go back to school to take the literature courses I missed out on. I would never have caught that, although violence is clearly a prominent theme. I'm definitely going to want to reread this one.

©2016 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.

First book of the year: Tales of Accidental Genius by Simon Van Booy

This is a new experience for me, choosing the book I wanted to read to start off the year. I usually have several books going, at any given time, and generally what I end up finishing first in the new year is a book I started in December. But, this time, I actually pondered how I'd begin my reading year in advance, both because I knew I was going to finish almost everything I had in progress (except for a book of letters written during the Great Depression, which may take me another year because I can only cope with it a little at a time) and because of posts by Sheila at Book Journey and Carrie at Care's Online Book Club. When it became obvious that I was going to finish Sherlock Chronicles in 2015 (I literally finished it 10 minutes before midnight), I knew I could finally choose a book to begin my year. So, my first book of the year was carefully selected: Tales of Accidental Genius by Simon Van Booy.

I chose Tales of Accidental Genius for two reasons:

1. It has been sitting by my bedside since it arrived, awaiting the right moment, and
2. Simon Van Booy is one of my favorite authors. His books are always uplifting in some way, and what better way to start a new year than with a book that you know will warm your heart and lift your spirits?

Sure enough, I loved Tales of Accidental Genius. No surprise there. When I closed the book, Saturday night, I had a smile on my face.

The stories are classic Simon: quirky, original, truthful, full of beauty and life. I'm always in awe of his writing.

I always, always read Simon's books at least twice. The first time through, I just read for joy without marking anything at all. The second time, I let myself flag passages and take notes. So, I have no quotes to share and this isn't really a review post so much as a note that I started off the reading year well. Now that it's occurred to me that starting off a year reading a book by Simon Van Booy is a great idea, maybe I'll know what I'm reading before the beginning of the year arrives, next time around, so I can join in on Sheila's First Book event.


©2016 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.

Three I loved - The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt, 1963: The Year of Revolution by Morgan and Leve and Entertaining Judgment by Greg Garrett

The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt is so crammed with little flags that I could quote from it all day, but instead I'm going to skip quotes entirely and just tell you about it, although I may eventually do a post filled with quotes so I can remove those markers.

The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt is apparently a compact version of Mrs. Roosevelt's memoirs (which were originally published in several volumes). Although it's edited down to a single book, Mrs. Roosevelt's autobiography is crammed with wonderful anecdotes and gives the reader an excellent inside view of her life. Especially interesting, of course, are the tumultuous Depression and WWII years, during which her husband Franklin served as President of the United States.

I have long been an admirer of Eleanor Roosevelt but wow . . . she's my hero, now. She was indefatigable in her efforts to make the lives of everyday people, especially women, better. She traveled the world at her husband's request numerous times to comfort soldiers and was relentlessly picked on by the press, though the soldiers deeply appreciated her. She wrote personal letters and columns, hosted dignitaries at her home and the White House, represented the U.S. in the early years of the United Nations. She was a woman of strong character who made an indelible imprint on our nation's direction.

I think The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt would make an exceptional school resource. Although some of the characters are unfamiliar because they were prominent at the time and have now faded into history, those occasional bits that have lost their impact tend to be brief enough that they don't interfere with the reading. Annotations wouldn't be a lost cause, in my humble opinion, but for teaching purposes it would work to use selected excerpts. The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt was one of those rare books that I found so exciting I occasionally read anecdotes to my husband. He enjoyed the portions I read. Highly recommended.


1963: The Year of the Revolution by Robin Morgan and Ariel Leve is an absorbing read, in spite of the fact that I don't like the way it's organized. An introduction is followed by chapters that begin with a quotation and then consist of first-person viewpoints by the people who were a part of the "youth-quake" that took place in 1963 in fashion, art and music on both sides of the Atlantic.

Each chapter contains a number of first-person accounts from musicians, artists, and other people involved in the changing events. Some were familiar to me, like Eric Clapton, Mary Quant and Sir Alan Parker, but many were not and therein the problem lies. While I enjoyed looking up various music groups, artists, fashion leaders and their work (particularly the music), it was a bit frustrating having to keep flipping back to remind myself who this or that person was. It might be a less chaotic-feeling read to those who lived it.

However, I grew up with a lot of the music that was mentioned without actually realizing who sang songs that were still playing on the radio during my childhood. So, it was loads of fun looking up music videos. And, in spite of the fact that I disliked the manner in which this oral history was presented, I really did enjoy the reading and came out of the experience feeling like I'd learned a great deal. I even have a new favorite old song. Definitely recommended, but do be aware that the book is focused on the arts and fashion, not generalities. It's worth mentioning that even though I disliked the organization of the book and having to look things up slowed down the reading, I was never tempted to set it aside. I found 1963: The Year of Revolution utterly fascinating.

The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt and 1963: The Year of Revolution were both sent to me by HarperCollins (the former a Harper Perennial imprint, the latter from Dey Street).

Entertaining Judgment by Greg Garrett is a book I purchased because I love the author's writing. I pre-ordered it when he talked about it on Facebook and didn't wait long after it arrived before indulging. Subtitled "The Afterlife in Popular Imagination", Entertaining Judgment is about how Heaven, Hell and purgatory are portrayed in books, films, video games and music. Garrett talks a bit about angels, the devil and ghosts, as well.

Entertaining Judgment is as informative as it is captivating. Garrett describes how minimal the descriptions of Heaven and Hell are in religious writings and how strongly popular opinion of what exactly may await us in the afterlife has been dictated by fiction. I loved the fact that the author doesn't let his Christianity interfere with the presentation of the material, examining how the afterlife is portrayed in various religious texts without ever saying one is superior to another.

Entertaining Judgment is not all-encompassing. I thought the portions about ghosts focused a little too heavily on fear when ghosts often are portrayed as entities that help people move on. One of my favorite ghost movies, Always, is not mentioned, for example. But, there are plenty of excellent examples that I knew little about and I came out of the reading of Entertaining Judgment with a strong desire to catch up on films and literature that I've missed. It's probably worth noting that I don't play video games at all but I found the descriptions of video games every bit as absorbing as those about film, books and music. Highly recommended. I don't recall ever reading anything quite like Entertaining Judgment and particularly enjoyed it for the change of pace.

©2015 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 and 2 mini reviews: When the Cypress Whispers by Y. M. Corporon & Pigs in Heaven by B. Kingsolver

This is what happens when you try to cover a box to keep one cat from gnawing on it and the other cat just happens to be a burrower:

Just seconds after I snapped this photo, Isabel scrambled out backwards and plopped down onto the floor looking ruffled and a little bit insane. She had me in stitches.

On to books!

When the Cypress Whispers was released in April and I read the ARC (which I received from HarperCollins) before the release date but I was so far behind on my reviews that it's taken me a month to get around to reviewing. On the plus side, this week's reading slump has help me get closer to catching up!

Brief synopsis: 

Daphne is widowed and has worked very hard to make a life for herself and her daughter in New York. The child of Greek immigrants, she spent her summers with her Yia-yia (grandmother) on the island of Erikousa and now that she's about to marry again, she has a yearning to return, to marry in a place dear to her heart. She has always wished the mythical cypress whispers would call out to her but although they speak to her Yia-yia, Daphne is convinced the cypress whispers are a myth.  As she and her daughter settle in and are reminded of the ancient ways, she meets a fisherman who helps Daphne learn the depth of her grandmother's heart and the way to her own.

My feelings about When the Cypress Whispers are mixed. I loved the Greek setting for the armchair travel experience and I liked the WWII story about her grandmother but I thought there was something slightly uncomfortable about the writing style. I never did entirely get a grip on what it was that I disliked (apart from the fact that some parts were predictable) but I chose to ignore it and just enjoy the sense of place, which was almost visceral, as much about sensation as it was about tradition and beauty, history and one little island's fierce determination to cling to its identity. There's a feminist undercurrent which I was okay with till the end. I didn't think the ending fit the beginning and middle, primarily because I just couldn't reconcile what became of one character to the way that person was described throughout the novel. In other words, When the Cypress Whispers was lacking a crucial sense of balance.

Recommended - I liked the setting enough to give When the Cypress Whispers a 3.5/5 rating. I loved Daphne's daughter, her Yia-yia, the descriptions of island life, the fisherman, some of the other crazy characters. But, I disliked the ending and didn't really like the protagonist. I did sense a slight feminist agenda and, for the most part, I liked it. But, the way it came to the forefront in the ending felt awkward and wrong. Best to read for the sense of place and the characters.

Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver was this month's F2F read and, once again, I missed the group discussion. But, this time it was because I was about 2/3 of the way into the book and loving it enough that I didn't want the ending spoiled. Copyrighted in 1993, my copy of Pigs in Heaven was purchased secondhand and has been sitting around for years. I'm glad the F2F group gave me that nudge I needed to actually open the book.

I don't know if Pigs in Heaven is the only follow-up to The Bean Trees (which I have not read) or there's another book but quick synopsis: Taylor adopted Turtle, a Cherokee who was abused and thrown into Taylor's car by a desperate woman. On a road trip, Turtle witnesses a man's fall into a hole at Hoover Dam and ends up on an Oprah episode dedicated to child heroes. A Cherokee lawyer sees Oprah and recognizes the Cherokee features on the little girl. She's convinced the adoption cannot possibly be legal and investigates. When Taylor finds out that lawyer Annawake wants to bring Turtle back to the tribe, she grabs Turtle and runs. But, as she becomes increasingly desperate and begins to miss her network of friends, she realizes that what's best for Turtle and herself may be the same thing from which she's running.

I've had one of those horrid reading weeks when you pick up a book, set it aside, pick up another and read a bit, drift off, try another book . . .  on and on. Nothing was clicking for me and that included Pigs in Heaven. I found the country accents (which didn't jibe with anything I've ever heard in Oklahoma or Mississippi) particularly annoying. But, then the story and its theme became apparent and I ended up absolutely loving Pigs in Heaven. I've read or heard a little about tribal law and the story was definitely plausible, from what I know. I also recognized imagery, for once. There are two flocks of birds -- pigeons and Canada geese -- that are considered unwelcome at different times and places in the books. The pigeons are killed, the geese relocated. Clearly, they represented the American Indian tribes who were murdered and relocated when the incoming whites decided they wanted the natives' land.

Highly recommended - A terrific story about the importance of family and identity as well as the painful history of Native Americans.  I acquired a copy of The Bean Trees secondhand, at the same time I bought Pigs in Heaven and I'm anxious to read that, as well.  I got a big kick when my hometown was mentioned, even if though it was brief and not descriptive. I miss home. I always will, I suppose.

©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.

Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh

Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh
Copyright 2005
HarperPerennial - Fiction/Historical
334 pp.

Source:  HarperCollins - sent with Haigh's most recent release, News from Heaven  (link leads to my review).

I was flipping through my new Persephone Biannually, last night, making circles and arrows and little notes after reading descriptions of the new books (and highlighting -- yes, really marking the heck out of that thing).  And, as I was reading about one of the new titles, I was reminded of Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh, which I just finished last week.  It's a family saga to which one could apply a certain descriptor in the Persephone article about of one of their new releases: " . . . as in so many Persephone books, everything happens and nothing happens . . ."

Truly an apt description of Baker Towers, a family saga that follows three generations of the Novak family in Bakerton, Pennsylvania.  Baker Towers is about the decline of a family occurring in parallel with the small town's degenerating livelihood over the course of two decades.  We're not talking doom and gloom, here, although there are plenty of sad things that happen in Baker Towers.  Within this saga about a family and a town, good and bad things happen. But, Baker Towers is very realistic in its portrayal of life's highs and lows.  It's about life and death, war and peace, love and disillusion, sacrifices and consequences, moments of strength and total meltdowns.

Set in the 1940's and 50's, Baker Towers begins with the sudden death of Stanley Novak, a Polish-American coal miner whose family lives on the Polish Hill portion of Bakerton.  Stanley was only in his 50s and each of the family members -- the eldest of whom is serving in the Pacific -- reacts in different ways, but the consequences of his loss are enduring.

Because the book is told in the omniscient voice, Baker Towers often feels a bit like a set of interconnected short stories. Years may pass between two chapters. You begin viewing the Novaks' lives through Stanley's Italian wife Rose's eyes.  From Rose's story, the reader moves on, following the shy Dorothy to a job, peeking over George's shoulder as he returns from war and marries, wondering what studious Joyce will do when she graduates from high school, worrying about the untethered youngest son, Sandy, and beautiful baby Lucy, too young to remember her father.

When the book ends, a lot has happened but all very everyday.  I'm not sure I even understand how a story about a family can be so utterly engrossing, but you can't close Baker Towers without feeling like you know the Novaks and are certain they will continue on living beyond the end of the book.  It's very gratifying to feel that way about characters you've spent time with.

Recommended - Jennifer Haigh's writing is graceful and powerful, but ultimately it is the truth within the pages that stands out.  Life is like that, you think to yourself.  We just keep pressing on.

In other news:

We had a really big spider in our bathtub, this week.  There is a part of me that wants to be a Buddhist-Native American type, the kind of person who will not kill a spider or anything else living because we're all connected.  But, that was one BIG spider.  I foolishly sprayed him with the first thing I could find (which is pretty useless, even as a hair product) and then, given the fact that he was hiding like a dog, with half his body sticking out from under the bath plug, decided that was rather pointless and now I'd have to clean the tub because the cats drink from it, daily.  So, I turned on the hot water to rinse down the spray and went off to find a cup to catch the spider, thinking maybe I could at least flush him or put him outside if he rose to the surface.  He was swimming happily -- except when the hot water came near him and then he'd pedal fiercely to the cold side.

I came back with 2 cups: a clear glass to catch him in and a larger plastic cup to keep him from jumping  out (it would go over the top of the clear glass).  Too late.  Apparently, hot water kills spiders.  I had no idea.  

Random quotation:

"No man can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true." -- Nathaniel Hawthorne (inside my Peach Oo-La-Long Honest Tea cap)

I read this, today:

I love Henri, aka "Henry".  Some of the photos are kind of crappy, but the vast majority are great.  I giggled a lot over  Henri's philosophical meanderings.  I have a feeling he's a very happy and well-loved cat. I hope so.  The book is loads of fun and extends the joy of the Henri videos.  I had a long lens on my camera and had to stand on the chair to get a shot.  Hopefully, the neighbors weren't looking.

Speaking of which . . . (the cat book, that is)

Yesterday, I was sitting in bed alone (husband was traveling) and I kept hearing what sounded like muffled voices -- you know, like the sound of a TV in another room or neighbors talking on the deck 15 feet from your window, etc.?  I thought it must be all in my mind, but finally it bothered me so much that I got up and walked around the house.  Immediately, the voices disappeared.  But, I peeked outside to make sure there was nobody on the patio.  Boy, was I surprised to find an Henri-like cat (black and white with that same glare pictured on the cover of Henri, le Chat Noir) happily curled up on one of our green chair cushions.  I apologized to him and turned out the light.  It is likely he forgave me.  We've had conversations, before, and he's a friendly beast.

Late at night.  Off to bed.  Happy Friday!

©2013 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.

Moranthology by Caitlin Moran

Words can be weapons, or love-spells, or just motorcars you can drive across county borders.

--p. 2 of Moranthology, Advanced Reader Copy (some changes may have been made to the final print version)

The barrista had looked at all the evidence, and concluded that I must have just failed to commit suicide by jumping in the Thames -- and that now I was having a coffee, while I waited for the tide to rise a little higher. 

When I went to pay for the coffee, he gave me a free brownie.  I translated this brownie as a message, "Don't jump again."  It was 486 calories of humanity.

--p. 49, Ibid 

When I read about the variety of topics covered in Moranthology, British writer/humorist Caitlin Moran's collection of columns, I decided Moranthology was not a book I wanted to miss.  As it turned out, Caitlin Moran was one of the authors who helped yank me out of my recent reading slump.  I have reason to be grateful.

Besides gathering some of her columns, Moran has added explanatory notes so you get a nicely rounded view of where she came from and how she worked her way to being the caliber of columnist who gets to hang out with people like Keith Richards, Dan Stevens and Benedict Cumberbatch, visit the set of Dr. Who and spend an evening at a sex club with Lady Gaga (don't worry; it's fairly tame).

It would be hard to describe the sheer variety of topics Moran hits in Moranthology. Among them: writing, travel (or the lack of it), drugs, visiting the Dr. Who set, her thoughts on Downton Abbey (she's not a fan) and Dan Stevens (nice guy who is apparently quite the drinker), feminism, respect for the impoverished and gays, love, marriage, Paul McCartney and why Ghostbusters is better than Star Wars.

I really loved this book.  I laughed, I frowned, I nodded my head.  The cover has a quote from Marie Claire referring to Caitlin Moran as, "The U.K.'s answer to Tiny Fey, Chelsea Handler, and Lena Dunham all rolled into one."  Well . . . I don't know about that.  I won't touch anything by Chelsea Handler because the last thing I want to hear about is anyone's "horizontal life", but Caitlin Moran is funny, opinionated, kind of wild but happily married.  She's an interesting person and that's what makes the book fun.

Occasionally Moran can be raunchy and so can her interviewees, so if you prefer squeaky-clean essays Moranthology might not be the book for you. But, thankfully, she doesn't throw open the door to her sex life.  I had some particular favorite essays that I plan to reread, but in general I'm going to call this one highly recommended with a warning about references to drugs, sex and rock & roll.  You have to expect some of that when the interviewer is talking to someone who didn't stop using his drug of choice till he fell out of a tree and ended up with a metal plate in his skull, right?

Your cat fix of the day is "Isabel's Predicament":

It was hilarious watching her wiggle her way out of that position, between the wall and the cubby part of the kitty tree.

Still playing catch-up on reviews, so we may roll right past Malarkey and Twaddle, this week.  We'll see.


©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

More minis: The Reconstructionist by Nick Arvin, Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung, Heading Out to Wonderful by Robert Goolrick

The Reconstructionist by Nick Arvin is a truly unusual novel and I think that is one of the things I enjoyed about it. Ellis Barstow and his brother Christopher used to run to the intersection near their house when they heard a crash, to gawk at the sight as young boys will do. Years later, Christopher died at that same intersection.

As a mechanical engineer, Ellis has taken a job in an automotive factory. He's adrift, not particularly happy with his job but unsure what to do. Then, he sees Christopher's former girlfriend. Always captivated by Heather, Ellis follows her home and then drives on. Eventually, he finds a way to run into her again. When he does, she tells him her husband is looking for help. John Boggs works as a "reconstructionist", using engineering to determine how an accident occurred and testifying at lawsuits as an expert witness.

Ellis finds the job oddly satisfying and he has a comfortable friendship with Boggs. But, he also begins an affair with Heather that eventually results in Boggs taking a suicidal, cross-country trip. Ellis follows him. Will Boggs survive his self-destructive road trip? What's more important to Ellis, friendship or love? What really happened when Christopher was killed?

I absolutely loved Boggs. The witty dialogue between Ellis and Boggs drew me into the book, the questions about what would happen kept me there. And, I also loved the use of physics and math to determine how an accident occurred. The reconstruction process is utterly fascinating, plus, I'm accustomed to the way engineers talk and think, so I found The Reconstructionist an oddly comforting read for one so disturbing. It's a sad story, but not without hope. Not what I would call a "thriller," as I've seen it described, but more of a psychological exploration of accidents and how they effect people. The author has worked as a reconstructionist and it shows. This book has the ring of truth. I would avoid reading it if you've suffered a traumatic car accident loss, but otherwise I recommend The Reconstructionist. Just don't expect fast pacing.

The Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung is a book I really should have abandoned, but for some reason I just kept on plugging away. I think it was one of those cases in which the writing was comfortably paced and I was hoping things would improve, but really . . . it's just a bummer.

Janie's sister has disappeared, their father has cancer and even when they manage to briefly track Hannah down, she doesn't respond to their calls or emails. As a youngster, Janie was told that every generation of her Korean-American family has lost a daughter and she must watch out for her sister. Now, her grandmother's prediction appears to be coming true.

When their father finds that the best chance of extending his life is a treatment only available in Korea, Janie and Hannah's parents pack up and move to their home country, leaving Janie in charge of finding Hannah.

Janie and Hannah have a terrible relationship. Bummer. Their dad is terminal. Double bummer. Nobody in the family is willing or able to really share details of life, either past or present. Triple bummer. The whole family is a communication train wreck and, of course, cancer books just make me insane. Nicely written but depressing and I just cannot bear a book in which people don't ever bother to answer each other's questions. My friend Paula enjoyed this book and shared her copy with me. I just didn't enjoy Forgotten Country at all. I'm not even certain who to recommend it to.

Heading Out to Wonderful by Robert Goolrick has not yet been released, so I'm a little hesitant to review it but I want to go ahead and clear my sidebar. Don't worry, though: it's a June release. Not a long wait!

Robert Goolrick had a runaway hit with A Reliable Wife (<---my review, in self-interview form). I liked the writing but was not enamored of the storyline. However, since I liked Goolrick's writing and the story sounded intriguing, I've been looking forward to reading Heading Out to Wonderful.

Set in the years just after WWII, Heading Out to Wonderful tells the story of Charlie Beale, a butcher who decides to settle in a small town called Brownsburg, nestled in a beautiful Virginia valley. There, he falls in love with the wife of the town's richest man, a beautiful blonde from a poor rural family in the area outside Brownsburg. A movie buff, Sylvan has an unusual accent that she's picked up from years of listening to radio serials and a stunning wardrobe that the local seamstress has created for her.

You know the romance is doomed. But, what about Sam, the child who is caught in the middle of their affair? Will the odd entanglement ruin young Sam for life? What will happen when Charlie and Sylvan's affair is discovered? Will Sylvan save herself and throw Charlie to the proverbial wolves? Will the people of Brownsburg forgive them?

Ack. So many questions with horrible answers. I loved the writing, once again, but the story just made me want to kick the author in the shins, I'm sorry to say. Smooth, understated, gentle, beautiful writing is marred by weirdness and violence. I think a lot of people will love Heading Out to Wonderful. I hoped I would, but the involvement of Sam and the ending were terribly uncomfortable and jarring. I don't think Robert Goolrick is the author for me. One caveat: Heading Out to Wonderful isn't as graphic/erotic as A Reliable Wife. However, the descriptions of butchering can be pretty detailed and if you find the killing of animals for meat upsetting, definitely avoid reading this title.

©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Mini reviews - The Queen by Robert Lacey, Mia's Baker's Dozen by Coco Simon, Next to Love by Ellen Feldman

It's mini review time! I will write only mini reviews till I've caught up.

The Queen: A Life in Brief by Robert Lacey is a book written by a biographer who has written a large number of books about royalty. At a mere 166 pages, the author gives readers a comfortably brief overview of Queen Elizabeth II's life and 60-year reign. The Queen contains excerpts from some of Lacey's other books, as well as some updated material, and was written especially for Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee.

I think I can pretty safely say I knew next to nothing about Queen Elizabeth and her family and I'm happy not to have read a book that went into greater depth of detail. While I found the queen herself admirable in many ways and particularly enjoyed reading that her marriage was a true love story, Prince Charles pretty much made me want to heave. I had no idea he was such a naughty boy. During the actual Princess Diana years (when they were occurring, that is), I must admit I was more captivated by her wardrobe than the drama of the royal family and the many affairs. There is a single line in the book that I consider offensive and unnecessary, but otherwise The Queen is very nicely written.

Recommended to those who want to learn about the last 80 years or so of the British Monarchy in brief but are not interested in tremendous detail. If you're looking for a more comprehensive biography, check the page lengths of Lacey's books. He's written quite a few and The Queen: A Life in Brief is the shortest. The Queen was the perfect blend for me and also contains a surprisingly nice variety of photographs for such a small book.

Mia's Baker's Dozen by Coco Simon is one of the books in the Cupcake Diaries series, for ages 8 and up, about a group of young girls who have a small business selling cupcakes. I won my copy in a Twitter drawing, which I entered because I like to regress, now and then.

Mia's parents speak Spanish and so does Mia, but she has never learned to read or write Spanish. When she's enrolled in an advanced Spanish class and has difficulty, Mia's embarrassed to admit that she needs help. She is also thrown out of kilter by the changes in her life, now that her parents have divorced and her mother is remarried.

Mia's Baker's Dozen is very simplistically written. It was fun reading about Mia's challenges and friendships and how she solves her problems. I'm pretty sure I would have gobbled a series like this happily, as a young girl, and definitely recommend this title to youngsters in the right age range. It's nice, clean fun. Reading the book made me want to go play in the kitchen.

Next to Love by Ellen Feldman tells the stories of three women, friends from a young age who are all left behind when their men go off to fight in WWII. The story is based on one small town's loss of a large number of its young men in a single battle. Two of the women are widowed; one is not, but the surviving husband returns with a permanent injury and post-traumatic stress.

Next to Love follows the three women from before WWII to the Sixties and is packed with the love, loss, temptation, danger, violence, prejudice and other challenges of life for women during the time period.

I really enjoyed Next to Love because the relationships and challenges seemed very realistic to me, but there were a couple things I disliked about the book. Chiefly, I disliked the first-person narrative and jumpiness. I liked the fact that the author chose to portray each of the women from her own viewpoint, but instead of going from one character to another and showing how each reacted at a particular time, for example, there would be three scenes from Babe's perspective that take place from September of 1944 to July of 1946 and then you jump back to September of 1944 to view Grace's perspective. And, then the same thing is done all over again with Millie. Jarring.

On the plus side, Next to Love has the ring of a book that has been exceptionally well researched. The sense of time and place throughout the book is both believable and occasionally even reminded me of things my parents mentioned. Definitely recommended for those who enjoy WWII novels and women's fiction.

More minis forthcoming.

©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events by Kevin Moffett

Oh, boy. This one's going to be very, very difficult to review. Let's start with the technical details, shall we?

Title: Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events by Kevin Moffett

Copyright: 2011

Published By: HarperPerennial - Short Stories

Length: 229 pages

Reason for Reading: It sounded like a fun collection

But, here is where we divert from the recent pattern. I'm not quite sure how to briefly summarize this book. It's a collection of short stories that are remarkable for the way the author throws a dozen balls in the air and keeps them from hitting the floor, if that makes sense. Kevin Moffett is not a name I've heard before; therefore, I can't just assume you're familiar with his peculiar voice so I've dashed off to his website to steal borrow a paragraph about his book:

A dazzling new story collection from brilliant, young, award-winning writer Kevin Moffett, Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events illuminates the intimate experiences of characters caught between aspiration and achievement, uncertainty and illumination, inertia and discovery, the past and the future. Channeling unexpected, eclectic voices in a collection perfectly suited to readers of Daniyal Mueenuddin, Alice Sebold, and Dave Eggers, Moffett delivers a nuanced, powerful, humorous, and moving meditation on the trials of transitions and liminal living in today's modern world.

Wow, actually, I'm not even sure what that meant. I haven't read any of the authors mentioned, although I have some Dave Eggers on my shelves. All I can tell you is that Kevin Moffett has a singular style in the vein of, "Oh, my gosh, I would never have thought to put those words together but they work." His stories are stylish. When describing a person who is in a deep, dark place, he still manages to do so with color and humor. When you finish a story, there are so many strands running around in your head, tying themselves into weird knots, that you feel obligated to give the story some room to roll around for a while, till the knots are lined up in a row.

He bought a six-pack of beer and walked back to the trailer as the sun set. The horizon was violently radiant and the wind sung with borrowed nostalgia. It was growing colder. He passed the immense copper pit, a fenced-off canyon of wrecked earth at least a half-mile across, staircased and very still. Tad peered through the fence. The damage looked cataclysmic up close, but seen from space it was nothing. Seen from space it didn't amount to a pinprick. This struck him as a nice, comprehensive thing to realize. He wanted to realize more things like it, but it was getting too cold to concentrate. On the road again, he decided that if anybody asked what he was doing, he'd say, very casually, "Just passing through." But no one did.

~from "First Marriage", p. 94 of Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events

There are 9 stories in Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events, including the title story. I enjoyed them all, but I think "Buzzers" is my favorite because it presents a realistic dilemma that I can relate to in some abstract way. I'm going to spoil this one completely, so I'll post a spoiler alert.

*WARNING* Spoiler Alert! In order to share a story, I'm going to potentially ruin it, although I won't tell you the important part (what the protagonist decides). Please skip this part if you're planning to read Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events, soon!

Andrew has left the hospital, where his father has been in sharp decline from an unnamed condition. He's on a plane, preparing to travel to Italy to study architecture with a group of other students. When Andrew mentioned that perhaps he should cancel his trip, his father replied, "Over my dead body." And, that statement has just become literal, as Andrew is sitting on the plane at the gate and his mother has just texted him. His father is dead and Andrew is paralyzed. Should he do what's right and exit the plane to be with his mother and sister? Or, should he pretend he's already left the gate, that he didn't receive the text in time?

Andrew is obviously grief-stricken to the point that he can't move. The idea of getting up and asking to wiggle past the woman in the aisle seat, remove his luggage and leave the plane seems like a monstrous effort. The woman in the aisle seat is married to the man in the window seat and their conversation intrudes on his decision. Will he fight overwhelming inertia and get off the plane? Or, will he just sit still and let the decision be made for him?

Having been through a lot of loss, I could easily imagine myself in Andrew's position. What a dilemma, having to choose between returning (the right thing) and being surrounded by the grief of others versus traveling (a learning experience; an escape). Would Andrew's father really have wanted him to leave his mother and sister at such a crucial time?

*End spoiler warning*

The bottom line: 5/5 - Totally mind-blowing writing. I would reread this book right now, if I didn't feel obligated to move on. I love the way this author gracefully tosses puzzle pieces at your head and makes you put out the effort to form the complete picture. If you're not normally a short-story aficionado, it's possible that you'll find these stories a little frustrating. But, they're worth reading, rereading and talking about, in my humble opinion. If you're a writer, you'll want to dissect them, highlight and underscore and take notes. Reading Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events is an experience you'll want to revisit.

©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Moment, ed. by Larry Smith

File The Moment under "Worst Covers Ever, Ever". Personal opinion. Now that we've gotten that out of the way . . .

I had trouble putting this book down and read it in a single afternoon -- which is, in fact, a bit unusual for me. The Moment: Wild, Poignant, Life-Changing Stories from 125 Writers and Artists Famous and Obscure is a book of short (not 6-word, but never more than a handful of pages), biographical stories about life-changing, ephiphany-type moments. Some of them are a little obscured by flowery language or even a little baffling. Meaning: "In what way did this change your life?" -- I didn't always "get it". However, most of these little autobiographical vignettes are clearly, even beautifully, written and meaningful, many to the point of tear-jerker depth.

A handful of the stories are written in graphic/illustration form. I loved most of the illustrated moments for the change of pace, although I do wish the final illustrated tale had been left out completely. It's entitled, "I Couldn't Get it Up". That pretty much tells you all you need to know. So much for leaving The Moment out where youngsters can pick it up to find inspiration. On the basis of the final story, then, the book gets a family warning. Disappointing, because I do think inspiring stories can be encouraging to youngsters.

Recommended with family warning due to a single illustrated story -- which, I suppose, one can simply remove. Apart from that one itty-bitty problem, I think kids as young as 10 could get something out of The Moment. Well-written, diverse stories -- some humorous, others inspiring, a few moved me to tears.

©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy

Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy

Copyright 2011

Harper Perennial - Fiction

402 pages

Rebecca, George and Henry are wounded souls. Each has come to Athens to live and work. Rebecca is an artist from the French countryside who is still pained by her mother's abandonment. Henry is an archeologist from Wales who remains deeply wounded by a death for which he blames himself. George is an American from Kentucky with a knack for languages and a troubled soul. George falls in love with Rebecca but Rebecca falls in love with Henry. Then, Henry and George meet and discover that they're both in love with the same woman after they become fast friends.

"Ah, a love triangle!" you say to yourself. But, then tragedy strikes and suddenly the book takes a wild turn. No longer a tale of two men in love with the same woman, the story becomes a mad tale of grief for one of the characters, a life-changing revelation for the other. When the two survivors take off in different directions, you follow one of the characters on an unsuccessful attempt to run away from grief, only to find that it's in facing up to the past that one creates a future.

We go back to move forward.

But going back is like returning to a house where everyone moved out long ago; for the only life that dwells within memory is the shallow breath of your misplaced desire.

--from p. 218 of Everything Beautiful Began After

My description of Everything Beautiful Began After is deliberately vague because I think half the joy of reading this book is in the surprises -- the plot twists and the alterations in characters as they deal with tragedy in remarkably different ways. Even the point-of-view changes during one section of the book, so that the reader is temporarily placed in the shoes of a character in the throes of grief so deep as to be pathological.

What I love about Everything Beautiful Began After:

I'm particularly fond of the relationship between Henry and George and the scenes that make it clear that neither man is more deserving of love, even if one is rejected by Rebecca -- that fate is a part of life and intertwined in the stories of the three characters. For example, there's a scene in which George and Rebecca are talking and a kitten is walking around behind the tire of a car in the street. As George and Rebecca part, she looks back and sees George bend over to pick up the kitten and move it away from danger. George is an alcoholic and a bit of a disaster but it's in those small moments that you gather hints of his potential for redemption. He's not totally lost from the world; he's still a caring human being. The way Henry sees this in George is also endearing.

"Why is it so dirty back here?" George said again.

"Ever hear of a Nigerian Hercules Baboon spider?" the professor exclaimed.

"Definitely not," George said.

Henry watched him in the mirror--not with coolness or relief, but with a compassion that extended beyond the moment, as though behind the bruised eyes and the quivering mouth he could sense the presence of a small boy the world had forgotten about.

-- p. 128

There are also a lot of quirky, smile-inducing moments: a comical phone call from Henry to his parents in Wales, a scene in which Henry and George fall asleep and wake up realizing they'd drifted off while enjoying each other's company, that they are like long-lost brothers. The description of the car and office owned by the professor at the archeological dig are also gems, as are the scenes in France when Henry rents a car and makes an error setting the GPS then is stuck with the a GPS speaking to him in a language he can't decipher.

Professor Peterson's office was the most dangerous place on campus. Books piled ten feet high leaned dangerously in various directions. On the tallest tower of books, a note had been hung halfway up:

Please walk VERY slowly or I may fall on you without any warning, whatsoever.

There were three oak desks with long banker's lamps that the professor liked to keep lit, even in his absence. On his main desk were hundreds of Post-it notes, each scribbled with some important detail or addendum to his thoughts. There were also hundreds of pins stuck in a giant map that had been written on with a fountain pen. The ashtrays were full of pipe ash and the room had that deep aroma of knowledge: old paper, dust, coffee, and tobacco.

-- p. 129

What I didn't love about Everything Beautiful Began After:

The prologue is dense with metaphor -- so heavy that it's a little exhausting to read. It takes a while for the fog of metaphor to clear. However, once you get past the first 20 pages or so, the book is much more readable and the further you read, the more compelling and gripping the story becomes. When you reach the end, you'll immediately want to reread the prologue and it will make sense.

I've read Everything Beautiful Began After twice, now, and I felt the same way, both times, although I loved the book even more on the second reading. The first time through, I neglected to mark any passages because I plowed through it so fast, dying to know what would be come of the character who was so paralyzed by grief. On the second reading, I was equally mesmerized but I took the time to mark a few favorite lines.

Here are a few more quotes I like:

The beauty of artifacts is in how they reassure us we're not the first to die.

-- p. 13

"This is the old marketplace," Henry said, "where Zeno came up with a few of his lines."

"I see," Rebecca said. She had no idea who Zeno was, but imagined a masked man with a sword in fishing waders. Then Henry stopped walking and recited something to a slumped dog under a bush.

"Every man has perfect freedom, provided he emancipates himself from mundane desires."

The dog sat up and began to pant.

-- p. 49

"I think he looks lonely," Rebecca said.

"But there are always people on the street below his balcony--"

"That doesn't mean anything," Rebecca interrupted. "Loneliness is like being the only person left alive in the universe, except that everyone else is still here."

-- p. 67

To love again, you must not discard what has happened to you, but take from it the strength you'll need to carry on.

-- p. 372

The bottom line: A beautifully written, surprising story of love and loss, grief and hope. Lovely imagery and setting, likable characters and a believable storyline make Everything Beautiful Began After an excellent read. As in all of Simon Van Booy's writing, there is a startling amount of wisdom and humor (the mice and their poisonous plops -- you have to read it to understand!) and always, always hope, even during the darkest moments. Even better on the second reading and well worth owning.

Other reviews:

Marg's review is wonderful

Wendy's review is equally awesome

On a personal note:

I've already mentioned that Carrie and I got to hang out together in Boston to hear Simon do a reading and answer questions about Everything Beautiful Began After. We also got together with Simon for coffee before his reading. I hadn't seen Simon since I "interviewed" him in 2007 (it was more like a chat than an interview). Someday, I'm going to lure him to Mississippi for a reading and signing, but that hasn't happened, yet!

Simon is one of the most delightful men I've ever met. Carrie and I had a blast chatting with him and enjoyed his reading. He is an exceptional speaker but talking with him one-on-one will make you a fan for life. He is truly a man I highly admire and am honored to call my friend. If you ever get the chance to go to one of his readings, signings or events, you really must. Tell him Bookfool sent you. :)

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