Tyger, Tyger, Burning...Hostile? Vengeful? Really Angry?

This is partly a book rec and partly a test to see if the ever-talented and patient Chairman Ann solved my persistent can't-post-myself problem.

The Tiger, by John Vaillant, is the polar (OK, excuse the animal metaphor thing-y going on here) opposite of a fluffy book. And it's not even a novel--it's a true story. Sigh.

It goes without saying that if it wasn't this month's P-Town book group selection, I'd never consider reading it but...that's what book groups are for. Making you read books you'd normally kick to the curb.

Haven't finished it yet, but it's surprisingly an easy and interesting read. Picture a mystery where the bad guy is a Siberian tiger with the vengeful memory of an elephant. The victim is a deep-woods poacher with bad judgment. The detective is the head of the terretorial animal preservation agency with really laudable instincts and an appreciation of the true natures of both beasts and poachers. Wtih a flexible moral code.

Plus, it's only 300 pages long. Almost as long as my customary review, so, Chairman Ann, I'm going to aim this time for brevity. I think it's worth a read.

Caleb's Crossing is a great read. I got hooked on Geraldine Brooks after reading People of the Book. As soon as I read the review of Caleb's Crossing in the NYT, I downloaded it to the Kindle - all from my bed on a Sunday morning. This is a great historical novel, but it does not get bogged down in historical facts. She does a remarkable job drawing out the characters and placing them in the right time, but with universal personalities. I had started the book, but I really made great progress when I flew to Phoenix and back to DC in less than 48 hours. I was so involved in the story on the flight back that I did not fall asleep, even though I was exhausted.

I don't make a recommendation about the medium - my only recommendation is to read it!

June is Fluffy Book Month

First of all:  eReader conclusion.  As you know, the iPad was rejected, the Kindle was returned, the Nook was returned, the iPad was rejected again ... but, FINALLY, the Kindle is on order again.  This is the end of the saga ... well, except to start talking about where to get free books and when Amazon will open up library books. 

June truly was a month of fluffy books suitable for beach reading. 

Fifth Avenue, 5 a.m. by Sam Wasson
This book was sitting on the librarian recommendation shelf and was a pleasant surprise.  It's one of those "behind the scenes" / "making a movie" book ... sometimes they're really interesting and sometimes you don't get past the first 50 pages.  And the movie in question is Breakfast at Tiffany's.  Maybe I liked it because I liked the movie, liked Audrey Hepburn or am a sucker for movies with good roles for cats.  Anyway, the book was just as charming as the movie.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/books/14book.html
 

Still Life With Murder by P.B. Ryan
This is the first in a seven book series set in Boston just after the Civil War.  It's almost more historical fiction than mystery.  There's a lot about what it's like to be Irish in America then, about class distinctions and manners, with lots of twists and turns in the plots.  Again, it's not a serious book by a major author ... just something fun to read on the beach ... or in our cases, on the virtual beach.
 
And here's a link to get the first book as a free ebook:
 
http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Sweeney-Mysteries-formerly-ebook/dp/B003UV98MM/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1309458949&sr=1-1

The Continuing eReader Saga

I have no explanation as to why this decision is so hard for me. 

The Nook did not please. 

The touchscreen was limited and sometimes unpredictable.  The buttons were hard to press.  Their claim to 80% less backflash was not true.  I do not like the Barnes & Noble website.

The Nook went back.

Then I got the iPad bug again.  I borrowed my sister's iPad yesterday and I think it was just a 24 hour bug ... the iPad is no longer on the shopping list.

OK.  I am now safely back in Kindle camp.  Susan and Bethie, you were both right.  Brenda, the pressure is still on ... or did Bethie convince you when you were in Washington?

And now the pressure is also on Amazon ... I need those library books!

In a minute there is time for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. ~T.S. Eliot

A Great Hear (or Why I’m Now Multi-Tasking With Eyes and Ears, in Cyberspace)

The Help (Kathryn Stockett) has been clogging up all possible venues—print, electronic, audio—since it was published in 2009. At our annual Christmas party and book-pick, where every member of the P-Town book group must come armed with some kind of food and two solid book recommendations, we usually end up considering ~30 books for the next 11 month cycle; this time, half of the nominators came armed with The Help. It was like a literary electoral landslide. I had it on my list even though while it was residing peacefully on my Kindle in audio-book form, I hadn’t really gotten all that interested in actually reading it. I nominated it because it had gotten stellar reviews, sounded interesting, and I figured maybe getting on the to-be-read list might actually make me read it.

With 50% of the group lobbying for it, it obviously made the cut and June was our The Help month. As I have mentioned in prior posts, too much fame tends to put me off, so I avoided getting going until 5 days before our meeting. And then, I realized that I only had it in audio form and maybe I would like it better if I read it, after all. But I’m trying not to spend money on hard copy or even electronic books for my Kindle, because I’m in between earning sources this year: severance and unemployment are long gone, and I decided to wait on Social Security until I can get the full amount, which will be next month. So: be frugal! The public library and Kindles don’t have a good relationship at the moment—although Amazon.com assures us that by the end of 2011, they will update their operating system to allow library eBook downloads and then the world will be a much sunnier place. Until then, live with it, suckers! However, after attending a little workshop recently at the library on electronic books, I realized that I can reserve and download an eBook onto my laptop, even if it still speaks a language foreign to the Kindle. So, 5 days before our June meeting, I grabbed an eBook from Overdrive.com and was set to go. I figured that between an eBook and an audio book on my Kindle, one or the other of them would work.

Ha! 5 pages into the audio book, I realized I was completely hooked. The audio book has an unusual amount of narrators—usually, 1 person just does all the various voices in an audio book, by being excellent actors. But for The Help, and I don’t know why, Audible.com decided to go with 4 different narrators. And each of them does an exceptional good job. But because there is a lot of dialect dialog, I noticed that I was occasionally not sure what someone had said. So then I thought I would open up the eBook so that I could look up the occasional missed word. And voila! A new form of reading was born: reading along while a virtual play was being performed just for me in my own living room. While I was dressed like a hobo. I finally settled on listening, doing some needlepoint, and following along in the eBook so I could just look up when I wasn’t 100% sure of what I heard.

Would I have taken this much trouble for just a so-so book? Nope. But The Help is an amazing book, and, even more surprising, it’s the author’s first novel. I’m going to assume that if I know about the general idea, you all do too, so I won’t go into any great details except to say that this is what I loved about it:

*Believable characters--although there are some that are possibly a bit over the top—just the nasty ones though, and who doesn’t like someone that you really get to hate, full-on? The author placed a couple of really evil people squarely in the middle of the action, who take great pleasure in messing things up badly for everyone else

*Beautiful structure—the novel has 3 separate rotating narrators, and their individual voices are really handled distinctly. When Skeeter is narrating, or Aibeleen, or Minny, it’s always immediately clear who is carrying the story burden at that moment. And the use of shifting perspectives on the main events of the story really adds depth and complexity to what might otherwise have been a decent but still one-sided account.

*Engrossing story—by setting the story in 1964 in Jackson, Mississippi, the author does something that is really magical for folks that are our age. While I don’t think any of us lived in highly segregated worlds, there was still a clear line drawn between plain old vanilla white people and everyone else, and the Caucasians were firmly in charge. Most of the families of the women in the P-town book group had hired help when they were growing up in the 60s and early 70s, and most of them felt like their hired help were kind of surrogate mothers or grandmothers. Still, I think that that world no longer exists. But in 1964, things were starting to change, and I remember that change really well. I remember the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, I remember the march on Washington, I remember the “I Have a Dream” speech, and I obviously remember the Kennedy assassination and its aftermath. The events in The Help take place almost 50 years ago, but we were there and beginning (I think) to use our brains. There’s a scene when someone introduces the rebellious white girl, Skeeter, to Bob Dylan. I mentioned in the book group that my boyfriend at that time made me listen to Bob D’s first album when I visited him at home in Boston the summer after my first year of college, which was in 1964. And our most erudite member, the main librarian for the Stanford Business School, said that that was exactly how she first learned about Bob Dylan—she grew up in Boston and her boyfriend in 1964 told her the guy was going to be a god, so listen up! I told my boyfriend that I didn’t think Dylan’s voice was good enough for him to have a real commercial career. See, even then, I was colossally wrong about emerging trends!

There are some bad things that happen to good people in the book, and, gratifyingly, some really nasty things eventually happen to the bad guys, too. There are really heart-wrenching moments, and I have to admit that, by listening to it which always makes the narrative much more immediate, I had a mini-meltdown toward the end of the book and had to take a little time off so I’d stop weeping and let the story play out. But I can’t think of anything I’ve read recently that made me cry. Yes, I do cry at telephone commercials and fast-forward through any TV plea to help abused animals. But not typically when reading.

The movie version of The Help will be out in August. Sadly, I realized that I didn’t recognize any of the actors playing the younger roles, although I recognize ALL of the ones playing the older generation: Mary Steenburgen, Sissy Spacek, Allison Janney, Viola Davis, and Cecily Tyson. Can’t wait. Even if it’s disappointing, which is often the case, I still think I’ll see it.

So: final recommendation. Buy it! I think this WILL be one I will want to re-read (re-hear?) again, particularly after or maybe before the movie comes out.

(Editorial note:  Written by Susan, posted by Ann)

What Susan's Reading Now (And Why)

Welcome, Chairman Ann, to the wonderful world of eBooks. We’ll expect a pithy comparison of Kindle to Nook by the end of next week, at the very latest. I put my wordy (per usual) review of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks in my response to Bethie’s last post, so I’ll move on to current books.

The book group is doing The Help next week. It’s waiting for me on my Kindle in audio form, but I’m doing my usual procrastinating, so haven’t started it yet. In the meantime, I have been bouncing around reading Books of Consequence and Books of Inconsequence, alternately.


Books of Consequence: A very interesting novel with a nonfictional feel called Left Neglected, by Lisa Genova. The author has a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard and is obviously putting her studies to good use. The basic bones of the story have to do with the impact of a traumatic brain injury on the quintessential Type-A superwoman: workaholic, mother of 3, torn between the demands of both roles and convinced she’s failing at both. She crashes her car on a rainy morning as she’s on her way to work, late for a meeting and held up by a traffic jam; to make good use of her time, she fishes out her cell phone to review her email, loses control of her car, and wakes up 8 days later, with a good chunk of her right brain damaged. She has a condition called “left neglect” (scientists among us: I think this is sometimes called Hemispatial neglect, also called hemiagnosia, hemineglect, unilateral neglect, spatial neglect, unilateral visual inattention,[1] hemi-inattention [1] or neglect syndrome, according to the Gospel of Wikipedia). She can no longer see anything to her left and cannot feel anything on the left side of her body. Otherwise, her sight is fine. It’s just that there’s only half the field to see, and it’s unlikely things will improve. She can’t read because she sees only half the page, if people stand on the left side of her hospital bed, she can’t see them, when she puts on makeup, she only puts it on the right side of her face because there IS no left side to see. When she forces herself to position her left arm so it’s within the right side of her sight line, she recognizes things like her wedding ring or her watch, but she can’t figure out why they are on someone else’s arm/hand. The book was recommended to me by someone who thought it sounded like what has happened to my dear friend Ben—Bethie, you may have missed this but he had a massive stroke last fall and now is “blind” except that he can see perfectly well in the instant he’s looking but the messages don’t reach his brain, so in a second, it’s gone. He can’t retain anything he’s seen. Dorothy and Garrett are turning up this weekend, and as my local medical consultants since Bethie left us behind, will know whether this diagnosis is accurate or not. In the meantime, and unrelated to Ben’s situation, it’s a fascinating book.


Books of Inconsequence: I have mentioned that the library’s stash of eBooks and audio books is fairly limited at the moment, so I am kid of stuck with books I might not be desperate to read. Last week, I read Blacklist by Sara Paretsky; haven’t read her in years. It was entertaining, not great. And then I read a young-adult book written by Wendy Lichtman, someone I met briefly when I was 18 and she was the best college friend of my high school best friend. Fast forward 47 years and she reappears as a Berkeley writer. She's doing a series of books called Do the Math with a 14-year old girl who solves mysteries based on mathematical principles. Pretty entertaining—did we not predict that the next genre of mysteries would be mysteries with pre-teen detectives? We are so on-trend, as Nina Garcia would say, condescendingly.


The worst Book of Inconsequence is Barbara Walters’ autobiography (hey, it was free), called Auditions. Don’t even bother. The End.


(editorial note:  written by Susan, posted by Ann)

A New Member of the (not quite) Kindle Club

My lovely sister gave me a Kindle for my birthday. (Isn't she a good sister!)  Before we agreed on the Kindle I used her iPad for almost two weeks ... using it mainly as an e-reader with a small amount of time spent on Angry Birds. 

I liked the iPad, especially the screen, but found it too heavy, too bright and too short a battery life ... and too expensive.

I loved the Kindle ... much lighter, easier to read, easy to operate, nice interface with Amazon.  My biggest frustration was the lack of library books.  I downsized my book purchases drastically when I stopped working and depend on the library for 99% of my books.

So here's the surprise:  I sent the Kindle back.  Next week the new Nook will be available.  My sister has pre-ordered it and I can't wait.  The Nook 2 is one oz. lighter, has a touch screen, uses the same e-ink but with less back flash and, best of all, already has access to library books.

Another surprise:  I really, really like using an e-reader.  Gone are the days of filling my suitcase with heavy books.  Gone are the days of not wanting to carry a book on the bus.  I'm sure I'll still buy a few paper books, still order a few paper books from the library, but assume that most of my books will be on the Nook.

So now Susan, Bethie and Ann have e-readers ... Brenda, the pressure is on.

May Was the Month of Non-Fiction

I surprised myself by reading more non-fiction than trashy mysteries in the time that Brenda was in Europe.  Two worth mentioning are:  Atul Gawande's second book, Better and Rebecca Skloot's book, The Immortal Life of Hennrietta Lacks. 

I've now read all three of Atul Gawande's books.  He reminds me of another favorite, Malcolm Gladwell.  They are both excellent writers who like to consider how things work and what makes them better.  Gawande focuses on medicine and Gladwell has a much wider range of topics.  I might have mentioned another writer who fits this description, Michael Lewis.  I really like his book about the recent financial crisis, The Big Short.  Thinking about this kind of author reminds me of one of Susan's recommendations, Columbine.  Same thing:  good writer, interesting topic, figures out how things work.

I requested Rebecca Skloot's book from the library after seeing it on the best seller lists.  It was not what I thought it would be.  She is not quite as good a writer as Gawande or Gladwell, but she sure has an interesting story to tell.  It's part medical history, part family history, part about her as an author.  Would like to hear the opinions of anyone else who has read it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atul_Gawande

http://rebeccaskloot.com/the-immortal-life/

Kindle and book review

Good evening bloggers: To catch up, I have not read Josephine Tey's book, recommended by Ms. Susan. I am not too wild about the historical retrospective/mystery, but I will put it on the list and give it a try. I can't believe that Pacifica is going to close the library.

Mr. G. gave me a Kindle for my birthday (by request). I am most pleased with it. Light, very easy to transport on the Metro, and to take on the very occasional get-away. Also, you can make the print big and not strain your eyes at the end of the day. I really must be getting old if I am extolling the virtues of big print.

The honor of the first Kindle book was River of Darkness - the original John Madden mystery by Rennie Auth. Very enjoyable.

I am now back to print, care of Ms. Brenda. I am reading the latest Maisie Dobbs mystery. I just love this character. So independent. I am half way through and intend to spend the rest of the evening reading. We are having a Spring thunderstorm - perfect for reading until we lose power.

What are you reading? Bethie

Group Book Review - kinda, sorta

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith

You may remember that I queried all of you in March about these books ... wanted to know if they were suitable for my airplane trips back and forth to Wisconsin.  I ordered the first two books from the library, took them along but did not pay any attention to them.  Just last week I finally made myself open the first one and start reading. 

About now you're expecting me to say that I loved them.  Unfortunately, you would be wrong ... I disliked them.  I say "them" because I made myself read both books.  They are indeed charming, they paint a doting picture of Africa in general and Botswana in detail.  It's clear that the author loves Africa.  My problem is that the characters are over-simplified and stereotyped.  The cadence of the dialogue is charming but the content is repetitive.  The plots are ... oh, I want to say charming again ... not all that interesting and the solutions have no surprises.

Maybe my problem is expectations:  I expect a British or American mystery story with sophisticated characters and twisty plots but that's not what these books are.  One thing that surprised me when I tried to explain them to some one else is that the tone of the books is judgmental ... there are many, many should and should-nots woven into so many of the conversations. 

Here's what you said in March:

Bethie: I loved the Ladies No 1 Detective series on HBO, but I did not read the books.

Brenda: I enjoy the Ladies series and "read" them by listening to an audio version ... the reader-- Lisette Lecat -- is just wonderful ... this is a result of turning my Mother into a Book-on-Tape addict ... she would soon outstrip the GNE's 1,000+ audio library and started buying her own books ... one day I came home and was told to write down ALL my credit card numbers as it appeared that these audio-books companies would prefer that form of payment ... I too enjoyed the HBO series even though the gay hairdresser neighbor is not in the books ... I can lend you the audio books but the first titles are in cassette format, but the later ones are on CD

Susan: Haven’t read the Ladies No. 1 Detective series but I have read a couple of his 44 Scotland Street series, which are immensely charming but not mysteries. I am pretty sure Brenda HAS read the No. 1 Detective series, so I’ll leave it for her to chime in.

The Dead of Winter by Rennie Airth

Fellow sunglass wearing book club members:

Congratulations Chairman Ann. You have hit upon a good idea. I just finished a book that I suspect you have all read, but I will put it out there anyway.

I had not read any of the John Madden mysteries, but I like these post WWI (Maise Dobbs) WWII English mysteries. Naturally, I started with one later in the series, The Dead of Winter. I was surprised that Rennie Airth kept my interest.

Is it worth going back to the other books in the series? Bethie

Ballet de Lyon Book Club 2.0

Oh, so much better an idea, Chairman Ann! We can just recommend books to each other and if a dialog ensues, so much the better.

This way, I can sneak in the liberry book club pickings as though I am an intellectual and read high-toned tomes, instead of someone who has just completed a trilogy about a knitting club (not particularly a good one, either).

I will excuse you from reading the harrowing book we just completed, Half the Sky, about the oppression of 3rd-world women due to sexual slavery, lack of education, and maternal mortality.

But the next book is Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey, which comes highly recommended by the person who nominated it (moi) and by our unofficial leader, the local librarian, who read it ahead of time and then made her husband and daughter read it too. A quick read, a classic (if you can jerry-rig mysteries into the classic category) that's still highly readable, 60 years after it was written. One of the zillion reviews I read in prep for the nomination party we have annually said, "A mystery about history." In other words, a 20th century detective tackles an historical event (did King Richard III really have his two innocent nephews killed in order to clear a path to the throne in 15th century England?) like it was a contempory crime needing to be solved, rather than just accepting the 500 years of myth and bad history surrounding this event.

And thanks to Chairman Ann for bravely kick-starting the BLBC again.

Ann wakes up ... oh, it's April already

Wow ... that was a long spell of writer's block!  My New Year's resolutions include at least one update per month for the book club blog.  Yes, I know it's April, not January ... my resolutions also include something or other about procrastination.

My plan for 2011 is to talk about whatever I'm reading.  This means that all of us are released from any obligation to read the books mentioned.  This is a no-guilt, no-obligation book club so you can comment or review as the mood strikes you.

I hope you will feel the same and add posts about whatever you are reading ... or not (see no-guilt, no-obligation by-laws).

I spent way more time than I should have between January and March reading trashy books.  My new favorite is an historical fiction / time travel / mystery / romance series by Diana Gabaldon.  Susan has already heard all about this.  It's set in a combination of Scotland 1700's and England post WWII.  There's lots of Scottish history ... clans, wars, Bonnie Prince Charlie ... and interesting questions about whether or not you can change history.  The characters are well developed, there's lots of charming Scottish brogue and enough romance/relationship stuff and cliff-hanging adventures to keep you awake.

The down side:  I really wish I had a Kindle or iPad to read these books ... all seven of them are long, heavy books.

The first book in the series is Outlander:

http://genealogy.about.com/od/writing_family_history/gr/outlander.htm


And here's the author's website ... not the background you would guess.

http://www.dianagabaldon.com/writing/the-outlander/


and a little more info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_Gabaldon

February Book Selection: Life

In December we talked about reading Keith Richards' Life. Let's do it!

I liked Susan's suggestion that we pick just one book.

I also know that it has been too long since I posted, because I can't seem to remember how to upload the images from the web correctly.

The Cookbook Collector

Ah well. I was hoping that I could kick off 2011 with a "must read" review. Alas, this modern day take on one of Ms. Brenda's favorite books (Sense and Sensibility) was disappointing. It had great potential: good title, set in the Bay Area and Cambridge, and it had books as a subtext. I was tempted to quit reading it because the plot lines were so predictable, but I struggled on to the sappy ending.

Recommendation: Don't bother.