Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe

This was another one of Pam's book group books. She recommended it to me and I ended up reading the whole series. I started with this one, which is actually the middle, but it was a good one to start with. It left me with questions for books one and three. The series tells the story of Josephine Bonaparte. Honestly I had very little interest in Napoleon prior to reading this book, but Sandra Gulland paints him as an interesting character. We see him through Josephine as a very opportunistic general who is not anything like emperor material. He is also very arrogant. He carries his own hard-boiled eggs to dinners so that no one can poison him. He even changes her first name from Rose. Josephine is no saint either. She has tons of debts and a weakness for laudanum. Upon telling her aunt she has married:

"Why...that's wonderful," she said, crossing herself, "but to whom?"
"To a military man by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte. He's--"
"What type of name is that?" my aunt demanded, frowning suspiciously.
"It's a Corsican name, Aunt Désirée, and--"
"You married a Corsican?" She reached for a brass bell and rang it vigorously...(she calls for smelling salts and insults the corsicans thoroughly)...
"A church ceremony, Rose?" she asked, pulling and twistingng the green handkerchief, worrying it.
"No," I admitted. Bonaparte was anti-Church, but I wasn't going to tell her that.
I heard a sniff. Oh dear! Was she weeping? Dismayed, I reached out to comfort her, but she turned on me like a hawk. "Rose how could you?" she wept, dabbing her cheeks. "How could you have married a man with such a horrible name!"

Robinson Crusoe

This is another one of those classics that I had been meaning to read for years. Over all it was an excellent book. Especially the first 3 quarters. Or even 5/6ths. But pretty much after he is "rescued" I lost interest. Also, I thought it was really annoying that each chapter begins with a overview of what happens in the chapter. For example "Friday tells me of the white mans in his country. I make a canoe. Keep another anniversary. The savages again land. We attack them and rescue a Spaniard. Friday finds his father." And then the chapter begins. What?! It gives away all the surprises. If I could only stop myself from reading those parts! My only other complaint is the end of the book. The last sentence is: "I sent them also from the Brazils five cows, three of them being big with calf, some sheep, and some hogs; which, when I came again, were considerably increased." So actually there is no ending.

I love the action in this book. It is very exciting and actually reminded me a lot of Fatu-Hiva by Thor Heyerdahl. Although that was a real reminiscence, they dealt with some of the same survival issues. I thought it was really funny the way he ends up describing how he built a canoe in great detail, but when he gets married it isn't really clear who the lucky lady is. I also thought it was funny the way you think through the whole book that he is just unlucky with the sea, but then the first time he travels by land he is attacked by wolves. So I think the moral of the story is: Stay home and listen to your parents. ( at least when they tell you that you are doomed to be lost at sea)

Kite Runner

Ok, I won't say much about this one because I'm pretty sure I'm the last person on the planet to read it, but if it turns out someone else out there is the last person then I highly recommend this book. It's about a couple of boys in Afghanistan, so it isn't a cheerful sort of book, but it is very insightful. I learned a lot about the history of the country through this book. This is the way I prefer to learn history I think...through fiction. Anyway, it's well written and deserving of a second look if you get a chance.

So, I've been listening to Robert Parker in the car and find this Spencer fellow entertaining. He is a really tough PI who always cracks the case. Also, he happens to be highly intellectual even though he is big and brawny.

I'm trying this link thing to see if you can read a review. He has some great lines, but since I listened to it I can't remember enough to put in here so you will have to listen for yourself.

I am now moving on to Twain.

Email from John

I got permission from John to post an e-mail of his here:

I've had an interesting year of reading, although I'm
out of the reading mode until it's not nice enough to
do something rational. I'm reading quite an
interesting fishing book, well, make that "fly
fishing" book, called, "Rivers of Shadow, Rivers of
Sun" by Norm Zeigler. Not much fishing about it,
really. Sort of a "Blue Highways" sort of thing
centered around finding off-the-beaten-path of famous
European/Scandinavian rivers. Reading it is like
sitting over a glass of wine in a small European cafe
talking about people, rivers and the fish that we aim
to catch and sometimes do. This is a nice contrast to
"Footnotes from a Catastrophy" and some of the other
environmental glasnost books that seem to find their
way into my hands. Sharon dropped "Marley and Me" on
me and it was a nice flight book to and from Boston,
but in the end I couldn't finish the book. This winter
I went through a rash of Annie Proulx books after a
seatmate on a flight to Boston gave me one of her
books. "Close Range." "Accordian Crimes." A couple of
others. A very good writer with great
characterization. My brother gave me a Bush Attack
that I sometimes will read a chapter of before bed,
although there is so little I find either amusing or
even funny about the man, so the work usually bores
me. It's like reading about the one guy who is always
trying to crowd into a table of people he thinks are
friends, and is not intelligent enough to realize they
find he and his jokes stupid rather than funny. JGW

Cassandra French's Finishing School for Boys

This book totally horrified me as I read it but the more I think back on it, the better it gets. I really loved Eric Garcia's Dinosaur series that I wrote about earlier (Anonymous Rex, Hot and Sweaty Rex, and Casual Rex). I also enjoyed Matchstick Men. Now after I say that I should have know that this book was going to be totally messed up because everything he writes has an element of loony in it. However, it starts out so Bridget Jonesy that I was caught off guard. She seems like the normal, shallow, chick lit heroine who hates her job and anyone who looks thinner than her. But in no time you learn that she has three men chained in her basement, and her mom is cheerfully under house arrest for telemarketing fraud. For a lawyer, she follows a very loose interpretation of the law in this book. Don't ask--you will have to read the book to follow her totally screwed up rationalization about how it is OK to kidnap bad dates and hold them hostage. I certainly can't explain her. Here is the first page for all of you who like a glimpse:

"There was a woman on television the other day who insisted that the best way for us, as humans, to achieve our goals is to grade ourselves, in every aspect of our lives, with stark and unrelenting candor. It's not good enough simply to think about these grades, or to tell them to a friend; according to this woman, who may or may not have been an actual doctor, you've got to write them down at least once a day if you want to make a difference in your life. There's no need, she said, to make any specific proactive plans for these changes to occur. The sheer act of writing them down, is eventually, enough to do the trick. Though I have a strong feeling the woman was a shill for the Bic pen corporation, it's difficult for me to resist what seems like a ridiculously easy method to turn my life toward the better. If all it takes to achieve happiness is a belly flop into the culture of constant self-evaluation, I'm ready to pull on a bikini and call myself a swimmer. To start, I'll give myself a C in metaphor."

I give Eric Garcia a C- for getting inside the mind of a woman (I cannot see most of this behavior as female, but instead an extremely exaggerated version of how men might see women) and an A+ for writing an apparently fluff summer read that completely took me by surprise.

Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings

So this is my first Christopher Moore, even though he's caught my eye several times. It was hilarious. The characters are really funny. This book is about 2 friends doing whale research and their 2 employees. One employee is named Amy, has no tan even though she's in Hawaii, and has no past. The other employee's name is Preston Applebaum, but he calls himself Pelekekona or "Kona", and he talks like this ( an actual excerpt is the only way to describe):

"Some rippin' sets North Shore, they be callin' to me this morning." The kid shrugged. What could he do? Rippin' sets had called to him.
Nate squinted at the surfer, realizing that the kid was speaking some mix of Rasta talk, pidgin, surfspeak and....well, bullshit. "Stop talking that way, or you're fired right now."
"So you the ichiban big whale kahuna, like Clay say, hey?"
"Yeah," Nate said. "I'm the number-one whale kahuna. You're fired."
"Bummah, mon," The kid said. He shrugged again, turned , and started toward the door. "Jah's love to ye, brah. Cool runnings," he sang over his shoulder.

I think the plot is really funny too, but I'm not going to share much because there are a lot of surprises. It's sort of a mystery. Kinda. Also, just a warning--this book starts out fairly realistic and then become more and more fantastic as it goes on. This is fiction that believes in being fiction.

Stephanie Plum #12

Yeah, there is a new Stephanie Plum novel. She is the crazy 30ish female bounty hunter. Very fun reads. #12 is called Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich. It is really good so far. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312349483/sr=8-1/qid=1151433454/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-1343251-9869657?ie=UTF8http://

Also on audio I've been doing Robert Parker, the ones with the private eye named Spencer. They are fun in the car.

I listened to A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L 'Engle, which I hadn't read for a coon's age and it was still good!

Almost out the door!

I'm leaving for vacation on Saturday (to Mexico), so I had to go fess up at the library and pay my fine in order to get more books.

I checked out Sixpence House (AGAIN), maybe this time I will actually be able to read it before the fines start. And, I also got the Short Stories by Gwyn Thomas (recommended by Max) and Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (recommended by AJ, a long time ago - pre-blog).

If I have a chance to get to a different library, I may be able to get the second book in the Hitchhiker series - although I'm concerned that my reading voice will not be nearly as funny as hearing Stephen Fry read the first book.

On the plans for the vacation, the boyfriend is going to take me to an English language bookstore. So, I don't have to worry about running out of books this time. Last vacation, I got a cold and was laying on the couch reading much more than I had anticipated.

I did read a few books recently and haven't posted anything about them. Mom & Dad came to visit and left me a stack of books. I tore through Oaxaca Journal (by the guy who wrote The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat), English as a Second Language (I can't remember the author, but it's about a girl who goes to England for a master's degree - fairly fluffy, but entertaining.)

Also a co-worker lent me the new Amy Tan book Saving Fish From Drowning. It was good, but I'm not sure I liked it as much as the others. I was annoyed by a few holes in the plot.

Have a great 4th!

d

Sleeping with Schubert--Not just for music nerds!

This is a fun read. (it was a great beach book!) It reminded my a little of that movie with Lilly Tomlin and Steve Martin where they share a body--what was it called? Anyway, this girl has to share a body with Schubert. The steamy title is a little misleading, since she does EVERYTHING with Schubert after he "shows up". Here is an excerpt from the first chapter where she realizes something is wrong. It starts with her listening to the pianist at Nordstrom department store.

"I tried to walk away but his playing attracted me like a spectator to an Amtrak wreck. Occasional missed notes hit my body like flying glass. I outplayed him in my head, summoning the music's original beauty. When he left for his break, I calmly took his place on the piano bench and began to play.
Through all my grad-school piano lessons I'd only gotten good enough to recognize the skill in others. Suddenly I became an other. I was not like a lifeless puppet, nor a remote-control robot. All the movement came from inside. Muscles flexed, fingers moved, and my mind was filled with a comprehension I had no right to possess. I vibrated like a tuning fork as the music flowed outward. Visions slid in and out of focus. My brain engaged in a psychic tug-of-war with an unseen opponent.
It was a lovely piece I played, one I'm sure I never head before but which felt like an old friend...(chunk taken out here to save space)...When I stopped, the world of Nordstrom fell in on me again. The response to my music was, like, totally Californian. Most of the shoppers shopped on, unscathed by a miracle...(another sloppy editing job, sorry)...
"Hey, lady, how'd you do that?" I turned to see an adolescent boy in trendy, cool-kid clothes. He stared at me, stunned, as if he'd just discovered fire.
"I don't know," I answered. Then the world grew dark, the ocean rushed through my ears, and I gratefully passed out.

I love this excerpt because it was always my dream to sit down at the piano and have it miraculously sound good without having to practice first. After reading the rest of the book I changed my mind. Practice sounds easier than having a musical genius borrow your body.