Rose City Reader

Mailbox Monday

2009-11-16T06:00:00.000-08:00

While running errands this weekend, I made a quick stop at one of my favorite hidey-hole library book shops. This one is tucked away in the corner of a strip mall branch library and they sell everything for 50 cents -- hardback, paperback, pristine, or trashed, it is 50 cents. Worth a stop when I find myself out on the urban edges.

So for my whopping $2, here is my Mailbox Monday list:

The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth (as I continue gathering the Roth bibliography)

The Master and the Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (on the MLA's list of 30 Books Every Adult Should Read, among others, I'm sure)

Sacred by Dennis Lehane (from his early Patrick Kenzie/Angela Gennaro mystery series)

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (which I have always meant to read but never got around to it)

Review of the Day: The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

2009-11-15T13:46:00.000-08:00

How can I review a book that took me 30 years to read? This is not just a book, it is part of my life. I have been working on The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway longer than all my formal education, two marriages, and my law practice.

I read my first Hemingway short story -- "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" -- when I was a Freshman in high school. In fits and starts since then I have been working my way through the rest.

There are some, such as “Hills Like White Elephants” and “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” that I have read several times. Others, like all the bull fighting stories, maybe only feel like I read them over and over. I know that I had to start this “Finca Vigia” edition several times, including reading the first half dozen or so stories out loud on road trips -- first with my practice husband and later with my keeper hubby.

I made a concerted effort this year to finish this book and this project. Hemingway wrote all his short stories in a 38-year span – I did not want it to take me as long to read them. So I started again at the beginning and read the book all the way through. The Nick Adams stories were new to me, as were the boxing stories and the previously unpublished stories at the end of the book.

But I can’t review Hemingway, especially when my attitudes about his writing have changed over the decades. I was unquestionably awed as a teenager, snide as a college English major, a genuine fan as an adult, and now just a little weary. His writing is masterful. He was a genius with spare dialog and creating reality with only a few brush strokes. (Of course, because he taught Americans a new way of writing, reading the original does not pack the wallop it must have before everyone copied him.) What wore me out was the subject matter – the bull fights and the Spanish Civil War in particular. It just got to be a chore for me to get to the end.

Who knows? Maybe I’ll dip into the collection again in the future and have a completely new attitude about Hemingway. But for now, the book is going back on the shelf.

OTHER REVIEWS AND RELATED POSTS
(If you would like your review of this book or related posts about Hemingway or his books, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it here.)

List of the Day: James Tait Black Memorial Prize

2009-11-14T07:00:00.000-08:00

First awarded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction is one of the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. The award is based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the winner is chosen by the Professor of English Literature at the University with the assistance of PhD students.

Those I have read are in red. Those on my TBR shelf are in blue. If anyone else is working on this list, leave a comment with links to related posts and I will list them below.

2008 The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
2007 Our Horses in Egypt by Rosalind Belben
2006 The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2005 Saturday by Ian McEwan
2004 GB84 by David Peace
2003 Personality by Andrew O'Hagan
2002 The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
2001 Something Like a House by Sid Smith
2000 White Teeth by Zadie Smith
1999 Renegade or Halo2 by Timothy Mo
1998 Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge
1997 Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller
1996 Last Orders by Graham Swift and Justine by Alice Thompson
1995 The Prestige by Christopher Priest
1994 The Folding Star by Alan Hollinghurst
1993 Crossing the River by Caryl Phillips
1992 Sacred Country by Rose Tremain
1991 Downriver by Iain Sinclair
1990 Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd
1989 A Disaffection by James Kelman
1988 A Season in the West by Piers Paul Read
1987 The Golden Bird: Two Orkney Stories by George Mackay Brown
1986 Persephone by Jenny Joseph
1985 Winter Garden by Robert Edric
1984 Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard and Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
1983 Allegro Postillions by Jonathan Keates
1982 On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin
1981 Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie and The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux
1980 Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee
1979 Darkness Visible by William Golding
1978 Plumb by Maurice Gee
1977 The Honourable Schoolboy by John Le Carré
1976 Doctor Copernicus by John Banville
1975 The Great Victorian Collection by Brian Moore
1974 Monsieur, or The Prince Of Darkness by Lawrence Durrell
1973 The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch
1972 G by John Berger
1971 A Guest of Honour by Nadine Gordimer
1970 The Bird of Paradise by Lily Powell
1969 Eva Trout by Elizabeth Bowen
1968 The Gasteropod by Maggie Ross
1967 Jerusalem the Golden by Margaret Drabble
1966 Such by Christine Brooke-Rose and Langrishe, Go Down by Aidan Higgins
1965 The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark
1964 The Ice Saints by Frank Tuohy
1963 A Slanting Light by Gerda Charles
1962 Act of Destruction by Ronald Hardy
1961 The Ha-Ha by Jennifer Dawson
1960 Imperial Caesar by Rex Warner
1959 The Devil's Advocate by Morris West
1958 The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot by Angus Wilson
1957 At Lady Molly's by Anthony Powell
1956 The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macauley
1955 Mother and Son by Ivy Compton-Burnett
1954 The New Men and The Masters (in sequence) by C. P. Snow
1953 Troy Chimneys by Margaret Kennedy
1952 Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh
1951 Father Goose by W. C. Chapman-Mortimer
1950 Along the Valley by Robert Henriquez (out of print)
1949 The Far Cry by Emma Smith
1948 The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene
1947 Eustace and Hilda by L. P. Hartley
1946 Poor Man's Tapestry by G. Oliver Onions
1945 Travellers by L. A. G. Strong
1944 Young Tom by Forrest Reid
1943 Tales From Bective Bridge by Mary Lavin
1942 Monkey by Wu Ch'eng-en (translation by Arthur Whaley)
1941 A House of Children by Joyce Cary
1940 The Voyage by Charles Morgan
1939 After Many a Summer Dies the Swan by Aldous Huxley
1938 A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours by C. S. Forester
1937 Highland River by Neil M. Gunn
1936 South Riding by Winifred Holtby
1935 The Root and the Flower by L. H. Myers
1934 I, Claudius and Claudius the God by Robert Graves
1933 England, Their England by A. G. Macdonell
1932 Boomerang by Helen Simpson
1931 Without My Cloak by Kate O'Brien
1930 Miss Mole by E. H. Young
1929 The Good Companions by J. B. Priestley
1928 Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man by Siegfried Sassoon
1927 Portrait of Clare by Francis Brett Young
1926 Adam's Breed by Radclyffe Hall
1925 The Informer by Liam O'Flaherty
1924 A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
1923 Riceyman Steps by Arnold Bennett
1922 Lady Into Fox by David Garnett
1921 Memoirs of a Midget by Walter de la Mare
1920 The Lost Girl by D. H. Lawrence
1919 The Secret City by Hugh Walpole

RELATED POSTS
(Leave comments with links to related posts and I will list them here.)

Review of the Day: Alice Adams

2009-11-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

Grounded in outmoded attitudes about class and distractingly highlighted by outmoded attitudes about race, Alice Adams has not aged well. In his 1922 Pulitzer winner, Booth Tarkington presents a heroine striving to climb the short social ladder of her Midwestern city using only her charms and well-rehearsed mannerisms.

Watching Alice struggle is painful. She has self-awareness sufficient to know she is doing things wrong, but lacks the tools to do them right. And it never seems that the game is worth the candle.

Finally, after watching Alice dither for most of the book, circumstances force her to face reality and make some difficult but intelligent decisions. The book ends on a gloriously hopeful note, which is the most redeeming feature of the story.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Sarah's Key

2009-11-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

"The girl was the first to hear the loud pounding on the door."

-- Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

I'm flying through this book because I am sick to find out what happens.

Of course the pounding on the door is the police, rounding up Paris Jews during the Holocaust and, as I read on the back cover, the girl locks her little brother in a cupboard to save him. There is a modern day part of the story about the family who lives in the apartment now. I am horrified that they are going to find a toddler skeleton in the cupboard, so am reading as fast as my eyeballs can take it in so I can know one way or the other and stop fretting.

Happy Anniversary! And Happy Veterans' Day!

2009-11-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

November 11 is Veterans' Day. Or Armistice Day, for traditionalists.

At our house, it is also our wedding anniversary. This year we celebrate our Pottery Anniversary. That doesn't have the most romantic ring to it, but we'll make the best of it.

Teaser Tuesday: The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

2009-11-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

It was a strange country again but at the end he was not lonely and, later, waking, it was still strange and no one spoke at all but it was their country now, not his nor hers, but theirs, truly, and they both knew it.

In the dark with the wind blowing cool through the cabin she said, "Now you're happy and you love me."

-- "The Strange Country" by Ernest Hemingway, from The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigia Edition

The teaser for me is that this is the last story in the book and it is definitely tantalizing to think that I may soon, finally, finish a collection of short stories that I started almost 30 years ago! I read my first Hemingway short story -- "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" -- when I was a Freshman in high school. In fits and starts since then I have been working my way through the rest. The end is finally in sight.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday

2009-11-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

Just in time for Mailbox Monday, the mail man delivered:

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

This is my Book Club book for November. It might be horribly sad, since it is the story of the July 1942 roundup of Jews from Paris. Over 6,000 Jews, mostly children, were arrested by French policy acting on orders from the German occupying army, kept in a sports arena for several days, then shipped to camps, eventually Auschwitz where they all were killed. The book goes back and forth between the tragic events of 1942 and modern day Paris.

This could be rough going.

Review of the Day: The Man Who Loved China

2009-11-07T17:29:00.000-08:00

Joseph Needham’s Science and Civilization in China is still the definitive work on the subject, in continuous print since the Cambridge University Press published the first introductory volume* in 1954. In The Man Who Loved China, Simon Winchester turns his inquisitive eye and keen wit to Needham’s life and accomplishments, wrapping personality, history, politics, and science into the kind of irresistible story only Winchester can produce.

Needham was a biochemist, not a Sinologist. He became interested in the Middle Kingdom only after falling in love with Lu Gwei-Djen, a Chinese scientist in Cambridge to study with Needham and his biologist wife Dorothy. After learning Chinese, he obtained a pre-WWII diplomatic post that allowed him to explore China and send truckloads of books and documents about China’s scientific and technological history back to Cambridge.

As with his wonderful books about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary, The Professor and the Madman and The Meaning of Everything, Winchester uses the compilation and publication of Needham’s masterpiece as the backbone of this biography. He branches off from the central story to discuss the Needham’s socialist politics, his unconventional love life, and his role as one of Red China’s most “useful idiots.”

This last item concerned Needham leading a commission to investigate allegations that America used biological warfare during the Korean War. In 1953, he issued a report substantiating the claims, although it was later determined that the Chinese government, with Soviet help, staged the whole thing. As Winchester put it, “Needham was intellectually in love with communism; and yet communist spymasters and agents, it turned out, had pitilessly duped him.” Needham was under a cloud for years as a result. America refused him a visa until the 1970s. Only the quality and stupendous success of Science and Civilization finally redeemed his reputation.

Simon Winchester could write an interesting book about garden mulch, so it is no surprise that The Man Who Loved China, based on a fascinating life, is a fascinating book. This is one of his best.

* Science and Civilization in China is now a 25-volume set, although many volumes were written by others under Needham's direction and still others after his death.

OTHER REVIEWS
Age 30+ . . . A Lifetime of Books

(If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)

Blogging Blackout

2009-11-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

No blogging today while I am traveling for work. I put in some late posts from my hotel room the last couple of days, but I hope to finish work and drive home to Portland tonight, so no time to blog.

I do hate it when my job interferes with my hobbies.

The Bio-Sphere

2009-11-05T18:43:00.000-08:00

This week's Booking Through Thursday asks about a preference for biographies or autobiographies.

My answer: both, depending on the subject.

I prefer professional biographies of famous people, including historical figures, politicians, and celebrities. For instance;

Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations, by Craig Nelson (reviewed here)

The Age of Reagan (Vol. II): The Conservative Counterrevolution, 1980 - 1989 by Steven F. Hayward (which I am just finishing now)

Paul Newman: A Life by Shawn Levy (reviewed here)

But I prefer autobiographies, or memoirs, of non-famous people. This is a new interest of mine, which I can trace back precisely to when Hubby gave me a copy of Oh! The Glory of it All!* by Sean Wilsey when we lived in San Francisco (Wilsey being the unsung son of San Francisco socialites). Since then, I have enjoyed several "random memoirs" -- as I think of them -- about non-famous people living interesting lives. These include:

7 Wheelchairs: A Life Beyond Polio by Gary Presley (reviewed here)

Forbidden Bread by Erica Johnson Debeljak (reviewed here)

* One of my favorite book titles of all times.

Timely Re-Run Review: The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care

2009-11-04T19:44:00.000-08:00

In her accessible "citizen’s guide" to health care reform, Sally Pipes examines The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care and offers several patient-driven ideas for change. Pipes looks past the partisan rhetoric to explain, for example, what "46 million uninsured Americans" really means, why importing drugs cannot work, and how expanded Medicaid-type programs would make a bad situation worse.

Pipes, a Canadian native, is her most persuasive when she scrutinizes Canada’s and other nationalized medical systems. Relying on her extensive research and personal experience, she spells out why long waits, restricted access to new medications, and doctors on government payrolls are not the solution to America's problems.

In the debate over health care, Pipes has definitely chosen her side, championing free-market reforms such as allowing the interstate purchase of health insurance and revising the tax code to encourage individually-purchased, instead of employer-provided, insurance. But Pipes is no ranting demagogue. Her arguments are concise and supported by solid research as she tries deal rationally with an issue often freighted with emotion.

While aimed at policy-makers, The Top Ten Myths is lively enough for general consumption. Good reading for anyone interesting in going beyond the soundbites and understanding some of the details of health care reform.

Teaser Tuesday: Incidents in the Rue Laugier

2009-11-03T06:00:00.000-08:00

"Maud simply wanted to live in Paris, with or without a husband, preferably without. While careful not to let her thoughts show on her severe and slightly disdainful golden face, Maud had a secret desire to escape all forms of control."

-- Incidents in the Rue Laugier by Anita Brookner

I am now definitely a Brookner fan.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday

2009-11-02T06:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks once again to Reading Local and its monthly readers' participation contest, I have several new books to list for Mailbox Monday.

I used my contest winnings at Hawthorne Boulevard Books, a bibliophile's paradise. Rambling through several rooms of an old house, the store sells used, antique, and collector's editions. The charming owners were helpful and chatty I poked my way through the extensive literature section, master list in hand.

I finally settled on:

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather (a pristine 1985 Modern Library edition to replace the one I read and gave to my sister)

The Counterlife by Philip Roth (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award)

Reveries of a Bachelor by "Ik. Marvel" (a an old book from the 1800s that I bought for its fancy cover and novelty)

The Marmot Drive by John Hersey (for some reason, I keep buying John Hersey books, but I haven't read any of them yet)

Review of the Day: Freddy and Fredericka

2009-11-01T10:59:00.000-08:00

Mark Helprin’s rollicking novel, Freddy and Fredericka, follows the adventures of the Prince and Princess of Wales as, plagued by scandals that threaten the continuity of the royal throne, they set off on a quest to recapture the American Colonies. The two – clearly modeled on Charles and Diane – learn to love and appreciate each other while they both grow into their crowns.

With a mix of picaresque farce, adventure, political philosophy, and love story, Helprin weaves a captivating tall tale. While the wordplay sometimes degenerates to Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First” level, most of the book is witty and even hilarious. Helprin’s riffs and rants on such diverse subjects as the theater of politics, avant garde art, and whether “bosom” refers to a single object or half of a pair are worth putting up with a couple jokes that get stretched thin.

Trick or Treat!

2009-10-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

Our new neighborhood takes Halloween very seriously. Everyone has jack-o-lanterns, lights, decorations, and spooky stuff -- all geared for little kids, not teen-aged Halloween hooligans. It's great! We look like the newcomers that we are with only three jack-o-lanterns and a handful of rubber bats stuck on the window.

As is our tradition, we are having a dinner party with friends so we can all enjoy the trick-or-treaters (watching them, not eating them).

Cookbook Library: Cooking With Caprial

2009-10-30T10:40:00.000-07:00

Caprial's Bistro is one of my favorite restaurants in Portland. I also love her on her tv show and have learned a lot by watching her. For instance, I am indebted to her for fixing my pie crust -- I needed to use more water, as I learned from one show.

Too bad, then, that Cooking With Caprial: American Bistro Fair doesn't really do much for me. The recipes, like the items on Caprial's bistro menu, are deceptively simple. But the things I make never taste as good as they do at her restaurant. Of course, I'm not a world-class chef; she is. She must have secret ways (yes, called "talent") that makes things taste super yummy.

I am glad to have this one in my cookbook library, but I really do not use it very often.

Author of the Day: Kate Atkinson

2009-10-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

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Kate Atkinson is a new find for me. I recently read her debut novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, because it won the Costa (Whitebread) Book of the Year Award. That one book was enough to make me a fan. I am looking forward to reading her other books, including her most recent three novels, a mystery series featuring Jackson Brodie.

The one I have read is in red. Those on my TBR shelf are in blue.

Behind the Scenes at the Museum (1995) (reviewed here)

Human Croquet (1997)

Abandonment (2000)

Emotionally Weird (2000)

Not the End of the World (2002) (short stories)

Case Histories (2004)

One Good Turn (2006)

When Will There Be Good News? (2009)

OTHER READERS
(If anyone has posts related to Atkinson or these books and would like me to list it here, please leave a comment with a link to your post.)

Opening Sentence of the Day: Incidents in the Rue Laugier

2009-10-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

"My mother read a lot, sighed a lot, and went to bed early."

-- Incidents in the Rue Laugier by Anita Brookner

Hotel du Lac, the 1984 Booker Prize winner, is the only Anita Brookner novel I have read. I can't say that Hotel du Lac stuck with me -- so little so that I actually read it a second time without realizing it -- but Brookner has returned to my radar screen. I recently found several of her books in nice hardback editions at library book sales and something about them appealed to me.

I am looking forward to this one.

Teaser Tuesday: The Age of Reagan

2009-10-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

The Age of Reagan (Vol. II): The Conservative Counterrevolution, 1980 - 1989 by Steven F. Hayward.

"There were important aspects of foreign and defense policy that needed immediate attention, but Reagan and his team understood that restoring the economy was the prerequisite for a successful foreign and defense policy. They also knew that the first few months of 1981 would be their only window of opportunity, since that is when any new president carries the most clout with Congress and the public, and since in this particular circumstance the Democrats, having suffered large losses in the election, would be temporarily disoriented and dispirited."

This quote exemplifies the cyclical nature of politics and the economy. Substitute "Obama," "2009," and "Republicans" in that passage and it would describe the current administration.

I am a little over a third of the way through this second volume of Hayward's comprehensive biography. He does a particularly terrific job in two areas: 1) making arcane policy and political issues understandable and even interesting, and 2) using contemporary news quotes to compare the perceived situation with what was really going on in Reagan's White House.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday

2009-10-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

It was shaping up to be a completely book-free week last week, until I got an invitation from a friend to go to her husband's book-signing party. Whew! Mailbox Monday saved!

I stopped by the party on Saturday to pick up my very own signed copy of The High Definition Family by Sayer Strauch. It looks like an inspiring read. Maybe I'll get my household in shape for the holidays.

I Had a Book in Africa . . .

2009-10-25T06:00:00.001-07:00

Natasha at Maw Books Blog is hosting this month's Bookworms' Carnival and her theme is "Africa" books -- those written by African authors, set in Africa, or with some other African connection. She has compiled an incredible list of books. If you are looking for inspiration, please visit. It is worth bookmarking the page for future reference.

I was pleased that Natasha included three of my book reviews in the carnival (links to reviews):

The Beggar by Naguib Mahfouz
Beethoven Was One-Sixteenth Black by Nadine Gordimer
The Life and Times of Michael K. by J.M. Coetzee

In addition to her long list of recommended books, Natasha included a few questions for carnival participants and readers. Feel free to answer the questions on your blog or leave a comment on the carnival page:

1. Do you read a lot of books that have an African focus? If so, why do you enjoy them?

I didn't think I read many books with an African focus. And I don't, at least not compared to American or British books. But thinking back. I have read quite a few and there are more on my shelves. But I tend to read books by British or American authors about Africa more than books by African authors.

2. Have you reviewed any books with an African theme? If so, feel free to highlight them.

In addition to the three listed above, I reviewed two (links to reviews):

Black Jews, Jews, and Other Heroes: How Grassroots Activism Led to the Rescue of the Ethiopian Jews by Howard Lenoff
Middle Passage by Charles Johnson (in the carnival)

3. What are you looking forward to reading next? Anything on your radar?

Limiting this question to books with an African connection, Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen and A Good Man in Africa by William Boyd are both moving towards the top of my TBR stack.

4. If you haven’t read a lot of books with an African focus, what are some books that you’d like to read?

There are several others on my TBR shelves right now that I plan to get to eventually:

King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild (in the carnival)
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Jump by Nadine Gordimer
A Sport of Nature by Nadine Gordimer
Burger's Daughter by Nadine Gordimer
The Grass is Singing by Dorris Lessing
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (in the carnival)
Half of a Yellow-Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (in the carnival)

5. Are there any book titles showcased in this carnival that sounds interesting to you or that you’ve read?

There are several books listed in the carnival that I have read, even though I did not review them:

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
West With the Night by Beryl Markham

And, finally, there are several books with an African connection that I have read that are not listed above and were not in the carnival:

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh (a fictional Africa)
A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul
In a Free State by V.S. Naipaul (Booker winner)
The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles (Modern Library's Top 100)
The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell (Modern Library's Top 100)
Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene
The Human Factor by Graham Greene
Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow (more fictional Africa)
Skeletons on the Zahara by Dean King (my notes are here)

OTHERS' ANSWERS AND RELATED POSTS
IMAGENATIONS (Ghanaian author Nana Fredua-Agyeman's blog)
A Senegalese Reading List (on Amateur Reader's Wuthering Expectations blog)
(Leave a comment with a link to your answers and I will list your post here.)

Review of the Day: Laughing Gas

2009-10-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

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Laughing Gas is one of Wodehouse's stand-alone novels, featuring none of his usual cast of characters up to high jinx in their usual locales. This one-off follows the adventures of Reggie, the new Earl of Havershot, who heads to Hollywood to rescue his drunkard cousin from a mis-matched marriage.

The hook for the (tall) tale is that Reggie and child star Joey Cooley switch bodies while simultaneously under gas at the dentists' office. Farce ensues.

The story has plenty going on and a full roster of Wodehouse's entertaining characters. But it falls short when it comes to clever, witty writing. It just is not as funny as most Wodehouse books.

Review of the Day: Joker One

2009-10-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

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Donovan Campbell joined the Marines after 9/11. A recent Princeton grad and first in his class at the Marines’ Basic Officer Course, Campbell was made the Lieutenant of a forty-man infantry platoon called Joker One. Campbell led his platoon on a tour of duty in Ramadi, Iraq, where they patrolled for IEDs, battled insurgents, and tried to win over the locals – often in temperatures over 120 degrees, carrying 50 pounds of equipment.

Joker One: A Marine Platoon's Story of Courage, Leadership, and Brotherhood is Campbell’s account of his time in Ramadi. He describes what he and his men did and learned, but also shares his heartfelt insights into what made his team so great. It is a riveting story of courage and camaraderie that should make us appreciate the efforts and sacrifices of our military.

NOTE: This book is on my Library Thing Early Reviewer list. One more down, five more to go as of today. I wish I had read this one earlier because it was a real treat.

OTHER REVIEWS

Return Customer
The White Rhino Report

(If you would like your review listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)

Opening Sentence of the Day: Laughing Gas

2009-10-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

"I had just begun to write this story, when a literary pal of mine who had had a sticky night out with the P.E.N. Club blew in to borrow a bicarbonate of soda, and I thought it would be as well to have him vet what I had done, in case I might have foozled my tee-shot."

-- Laughing Gas by P. G. Wodehouse

And so begins the Earl of Havershot's tale of adventure and mayhem when he visits Hollywood to save his cousin from drink and an ill-advised splice to an American pippin.