Books 'N Border Collies

This Totally Rocks!

2010-04-27T14:44:00.004-05:00

This is amazing! A guys' a capella group getting their Lady Gaga on! I love these guys!

I can't get it on here exactly right, but if you want to see the "widescreen" version, click here.

Meet Jonny Flynn!

2010-03-05T08:00:00.003-06:00

This week was my favorite Timberwolves Season Ticket Holder event: Meet The Timberwolves!! Yay! And my goal was to get a pic with our rookie, Jonny Flynn. Mission Accomplished!

How cute it he? And he's a wonderfully sweet guy. If I was ten years younger . . . OK. Twenty-five years younger, but who's counting? :-)

On the reading front: Yup. I'm a Harry Potter convert. Love them! I'm almost done with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and once I finish the books I plan to watch the movies. I hear nothing but good things about them.

On the cooking front: Here was one of our meals last week that we LOVED! I've linked to the recipes on the Eating Well Magazine website, which has become my new favorite recipe browsing site.

Tofu Au Vin served with Roasted Cauliflower with Blue Cheese Vinaigrette

Over the last couple of weeks I have learned that anything that calls for two cups of red wine in the recipe probably tastes fabulous. ;-) I'll be back soon with some more of those kinds of priceless vegetarian cooking tips. Don't forget your corkscrew!

I Couldn't Resist Sharing This

2010-02-12T09:15:00.004-06:00

Hi, Everyone!

I've been very busy with extremely cool cooking stuff, but when this article came to my attention I couldn't help but share. Nothing like books and the NBA combining to get my attention!

The NBA's Locker Room Nerds

As for my reading, I'm still doing plenty of that but much of it has been in the area of vegetarian/vegan health and cooking. I've been making some amazing meals that leave me believing I may well have eaten my last hamburger and having no regrets! I just may have to change the name of this blog to "Cookbooks 'N Border Collies" and share my experiences. :-)

I hope all my readers and their families have been doing wonderfully! And keep an eye out here. You just never know what could happen . . . :-)

Indefinite Hiatus

2009-12-19T10:58:00.006-06:00

After much thought, Books 'N Border Collies had decided to go on indefinite hiatus to pursue some personal goals. I have had a great time and will still be around reading and commenting on many of the great blogs out there but not doing much posting myself. I will leave the blog up, but I'm turning off the ability to post anonymously so I don't have to keep monitoring all the silly spam that shows up.

Now I'm going to go play in the snow with the boys! My, Skye, what big teeth you have! :-)

EVIDENCE

2009-12-14T12:35:00.001-06:00

by Jonathan Kellerman

L.A. police lieutenant Milo Sturgis takes center stage in Evidence, the twenty-fourth in Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware series, as he investigates a double murder at an abandoned construction site in a neighborhood of the uber-rich.

Milo is my favorite character in this series, and it was a wonderful surprise to have him in the leading role. Alex himself is more of a tag-along without much of a presence other than to tell the story. That is fine with me! As much as I love this series, Alex's personal life can sometimes get in the way of a good mystery. The reader doesn't get Milo's personal life instead, but just a straight-up murder mystery with some eco-terrorism for good measure.

I listened to the audiobook of Evidence and was thrilled to hear the voice of John Rubinstein. I believe he has narrated every Alex Delaware book I have listened to, and I have become so fond of his characterizations that his is the voice I hear in my head when I read a Delaware novel. I hope he continues recording the series for as long as Kellerman continues writing it.

THE AUDACITY TO WIN

2009-12-13T15:30:00.001-06:00

by David Plouffe

"David Plouffe, campaign manager for Barack Obama's historic presidential bid, reveals the inside story behind President Obama's rise to political prominence." (From the CD container.)

If you're at all curious about what it's like to run a presidential campaign, The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory is your book. David Plouffe walks the reader through the entire campaign, from the uncertain beginnings through election night. You'll hear enormous amounts of detail on political polls, funding, Obama's team's unprecedented use of "new media" in organizing and informing his supporters, the primary battles with Hillary Clinton and the final showdown with John McCain. Plouffe's book shows the best and the worst of the election process and its players. I'm not a political animal, but I was completely absorbed in this book from beginning to end. It is a fascinating behind-the-curtain look at the 2008 election from the perspective of the winner.

THE CORINTHIAN

2009-12-12T11:10:00.001-06:00

by Georgette Heyer

"Penelope Creed will do anything to avoid marrying her repulsive cousin. Dressed in boy's clothing, she's fleeing from London when she's discovered by Sir Richard Wyndham, himself on he verge of the most momentous decision of his life. When Sir Richard encounters the lovely fugitive, he knows he can't allow her to travel the countryside all alone, so he offers himself as her protector. As it happens, at that very moment Sir Richard could use an escape of his own." (From the back of the Sourcebooks edition.)

When a reader is looking for a bit of fun and romance, she could hardly go wrong choosing just about any Georgette Heyer regency romance. The Corinthian is light, adorable and a perfect book for when you want to smile from the first page to the last.

WAITER RANT

2009-12-09T10:00:00.003-06:00

by The Waiter, Steve Dublanica

"According to The Waiter, 80 percent of customers are nice people just looking for something to eat. The remaining 20 percent, however, are socially maladjusted psychopaths." (From the back cover of the Harper Perennial edition.)

Having spent plenty of my younger days as a server in different types of restaurants, I adored Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip--Confessions of a Cynical Waiter. Everyone who has worked or eaten in a restaurant will recognize stories from this book and not always in a good way. (I hope you don't recognize yourself among those customers who snap their fingers to get a server's attention!)

Accentuating both the bohemian exhilaration and painful craziness of life in the "front of the house", Waiter Rant is great fun to read and might teach some folks a little respect for those men and women who bring them their food on a packed Saturday night. If not, believe me, spitting in the food is only the beginning of the revenge tactics a server has in the arsenal. ;-)

ORYX AND CRAKE

2009-12-06T14:35:00.002-06:00

by Margaret Atwood

"As the story opens, Snowman is sleeping in a tree, wearing a dirty old bedsheet, mourning the loss of his beautiful and beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake, and slowly starving to death. In a world in which science-based corporations have recently taken mankind on an uncontrolled genetic-engineering ride, he now searches for supplies in a wasteland. How did everything fall apart so quickly?" (From the CD container.)

Now that I have read both books I will say I preferred The Year of the Flood, but Oryx and Crake was still really good. My preference lies in that I enjoyed the wider variety of characters presented in The Year of the Flood, but Oryx and Crake filled in a lot of questions raised from reading Flood first. I wrote previously that one does not need to read the books in order and I still stand by that statement, but if you have the opportunity I would recommend beginning with Oryx and Crake.

These two and The Handmaid's Tale are the only books by Margaret Atwood I have read, but I am now more convinced than ever that I need to explore her work further. The Handmaid's Tale would make My Life's Top 10 Books if I were to write that list today, and Oryx and Flood have left me even more curious about her other books. One of the things I found so striking in her writing in these two was her ability to write such beautiful formal prose, then suddenly jar me with modern slang or odd futuristic terminology and make it work. I'm looking forward to exploring the rest of her bibliography. Any suggestions regarding where to go from here?

ANGEL TIME

2009-12-03T09:40:00.002-06:00

by Anne Rice

"Haunted by his decision to become an assassin rather than a priest, contract killer Toby O'Dare prepares for another grisly mission. However, when an angel offers him the chance to redeem himself and save countless lives, O'Dare wholeheartedly accepts. Consequently, he is catapulted back to thirteenth century England, where a young Jewish girl has mysteriously disappeared and the town's Christians are accusing her parents of murder." (Based on the CD container summary.)

Anne Rice's vehicle has switched from vampires to angels in Angel Time: The Songs of the Seraphim, but the beautiful writing and explorations of spirituality are back. Yippee! Many would say they were never gone considering her previous two fiction books were about the life of Jesus, but they didn't feel like the same as the Anne Rice I had come to love. This book felt more like the original Vampire Chronicles -- dark and dream-like -- with more belief in the ability of humanity to reform its selfish ways.

I was concerned that Rice would be too preachy, using her new characters to push her recovered faith. There are those moments, but they are few and fleeting and served their purpose of causing this reader to reflect on her own thoughts about religion in general. Looking back, the Vampire Chronicles often did the same thing but with searching cynicism. Angel Time speaks with guided confidence. This is the first of a new series, and I'm greatly looking forward to its continuation.

THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ

2009-11-30T14:30:00.001-06:00

by L. Frank Baum

"As Dorothy journeys down the yellow brick road to the Emerald City, hoping the Great and Terrible Wizard who lives there will help her return home, she shares adventures with the famous trio of characters, defeats a wicked witch, and learns about the power of friendship, loyalty, and self-confidence." (From the back of the Barnes and Noble Classics edition.)

I grew up on the 1939 film version of L. Frank Baum's classic work, and it took me until now to get around to reading the original story. And The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is definitely worth reading. I was surprised at some of the differences between the book and its arguably more famous adaptation, but I was equally surprised at how much it was the same. It was simply a joy to read!

I chose the Barnes and Noble Classics edition, and the Introduction written by J.T. Barbarese was worth the purchase price all on its own. Some of the fun trivia I learned included "George Lucas has openly admitted the influence of the characters in The Wizard of Oz on his own [Star Wars] foursome of Luke, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and Chewbacca." (Introduction Endnote 14, p. xxxii.) As obvious as it is in hindsight, I'm probably the last geek on earth to realize that connection, but there it is. :-) Peter and I had a lively discussion about who corresponded to the Tin Woodman and who to the Scarecrow, with Leia understood by us to be Dorothy and Chewbacca the Cowardly Lion. We decided Luke Skywalker was Scarecrow and Han Solo the Tin Man, because, in short, Luke was a lot smarter than even he gave himself credit for, and Han always tried to be the tough guy out only for himself (heartless, in other words) but he always ended up coming to the aid of his friends. And falling in love with Leia, of course! For a "heartless" guy, he may have been the most sentimental of the bunch.

Another question arose as Peter and I discussed The Wizard of Oz: If Dorothy had found out that her shoes could take her home after she met Scarecrow and company but before killing the witch so her friends' wishes could be granted, would she have stuck around to help them? I vote yes.

Essay: POLITICS AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

2009-11-30T10:55:00.001-06:00

by George Orwell

Read this essay here.

I read George Orwell's 1946 essay "Politics and the English Language" because it was quoted in Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves To Death, and I wanted to know what else it had to say. In the essay, Orwell makes the argument that much of what passes for learned writing and speaking looks or sounds impressive at first, but when closely examined it is found to be little more than fancy words and worn phrases that ultimately express little or no meaning. Simplicity in conveying thoughts or ideas helps us to uncover poorly constructed logic, deception and outright lies.

I'll be using tips and tricks I learned in this essay next time I'm reading one of those "scholarly" writings I'm having difficulty understanding. Maybe they will help me to figure out if I really don't get it or if the flowery writing is masking a lack of coherent argument. And knowing I've used plenty of the very words and phrases Orwell ridicules, I'll be on the lookout for them in my own future compositions.

AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH

2009-11-28T11:00:00.004-06:00

by Neil Postman

"Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right." (Foreword, p.xx)

"Television has habituated us to visual entertainment measured out in spoonfuls at a time. But what happens when we come to expect the same things from our politics and public discourse? What happens to journalism, education, and religion when they too become forms of show business? Twenty years ago Neil Postman's lively polemic was the first book to consider the way that electronic media were reshaping our culture. Now, with TV joined by the Internet, cell phones, cable and DVDs, Amusing Ourselves To Death carries even greater significance. Elegant, incisive, and terrifically readable, it's a compelling take on our addiction to entertainment." (From the back cover of the Penguin Books 20th Anniversary Edition.)

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business is over twenty years old and is just as relevant today as it was when it was written. While television may no longer be our focus, Neil Postman's ideas and theories regarding the Age of Entertainment hold strong regardless of the technology. Anyone who feels bombarded by inane "information" and tired of sensationalism will love this book.

I'm always amazed when I read things like this to find so much of myself in them, how much I suddenly recognize my own ignorance or complacency. I like to think I'm a fairly smart cookie, and admitting how easily I can be manipulated is jarring. On the upside, I can now put my finger on some of the things that have been bothering me lately and make changes in my own life to help me live more in line with my personal beliefs.

Postman is not a Luddite and acknowledges that there are really great things about modern technology, but one of his final points was to remember that much of what we are seeing and reading has become entertainment. Remember to always ask questions about what you see, read and hear. "To ask is to break the spell." (p. 161)

Additional quotes from Amusing Ourselves To Death:

"A technology . . . is merely a machine. A medium is the social and intellectual environment a machine creates." (p. 84)

"The problem is not that television presents us with entertaining subject matter but that all subject matter is presented as entertaining, which is another issue altogether." (p. 87)

"[I]n saying that the television news show entertains but does not inform, I am saying something far more serious than that we are being deprived of authentic information. I am saying we are losing our sense of what it means to be well informed. Ignorance is correctable. But what shall we do if we take ignorance to be knowledge?" (p. 108)

A wonderful and current companion to this book would be the article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" by Nicholas Carr (The Atlantic, July/August 2008), which includes discussion regarding the effects of technology on our ability to concentrate. This article is also included in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009, which I talked about earlier this month.

THE GATHERING STORM

2009-11-27T10:00:00.002-06:00

by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
(Wheel of Time, Book Twelve)

"Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, struggles to unite a fractured network of kingdoms and alliances in preparation for the Last Battle. As he attempts to halt the Seanchan encroachment northward, his allies watch in terror the shadow that seems to be growing within the heart of the Dragon Reborn himself.

Egwene al'Vere is a captive of the White Tower and subject to the whims of their tyrannical leader. As days tick toward the Seanchan attack, Egwene works to hold together the factions of Aes Sedai and decide the future of the White Tower -- and possibly the world itself." (From the CD container.)

Twelve down, two more to go! The Wheel of Time series can be hot and cold for me. The first three are to this day some of my favorite books I've ever read. After that, the series got dull for me -- too many details without enough action. I re-read all the books before Book Eleven came out a couple of years ago, and once I was finished I wondered if I really cared enough to keep going, especially in light of the passing of the original author, Robert Jordan. But once I had invested that much time and effort it seemed a shame not to continue to the end.

I'm glad I've chosen to do so. With the end in sight, things are coming back together and getting exciting again. I think Brandon Sanderson has done a great job of continuing the series in a recognizable style. My only complaint is that I was hoping he'd stop all the ridiculous spanking that goes on for "punishments". I mean seriously, spanking one of The Forsaken?? And she actually begins to break? Please. That really is taking it beyond too far.

Aside from that, if you're a fan of The Wheel of Time or had been at one time, The Gathering Storm, while still as wordy as the rest, feels like it is bringing back the excitement I felt when I first began with The Eye of the World. Nice job, Mr. Sanderson! I'll be awaiting to final two books more anxiously than I thought I would!

PLANET OF THE APES

2009-11-23T05:55:00.003-06:00

by Pierre Boulle

"In the not-too-distant future, three astronauts land on what appears to be a planet just like Earth, with lush forests, a temperate climate, and breathable air. But while it appears to be a paradise, nothing is what it seems." (From the back cover of the Del Rey edition.)

Back in May when I read Pierre Boulle's Bridge Over The River Kwai, I learned he had also written Planet of the Apes. That struck me as so odd that I decided right then and there I needed to read Planet of the Apes. Here we are nearing Thanksgiving, and I've finally gotten around to it.

Don't let any cheesy old movies prejudice you. The book is surprisingly good! The writing itself does not come off as serious literature, but the themes sure do. Boulle considered Planet of the Apes to be a "social fantasy". It also could be a commentary on everything from animal rights, war, and racism to science and education. Seeing the apes engaging in so many everyday human activities and hearing their reasons for what they do brings to light irony and absurdity in our own behavior and prejudices in our logic. Believe it or not, this would be an excellent book club selection.

And for those who are wondering, the end is different from the movie. :-)

LIES MY TEACHER TOLD ME

2009-11-21T14:22:00.000-06:00

by James W. Loewen

"James W. Loewen, a sociology professor and distinguished critic of history education, puts 12 popular textbooks under the microscope -- and what he discovers will surprise you. In his opinion, every one of these texts fails to make its subject interesting or memorable. Worse still is the proliferation of blind patriotism, mindless optimism and misinformation filling the pages.

From the truth about Christopher Columbus to the harsh reality of the Vietnam War, Loewen picks apart the lies we've been told. This is a book that will forever change your view of the past." (From the CD container.)

I loved reading Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. I don't think a person has to believe that the U.S. is a perfect place in order to appreciate and love it. We do have much to be proud of, but I think it's even more admirable to still love one's country even when one acknowledges the less palatable parts of its history. It shows a capability to learn and improve as a country and as a people, which is far more important than cultivating belief in one's own superiority. We've made mistakes and we're still making them, but seeing how far we've come gives me great hope for the future.

BURN THIS BOOK

2009-11-20T10:15:00.002-06:00

edited by Toni Morrison

"Published in conjunction with the PEN American Center, Burn This Book is a powerful collection of essays that explore the meaning of censorship and the power of literature to inform the way we see the world, and ourselves." (From the book jacket.)

Burn This Book: PEN Writers Speak Out on the Power of the Word makes a person very happy to be living in a country where we can write and read pretty much as we please, where we can question ourselves and our institutions. We forget that there are too many places in the world where this is not true.

This is an extremely thin volume, clocking in at just over 100 pages, but there is a lot to fire some deep introspection. One of my favorite essays included a portion that said, and I paraphrase here, writers often do not write to deliver a message to readers but to attempt to find answers to their own questions. Readers come along for the ride. That interesting spin made me think of books that didn't feel "complete" to me. Perhaps the questions raised in those stories were the point, and I had been looking for answers where there were none. I potentially missed out on some great personal meditation. More important than revisiting some of those titles is keeping this lesson in mind as I go forward with more difficult or intimidating reading in the coming year.

It is small discoveries like this that enrich my relationship with my book choices and make "books about books" such a joy for me to read!

THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE AND NATURE WRITING 2009

2009-11-15T14:00:00.000-06:00

edited by Elizabeth Kolbert

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009 is one of those books I would have never read if not for a reading challenge. In this instance, that would be the Dewey Decimal System Challenge. This is why I love reading challenges even when I'm tired of them.

Each of the twenty-six articles included in this volume is fascinating and relatively easy for the non-science-type person to follow. Not surprisingly, I had problems understanding the couple articles involving things like cosmology and quantum mechanics, but they were still interesting the read. The rest were a whirlwind of topics that taught me all kinds of trivia about animal intelligence, where human waste ultimately ends up (both biologically and technologically related), how Internet search engines could be undermining our ability to concentrate, how human consciousness may be able to live forever, and lots of information on evolution and global climate change. I've only scratched the surface with this list. There is much, much more to be taken from these writings.

I highly recommend this book to any reader who enjoys expanding their general knowledge on a variety of topics. None of these articles will make an expert of anyone on anything, but they open doors to remarkable subjects that one could later choose to explore further. This is a series I will continue to read in the coming years.

FRANKENSTEIN: DEAD AND ALIVE

2009-11-13T09:45:00.001-06:00

by Dean Koontz

"What if Mary Shelley's Dr. Frankenstein lived on as an evil genius? Best selling author Dean Koontz tackles this question in his Frankenstein series. In the third installment, as Hurricane Katrina ravages New Orleans, Victor Helios (Frankenstein) releases an army of his creations to wreak havoc on the city's streets. However, when his dense monsters spin out of control, Victor must call on his original creation, the tormented Deucalion, to combat the epic nightmare." (From the CD container.)

Dean Koontz's Frankenstein series, of which Dead and Alive is the third, is wildly entertaining but ultimately forgettable. Fast moving with the balance of horror and humor tipping often in favor of humor, all three books are fun to read and great for a light literary getaway, but they're probably not going to make your list of top reads for the year. And sometimes isn't that exactly what we're looking for? :-)

THE HUMBLING

2009-11-10T11:10:00.001-06:00

by Philip Roth

Now in his 60's, stage sensation Simon Axler's life falls apart when he suddenly and inexplicably loses his ability to act. An unexpected, unconventional relationship with a woman 25 years his junior appears at first to be a chance at a happy new life, until he is painfully reminded that the stage is not the only place where people act.

If you're feeling a little bad about yourself and need a great pick-me-up to return you to starry-eyed optimism, The Humbling is not your book. It can only be considered a light read due to it's novella page count of 140 and Philip Roth's easy-reading style. It's not a depressing book, but it doesn't leave the reader feeling good.

I liked The Humbling because I enjoy Roth's writing in general. He always gives me something to think about when I turn the final pages. I plan to read many more of his books in the coming months. However, if you're looking to explore Roth's work for the first time, I don't recommend starting here. It's worth the short time it takes to read, but for first-timers I would suggest The Plot Against America or American Pastoral.

THE CASEBOOK OF VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN

2009-11-06T16:35:00.001-06:00

by Peter Ackroyd

The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein is a fabulous retelling of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, but the title is also cleverly misleading. As soon as I finished this book, I wanted to reread it with the knowledge I obtained at the end to see if it felt like the same book. I didn't because there are a million other books I want to read, but I'm a little sorry about that. I think I will come back to this one at some point in the future because I really do want to know if the perception changes. And I'd like to reread the original Frankenstein in the same manner, with the outcome of Casebook in mind. I'll bet that feels a little different, too.

Sorry if that all sounds confusing, but I don't want to give the end away. I think Peter Ackroyd made his unique mark on the Frankenstein story with a simple twist. I can't say the twist is outrageously original, but something about the way he handled it made my mind race. I have read nothing else by Ackroyd, but I will be making plans to remedy that soon!

12/2/09 -- Due to repeated spam, comments have been turned off for this post. Thanks for understanding!

Fans Of Ancient Egyptian Historical Fiction, Listen Up!

2009-11-06T06:00:00.002-06:00

Daphne and Tanzanite's Shelf and Stuff alerted her reader's to a couple of upcoming books, but one is a book that I must encourage my reader's to check out:

I read Pauline Gedge's Child of the Morning years ago, and I remember it like it was yesterday. The story of Egypt's only woman Pharaoh, Queen Hatshepsut, is majestic, heartbreaking and one of my favorite books of All Time. I'm talking Top 10 of Ever.

If that isn't enough, Michelle Moran of Nefertiti and The Heretic Queen fame, has written a Foreword for the new edition. How perfect is that? It doesn't come out until April 2010, but my copy is already preordered. I can't wait!!

THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD

2009-11-05T10:00:00.001-06:00

by Margaret Atwood

"After a plague decimates almost all of humanity, Ren, a trapeze dancer trapped in a swanky sex club Scales and Tails, and Toby, a religious zealot holed in an extravagant spa, each believe they're the only survivors and debate leaving their strongholds. Meanwhile, Adam One, leader of God's Gardeners, navigates his band of followers through the forever changed world." (From the CD container.)

There are aspects of this book that remind me a lot of The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Something, in this case it looks like a plague of some kind, wipes out most of the human population. When the belief is that most of the rest of the world is gone, the behaviour of people toward one another depends on which philosophy a person ultimately buys into: "We can all last a lot longer if we help each other" or "there's no one here to tell me I can't do whatever I want." Both amount to "only the strong survive", but have very different manners of expression. But whereas McCarthy vividly captures the overall bleak horror of a tragedy-altered earth, Atwood accentuates it with absurdity and individual personality. Both books offer disturbing pictures of the future if we continue on our self-absorbed, greed-fueled paths, but Atwood's leaves the reader with more hope. Until you think about it just a little bit longer.

I didn't realize until too late that this book is a sequel, so I will most likely revisit my thoughts regarding The Year of the Flood after I've read Oryx and Crake.

Related Post:

Oryx and Crake

TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA

2009-11-04T06:00:00.000-06:00

by Jules Verne

"The year is 1866 and the Pacific Ocean is being terrorized by a deadly sea monster. The U.S. government dispatches marine-life specialist Pierre Aronnax to investigate aboard the warship Abraham Lincoln. When the ship is sunk by the mysterious creature, he and two other survivors discover that the monster is in fact a marvelous submarine -- the Nautilus -- commanded by the brilliant but bitter Captain Nemo. Nemo refuses to let his guests return to land, but instead taking them on a series of fantastic adventures in which they encounter underwater forests, giant clams, monster storms, huge squid, treacherous polar ice and -- most spectacular of all -- the magnificent lost city of Atlantis!" (From the back of the Barnes & Noble Classics edition.)

So, Captain Nemo and I finally meet! In addition to discovering that Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is indeed the thrilling adventure that it is always made out to be, I learned that "twenty thousand leagues" is the distance that is traveled in the Nautilus during the story, not a depth it explores. I also found out this is the second book in a trilogy by Jules Verne which begins with In Search of the Castaways and ends with The Mysterious Island. I was going to reflect on the myriad questions I had once I finished this book, such as, "Who is Captain Nemo anyway and where did he come from?" and "What's up with all his antisocial behavior?", because the answers are not at all clear by the end, but apparently some of this is addressed in the other books. I'll have to get to them at some point and see if I can fill in some blanks.

I will have to say, though, that the mysterious escape from the maelstrom bugged me. One minute the Nautilus and all on board are being sucked into the void, the next, Professor Arronax wakes up in a fishing shack along with his two cohorts, how he got there and the fate of Capt. Nemo and company, both unknown. I bought into all the craziness up to that point. If this novel had been written recently, I'd call that a cheap way out. But it's Jules Verne and there's another book after this, so I'll let it go. :-)

Stocking Up On Research Volumes

2009-11-03T07:15:00.000-06:00

The Cambridge Introduction to Postcolonial Literatures in English, The Cambridge Introduction to J. M. Coetzee, and Why Read the Classics? are the newest additions to my personal library as I gear up for deeper studies in the coming year. I'm addicted to these! If I could snap my fingers and stock my home with all the Harold Bloom/Chelsea House books and the Cambridge Introductions/Companions to Literature, oh, how happy I would be! But as a friend of mine pointed out, half the fun is in the hunting and acquisition, so if I got them all at one time, I would just search out something else to continue the excitement of collecting. As usual, she is correct.

Let the hunt resume!

Bloom's Literary Themes

2009-10-30T10:30:00.000-05:00

After reading and enjoying The Grotesque from "Bloom's Literary Themes", I decided to order a second one, Alienation. I received it yesterday and after thumbing through it, I'm just as excited about this one as I was about the first! Once again, all the essays look like they will add not only to my personal knowledge about literature but also to my TBR. There are currently eight volumes in this series, and I'm thinking I will be collecting them all. I better get moving on that, because eight more come out in the first quarter next year! The volumes currently available are on the widget at the top of this post if you want to check them out. The ones coming next year will be:

Civil Disobedience
Taboo
Enslavement & Emancipation
Dark Humor
Sublime
Trickster
Colonization & Exploration
Sin & Redemption

Yeah. I want all the those, too. Especially Dark Humor! Do any of them look tempting to you?

Go Wolves!

2009-10-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

And the 2009-10 NBA Season has begun! For my new readers, this is when I start spouting about my Minnesota Timberwolves and how much I adore them. I'll try to keep it to a minimum as the season rolls on, but I won't be able to stop myself on occasion. Tonight is the season opener for us, and I'm thrilled!! GO WOLVES!

Now that I got that out of my system, Peter and I are almost finished with The Teaching Company DVD course "The Art of Reading." I cannot recommend this course highly enough for anyone yearning to get more out of his or her reading. The instructor, Dr. Timothy Spurgin, is great. In twenty-four half-hour lectures he gives tons of usable, understandable advice for "unpacking" and analyzing even the most complicated literature, and he makes every book and story he discusses sound irresistible. After last night's lecture on War & Peace, even Peter, who is an avid reader but not much interested in classic literature, was thinking he should give Tolstoy a try! I felt all kinds of brilliant when the translation the instructor recommended was the very one I had chosen and read a couple years ago. :-)

We only have one lecture left in which all the "tools" we have been given will be summed up, and I'm sad to be finished. I'm going to have to purchase another course Dr. Spurgin teaches. But the knowledge I have taken away from "The Art of Reading" has readied me for the next stage in my reading life. I'm ready to go back to Proust and Faulkner (much to the dismay of A Readers' Respite) and all the other books and authors that intimidate me. I'm ready to stock up on note-taking materials and spend my winter making wonderful literary discoveries!

And going to basketball games, of course. ;-)

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY AND SEA MONSTERS

2009-10-27T17:50:00.004-05:00

by Jane Austen and Ben H. White

"Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters expands the original text of the beloved Jane Austen novel with all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, and other biological monstrosities. As our story opens, the Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon. Can the Dashwood sisters triumph over meddlesome matriarchs and unscrupulous rogues to find true love? Or will they fall prey to the tentacles that are forever snapping at their heels? This masterful portrait of Regency England blends Jane Austen’s biting social commentary with ultraviolent depictions of sea monsters biting. It’s survival of the fittest-and only the swiftest swimmers will find true love!" (From Quirk Books official website.)

I had a good time with this. The genteel writing of Jane Austen periodically interrupted by wild sea monster attacks is a sight to behold! So to speak. :-) The essentials of the original Sense and Sensibility story are intact and identifiable, but my understanding is that Ben Winters has taken more liberty with this one than Seth Grahame-Smith did with Pride & Prejudice in his zombie smash-up. Jackie from My Ever Expanding Library tells me the split is about 60/40 between classic and "re-imagined" content for Sea Monsters. That sounds about right. Winters runs amok on occasion, but it works.

In addition to the story itself being entertaining, the included illustrations are great and the Reader's Guide is hilarious! Here are a couple of examples from the Guide:

"2. In Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, painful personal setbacks often occur at the same moment as sea-monster attacks, suggesting a metaphorical linkage of 'monsters' with the pains of romantic disappointment; for example, Marianne is rebuffed by Willoughby at Hydra-Z precisely as the giant mutant lobsters are staging their mutiny. Have you ever been 'attacked by giant lobsters,' either literally or figuratively?"

"8. Have you ever been romantically involved with someone who turned out to be a sea witch?"

The entire Reader's Guide is a hoot! When I initially read the questions, I laughed out loud. Then I realized that most of them could actually be answered quite seriously if one so chose. Very clever!

My ultimate prediction: While this is a great gimmick, I think it will be a short lived one. It's a lot of fun, but it's so over the top that one does tire of it fairly quickly. I will be reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but I don't think my curiosity will extend much beyond that. In the meantime, I think Quirk Books is going to clean up nicely with the two current offerings.

Thank you to Quirk Books for sending me a copy to review.

Other bloggers' thoughts:

My Ever Expanding Library

THE PRAISE SINGER

2009-10-26T16:50:00.001-05:00

by Mary Renault

"Stranger, tell the Spartans that we lie here, obedient to their words."
-- Simonides of Keos (Epitaph of the Spartans who fell at the Battle of Thermopylae)

"Born into a stern farming family on the island of Keos, Simonides escapes his harsh childhood through a lucky apprenticeship with a renowned Ionian singer. As they travel through fifth-century B.C. Greece, Simonides learns not only how to play the kithara and compose poetry, but also how to navigate the shifting alliances surrounding his rich patrons. He is witness to the Persian invasion of Ionia the decadent reign of the Samian pirate king Polykrates, and the fall of the Pisistratids in the Athenian court. Along the way, he encounters artists, statesmen, athletes, thinkers, and lovers, including the likes of Pythagoras and Aischylos. Using the singer's unique perspective, [author Mary] Renault combines her vibrant imagination and her formidable knowledge of history to establish a sweeping, resilient vision of a golden century." (From the back of the Vintage Books edition.)

As much as I love Steven Pressfield's novels of ancient war, the first name that comes to my mind when I think of fiction set in Ancient Greece is Mary Renault. The Praise Singer is not a thrilling, edge-of-your-seat page turner, but it is elegant prose that shows life in fifth-century Greece from an outside-in perspective. Simonides' patron and friend is a ruler of Athens, but Simonides himself is only an observer of the politics of the day, not a participant. Much information is received via conversation. Therefore, while a lot happens in the course of the story, there is not a significant amount of action. I tell you this only because readers who prefer action will be disappointed.

I very much enjoyed The Praise Singer. While I can't speak to Renault's absolute accuracy as far as historical facts or detail, I always feel transported to the setting when I read her work. From the quiet life in the countryside to the private parties of the affluent to the excitement of the Olympic games, I can see them clearly. Her characters are not usually well-rounded, but they serve their purpose in giving the reader a feel for the times and the people who lived them.

THE GROTESQUE

2009-10-25T16:05:00.002-05:00

Bloom's Literary Themes
edited by Harold Bloom

After completing my read of The Grotesque I'm still not sure I could give you an acceptable definition of what qualifies as "literary grotesque". Each essayist seemed to have his or her own twist on what it was that made a certain book, story, poem or play fit the bill. Some I heartily agreed with, some I couldn't understand their reasoning at all or even their purpose. Not surprising in a work of this kind, I suppose. Not all of us can easily follow the scholarly mind at work. The examples used in this book range from Shakespeare's Hamlet and King Lear to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Poe's short stories to the work of Franz Kafka and Flannery O'Connor. In other words, it has been around a long time and there is a lot of it out there.

There are essays included that are very informative and easy to follow whether or not you have read the specific work that is being discussed, others (the one on Nikolai Gogol's "The Overcoat" comes to mind) which appear to require the reader to be quite familiar with the story or novel. Either way, The Grotesque added significantly to my TBR. Just what we need, right? :-)

Anyway, when I first made this purchase, I posed a question wondering if books by Clare Clark, Cormac McCarthy and Chuck Palahniuk would be considered "grotesque". As I stated earlier, it is difficult to pin down a specific definition, but three qualities that seem to be fairly well agreed upon are the following: humor, astonishment and disgust/horror. Holding strictly to these, only one of the three authors I suggested fits solidly into "grotesque" and that would be Palahniuk. Clark and McCarthy contain vast amounts of astonishment and disgust, but I would have to go back over some of it to see if I could identify any humor. However, the examples of humor in some of the essays are not anything I would have defined as such, so maybe if I adopted a different, looser definition I would find it. I would need to work under the assumption that "humor" is not just comic or funny, but it includes things like the sadly absurd. It's something to consider. And another author I have recently discovered, Patrick McGrath, may also be described as grotesque. I believe the ending of Dr. Haggard's Disease could nudge it into line.

Considering my adoration for dark and disturbing reads, I will be on the lookout for more of the grotesque as I read in the coming months and report what I find. In the meantime, do you have any suggestions that fit the three factors of humor, astonishment and disgust/horror?

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

2009-10-23T06:00:00.001-05:00

by Jane Austen

"Pride and Prejudice -- Austen's own 'darling child' -- tells the story of fiercely independent Elizabeth Bennet, one of five sisters who must marry rich, as she confounds the arrogant, wealthy Mr. Darcy. What ensues is one of the most delightful and engrossingly readable courtships known to literature, written by a precocious Austen when she was just twenty-one years old." (From the back of the Barnes & Noble Classics edition.)

I surrender! I wanted to be cool and ambivalent, to declare it a "good 'girl' book", but I just can't. I am a believer. Pride and Prejudice is just plain fabulous! I loved it! I'm joining the ranks of women who want to be Elizabeth Bennet when they grow up, and, unlike Heathcliff, I completely understand Mr. Darcy sending legions of hearts aflutter. I don't even remember that last time I developed a crush on a fictional character. It may have been Nicholas Nickleby. But I think his position has now been usurped.

Aside from the obvious suspects, my favorite character was Elizabeth's father, Mr. Bennet. He had me giggling every time he bothered to put in his two cents. But Austen breathes life into every single character she creates here, and it is no longer any wonder to me why we are witnessing the recent deluge of sequels and adaptations based on them and this marvelous story. It is very difficult to let them go once they have entered your life. I must have one of those silly sequels around here somewhere, don't I??

Remember Those REALLY Big Boots I Bought?

2009-10-22T19:10:00.000-05:00

I was finally brave enough to wear them for a show and were they ever cool!! They also generated a lot of conversation. :-) If you click on the photo, you can see a bigger version and get a better idea of just how tall they are. The heel is 7" and the front platform is 5". I felt like a member of KISS! It took about a half of a set to get used to moving around in them, but after that I was able to maneuver in them for the rest of the show just as well as in my usual boots.

Very fun!

The Joy of Reading Challenges

2009-10-21T11:55:00.002-05:00

As the year winds down, even the most dedicated of Reading Challenge fanatics find it hard to push forward with those promises we made ourselves when our New Year's Resolutions were fresh and those challenges were so irresistible. With this in mind, I thought I would take a look back and share with you some of the things reading challenges have done for me.

I stumbled upon the world of book blogs in January of 2008 when I was looking for material to supplement my reading of classics. Searching randomly online, I started coming across various blogs and I was thrilled to find a community filled with people as passionate as I was about books and reading. Then I started seeing the posts about reading challenges. From blog to blog I followed links showing me the wonderful opportunities to join with others in an effort to work through our to-be-read piles, tackle intimidating classics, progress through lists of award winners or recommended reading, and stretch our reading boundaries beyond our comfort zones. I discovered that every reader had his or her own reasons for joining challenges. Some challenges assist in reaching specific goals such as reading the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die or exploring Japanese or Jewish Literature. Some are just plain fun to try to complete, such as the What's In a Name Challenge or the A-Z Challenge. There are readers who diligently plan their reading to complete the challenges for which they've signed up. There are readers who mostly enjoy making the lists for the challenges and actually completing them is entirely optional. No matter the goals or the level of commitment to finishing, everyone seemed to be having such a good time! I was hooked. My own blog, Books 'N Border Collies, was created within days so I could join in the fun.

I learned a lot in that first year about myself and my reading habits. First was that I can't follow a predetermined list of reading for more than a couple of weeks at most. After signing up for a number of challenges and gleefully creating my book lists for them, I found I had my entire year mapped out. It wasn't long before I was altering those lists almost daily. I learned I operate more efficiently when I have goal, but I need flexibility to reach it.

Second, I learned that even the broadest reader has boundaries and comfort levels that can and should be challenged. I stuck to challenges that first year which I was fairly certain I would finish and within whose rules I knew I would find books that suited my tastes. Even so, I made discoveries that urged me to test myself the second year. The Art History, War Through the Generations, and Essay Challenges all ended up including books I loved that I would never have even looked at much less read if it had not been for the reading challenges. And the Dewey Decimal System Challenge opened my eyes to literary explorations that have made trips to the library an entirely new experience. Who knew I was capable of spending an entertaining hour in the Math and Technology sections? Certainly not me! And just try to pry me away from the Philosophy and Religion shelves. Go ahead. Try.

Third, I learned through the New Author Challenge that I have no problems at all picking up new-to-me writers. In fact, I have more issues trying to get through all the works of favorite authors because there are always dozens more on the horizon I can't wait to pick up. And since I am not a traveler, I've learned that writers from other countries and cultures are essential to assisting me in my understanding of the wider world.

Fourth, I learned that not reaching my reading goals is in no way a failure. Sometimes I'm not learning what I meant to learn, but I'm finding new and fascinating topics that I didn't know I was interested in. Or I'm discovering that a big project I had mapped out isn't nearly as easy to conduct as it sounded when I started. As long as I'm reading and learning, I'm bettering myself which helps me to better the world around me.

Reading challenges have made me a better reader and a more well-rounded person. They've helped me to understand the past, live in the present and think more productively about the future. They've made me more aware of the world beyond my personal experience. And if I never do another reading challenge again, I can take my new knowledge wherever my literary endeavors take me, face new authors, books and subjects boldly, and think to myself, "Cool! I could have used this for the Book Awards Challenge!"

Happy Reading, Everyone!

JUNKY

2009-10-18T18:55:00.003-05:00

by William S. Burroughs

Junky is William S. Burroughs' first novel and a semi-autobiographical account of his experiences as a narcotics addict. It is disarmingly honest and compulsively readable.

Burroughs talks about starting to shoot up, slowly building an addiction, robbing drunks on the subway and "pushing" to get money for his habit. He talks intimately about people he has known, mostly other users, and how they existed. Or didn't. He talks about multiple efforts to get cured of his addiction, leaving the country to avoid incarceration and living an addict's life in another country. One would expect Junky to be fairly depressing, but the candid and matter-of-fact tone of the writing somehow manages to avert that particular emotion. In fact, it is oddly unemotional but completely engrossing. I could not put this book down once I started reading.

The particular edition I read, the Penguin 50th Anniversary Definitive Edition, has a wonderful introduction and a series of Appendices discussing Borroughs' life, the history of the book, changes that were made in various editions and Burroughs' reactions to some of it that added a lot to my appreciation for this work. I understand it's quite different from his more famous novels, but it has made me much less apprehensive about attempting them. This is my first book by Burroughs, but I will be reading more soon. I can hear Queer, Naked Lunch and The Wild Boys calling my name.

ROUGH COUNTY

2009-10-17T16:15:00.003-05:00

by John Sandford

"While competing in a fishing tournament in a remote area of northern Minnesota, [Virgil Flowers] gets a call from Lucas Davenport to investigate a murder at a nearby resort, where a woman has been shot while kayaking. . . . [A]s he begins investigating, he finds a web of connections between the people at the resort, the victim, and some local women, notably a talented country singer. The more he digs, the more he discovers the arrows of suspicion that point in many directions, encompassing a multitude of motivations: jealousy, blackmail, greed, anger, fear." (From Amazon.com)

I understand that this is terribly judgemental of me, but it bothers me that an male author who has created notoriously womanizing characters for his two series (Lucas Davenport, Virgil Flowers), has decided to write a book for one of them that features a whole bunch of lesbians, complete with bi-sexual swingers and cat fights in the bar. There is something icky about the feel of it, the undercurrent of crude "guy fantasy" and cartoonish stereotyping, and it severely tainted my enjoyment of the book. Don't get me wrong. I've got no problem with the topic, just the ridiculous and seemingly gratuitous way it was presented.

That little rant aside, once Sandford gets done attempting to shock the reader with his "edginess" and starts doing what he does best, writing an actual mystery, Rough Country turns out to be pretty good. The second half of the book is much more enjoyable than the first. If you've never read Sandford before, I would not start here, but for fans of his it will hold you over until the next one.

DR. HAGGARD'S DISEASE

2009-10-12T13:30:00.000-05:00

by Patrick McGrath

"For you, passion is a disease. It causes suffering, comes to a crisis, and dies." Fanny Vaughan in Dr. Haggard's Disease (p. 33)

"The setting is a cliffside manor on the English coast in the early years of the Second World War. The narrator is Dr. Edward Haggard, a mysteriously wounded figure racked by morphine addiction and tormented by the memories of his intense affair with Fanny, the wife of his former chief pathologist. Fanny is dead, but when her son, a young fighter pilot, appears in Dr. Haggard's life, the aging doctor finds out how an old passion can turn into a strange -- and dangerous -- obsession." (From the back cover of the Vintage Contemporaries edition.)

A perfect book for a crisp fall evening, a fireplace, and a reader looking for an eerie tale with which to pass the time. Dr. Haggard's Disease moves slowly but deliberately, both literally and figuratively. It's not a book to be rushed though. It's not heavy on plot, but the character of Dr. Haggard is unsettling and foreboding enough to pull the reader through to the end. The story is never frightening or shocking, but it continually keeps uneasy balance on the line of disturbing. Dr. Haggard has not yet lost his mind, but it could happen at any moment.

I love dark, creepy books and while Dr. Haggard's Disease is not as dark and creepy as I had hoped, it has left me more than curious about Patrick McGrath's other books. His writing has a delicately alarming quality that never crosses into the fanciful or melodramatic. I think that style is very difficult to maintain throughout an entire novel, much less an entire body of work. I will be returning to his books to find out if McGrath can do it, or even tries.

GIRL IN HYACINTH BLUE

2009-10-10T11:00:00.000-05:00

by Susan Vreeland

"A professor invites a colleague from the art department to his home to see a painting that he has kept secret for decades. The professor swears it is a Vermeer -- why has he hidden this important work for so long? The reasons unfold in a series of stories that trace ownership of the painting back to World War II and Amsterdam, and still further back to the moment of the work's inspiration. As the painting moves through each owner's hands, what was long hidden quietly surfaces, illuminating poignant moments in human lives. Vreeland's characters remind us, through their love of the mysterious painting, how beauty transforms and why we reach for it, what lasts, and what in our lives is singular and unforgettable." (From the back of the Penguin edition.)

Thanks to the Art History Reading Challenge, Johannes Vermeer and I meet again. Girl in Hyacinth Blue would be a perfect book for a reading group. I loved the way the stories followed the painting back in time and the reader is shown glimpses of the various lives it had touched. To compare and contrast those lives and the part the painting played in them would be a remarkable discussion! I thought it was an ingenious way of tying together a series of short stories. It could be my lack of experience in this type of sub-genre, but there is always something that feels unique about the way Vreeland approaches her subjects. This was my second of her books for this challenge, and she is a writer that believe I will continue to explore.

MICHELANGELO AND THE POPE'S CEILING

2009-10-07T10:30:00.001-05:00

by Ross King

"[T]he extraordinary story of the four years during which Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Although the artist considered himself a sculptor, Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo as a painter. With only scant knowledge of the art of fresco, Michelangelo created figures so beautiful that when they were unveiled in 1512, they stunned the onlookers. Ross King chronicles what went into this monumental project: not only Michelangelo's experiments with the composition of pigment and plaster, but also his ill health, financial difficulties, domestic problems, and bitter rivalry with Raphael, who was working on the neighboring Papal Apartments." (From the CD container.)

As much as I love history, I find it difficult to find non-fiction history books that capture and hold my attention. So many of them are so very dry. The problem is exacerbated when the historical topic is not something in which I've had anything beyond a vague curious interest. The ceiling of Sistine Chapel is one of those topics. When I see pictures of it, I'm astounded. Take the pictures away, I forget all about it.

With that confession out of the way, why did I choose Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling? I chose it because I am committed to finishing all of my reading challenges for this year and I had two books left to go for the Art History Reading Challenge. I wanted an audiobook, and the day I went to the library this was the only one that fit the bill. Thank the library gods! What a great book!!

I not only learned more than I ever thought I wanted to know about Michelangelo, his life and his amazing frescoes, but I learned about other prominent artists like Da Vinci, Raphael, and too many others for me to remember all their names, and about familiar classic authors like Erasmus and Machiavelli. I learned about European history generally and Italian history specifically, history of the papacy, more about the Borgias and tons about Pope Julian II. I learned about art and how frescoes and paintings were done. I learned about famous works I immediately looked up on the Internet so I could see them and about amazing pieces that are lost to us forever. And I was so engrossed in the presentation that I often forgot it was non-fiction.

So, I've gone from vaguely curious to scoping out Amazon for Michelangelo's Selected Poems and Letters. If that is not the mark of a wonderful non-fiction book, I don't know what is. Aren't reading challenges great? :-)

How Cool Is This??

2009-10-05T09:15:00.002-05:00

For the last three years Peter and I have been reading the various annual editions of The Intellectual Devotional, which we have loved. The various topics are always interesting, but I inevitably look forward to Literature day every week. What would be my 2010 Edition is going to be all about health and wellness. Intriguing, but I think it may get bumped because I found this: The Bibliophile's Devotional: 365 Days of Literary Classics!! I mean seriously. Does it get any better than that? I think not! Yes. I bought it. Score!! It's on my nightstand waiting impatiently for New Year's Day.

WISHFUL DRINKING

2009-10-04T19:20:00.002-05:00

by Carrie Fisher

I took one look at the cover and knew I had to read this. Peter and I recently re-watched all the original Star Wars movies, because I turned him on to the X-Wing: Rogue Squadron series and we wanted to reacquaint ourselves with some of the lesser known characters. (If you are a Star Wars fan, I highly recommend that series of books. They are wonderful!) Anyway, Princess Leia passed out with her martini glass was too good to pass up. :-)

Wishful Drinking is Carrie Fisher's first memoir. As a Star Wars fan, I guess what I really wanted was a book all about her time making those movies, because like so many other narrow-minded fans I believe that her life began and ended with the Star Wars trilogy. This is not that book, because I'm a dolt and there is much more to Carrie Fisher than silly hairdos, awesome metal bikinis, and dating "scruffy looking nerf-herders". This is about her addiction and mental illness, but it's not your typical "woe-is-me, popular-celebrity-brought-low" memoir. It is written in the self-deprecating, humorous style that has made Carrie Fisher a very popular fiction writer. (Remember Postcards from the Edge?) And she is very, very funny!

The book is short, easy to breeze through, but loaded with detailed anecdotes about her strange life, from her famous parents (Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher) and their various marriages/affairs to Star Wars and becoming a Pez dispenser to her own marriages, accidental overdose, AA meetings, bipolar diagnosis and continuing road to recovery. It is all told in bits and pieces, each section not necessarily having anything to do with the others, and made me smile and giggle even when all I really wanted to know was how cool it was to work with Harrison Ford. (Though she tells a great story about when they filmed the scene in the trash compactor!)

Fisher apparently performs Wishful Drinking as a comedy show, and I could completely envision that as I read. But my brain still lurches wildly whenever I try to picture my idolized Princess Leia with such a potty mouth. And I think it is exactly that kind of type-cast thinking that helped send her *over* that non-fictional edge. In her honor, I promise I will try to separate "Carrie Fisher" from "Princess Leia" in the future, but it won't be easy!

And Then Tonight I Picked Up These . . .

2009-10-02T20:30:00.003-05:00

All Art Is Propaganda and Facing Unpleasant Facts, both books of essays by George Orwell. And now I must stop. At least for this week. :-)

New Purchases

2009-10-02T12:05:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I'm still at it. Someone's gotta keep the bookstores in business. It might as well be me. :-)

First up, the geek in me had to have Wishful Drinking by Princess Leia . . . I mean, Carrie Fisher. Love the cover!! This is Carrie Fisher's memoir and I'll be suspending all other reading this weekend for it.

Carrie Fisher's book was part of the "Buy One, Get One 50% Off" promotion, so I had to pick a second one from the table. Bummer, huh? :-) I opted for the paperback edition of 2666 by Roberto Bolano. I have no idea when I'll actually get to this but it's one I've been wanting to purchase, so there you go. Excuse provided!

I picked up Marcel Proust's Search for Lost Time: A Reader's Guide to The Remembrance of Things Past by Patrick Alexander because I do plan to finish The Remembrance of Things Past someday. I read Swann's Way back when I first started this blog and enjoyed it quite a bit, but I've been intimidated to continue with the series. This is supposed to be informative and funny, and that's a great combination. I'll take that, thank you!

And last but not least I picked up a little hardcover called The 100 Greatest Poems of All Time because it was only $5.99 and why not, right? We could all use a little more poetry in our lives even if we don't really get it. ;-)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

IN THE COUNTRY OF MEN

2009-10-01T18:35:00.000-05:00

by Hisham Matar

"Qaddafi's Libya, 1979. Nine-year-old Suleiman one day sees his father across the square of a busy marketplace. Wasn't he supposed to be away on business yet again? Why is he going into that strange building with the green shutters? Why did he lie?

Suleiman is soon caught up in a world he cannot hope to understand -- where the sound of the telephone ringing becomes a portent of grave danger; where his mother frantically burns his father's cherished books; where a stranger full of sinister questions sits outside in a parked car all day.

In the Country of Men is a stunning depiction of a child confronted with the private fallout of a public nightmare." (From the back of the Dial Press Trade Paperback edition.)

I was originally going to say that my lack of knowledge regarding the politics in Libya dampened my enthusiasm for In the Country of Men, but after thinking on it for a while I decided it actually enhanced the effect of the novel. The story is told from the point of view of a young boy who doesn't understand what is happening or the reasons for it until he is older. My own ignorance put me in a position similar to that of the young Suleiman, which was just as frustrating to me as it was to him.

I didn't love this book, but it made me curious and reflective. There are books that maybe don't rip your heart out and cause you to brood for days, leaping immediately to your list of your life's most impactful reads, but they do make you think twice about complaining about your life. In the Country of Men is one of those.

LLP: 2009 Fourth Quarter Goals

2009-10-01T06:00:00.002-05:00

And here we are. The final quarter of the first year of my Lifetime Learning Project. I have been having a ball with this! I may not accomplish some of the exact goals I set out earlier this year, but I have learned so much about myself and my habits that I'm very excited about continuing the Project next year. I have already begun my Annual Goals post so I don't forget some of the things I want to include. You'll have to wait until later for that though. :-)

In the meantime, here are the things I'd like to do over the next three months toward my 2009 Annual Goals:

1) Finish the rest of my Reading Challenges. I only have eight left, and if I can polish those off I'll have completed all twenty challenges I signed up for this year. This is my main goal.

2) Compose an essay on the use of Reading Challenges for personal growth and self-education. Here it is!

3) Finish watching The Teaching Company DVDs for The Art of Reading.

Let's get started!

LLP: September 2009 Wrap Up

2009-09-30T06:00:00.001-05:00

I forgot to do Lifetime Learning Project monthly wrap ups for July and August. Oops. I guess the summer flew by too fast. :-) It's the end of the quarter now, so let's take a look back at the goals I set in July and how close I came:

1) My main focus was the Reading Challenges I signed up for. Because the Countdown Challenge ended Sept. 9, I made that one my primary driver and aimed to finish it along with at least seven others. GOAL ACHIEVED! Yay for me!!

Decades Reading Challenge Completed: 9/9 **Finished July 2, 2009**

2nds Reading Challenge Completed: 12/12 **Finished July 12, 2009**

Pub Challenge Completed: 9/9 **Finished July 29, 2009**

Support Your Local Library Challenge Completed: 50/50 **Finished August 5, 2009**

1% Well Read Challenge Completed: 13/13 **Finished August 10, 2009**

The Countdown Challenge Completed: 45/45 **Finished September 6, 2009** (Yahoo! I did it!!)

100+ Reading Challenge Completed: 100/100 **Finished September 17, 2009** (The rest of the year is gravy!!)

New Author Challenge Completed: 50/50 **Finished September 26, 2009**

2) I wanted to finish up The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. I never looked at it. Not even once.

3) I have at least three Knowledge Blocks in progress, including the one I originally wrote about regarding Art Forgery. I wanted to try to rein in my literary ADD long enough to finish at least one of those blocks and write about it. Nope. Didn't do this. But I thought about it! :-)

4) Continue picking away at books and lectures from my Teaching Company Course "Classic Novels: Meeting the Challenge of Great Literature". Nada on this one, too. I was very busy with those challenges!

I'll call eight finished challenges an enormous success! The rest was evidently too much to ask in concert with that. Live and learn. And that's what this is all about, right? :-) Tomorrow I'll post my Fourth Quarter Lifetime Learning Project goals, and I'm pretty sure I'm going easy on myself. After all, my Timberwolves are about to start playing some basketball, and they need me. GO WOLVES!!

SENSE & SENSIBILITY

2009-09-29T11:20:00.000-05:00

by Jane Austen

"Sense and Sensibility is a wonderfully entertaining tale of flirtation and folly that revolves around two starkly different sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. While Elinor is thoughtful, considerate, and calm, her younger sister is emotional and wildly romantic. Both are looking for a husband, but neither Elinor’s reason nor Marianne’s passion can lead them to perfect happiness -- as Marianne falls for an unscrupulous rascal and Elinor becomes attached to a man who’s already engaged." (From Barnes & Noble online).

This was it. My very first Jane Austen book. I have to admit that this particular book was chosen at this particular time because I have Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters here to review, which I am even more excited about. :-) Ah, the silliness of it all!

But before I indulged in the follow-up to the wildly popular Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, I decided it was my responsibility to read the original first. While I've shied from Jane Austen because, well, for the most part I'm not a "chick book" kind of chick, I really did enjoy Sense and Sensibility much more than I expected I would. It's not that the story is particularly engrossing, but the characters are so well developed that I couldn't avoid an affection for many of them (and an irritation with some them) that made me want to know about their lives, however unexciting they may be in comparison to other things I could have been reading. I love Georgette Heyer's books, and I would absolutely have drawn a mental comparison between the two had I read Austen first. They both have an uncanny ability with dialog and creating distinct, identifiable personalities with that alone.

I completely understand the devotion some people have to this author, and I will most assuredly be reading more of her work. But I have to admit that in my head I was constantly trying to guess where the sea monsters will come into play. And I'm hoping Lucy Steele and Fanny Dashwood get their due when it comes to said sea monsters. :-)

Check Out The New Light Show!

2009-09-28T12:14:00.000-05:00

Once again I interrupt the regularly scheduled programming for shameless self-promotion. :-) This is pretty cool though! It's the first video we've gotten of the new DIVA light show! This only scratches the surface of what it can do, but it's still pretty awesome. Enjoy!

HIGH FIDELITY

2009-09-27T16:30:00.000-05:00

by Nick Hornby

"Rob is a pop music junkie who runs his own semi-failing record store. His girlfriend, Laura, has just left him for the guy upstairs, and Rob is both miserable and relieved. After all, could he have spent his life with someone who has a bad record collection? Rob seeks refuge in the company of the offbeat clerks at his store, who endlessly review their top five films (Reservoir Dogs . . .); top five Elvis Costello songs ("Alison" . . .); top five episodes of Cheers (the one where Woody sang his stupid song to Kelly . . .). Rob tries dating a singer whose rendition of "Baby, I Love Your Way" makes him cry. But maybe it's just that he's always wanted to sleep with someone who has a record contract. Then he sees Laura again. And Rob begins to think (awful as it sounds) that life as an episode of thirtysomething, with all the kids and marriages and barbecues and k.d. lang CDs that this implies, might not be so bad." (From the back cover of the Riverhead Books edition.)

High Fidelity has been praised all over blogdom and with good reason. It is just plain good entertainment. It is chick-lit from a guy's perspective. It's funny and emotional and gives us women some insight into just how a guy's mind works. Or might work, anyway. And, yes, they think about sex all the time. Mystery solved! :-) As I began reading, I was a little concerned that it would be the central theme of the story, but while it is nearly always present on the surface, Hornby handles it in a manner that is not at all off-putting.

If you haven't tried any of Nick Hornby's fiction yet, this is an excellent place to begin. I'll let you know about the rest of it as I get there, because I do plan to get there.

CAN I KEEP MY JERSEY?

2009-09-26T18:20:00.000-05:00

by Paul Shirley

"NBA games are long. Really long. There are all kinds of breaks in the action, mainly of the media time-out variety, so there is plenty of standing around. Granted, I should probably be, oh, paying attention to what the coach is drawing up during these time-outs, but they are so long and frequent that even the coaches run out of things to say. It is at these times especially that I need a partner in crime -- someone who will see the humor in the fact that the poor girl in the dance contest being shown on the scoreboard screen is merely a prop for the obvious eventual winner, the middle-aged fat guy who lifts his shirt over his head to expose the world to his man-pregnancy. I need someone who will not be afraid to rate members of the dance team in descending order of the most realistic breast implants. I need someone who will help me keep track of my NBA All-Ugly Team. Most of the people who play think they actually need to concentrate on the games, so they cannot be bothered with my attempts at self-entertainment." (Can I Keep My Jersey?, pp. 277-78)

I know most of my readers will not be interested in this book, but those who have been with me awhile know of my love for my Minnesota Timberwolves basketball team. (Go Wolves!!) Well, training camp starts next week, and I am pumped for the new season to begin! To get a little fix before hand I decided to read Paul Shirley's Can I Keep My Jersey?: 11 Teams, 5 Countries, and 4 Years in My Life as a Basketball Vagabond. Most people have probably never heard of him. He's the guy generally playing overseas or spending most of his NBA minutes on the bench cheering on his famous team mates. I heard of him when he was a member of the Timberwolves training camp a couple seasons ago. He was released before the season started. Apparently things haven't changed much for him since he wrote this book.

He has, however, managed to channel the frustration of his career into a hilarious piece of work! He knows that even when things are awful he has an amazing job compared to most people, but he presents the unglamorous side of professional basketball in a manner that had me laughing out loud every other page. His cynicism and sarcasm can wear on the reader after a hundred pages or so, but the truth is the guy is really, really funny. He would have to have a stellar sense of humor to put up with some of the people and situations which make up his unsettled existence. This is a must read for basketball fans, a fun read for the general sports fan, and a riotous change-up for readers looking for something a little different for the Dewey Decimal System Reading Challenge. :-)

THE HOURS

2009-09-25T15:30:00.000-05:00

by Michael Cunningham

"The Hours is the story of three women: Clarissa Vaughn, who one New York morning goes about planning a party in honor of a beloved friend; Laura Brown, who in a 1950s Los Angeles suburb slowly begins to feel the constraints of a perfect family and home; and Virginia Woolf, recuperating with her husband in a London suburb and beginning to write Mrs. Dalloway. By the end of the novel, the stories have intertwined and finally come together in an act of subtle and haunting grace." (From the CD container.)

I have a sneaky suspicion that I would have appreciated Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway even more if I would have read Michael Cunningham's novel The Hours first. I know that seems backwards. They're not the same story, but the thematic resemblances are such that I think I would have been able to follow Mrs. Dalloway more effectively. Cunningham captures the stream-of-consciousness feel without the leaving you wondering what on earth you just read, making those very themes a little easier to tease out.

I know I was left a little in the dust by this book because I listened to it while battling a particularly wicked case of bronchitis, and high doses of cough/cold medicine occasionally transformed this work into merely beautiful words floating randomly around my subconscious. I did gather enough for The Hours to end with me marveling not only at its solemn dignity, but also that of Mrs. Dalloway.

MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING

2009-09-21T03:10:00.000-05:00

by Viktor Frankl

"He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how."
--Nietzsche

"Between 1942 and 1945 psychiatrist Viktor Frankl labored in four different concentration camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the stories of his many patients, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl's theory -- known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos ('meaning') -- holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful." (From the back cover of the Beacon Press, 2006 edition.)

Man's Search for Meaning is more about psychology than it is about Nazi concentration camps, but that does not make Viktor Frankl's book any less inspiring. Like Primo Levi's Survival In Auschwitz, Frankl's discussions about his time in the camps focus more on how prisoners survived rather than how they died. Using his personal stories of living under the constant threat of death, Frankl explores humanity's deepest need: The need to feel their life or death matters.

This is a book that can be read over and over again, because there is so much here between the personal stories and the detailed discussion of logotherapy that what the reader takes from it will vary widely depending on where he or she is at that moment in his or her life. This first time around for me happens when I'm feeling that weird middle-age thing -- not feeling old, but understanding I'm no longer as young as I used to be and learning to accept that and accept the person I'm becoming. There are a million quotes I could use from this book to show you how eloquently Frankl probes a reader's deepest anxieties, but this was the one that stood out for me:

"[T]here is no reason to pity old people. Instead, young people should envy them. It is true that the old have no opportunities, no possibilities in the future. But they have more than that. Instead of possibilities in the future they have realities in the past -- the potentialities they have actualized, the meanings they have fulfilled, the values they have realized -- and nothing and nobody can ever remove these assets from the past." (p. 151)

I may not be quite to the "no opportunities, no possibilities in the future" portion of my life yet, but I know when I get there I already have some awfully cool stuff to look back on. And now it's time to create that quiet, comfortable place in my heart for which I yearn, for the wild child had a great time and it's okay to not want that anymore. And you know what? That feels really, really good.

And The Winners Are . . .

2009-09-20T06:00:00.002-05:00

We have our three winners of Jeanne Kalogridis' The Devil's Queen!

Gaby from Starting Fresh

Jo-Jo from Jo-Jo Love To Read

Joanna from It's All About Me

Thank You to everyone who entered and Congratulations, Winners!

These Boots Are Made For Walkin' . . . Or Not

2009-09-18T07:55:00.001-05:00

Trish and JoAnn were curious if I was wearing my new gigantic boots while I was singing in the Bohemian Rhapsody video. I wasn't, because I didn't have them when the video was recorded. I was, however, wearing an awesome pair of platforms that look exactly like this only in silver:

Electrique Boutique, where I buy all my show boots, won't let me copy pics from there anymore, so if you want to see them in silver, click here. I'm thinking that growing up idolizing Kiss and Stevie Nicks has greatly influenced my choice in on-stage footwear. :-)

A Case of Nerves

2009-09-18T06:00:00.002-05:00

I feel like my reading consumption has slowed during September, but I have a good reason! Tonight is the debut of the solo version of the DIVA Show! I've never been a nervous performer, but we've been working like crazy programing the new light show, learning new songs and trying to remember the lyrics to old ones. It's been a lot of work but worth it. This show is extra special to me. We gave the new light show a test run when Tony and I played Labor Day Weekend, and the crowd loved it! In fact, we were told we have a better light show than Def Leppard. Nothing like wild exaggeration to feed a person's ego! :-)

Anyway, the reason I'm a little concerned about tonight is because five days ago I came down with something that left me completely unable to sing. My throat was wiped out. I panicked, of course, but with the help of some antibiotics, cold medicine and very little speaking, I think I'll be okay. I just have to pace myself. Since I doubt I will be up for the vocal gymnastics required for Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" (insert a very annoyed sigh here), I thought I'd post a previous performance of it for your entertainment. A little bonus track that tonight's audience probably won't get to hear. That's because you all are special! :-) Enjoy!

NOTE: The lights in this video are not the new show. I have to get some video of those for you! It's like a traveling discoteque!

EX LIBRIS

2009-09-17T06:00:00.003-05:00

by Anne Fadiman

Sometimes as a reader it is exceedingly pleasant to curl up with a book that simply shares another reader's love of books. Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader is one of those simple pleasures. This collection of essays makes all of us book junkies feel completely at home. We get it, no matter how crazy. My favorite essay was how she finally really felt married once she and her husband combined their book collections after five years of marriage. See? We get that! And compulsive proofreading of dinner menus? We get that!

If I had a complaint, which I don't, it would be that Anne Fadiman is so well educated and erudite that my inner bibliophile occasionally felt somewhat inadequate and intimidated while reading Fadiman's thoughts and experiences, a bit like I imagine Britney Spears must feel when she hears the singing of Celine Dion. That's my own intellectual insecurity speaking. I'm working on that. :-)

Help! I'm Purchasing Books and I Can't Stop!

2009-09-16T06:00:00.010-05:00

After my confession about Harold Bloom being my secret hero, I started actively searching out some books in the various series he edits. One of those series is Bloom's Modern Critical Views, published by Chelsea House, which I believe currently consists of 82 Volumes, plus a number of others now out of print. I checked the volumes on Graham Greene and Richard Wright out of the library and decided I need to have these books. Shocking, I know. Unfortunately, these babies are about $45 each. Ouch. But thanks to third-party sellers on Amazon, I was able to get my hands on the Paul Auster and Vladimir Nabokov volumes for about $13 each! I'm in heaven! And I'm just getting started. I want the volumes on Cormac McCarthy, Philip Roth, Kurt Vonnegut, Margaret Atwood, James Baldwin, Don Delillo . . . Shall I go on? :-) Suffice it to say I want them all. Good thing I truly enjoy Macaroni & Cheese, because that might be supper for the next year or so. LOL!

CLEOPATRA'S DAUGHTER

2009-09-15T06:00:00.004-05:00

by Michelle Moran

"The marriage of Marc Antony and Cleopatra is one of the greatest love stories of all time, a tale of unbridled passion with earth-shaking political consequences. Feared and hunted by the powers in Rome, the lovers choose to die by their own hands as the triumphant armies of Antony's vengeful rival, Octavian, sweep into Egypt. Their orphaned children -- ten-year-old twins Selene and Alexander -- are taken in chains to Rome. Delivered to the household of Octavian's sister, the siblings cling to each other and to the hope that they will return one day to their rightful place on the throne of Egypt. As they come of age, they are buffeted by the personal ambitions of Octavian's family and court, by the ever-present threat of slave rebellion, and by the longings and desires within their own hearts." (From the jacket flap of the Crown edition.)

In a nutshell, I think Cleopatra's Daughter is Michelle Moran's best work to date. While both Selene and Alexander do seem rather mature for their age in the book, Michelle explains in the author's note with the observation that they are the offspring of one of the most educated rulers in the history of Egypt. In addition, during a time when life expectancy was significantly less than it is now, for both natural and unnatural reasons in the case of royalty, one had little choice other than to mature quickly if one was to survive.

There are a number of characters beyond Selene for a reader to get attached to, not the least being her twin, Alexander, who was my favorite. I also enjoyed the portrayal of both Octavia and Octavian, the latter being complex enough to merit some sympathy despite the brutality of his rule.

As always, Michelle's excellent research brings the time period home to the reader. It's a great place to begin learning about Ancient Rome, post-Julius Caesar. And if you haven't had enough once you're finished with Cleopatra's Daughter, may I suggest I, Claudius by Robert Graves?

Eight Great Blogs

2009-09-14T06:00:00.008-05:00

Today for BBAW we're asked to highlight a few of our favorite blogs that did not make the awards shortlists. There are so many good ones it's hard to pick only a few, but here are eight blog friends you should all get to know if you don't already:

Dog Ear Diary -- Have you seen Jeane's artwork? Amazing! I am the proud owner of a beautiful giraffe bookmark that she created. And she reads really cool books, too. ;-)

Estella's Revenge -- Andi makes me laugh! And she is a smart cookie, too! She hasn't been around as much lately as we'd all like, but that awesome relationship and recent baby news explains it all perfectly. :-)

Musings of a Bookish Kitty -- Wendy's blog is just plain fun to read and she's fun to chat with, too!

It's All About Me -- Joanna was one of the first people to comment on Books 'N Border Collies and we share an enthusiasm for the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list.

Passages To The Past -- I love when Amy highlights upcoming historical books. She's so bad for my TBR pile!!

Peeking Between The Pages -- We all know and love Dar and Buddy, don't we? :-)

Rose City Reader -- I'm embarrassed! I don't even know RCR's real name! But I love her blog no less because of it. :-) She always has such interesting books she's reading, and I love all her lists!

So Many Precious Books, So Little Time -- Teddy was another of my first blog friends whose blog has come a long way over the last year. Go, Teddy!

There are so many, many more I could add to this list but I have to stop somewhere and "eight" rhymes with "great" so that's what I went with. Isn't that scientific of me? :-) To these eight and the other 200+ in my Google Reader: Thanks for all the fun! Here's to many more years of excellent blogging!!

Preparing for October Reading

2009-09-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

I am not one to engage in seasonally themed reading, but I plan to make an exception this October. During my never-ending quest for more stuff to read, I came across The Grotesque, a volume in Bloom's Literary Themes. Needless to say, I could not resist and had it overnighted to me. Here is what the publisher, Chelsea House, has to say about the book:

"The grotesque, often defined as something fantastically distorted that attracts and repels, is a concept that has various meanings in literature. This new volume contains 20 essays that explore the role of the grotesque in such works as Candide, Frankenstein, King Lear, The Metamorphosis, and many others. Some essays have been written specifically for the series; others are excerpts of important critical analyses from selected books and journals."

I received the book Friday, and I couldn't be more thrilled with this purchase! I love this topic, and as I prepare to read Frankenstein, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekel and Mr. Hyde, and a few Poe short stories, I think this will be a valuable addition to my list.

I'm wondering if Clare Clark, Cormac McCarthy and Chuck Palahniuk might qualify as "modern grotesque"? That is something to think about as I explore!

DRESS YOUR FAMILY IN CORDUROY AND DENIM

2009-09-12T06:00:00.003-05:00

by David Sedaris

Times like this are when I really love audiobooks. Is there anything funnier than having David Sedaris read his own books to you? Not much, I'm thinking. While humorous as always, this series of essays felt bleaker than other works of his I have read, but "Six to Eight Black Men", an essay involving Dutch Christmas mythology, had me laughing until I cried, which was pretty embarrassing because I was listening to it at work. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim is not my favorite of Sedaris' works that I have read so far (When You Are Engulfed In Flames currently holds that position), but it is still well worth the time when you're in need of a chuckle.

METHLAND

2009-09-11T06:00:00.004-05:00

by Nick Reding

"Crystal methamphetamine is widely considered to be the most dangerous drug in the world, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the small towns of America's heartland. In Methland, journalist Nick Reding introduces us to one such small town: Oelwein, Iowa, population 6,126. Like thousands of other rural communities across the country, Oelwein has been left in the dust by the consolidation of the agricultural industry, a depressed local economy, and an out-migration of people. Now in incredibly cheap, long-lasting, and highly effective drug has taken its hold." (From the jacket flap of the Bloomsbury edition.)

I thought the most captivating part of Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town was that it didn't just talk about the meth problem as a single issue. The stories of the addicts were heartbreaking, no doubt. But the book is equally if not more about the economic and legal environments that lie beneath. The story is meth addiction as the symptom, not the problem. The author goes into detail regarding the consolidation of the food industry and how it affected so many small towns. He talks about how Big Pharma lobbyists help pass laws in Washington, D.C., that ultimately help drug traffikers. He talks about national and local politics, both the official and unofficial kind, that exacerbate the problems while claiming to be solving them. And he explains it all in manner that I can actually follow and understand.

Reding has been accused of shoddy journalistic practices with regard to some details in Methland. The accusations may be true, I don't know. There is also a feeling of sensationalism every now and then. But then again, I don't have any clue what it's like to be in the situation these towns and people are in. How would I know if it's realistic or not? I hope I never find out. All that aside, I feel like my sheltered, middle-class, suburban eyes have been opened to some issues that I never really knew existed. Even if some of the details are wrong, awareness going forward can't be a bad thing.

And The Winners Are . . .

2009-09-10T06:00:00.001-05:00

Part I:

The winner of the Autographed Hardcover copies of Cleopatra's Daughter and The Heretic Queen is:

NIKOLA of Nikola's Book Blog!!

Part II:

The winner of the Autographed Paperback copy of The Heretic Queen and the beautiful earrings is:

JACKIE of Farm Lane Books!!

Congratulations to both winners!! And, Jackie, can I borrow those earrings sometime? :-)

Yesterday's Purchases

2009-09-09T08:30:00.000-05:00

Remember when I told you that The Paris Reviews Interviews, Vol. II caused me to add about a million books to my Wishlist? Well, I spent an hour at Barnes & Noble yesterday making a small but interesting dent in that list. Here's what I brought home:

Burn This Book: PEN Writers Speak Out on the Power of the Word edited by Toni Morrison. I chose this one because I want to read more essays about literature. OK, and it was 60% off. :-)

Gimpel the Fool: And Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Singer was one of the author interviews included in Volume II. I was particularly intrigued by a short discussion of "Gimpel the Fool", so I thought I'd start here with his work.

On Moral Fiction by John Gardner, another author interviewed in Volume II. This is part of the description from the jacket flap: "With a daring not obscured by the author’s extraordinary humaneness of spirit, the book argued that contemporary literature suffers first and foremost from a basic failure of the test of 'morality.' By 'moral fiction' the author meant fiction that attempts to test human values, not for the purpose of preaching or peddling a particular ideology or mode of conduct, but in a honest and open-minded effort to find out what best promotes human fulfillment." Gardner discussed some of his ideas from this book in his interview, and it sounded like something I would enjoy reading. Barnes & Noble has a new line of books called "Barnes & Noble Rediscovers Series" and this one just happened to be sitting front and center for a mere $9.95 in hardcover. Serendipity!

Hopefully none of these will have to sit around too long before I can get to them!

About Ratings, or the Lack Thereof

2009-09-08T14:28:00.000-05:00

I wrote a short while ago in the post "About This Blog" about the kinds of book posts I like to write here at Books 'N Border Collies, but I never mentioned a rating system. That's because I don't have one. Shannon Hale had a very interesting post on her blog recently that hit on this subject (among others). In case you hadn't seen them before, here were the questions she posed:

1. Do you find that the anticipation of reviewing the book has changed your reading experience?
2. Are you rating the book even as you read? Or do you wait until the end to sum it all up?
3. Does knowing you'll be reviewing it (or rating it) publicly affect which books you pick up in the first place?
4. Does the process of writing the review itself change how you felt about the book?
5. What is your motivation to assign a rating to a book and declare it to the world?
6. If you review a book but don't rate, why not? What do you feel is your role as reviewer?

As I mentioned, I don't have a rating system. I never did and I never will. When I finish a book I tend to move very quickly on the next one. I may have loved or hated the book I just finished or anything in between. It doesn't matter. I move on, but good books live on in my subconscious. A book I thought I didn't care for may prod me into thinking about it affectionately weeks or months later, whereas I may all but immediately forget a book I loved while I was reading it. I never know what I really think of a book until I put some distance between us. Therefore, I don't think it's useful to anyone for me to rate a book.

That being said, knowing I'll be writing about a book has no effect whatsoever on what I choose to read. I said in my earlier post that I don't consider what I write "reviews", ergo I don't consider myself a "reviewer". I accept occasional Advance Review Copies of books from publishers or authors, but with the exception of putting myself on a deadline to finish them on or soon after publication, I treat them the same as everything else I read. I make my choices based almost entirely on the desire I have to read the book at that time. Deadlines for ARCs and Reading Challenges are secondary factors when I'm trying to make a decision. And both of those factors will be all but going by the wayside in 2010. I have some interesting plans for myself coming up that I will share with you when it's time for next year's Lifetime Learning Project Plan!

And They're Off!!

2009-09-07T12:45:00.000-05:00

The voting for Book Blogger Appreciation Week is underway!! I didn't make any of the short lists, but I want to thank everyone who put in a nomination for me. There are so many great blogs out there these days it was wonderful to receive that recognition. Good luck to all the finalists!! I've already cast my votes and I can't wait to see who takes home this year's awards!

Book Giveaway: THE DEVIL'S QUEEN by Jeanne Kalogridis

2009-09-07T06:00:00.003-05:00

**This drawing is now closed. Thanks to all the entrants and good luck to all!**

Yup. I'm doing it again!!

After the great response to the last time I gave away a copy of Jeanne Kalogridis' latest novel, the publisher most kindly sent me copies to give away! This time I have three hardcover copies of THE DEVIL'S QUEEN to offer up! (In case you're curious, here were my thoughts on the book.)

Leave me a comment on this post along with an email address if it is not easily available through your profile, and I'll enter you in the drawing. Everyone is eligible and in honor of BBAW coming up, I will take entries until 6:00 pm Central Time, Saturday, September 19, 2009. The winners will be announced Sunday, Sept. 20.

Good luck, Everyone!!

THE PARIS REVIEW INTERVIEWS, VOL. II

2009-09-06T13:15:00.002-05:00

by The Paris Review

The instructor for my The Art of Reading DVD course recommended these books, and I could just kiss him for it! I am going to love this series!! I'm thrilled to have Volumes 1 and 3 here at home and I enjoyed this volume so much that I've already preordered Volume 4 which will be released in October. I added about a million books to my Wishlist, including books by every author included in this volume and some other authors/books they talked about.

I really liked how the authors' personalities seemed to come through. The interviewers asked questions far more insightful than the usual fare, and the answers were quite enlightening. Some were very serious, some were funny, some were deeply contemplative, pompous or frivolous. A few were so over my head that I wasn't sure what on earth they were talking about. There was a little bit of everything and I was enthralled with every interview, even the authors I had never heard of.

What surprised me most was how much I enjoyed the Harold Bloom interview. I expected his to be one of the ones I could barely follow, but that wasn't that case at all. He was opinionated, of course, but seemed like he was fun to talk to. Despite the fact that he can be an arrogant bore in his own writings, he is my secret hero even though I don't always agree with (or even understand!) what he says or how he says it. But his interview was a great read and made me envious of all he has read and had the opportunity to ponder at length.

I highly, highly recommend these books to any reader who wants a chance to take more from their reading than just great entertainment. The authors included in The Paris Review Interviews, Vol. II are:

Graham Greene
James Thurber
William Faulkner
Robert Lowell
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Eudora Welty
John Gardner
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Philip Larkin
James Baldwin
William Gaddis
Harold Bloom
Toni Morrison
Alice Munro
Peter Cary
Stephen King

You think this list is great? Wait until you see some of the others!!

HAUNTED

2009-09-04T06:00:00.000-05:00

by Chuck Palahniuk

"Haunted is a novel made up of twenty-three horrifying, hilarious, and stomach churning stories. They're told by people who have answered an ad for a writers' retreat and unwittingly joined a 'Survivor'-like scenario where the host withholds heat, power, and food. As the storytellers grow more desperate, their tales become more extreme, and they ruthlessly plot to make themselves the hero of the reality show that will surely be made from their plight. This is one of the most disturbing and outrageous books you'll ever read, one that could come only from the mind of Chuck Palahniuk." (From the back of the Anchor Books edition.)

Anyone who has followed my thoughts on Chuck Palahniuk's novels here on Books 'N Border Collies will not be surprised to hear this: Haunted is sick and wrong in so many ways. I cannot recommend this book without washing my own mouth out with soap. But of all of his books I've read, this one carried the most poignant messages within all the offensiveness. Sure, you have to get past that opening chapter with the nasty scene in the swimming pool (Don't ask. Unless you're a Palahniuk fan, believe me, you do not want to know. I'm not even remotely joking.), but there are stories in here that dig so deep into the darkness of the human psyche it's almost physically painful. It makes you wonder about people, especially ones we think of as "normal". It makes you examine things hidden deep in yourself that you pray never get exposed to the public, thoughts and urges you've always kept civilly under control. But what if you couldn't? Or chose not to? Haunted, indeed.

THE MEMOIRS OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS

2009-09-03T06:00:00.003-05:00

by Carolly Erickson

"Born Queen of Scotland, married as a young girl to the King of France, Mary took the reins of the unruly kingdom of Scotland as a young widow and fought to keep her throne. Many believed that she, and not her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I, was the rightful Queen of England, but this only fueled their bitter rivalry, ending in Mary's execution at age forty-four." (From the back of the St. Martin's Press Advance Readers' Edition.)

For a woman who spent a good chunk of her adult life in the custody of England's Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary of Scotland sure got around! The Memoirs of Mary Queen of Scots gives a whirlwind tour of Mary's life from her marriage to Francis, Dauphin of France, to her death, minus the intricate details. It makes for a fabulous light read, but leaves a more curious reader not already familiar with her story wondering who some of the other players are. Important people pop into and out of Mary's life with alarming speed and we never really get to know them or the motives for their actions, nor are Mary's always clear. A reader looking for more entertainment than history will be very pleased with Carolly Erickson's newest fiction offering. If you're looking for something meatier but still fiction, I would recommend Margaret George's Mary Queen of Scotland & The Isles.

Other Carolly Erickson books on Books 'N Border Collies:

The Last Wife of Henry VIII
The Tsarina's Daughter

206 BONES

2009-09-02T01:25:00.003-05:00

by Kathy Reichs

"Tempe awakes in a cramped, dark space, bound at the hands and feet and completely alone. As she reconstructs the events preceding her predicament, Tempe assembles a case of sabotage and murder that runs from Montreal to Chicago." (From the CD container.)

Despite what follows in the next paragraph, I want to make it clear that I really enjoyed 206 Bones, Kathy Reich's twelfth Temperance Brennan novel. No matter the foibles I may or may not identify in any given book, the series holds strong for me and keeps me not only coming back for more but anxiously awaiting the next installment.

Now for those foibles. I find it very odd that, unless I overlooked it somewhere, the death of a pretty significant recurring character in the previous book is never mentioned here. Not once. Is that weird to anyone but me? Also, you'd think Tempe would be a little more careful these days after being captured by the bad guy in -- what? Every other book? I'm surprised she isn't suffering a permanent concussion with as many times as she's been whacked on the head. Maybe she should take Ryan more seriously regarding those offers to look after her? I'm just sayin' . . .

But those are my only complaints, if you can even call them complaints. I adore this series and have every intention of snapping up every one Reichs puts out there for us, warts and all.

Other Reviews:

Back To Books
He Followed Me Home . . . Can I Keep Him?

Book Giveaway, Part II: THE HERETIC QUEEN

2009-09-01T06:00:00.003-05:00

**GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED. THANK YOU, EVERYONE!**

Haven't we all told you how wonderful Michelle Moran is? Well, in case you don't believe it yet, after I posted yesterday's Giveaway announcement, Michelle herself offered up some more goodies for another winner!

Leave a comment on this post along with an email address where you can be reached, and you could win an autographed copy of the gorgeous paperback edition of THE HERETIC QUEEN. But that's not all! Just because she's such a great gal, she's also including these beautiful earrings!!

Is it wrong of me to enter my own giveaway? :-)

Entries will be accepted until Sept. 9, 6:00 Central Time, and the winner will be announced the morning of Sept. 10. Everyone is eligible to enter, and, yes, it would be possible to win both drawings, so go on, give it your best shot! And you never know. If lots of folks enter, maybe we can talk her into a second autographed copy of The Heretic Queen for another lucky winner. Let's show Michelle lots of blogger love!!

Book Giveaway: CLEOPATRA'S DAUGHTER by Michelle Moran

2009-08-31T07:30:00.003-05:00

**GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED. THANK YOU, EVERYONE!**

No regulars here in the book blogosphere need any introduction to the wonderful Michelle Moran, therefore I'm going to skip all the appetizers and get right down to the main course:

One lucky winner here at Books 'N Border Collies will have delivered to her (or him!) an Autographed Copy of Michelle's upcoming novel, Cleopatra's Daughter. But that's not all! The winner will also receive an Autographed Hard Cover Copy of her previous book, The Heretic Queen that I've been keeping stashed away for a moment just like this!

Leave a comment on this post along with an email address if I can't easily find one in your profile, and you could be the lucky winner of both of these fabulous books! Everyone is eligible. Entries will be accepted until Sept. 9, 6:00 pm Central Time. The winner will be announced the morning of Sept. 10.

And keep your eyes peeled here at Books 'N Border Collies for another fantastic giveaway next week for those of you who were hoping to get your hands on the cool new Jeanne Kalogridis book. The publisher sent me a little surprise . . .

FINN

2009-08-28T14:15:00.002-05:00

by Jon Clinch

"Jon Clinch takes us on a journey into the history and heart of one of American Literature's most brutal and mysterious figures: Huckleberry Finn's father.

The tale begins with a lifeless body drifting down the Mississippi. The circumstances of the murder, and the secret of the victim's identity, shape Finn's story as they will shape his life and his death. Along the way we meet a cast of unforgettable characters: Finn's terrifying father, known only as the Judge; his sickly, sycophantic brother, Will; blind Bliss, a secretive moonshiner; the strong and quick-witted Mary, a stolen slave who becomes Finn's mistress; and of course young Huck himself." (From the back of the Random House Trade Paperback edition.)

Finn is a remarkable book. Harsh and realistic in a manner that its inspiration only hinted at, it does not have the whimsical charm of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn but is a perfect companion and foil.

Finn beautifully integrates characters and scenes from Huck Finn, sometimes perfectly, sometimes changed due to adopting the stance that Huck, being a child, was an unreliable narrator of his own story. Either way, Clinch's telling of Huck's father's story is riveting and haunting and has me itching to reread Huck Finn armed with this new knowledge. The scene of Huck and Jim discovering and exploring the house floating down the river will never feel the same again.

ELIZABETH COSTELLO

2009-08-27T06:00:00.002-05:00

by J.M. Coetzee

"J.M Coetzee has crafted an unusual and deeply affecting tale told through in ingenious series of formal addresses. Vividly imagined and masterfully wrought, Elizabeth Costello is, on the surface, the story of a woman's life as mother, sister, lover and writer. Yet it is also a profound and haunting meditation on the nature of storytelling that only a writer of Coetzee's caliber could accomplish." (From the back cover of the Penguin Books edition.)

A highly philosophical, character-driven story. There is little of what most readers would think of as plot, but what I took away from this book was a sense of examining our personal belief systems and their alteration over the course of our lives. Not only beliefs regarding God and religion, but those regarding what is good and what is evil, the rights of the living -- both human and animal -- and of our part in influencing the beliefs and, consequently, actions of others. For what is life in general but a series of acts we carry out according to our beliefs?

One thing that would have been helpful for me would have been to have read Franz Kafka's short story, "A Report to an Academy", because Elizabeth refers to it extensively during her address in one section of the book. I read the short story after the fact, and it all would have made much more of an impact if I had read it first.

After both this book and Waiting for the Barbarians, I have turned the last page feeling as if I could glean so much more with a second or even third reading. Much like Graham Greene, Coetzee's writing is simple only until you peel back the first layer. He is a writer I will be returning to again soon.

How Many Short Stories Does It Take To Make A Book?

2009-08-26T08:05:00.004-05:00

When it comes to my reading, I am a numbers junkie. I understand that what can be "counted" is highly subjective and that the "number" of books I read is really meaningful only to me. Still, I am a numbers junkie. I've accepted that about myself and I'm learning to deal with it.

What I'm discovering is that because of this weird obsession with numbers, I don't read very many short stories because I prefer to pick them out individually from various books and authors rather than read a book of short stories all the way through. My plan originally was to count the number of pages and have a certain number of pages count as a book in my final totals for the year. However, for some inexplicable reason I am finding that to be too inconvenient. And if I read short stories online I don't know how many pages there are. Consequently, even though I'm buying short story anthologies like mad, I'm once again procrastinating on reading all these little gems because I can't figure out a way to easily count them. Ridiculous but honest.

I'm considering setting a goal next year of 200 books, which is peanuts for some of you wildly prolific readers out there (of whom I am in jaw-dropping awe), but for me it's a major stretch and I don't want to neglect short stories again in pursuit of that goal. So -- How many individual short stories should I read before considering them equal to reading a "book"? I don't want to make it too easy, but I don't want to make it too demanding either. Here's where you come in. Take this poll and give me your thoughts. I understand it's silliness on my part, but I can't possibly be alone in this dilemma. And knowing that makes me feel normal. Well -- you know what I mean. . . :-)

THE QUIET AMERICAN

2009-08-25T08:00:00.001-05:00

by Graham Greene

"Alden Pyle is sent to Vietnam to promote democracy with a unit known as Third Force. In Vietnam, Alden meets foreign journalist, Thomas Fowler. As naive and idealistic as Pyle is, Fowler, realistic and cynical, is very aware of the changing winds blowing in Vietnam." (From the CD container.)

I've only read three Graham Greene novels, but I find him to be a very compelling author. In this book and The Heart of the Matter, I was taken in by what appears on the surface to be a simple story but then unfolds to reveal hidden intricacies, like origami in reverse.

The Quiet American is not action-packed. It is subtle and graceful in its questions of right and wrong and its demand to know if the end sometimes can justify the means. It never offers an answer, but the one you give yourself may surprise you.

About This Blog

2009-08-24T00:15:00.005-05:00

UPDATE: March 5, 2010 This blog is going through some changes, but until I decide exactly what they are, the following description is of what this blog was, rather than what it is now or what it will be in the future. Thanks for understanding!
___________________________________________

With all of us anticipating Book Blogger Appreciation Week and the excitement over all the wonderful award nominations everyone has been receiving, I have found myself thinking more and more about Books 'N Border Collies and how it is perceived by my readers. As much as many of us like to say we blog for ourselves, I believe most of us can't help but be swept up into the sense of community and friendship that develops when you take a chance and display your thoughts for anyone, anywhere to read.

I have been book blogging for a little more than a year and a half now, and the little ideas regarding sharing thoughts about books that I had when I started Books 'N Border Collies have blossomed into grandiose plans that range from intending to book blog for the rest of my life to writing a book about the experience. This corner of my life has become so much more than I ever expected it to be! Reading has always been an enormous part of my life, but I've never had friends that shared as deep a passion for books. Finding folks like all of you has been such fun!! Now, as I contemplate where I want to take this blog in the future, this would be a good time for me to share with my readers what I am hoping to achieve here in the coming months and, hopefully, years.

I don't think of my posts as "reviews". When I started, I kind of did. But as I read other bloggers who write true reviews or masterful in-depth analyses of what they read, I discovered I didn't have the patience to do what others do so well already. What I think I'm good at is reading a fairly wide variety of books and identifying the kind of reader who might enjoy them. Whether or not I personally liked a book is somewhat immaterial. I'll tell my readers if I liked it or not and why, but I'm more interested in finding people who would like it. I'll be focusing on providing short to mid-length posts on every book I read, aiming mostly for quick-hit recommendations for readers rather than literary analysis.

While I won't be writing any analysis here, I do like to study it myself, and I plan to continue to share my Lifelong Learning Project and the tools I'm using to pursue my personal education, such as courses from The Teaching Company.

And, of course, there will be the occasional chats about the doings of Max and Skye, because what is Books 'N Border Collies without the Border Collies? :-)

With BBAW coming up, I'm going to be discovering many new blogs and I'm hoping many new bloggers/readers will be discovering me. I love to interact with my readers, so I encourage anyone and everyone to leave thoughts, suggestions, questions or just a hello any old time you feel like it. I'm looking forward to getting to know you all better!

Related Posts:

About Ratings, or the Lack Thereof

CRANFORD

2009-08-23T11:05:00.004-05:00

by Elizabeth Gaskell

"In the village of Cranford, decorum is maintained at all times. Despite their poverty, the ladies are never vulgar about money (or their lack of it), and always follow the rules of propriety. This discretion and gentility does not keep away tragedy -- and when the worst happens, the Amazons of Cranford show the true strength of their honest affections." (From the CD container.)

That description makes the book sound much more somber than it really is. One could almost call this Victorian Chick Lit. I didn't think this would be my style of book at all, but it is on the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list and was available at the library. I checked it out. I adored it! I love these women! I want to live in Cranford! And once again I have been reminded why I enjoy playing with the 1001 Books list.

Cranford is more a series of episodes focusing on the various inhabitants of the town than a plot-driven story, and the love of the narrator, Mary Smith, for her former home and its residents is clear right from the start. It's not fawning or smothering, but realistic and powerful in its quaint honesty. She understands the eccentricities of the town but can watch and tell in a less "involved" manner, and her anecdotes highlight the friendship, jealously, resourcefulness and fierce emotion among women that it takes another woman to truly understand.

If you're looking for an extremely accessible classic to pass a lazy afternoon, I couldn't recommend a better book than Cranford.

PS Heather at Age 30+ . . . A Lifetime of Books is hosting a read-along for Cranford in September. If you'd like to join her, click here.

Other reviews:

A Striped Armchair

THE TRUE STORY OF HANSEL AND GRETEL

2009-08-22T11:00:00.002-05:00

by Louise Murphy

"In the last months of the Nazi occupation of Poland, two children are left by their father and stepmother to find safety in a dense forest. Because their real names will reveal their Jewishness, they are renamed 'Hansel' and 'Gretel'. They wander in the woods until they are taken in by Magda, an eccentric and stubborn old woman called 'witch' by the nearby villagers. Magda is determined to save them, even as a German officer arrives in the village with his own plans for the children." (From the back of the Penguin Books edition.)

Reading the original Grimm Brothers' fairy tale before I began The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: A Novel of War and Survival made portions of the book more predictable but no less evocative and added a rich layer of meaning to many of the scenes. Like so many books about WWII and the Holocaust, this one is difficult but necessary. What I found most memorable was that not all of the Nazi's were stereotyped. There were those who questioned their orders, and those brave souls are the ones who lifted this particular WWII/Holocaust story to a higher plane.

Only the ending marred my opinion at all. It felt cartoonish in comparison to the rest of the novel, but that wouldn't stop me from naming this book as one of the best I've read this year.

Other Reviews:

Bookworm's Dinner

PYGMY

2009-08-21T13:35:00.001-05:00

by Chuck Palahniuk

"Number one best selling author Chuck Palahniuk presents Pygmy, a comedic and satirical take on American xenophobia. As part of a massive terrorist plot, a handful of young adults head to the Midwestern United States disguised as foreign exchange students. Palahniuk focuses on one of the young terrorists, Pygmy, who chronicles his time in the American Midwest as he and others plan a horrific, spiteful act." (From the CD container.)

The broken English in which the entire book is written actually made it funnier than it would have been otherwise and added a layer of emotion to the serious parts that may have ended up lacking impact. Telling the experiences of Operative Me in straight-up, easily coherent language would have sounded just plain stupid for the most part. Kudos to Palahniuk for realizing that and finding new ways to introduce juvenile comedy and general crudity into our reading. At the same time, the bizarre presentation effectively exposes the good, the bad, the humor and the hypocrisy in some of Western culture's most closely held customs, beliefs and institutions and in human eccentricities. The reader must, however, wade through a lot of Palahniuk's patented disturbing weirdness to get to the heart of the matter.

If you've never read a Chuck Palahniuk novel, I wouldn't start here. I'm thinking there are not going to be many readers who aren't already big fans of his literary shock jock ways who are going to go the distance with this offering. The ones that do will be rewarded with the sort of oddly touching ending we've come to expect and that usual post-Palahniuk uneasy feeling of suspecting you shouldn't have liked it as much as you did if you don't want to be hauled off to the psychologist for some sorely-needed analysis.

The curious can read a PDF of the first chapter of Pygmy on Amazon. Additional Books 'N Border Collies posts about Palahniuk books can be found here.

Other bloggers' thoughts on Pygmy:
Back To Books

THE POLYSYLLABIC SPREE

2009-08-20T11:00:00.002-05:00

by Nick Hornby

I think it was during one of the 24-Hour Read-A-Thons that I first heard about Nick Hornby's essay books. Thank goodness for the RAT! This book was a blast!

The Polysyllabic Spree is the "book about books" I'm a tiny bit jealous I didn't write. It now serves as my current inspiration. What I really loved about it was that it was less about the books themselves than about the reading life, what it's like to be a dedicated reader. I know many people who read this generated wonderful lists of books they wanted to read, but I was more intrigued by the stories about the act of reading -- the ups and downs and weird obsessive behaviour we reading addicts tend to engage in.

Contemplating The Polysyllabic Spree and its sequels has got me thinking: Maybe my "book about books" should be about the experiences of being a book blogger. Maybe that should be my angle! I may be on to something here. Thanks, Nick! :-)

Other review:

Letters From A Hill Farm
Savvy Verse & Wit

OMG!! Thank you!!!

2009-08-19T08:08:00.002-05:00

When I wrote my meme in anticipation of this year's Book Blogger Appreciation Week, I said that my highlight of last year's BBAW was being nominated for Best History/Historical Fiction Blog. That was awesome!

But this year I've been nominated for five awards!! I'm so excited I can hardly sit in my chair and type this!! I've been nominated for:

Best History/Historical Blog
Best Literary Fiction Blog
Most Concise
Most Eclectic Taste
Best Commentor

How cool is that?? I want to thank everyone who took the time to nominate not only me but all the other great bloggers out there who spend their free time sharing their lives and their love of books with all of us. Whether I win any of these great awards or not, I want you all to know the nominations mean the world to me because they come from you, my blogging peers who make my reading even more fun that it would be all by myself. Thank you!! And good luck to all the nominees for the 2009 Book Blogger Appreciation Week Awards!!

THE BOOK OF ILLUSIONS

2009-08-18T20:00:00.003-05:00

by Paul Auster

"Six months after losing his wife and two young sons in an airplane crash, Vermont professor David Zimmer spends his waking hours mired in a blur of alcoholic grief and self-pity. Then, watching television one night, he stumbles upon a clip from a lost film by silent comedian Hector Mann. Zimmer's interest is piqued, and he soon finds himself embarking on a journey around the world to research a book on this mysterious figure, who vanished from sight in 1929 and has been presumed dead for sixty years.

When the book is published the following year, a letter turns up in Zimmer's mailbox bearing a return address from a small town in New Mexico inviting him to meet Hector. Torn between doubt and belief, Zimmer hesitates, until one night a strange woman appears on his doorstep and makes the decision for him, changing his life forever." (From the back of the Picador edition.)

People may say what they will about the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list, but if it weren't for that list I may never have discovered Paul Auster and that would have been a shame. No matter his topic or how odd his presentation, he engages me so deeply that I inevitably get to the end and either yearn for more, or, as in the case of Timbuktu, I'm so emotionally wrung out that I couldn't take anymore even if it was offered.

By the end of The Book of Illusions, I was all set to find some DVDs of Hector Mann's films until I remembered he's not real. I wanted to experience for myself the magic of the works described so vividly in the book and to suddenly realize that wasn't possible was almost like a slap in the face. The book deeply explores the many people we are inside, the person we choose to present to the world at different times and who those personae belong to, so the need to come to terms with the fiction of all the creations in their entirety was an odd sensation. I could have sworn I knew them for real! Which, I believe, was part of the point. Who, including ourselves, do we know for real? And do we need to really know someone for that particular relationship to be meaningful to us or to be a force that shapes our lives?

I said when I read Auster's Travels In The Scriptorium that it made me want to go back and read his older work because many previous characters found their way into that novel. The Book of Illusions has only further encouraged me because I believe I recognize a couple of characters and the title of Travels In The Scriptorium is mentioned specifically. I still feel like Auster is playing games with me. And I like it!

Other reviews:

Books Please

New Purchases

2009-08-17T13:15:00.001-05:00

The Paris Review Interviews, I
The Paris Review Interviews, II
The Paris Review Interviews, III

I've been watching my Teaching Company DVDs for The Art of Reading, and the instructor highly recommended these books of author interviews originally printed in The Paris Review. I couldn't resist when I saw the lists of authors included: Graham Greene, William Faulkner, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Kurt Vonnegut, Martin Amis . . . the list goes on! There is also a fourth volume due out this October. I bought all three of the first volumes, and lucky me! Volume II has a copyright date of 2007, so guess what I get to read to finish off my Countdown Challenge! Excellent!

I also bought Nick Hornby's Housekeeping vs. the Dirt and Shakespeare Wrote for Money, because I read The Polysyllabic Spree over the weekend and LOVED it! I'll be posting more of my thoughts on that this week.

Just a reminder -- There are a couple more weeks to get a discount on that beautiful reader's companion A Life Well Read. Again, I have no connection to the product other than I reviewed it and think it's great! I have no monetary stake in your potential purchase. If you haven't heard about A Life Well Read, you can see my post here.

Have a great week, everyone!

THE WHITE QUEEN

2009-08-16T14:38:00.012-05:00

by Philippa Gregory

"The White Queen tells the story of a woman of extraordinary beauty and ambition who, catching the eye of the newly crowned boy king, marries him in secret and ascends to royalty. While Elizabeth rises to the demands of her exalted position and fights for the success of her family, her two sons become central figures in a mystery that has confounded historians for centuries: the missing princes in the Tower of London whose fate is still unknown." (From the cover flap.)

I run hot and cold with Philippa Gregory's novels. I didn't care for The Virgin's Lover, I liked The Other Boleyn Girl, I LOVED The Boleyn Inheritance, I thought The Other Queen was pretty good. Generally speaking, I've always found her books to be decent entertainment even if I'm not as ga-ga over them as many others. Ms. Gregory certainly doesn't need my blessings in order to sell millions of books. :-)

Flap over the The White Queen has long preceded its arrival, so I won't be debating its historical accuracy here. I'm not one who requires flawless history in her fiction, especially if the author explains his or her point of view in an author's note. My personal view is that, hey, it's fiction! Feel free to be creative. If I want to know the real story, I'll dig up some non-fiction and give myself a history lesson.

I will, however, throw my hat into ring regarding the debate over the use of magic in the story. I am in the camp that found the magical elements distracting for the most part. I couldn't help but think things like, "If Elizabeth Woodville and her mother had powers strong enough to conjure up storms that thwarted a rebel army, why didn't they win the war?" That may be petty of me, but there it is. **Potential minor spoiler ahead!** That being said, I forgave some of it when she brought the curses around to a point that called into question Henry Tudor's possible involvement in the disappearance of the princes from the tower. I thought the way that particular curse raised doubts and made me look at other potential suspects was pretty clever, and had the women not already been solidly developed as possessing the ability to cast the curse to begin with, it wouldn't have been as effective. **Potential spoiler over.**

In what could be the coolest use of Twitter I have ever heard about, part of the promotion for The White Queen will be Elizabeth Woodville Tweeting! How great is that! Almost makes me want to start a Twitter account. :-) If you'd like to learn more about that or any other aspect of The White Queen, stop over at Philippa Gregory's Official Website. She always has great information on her books and research, both previous and upcoming.

Other reviews of The White Queen:

Booking Mama
A Girl Walks Into A Bookstore
Kittling: Books
The Literate Housewife
Medieval Bookworm
Peeking Between The Pages
Tanzanite's Shelf & Stuff

The Winner of The Devil's Queen is . . .

2009-08-15T06:00:00.002-05:00

The Random.org Random Number Generator says it's #12:

Dar from Peeking Between The Pages!!

And it couldn't be going to a nicer person! (Don't let Buddy read the scary parts, Dar!) If you've never seen Dar's blog, drop by there soon, tell her congratulations and check out all her great reviews and giveaways!

Wow! So many new faces stopped here at Books 'N Border Collies for a shot at The Devil's Queen, and I'd like to thank each and every one of you who entered, new visitors and my regular readers! I hope to see many of you often in the coming months, because there are more great giveaways coming up. Stay tuned!

SACRED HEARTS

2009-08-14T08:30:00.006-05:00

by Sarah Dunant

"In 1570 Ferrara, Italy, a family slams their daughter, sixteen-year-old Serafina, into the Santa Caterina convent after they discover her embraced with an illicit lover. As counter-reformation forces push for change outside Santa Caterina's walls, inside the angry and passionate Serafina threatens the traditionalist foundation of the convent and its sisters." (From the CD container)

After how much I ended up loving In the Company of the Courtesan, I was very anxious to get my hands on Sarah Dunant's newest offering, Sacred Hearts. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to my expectations.

The premise was promising and Dunant's writing was as mesmerizing as I remember, but the story never grabbed hold of me. Learning about the lives of nuns and church/convent politics in 16th century Italy was most interesting, but there was something about the plot that felt simplistic beneath the grandeur of all the history. Once I got a couple of chapters into the book, I think I was hoping for the intensity of the movie Stigmata, and I'm disappointed that it never even came close. I realize that was a completely unrealistic expectation, but it's the one I had. I didn't dislike Sacred Hearts. It just wasn't as captivating as I had hoped it would be.

Other opinions:

Books and Movies
The Burton Review
A Girl Walks Into A Bookstore
Read Like Me

ROADSIDE CROSSES

2009-08-12T10:15:00.001-05:00

by Jeffery Deaver

"In California's Monterey Peninsula, a killer leaves roadside crosses along highways to mark future victims. Agent Kathryn Dance, a body language expert at the California Bureau of Investigation, investigates the case, discovering that not only is the killer using blogs and social networking sites to select his victims, but that he also is a troubled teenager bent on revenge. As Dance works toward catching her suspect, she finds her efforts hampered by politicians and the bloggers themselves." (From the CD container.)

I have no children, so I'll ask those of you that do: Do teenagers truly sound as moronic when they talk as many authors make them sound? It's as if they want to make certain the reader is aware that the character that is speaking is not an adult, so they go into overdrive on what they believe is current teenage slang. Or maybe they really do talk that way. In which case I can only pray I never sounded that stupid at that age. Thinking back, I probably did. :-)

Anyway, that has not got a lot to do with Roadside Crosses as a whole. I am a huge Jeffery Deaver fan, and if that's how he wants to make teens talk, fine. Just get on with the story. And he does.

I liked Roadside Crosses a lot. The wild twists that Deaver is known for are not as jaw-dropping in this book as they have been in previous works, but it's still pretty darn good. We get to know much more about the person of Kathryn Dance and her family and friends while she's investigating the crimes. She is becoming a very strong character that I think will quickly become popular with mystery fans. Her stories aren't as technology-detailed as Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme novels and will appeal to readers who prefer more of the human element in their mysteries.

Roadside Crosses is the third book in which Kathryn Dance appears and the second in which she is the lead character. It is not necessary to be familiar with the previous books to enjoy this one, but if you want to start at the beginning, here is the order of her appearances up to now. I have not posted about the earlier books, so all the links go to Amazon in case you'd like to check out the reviews there.

The Cold Moon: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel
The Sleeping Doll
Roadside Crosses

BLEAK HOUSE

2009-08-10T07:50:00.001-05:00

by Charles Dickens

"In Bleak House Dickens presents a critical picture of England in 1853. He condemns the insidious power of a hideous legal system which creeps like London fog into the lives of every character in the book. Dickens ingeniously links characters from all backgrounds from Esther Summerson, an orphan given support by the kindly Mr. Jarndyce, owner of Bleak House, to Lady Dedlock who lives with a secret she can't reveal. Tulkinghorn, the ruthless lawyer, Krook the shopkeeper and Jo, the pathetic crossing-sweeper, are all finely drawn characters that enrich this story of the unravelling of Lady Dedlock's secret by Inspector Bucket, whose appearance in this novel can give it a claim to be the first English detective novel." (From the CD container.)

While in the end I liked Bleak House quite a bit, it is my least favorite of the four Charles Dickens books I've read. The tone is much more A Tale of Two Cities, than, say, Nicholas Nickleby, but that wasn't a problem. A Tale of Two Cities is, after all, my favorite Dickens book so far. My issue was that it took a long time for Bleak House to come together for me. I was having trouble keeping track of characters and what anyone had to do with anything or anybody. Once I started to grasp it all, though, I ended up being just as enthralled with this work as I was with the rest.

I am one of those readers who would rave endlessly about the amazing characters in Dickens' writing. They come to life in a manner that most authors can only wish for. They stay with me when the story is over, and that isn't normal for me. My mind tends to move on to the next book quickly. And being a Dickens newbie, his artful phrasing of words is still a delight for me. I'm very pleased to have many of his books yet to explore.

I have a Teaching Company lecture on this book waiting for me when I get back to my Classic Novels course, so I will be revisiting Bleak House in the future with a more analytical eye. For now, I just wanted to let you know if you can get past the scary size of the thing and push beyond the confusion of so many seemingly unrelated characters and events in the beginning, it is worth it in the end.

Other Charles Dickens related posts on Books 'N Border Collies:

A Christmas Carol
Nicholas Nickleby
A Tale of Two Cities

Today's Purchases

2009-08-08T21:00:00.004-05:00

We stopped at our local Barnes & Noble with some friends who live outside of the cities, and while I managed an hour-long browse at a different B&N yesterday without bringing anything home, today I didn't make it out without a couple I had never seen before:

Don't Know Much About Literature: What You Need to Know but Never Learned About Great Books and Authors is rather small and doesn't look like it contains much great information, but it's got some fun trivia questions on each page and I can't help but pick up books about books.

I spent many of my younger years as a waitress, so when I read this on the back of the book, "According to The Waiter, 80 percent of customers are nice people just looking for something to eat. The remaining 20 percent, however, are socially maladjusted psychopaths", I knew I had to have Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip--Confessions of a Cynical Waiter. That one line told me he knows of what he speaks. I can't wait to get to this one!! It looks like he has a blog, too: WaiterRant. I'm off to check it out right now . . .

IDIOT AMERICA

2009-08-05T18:25:00.001-05:00

by Charles P. Pierce

We hold these truths to be self-evident.

The First Great Premise: Any theory is valid if it sells books, soaks up ratings, or otherwise moves units. (p. 35)

The Second Great Premise: Anything can be true if someone says it loudly enough. (p. 41)

The Third Great Premise: Fact is that which enough people believe. Truth is determined by how fervently they believe it. (p. 43)

At a time when the "birthers" are in the news daily and Michele Bachmann represents a congressional district in my home state, I found Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free to be an extremely interesting book. It takes on the battles of "Gut v. Intellect" and "Personality v. Expertise". He talks about the above noted Great Premises as they pertain to television and the internet, Intelligent Design v. Darwinism, sensationalist media, talk radio, reality TV, global warming, Terry Schiavo, 9/11, the Iraq War, the War on Terror, the 2008 presidential election, and more. Conservatives will hate this book. Liberals will most likely love it, but they don't completely escape Charles Pierce's scathing commentary either. His irritation is not completely politically driven and therefore merrily crosses party lines here and there. It's not that Pierce believes that America has dumbed itself down, but that it is "selling off what ought never to be rendered a product, . . . and believing itself to have made a good bargain with itself." (p. 276)

I read it, and I loved it. Go ahead and skewer me as an elitist you must. I can handle it. :-)

See more LOL Dogs here.

Book Blogger Appreciation Week Meme

2009-08-05T06:00:00.002-05:00

It's coming!! Book Blogger Appreciation Week is on it's way in only a few short weeks and our tireless host Amy from My Friend Amy has gotten our anticipation cranked up with this short meme:

1) What was the highlight (something that happened, a post, an activity, etc.) of BBAW for you last year?

I was nominated for Best History/Historical Fiction Blog! The winner was the wonderful Meghan at Medieval Bookworm but just to be nominated was a thrill!

2) What is one new blog you discovered during BBAW last year?

Oh, my. There were so many! And I can't remember which ones I got to know specifically through BBAW. How about if I pick a couple I've gotten to know much better over the last year since BBAW? When you have a chance, stop on by at Rose City Reader and Rebecca Reads! Rebecca reads a lot of serious literature and writes deeply thoughtful and informational posts about them. Rose City Reader is notorious for her love of lists -- Authors, Awards, whatever -- and we get to benefit from her taking the time to put together and post them! Another newer blog to me that I have been enjoying lately is A Damned Conjuror Starts Lecturing. He makes me think and he makes me laugh. Who could ask for more? :-)

3) What tips would you share to help others get the most out of their BBAW experience?

Don't be afraid to get involved!! Just jump right into festivities! How else are we going to get to know you?? :-)

Book Giveaway: The Devil's Queen by Jeanne Kalogridis

2009-08-04T06:00:00.004-05:00

**THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU, EVERYONE!**

I've decided this book is just too good not to share with one of my lucky readers! If you're not familiar with Jeanne Kalogridis or The Devil's Queen, check out my thoughts here. I'll be purchasing another copy and sending it along to one of you!! Leave a comment on this post before Friday, Aug. 14, 2009 for entry in the drawing. International readers are eligible! The winner will be announced Saturday, Aug. 15, 2009. If your email address isn't available in your profile, leave that information also so I can contact you if you're the lucky one!

Best of luck to all!

A Life Well Read & A Special Offer For My Readers

2009-08-03T08:24:00.003-05:00

When I was asked by D&D Creations to review their product A Life Well Read, I couldn't pass it up. I have a huge weakness for anything that helps organize my books and my thoughts about them -- log books, note cards, blogs. I love them all!

I was truly impressed with A Life Well Read. The packaging is beautiful. The cards on which you write your notes regarding your reading are small enough to use as a bookmark in trade paperbacks and hard cover books allowing you to keep them handy, but big enough to actually write meaningful commentary. There are cards on which to keep track of books you lend or borrow and books you'd like to give as gifts. There are bookplates for your personal library and bookplates for the books you gift. There is even a very nice pen included so you have no excuse to not get started right away! :-) You can find a full description of what is included here.

The fact that your notes are taken on cards that can be arranged in any way you prefer is a big seller for me. It's always driven me to distraction that I can't rearrange my notes in a notebook or journal and keep them in alphabetical order, or group them by subjects, or whatever my whim of the week may be. A Life Well Read eliminates that problem. I can arrange and rearrange to my literary-OCD-riddled heart's content! :-)

Purchase A LIFE WELL READ for 25% off!!

If you'd like to learn more about A Life Well Read and possibly purchase it for yourself or as a gift, D&D Creations is offering my readers 25% off until August 30, 2009!! Click here to learn more. In addition, you prolific readers out there can purchase extra packs of cards for $4.95. You can find them on the "Special Offers" tab on the product site. I don't make anything at all from this offer, so I'm not talking it up to pad my pocket book. I love my copy, and it really is a gorgeous and useful product for any serious reader. Go check it out and tell them Books 'N Border Collies sent you!

And The Winner Is . . .

2009-08-01T07:00:00.000-05:00

Wanda!!

Wanda has won an autographed copy of James A. Levine's The Blue Notebook!! I purchased the book when I went to see the author speak, so the money will be donated to The International Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Congratulations, Wanda, and thank you to everyone who entered the drawing. Be sure to come back soon, as I have a few more fun drawings waiting in the wings . . .

LLP: June 2009 Wrap-Up

2009-07-31T08:00:00.003-05:00

July, as quickly as it flew by, was a pretty productive month! Out of my four goals for Third Quarter, my focus for this past month was primarily on my Reading Challenges. I finished three challenges, possibly four if I finish Bleak House later today, and I only have seven books left to finish the Countdown Challenge, which I have an obsession with completing because I made such a mess of the 888 Challenge last year. For some reason they are related in my mind, and I have no reasonable explanation for that. Anyway, here are the challenges I finished off in July:

Decades Reading Challenge **Finished July 2, 2009**

2nds Reading Challenge **Finished July 12, 2009**

Pub Challenge **Finished July 29, 2009**

I have done bits and pieces of the other three goals for the quarter, but nothing I'm ready to report back on. I *really* want to finish up my challenges, because I have some other plans perking and I need those out of the way. I suppose I could abandon them and move on, but I don't want to do that because one of my Lifetime Learning Plan goals for the year is to write about using Reading Challenges for personal growth and self-education. One of the things I'm mulling over is branching out from those challenges into a broader educational tool. I know that is incredibly ambiguous, but I don't have the whole thing worked out in my head yet either. I'm staring at the full bookshelves and piles of books on my desk figuring out where I'm going with it all. I'm getting there!

In the meantime, while my Classic Novels course seems to have stalled while I focus on the challenges, I did pick up a brand new DVD course from The Teaching Company that I started watching last night: The Art of Reading! I watched the first two lectures last night, and I LOVE it! As I progress through it, I'll tell you more about my experience, but you can check out the content of the course by clicking here.

Tomorrow morning I'll announce the winner of the autographed copy of The Blue Notebook, so good luck to everyone who entered! And you all have a great weekend!!

THE DEVIL'S QUEEN

2009-07-29T08:40:00.003-05:00

by Jeanne Kalogridis

"Born into one of Florence’s most powerful families, Catherine was soon left a fabulously rich heiress by the early deaths of her parents. Violent conflict rent the city state and she found herself imprisoned and threatened by her family’s enemies before finally being released and married off to the handsome Prince Henry of France.

Overshadowed by her husband’s mistress, the gorgeous, conniving Diane de Poitiers, and unable to bear children, Catherine resorted to the dark arts of sorcery to win Henry’s love and enhance her fertility—for which she would pay a price. Against the lavish and decadent backdrop of the French court, and Catherine’s blood-soaked visions of the future, Kalogridis reveals the great love and desire Catherine bore for her husband, Henry, and her stark determination to keep her sons on the throne." (from Macmillan's site)

I thought Jeanne Kalogridis was going to let me down. 150 or so pages into The Devil's Queen: A Novel of Catherine de Medici, I was becoming bored. Things weren't moving along at the pace I've come to expect from her. I wasn't captivated by any creepy weirdness. Then: Wham! I couldn't put it down. This was the Kalogridis I have come to know and love! Somehow she manages to make the infamous Catherine de Medici a sympathetic character while in the middle of participating in a human sacrifice! Unreal. And pretty gruesome.

Yeah, The Devil's Queen has a couple graphic scenes that the more squeamish among us may want to bypass (execution by quartering, anyone?), but once you get invested in this book it really is awesome and well worth peeking between your fingers once the icky parts are over. This book has me champing at the bit to learn more about Catherine and her rotten children. (Well, not all of them are rotten, but if I tell you which ones, I'll wreck the story for you!) It will be interesting to see how I react to her in other books considering how she was portrayed here. The very first book I ever read about Henry VIII was The Autobiography of Henry VIII by Margaret George. With all of Henry's rationalizing about all the hideous things he did, I found myself actually feeling a little sorry for him. The guy was a psychological mess! Because of this, it took me along time to get that sympathy out of my head every time a read another story about him and his wives. In fact, I still find myself making excuses for him every now and then! I wonder if I'll do the same thing with Catherine de Medici now.

I have Jean Plaidy's Medici trilogy on my desk. Do we think I can stick to my personal pledge to finish the Countdown Challenge before I read it? Bets are being taken now . . .

PS If you go to the publisher's site, there is a link to a Reading Group Guide PDF, and check this out . . . (You'll have to click on it to see the ebook in full)

Other reviews:

A Girl Walks Into A Bookstore
Tanzanite's Shelf and Stuff

THE LOOMING TOWER: AL-QAEDA AND THE ROAD TO 9/11

2009-07-28T08:00:00.004-05:00

by Lawrence Wright

"A sweeping narrative history of the events leading to 9/11. A groundbreaking look at the people and ideas, the terrorist plans and the Western intelligence failures that culminated in the assault on America. Lawrence Wright's remarkable book is based on five years of research and hundreds of interviews that he conducted in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, England, France, Germany, Spain, and the United States." (From the CD container)

The first I'd heard of The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 was when I was scanning the audiobook section of the library. It caught my eye, but I left without it. The next day I heard about Newsweek's 50 Books For Our Times, and there it was at #2. There was no resisting after that.

If you're looking for a very readable book that fills you in on the backstory of the horrific events of 9/11, this is the one. As a friend of mine said, it explains a lot of events and discusses many people that we've heard about but maybe didn't really understand the significance of.

Lawrence Wright talks about the early Islamic Fundamentalists and their lives. He shows you Bin Laden's childhood. He takes you into the homes of Jihadists, into terrorist training camps. You'll sit in on meetings between the CIA and FBI agents who are learning about Al-Qaeda for the first time, and follow the career of a man who ceaselessly hunted Bin Laden until his own death on that ill-fated day in the World Trade Center.

What I liked best about this book aside from it's accessibility was that Wright did not point fingers of blame. He points out mistakes that were made, some very arrogant and bone-headed, but he also explains the complexity of the situations being dealt with. I can see how The Looming Tower earned it's spot on Newsweek's list.

THIS LAND IS THEIR LAND

2009-07-27T11:50:00.001-05:00

by Barbara Ehrenreich

"When Barbara Ehrenreich wrote her take on the Reagan era, The Worst Years of Our Lives, she had no idea that the truly worst years were still two decades away. Now she takes on modern-day corporate America, the wealthy elite, and a lopsided economy with razor-sharp wit and biting humor." (From the CD container)

I don't know anything about Barbara Ehrenreich, but if I had to guess, I would say that conservatives probably react to her much as liberals react to Ann Coulter. I'm also guessing that due to some of the aforementioned "razor-sharp wit and biting humor" Ehrenreich, like Coulter, is preaching to the choir much of the time. I'm pretty sure reading This Land Is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation would make certain members of my deeply conservative family spontaneously combust.

I agree with the vast majority of the greater points Ehrenreich makes in this book, but she pushes some of them to such absurd lengths that even I, a tree-hugging bleeding heart, couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes and nearly tuning out of some of the diatribes, consequently almost missing the pertinent message. Maybe that's what it takes to get some people to pay attention, but I personally prefer less extremism in my partisanship. I don't mind sarcasm, in fact it's one of my favorite things, but when it starts dripping all over my hands or gumming up my CD player I find it more annoying than enlightening. However, I do think she has some important things to say that are not terribly PC but should to be addressed. As a person who is not fond of confrontation, that is all I will say on the subject. I'll let Ehrenreich handle it in writing while I make my voice heard at the voting booth.