Nothing to read here

Devotion: A Memoir
by Dani Shapiro

I just didn't get it--sometimes you don't.  I kept expecting something to happen or something to change, and I think maybe something might have, but the happenings and changes were so imperceptible they just breezed by, unnoticed.

I believe the subject of the memoir was the author's journey of self-discovery--exploring her roots, trying out the trappings of her Jewish heritage, and looking into her own soul through yoga and meditations.  All that should be admirable and make for a "riveting read", but it didn't.  If she ever went deeply into anything, it didn't show in these pages.  I learned nothing here.  If she did any research into the meaning behind the tradition, she didn't bother to share it with us. 

But just possibly, another reader, one with more in common to her, will find in this book all that I missed.  Good luck.

Ho-hum historical

Oh! Pioneers
by Willa Cather

Remarkable for its people.  It reminded me of Sinclair Lewis in a little way--the oddball characters who were both stereotypical in their actions and reactions and yet so true to real life people we meet every day.  The not-too-bright brothers, hard working and honest but so quick to assume the thoughts and attitudes of the people who surrounded them.  Alexandra could live a thousand years and her brothers would never realize how she made her land prosper through intelligent choice, sensible risk-taking, and just plain listening to the land.  They were good farmers but nowise entrepreneurs.

And the younger brother--a simple soul who just wanted a wife and home but was expected to plan for a career.  Adrift without purpose, was it any wonder what happened?  (Can't tell; sorry)

I loved her heroine; loved her book; and don't want to read another.  Why, is hard to tell.  Something was missing to make it a winner, but I cannot say what.

Who the heck was Tesla anyway?

Tesla's Attic
by Neal Shusterman

When your dad buys a house and moves you to a new neighborhood, how better a way to make a quick buck and meet some neighbors than to sell off all the junk in the attic?  This is how--hold a huge garage sale with very strange and unexpected consequences, and find out that it takes all the work and ingenuity of you and your new friends to try to get the stuff back.

Brain food for the young and scientifically minded.  It was very enjoyable--quick--lively and absolutely impossible by any set of currently accepted scientific theories. 

Read it and run

What an amazing book.  Adventure, research, human stories, and running.  And racing.  And 100-mile racing.  I was captivated from beginning to end and immediately started listening again when I reached the end. 

Starting with the simple question, why does my food hurt?  The preeminent sports orthopedist in the world says it's because the human body wasn't designed for running--running is like a ticking time bond, and the more you do it, the more likely you are to be hurt.   If you look at the runners around you, that's all you see--injury after injury.

Not satisfied with that answer,  McDougall takes us around the world and backward through time to find the real one. And it's a doozy.

Read this book even if you're not a runner and don't aspire to be one.  There's a lot more than running here.

At times--especially in the first few chapters--he was throwing around suppositions and personal conjectures like they were established fact.  A few times I'd pause the narrative and think, what the heck?   How did that come from that?!?  He'd describe the home-made beer of the Tarahumarans as "blistering paint," which to me implied high alcohol content, but then later explain that it was extremely low in alcohol, even less than the near-bear of the depression years.  They still bug me, but write them off as artistic license and slog on.  He gets to the observable, measurable facts soon enough.

Good ol' Pat done it again

The Bear in the Attic
by Patrick McManus

I didn't laughed my head off for this one because I'd just read the other McManus and knew what to expect.  I snortled, chuckled and grinned instead.  So it's just the usual--but the usual McManus is funnier than most people's best efforts.

Martha who?

My Boyfriend Barfed in my Handbag
...and Other Things You Can't Ask Martha


by Jolie Kerr

Man, I thought this was going to be funnier.  It's funny, but not funnier.  And I learned all kind of dreary things about how often you're supposed to Daily Clean your kitchen but then still have to do a periodic Full-Monty Hard Clean.  That part was nauseating.  If I spent one-tenth the time cleaning that she does...I'd shoot myself.

The little snippets of humor kept me reading, and I may have even learned something.  The next time I have a coffee/tea/soy sauce/Sriracha stain on my best blouse, I'll try harder.  I already knew that bleach was not the answer, after an ill-fated attempt to treat a soiled cotton print blouse--the stain went away, but so did half of the print.

I learned that all stains benefit from cold water.  Then, protein-based stains like blood respond to soap, peroxide, oxiclean or meat tenderizer; sweat stains: vinegar, Oxiclean, peroxide+soda; grease stains: PineSol or a degreaser; ink stains: blot with alcohol; tannin: cold water or soap.  No answer on the soy sauce or Sriracha, but next time I get one, I'll try harder.  I treat soy sauce like a stoppered test tube of anthrax culture--wear protective gloves, line the surface with disposable towels, and hold far away from the body.

Old timey writing but still relevant

Twelve years a slave
by Solomon Northop

Oh how I love the floriferous writing of 1853!

Having been born a freeman, and for more than thirty years enjoyed the blessings of liberty in a free State--and having at the the end of the time been kidnapped and sold into Slavery, where I remained, until happily rescued in the month of January, 1853, after a bondage of twelve years--it has been suggested than an account of my life and fortunes would not be uninteresting to the public.

Once past the gratuitous introspections, retrospections, foreshadowing and hindsighting, all so common in 19th century compositions, I found what remained to be direct, unsentimental, and clearly honest. He tells it like it was and leaves it to future generations to make their own conclusions.

I'd seen the movie, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that they'd kept it relatively close to truth.  They had to do a great amount of creation to bring characters to life--from the description, old Mr. So-and-so, he was a cruel man, they had to create a face and garb, mannerisms and speech, then put words in his mouth because the memoir seldom recalled them.  (I wouldn't expect it to.)

But as to the book, it was definitely worth the reading.  The style wasn't all that difficult once you got used to the 19th century habit of using twice as many words as needed.  It had much to say, and more importantly, show about the brutalizing effects of slavery on people who were themselves not brutal at all.  I wish it could be read by the people of our times who keep slaves, but I fear it would be no use.  They wouldn't see themselves in these pages; people never do.

He's still kicking

Into the Twilight, Endlessly Grousing

Patrick F. McManus

From the title, I thought this was going to be some kind of farewell book from the author.  But it doesn't appear to be, so I'm happy.  McManus just gets funnier with age.  I don't care how many of the stories are real or how many are made up, I just trust and believe them all.

If you're going to read just one, read Cereal Crime. It starts with his best friend Eddie getting a Private Detective kit from a cereal box-top giveaway, then pining away because there weren't any crimes to solve in their little backwoods town.  But Rancid Crabtree tells him of one--

And I've told too much.  Enjoy!

Depressing but worth it

Angela's Ashes


This is nonfiction, right?  I ended up reading it only because I couldn't understand the conflicting reviews.  Some said it unfairly depicted Ireland as a nation of drunkard dads and promiscuous mothers.  Some said "dreary and depressing."  Some said it was unrealistic or distorted.

I say, give me a break.  It didn't portray "the Irish" as squat--it portrayed one person and his own, personal, family story.  Those who say unrealistic don't know what it's like to be dirt poor.  It's a reminder to us all of the simple truth of poverty--it's damn near impossible to break out of, in any day and age.  You have to have decent clothes and a bath to get a job.  You have to have medical care and regular meals to get through school.  And distorted?  Of course it's distorted--it's the world through the eyes of a kid.

Forget the other people.  I agree it was sad.  Life is sad.  He neither softened or exaggerated--it was real.  As real as memory allows.

Doing the Anne Frank thing again. Why?

Memories of Anne Frank: Reflections of a Girlhood Friend
by Alison Leslie Gold




First to explain--the memories are from Hannah Goslar as told to Alison Leslie Gold. So I'll refer the Ms. Gold as the author and Ms. Goslar as Ms. Goslar,

The only things to dislike about this book are the name and the editing. It's a memoir and you can't blast people's memories unless  you were there with them and knew they'd made the stuff up. Not that I think she did make stuff up--I'm just explaining why "content" is not a criteria I can judge on.  I wish there were a little more content, but I'd rather have a sketchy truth than a made-up memory.  But--[to the author]--why isn't there more content?  I feel like Ms. Goslar was given the task of (a) remember everything you can about Anne Frank and (b) you can add on a little from your own life story, but (c) keep it short and (d) be sure to toss in mention of Anne Frank from time to time.

In other words, Ms. Goslar had a story to tell--and this isn't it.  Why couldn't it be?   Why was the scope so severely limited?

And the title sucks. If they had to put in the title to make people want to read the book,
they could have done so without distorting what the book is mostly about.  There's a lot more here than just Anne, and could have been more still if Ms. Goslar had been encouraged to tell it and Ms. Gold interested in writing it.



Anne Frank

About the last of my Judy Blume fandom

Here's To You, Rachel Robinson
by Judy Blume

This book, and the one I read after which probably came before--As Long As We're Together--aren't the most revolutionary of Ms. Blume's books.  She's subtle when she could have been bold--for example, you guess at some of the real reasons of Rachel Robinson's family disfunction, but they never come out in your face.  I fully expected Rachel to come down with a full-fledged case of anorexia or some anxiety-related mental illness, but she just slogs on. 

In the real world, family problems don't get "solved"--they just get outgrown.  Ms. Blume is going for realism instead of lessons, and so the novels lack punch.  But they're still a pair of little gems.

Me and celibrity memoirs again

Kitchen Confidential:
Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
by Anthony Bourdain

I guess we all have our weaknesses.  I seem to have one for celebrity chef memoirs.  When I find a good one, it gets picked up first from the stack and consumed like a big plate of comfort food. It's my mom's fried potatoes and a pot of white beans.

Mr. Bourdain did a trick here I wish every memoir-writer would do.  He takes off a chapter or two to explain his philosophy of life. or, in his case, of eating (when to eat what and what never to eat).  He also discusses choosing a cooking career (what to expect in the real world), and how to succeed in the career (don't lie much, be reliable, and put up with a lot of sh*t.)

So it's a  pleasurable mix of life and learning with an amusing dose of life lessons.  If you're going to be a cook. Thank heavens I'm not.

Listened to twice, almost

Hope Was Here
by Joan Baur

This will make you cry even if you never shared the experiences she describes. and if you did, you'll cry even harder.

But it's not a sad book, not at all.  It's funny--how can a story of two expatriate New Yorkers running a small diner in the middle of Cheese Land Wisconsin not be?  Hope is a girl of nearly endless optimism, and she's out to conquer the  world...or at least satisfy the people at the counter, growling for coffee and hash browns.  She's the waitress with the dazzling smile and the (nearly) unquenchable optimism, and she's on the job.

Eating recipes

Egg: A Culinary Exploration of the World's Most Versatile Ingredient

by Michael Ruhlman

Almost completely exactly what I was expecting.  I'd thought there might be a little more science in here--a little less how-to and a little more why-to.  It's mostly recipes--great recipes, I'm sure--covering all the ways to prepare an egg, or parts of it, and all the varied flavors and textures that result.  I'm not saying there's no science at all, I just wanted more.

There's not much mention here of the difference in taste and quality between commercially raised eggs (hens in cages, indoors, fed on corn and antibiotics) and pastured eggs (free range, outdoors, fed on corn and juicy bugs).  Only a half-page inset about nutritional differences.  All I can say is that I poached a farm fresh egg last night without bothering to strain the loose white, which he insists is a necessary step, and got a perfect round package with a deep gold yolk, no strings attached.  And it tasted great.

 One of the two recipes I'm going to try is a quiche. normally the simplest of dishes, this one is fussy with roasted red pepper and a handmade crust. He calls for "cured Spanish chorizo" but doesn't specify what that really means.  I can go to the store and buy chorizo--I usually have a choice between hot and hotter, but it's not going to be cured, it will be Mexican not Spanish, and it won't look at all like his pictures. So I can be assured it will neither taste like his chorizo or have the same texture.

No single word can sum this up

The Golem and the Jinni
by Helene Wecker

Hit me like a lime slush brain freeze.  I did succeed in putting it down, but only when my next pick up time was firmly in mind.  I can't think of a single thing to say about it without risking destruction of your joy in finding out that thing for yourself.  I can only use generic words like surprising, for real?, and freaking imagination!

It's a gem and you know it from the moment you pick up the hardcover book.  The publisher recognized it as such and gilded the leaves in sooty gray, or was it dull blue?  Anyway, it doesn't look or feel like a "normal" book. and it sure isn't.  Oddly enough, you'd have to call the genre fantasy, but it's not quite so. Rather than inventing a fantasy world, she took the real world and inserted just a little magic into it.  Her real world descriptions--New York in the 19th century; desert encampments in Syria--are really, really believable.

One quibble--I think she broke the rules. In a fantasy world, the author gets to make up her own rules.  But she hadn't ought to break them, and here, right at the end, I think she bent them a little.  It's still a great ending, but I couldn't help thinking, "but wouldn't...."

History review

The Guns At Last Light:
The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945
by Rick Atkinson

Note that I listened to this while driving the car, which means my attention wavered more than it would with words on paper. I was...well...not exactly riveted.  I knew how it had to end, and the plot synopsis was history to me--but still, I was sort of riveted.  I'd never imagined the waste, the inconceivable waste, of an invasion on such a scale. And the waste went on--gliders smashed, tanks sunk in the mud, supplies torched and exploded, and human lives lives lives.  So many human lives chopped into hamburger. In a world of four billion people I know only too well the insignificance of a single human life...and I know the connections of it, too.  Each lost life ripped the heart out of a number of persons--two, four, eight, or a lot more--and left them permanently crippled.

Best quote in the book: Eisenhower, to a solder who was uneasily suppressing a smile at the sight of General Patton throwing up at a concentration camp site.

I hear that a lot of soldiers say they don't know what they're fighting for. But now we know what we're fighting against.

(My apology if I missed a word or two--hope I got the gist.)

So other than the waste, the battles, and the many mistakes on the front lines, this book had to offer an insight into the interworking personalities of command.  Montgomery--Churchill--Roosevelt--Patton--de Gaulle--Stalin.  Occasionally, very occasionally, equal time was given to the opposition--Field Marshall Rommell had a few appearancees.

So, I don't know. There are other books in the series, but I'll leave it at this one. For now.

Awful, just awful

Philomena
by Martin Sixsmith

Okay, so on the cover is a photo of a mother and a grown son, more-or-less looking at each other.  And the book's cover includes "The poignant true story of a mother and the son she had to give away."  It's in the non-fiction section.

Given those facts, what was I supposed to assume?  All I know is that after the first few chapters, the mother's story dropped out and it became the story of the son. It includes a few attempts by him to find his mother, but otherwise was the biography of a man--and not an especially interesting biography.  I apologize to his friends and lovers but it's really the author who ought to apologize.  Any person--any where, any how--is intrinsically interesting, and so the failure of the author to interest me in this man is totally his blame and no reflection on the subject.

After I skimmed the last three-quarters to get to the pitifully inadequately wrapup at the end, I threw the book aside in anger.  (Figuratively; library book) And now I find this review 

 by a person who knew the man personally and says that the dialog was mostly a lot of made-up crap and the picture of the subject was distorted and even the facts were skewed to suit the purpose of the author.  The theory is that the author was trying to write a sensational story of a "tortured soul" and didn't mind making up junk to do so.

It's not just her, either.  Other people who read the book without knowing Michael Hess described it as "
poorly written," or, "a fantastic true story which he totally wastes."

Apparently the movie is unforgettable.  But the but is eminently avoidable.  Avoid it.