How could she stand being cold for two months?!?!

Alone in Antarctica
by Felicity Aston

Before I start saying wonderful things about this, let me first blast the publisher. I read an American edition with the imprint 'Counterpoint Berkeley', so I don't know if they're to blame or it is the UK publisher, Summersdale Publishers Ltd. Whoever was to blame, here's what they did:
    NO MAP
This is a travel book and there's NO MAP.  The continent of Antarctica has few mappable features--it wouldn't have needed to be a complicated map.  A simple line drawing would have been better than  nothing; better yet would have been a contour map showing the temperature gradients and the sastrugi zones and the crevass areas. But no map at all? Not acceptable.

It had color pictures so they weren't sparing the expense.  I don't get it.

I'd followed along with her journey via NPR, so I knew what she'd planned--to ski alone across Antarctica, from the Ross Ice Shelf to the south pole, then across to the Hercules Inlet. As the seagull flies (theoretically, of course, since they don't fly in the interior of Antarctica), she took the shortest route across the continent. But the zig-zag route came up to 1700 kilometers. (1000 miles to me)

NPR aired her daily reports via satellite phone, but the brief blurps told little of the trials of courage she faced. Her occasional mental breakdowns; her love affair with the sun; her amazing freaking will to endure and why the heck she decided to do such a thing in the first place--that's the subject of this book. She decided to sum up the experience with this:
 
Keep getting out of the tent.
If I can do that, each and every day, no matter the challenge, who knows where the next day will take me.  

Why does everybody do "years"?

My Kitchen Year
by Ruth Reichl

More of a cookbook than I'd been led to believe. It was probably a pretty good cookbook but that wasn't what I was reading it for--I wanted the anecdotes and stories of her life after Gourmet.  She's a good writer and I heartily enjoyed Garlic and Sapphires.  Tender At the Bone, not so much. And this one, not much at all.  I'll try again at least once more.

I have to admit it had gorgeous pictures and thoughtful poetry. It would make a great gift book.  And if the person you're gifting just happens to like cooking, more the better.

Wish I hadn't bothered finishing this

I shouldn't say anything, really I shouldn't. Okay, if you insist.

As much as you can dislike a book and still finish it, I did. But I couldn't stop reading--doesn't that say something good?  It's a wild and wacky story of a lawyer or legal assistant or something who got stuck with a lawsuit investigation or something and ended up meeting a sweet old lady with a cat. At some other point she woke up covered with grape cool-aid, in bed with her hot landlord. It seemed to be trying to be funny, but sadly, I didn't get the jokes.

Sorry not to like it--my requirements for a good mystery are character development, plot, and a protagonist who really gets into the mystery instead of just kicking around aimlessly happening upon clues.  If it had any of that, I'd have tried harder to laugh.

Halfway good

Wildflower

At first I enjoyed Drew Barrymore's memoir because it reminded me of some of my young friends. The way she spoke, her approach to life--it hit a familiar note and made me nostalgic.  When that experience wore off, I kept on listening because certain parts were almost unbearably insightful, like her descriptions of living in an apartment with her mother and her absent relationship with her grandfather. Her deep friendships with Stephen Spielburg and Adam Sandler were funny AND touching.

But I'm sorry to say that a good bit of the rest isn't anything special for the general reader. Letters to one's children are sweet and touching--they need to be written and they need to be preserved and hers are great examples of the genre...but did they need to be published?

Oh, well. She warned me at the beginning. it's not a typical memoir.

Kept trying; should have given up

The Sweetheart of Prosper County
by Jill S. Alexander

Strictly for the younger set, say, through age 12. For the older reader, the story was lost in the lesson. A lot of lesson.  It was like a good writer was being forced to fit a certain market in order to be published, so she made sure to have bad things happen to the bad people while the good people learned to live with their narrow, self-imposed morality. I think she's capable of better things, but this one didn't leave me smiling.

I liked Lewis and Maribelle and the Cajun guy even though they didn't get any character development. They were just tools for teaching. I might have liked the Mom, but she preferred to duck her head down and be a good little woman instead of making a stand that might have saved a kid's life.  She had a chance--I held my breath--she ignored it.   (I'm referring to Dean; she could have filed a lawsuit instead of muttering a "not my problem" epitaph and turning aside.)

And worst of all was the total lack of spine development in the heroine. She ended up moseying along her mousy way.  The same old coping strategies that failed to work in the beginning suddenly and miraculously started to work--thanks to her friends. She never made an effort to make the friends, but they just happened to come along and save her. Like a certain 'invisible' friend who will eventually solve all your problems.

I kept expecting to like it and trying hard, but never did. Sorry.

Never did figure out that title

Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table

by Ruth Reichl

Sometimes a person's experiences while growing up don't seem to reflect on the person they became. Or possibly--just possibly--they do--but the transition is lost in the telling. So with this book.

After reading Garlic and Sapphires I really wanted to know how such an interesting and unique person as Ruth Reichl came to be, but this book didn't get me there.  Apparently I was looking for a different story: how she became a writer. I was also curious about how she managed her mother and daddy issues--nope.  What this book did tell was the story of how she learned to cook and to eat--not inconsequential for a person whose life is so intricately involved with cooking and eating.

Enjoyable, fun, and light.

Not a well thought out review, darn me.

The Longest Race:

A Lifelong Runner, an Iconic Ultramarathon, and the Case for Human Endurance

by Ed Ayres

 

 

Running the JFK 100-mile race and reflecting on our past and our future. Very engaging reading. The future part isn't all that depressing--it's realistic and it makes you think. But he's still out there running...and that says it all.

I'm sorry not to write more but I was reading in a hurry which is a really stupid way to read. I should try it again sometime when it's not overdue at the library.