Too Busy to Blog!

But there is always time to HOP!

It has been a while since I participated in the Book Blogger Hop. Jennifer has added a new "question of the week" feature since I last hopped.

This week's question is: "Who is your favorite new-to-you author so far this year?"

My answer is A. J. Cronin.  That's kind of a funny answer, since Cronin published his first novel in 1931 and his last in 1978. So he is definitely not a new author -- just new to me.  I read Three Loves this February and reviewed it here. I enjoyed it so much that I added Cronin to my list of authors whose works I plan to read in their entirety, or as close to it as I can manage.

Happy Hopping!

Teaser Tuesday: The Valley of the Dolls

"Love is companionship, having friends in common, the same interests.  Sex is the connotation you are placing on love, and let me tell you, young lady, that if and when it does exist, it dies very quickly after marriage -- or as soon as the girl learns what it's all about."

-- Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann.

Ha! 

You see the set up -- the stuffy New England mom is teaching her college-aged daughter the ways of the world. Of course, the daughter is going to head off to New York City and see if she can't prove her mom wrong.

 

I am reading this for the Birth Year Reading Challenge hosted by the Hotchpot Cafe. I've always secretly wanted to.

 

 

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

 

Mailbox Monday

I have to cheat a little on Mailbox Monday this week because no books came into my house last week -- at least not to stay. But this is the last week Marcia -- who invented Mailbox Monday and made it so much fun -- is hosting this popular weekly event, so I didn't want to miss out.  I did get three audio books from the library that will have to count. I have started two of them already -- one in the car, the other on my iPod.

Starting in August, Mailbox Monday will rotate hosts. Read the details here. I'll be hosting in January 2011 -- woo hoo!

Down River by John Hart (Edgar winner, so this counts as entertainment and a chance to scratch something off one of my lists --  I'm almost half-way through this one on my iPod.)



The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville (Orange winner -- another list opportunity; I am halfway through this one in the car)



The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson (I want to read these in order, so this one will have to sit in my iTunes library until my hold on the first one comes in)

Review of the Day: Deaf Sentence

David Lodge’s fourteenth novel, Deaf Sentence, takes up similar themes from his earlier campus novels, this time from the perspective of retired professor of linguistics, Desmond Bates, who finds himself at loss now that his job has gone the way of his hearing. The story is told through Desmond’s journal, which he has taken up as a way to sort through his conflicting feelings about his deafness and his retirement.

The academic rivalry, potential for mischief with graduate students, strained marital relations, musings on religion or its alternatives, and bookish references are all there, although mellowed some with Desmond’s years. The kinky – maybe crazy – come-ons of an American Phd. candidate are more panic-inducing than titillating for Desmond. He is filled with “late-flowering lust” for his wife, although sometimes incapable of following through. Caring for his 89-year-old father leads to general deliberations on aging and mortality. And through it all, Desmond fumbles and fiddles with his hearing aids, mis-understands conversations, and ponders the science and art of deafness, all to great comic effect.

After starting off as hearing-impaired slapstick, Deaf Sentence ends on a more somber, contemplative note. But throughout, the book is an enjoyable ramble with one of Britain’s great novelists.

OTHER REVIEWS

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

Opening Sentence of the Day: Peaceful Places, Los Angeles

"Tranquility isn't the first word that comes to mind when most of us think of life in Los Angeles, especially these days."

  -- Peaceful Places, Los Angeles by Laura Randall.

 I actually already reviewed this one (here), so my posts are switcherooed.



NOTE

Book Beginnings on Fridays is a Friday fun "opening sentence" event hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Post the opening sentence of the book(s) you started this week and see what other books people have going.

Review of the Day: Peaceful Places Los Angeles

 

In Peaceful Places, Los Angeles, Laura Randall explores “110 Tranquil Sites in the City of Angles and Neighboring Communities,” providing descriptions, photos, and useful information for those seeking serene respite in a megalopolis known for glitz and traffic.

The sites are organized alphabetically, from Amir’s Garden in Griffith Park (Hollywood) to the Zona Rosa Caffe (Pasadena), and ranked with three stars (“heavenly anytime”), two stars (“almost always sublime”), or one star (peacefulness limited to certain designated times). Randall also offers two alternate “paths” for finding the sites – by category and by geographic area (sort of like a Zagat guide to tranquility).

The sites fall into several categories: enchanting walks, historic sites, museums and galleries, parks and gardens, quiet tables, reading rooms, spiritual enclaves and others. Randall’ s descriptions are detailed and evocative. She has a breezy style that is like getting information from a well-informed friend.

This book is a treasure for Los Angeles residents looking to explore the quieter corners of their city. It is also a must-read guide for visitors who want a break from the hectic bustle of the typical trip to southern California.

NOTE

This is one of the books I got from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program. I am not quite caught up on my Early Reviewer list, but I am working on it.

OTHER REVIEWS

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

Teaser Tuesday: Small Island

"A black man was running from four whites while several more black men chased them.  The ground tremored under their big boots."


--  Small Island by Andrea Levy.

I am back to reading Small Island, after having been distracted by Up in the Old Hotel for a couple of weeks. This one was slow for me to get into, but now that I am in, I don't want to leave. Great book!

This teaser is from a pivotal scene in which the hero, Gilbert Joseph, a British RAF volunteer from Jamaica stationed in England during WWII, finds himself in the middle of a Jim Crow-style standoff with American GIs in a movie theater, trying to watch Gone With the Wind.


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

Mailbox Monday

It was a busy book week for me. A couple even came in my mailbox, in time for Mailbox Monday.

Even more exciting for my book-consuming ways, after the World's Oldest iPod finally conked out, I got a new iPod in the mail. I have a hard time conceptualizing how this small device can actually be "bigger" than my laptop, but I was thrilled that (thanks to storing my iTunes library on an external hard drive) I was able to load 3,728 songs, 4557 photos, and all 73 of my stored-up audiobooks onto this tiny little thing.  It still has as more empty space on it than my original iPod had space.

So no more having to pick which precious few audiobooks got loaded onto the iPod. What book security! To have 73 books there at my fingertips wherever I go.

As for book-books, here's the list:

Food Lover's Guide to Portland by Liz Crain (I have been waiting for this ever since I interviewed Liz, here)



Peaceful Places Los Angeles: 110 Tranquil Sites in the City of Angels and Neighboring Communities by Laura Randall (from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program)



Enduring Love by Ian McEwan



How to be Good by Nick Hornby



Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld (this has guilty pleasure written all over it)

Review of the Day: Up in the Old Hotel

Up in the Old Hotel is a compilation of essays and short stories that Joseph Mitchell wrote for The New Yorker from the 1930s to the 1960s. Most were published as collections before, as McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon, Old Mr. Flood, The Bottom of the Harbor, and Joe Gould’s Secret. Five essays and two short stories were added to the McSorley’s section in this book.

With the exception of three fictional stories set in the Deep South of Mitchell’s youth, Mitchell wrote about colorful characters in and around New York City. He wrote about bar owners, street preachers, gypsies, bohemians, fish mongers, circus freaks, game wardens, shad fishermen, and anyone else he came to know. He could make anyone’s story fascinating.

And that is what makes Up in the Old Hotel such a terrific book – every story is mesmerizingly interesting. It makes no difference if the subject is a kook running his own museum in a brownstone basement or oyster harvesting around Manhattan Island, Mitchell holds the reader’s attention. The stories flow off the page with no distraction from the style of the writing – it is like the stories are absorbed whole instead of word-by-word.

Up in the Old Hotel deserves its spot on any Must Read list. It is a book to leave on the nightstand permanently, as every piece in it could be read over and over again.

OTHER REVIEWS

(If you would like your review of this or any of Joseph Mitchell's books listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)

NOTES

My friend Bob from Art Scatter left this note about Mitchell:

This book is just great, great personal journalism, and it brings back the flavor of a New York that will never be again. Mitchell was a staff writer for The New Yorker who spent the last 20 years or so of his life going to the office faithfully every day -- the routine became a legend at the magazine -- but, after an extraordinarily prolific career, never wrote another word. He'd simply written himself out.

Announcements!

First: the July issue of the Internet Review of Books is up now in time to impart some summer reading inspiration.  There are ten non-fiction reviews, including my review of Lunatic Express, a manageable three fiction reviews, two poetry reviews, and the always popular "Brief Reviews" section, along with a fun new "photos of libraries" feature.

Please visit the IRB. And, if interested, get involved! They are looking for volunteers and there are other ways to support the IRB.

Second: I am pleased to report that Laura at Musings has completed the Battle of the Prizes, American Version, Challenge! Here are links to her three challenge reviews, Tinkers, Let the Great World Spin, and Morte d'Urban.  Thanks for taking part Laura!

So far, three participants have completed this challenge. In addition to Laura at Musings, chaotic compendiums and 100 Books. 100 Journeys are also finished. Much to my shame as the host, I haven't even started!

The challenge goes until January 31, 2011, so there is still time to sign up.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Valley of the Dolls

"The temperature hit ninety degrees the day she arrived."

-- Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann.

I've always half wanted to read this book. Now I have an excuse because it was published the year I was born. I will read it and earn another candle in the Birth Year Reading Challenge hosted by the Hotchpot Cafe.


NOTE

Book Beginnings on Fridays is a Friday fun "opening sentence" event hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Post the opening sentence of the book(s) you started this week and see what other books people have going.

Hot!

This week's Booking Through Thursday question asks about "hot reading."  Specifically:

Well, folks, I don’t know about where you are, but right here, it’s HOT.
So … when you think about “hot reading,” what does that make you think of? Beach reading? Steamy romances? Books that take place in hot climates? Or cold ones?

I used to associate hot summer weather with reading long, fluffy novels with plenty of romance, empire building, and inter-generational conflict -- The Shell Seekers, for example, or Kane and Able. But once I started working, summer was no longer a special time to lollygag by the pool or on the back porch with a cool drink and a hot book.  Summer is just three more months in the office.

I am going to try this year to recreate those enjoyable summer reading experiences. I just got a copy of Valley of the Dolls. Now all I need is a sun hat and a G&T. 

Review of the Day: Fer-de-Lance

Fer-de-Lance is Rex Stout's first Nero Wolfe mystery and everything it is cracked up to be. I am torn between being appalled at myself for not reading the entire series earlier and giddy that I have the whole series to look forward to.

This first mystery introduces the portly genius and establishes him as an orchard-growing, beer-drinking eccentric who stays inside his New York brownstone while his intrepid sidekick, Archie Goodwin, does the legwork.  Stout creates intriguing context for the duo with several references to prior cases and earlier fame.

In this case, Wolfe is asked to find a missing Italian immigrant and ends up solving the murder of a golf-playing college president.  Throughout, Wolfe's somewhat pompous self-aggrandizement is balanced by Goodwin's wise-cracking narration.  The book is funny and clever and the plot itself is even pretty good, in a vintage, 1934 kind of way.

I am looking forward to the other 46 Nero Wolfe novels. I see another list coming on . . .

OTHER REVIEWS

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

Teaser Tuesday: Lunatic Express

"Suddenly the power came on, the dim lights in the hall and my couchette revealing a world of dirt.  My mattress was so stained it looked like a bullet riddled soldier had died on it."

--What is good about Lunatic Express: Discovering the World . . . via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes by Carl Hoffman: vivid descriptions of traveling in the developing world, like this scene on a train in Africa.

"It was a cheap hotel -- thirty dollars -- but it seemed the most luxurious experience I could ever imagine. Yet a part of me wondered, imagining Ly in a noisy, cluttered home amid too many brothers and sisters and uncles and aunts, who was happier."

-- What is not so good about Lunatic Express: self pitying musings that make a mockery of the difficult conditions in which the people he meets actually live, like this one about an adult professional he met on that same train in Africa. Which one of them is "happier"? Give me a break. That's not a particularly relevant inquiry. 

I just finished this book to review for the Internet Review of Books. Overall, I liked it quite a lot, despite lingering a bit much on his mid-life crisis.

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

Mailbox Monday

There is only one book on my Mailbox Monday list, but I really like it. I spent a big hunk of Saturday afternoon flipping through it.

Only the Best: A Celebration of Gift Giving in America by Stuart E. Jacobson (not a good picture):



This is a coffee table book with lots of pictures. It is all little stories about real presents that famous people gave or received. I love it!

I found it at a church rummage sale and thought that it was brand new. It is in pristine condition. But it was published in 1985.

Opening Sentence of the Day: A Sudden Country

"He carried his girl tied to his front, the trapsack on his back, the rifle balanced like a yoke along his shoulders."

-- A Sudden Country by Karen Fisher.

I don't know about this one. I am halfway through it and I still don't really care about the story or the people. I'm interested enough to finish, but I find myself drifting some. Maybe it is the whole pioneer thing. Having grown up in Nebraska and Oregon, maybe I have had my fill of stories about wagon trains on the Oregon Trail.

This is one of the books I got when I was enrolled in The Book Passage First Editions Club. So I have a nice hardback first edition, signed by the author. I want to like it. I really do.

Guest Review: Nurture Shock

Here is a guest review from a lady lawyer friend of mine who is also busy raising three young boys. Thanks Heather!



I just finished reading a great new book that distills some emerging science regarding child development and turns some “conventional wisdom” on its head. In particular I loved the chapter on a new preschool/kindergarten program called “Tools of the Mind” which teaches kids all the usual stuff plus self-control/self-direction and decision making, which turns out to be very important to later academic success – at least as much as raw native intellect. And it can be learned in a preschool or kindy classroom by kids from all kinds of backgrounds, ability levels, and special needs. It is worth reading for anyone looking for good behavior management techniques. The basic techniques can easily be incorporated into any classroom or home environment.

Get thee a copy of: Nurture Shock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman. Your library should have a copy. About 1/3 of the book is end notes, so it is a shorter read than it appears to be at first glance and I’m telling you, you’ll have a hard time putting it down. You might even learn a thing or two about yourself.

Happy summer reading! Sincerely, Heather

OTHER REVIEWS

Caroline Bookbinder

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

Opening Sentence of the Day: Lunatic Express

"Outside of Pul-I-Khumri, the bus shuddered to a halt on the dusty roadside and couldn't be restarted."

-- Lunatic Express: Discovering the World . . . via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes by Carl Hoffman.

I am reading this to review for the Internet Review of Books.  Although I had some mixed feelings from the description of it, I am tearing right through it. I roll my eyes sometimes at Hoffman's travel-induced navel gazing, and haven't quite figured out what his message is -- what his take away point is going to be. But some of the descriptions of the countries he travels through and his harrowing means of travel are riveting.


NOTE

Book Beginnings on Fridays is a Friday fun "opening sentence" event hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Post the opening sentence of the book(s) you started this week and see what other books people have going.

Review: Angler Management

Angler Management: The Day I Died While Fly Fishing and Other Essays by Jack Ohman.

Angler Management is cartoonist Jack Ohman’s first book of essays and shows that Ohman is as funny with words as he is with pictures.

In this collection, Ohman discusses the obsession that is fly fishing, writing about the compulsive collecting of gear, the frustration of trying to talk to a fly fisherman (even if you are one yourself), the secrecy of fishing spots, the aggravating hobby of tying your own flies (or even more loony, building your own rods), and other crazy-making aspects of what Tom Brokaw calls the “high church” of fishing.

Most of the essays cover general fly fishing topics. However, as Ohman is a self-described “delusional humorist with a fatal streak of nostalgia,” the best pieces are those involving his own experiences and memories, including his reminiscences on his boyhood stream, the Kinnikinnick in Wisconsin, and his story of “the day I died while fly fishing” on Kelly Creek in Idaho.  Even little asides such as this one in an essay on high-tech fishing equipment bring personality to the book:

I was raised by a PhD research scientist, and I can tell you firsthand that he viewed liberal arts majors as ethereal slacker stoners with no real understanding of how the world works, let alone how to turn on a Bunsen burner or create penicillin in a petri dish (when I was a child, my dad once gave me some penicillin that he personally created -- I can't even make a Manhattan without consulting the Internet). One way that we've figured out how to make ourselves feel, well, more scientific, is to inject science into art -- specifically, the art of fly fishing.

Anglers and non-anglers alike will get a chuckle out of Angler Management, but it is definitely aimed at fellow enthusiasts and their co-dependents. It is too late to recommend it for Father’s Day this year, but it would be worth stashing away a few copies for the fly fishermen on your Christmas list.

OTHER REVIEWS

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

Teaser Tuesday: Up in the Old Hotel

From a list of reasons why 93-year-old Mr. Flood is "irreconcilable" to death:

"Third, he is a diet theorist -- he calls himself a seafoodetarian -- and feels obliged  to reach a spectacular age in order to prove his theory.  He is convinced that the eating of meat and vegetables shortens life and he maintains that the only sensible food for man, particularly for a man who wants to hit a hundred and fifteen, is fish."

-- From "Old Mr. Flood" in Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell.

I was so pleased that my copy of Up in the Old Hotel turned up in the lost-and-found at the gym that I have set aside Small Island and gone back to Mitchell's essays and short stories about New York.

This teaser is from one of three three stories about the fictional Mr. Flood, a composite character of Mitchell's invention based on the curmudgeons who liked to hang around the Fulton Fish Market.  Like the essays in the book, the Mr. Flood stories are rich, colorful accounts of New York life in the 1930s and '40s -- mostly centered around the Fulton Market and the people involved in the fishing trade.

This is now one of my all-time favorite books. I wish I had read it years and years ago so I could be re-reading it now.



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

Mailbox Monday

It looked like I was going to have an empty mailbox this holiday weekend. But then I ran across an estate sale late yesterday afternoon -- on Independence Day! -- while I was heading out to get the fried chicken for our 4th of July picnic.  So it is another long list for Mailbox Monday.

First, a couple of fancy books:

The Prado by Santiago Alcolea Blanch (the picture doesn't do it justice, because it is a beautiful coffee table book in perfect condition -- really lovely, and the closest I'll get to the real thing in the foreseeable future)



Charles II by Antonia Fraser (another coffee table edition full of pictures)



Then, some fun stuff:

I got the first eight volumes of a nine-volume, Book Club edition of the Sherlock Holmes books. Since I've been in a vintage mystery mood lately, I thought I could start at the source. Of course, now I want to find the ninth volume.

I found several P. D. James books. I recently read her first Adam Dalgliesh mystery, Cover Her Face, and it made me want to work my way through the series. I picked up A Taste for Death, Devices & Desires, A Certain Justice,

Happy Independence Day!

Opening Sentence of the Day: Fer-de-Lance

There was no reason why I shouldn't have been sent for the beer that day, for the last ends of the Fairmont National Bank case had been gathered in the week before and there was nothing for me to do but errands, and Wolfe never hesitated about running me down to Murray Street for a can of shoe-polish if he happened to need one.

-- Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout.

This is a really great first sentence because it establishes that there are at least three characters in Nero Wolfe's world -- Wolfe, the narrator, and whoever was sent for the beer -- that there is some history as detectives, even though this is the very first Nero Wolfe novel, and they drink beer. I love it.

I have been on a classic mystery series jag for awhile. I recently started Dorthy L. Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey series, P. D. James's Adam Dalgliesh series, and now Rex Stout's famous Nero Wolfe series. I cannot believe that I have never read any of these before. But my dereliction means I can start at the beginning of each series and read them in order.



NOTE

Book Beginnings on Fridays is a Friday fun "opening sentence" event hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Post the opening sentence of the book(s) you started this week and see what other books people have going.