Opening Sentence of the Day: Real Women, Real Wisdom

In my 61 years on this planet I have come to accept that almost everything can change.

-- from the Introduction to Real Women, Real Wisdom: A Journey into the Feminine Soul by Maureen Hovenkotter, author and editor.

We all belong to someone, or the Great Someone, but we often forget.

-- from "Motherhood and Daughterhood: Love and Goodbye" by Barbara Underwood Scharff, the first essay in the collection.
I only just started the book, but I had the opportunity to meet with many of the women who's essays are published in the collection.  They are a terrific and inspiring group of women and I am very much looking forward to learning their stories.

Maureen Hovenkotter and some of the authors will be at Wordstock in Portland next week.  Stop by to meet them.

THE BOOK: In Real Women Real Wisdom, 17 ordinary yet extraordinary women—most in their 50s and 60s—reflect on the challenges, mysteries and ultimately the triumphs in their lives. Their stories tell of the transformative experiences of loss, suffering, life-threatening illness, recovery, and forgiveness, as well as the quiet moments of reflection that have led to their personal encounters with the Divine. The journeys they share hold great wisdom, hope and inspiration for all who read about them. (Publisher's description.)

THE AUTHOR/EDITOR: Maureen Hovenkotter is one of the 17 authors of the book and the editor of the collection.  She has written about faith and spiritual matters for a number of publications, including The Oregonian, The National Catholic Reporter, St. Anthony Messenger and The Catholic Sentinel. In the fall of 2003, her husband of 33 years was killed in an accident. She wrote about that experience and the subsequent pilgrimage journey to discover herself in 42 States of Grace: A Woman’s Journey (reviewed by me here). She shares her reflections on life and spirituality in her blog, Travelin' with Charlie. The mother of two adult children and grandmother of one, she lives outside of Portland with her golden retriever, Charlie. She is currently enrolled in a formation program to become certified as a spiritual director.

A Few More Pages hosts Book Beginnings every Friday.  The event is open for the entire week.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Girl From the South

Gillon lay in bed with her eyes closed.

-- Girl From the South by Joanna Trollope.

I only reacently started reading Trollope's books and am hooked. This one is particularly interesting because it is split between London and Charleston, South Carolina.

My one, idiosyncratic, gripe is the main character's name -- Gillon.  She is named after a famous street in Charleston. My problem is that I am listening to the audiobook and my name is Gilion (with a hard G and rhymes with "million"). Her name sounds like a very common and, to my ear, unattractive mispronunciation of my own name, causing a tiny, involuntary wince every time I hear it.

Teaser Tuesday: Carry Yourself Back to Me

Cold fog quiets the birds and shifts like hot steam above Lake Windsor to the east.  Minutes earlier hailstones sliced past Annie's bedroom window and skipped off the ground like pearls on concrete, escaping in all directions.

-- Carry Yourself Back to Me by Deborah Reed.

This is my second Teaser Tuesday from this book because I am savoring it. I love it. Annie is a singer-songwriter in central Florida. Her brother is in jail, charged with murder.  Her ex-lover with a new, pregnant wife just showed up on her porch.  Bad memories from her past are resurfacing. This is a great story!

Here is some of the buzz: The author was interviewed om tv yesterday. The book got a Publisher's Weekly review.  It is this month's choice for the From Left to Write Book Club. Library Journal praised the book and called Reed "an author to watch." And there is a sweet country song tie-in by Brush Prairie.

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

Mailbox Monday and Giveaway Winner

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

The wonderful Amused by Books is hosting in September. Please visit!

I got one book last week and am also announcing the winner of last week's giveaway.

GIVEAWAY WINNER

Laurel-Rain Snow, the author of several delightful blogs, including Rainy Days and Mondays, as well as her own novels, won a copy of Real Women, Real Wisdom: A Journey into the Feminine Soul by Maureen Hovenkotter, author and editor.

This is a "leap-frog" giveaway, so LRS will also have the opportunity to host her own giveaway for another copy.  And, contrary to what I wrote in the giveaway post, these are final editions, not ARCs. 

THE BOOK: In Real Women Real Wisdom, 17 ordinary yet extraordinary women—most in their 50s and 60s—reflect on the challenges, mysteries and ultimately the triumphs in their lives. Their stories tell of the transformative experiences of loss, suffering, life-threatening illness, recovery, and forgiveness, as well as the quiet moments of reflection that have led to their personal encounters with the Divine. The journeys they share hold great wisdom, hope and inspiration for all who read about them. (Publisher's description.)

THE AUTHOR/EDITOR: Maureen Hovenkotter is one of the 17 authors of the book and the editor of the collection.  She has written about faith and spiritual matters for a number of publications, including The Oregonian, The National Catholic Reporter, St. Anthony Messenger and The Catholic Sentinel. In the fall of 2003, her husband of 33 years was killed in an accident. She wrote about that experience and the subsequent pilgrimage journey to discover herself in 42 States of Grace: A Woman’s Journey (reviewed by me here). She shares her reflections on life and spirituality in her blog, Travelin' with Charlie. The mother of two adult children and grandmother of one, she lives outside of Portland with her golden retriever, Charlie. She is currently enrolled in a formation program to become certified as a spiritual director.

THANKS: Thanks go to Maureen Hovenkotter and Grey Wing Press for providing two copies for this giveaway.

THIS WEEK'S MAILBOX

I got a copy of the darling Cakespy cookbook: Cakespy Presents Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life by Jessie Oleson. 

Oleson is the author of the irresistible CakeSpy blog and the book is chock full of recipes, photos, and Oleson's adorable illustrations. 

This has major Christmas gift potential.

State of the Blog: Part Three, the Challenges

Fall is in the air! I am running out of time to finish my challenges.

To keep track of my reading for the year, I like to do quarterly blog assessment posts.  This one takes a look at the challenges I'm working on in 2011. The first part addressed my lists. Part Two dealt with my author lists.

NOTE: If you are working on any of these same challenges, please leave a comment here on on my main challenge post. I would like to read your main challenge pages and any reviews.

CHALLENGES HOSTED BY ROSE CITY READER

I am hosting the two Battle of the Prizes Challenges again in 2011. The challenges run from February 1, 2011 to January 31, 2012.



2011 Battle of the Prizes: American Version

 

Like in past years, this challenge pits National Book Award winners against Pulitzer Prize winners. There are two ways to participate -- either read one book that won the Pulitzer Prize, one that won the National Book Award, and one that won both; or read two Pulizer winners and two National winners.

I'm going with the 4-book option this year.  I've read one of each so far:

• Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler, for one of my Pulitzer choices (reviewed here);
• Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, for one of my National Choices (reviewed here).

Possible National Award winners for my second choice:

1. The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck
2. Them by Joyce Carol Oates
3. Morte d'Urban by J.F. Powers
4. The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams (from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program, so I could scratch it off two lists)

 Possible Pulitzer winners for my second choice:

1. One of Ours by Willa Cather
2. Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis

2011 Battle of the Prizes: British Version

Just as in 2010, this challenge is to read books that won the Man Booker Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.  This has the same set up -- either read one winner of each prize and a double-dipper, or read two of each.

I will have to go with the 4-book option, because I've read all three of the double-dippers. So far, I've read:

• Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel for a Booker choice (reviewed here);
• Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd for a Black choice (reviewed here).

Other possible Booker picks are:

1. How Late it Was, How Late by James Kelman 
2. Shindler's List by Thomas Keneally

Other possible James Tait Black picks are:

1. The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch
2. White Teeth by Zadie Smith

2011 CHALLENGES I AM PARTICIPATING IN

The challenge titles link to my main challenge posts.

Foodie's Reading Challenge

Margot at Joyfully Retired is hosting a challenge for 2011 that I am very excited about: The Foodie's Reading Challenge!

I signed up at the "Bon Vivant" level to read four to six books.  I've already read four, and will probably read some more before the end of the year. I am on a Food Freedom kick, so food books are stacking up on my nightstand.

So far, I've read:

1. The Food of France by Waverley Root (reviewed here)
2. Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front by Joel Salatin (reviewed here)
3. American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields by Rowan Jacobsen (reviewed here)
4. The Onmivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan (which I haven't reviewed yet, but discussed here)

Others in the running include (in no particular order):

• The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America's Emerging Battle Over Food Rights by David E. Gumpert
• James Beard on Food Delights and Prejudices by James Beard
• On the Town in New York by Michael Batterberry
• Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family by Patricia Volk
• The Tuscan Year: Life and Food in an Italian Valley by Elizabeth Romer
• Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table by Ruth Reichl
• Alice Waters and Chez Panisse by Thomas McNamee
• Epicurean Delight: The Life and Times of James Beard by Evan Jones
• American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields by Rowan Jacobsen
• Vie De France: Sharing Food, Friendship and a Kitchen in the Lorie Valle by James Haller
• French Spirits: A House, a Village, and a Love Affair in Burgundy by Jeffrey Greene
• A Cordiall Water by M. F. K. Fisher
• The Feasting Season by Nancy Coons
• Dumas on Food: Selections from Le Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine by Alexandre Dumas

And it might be a good idea to include this one:

French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating For Pleasure by Mireille Guiliano

Chunkster Reading Challenge 

 

Wendy at caribousmom is hosting this fun challenge again this year.  The challenge sign-up post is here.

Since I didn't reach my chunkster goal in 2010, I am scaling down a bit in 2011 and signing up for the "Chubby Chunkster" level this year.  That means reading four books over 450 pages long.

So far, I've only read one chunkster with my eyes. I've read a couple more with my ears, but audiobooks don't count -- the tactility of big fat books is a main point of the challenge.

So far, I overlapped with the Foodie challenge on The Food of France by Waverley Root (reviewed here), is quite the Chunkster.

I'm still planning on Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.  That's my "big book" for 2011.  I don't know which others will strike my fancy.

The Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge

The Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge is hosted by My Reader's Block.  The goal is to read mysteries written before 1960.  I signed up at the "In a Murderous Mood" level with the goal of reading four to six books, by at least two different authors, by the end of the year.

So far, I have read six, but I only reviewed one. So I have completed the challenge, but in a pretty half-assed way.

1. A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthor Conan Doyle
2. The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
3. The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout
4. Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers (reviewed here)
5. The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie
6. Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers 

Birth Year Reading Challenge 2011

I am participating in this challenge, but I keep forgetting to put up a post.  Or to read the books.

But I finally got my hands on a copy of The Anti-Death League by Kingsley Amis (on the Burgess list), so I am going to get at least one candle.

Any ideas for other books published in 1966?

International Anita Brookner Day

I had good intentions for participating in International Anita Brookner Day.  I finished my one book, A Friend From England, but I didn't review it. I hope that Thomas at My Porch hosts the challenge again next year so I can have a second chance.

State of the Blog, Part Two: The Authors

 
Fall is in the air and I am filled with all that back-to-school enthusiasm I always get this time of year, even though my school days are far behind me.

To keep track of my reading for the year, I like to check in and see what kind of progress I've made on my lists.  There's no point in being a compulsive "list" reader if you don't play with the lists on occasion.

This is the second of my quarterly blog assessment posts.  This one takes a look at my author lists over in the right-hand column. The first part addressed my lists. Part Three will deal with the challenges I joined this year.

NOTE: If you are systematically reading the books of any of these authors, please leave a comment here or on the post for the author's list (click on the title below or in the right-hand column) and leave a link to any related post. I will add the links on the author's list post.

I recently split my author list into two parts: General favorites and Mystery favorites.  See here for discussion.

So far in 2011, I've read 29 books by my favorite authors.  As soon as I make some progress on my Guilt List, I plan to get back to my old friends.  And probably add some new names to my lists.

GENERAL FAVORITES

Kingsley Amis

The Crime of the Century

I plan to read The Anti-Death League (a Burgess favorite) for the Birth Year Reading Challenge.

Maeve Binchy

Evening Class (1996)

William Boyd

Brazzaville Beach (reviewed here; read for my 2011 Battle of the Prizes, British Version, challenge)

Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928-1960 (reviewed here)

Elinor Lipman

Then She Found Me

Philip Roth

The Human Stain (reviewed here)

C. P. Snow

George Passant (originally titled Strangers and Brothers) (reviewed here)

Anne Tyler

Breathing Lessons (reviewed here; read for my 2011 Battle of the Prizes, American Version challenge)

John Updike

Beck: A Book (reviewed here)

P. G. Wodehouse

The Indiscretions of Archie

MYSTERY FAVORITES

Kate Atkinson

When Will There Be Good News?
Started Early, Took My Dog (reviewed here)

Lee Child

Gone Tomorrow

Dick Francis

10 Lb. Penalty
Bolt
Banker (reviewed here)
Knockdown
Break In

P. D. James

A Mind to Murder
Unnatural Causes

Donna Leon

Death in a Strange Country

John Lescroart

A Plague of Secrets (reviewed here)

Helen MacInnes

The Hidden Target

Ian Rankin

Strip Jack
Knots and Crosses
Hide and Seek

Dorothy L. Sayers

Clouds of Witness (reviewed here)
Unnatural Death 

Julia Spencer-Fleming

One Was a Soldier (2009) (reviewed here)

State of the Blog, Part One: The Lists

Today is the first day of autumn.  Although it is actually warm and sunny here in Portland, fall is in the air.  Time for me to check in and see what kind of progress I've made on my lists and panic because the end of the year is approaching faster than I can read. 

This is the first of my quarterly blog assessment posts.  This first part addresses the book lists. Part Two, coming soon, will take a look at the author lists.  Part Three will deal with the challenges I joined this year.

My book lists are over in the right-side column. These are now divided into Prize Winners and "Must Reads" and include lists of books I have read or intend to read for some reason or another. Also in the right-side column are lists of my favorite authors. I add to these lists of lists from time to time.

NOTE: If you are working on any of these lists, please leave a comment here or on the post for the list (click on the title below or in the right-hand column) and leave a link to any related post. I will add the links on the list post. 


So far in 2011, I've read 34 books from my book lists. 

THE PRIZE WINNERS

COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR

Books read in 2011: none so far.

EDGAR AWARD

Books read in 2011: The Chatham School Affair by Thomas H. Cook (reviewed here).

JAMES TAIT BLACK MEMORIAL PRIZE

Books read in 2011:

• G by John Berger (reviewed here; read for my 2010 Battle of the Prizes, British Version, challenge);
• Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd (reviewed here; read for my 2011 Battle of the Prizes, British Version, challenge).

MAN BOOKER PRIZE

Books read in 2011:

1. G by John Berger (reviewed here; read for my 2010 Battle of the Prizes, British Version, challenge);
2. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (reviewed here; read for my 2011 Battle of the Prizes, British Version, challenge)

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

Books read in 2011:

• Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon (reviewed here; read for my 2010 Battle of the Prizes, American Version, challenge).
• Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (reviewed here; read for my 2011 Battle of the Prizes, American Version, challenge)

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD

Books read in 2011:one, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (reviewed here; read for my 2011 Battle of the Prizes, British Version, challenge).

NOBEL LAUREATES

Books read in 2011: none so far.

ORANGE PRIZE

Books read in 2011: one, On Beauty by Zadie Smith (reviewed here)

PEN/FAULKNER

Books read in 2011: one, The Human Stain by Philip Roth (reviewed here)

PULITZER PRIZE

Books read in 2011: one, Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (reviewed here; read for my 2011 Battle of the Prizes, American Version, challenge)

THE "MUST READS"

1899 TOP 100

Books read in 2011: one, Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (reviewed here)

ALL-TIME TOP 100

Books read in 2011: none so far.

ANTHONY BURGESS

This list is from 99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 by Anthony Burgess, which I finally read this year. My review is here. 

Books read in 2011: 

• George Passant, the first volume of C. P. Snow’s 11-volume Strangers and Brothers series (reviewed here);
• Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor.

BBC'S BIG READ

Books read in 2011: one, Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy.

BOOK CLUB

Books read in 2011:

• Honolulu by Alan Brennert; 
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (reviewed here)

COLLEGE BOARD

Books read in 2011:

• The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James.;
• Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (reviewed here)

COOKBOOK LIBRARY

Books read in 2011:

• Classic Spanish Cooking: Recipes for Mastering the Spanish Kitchen by Elisabeth Luard (reviewed here) 
• With a Jug of Wine by Morrison Wood (discussed here) 

I've read many foodie books that weren't cookbooks.  I think I'll start a new list.

EASTON PRESS

Books read in 2011:

• The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James.;
• Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (reviewed here)

ERICA JONG

Books read in 2011:

• Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor; 
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (reviewed here); 
• The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein.

FRENCH CONNECTION

Books read in 2011:

• The Food of France by Waverley Root (reviewed here);
• The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein.

Also, I am currently reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.

GUILT LIST

Books read in 2011:

• One City's Wilderness by Marcy Cottrell Houle (reviewed here); and
• Maps and Shadows by Krysia Jopek (reviewed here);
• Because You Might Not Remember by Don Colburn;
• The Losing Role by Steve Anderson (reviewed here);
• Spinning the Law: Trying Cases in the Court of Public Opinion by Kendall Coffey;
• Very Bad Men by Harry Dolan (reviewed here); and
• 42 States of Grace by Maureen Hovenkotter (reviewed here)

LT EARLY REVIEWERS

Books read in 2011:

• Shipwrecks, Monsters, and Mysteries of the Great Lakes by Ed Butts (reviewed here);
• Nat Tate: An American Artist: 1928-1960 by William Boyd (reviewed here);
• The Reluctant Detective by Martha Ockley (reviewed here);
• One Was a Soldier by Julia Spencer-Fleming (reviewed here;
• American Terroir by Rowan Jacobsen (reviewed here)

MLA'S 30

Books read in 2011: none so far.

MODERN LIBRARY

Books read in 2011: zero (finished this list a couple of years ago).

OBSERVER'S TOP 100

Books read in 2011:

1.  The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James; and
2.  Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor.

OREGON BOOKS

Books read in 2011: none so far.

RADCLIFFE'S TOP 100

Books read in 2011:

• The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James.
• The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein.

ROSE CITY READER'S TOP 10

Books read in 2011: none so far. Who knows if the list will change this year.

VENICE BOOKS

This is a new list that I just created in February.

Books read in 2011: one, Death in a Strange Country by Donna Leon.

WELL-STOCKED BOOKCASE

Books read in 2011: none so far.

Review of the Day: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a non-fiction account of the woman whose cancer cells – which have been growing ever since 1951 when a sample of the tumor was put in a petri dish – became known as HeLa and have been used in medical research for the last 60 years.

The science part of the book about how the HeLa cells have been used was amazingly interesting. As one could guess, the cells have been used to study cancer, DNA, infectious diseases, and a myriad of other medical conditions. Even more fascinating was how, in dealing with the indomitable HeLa cells, scientists developed uniform protocols for working with cell lines. For example, they developed a common, pre-mixed medium for growing cells; figured out how to ship vials of cells; learned that cells could be frozen and then thawed later for further research; and organized centralized, often privatized, tissue banks for tracking and selling cells and other tissue samples.

Skloot also examines the medical ethics and personal privacy issues raised by human tissue research. While there is some contrary evidence, it seems clear that no one discussed with Henrietta that they had taken her cells for research, and no one got her consent beforehand. It was 1951, and the concept of "informed consent" was barely nascent. Skloot tracks the changes in public awareness and concerns about patients' rights from Henrietta's day to the present – a present in which most of the questions remain unresolved.

The downside of the book, for me, was Skloot's use of Henrietta's family. She started off trying to learn about Henrietta's history, and ended up writing about Henrietta's children, primarily her daughter Deborah. There is no doubt that, while the science made the book interesting, the family's story made it compelling.

But as I reached the end, I felt that the family's story was compelling for the wrong reasons. Henrietta's five children – the offspring of syphilitic first cousins from a long line of inbred first cousins – all suffered to one degree or another from congenital deafness and learning disabilities. The oldest daughter was sent to and died in an institution. The youngest son went to prison for murder, later lived in an adult foster home, and displayed ongoing anger and other mental health problems. Deborah, the focus of Skloot's attentions, told Skloot that she was schizophrenic and had an anxiety disorder and showed all the signs of a bi-polar disorder as well. At least one of the other brothers and one grandson had drug-related criminal histories.

Reading about these people was like watching a train wreck. It was impossible not to get sucked into their story. But what made their lives such a train wreck was not that a doctor took a sample of Henrietta's cells and other scientists have been using them for research. There is no cause and effect connection.

True, Henrietta's children were bothered by not understanding how, or even the fact that, Henrietta's cells were being used (whether this lack of understanding was the fault of the scientific community or the result of their own cognitive limitation is open to debate), but that issue would fit in a chapter. Instead, Skloot laid out every personal detail of these people's lives – physical and mental health issues, marital problems, religious views, addictions, and criminal involvement – for us all to pore over.

I walked away from the book with the feeling that it was more exploitive of Henrietta's family than the scientific community had been. Skloot may have been motivated by sympathy for the family and a desire to tell a story people would read, but if we are going to judge on motives and not actions, then the doctors and scientists Skloot holds up to criticism should be similarly judged by their primarily good motives. And at least the scientists didn't make me directly complicit in the exploitation.

OTHER REVIEWS

Judging from the debate at my Book Club, my take on this book is not shared by others.  If you would like your review listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

Teaser Tuesday: Carry Yourself Back to Me

JUST RELEASED! 

AVAILABLE TODAY!

An old, metal-framed photograph is placed on the coffee table, and Annie has the feeling it was set there recently.  It's a photo of her father and Calder on a dock with Parson's lake shimmering in the background.

-- Carry Yourself Back to Me by Deborah Reed.

The book was just released today and is generating a lot of buzz.  It got a Publisher's Weekly review.  It is this month's choice for the From Left to Write Book Club. Library Journal praised the book and called Reed "an author to watch." And there is a sweet country song tie-in by Brush Prairie.

I am eating it up.  Annie is a singer-songwriter in central Florida, recovering after her producer/lover dumped her. It's a cold, stormy week right before what looks like a bleak Christmas. Her brother just got arrested for murder.  There are secrets from her past cropping up.  This is all good.


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

Mailbox Monday & GIVEAWAY!

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

The wonderful Amused by Books is hosting in September. Please visit!

I got one book last week and am hosting a giveaway for it:

Real Women, Real Wisdom: A Journey into the Feminine Soul by Maureen Hovenkotter, author and editor.

THE BOOK: In Real Women Real Wisdom, 17 ordinary yet extraordinary women—most in their 50s and 60s—reflect on the challenges, mysteries and ultimately the triumphs in their lives. Their stories tell of the transformative experiences of loss, suffering, life-threatening illness, recovery, and forgiveness, as well as the quiet moments of reflection that have led to their personal encounters with the Divine. The journeys they share hold great wisdom, hope and inspiration for all who read about them. (Publisher's description.)

THE AUTHOR/EDITOR: Maureen Hovenkotter is one of the 17 authors of the book and the editor of the collection.  She has written about faith and spiritual matters for a number of publications, including The Oregonian, The National Catholic Reporter, St. Anthony Messenger and The Catholic Sentinel. In the fall of 2003, her husband of 33 years was killed in an accident. She wrote about that experience and the subsequent pilgrimage journey to discover herself in 42 States of Grace: A Woman’s Journey (reviewed by me here). She shares her reflections on life and spirituality in her blog, Travelin' with Charlie. The mother of two adult children and grandmother of one, she lives outside of Portland with her golden retriever, Charlie. She is currently enrolled in a formation program to become certified as a spiritual director.

THE GIVEAWAY: Thanks go to Maureen Hovenkotter and Grey Wing Press for providing two ARCs for a "leap-frog" giveaway.

The leap-frog part is that I have one ARC to giveaway.  The winner will get to host another giveaway for the second ARC.

The contest is open until Sunday, September 25, 2011. To enter, do any or all of the following, but you must leave a comment for each one:

1. Leave a comment on this post. You must include a way to contact you (email or website address in your comment or available in your profile). If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner. (1 entry)

2. Blog about this giveaway. (Posting the giveaway on your sidebar is also acceptable.) Leave a separate comment with a link to your post. (1 entry)

3. Subscribe to my rss feed, follow me on blogger, or subscribe via email (or tell me if you already are a subscriber or follower). Leave a separate comment for this. (1 entry)

4. Tweet this post on Twitter. Leave me a separate comment with your twitter user name. (1 entry)

5. Stumble this blog, digg it, technorati fave it, or link it on facebook. Leave a separate comment. (1 entry)

There are a lot of ways to enter (maximum of five entries), but you must LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT for each one or they will not count. I will use random.org to pick the winners from the comments.

This contest is open to entries from the U.S. and Canada only. The deadline for entry is 9:00 PM, Pacific Time, on Sunday, September 25, 2011. I will draw and post the winner's name in my Mailbox Monday post for September 26, 2011.

Review of the Day: Nat Tate

 

The New York art world feted William Boyd on the 1998 publication Nat Tate: An American Artist, 1928 – 1960. David Bowie hosted the launch party; critics and artists flocked to celebrate the life of the tragic genius.

The hitch was that Nat Tate never existed. Named after two London museums – the National Gallery and the Tate – Boyd had invented the artist and his life. The whole thing was a gag. And the art world fell for it.

The risk with reissuing the book now is that, since everyone knows the punch line (it's described on the back cover), the joke will fall flat. No fear. Being in on the ruse takes away the gotcha moment, but allows the reader to appreciate Boyd's satiric talents.

Boyd is an excellent writer and the short format of this pseudo-biography – like a museum book published for an artist retrospective – shows him at his pithy best. He blends enough salacious gossip into the biographical detail, along with references to real artists like William de Kooning and Georges Braque, to give an authentic ring to the whole thing.

Mixed with plenty of photographs and color art plates, Nat Tate is a literary one-off that deserves its reprinting.

OTHER REVIEWS

The New Confessions (reviewed here)

Brazzaville Beach (reviewed here; winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize)

Restless (reviewed here)

If you would like your review of this or any other William Boyd Book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

I got my copy from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. 

Thursday Tea & Opening Sentence of the Day: Barchester Towers

In the latter days of July in the year 185__, a most important question was for ten days hourly asked in the cathedral city of Barchester, and answered every hour in various ways -- Who was to be the new Bishop?

-- Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

This is the second of six books in Anthony Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire.  Written in 1857, it is a witty satire of English country life and the machinations of the Church hierarchy in the cathedral city of Barchester. 

For years, I've had good intentions to read all six books, but never added any more to my TBR shelf than a pretty folio edition of The Last Chronicle of Barset, the final volume.  So I finally got the audiobooks from my library and have been reading them with my ears, starting with The Warden.  (I am a big fan of audiobooks, especially when it comes to older "classics," as I explain here.)

The Warden was very good, but Barchester Towers  is even better.  It has a complex but not difficult story, the characters are over-the-top, and Trollope brilliantly clever.

This is my first time participating in Thursday Tea, a weekly event hosted by Anastasia at her Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog.

I get to participate this week because, for once, I'm at home on a Thursday.  I'm taking a Bon Bon Day, as my sister and I call them.  (Don't tell my law partners I'm playing hooky.)  So I am listening to Trollope while I putter in the garden, organizing my craft room, and play with the Jazz Cats.

And I'm drinking cup after cup of Earl Grey.  Hubby prefers this particular blend of Irish Breakfast, which is my daily drinker as well. But when he's not around, I hit the Earl Grey.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Carry Yourself Back to Me

Annie lifts her father's old binoculars off the porch.

-- Carry Yourself Back to Me by Deborah Reed.  I've been waiting for this one!

From Publishers Weekly:

In her first literary novel, Reed (who writes suspense fiction under the penname Audrey Braun) triumphs with this thoughtful, graceful story of singer/songwriter Annie Walsh. Annie has recently been abandoned by Owen, her cherished lover, and taken refuge at her home in Florida. In addition to heartbreak, Annie must also contend with the troubles of her brother, Calder, who has been accused of a crime of passion. There is a lovely passage on snow, new to Annie, as well as moving account of her first attempt to sing since her world crashed. In a small bar on the eve of Christmas Eve, "she sings about the evening sky going dark, and the sound of her voice is warm and thick and bigger than the room. She sings about a tingle in her bones." The novel's tragedies are deftly drawn, and never maudlin. Readers will enjoy the novel's engaging characters, intricate plot, and beautifully rendered sense of place.

Teaser Tuesday: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

[Deborah] was terrified that she might have cancer, and consumed with the idea that researchers had done -- and were perhaps still doing -- horrible things to her mother. . . .  Deborah started wondering if instead of testing the Lacks children for cancer, McKusick and Hsu were actually injecting them with the same bad blood that had killed their mother.

-- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

This is my Book Club's current book. It is a non-fiction account of the woman who's cancer cells -- which have been growing ever since 1951 when a sample of the tumor was put in a petri dish -- became known as HeLa and have been used in medical research for the last 60 years. 

 

I really enjoy the science part of the book about how the HeLa cells have been used, and the medical ethics and personal privacy issues are fascinating.  I am a little put off by the book's treatment of the family, which strikes me as being more exploitative (even if the goal is to engender sympathy) than how the scientific community treated them all these years.   

 

 

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

 

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

The wonderful Amused by Books is hosting in September. Please visit!

I was in Montana last week for work (see news story here and an interesting follow up piece on Slate here), so had the chance to "discover" a terrific used book store in Kalispell called The Bookshelf.  

I found two books I've been looking for for a while now:

Emotionally Weird by Kate Atkinson. This is one of her non-mystery novels, from before she started her Jackson Brodie series.



First Love, Last Rites by Ian McEwan. This collection of short stories was McEwan's first published book. 

Opening Sentence of the Day: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

There's a photo on my wall of a woman I've never met, its left corner torn and patched together with tape.

-- from the author's Prologue to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

This is my Book Club's current book. It is a non-fiction account of the woman who's cancer cells -- which have been growing ever since 1951 when a sample of the tumor was put in a petri dish -- became known as HeLa and have been used in medical research for the last 60 years.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Speak, Memory

Some facts, some figures.

-- from the Introduction by Nabokov biographer, Brian Boyd, to Speak, Memory by Vladamir Nabokov.

The present work is a systematically correlated assemblage of personal recollections ranging geographically from St. Petersburg to St. Nazaire, and covering thiry-seven years, from August 1903 to May 1940, with only a few sallies into later space-time.

-- from the author's 1966 Foreword to the revised, final edition.

The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.

-- from Chapter One of the revised, final edition of Speak, Memory.

I have had this book -- Nabokov's autobiography of his life before moving to America in 1940 -- on my TBR shelf ever since I read Pale Fire (reviewed here) and became a devoted fan.  I am finally getting to it and it is wonderful.

I am weird about reading Nobokov's books. I love them when I read them -- love them more than anything. But then I don't want to read another because that will mean one fewer Nabokov book to look forward to. This is completely irrational. And if there is one author whose books deserve reading multiple times, he's the man. So I know that I am being silly, but I still wait too long to pick up the next one.

Review: On Beauty

Zadie Smith won the 2006 Orange Prize for On Beauty, a lengthy novel about art history professor Howard Belsey, his African-American wife Kiki, and their family in the university town of Wellington, Massachusetts. When Howard's arch-nemesis, Monty Kipps, shows up with his family for a year as a guest lecturer at Howard's college, at the same time Howard and Kiki are dealing with his confessed infidelity, all the pieces are in place for a rich campus novel with Aga-saga elements.

But the book doesn't quite deliver, although it is hard to point out exactly why. There are the requisite colorful characters, including the aging, Jong-like poet laureate; the college administer with a salty tongue and fantasies about running the Pentagon; and the younger son's Haitian hip hop band buddies. It isn't rip-roaring funny, but it has some funny lines and amusing set pieces, usually involving the colorful characters. There is plenty of plot, even a little intrigue. And Smith introduces all kinds of conflict – between liberalism and conservativism, religious belief and atheism, town and gown, high art and pop culture, and the intellectual and the emotional.

Still, there is something missing. It could just be that the main characters are not particularly likable. Howard is a total wet blanket – he dislikes everything, including classical music, representational art, religion, his father, and Christmas. Kiki is pretty flat for a heroine. Monty Kipps is arrogant and maybe a little mean.

Or it could be something bigger and more intentional on Smith's part. She seems to have taken to heart the lesson that writers should show and not tell. She shows the story through action and dialog, which is generally a good thing. But she eliminates "telling" so ruthlessly that the reader is left not having any idea what the characters are feeling or what they want. We can see what they do and hear what they say, but without knowing their motives or their goals, we are not fully engaged – we can watch, but we don't know whether to root for them or boo them. We have no emotional attachment to them.

The reason this approach seems intentional is that it so parallels Howard's opinions that it can't be a coincidence. Howard is a Rembrandt scholar who doesn't like Rembrandt. His reasoning is difficult to discern – his students don't understand his convoluted lectures and, at his career-making public speech, Howard is immobilized, without any ability to communicate. What we can gather is that Howard does not like art to tell a story. For example, when lecturing on Rembrandt's famous painting, The Syndics of the Clothmakers' Guild, Howard rejects the common view that Rembrandt depicted a scene where the men in the painting were answering questions from an unseen audience.

As Smith explains:

Iconoclastic Howard rejects all these fatuous assumptions. How can we know what goes in beyond the frame of the painting? . . . Nonsense and sentimental tradition!

Smith seems to follow the same approach in her narrative – omitting any hint of what goes on outside the frame of each scene. Given that Howard's nihilistic attitude has crippled his academic career, stunted his relationships with his family members, and ruined his marriage, it is difficult to understand why Smith adapted his views as a storytelling technique.

The book is crammed with bits and pieces that are entertaining, clever, and even tantalizing. But it is missing the emotional substance necessary to rise to the level of great literature.