Rose City Reader: 05/01/2018

Thursday, May 31, 2018

Book Beginning: All Coyote's Children by Bette Lynch Husted

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

The woman watching from the rock bluff hears the screen door bounce against the doorframe, loose on its hinges, and sees Annie emerge from the shelter of the arbor. She has cut her hair, reached around and sliced the braid off with a knife, by the look of it.

-- All Coyote's Children by Bette Lynch Husted, from OSU Press. What a powerful image!

When Annie Fallon's husband Jack, a professor of Native American history, disappears without a trace into the wilderness surrounding the family ranch in northeastern Oregon, Annie is left to pick up the pieces. She gets some help from Leona, a Umatilla-Cayuse neighbor with long but hidden ties to Jack's family.

PORTLAND EVENT: Bette Lynch Husted is reading and signing at Broadway Books on Monday, June 11, 2018 at 7:00 pm.

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Instagram, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Teaser Tuesday: Second Honeymoon by Joanna Trollope

Ben was her youngest, her last. When the others went, she had felt a pang, but there had always been Ben, there had always been the untidy, demanding, gratifying, living proof that she was doing what she was meant to do, that she was doing something no one else could do.

-- Second Honeymoon by Joanna Trollope. I always enjoy Joanna Trollope's books and this long holiday weekend was the perfect time to read one.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by The Purple Booker, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Monday, May 28, 2018

Mailbox Memorial Day Monday: Nonfiction by Philip Roth

Inspired by reading the memorials to Philip Roth, I got a Library of America edition of his collected nonfiction.

Why Write? by Philip Roth.

This omnibus edition contains several essays from the second edition of Reading Myself and Others (1985); the complete book, Shop Talk (2001); and 14 additional nonfiction pieces never collected before, including six never published before.

Roth is one of my favorite authors. I happened to be finishing The Professor of Desire the day he died. I'm working my way through his bibliography.

What new books came into your house last week?

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is graciously hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf.

Happy Memorial Day!

Saturday, May 26, 2018

YIKES! The 2017 European Reading Challenge Winner Finally Announced

I just realized I forgot to announce the winner of last year's European Reading Challenge! What a dolt!

THIS IS THE WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT POST FOR 2017

TO FIND THE 2017 REVIEWS, GO TO THIS PAGE

TO FIND THE 2017 WRAP UP POSTS, GO TO THIS PAGE

THE 2018 EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE SIGN UP PAGE IS AT THIS PAGE

2017 was the sixth year for this challenge, which involves reading books set in different European countries or written by authors from different European countries.

Big thanks to all the participants who joined me for the Grand Tour!

JET SETTER GRAND PRIZE WINNER

The 2017 Jet Setter prize goes to Audrey, who participated in the challenge through Goodreads! Audrey visited 30 different European countries and posted links to her Goodreads reviews. She posted her list of countries in a comment on the wrap up post page.

Honorary Mention (but no prizes) go to eight other participants who posted wrap up posts on the Wrap Up page because I appreciate these posts very much for making my job of figuring out the winner so much easier! For "Honorary Mention," the number of books counted is the number of unique countries.

My own wrap-up post is here. I read 13 books from different European countries, and four were translations, which is progress for me. But I didn't review any of the books I read because last year was crazy busy for me at my law practice.

Congratulations to all the readers who completed the challenge! There is still plenty of time to join us in 2018.

JOIN THE 2018 CHALLENGE! SIGN UP HERE

The gist: The idea is to read books by European authors or books set in European countries (no matter where the author comes from). The books can be anything – novels, short stories, memoirs, travel guides, cookbooks, biography, poetry, or any other genre. You can participate at different levels, but each book must be by a different author and set in a different country – it's supposed to be a tour.

Sign up HERE for the 2018 Challenge.

Thursday, May 24, 2018

Book Beginning: Seasons of Doubt by Jeannie Burt

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

The stove almost warmed the room, though damp from the last storm still sat in it. Mary Harrington stirred a dull gravy as her five-year-old son slathered lard on a biscuit.

The Seasons of Doubt by Jeannie Burt. It's the winter of 1873, and when her husband abandons Mary and their son in a sod house on the Nebraska prairie, she doesn't know if he will ever return, or even if he is still alive.

Review: Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth

Philip Roth passed away this week at 85, having written over 30 books of fiction, autobiography, criticism, and essays over a 55-year span before announcing his retirement five years ago. He was one of my all-time favorite writers. Here is a re-post of my 2009 review of his first book, Goodbye, Columbus.

Philip Roth won the 1960 National Book Award for his first book, Goodbye, Columbus, a collection of five short stories and the title novella. He went on to create an incredible body of work – building on many themes introduced in Goodbye, Columbus – publishing 30 books to date with another on the way.

In the main novella, hero Neil Klugman is home in Newark after two years in the army. He has finished college, is working in the library, and lives with his Aunt Gladys and Uncle Max in the old neighborhood. When Neil falls in love with Brenda Patimkin, the prototypical Jewish American Princess whose family has moved to the suburbs up the hill, Roth begins the examination of American Jewish life that continues through many of his books.

The title is a reference to Ohio State University Seniors saying goodbye to college, goodbye to Columbus, Ohio, but it also signifies growing up and leaving youth behind. Neil and Brenda’s relationship demonstrates the intensity of first love, as well as the disillusionment and emotional tempering that result.

The five short stories that follow vary in force and effect. “The Conversion of the Jews” is a clever piece in which a young student starts a theological argument with his teacher along the lines of, “If God is omnipotent, can he make a rock too big for him to move?” It is fast and crisp and more than a little audacious.

How Jews, particularly secular Jews, assimilated into mid-century American culture is a common Roth theme. In “Defender of the Faith,” he looks at Jews in the military, drawing in part on his own experience in the army. This story leaves questions unanswered for later pondering: Just who defended the faith? Was it the hero, Sergeant Nathan Marx, who fought the Germans in WWII? Or the new recruit, Sheldon Grossman, who demands to follow his religious practices in boot camp? Is Grossman really looking out for the Jews in the unit, or just trying to gain preferential treatment? What about Marx? This would be an excellent pick for a lit class or book club.

“Epstein” is a morality tale about adultery on the brink of the sexual revolution. Louis Epstein learns the hard way that his generation does not get to share in the sexual frolics of the post-war, folk-singing, “socially conscious” next one.

In “You Can’t Tell a Man by the Song He Sings,” Roth touches on themes he comes back to over and over, including growing up in Newark, baseball, interactions among ethnic groups, and political ideology. The idea of a high school teacher falling into the net of anti-communist committee hearing is one that Roth later developed fully in I Married a Communist, one of his Zuckerman novels.

The last story, “Eli the Fanatic,” is the most powerful of the bunch. When a group of religious Jews sets up a Yeshiva for Holocaust orphans, the secular Jews in the “modern community” of Woodenton, New Jersey want the school closed down, fearing that it will upset the delicate balance they have achieved with their secular Protestant neighbors. Poor Eli Peck gets caught in the middle, trying to negotiate between his fellow townsfolk and the school. Peck’s eventual comprehension of the past suffering of the Yeshiva Jews and the shameful position of his cohorts leads to his emotional undoing. This is a story to mull over.

Roth won several more awards after this one, including another National for Sabbath Theater, the Pulitzer for American Pastoral, and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Counterlife, among others. He was a true man of letters and a real American treasure.

This was my National Book Award pick for the Battle of the Prizes Challenge.

OTHER REVIEWS

Hotchpot Cafe

(If you would like to have your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link.)

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Favorite Author: Philip Roth

Philip Roth was born in 1933 in New Jersey, the setting of many of his books. His personal life was often fodder for his fiction, particularly his books chronicling the lives of 20th-Century American Jews. He created an alter-ego in Nathan Zucherman, the protagonist in nine novels. Another trilogy features college professor David Kepesh as the main character. Roth passed away in May 2018 at the age of 85.

I know a lot of women don't like to read Philip Roth, or the other male writers of his generation. I do. I tend to prefer "mid-century" (20th) authors both sexes because I'm drawn to books with hefty plots, omniscient third-person narrators, and a minimum of experimentation. And I like to read books by male authors because I like men and want to understand them. They don't think or act the same way my women friends and I do!

Those I have read so far are in red. Those currently on my TBR shelf are in blue.

Goodbye, Columbus: And Five Other Short Stories (1959) (National Book Award winner; reviewed here)

Letting Go (1962)

When She Was Good (1967)

Portnoy's Complaint (1969) (Modern Library’s Top 100 list)

Our Gang (1971)

The Breast (1972) (Kepesh)

The Great American Novel (1973)

My Life As a Man (1974) (proto-Zuckerman)

Reading Myself and Others (1976)

The Professor of Desire (1977) (Kepesh)

The Ghost Writer (1979) (Zuckerman)

Zuckerman Unbound (1981) (Zuckerman)

The Anatomy Lesson (1983) (Zuckerman)

The Prague Orgy (1985) (Zuckerman)

The Counterlife (1986) (Zuckerman) (National Book Critics Circle Award winner)

The Facts: A Novelist's Autobiography (1988) (nonfiction)

Deception (1990)

Patrimony: A True Story (1991) (nonfiction)

Operation Shylock: A Confession (1993)

Sabbath's Theater (1995) (National Book Award winner)

American Pastoral (1997) (Zuckerman) (Pulitzer Prize winner)

I Married a Communist (1998) (Zuckerman)

The Human Stain (2000) (Zuckerman) (reviewed here)

Shop Talk (2001) (nonfiction)

The Dying Animal (2001) (Kepesh)

The Plot Against America (2004) (reviewed here)

Everyman (2006)

Exit Ghost (2007) (Zuckerman)

Indignation (2008)

The Humbling (2009)

Nemesis (2010)

NOTES

Last updated August 8, 2019.

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Teaser Tuesday: Homing Instincts by Dionisia Morales

When my niece, Maya, called for the third time in three weeks, she wanted to know what the hell was going on over there, and by over there she meant Oregon, where, I said, I was up a tree. And by up a tree I didn’t mean in some kind of trouble with money or my marriage, which she might have understood, but actually on a ladder in a tree, a concept harder for her to wrap her head around.

-- from "Stocking Up," in Homing Instincts by Dionisia Morales, a collection of 14 essays exploring Morales's concepts of home and belonging, like this one about her annual ritual of canning fruit.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by The Purple Booker, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Monday, May 21, 2018

Mailbox Monday: A Tom Wolfe Trifecta

Reading all the memorials to Tom Wolfe last week inspired me to pick up three of his nonfiction books:

From Bauhaus to Our House, about architecture.

The Kingdom of Speech, about linguistics and the origins of human speech.

The Painted Word, about art criticism.

What books came into your house last week?

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Book Beginning: Life Expectancy: Poetry by Kirsten Rian

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

I'm up there talking about war, the kind with Kalashnikovs and scuds.

-- from "Embedment," the first poem in Life Expectancy: Poetry by Kirsten Rian. Rian's poetry looks at how life goes as it does -- usually in unexpected directions.

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Review: The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe, RIP

Tom Wolfe, one of the greats, passed away this week at age 88. I absolutely loved Bonfire of the Vanities, his first novel and one of the best American novels. His essays Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers are the most trenchant social commentary I have ever read.

His nonfiction book, The Right Stuff, was not one of my favorites, but it is a classic. Here's a re-post of my 2008 review.

The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe is my favorite book about astronauts. Of course, it is the only book about astronauts that I will ever read, so that isn't the strongest praise. But it is perfect for a general reader like me looking for an entertaining history of America's early space program. Wolfe definitely keeps the tale interesting. He focuses on the personal, rather than the technical and administrative, aspects of the Mercury space program and the first seven astronauts involved. He follows the seven through their early careers, mostly as test pilots, through each of their turns in a Mercury capsule.

The most remarkable part of the story is the connection Wolfe makes between fighter jet pilots and astronauts. Having grown up in the NASA age, I did not know that the Air Force had a competing rocket program (a program that managed to send pilots several miles into space and then have them actually land the aircraft back on earth) before it was scuttled in favor of NASA's moon missions.

The only drawback of the book is Wolfe's Gonzo journalism style, which much have been refreshing and bold back in 1979. Now, the hipper-than-thou tone is a little tired and can get exasperating.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Teaser Tuesday: The River by Starlight by Ellen Notbohm

Without looking at Adam or their daughter, she hauls herself up the bedpost, Her feet hit the floor like stumps.

The River by Starlight by Ellen Notbohm. This historic novel, set in Montana in the early 1900s, tells the story of a homesteading couple struggling with the wife's recurring postpartum depression. Notbohm was inspired by research into her own family history and by "what we owe all women who bravely undertake the risks and unknowns of motherhood."

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by The Purple Booker, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Monday, May 14, 2018

Mailbox Monday: New Books

Two new novels arrived in my mailbox this week. Their stories intersect in the history of America's western expansion -- and with disappearing husbands leaving wives behind to save the family.

All Coyote's Children by Bette Lynch Husted. Annie Fallon must pick up the pieces after her husband Jack, a professor of Native American history, disappears without a trace into the wilderness surrounding the family ranch in northeastern Oregon. Annie is befriended by Leona, a Umatilla-Cayuse neighbor with long but hidden ties to Jack's family.

The Seasons of Doubt by Jeannie Burt. This historical novel is set in 1873 Nebraska and tells the story of a homesteading woman and her young son, abandoned by her husband to freeze and starve in their prairie sod house unless she can save them. It looks like quite an adventure.

What books came into your house last week?

Thursday, May 10, 2018

Book Beginning: Homing Instincts by Dionisia Morales

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

At the Hotel Maestral, Zlatko leaned forward in his chair, took a sip of wine, and described in broken German the idiosyncrasies of his family history: his grandmother was Austrian, his mother was Italian, his children are Croatian, "And me?" he said, as if delivering the punch line to a joke, "I used to be Yugoslavian."

-- from the Prologue: You Are Here, in Homing Instincts by Dionisia Morales, a collection of essays on the idea of home and how it plays out in daily life.

The humor in Zlatko's story is that his family lived in the same town for generations, only the national sovereignty changed.

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Teaser Tuesday: Ghost Writer: A Story About Telling a Holocaust Story by Beth Benedix

The more Joseph story unraveled, the more pronounced the layers of his intuition became. I had to keep reminding myself that he was fifteen (fifteen!) When he made this series of right choices between life and death.

-- Ghost Writer: A Story About Telling a Holocaust Story by Beth Benedix. Benedix ghost wrote a memoir for Holocaust survivor Joe Koenig. At his urging, she then wrote this book about her own experience of taking on the responsibility of listening to his story and giving it its fullest form.

I was drawn to this book because I see a parallel between Benedix's experience ghost writing a Holocaust memoir and my work as a lawyer representing adult victims of childhood sexual abuse. My clients trust me to tell the stories of their childhood trauma the way Koenig trusted Benedix. Bringing their stories to light -- bearing their testimony in a way -- is the best part of my job to me.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by The Purple Booker, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Monday, May 7, 2018

Mailbox Monday: Suicide of the West by Jonah Goldberg

I got one new book last week and I am racing through it. What books came into your house?

Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy by Jonah Goldberg.

Goldberg examines how the ideas of democracy and liberty are at odds with our baser instincts so need to be re-learned and shored up, or lost. And since he can quote Game of Thrones as comfortably as John Locke, I'm entertained and educated!

Thursday, May 3, 2018

Book Beginning: The River by Starlight by Ellen Notbohm

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Of all the heartless things Annie's mother has done in twenty-six years, this might be the corker.

The River by Starlight by Ellen Notbohm. This historic novel is set in Montana in the early 1900s. Notbohm based her debut book on a true story about a homesteading couple whose fiery romance and financial success is threatened by world events, natural disaster, and Annie's recurring difficulties with miscarriage and childbirth.

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Review: Sam's Theory by Sarah Mendivel

Mendivel is a therapist who wrote this YA fantasy novel to use as a creative way to help young people heal from trauma. It is a terrific resource for young people dealing with difficulties because it offers practical help in a creative and entertaining way.

Sam's Theory is a fantasy adventure story about a 15-year-old girl named Same who runs away after she is abused. Hiding in the forest, Sam meets an old woman named Theory who helps her with some magic and sage advice. Scared for her little sister, Nova, and with the help of her friend, Dodger, and two other kids, Sam sets up a hidden camp in the wilderness and forms “The Orphan’s Collective.”

The book offers creative advice on how to cope in the face of trauma. It acknowledges the problems young people face, including depression, suicide, abuse, neglect, and loneliness, and provides positive tools and applied examples of healthy behavior changes.

NOTE

Read my Q&A author interview with Sarah Mendivel here to learn more about her book and her work with young people.

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Teaser Tuesday: Shores Beyond Shores: From Holocaust to Hope, My True Story by Irene Butter

The Star Camp was in the middle of Bergen-Belsen, almost entirely surrounded by other smaller camps. The camps were all sectioned by barbed wire.

-- Shores Beyond Shores: From Holocaust to Hope, My True Story by Irene Butter. Butter's family and Anne Frank's family were neighbors in Amsterdam before both were taken to concentration camps.

It was decades before Butter told the story -- outside a close circle of family and friends -- of her childhood escape from the Nazi death camp. She recently wrote about growing up with this silence in The New York Times.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by The Purple Booker, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.