The Harp of Kings by Juliet Marillier, Beach Read by Emily, AND Becoming Duchess Goldblatt!

I enjoyed Juliet Marillier's Blackthorn and Grim trilogy, and even made the comment in my review of the final book,  that I'd like to see more about the Swan Island Warriors--and here it is!

Marillier's prose is easy and elegant, and I was quickly caught up in the lives of the characters.  Escapism?  Yep.  Warriors, bards, spies, a mission involving a missing harp required for the investment of a new king, myth, magic, and otherworldly creatures.

The story is told through the voices of the three main characters:  Liobhan, Brocc, and Dau.  The three are training and hoping for places with the Swan Island Warriors.  

Although they have not completed their island training, the three are chosen for a mission because each has qualities that would be useful.   

I love a good story and found myself entertained and involved in The Harp of Kings.  Ready for the next book!

Purchased.
Fantasy.  2019.  Print length:  464 pages.  

Beach Read sounded interesting even if it isn't my typical choice.  

From description:  A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

So, yeah, not much about the beach.  At all.   Not a fit for me, although I did finish it.  The premise has so much potential, but the result was a lackluster experience for me.

NetGalley/Berkley Pub.
Romance?  May 19, 2020.  Print length:  361 pages.  

Of course, I liked Becoming Duchess Goldblatt.  I follow her on Twitter.

I must admit, however, that I will dutifully forget much of this book in favor of the imaginary creation.  I quote the Duchess frequently and believe in her fervently.  She amuses, amazes, scolds, celebrates, and praises her readers.  Her Grace delights me time and time again.  

Having never been much of a follower of celebrities (or politicians), it came as a surprise to me that I joined the multitudes who worship Her Grace.  

"Search your heart.  If you can say you did your best today, you may have popsicles for dinner."

 "I'm trying to be quiet and gather strength to be a voice of encouragement for you loons, who somehow need me and somehow found me." 

"As a fictional utopia, Crooked Path doesn't have any police to defund.  Much like heaven, this town is run by librarians in sensible shoes who make house calls."

Enough said.  Enjoy.

NetGalley/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Memoir.  July 7, 2020.  Print length:  240 pages.

The Man with the Golden Typewriter: Ian Fleming's Bond Letters

The Man with the Golden Typewriter:  Ian Fleming's James Bond Letters edited by Fergus Fleming

I've been interested in Ian Fleming since reading about his role in Naval Intelligence during WWII.  When NetGalley offered this collection of letters, I was interested, but certainly didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did.  

Nor did I expect to find Fleming, the man, so likable and charming, so generous, and so appreciative and kind to his fans.  The man who wrote thrillers was friends with Evelyn Waugh, Noel Coward, Somerset Maugham, and Raymond Chandler.   

Fleming biographical info.

I had never heard of the Studillac before reading the letters, so I had to Google to discover that the Studillac was a studebaker with a cadillac engine.

Although I had never been previously much interested in James Bond (books or films), I thoroughly enjoyed these letters and fell half in love with Ian Fleming.  Highly Recommended.  Yes, I mentioned the book in previous posts on this blog and on my other blog while reading because it was so fascinating.

Read in August.   A Garden Carried in the Pocket review scheduled for Oct. 19, 2015.

NetGalley/Bloomsbury

Letters/Memoir.  Nov. 3, 2015.  Print version:  400 pages.

Two and a Half Reviews

I'm back in  mystery and mayhem mode.

Beneath the Shadows by Sarah Foster is a Netgalley read.


"In this thrilling gothic suspense debut by Sara Foster in the tradition of Rosamund Lupton and Sophie Hannah, a young mother searches Yorkshire's windswept moors for the truth behind her husband's mysterious disappearance." 


 I didn't find is suspenseful and the characters were one dimensional.  Awash in details that didn't further the plot or the characterization.  I love the setting on the Yorkshire moors, but the rest, not so much.   (Release date June 5)


Dead Scared by S.J. Bolton, another Netgalley read.  


 "When a rash of suicides tears through Cambridge University, DI Mark Joesbury recruits DC Lacey Flint to go undercover as a student to investigate. Although each student’s death appears to be a suicide, the psychological histories, social networks, and online activities of the students involved share remarkable similarities, and the London police are not convinced that the victims acted alone. They believe that someone might be preying on lonely and insecure students and either encouraging them to take their own lives or actually luring them to their deaths. As long as Lacey can play the role of a vulnerable young woman, she may be able to stop these deaths, but is it just a role for her? With her fragile past, is she drawing out the killers, or is she herself being drawn into a deadly game where she’s a perfect victim?" 


Bolton can do suspense.  I like and dislike exactly the same things I've noted about her earlier books, great tension and rushed conclusions.  Her plots are kind of out there, and the heroes always have to deal with evil, not just murder, but creepy, spooky, gruesome evil. Bolton does keep my nose in the book whatever criticisms I may have; she skillfully builds tension and keeps the reader on edge...even after you know exactly where things are going.  I also liked seeing Dr. Evi Oliver from Sacrifice take a role in this one.  (Release date June 5)



The Receptionist (an ARC from Algonquin) by Janet Groth is a memoir of Groth's years as a receptionist at the iconic New Yorker.  It starts out well and has two very interesting chapters about John Berryman and Muriel Sparks.  She drops a lot of names, as she had contact with some very important literary figures, but the chapters on Berryman and Sparks are much more detailed.  Unfortunately, the book slows down, and although I have only about 70 pages left, I haven't picked it up again.  I will finish it...eventually.  (release date June 26)




I've more than completed the Once Upon Challenge journey I chose, but may continue to read a few more in the fantasy/fairy tale genre.  I also watched Red Riding Hood with Gary Oldman, but it was pretty bad.

All I really want to read at the moment are mysteries.  :)

I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron

I loved Ephron's short essays in I Feel Bad About My Neck, even if I didn't always identify (because, well, I can't imagine living in New York, being that talented, being rich, or having much of an interest in cooking).    Still, I found something with which to identify in each essay.

Some of the essays are so funny and revealing of our culture of youth, and it feels good to discover shared feelings with those who also fail to keep track of their reading glasses, are unable to locate what they need in their purses, and recognize the benefits of an empty nest.

The essays provide glimpses into the funny side of being a woman of a certain age as recounted by a woman who can see the humor in the mundane and writes with a clear and vivacious voice, but in the midst of humor, Ephron doesn't try to hide her definite regret about the process.

I saw an interview with Ephron several years ago and found her witty and refreshing and  added the book to my "list," then promptly lost that particular list and forgot about the book.  When Nancy of Pomegranate Trail recommended it, and I ordered a used copy.  Thank you, Nancy!

A short read, mostly amusing, sometimes serious, the book is revealing about the positive and negative aspects of Ephron's personality.  She's human and honest, self-deprecating and funny.  She wrote the screenplays for Sleepless in Seattle and When Harry Met Sally; was married to Carl Bernstein, wrote Heartburn, and knew who Deep Throat was long before the rest of us.  She may share some universal feelings, but her gift is the ability to make us laugh.

Nonfiction.  Memoir/Essay.  2008.  160 pages.

Before the Last All Clear by Ray Evans

Before the Last All Clear is the personal memoir of Ray Evans, who was one of the millions of children (yes, millions--what a remarkable undertaking!) evacuated from London during WWII.  It was an ARC from Mr. Evans.

Product Description

Some recall it as the greatest adventure of their lives. For others, being a wartime evacuee was a nightmare. These are the witty yet deeply poignant memories of a man still haunted by the cruelties he endured. During World War II, around three and a half million British children were evacuated away from possible air raids in the big cities in one of the largest social upheavals Great Britain has ever seen. One of those children was Ray Evans. This is the story of a young evacuee from Liverpool sent to live in the Welsh town of Llanelli. Separated from his mother, brothers and sisters, six-year old Ray was dispatched to a series of families who ignored, exploited and brutalised him. Pushed from pillar to post, he finally finds happiness with a family who make him so welcome that he is reluctant to leave when war ends. Set in a world of ration books, air-raid sirens and ever-present danger, this is a candid and direct account of wartime Britain as seen through the eyes of a child.

------------------

 Evacuated in 1939 with his mother and brothers and sisters, Ray and his brother Frank originally shared the same billet with a family in which the husband was kind, but the wife was totally insensitive. 

The written rules Mrs. Jones handed to Ray and Frank when they first arrived included:  No relatives or friends to be invited into the house at any time; Do not enter the house by the front door; Upstairs bathroom is out of bounds, use the sink in the scullery; The Parlour and Dining-rooms are out of bounds; The pantry is our of bounds; Every morning, empty and clean chamber pot...and more.

Eventually, Frank got a new billet (after an accident with the chamber pot), and six-year-old Ray was left alone, especially after the husband died.  While it is difficult to see how anyone could be so callous concerning such a young and helpless child, Ray had a hard time convincing the woman in charge of finding homes to move him.  There simply were not enough homes available.

After about two years, Ray is moved.  However, things go from bad to worse... 

Ray does, eventually, have some better experiences and finally arrives at a home that truly takes him to their hearts.  It has, however, taken years, and without doubt, Ray's sense of trust has been damaged by his experiences, but he blossoms when he finally receives loving care.

Ray Evans is not a professional writer, but he has written a touching memoir concerning his experiences.  It is the only first-hand account I've read about the evacuees and was informative in both the general and the particular.

                                

Above are posters from the era.  And below a photo of some of the children as they leave for their new homes.       

      More about the evacuations can found in the following links.

                      

Operation Pied Piper

"Keeping control of the whole thing became a joyless task. 'The trains were coming in thick and fast,' says Geoffrey Barfoot who had been seconded from the town hall to act as a billeting officer in Weston Super Mare. 'It was soon obvious that we just didn't have the bed space.'"

"I'll Take that One

As a result of the mismatches, selection was made according to rudimentary principles. Billeting officers simply lined the children up against a wall or on a stage in the village hall, and invited potential hosts to take their pick. Thus the phrase 'I'll take that one' became etched on the memory of our evacuees.

Steve Davis, a clinical psychologist specialising in the study of war trauma, says this was the first of many moments that caused upset and humiliation for the evacuees and put their welfare under serious threat. 'It was little more than a paedophile's charter', says Davis, whose work involves counselling former evacuees."

For some children, the experiences were wonderful, but for others, devastating.  While the percentage of misery may have been small in numbers, the effects on the children were large and long-lasting.

The Times

Has lots of links and articles.

Destinations included Wales (where Ray's family were), Canada, and Australia.

Many children remained in their new homes for six years.

Nonfiction.  Memoir/History.  2006.  228 pages.

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

What a tiny treasure is The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating!  This is a memoir that has formerly active Elisabeth Bailey confined to bed without even the energy to sit up for any length of time.  Initially, the doctors don't know the cause of her illness, but what began with flulike symptoms turned into a "systemic paralysis-like weakness with life-threatening complications."

Bailey doesn't allow the book to be list of symptoms or complaints, but rather an emotional and spiritual journey.  Observing the tiny snail, which is about all that she can do, keeps her mind active and curious.  The snail, with its slow deliberate pace becomes both the perfect companion and metaphor.

One morning, Bailey notices a square hole in a scrap of paper; each morning revealed more square holes.  When the snail chewed a hole in a letter she had written, she began drawing arrows to the holes in her communications with the outside world with the note:  "Eaten by my snail."

Then she put some withered blossoms out for the snail.  In the evening, the snail awoke and began its exploration.  After investigating the blossoms, it began eating a petal:

"I listened carefully.  I could hear it eating.  The sound was of someone very small munching celery.  I watched, transfixed, as over the course of an hour the snail meticulously ate an entire purple petal for dinner.


The tiny, intimate sound of the snail's eating gave me a distinct feeling of companionship and shared space."

I loved this short book.  I learned more about gastropods and the habits and sex lives of the Neohelix albolabris than I ever expected to know.  I learned more about patience and close observation than I'd ever thought about.  And about courage and perseverance...

The quotes the author uses from poets, scientists, and naturalists are so well-chosen, so apt:

"My wide wake shines, now it is growing dark.
I leave a lively opalescent ribbon:  I know this."   
                                                          - Elizabeth Bishop, form "Giant Snail," 1969

"at my feet

when did you get here?

snail"

                          -Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828)

"The [snail's] tentacles are as expressive as a mule's ears, giving an appearance of listless enjoyment when they hang down, and an immense alertness if they are rigid, as happens when the snail is on a march."
                    - Ernest Ingersoll, "In a Snailery," 1881

What a lovely, lovely little book this is.  Maybe my favorite of the year, and certainly one that I will include in all-time favorites.  I can't even explain why this tiny book touched me with such emphasis.

Nonfiction.  Memoir/ Natural Science.  2010.  178 pages + an excellent bibliography.

The Film Club by David Gilmour

The Film Club is a memoir by Canadian novelist David Gilmour that covers the years he spent viewing movies with his son Jesse.  Gilmour allowed his son to drop out of school in the 10th grade, but only if he promised to watch 3 movies a week with his father.  The movies become an opportunity to bond with his son, to explore directors and film technique, to discuss some of the topics of the various films which run the gamut of tragedy, comedy, great films, and guilty pleasures.

Gilmour struggles with his decision to allow Jesse to drop out of school, with his own job search, and with the ups and downs of his teenage son's love life.

If you love movies, you will find all kinds of interesting trivia, be reminded of classic films, enjoy revisiting some of your favorites, and learn some of the odd facts that accompanied the making and makers of the films.

This was recommended by Beauty Is a Sleeping Cat, and a book that I thoroughly enjoyed (although the teenage love life was much more important to Gilmour than to ancient me).  A great pre-Oscar read--I'm passing this one on to my daughter who will soon be hosting her annual Oscar party.

Nonfiction.  Memoir.  2009.  225 pages.

A Time to Keep Silence by Patrick Leigh Fermor

A Time to Keep Silence was recommended by Dorothy (Books & Bicycles).  It is a short memoir of sorts about Fermor's attempt to find seclusion for writing by visiting various monasteries.

 Fermor records his thoughts as he makes the transition, first into the Benedictine Abbey of St. Wandrille de Fontanelle in France, later into Solesmes, and finally, into the Trappist monastery of Le Grande Trappe.

He explains the difficulty of leaving the hectic, verbal world and entering into one that maintains silence even during meals.  Initially, he finds the silence sobering and disturbing.  Within a short time, however, he feels more comfortable.  He describes the abbey, the monks, the rituals, and the history of the orders.  At first, in his tiny cell, he experiences insomnia; however, then his sleep habits change, and he describes his sleep as "profound."  He finds himself sleeping much of the day.  Then another change, and he begins to sleep perhaps only five hours a night-- "light, dreamless and perfect sleep, followed by awakenings full of energy and limpid freshness."

His dedication and energy for his work increased.  Having recovered from the restlessness and depression, Fermor is able to appreciate the benefits of silence and solitude.  Time began to pass swiftly, almost without notice.  When it was time to leave, Fermor says that the transition back into the noisy, mundane world was as difficult as adjusting to the abbey in the first place.

I'm not going to mention his other withdrawals, except to say that his feelings for the Benedictine life were much more positive than those he experienced in the Trappist monastery at Le Grande Trappe.  The order was much stricter, and he was more sequestered from the monks.  However, the history of the Trappist order was very interesting, indeed.

Two of my favorite parts were not part of the book itself: the introduction by Karen Armstrong, who spent seven years in a Roman Catholic religious order, and Fermor's 1982 introduction, 30 years after his experiences.  My least favorite part was the concluding chapter on the Rock Monasteries of Cappodocia, which seemed a bit out of place.

A few years ago, I was interested in the life of Thomas Merton, the great spiritual leader who was a Trappist Monk.  Merton was interested in Buddhism and interfaith understanding.  Although the two men would have been contemporaries, Merton's experiences with the Trappist order were different because he was eventually allowed more freedom and privacy than most Trappist monks (who had to sleep in dormitories).  He met personally with the Dalai Llama and Chatral Rinpoche and felt that his experiences with this broader religious community deepened his own faith.

I have no idea, even after reading about Fermor's experiences as a lay guest in different monasteries and Merton's experiences as a Trappist monk, what it would really be like to have a lengthy retreat in a monastery.  I would certainly choose a Benedictine over a Trappist monastery, however.

Nonfiction.  Memoir/Religion/Spirituality.  First published in 1957.  96 pages.

Sky Train: Tibetan Women on the Edge of History

Sam, Canyon. Sky Train: Tibetan Women on the Edge of History.

The book opens with a foreword by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama which lends a certain gravitas to Ms. Sam's collection of oral histories. One of the Dalai Lama's statements enjoins those concerned with the fate of Tibet "neither to give up nor to give in to destructive emotions like anger and hatred." A difficult concept for most of us, but the four women whose stories are told here found their religion to be a sustaining factor despite the Chinese attempts to obliterate Tibetan Buddhism and severely punish those who practiced it.

In 1986, Canyon Sam, a third-generation Chinese American, decided to spend a year in Asia, concentrating on China. It didn't turn out that way; Ms. Sam did not enjoy China and ended up spending most of her time in Tibet after falling in love with the Tibetan people and landscape.

In 1990, the author returned to Tibet and began gathering oral histories from the women who survived the Chinese take over in 1959. We should all be grateful to Ms. Sam for caring enough to gather these stories and to preserve and publish them before they were lost. They may well be the only real overview of those decades that detail the experiences of women from their own perspectives.

Although the final version of her book has been limited to the stories of only four of the women interviewed, they are broadly representative of the situations of all Tibetan women who endured the horrors of the Chinese invasion and occupation of their country.

In 2007, Ms. Sam returned to Tibet and interviewed some of the women she had met and recorded in 1990. The author's own journeys to Tibet, her reception by the Tibetan people, her first-hand views of the Chinese presence and purpose are woven into this work, although the stories of the women whose stories she relates take precedence.

Moving and informative, Sky Train leaves the reader with much to think about, with new insights, and with new appreciation for the freedoms and privileges people in free countries take for granted. The tragedy of Tibet seems to be an almost hidden part of history.

The last 50 years of Tibetan history is heart-breaking in many ways, but the resilience and courage of the Tibetan people who have survived half a century of oppression is a fantastic and inspirational story in itself.

I read this book because of an email I received from Shaila Abdullah, author of Saffron Dreams, recommending it. The University of Washington Press sent me the book for review; I'm grateful to them for sending me a copy and to Shaila Abdullah for her recommendation and the suggestion that I read Sky Train.

Also of interest are the following documentaries, I watched earlier this year: 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama and Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion.

Nonfiction. Memoir/Oral History. 2009. 246 pages + notes.

Dear Diary

I have a couple of books to review, but they will wait.

Today I want to share a couple of sites with those of you who are interested in diaries and journals. I get regular updates from The Diary Junction when they add something new. "The aim of this website is to provide an internet resource for those interested in historical and literary diaries and diarists." It is a terrific resource.

There is also a blog (The Diary Junction Blog) that contains excerpts from the diaries of some fascinating and often famous people. I really love this site. Check it out!

The Mighty Queens of Freeville

Dickinson, Amy. The Mighty Queens of Freeville.

I want to live in Freeville and have Amy as a friend! I really didn't know what to expect of this ARC, but feel lucky to have received it. It is probably not a book I'd have chosen on my own, and I would have missed a wonderful opportunity. The book will be released on Feb. 3, don't miss this one.

Amy Dickinson is the "new" Ann Landers; she writes the syndicated advice column, "Ask Amy."

The book is full of wry humor, and I was hooked after the introduction when she says of her (almost entirely female) family:

We seem to be less than successful on many superficial levels. We don't have money. We aren't upwardly mobile. We aren't naturally thin or beautiful. We don't have advanced degrees, long-term career goals, or plans for retirement.

The book opens with Dickinson looking back on her divorce and the difficulty she had in accepting the end of her marriage. "Granted, the day my husband showed up at our marriage counseling session wheeling a suitcase, having just come in from a trip to Europe with his girlfriend," she says, "was a clue that our marriage was in trouble."

Her family, however, is the core of who she is and provides her with a sense of place and history. She is always cognizant of their impact on her life; her mother, sisters, aunts, and cousins, Amy and Emily--The Mighty Queens of Freeville.

With retrospective insight, Dickinson relates the events involved in the divorce: being left with an infant daughter, learning to deal with her husband's betrayal, and security provided by the family support and nurturing she received. She examines the past with more than insight, however, because enough time has past for her to tell the story of her divorce and recovery with a perfect pitch of humor attached to the old grief.

She and her daughter Emily prosper. As a single parent, Dickinson learns many things about being a mother and the importance of having a place like Freeville as a base of emotional cheer leading. She learns from her mother, her aunts, her sisters, and from experience.

The numerous little vignettes of mother and daughter making their way in the world are touching and hilarious. One of my favorite chapters is "Making Peanut Jesus: Finding God in the Community of Faith and Casseroles."

As a Sunday School teacher in Washington, D. C., Dickinson worked hard at crafts. When, after creating a creche including Mary and Joseph (made of toilet paper rolls) and Baby Jesus (a swaddled peanut), she must deal with the second-grader who ate the Baby Jesus, she finds herself struggling for words. Responding to questions like, "Does the Virgin Mary have nipples?" teaches Dickinson the skill of quick recovery.

Counteracting the wealthy Episcopalian church in D.C. is the Freeville United Method Church--the church of faith and casseroles. The women in her family are all musical, and "It was the sound of my family's gene pool choir that first brought me into the mysterious community of faith and casseroles...."

Pumpkin the cat, holidays and summers in Freeville, the move to Chicago, Emily's leaving for college are all part of Amy Dickinson's journey from divorce to the present.

The book is charming, funny, and a joy to read! Dickinson's voice is a pleasure from beginning to end.

Nonfiction. Biography/Memoir. 2009. 225 pages.

Surely, You're Joking Mr. Feynman!

Feynman, Richard P., and Ralph Leighton. Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character).

Richard P. Feynman was a genius: a theoretical physicist, a Nobel Prize winner, a member of the Manhattan Project, a safe-cracker, the founder of quantum mechanics, a practical joker, a womanizer, a multi-talented man who painted and played the drums and studied Mayan hieroglyphics. He had an insatiable appetite for learning and a compulsive curiosity.

The book is a series of anecdotes told to his friend Ralph Leighton, recorded, and later transcribed to create this book. The stories range from Feynman's childhood, MIT and Princeton education, his work at Los Alamos during the war, through his teaching career. None of it is ordinary. Feynman was a genius with characteristics of a ten-year-old boy: brains, audacity, a bit bawdy, full of practical jokes, and frequently, no doubt, annoying.

As much as the man loved physics, physics remains in the background in all of these little vignettes. What comes to the fore is his curiosity, his humor, his love of learning and teaching, and his refusal to "play the game." Or rather, the games he played were by his own rules.

One of my favorites is "Judging Books by Their Covers" which tells about his experience serving on the State Curriculum Commission to choose new math and science text books for the state of California. Having been involved in this procedure (a committee of teachers) during my teaching career, I knew whereof he spoke when he told about having hundreds of pounds of text books delivered to his door. As he describes the experience of being the only one to read the books, the influx of calls from the publishers, the problems with the Board of Education regarding money...you don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Another one titled "Alfred Nobel's Other Mistake" covers his reluctant acceptance of the Nobel prize and the changes it made to his life. Irreverent!

How one man could have been involved in so many adventures boggles the mind.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

Nonfiction. Memoir/biographical. 1985. 346 pages.

A Charmed Life: Growing Up in Macbeth's Castle

Campbell, Liza. A Charmed Life: Growing Up in Macbeth's Castle.

6 words: Charmed or cursed? Fairytale turns nightmare.

Well, of course, when I saw this autobiographical work about growing up in Cawdor Castle, I was unable to resist.

Liza Campbell recounts her family history, dwelling on the problems experienced by her father Hugh, the 25th Thane of Cawdor, and the impact of his behavior on immediate family members. Witty, dry, and exceptionally unsentimental, Campbell tells of Hugh's descent into alcohol, drugs, and sexual adventures that coincide with greater and greater instability, verbal abuse, and domestic violence at home.

Although a sorry tale of privilege abused, Campbell tells a compellingly readable and strangely entertaining tale of Hugh's decline and his family's attempts to survive his many betrayals.

Nonfiction. Autobiography/ Memoir. 2007. 321 pages.

In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing

Woodruff, Lee, and Bob Woodruff. In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing. Lee Woodruff began keeping a journal after her husband's injury because she knew that the reporter in him would want the details and discovered that the journal was a way of healing for both of them. The journal turned into a "panoramic view of a marriage and a family, a crisis and a recovery."

Lee Woodruff was in Orlando, Florida enjoying Disney World with her four children when the call came to inform her that Bob had been injured in Iraq. Bob had only recently become Co-anchor for ABC News and was pleased that the job included travel and reporting as well as anchoring the news. He loved the exciting parts of a journalist's job and was embedded with the military when the IED that caused such terrible damage exploded.

Lee: "You can't know how you would behave in a crisis until it drops out of the sky and knocks you down like a bandit: stealing your future, robbing you of your dreams, and mocking anything that resembles certainty. Sudden tragic events and even slow-burning disasters teach us more about ourselves than most of us care to know."

The book, however, is much more than the account of Bob's injury and slow recovery; it is the story of a marriage and all of the difficulties that are involved in such a commitment. The book moves back in forth in time - from the time of Bob's injury, back through the couple's courtship, the fear and trauma in the present, and the events of the past that worked for and against their marriage. It also moves back and forth between two voices - from Lee to Bob, and back again.

I found the book all the more interesting and important because of the struggles, because of Lee's frequent resentment when faced with uprooting and moving her family time and again to accommodate Bob's rising career. I would have been less impressed with the Woodruff's journey if Lee had never felt the sense of abandonment that can creep in when things go wrong and your husband isn't around to help. And there were events before Bob's injury-- a miscarriage, a hysterectomy, a hearing-impaired child-- that required strength and resiliency.

That is what commitment is, I think: being able to deal with the anger, confusion, frustration, grief, and fear... and maintain the love at the same time.

I found this book interesting in several ways: the story of a marriage; the story of a young man who left his law career, first to teach in China and later to pursue a career in journalism; the story of a wife who supported his career moves, as difficult as they were; the story of family, immediate and extended; the story of friendships, particularly the friendship that developed between Bob and David Bloom and between Lee and Melanie Bloom; the story of a traumatic brain injury (Woodruff lost half of his skull, which was later replaced with an acrylic skull plate); the story of efforts to improve the situation for others with TBI - Traumatic Brain Injury.

For me, the book was moving without being maudlin, informative, and involving.

Some links to more information about the Woodruff's and the book are here, and here, and here.

Nonfiction. Memoir. 2008. 292 pages.

Without a Map

Hall, Meredith. Without a Map: A Memoir. A review book (nonfiction) from Anna, this one sat around for a long time, buried under the various stacks. Hall's story is one of lost and found. All that she lost as a pregnant teenager in the 1960's, and all that she found as she gradually sorted out her life.

Hall writes beautifully and tells a tale that rarely happens in today's society. After getting pregnant at 16, she allowed her baby to be given away, and was cast out by her family. Her story is a series of memories (essays?) and moves not in chronological time, but back and forth through the years as she gathers her strength and her forgiveness.

I remember only two girls who got pregnant when I was in high school (and there were over 800 in my graduating class). I remember because the school allowed them to attend for only a short time before they had to go somewhere else to complete school. Where? I haven't thought about this in years, but remember being stunned that the girls 1) got pregnant and 2) were not allowed to attend school. There were probably a few other girls in the same situation, but at the time, teenage pregnancy was kept secretive. Even if parents were supportive, and Hall's were certainly not, there was a huge stigma and an attempt to keep things quiet.

Hall begins her story:

Even now, I talk too much and too loud, claiming ground, afraid that I will disappear from this life, too, from this time of being mother and teacher and friend. That It--everything I care about, that I believe in, that defines and reassures me-- will be wrenched from me again.

In her community, she says, everyone knew about husbands who cheated on their wives, parents who abused their children, men and women who were lazy and irresponsible and slovenly. All of these individuals were tolerated, but when she was 16, Hall found that family, church, and school all turned their backs on her. All of the people who had embraced her, who had praised and cared for her as a child shunned her.

Hall's family, her parents were divorced and her father had remarried at the time of her pregnancy, was dysfunctional. At the time, however, she didn't realize this, and their treatment came as a shock, a disillusionment, and an isolation almost overwhelming for a teenage girl.

In this memoir, Hall relates the journey through those years and the struggle to become a person in her own right, to regain a sense of worth, to overcome her grief. In her late 30's, Hall decides to go to college, and she graduates from Bowdoin College. She currently teaches writing at the University of New Hampshire.

Her story is one of attempting to understand the events that led from 1965 to the present. Without a Map is beautifully written and introspective. It is full of blame and redemption, penance and, finally, safe harbor. While I found the first half of the book very, very good, I think it went on too long and became repetitive. Her descriptions of the 1960's and 1970's are accurate and interesting, and I admire Hall's persistence in overcoming the damage incurred, but think the book would have been better served with some judicious editing. And frankly, although I can admire Hall's willingness to take in and care for her aged and ill parents (first her mother and later, her father), it is much more than I could have mustered for people who treated her so badly.

Nonfiction. Memoir. 2007. 220 pages.

Long Ago in France (Unread Authors Challenge)

Fisher, M. F. K. Long Ago in France: The Years in Dijon. When Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher was a new bride of 21, she and her husband Al arrived in Dijon for postgraduate study. It was 1929, and for Fisher and her husband, it was a learning experience of unusual proportions in a city between wars. Language, society, and cuisine were all new, and they were young and eager.

Of this time, Fisher recalls, "It was there, I now understand, that I started to grow up, to study, to make love, to eat and drink, to be me and not what I was expected to be. It was there that I learned it is blessed to receive, as well as that every human being, no matter how base, is worthy of my respect and even my envy because he knows something that I may never be old or wise or tender enough to know."

Fisher kept two journals while there in Dijon, living in two small rooms with first the Ollangniers, then the Rigoulots, and finally, their own tiny (yet more spacious than their previous rooms) apartment in a less socially accepted area of Dijon. She describes the two families with which they boarded with great detail, love, and irritation; relates the meals shared there with attention to the dining room, the company, the conversation, and the food; regales us with the first meal she and Al experienced at the Three Pheasants with the little waiter Charles, who guided them with great tact; recalls the scents of the famous Dijon gingerbread and the snails at Crespin, "the simplest and one of the best restaurants in the world"; tells us that Club Alpin was an excuse for fresh air and "orgiastic" eating.

According to W.H. Auden, "nobody in America wrote better prose," and John Updike called Fisher "a poet of the appetites." This memoir of her youth and three years in Dijon is more casual (as I am discovering) than the writing in her first book, Serve It Forth, and much, much more personal.

Short, but fascinating, Long Ago in France allows us a peek into a vanished world.


Nonfiction. Memoir. 1997. 159 pages.

Nonfiction

I've read fewer books this year, but I have accomplished my goal of reading more nonfiction, especially biographies / memoirs:

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee (M)

Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England's Tragic Queen. Joanna Denny (B)

Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found. Suketu Mehta

Voltaire Almighty. Roger Pearson (B)

Written in Bones: How Human Remains Unlock the Secrets of the Dead. Paul Bahn

The Physics of the Buffyverse. Jennifer Ouellette

Break, Blow, Burn. Camille Paglia

Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee. Charles J. Shields (B)

Mistakes Were Made (but not by me.) Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall. Kate Bernheimer, ed.

Sword & Blossom. Peter Pagnamento and Momoto Williams. (B, letters)

Shadow Cities. Robert Neuwirth

Elizabeth and Her German Garden. Elizabeth von Arnim (semi-autobiographical)

Elizabeth of the German Garden. Leslie De Charms (B)

An Ocean of Air. Gabrielle Walker

Elizabeth and Her German Garden

Von Arnim, Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Her German Garden. While there are many elements that date this book to its publication date (1898), the characters themselves are not dated. They may use horses for travel and sleighs in winter, but Elizabeth, the Man of Wrath, and Irais are remarkably current. Elizabeth relates a year in the life of her garden and her family in journal form. Her discovery of her love for gardening is a joyful one, and she is more comfortable alone in her garden with her books than she is in social settings.

Largely autobiographical, Elizabeth von Arnim (Marie Annette Beauchamp) was born in Australia and raised in England. She married a German Count and went to live on his estate in Germany where she fell in love with the garden that provided the experiences on which this book is based. Charming.

I have a copy of her biography that I will be reading next. Can't wait!

Semi-autobiographical memoir. Originally published in 1898. 175 pages.

Sword & Blossom

Pagnamento, Peter, and Momoto Williams. Sword & Blossom. In 1982 retired school teacher Tesuko Suzuki discovered letters saved by her mother-in-law and dating back to 1904. Over 800 letters survived from her mother-in-law's correspondence with Arthur Hart-Synod, and these letters were the inspiration for the book that relates the love of affair of Arthur Hart-Synod and Masa Suzuki.

More than just a love story, these pages present insights into the world of Japan in 1904 during the early years of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance; commentary on the British military--its traditions and transformation; changing attitudes toward Japan; the Japanese war with Russia; the Manchurian campaign; British colonialism; WWI and its horrors; treatment of the wounded; the rise of Sinn Fein; the commandeering and destruction of Arthur's family home Ballymoyer House in the "Anglo-Irish War"; the design and fitting of artificial limbs; the effects of the 1918 flu pandemic that resulted in 25 million deaths worldwide and over 257,000 deaths in Japan; the destruction of Tokyo by the 1923 earthquake - 44% of Tokyo was leveled after the fires finally burned out and 90% of Yokohama was destroyed by the earthquake, fires, and tsunami; the Japanese war in China; the rise of Japan as a military state and the end of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance; Japan during WWII - propaganda and hardships; the fire bombing of Tokyo in which more than 100,000 were killed - more than died in either Hiroshima or Nagasaki in the atom-bomb raids; and the Japanese surrender.

A remarkable story, skillfully written and researched, Sword & Blossom provides a private view of two individuals from different cultures and the daily details of their lives, set in the broader perspective of the historic events of the first half of the 20th century.

The more I think about this book, the more impressed I am at the detail, personally and historically. Arthur and Masa's affair is not a Romance in novelistic terms, but a glimpse into the private lives of a military man and the woman he loved through his letters (Masa's letters were destroyed in WWII) -- ordinary people who lived through extraordinary events.

I found an interview with Momoto Williams here. Love of Reading.com is a recent discovery with some great features for book lovers and where you will find some familiar guest bloggers including Debra Hamel and Iliana from Bookgirl's Nightstand.

Nonfiction. Biographical/memoir/history. 2007. 310 pages.

All Creatures Great and Small

Herriot, James. All Creatures Great and Small. Yorkshire veterinarian James Herriot (James Alfred Wight) began his career in the Yorkshire Dales in the 1930's; he fell in love with the area and remained there until his death. His stories of his adventures with both animals and farmers are delightfully funny. Herriot's ability to laugh at himself only adds to the charm of this series of books based on his experiences.

A book that will leave you smiling and wishing you could have met James, Siegfried, Tristan, and other people and animals from the surrounding area of Darrowby. An all time favorite, re-reading it was a pleasure.

Memoir. 1972. 437 pages.