What do you read when you are on a plane? Something gripping, but not too deep. I generally don't read mysteries or crime novels, but when I fly somewhere, as I did on Monday to Albuquerque, I like that sort of thing. I read "Little Face" by Sophie Hannah, a British author. I had previously read Hannah's book "The Wrong Mother", so I knew that "Little Face" would be wonderful airplane reading. A first-time mom of a newborn is encouraged by her mother-in-law, with whom she and her husband live, to take a short break from the baby. When the mom returns home, she knows at once that the baby she sees is NOT her daughter...or does she? Hannah mixes scenes of the horror the mom is enduring with the f-word filled conversations of the police trying to solve a case that may or may not be a case. The characters all ring true.
As I always do on trips, I spent a lot of time in a used bookstore, this one in Santa Fe. I found three brand new authors to try. As I write this, I am in the business center of the downtown Albuquerque Hyatt...our room is on the 17th floor and overlooks the Sandia mountains. We got the room on Priceline.com and are driving a rent-a-wreck....and you may be thinking that with all these savings I could afford to buy some NEW books...but I love the discovery of something old yet new on the used bookstores. There are more here in Albuquerque, so I might return home with more than three books.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
The Pacific....
The Pacific...
I just watched Episode 3 of HBO's "The Pacific", which was intended to be a companion piece to the series "Band of Brothers" based on the inspiring story of a group of soldiers in the 101st Airborne by Stephen Ambrose. The book was wonderful and every time I see that a TV channel is showing re-runs of the series, I find myself watching it again. Four of my uncles fought in WWII; my dad's brother was in the Navy and was in the D-Day invasion when he was only sixteen or seventeen. My mother's three brothers were in the Army; one fought in the Pacific, and two fought in Europe. Her brother, Donald, suffered injuries including frozen feet in the Battle of the Bulge, but her brother Peter lost his life there. In 2008, Ken and I visited his grave in Luxembourg.
I was hoping that "The Pacific" would be as moving as "Band of Brothers" but so far it is disappointing. HBO cobbled together the memoirs of a few soldiers, as I understand it. So, the series lacks the unified point of view that "Band" had. Tonight's episode took place in Melbourne, Australia. One of the Marines spent an idyllic leave with the family of a gorgeous woman who climbed into bed with him. The sex scene was as artfully photographed as it is in any Hollywood romantic comedy. Well, I thought, give me a re-run of "Band of Brothers" any day.
Non-fiction books about war are so compelling that there are few authors who can manage to write war fiction that can teach or inspire. Two notable exceptions are "Tales of the South Pacific" by James Michener and "Catch 22" by Joseph Heller. "Catch-22" was made into a great film and James Michener's book was the starting point for the great Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "South Pacific". I will give HBO's "The Pacific" one more chance, but if another episode is as disappointing as tonight's was, I'll just re-read Michner, Heller, and Ambrose.
Crazy Like a Fox
Crazy Like a Fox
Lee Smith writes eloquently about people who have visions, especially concerning religion. But one of my all-time favorite books about being crazy was written by the son of the amazing Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Vonnegut. The book is "The Eden Express", which tells the true story of Mark's descent into what was then called schizophrenia. Like many children of the sixties, Mark and his friends rejected the values of their parents and sought to build a new world centered around peace, love, dope, and sharing. They left the East Coast and eventually bought an old farm miles by boat from the nearest city in British Columbia. They rebuilt the old farmhouse, grew what they could, ground their own grain, and welcomed other hippies to their commune. But Mark never felt as happy as he thought he should be. He began to feel paranoid almost all the time. He stopped being able to sleep, and had to be hospitalized. Mark Vonnegut left the hippie life behind, and today is a pediatrician. I wasn't brave enough to be a hippie. I didn't even go to Woodstock, despite living so close to that area and being the right age. I did go to some peace moratoriums at Union College while in high school, but I never would have had the courage to do what Mark Vonnegut did. His book not only tells the story of being mentally ill, but gives us a snapshot of what it was like to be an authentic hippie living on a commune in the days of peace and love.
Lee Smith writes eloquently about people who have visions, especially concerning religion. But one of my all-time favorite books about being crazy was written by the son of the amazing Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Vonnegut. The book is "The Eden Express", which tells the true story of Mark's descent into what was then called schizophrenia. Like many children of the sixties, Mark and his friends rejected the values of their parents and sought to build a new world centered around peace, love, dope, and sharing. They left the East Coast and eventually bought an old farm miles by boat from the nearest city in British Columbia. They rebuilt the old farmhouse, grew what they could, ground their own grain, and welcomed other hippies to their commune. But Mark never felt as happy as he thought he should be. He began to feel paranoid almost all the time. He stopped being able to sleep, and had to be hospitalized. Mark Vonnegut left the hippie life behind, and today is a pediatrician. I wasn't brave enough to be a hippie. I didn't even go to Woodstock, despite living so close to that area and being the right age. I did go to some peace moratoriums at Union College while in high school, but I never would have had the courage to do what Mark Vonnegut did. His book not only tells the story of being mentally ill, but gives us a snapshot of what it was like to be an authentic hippie living on a commune in the days of peace and love.
What about love?
What About Love?
Falling in love is wonderful, terrifying, exhilarating, and heartbreaking.
When I read a great description of falling in love, I want to read it over and over. "Seventeenth Summer" was written by Maureen Daly before she was twenty and published in 1942. I read this book each summer, and every time I read it I feel my heart ache for the heroine, Angie, as she finds herself falling in love with Jack. Although this book was written in the 1940's, Angie's feelings are the same ones I have had each time I have fallen in love. She is shy at first, and feels awkward with Jack, who is so much more worldly than she is. But as she realizes the depth of his feelings for her, she understands the power that love has. If you ever had to say goodbye to someone you loved who was moving away, going to a different school,going into the military, or just breaking up with you, then you will be amazed at how perfectly Maureen Daly describes those emotions.
Written by Lee Smith when she was in her twenties, "Something in the Wind" is no longer in print, although all of her other amazing books are. I have owned two copies,and lent them both out...and now, I no longer have this book. Someday, I will find it at a used bookstore(Emma, take a look for me, please!. I love each of Ms. Smith's books, but I first read "Something in the Wind" shortly after it was published in 1971, when I was in college just like the heroine of the novel, Brooke Kincaid. Brooke is recovering from the death of the man everyone thought she would marry when the novel opens. Like Angie, in "Seventeenth Summer", she has led a sheltered life, but when she arrives at a huge university, she begins to question everything about her privileged southern upbringing. Then, she meets a golf-playing, sexually aggressive, scholarship student and falls in love in that overwhelmingly insane way we can only seem to do when we are in our teens. That I want this couple to succeed so much tells me how powerfully Lee Smith connects with her readers and puts on paper the heart wrenching experience that love can be.
Do not miss any of Lee Smith's books, for each of them is unique and beautifully written.
Falling in love is wonderful, terrifying, exhilarating, and heartbreaking.
When I read a great description of falling in love, I want to read it over and over. "Seventeenth Summer" was written by Maureen Daly before she was twenty and published in 1942. I read this book each summer, and every time I read it I feel my heart ache for the heroine, Angie, as she finds herself falling in love with Jack. Although this book was written in the 1940's, Angie's feelings are the same ones I have had each time I have fallen in love. She is shy at first, and feels awkward with Jack, who is so much more worldly than she is. But as she realizes the depth of his feelings for her, she understands the power that love has. If you ever had to say goodbye to someone you loved who was moving away, going to a different school,going into the military, or just breaking up with you, then you will be amazed at how perfectly Maureen Daly describes those emotions.
Written by Lee Smith when she was in her twenties, "Something in the Wind" is no longer in print, although all of her other amazing books are. I have owned two copies,and lent them both out...and now, I no longer have this book. Someday, I will find it at a used bookstore(Emma, take a look for me, please!. I love each of Ms. Smith's books, but I first read "Something in the Wind" shortly after it was published in 1971, when I was in college just like the heroine of the novel, Brooke Kincaid. Brooke is recovering from the death of the man everyone thought she would marry when the novel opens. Like Angie, in "Seventeenth Summer", she has led a sheltered life, but when she arrives at a huge university, she begins to question everything about her privileged southern upbringing. Then, she meets a golf-playing, sexually aggressive, scholarship student and falls in love in that overwhelmingly insane way we can only seem to do when we are in our teens. That I want this couple to succeed so much tells me how powerfully Lee Smith connects with her readers and puts on paper the heart wrenching experience that love can be.
Do not miss any of Lee Smith's books, for each of them is unique and beautifully written.
My Reading Philosophy
I learned to read in 1958 when I was a member of Mrs. Read’s first grade class, in a two-room schoolhouse in Niskayuna, New York. From the moment I felt the magic of being carried away by an author’s voice, I always managed to find the time to read. If I was supposed to be cleaning my room, I was sitting on the bed reading. If I had to go and visit my grandmother, I brought a book to read in the car. To this day, I never go anywhere without a book. Books make me think, laugh, cry, feel, and help me understand human nature and history. They never argue with me. When I don't like one anymore, I don't need to say..."gee, I can't read you tonight because I am washing my hair...". Instead, I gently but firmly place it in the return slot at the library.
I have always liked read some books over and over. These are my oldest and dearest friends...."Little Women", "Catcher in the Rye", "Madame Bovary", the "Claudia" series, "Valley of the Dolls", "Jean and Johnny", "Seventeenth Summer", "Franny and Zooey", “Far From the Madding Crowd”, “A Christmas Carol”, "Gone With the Wind", "Diary of Anne Frank", "Goodbye Columbus", ALL of Barbara Pym's books, "Something in the Wind", "Catch 22", "Player Piano", "The Thornbirds", “The Risk Pool”, “The Nun’s Story”....these books have consoled me when I was heartbroken, inspired me when I needed hope, and comforted me through the rainy days of my life.
I first went to the library on the "Bookmobile", which made a stop on my street every other week. When my mother and I would go on the Bookmobile, she would let me take any book I liked. So, by third grade, I was reading adult novels. I probably read "Peyton Place" by the time I was ten. I would choose books at random, but always liked it better if a woman wrote the book. When I was a teenager and our family was invited to peoples' camps on Lake George, my mother would sometimes go to the store and pick out the fattest book on the shelf for me because I would finish books so quickly
I will devote each entry to either a book or an author and hopefully introduce some new choices to those of us who always find time enough to read. Beth, this means you!
I have always liked read some books over and over. These are my oldest and dearest friends...."Little Women", "Catcher in the Rye", "Madame Bovary", the "Claudia" series, "Valley of the Dolls", "Jean and Johnny", "Seventeenth Summer", "Franny and Zooey", “Far From the Madding Crowd”, “A Christmas Carol”, "Gone With the Wind", "Diary of Anne Frank", "Goodbye Columbus", ALL of Barbara Pym's books, "Something in the Wind", "Catch 22", "Player Piano", "The Thornbirds", “The Risk Pool”, “The Nun’s Story”....these books have consoled me when I was heartbroken, inspired me when I needed hope, and comforted me through the rainy days of my life.
I first went to the library on the "Bookmobile", which made a stop on my street every other week. When my mother and I would go on the Bookmobile, she would let me take any book I liked. So, by third grade, I was reading adult novels. I probably read "Peyton Place" by the time I was ten. I would choose books at random, but always liked it better if a woman wrote the book. When I was a teenager and our family was invited to peoples' camps on Lake George, my mother would sometimes go to the store and pick out the fattest book on the shelf for me because I would finish books so quickly
I will devote each entry to either a book or an author and hopefully introduce some new choices to those of us who always find time enough to read. Beth, this means you!
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