I picked this one up off our shelf of Church books one morning when I couldn’t sleep. I think I needed the boost Elder Holland gives in it. For all it’s worth, However Long and Hard the Road, by Jeffery R. Holland is essentially an extended pep talk: You can do it, keep it up, try harder, don’t give up. Which is something I really needed to hear. That, and to be reminded that everyone has trials and they’re there to make us stronger.
A much-needed (re)read for me.
Actually the full title is: Baghdad Without a Map and other misadventures in Arabia, by Tony Horwitz. I picked it up for two reasons: one, I needed a break from fiction. And two, I really have liked Tony Horwitz’s other books (well, okay, I really liked one and kind of liked the other). I wasn’t disappointed. He’s a good journalistic writer, and has fascinating adventures. I guess I still have a journalist in me somewhere, because I find myself becoming nostalgic about reporting, even though he doesn’t paint it in a very favorable light, especially in the Middle East of the 1980s. It begins with his wife being transferred to Cairo and his desire to get free-lance writing work. The book is compiled from all sorts of adventures he had and paints an interesting portrait of the people he met over three years in the late 80s. So, it’s pretty out of date. That said, it’s still pretty interesting. He goes to pretty much every Arabic country plus Israel and Iran (he was covering Kohmeini’s funeral). The only updating he does is in the last chapter, when he re-visits Iraq during the first Gulf War. I’d like to know what he thinks of the area now. It also reminded me that I once read Nine Parts of Desire by his wife, Geraldine Brooks, and I’d like to find it and re-read it again.
A while back, Amira was listing books she’s read and enjoyed. Naturally, I jotted the ones I’d never heard of (and sounded interesting) down and set about trying to find them at our limited library. Quest for a Maid, by Frances Mary Hendry is one of those.
I really liked it. I think I’m often surprised how much I like historical fiction. This one was a good Arthurian-style book: a bit of history, a bit of myth, some magic — but not overly so, and a lot of good adventure with a little bit of understated love story thrown in. I found the accent writing (I’m sure there’s a name for when the writer writes dialogue in dialect, but I’m not sure what it is) a bit disconcerting at first (I always do), but I got used to it.
The basic plot: It’s set in Scotland, though I’m not sure of the time period, my Scottish history being a bit lax. Meg, though some interesting circumstances, becomes betrothed to Davie, acquires Peem as a manservant and through the influence of her witch-sister Inge ends up on a boat to fetch the Maid of Norroway so she can marry Prince Edward of England. Of course, things go wrong, and Meg, Davie and Peem save the day. But I’m not going to tell you how; you’ll have to read it for yourself.
A good read.
Last of the backlog. I promise.
Watch with me: and Six other stories of the yet-remembered Ptolemy Proudfoot and his wife, Miss Minnie, nee Quinch, Wendell Berry
Berry is usually known for his essays on agriculture, environment and society (Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community is an excellent book, for example). But, he also writes fiction. This is a fun little book about community and marriage. I know I’ve read The Memory of Old Jack, too, but I don’t remember much about that one.
The Count of Monte Christo, Alexander Dumas
Adventure! Romance! Revenge! It’s Huge! Heard the movie sucked, though.
The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
She’s a good writer, and this was an interesting story.
The Lonesome Gods, Louis L’Amour
I was going to put this on my “all time favorites” list until the last few chapters. I was really enjoying the story about a boy’s growing up, learning, and dealing with hatred and revenge (and rising above it). That is, until the book dissolved into a bloody hunt and shootout where all the “bad guys” die. It would have been better had it not become so violent. (My father-in-law took issue with my objections, commenting, “How on earth could it have ended any other way?!”)
A Sudden, Fearful Death, Anne Perry
A good, well-told mystery set in the 1800s
The Princess, Lori Wick
I’d never read something so obviously “Christian fiction”. It was interesting. A romance – an arranged marriage and the couple working to learn to love each other – in which everyone in the book is either
praying, talking about praying for people, reading scriptures or going to church. In the end, though, the book’s just okay.
Getting to the last of the old book log. From here on out, it’s new stuff…
The Watsons Go to Birmingham — 1963, Christopher Paul Curtis: This was a terrific book — a wonderful portrayal of a black family in early 1960s Flint, MI. It was hilarious (all the way through the end): the narrator called his family the “Wacky Watsons” and they were. And it was touching especially towards the end. As a bonus, Curtis included a nice endnote about the Civil Rights movement. I loved every minute I spent reading this book.
Holes, Louis Sachar: An interesting book, and a well-written one. I really liked Sachar’s use of myth and the main character’s family history to help the plot line along. Give it time – I didn’t like it at first, but it grew on me as the story progressed.
Skeleton Man, Joseph Bruchac
A great ghost/mystery story. Girl comes home from school to the news that her parents are dead and long lost “relatives” are taking over. She doesn’t believe the “relatives” or that her parents are dead…
The Wish List, Eoin Colfer
About a girl who dies and is given a second chance at redemption by being sent back to help a man she had wrong. A really good book; better than Artemis Fowl.
The Lion Tamer’s Daughter and Other Stories, Peter Dickenson
I remember that they were good ghost stories, but I don’t remember anything about them.
The Thief Lord, Cynthia Funke
An interesting tale – runaway children on the streets of Venice – with a very interesting ending. I think it might have lost something in translation (I think it was originally written in German); some parts felt awkward.
Hoot, Carl Hiaasen
A delightfully unusual, fun little book about Florida, burrowing owls and finding friends. Loved it.
The Islander, Cynthia Rylant
A very slight book, though not a memorable one – I think I liked it, but I’m not quite sure.
Girl in Hyacinth Blue, Susan Vreeland
Interesting series of short stories, working backwards in time. All include reference to/or are about a Vermeer painting.
For lack of a better title…
The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros
An interesting little book. I liked it, though I probably didn’t understand it like the author probably meant it to be understood.
Swift as Desire, Laura Esquivel
An attempt to read Latino fiction… it was pretty good. A bit much sex for my taste, but I think in the end the story won me over.
The Chosen and The Promise, Chaim Potok
I liked both books, though I liked The Chosen better. An interesting look at Hasidic Judaism and its relationship to other Jewish factions and the rest of the world. The Asher Lev books are also excellent books by Potok. I have also read The Books of Lights, In the Beginning, Davida’s Harp and I am the Clay, but not for a very long time. So I don’t remember what I thought of them.
Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God’s Wife, Amy Tan
I generally like Amy Tan, but her books are just different versions of the same story. It gets old after a while. Joy Luck Club is a good movie, though.
The Hundred Secret Senses, Amy Tan
My favorite Amy Tan book, mostly because it’s not about a Chinese-American daughter coming to terms with her Chinese immigrant mother. It’s a decent story of reconciliation, with a bit of ghost story thrown in.
Books you’d most likely find in a traditional English Lit class…
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
I remembered really liking this one the first time I read it. I didn’t like it so much the next time, but perhaps because I went through a phase and read them all back to back. This was near the end and I was probably Jane-Austened out.
Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen
I didn’t particularly like this story. Perhaps I ought to re-read it sometime.
Nicholas Nickleby, Charles Dickens
A good story (that falls apart at the end), but I, for one, need to remember that Dickens wrote for the serials and to make money by publishing his stories. This is not a novel that I could read chapter after chapter in one sitting. I needed to parse it out. Still, now I can say I’ve read something by Dickens. (I have a problem with the way he portrays women, but that’s another issue.)
Room with a View, E.M. Forester
It’s been years since I’ve read this, and I still think it’s an excellent little, silly portrait of English people in love with Italy. The movie’s just as good, too.
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
I hated it in high school…but liked it much better as an adult. Though I still think it would have made a better short story.
Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
I read this one because it was referred to in another book I read (the title escapes me now) where the character praised it. I thought since I’d never read any Hemingway why not start with this one. I realized about half way through that Hemingway is one of those authors for whom the style of writing is more important than the story. I finished it, but I wasn’t thrilled by it.
Daisy Miller, Henry James
A short novella – and an intriguing story about a young American woman in Europe and her lack of “propriety” that eventually leads to her downfall, of sorts. An interesting commentary on propriety and its place or lack of place in society.
Washington Square, Henry James
Of the two James books I read, I liked this one better. The heroine, while not exactly likeable, was more sympathetic, and I was glad for the choices she made through the course of the novel. She showed strength of character and resolve.
Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
This has been sitting on our shelf for years, and I finally got around to reading it. An interesting book, though a bit pretentious. Vonnegut seems to be like Hemingway: more concerned with the way things are written rather than what it’s about.
The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant is a very earthy book. It’s also a very, well, female book. It’s all about menstration and childbirthing and I’m not sure why any man would care to read this one. It’s not a bad book… there were some elements that I like. It’s the story of Dinah, and through her the story of Leah and Rachel and Jacob and Joseph. I liked the younger Dinah years, before things got, well, complicated. I liked that Diamant spun out a viable and interesting story to compliment the account in the Bible. I didn’t particularly like the whole pagan Mother Earth Goddess thing, but I suppose if you’re writing a book about Biblical times, the whole Mother Earth Goddess thing is going to come up. I also didn’t (and this is my Mormon theology coming out) particularly like her treatment of Jacob and Joseph. It wasn’t a great book, but it didn’t really suck either.
I don’t really know what to say about The Moorchild, by Eloise McGraw. It was the 1997 Newbery honor book. It’s about a half-fairy child that grows up with the humans for a while before she realizes who she is. The dedication says “to all children who have ever felt different” and I guess that’s what the book is about: celebrating and learning to deal with being different from others. It’s an okay book. I enjoyed reading it; I just wasn’t super-thrilled excited about it.
Fish, by L.S. Matthews suffers from a case of non-identification. You have no idea if the author is male or female (the copy I had from the library didn’t have the usual dust jacket with information about the author), and you have no idea whether “Tiger”, the main character, is male or female. For some reason, this bothered me. The book’s simple enough: a family of aid workers in a war-torn country need to get out and into a country friendly to their country (the countries aren’t identified, either), the border’s closed at one entry and so they have to climb over a mountain to another entry. The fish of the title is one Tiger picked up and carries throughout the journey. Which actually doesn’t take too long. Or is too hard. It’s not a walk in the park, but it’s not really devastating either. I think the book was supposed to be written as a metaphor for hope and faith and resilience. But I just didn’t get it.
The Book Nut 