Songs of the Humpback Whale, Jody Picoult

Songs of the Humpback Whale by Jodi Picoult

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I liked it very much, liked the interesting way it was told, and how she let you know what was going to happen. It was a sad book, and I cried at the end. The characters who survived all had life changing experiences and difficult lives and love, and isn't that what life is all about? This is a good story, with adventure, thoughtfulness, change. I wish I had time to write real review, but I do not. I hate spoilers, except when they are an intended part of the book,so I won't say what happens. Suffice it to say that Jane and Rebecca, Jane's daughter, start out on a cross-country trip after a fight with Jane's Marine biologist husband Oliver and guided by letters from Jane's brother Joley. And they find adventure aplenty. Good times and bad.



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Firefly Beach, by Luanne Rice

Firefly Beach by Luanne Rice

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This story was excellent and emotionally engaging--I really enjoyed it. It centers around the relationships of a woman and her sisters, mother, and a boy she met through strange sad circumstances as well as how the past comes back to haunt and maybe free them. The editing and grammar were particularly poor, though. I don't want to say too much about the plot because I hate spoilers, but the story is good. I would give it a four or 4.5 for plot and a 2 for editing.



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Testimony by Anita Shreve

Testimony by Anita Shreve Mary's review Aug 20, 10

rating:

This is not a happy book, but it is excellent and thought provoking. It tells the story of a "mistake" involving 5 students and two adults at a private school from the point of view of each of the students, the parents, teachers, headmaster, and other characters. The consequences of the mistake, which is of a sexual nature, are far-reaching and devastating. It might be slightly overdone, but probably not. It's pretty amazing. I don't want to spoil it. The voices and characterizations are very well done. I really enjoyed/appreciated this book.

White Horses, by Douglas Milliken

White Horses by Douglas Milliken

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Dreamlike and druggy, poignant and sad, deeply disturbing, a wonderful read. This group of stories is so poetic as to be almost prose poems. Reading it makes life seem unbearably sad, yet deeply important. Excellent!

I asked Douglas Milliken a few questions:

Q: White Horses is so powerful. It clutches me, wrings me out, leaves me with a deep melancholy. what kinds of syntactical choices did you make to inject it with such utter sadness? (or, how did you do it?)

A: To answer this by means of a tangential anecdote: in the process of refining WHITE HORSES for print, Andy (Lyman, of NaDa Publishing) and I have developed a pretty close relationship. We get together a few times a week. We ride bikes out of the city and into the woods. We make asses of ourselves in public. During each of these little get-togethers, Andy updates me that another reader has contacted him by one means or another to tell him that, if nothing else, the book has left them weeping. In one instance, the reader (a close friend) called him in tears the moment she was finished reading. She got the book in the mail, read it straight through, wept and called him weeping. Which is very overwhelming! My objective in writing--not just WHITE HORSES but any story or poem or song, in drawing a picture, in cooking dinner for a friend--has always been to simply create a scenario wherein someone--anyone--might feel something. Feel anything. Just feel. WHITE HORSES definitely explores some dark and challenging territory, so I'd assumed that people would have a melancholic response. But actual tears? I'm blown away every time another report comes in. I don't know how I did it. I had read an interview with Gary Lutz around the time I first started writing WHITE HORSES. There was a lot of discussion on his process, which I found really inspiring. The way he writes a story like a stonemason building a wall. Only one stone can fit between all the others. Only the correct works will tell the story correctly. Any substitutes are just filler. I know I did not come anywhere near the expert finesse of Lutz, but then again, I wasn't aiming to. I was pushed by the idea of Lutz's work, not the possibility of recreating it. I was also morbidly depressed while writing WHITE HORSES. It was a cold winter, and the woman that I lived with was slowly falling out of love with me, which was sort of like watching a car crash in slow-motion. I was haunted by nightmares of her and my brother and all the other people I loved disappearing or being murdered or simply leaving me. I think WHITE HORSES was my attempt to create something that might possibly make all these bad things better. Like I could weave a safety net out of words. Like I might be able to save what little I still had. I think all these desperate factors together created a sort of poetry.

Q: White Horses seems to be a series of dream-like yet very realistic stories. It's also very poetic. Yet it somehow hangs together, almost like a novel. How would you define it, or, would you prefer not to?

A: I don't know of any succinct term that can sum up whatever literary form WHITE HORSES might be. "Interconnected short stories" doesn't seem to cut it. A patchwork novella? Whatever. I'm not terribly concerned with labeling my work. From a traditional writer-publisher standpoint, being unable or unwilling to define what you do is almost always a near-fatal pitfall. Luckily, NaDa is not traditional by any way, shape, or means. Andy read the manuscript and immediately got behind it. There was no real talk about its potential marketability. There was no conversation as to how it should be defined. As far as either of us was concerned, WHITE HORSES was label enough.

Q: Would you say that your writing was more "psychological," as in, a pouring out of angst or more "constructed," as in the stone by stone you refer to "above?" If angst, do you feel that your previous training as a writer allowed you to construct your outpouring in such a way that it has such incredible impact?

A: Well, I've never been the sort who writes for the sake of therapy. Writing can be a valid way of coming to terms with events, but rarely is that the sort of thing anyone would want to read. The first story that I wrote was the title piece, which came out of a conversation with my ex about how I was suddenly able to afford life insurance but not health insurance, that I was worth something dead but not necessarily worth anything alive. The next piece was "On Marriage," which was based on a dream. Then came "XXVI," which was based on the horror of accidentally revealing yourself. We're all so embarrassed about ourselves! It hurts when we can't hide who we are. Inexplicably, these three stories--told by different people about very different circumstances--all seemed of a whole to me. These voices were all singing the same song. I began to imagine an alternate version of myself and an alternate version of the woman who I considered to be my wife though we were in no legal sense married. What would I be like if I gave myself up completely to my dreams and my fantasies? What would it be like to live with and be married to someone like that? I pushed my current circumstances to an extreme to see how horrible it could become. I could have taken it much further. Maybe I should have. Maybe I wimped out. But I grew to like these people, who had at some point become unique individuals, no longer stand-ins but actual people in their own right, if only in my own mind. I loved them. I didn't want to hurt them any more than I already had. I saved them from their circumstance when I could not save myself from mine.

Q: When revising the work, did you revise most for poetic construction, plot, character, or emotional impact. I realize you probably wanted to maximize all of these, which you did successfully, but how did you make choices as to what to leave, what to cut, what to embellish?

A: There were two entire stories that didn't make the cut. Andy never even saw them. Neither was strong enough to hold its own weight. "Naked Light" almost got axed as well, because the language was originally really opaque and clunky. I'm glad I was able to save it, though I still consider it the least-readable portion of the book. Ten minutes before we sent the final manuscript to the printers, I was still making edits to that story.

None of the changes made were for the sake of plot because it isn't a plot-driven story. A lot of the re-reading focused on consistency in tone and rhythm. If something sounded wrong or felt wrong in my mouth, it needed to be fixed. A lot of attention was given to making sure the female character was real and rounded and believable, partly because of her limited air-time but mostly because of the simple nature of my own maleness. Female characters are hard for me. I tend to construct them with more care and attention than the males. I still don't think she's as complete as she could be. Certain things are universal among all people, but some things aren't. You can't just shrug off these considerations.

More than anything else, though, I wanted to make sure that there was no point in the story where anyone could ever say that these two people (or any of the auxiliary characters, for that matter) aren't full of love, that they do not love one another. Things get bad and things get worse, and all the crazy mean destructive things they do to each other, they do out of love. People do horrible things while screaming "love love love," and people do beautiful things while singing the same dumb song. It's probably a really cheesy theme to emphasize these days. I hope it doesn't come across as cheesy.

View excerpts from White Horses here.

This is a great book, a wonderful, startling, fascinating rad, and you can get it now for 15% off through August 13. See coupon below:

Read more about it here at the book's website!

Read another interview here at Thoughts in Progress.

Nora Nora, by Anne Rivers Siddon

I just finished Nora Nora, by Anne Rivers Siddon, and absolutely loved it! Excellent, poignant book, deal with relationships, love, betrayal, education, poverty, racial issues, through the eyes of a twelve-year-old girl. (Not a kids book!)

My 73rd book of 2010.

Scat, by Carl Hiassen

Fantastic! Right up my alley, maybe his best book yet! I loved it! This book deals with so many issues: environmental, honesty, relationships, trust, education, endangered animals, making good choices, and it does it all in an engaging and spell-binding way. I recommend it highly. :-D

Liesl says, "They [Hiassen's YA books:] are all, however, a little redundant. Same characters, same setting, same basic issue, same story format. You can predict it all." I felt that way...more Scat, by Carl Hiassen, finished 8-9-10

Fantastic! Right up my alley, maybe his best book yet! I loved it! This book deals with so many issues: environmental, honesty, relationships, trust, education, endangered animals, making good choices, and it does it all in an engaging and spell-binding way. I recommend it highly. :-D

Liesl (at Goodreads) says, "They [Hiassen's YA books:] are all, however, a little redundant. Same characters, same setting, same basic issue, same story format. You can predict it all." I felt that way after I read the last one, FLUSH, although I enjoyed the book very much anyway. But this one struck me as different enough from the others to be worthwhile. Yes, they all look at environmental issues, but each issue is different, with different problems and solutions required. It's true they all have "happy endings," but we don't know exactly what the ending will be or HOW THEY WILL GET THERE, and therein lies the fun!

My opinion is that kids need to read a LOT of these books so they are aware of the problems in the environment, the possible solutions, and the kinds of choices that can solve the problems vs. the kinds of choices that make them worse.

Some idiots are building an illegal oil rig on state land and discover a "panther" there and shoot at it to get rid of it, because it's endangered and would draw the game warden etc and conservationists, and they separate the mama from its babies, one of which dies--a dreaded bio teacher, a weirdo and a misfit kid try to reunite the baby with its mother and all kinds of stuff comes down --exciting.

This is my 72nd book of 2010.

I won a book at Thoughts in progress!

I won a book at Thoughts in Progress. YAY! It's the third book I won. Triple YAY! And the time spent there is worthwhile because I learn about books, which is a favorite subject of mine. The posts there are very interesting.

The Lake Shore Limited, by Sue Miller

When I saw this book at the library, I almost didn't pick it up. I was thinking some previous book by this author had left a bad taste in my mouth, but I couldn't remember which. I decided to get it anyway, and I am delighted that I did! It was one of the best books I've read in a long time. It is honest, thought provoking, human, difficult, unhappy and happy and realistic and good.

The entire book revolves around the play, The Lake Shore Limited, which is about a terrorist attack on a train in Chicago. The book examines the play and its effects from the point of view several sets of people, all of whose lives become intertwined. Leslie's brother Gus, the playwright's boyfriend, was killed in 911. Leslie introduces Sam to Billy, the playwright. Sam's wife died of cancer. Rafe, the lead actor in the play, has a wife dying of Lou Gherig's disease. Doesn't sound like the making of a very happy book, and indeed, it is not a happy book--and yet it is. It looks hard at tough choices and the aftermath of those choices. I liked it very much. The characters are well-defined with good and bad points, and all thoughtful people. They are not the horrible callous people so many current novels seem to feature.

I went back and looked at the list of books by Sue Miller and could not discover why I thought I didn't like her--I must have mixed her up with someone else. Now I am anxious to read more of her books.

My daughter just reminded me that I didn't like one with a woman remembering her days in a hippie house that ended with an awful murder and contemplating adultery in her current life, While I Was Gone. UGH! I knew I had a bad taste in my mouth! NOW I'm not sure if I want to read more or not. One excellent, one horrible. OH dear, who will I know whether to read more?

The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath

Today, I finished The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath. I read it before, many years ago, and really liked it, but this read through, I found it fairly depressing, though I liked it better and better as I went through it. I didn't really remember much of it at first, but the more I read, the more I remembered. I was listening to the audio book version, and the CDs were out of order. I didn't realize it, so they came up all disjointed and I had to start over--it was pretty disturbing.

The Bell Jar is fairly autobiographical of Sylvia Path--she calls herself Esther Greenwood in the book--and she tried to commit suicide (which, of course, later she succeeds, Sylvia, I mean). I used to believe I was like Esther (and Sylvia), but now I don't think as much. She ends up in an asylum and has electroshock therapy. The details in her book are very well-written.

I had been doing quite well reading lots of books, early, but we've had health issues and the computer's been on the blitz taking lots of time trying to get it working again. :-(

I haven't been writing many reviews because I've been too darn busy, and this isn't really one, either.


Booklist 2010

1. The Blue Roan Child, Jamieson Findlay, Jan 2, 2010
   
2. The Indian in the Cupboard, Lynn Reid Banks, Jan 2, 2010
3. Summer on Blossom Street, Debbie Macomber, January 3, 2010
4. Angel Rock, Darren Williams, January 4, 2010
5. Angel City, by Tony Johnston and Carol Byard, Jan 7, 10 (read twice)
   
6. I Can Make You Thin, by Paul McKenna
7. A Passage to India, E. M. Forster, Jan 12, 2010
8. The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver, Jan 15, 2010
9. Back on Blossom Street, Debbie Maccomber, Jan 19, 2010
10. Home, Marilynn Robinson, January 20, 2010
11. Housekeeping, Marilynn Robinson, January 25, 2010
12. Where Angels Go, Debbie Macomber, 1-31-10
13. Muggie Maggie, Beverly Cleary, Children's, 2-1-10
14. Animals in the Snow, Margaret Wise Brown, Children's, 2-2-10
15. The Sunday Philosophy Club, Alexander McCall Smith, 2-3-10
16. The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath, rr, 2-10-10

rr = reread

Four for Four, being bad

Well, I've started my new booklist for 2010 and as of yesterday, I was four for four--that is, in four days, I'd read four books. Of course, two of them I'd started last year, and of course, I spent well over eight hours riding in the car back from NY. It was a harrowing trip, so I couldn't concentrate well all the time, but I still got a LOT of reading done.

I won't be reading a book a day as a regular thing, though! I have too much else to do. AND I am reading a long book.

Booklist 2010

Book's I've finished in 2010 so far:

1. The Blue Roan Child, Jamieson Findlay, Jan 2, 2010
   
2. The Indian in the Cupboard, Lynn Reid Banks, Jan 2, 2010
3. Summer on Blossom Street, Debbie Macomber, January 3, 2010
4. Angel Rock, Darren Williams, January 4, 2010

I am currently reading:

1. A Passage to India, Forster
2. The Lacuna, Kingsolver

and a whole bunch of other books including two how-to writing books and some self help type diet and health books and two other Kingsolver books etc etc.

I am also too busy right now to write any reviews of these books. Suffice it to say that I liked all four of them (and the two mentioned above that I am currently reading.)

(I am "bad" because I have been spending too much time reading when I have other things I need to attend to!)

We Were the Mulvaneys

We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
We Were the Mulvaneys, by Joyce Carol Oates. This is an expansive book covering the lives of six people in the Mulvaney family and their extended family and friends. It's a sad and heart-rending book, a book of joys and sorrows. An event happens early in the book, beyond the control of anyone in the book, that negatively affects the entire family. The book chronicles the disintegration of family and bonds and entire lives due to this one event.

I felt that too many words filled the book. Other than that, it was a very interesting, engaging read. Slow starter, but then got very good.

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I am very excited becasue this is my 53rd recorded book of the year (I think I may have missed a few) and that makes more than a book a week. YAY!

The Business of Writing for Children, by Aaron Shepherd

The Business of Writing for Children: An Award-Winning Author's Tips on Writing Children's Books and Publishing Them, or How to Write, Publish, and Promote a Book for Kids by Aaron Shepard


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Business of Writing for Children, by Aaron Shepherd. YAY! I finished another new book! As the year draws to a close, I am conscious of all the different books I am in the middle of reading—all at once.

This is a short book, 110 pages. But it is jam-packed full of helpful information for writers or would-be writers of children’s books. I am a writer, but not a published writer, of a number of children’s book who hopes to become published. I found the book interesting and useful with lots of good examples of manuscripts, query letters, promotional materials and so, and good references. It’s a quick and easy read, but worth it.

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The Secret of the Cupboard

The Mystery of the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Goodreads ATE MY REVIEW! I am so frustrated because I took all this time to write a nice review and Goodreads ATE it and spat out an empty window. Now I have to start all over and I have other things to do so I cannot write as thorough a review.

I liked this book very much and recommend it to anyone who likes children's literature and fantasy. It's spell-binding and enthralling.

Unfortunately, it is a sequel, and I hadn't read the previous books, and it referred back to them constantly. This got very annoying, but I guess that's not the author's fault. She probably assumed people had read the earlier books in the series.

Omri's Mom inherits a house that belonged to her Uncle Frederick, who she never knew. Turns out it previously belonged to his great great aunt who was the first to call back the little people. But her journal, which he finds as the roof is being rethatched, reveals a terrible secret or two.

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Tea Time for the Traditionally Built

Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Could a book that is slow-paced where little happens, compared, say to a Douglas Preston/Lincoln Childs crime novel, be a good book? In this case, very much so. This is a relaxed, slow-paced, pleasant, cheery and inviting novel about Precious Ramotswe, the proprietor of the Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency in Botswana. It's the tenth book in a series, and I read it out of order, but I enjoyed it anyway. I thought it had a loose end, or I would have given it 5 stars instead of 4. It's an internationally best-selling book. It takes place in Gaborone, Botswana, where the AIDS epidemic is the highest in the world. Many people referred to in the book ate "late." But life goes on, and there are problems with the football team being on a losing streak, so the lady detectives, who do not follow football (in this case, soccer), are hired to find out why. And the tiny white van bites the dust and Violet tries to steal a finance and a woman named Lily has a problem with too many husbands. All of this is quietly addressed over tea and various goodies. What better way to address problems? And do the ladies succeed in solving problems? I don't believe in spoilers! You'll have to read the book to find out. Suffice it to say I enjoyed it very much. It was a postive educational experience.

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This was my 49th book of the year--So I will hopefully be averaging about a book a week by the end of the year--maybe a little more.

The Cassandra COmpact

The Cassandra Compact by Philip Shelby


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Cassandra Compact, by Robert Ludlum and Philip Shelby

Jon Smith is sent to rescue Yuri Danko, who has called the secure line and asked to be extracted. Danko has a piece of terrifying news, but before he can tell Jon, he is cut down in a spray of gunfire by assassins. Smith deduces that someone is out to steal a sample of smallpox from the Russian cache of bioweapons and perhaps manipulate it to make it more virulent. This is a face-paced, exciting and scary book. Lots of action and shoot-em-up. Not exactly my thing, but I did enjoy it.

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Free Food for Millionaires

Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Free Food for Millionaires, by Min Jin Lee, 4+

Casey Han had a scholarship to Princeton; otherwise, she'd have been unable to attend. Her time at Princeton gave her "No job and many bad habits," and a hunger for a lifestyle far above that which she could afford or had been used to with her immigrant Korean parents who ran a laundry service in Manhattan. Through Casey's eye's we see New York as experienced by the poor and the rich. Casey is offered several divergent opportunities and has to choose between independence or indebtedness in different ways. She loves hats, clothes and shoes, and these get her into trouble. This richly textured narrative covers not only Casey's life, but the lives of her parents, friends and lovers, and all the complex interweaving of love, friendship, betrayal, heartbreak, and rekindling. This book that made me laugh and cry. It's touted as being about the "immigrant" experience, but I say it is about the HUMAN experience.. An excellent book. Close to a 5 in my mind. I really enjoyed it. finished 10-13-09

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The Wheel of Darkness by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

The Wheel of Darkness by Douglas Preston


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Wheel of Darkness, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child have written another exciting, spellbinding and upsetting book, one that I didn't want to put down from the beginning to the end. It was interesting engaging. Special agent Pendergast of the FBI and his ward, Constance Green are weary of the world after their last upsetting adventures, and go to a Tibetan Monastery to be healed. But someone has stolen the dangerous Agogen which could destroy the world, and the monks ask Pendergast to retrieve it. A simple assignment, it seems, until the thief is murdered and additional strange bizarre murders begin to occur about the maiden voyage of the huge cruise ship Britannica. I enjoyed the book, and was very interested in the meditative practices, but I was deeply saddened by a change that occurred in this book from all previous books. In every other book, I coudl trust two things: that at least Pendergast would survive and that whatever bizarre happening was occurring, their would be a logical explanation for it in the end. However, I began to suspect that that would not be the case in this book, and, disappointingly, I was correct. This means I can never trust them again to not go off the deep end.

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Tyrannosaur Canyon, by Douglas Preston

Tyrannosaur Canyon by Douglas Preston


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I just finished Tyrannosaur Canyon, by Douglas Preston, clearly my favorite book of his so far. I think. I am always excited when I am reading a good book, but I think this was the best yet. My reasons are partially negative ones. There were no gory, gruesome murders in this one, and fewer killings than in the others I've read. However, I think he still describes dying in a lot more detail than is necessary.

The story begins with a murder--just not a terribly gruesome one. Bad enough, of course, but not like in Brimstone and Still Life with Crow. The man who is murdered is a "treasure hunter," secretly looking for the big dinosaur. He is skilled at what he does, and finally, after a lifetime of searching, he has found it, only to be mowed down by someone else who wants the credit of the discovery.

Unlike in previous books, we know who the villains are immediately. But there is no paucity of action and suspense. It, like all of Preston's books, is another page turner.

I like the scientific aspect of it. I like learning about the dinosaurs and geologic history. I take it all with a grain of salt, of course, but I've read enough to have some idea what might be true. I recommend this book to almost anyone, it's the least horrible of all of them so far and very interesting and exciting.

I really like the characters of Tom Broadbent and Wyman Ford. All the characters seem very well rendered to me.

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Secret Water

Secret Water by Arthur Ransome


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is not quite as adventurous as some of the other Swallow and Amazon books, but it is very good. There is excitement and danger and no adults nearby. Lots of friendship and warring and good fun. The Swallows are marooned on a "desert island" where there are savages ("the eels") and friends (the Amazons) and given a mission--to map the secret water. It looks like they might not succeed. The ship's baby, Brigitte, volunteers to be a human sacrifice. A good read.

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Blasphemy, by Douglas Preston

Blasphemy by Douglas Preston


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Of all of the Preston books I've read so far, this one is my favorite. I love both science and religion, and the clash between them fascinates me. In most of the book, there is not the kind of gruesome ghastly murders in some of the recent Preston books I've read. However, it does get pretty gruesome and ghastly at the end. Like all the Preston and Preston and Child books, it hold the reader's attention from the very first. There are NO boring first chapters or first half the book. The reader is sucked in as into a black hole. I found it both highly interesting and highly entertaining.

Wyman Ford, ex-CIA operative and ex-monk gone PI is hired to investigate the Isabella project, a giant particle accelerator in the Arizona desert. The 12 scientists are exploring the big bang and some religious fanatics take issue with the government spending 40 billion dollars to attempt to disprove genesis. An old love interest of Wyman Ford's is one of the scientists involved. I hate reviews that give away the plot, so that's where I'll stop. I thought the entire thing was excellent including the ending MINUS the violence.

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