UNBROKEN by Laura Hillenbrand (Seabiscuit) is a hard book to read-not because of her excellent writing but because of the horrors it reveals. The book is subtitled A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. The true story of Louis Zamperini begins with his birth and his outrageous younger years, his time as an Olympic runner and ends when he is in his 90's, having survived being cast adrift in a raft during World War II and several years in a POW camp in Japan. I wrote once before about WWI and the fact that there was no acceptance of PTSD. World War II survivors faced the same situation, and Zamperini's fall after surviving his suffering during the war is tragic to read about.
I recommend it highly.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
Pat Barker
When I first read Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy, her novels of World War One, and the damaged souls who survived, I knew I had read the works of a master craftsman. Many of the characters were real, stirred in with strong fictional protagonists. A few years ago I read another of her novels, Life Class. One theme in this book dealt with a man who worked on reconstructing the horrible facial wounds incurred in that war.
I just finished reading her contemporary novel, many-layered Another World, a sometime ghost story, sometime family drama, sometime history lesson. The main protagonist, Nick, has a 101-year old grandfather,Geordie, a survivor of the Battle of the Somme. In the days after WWI, when PTSD was unheard of, what did survivors do? They were supposed to carry on, but of course it didn't work for many. As Geordie is dying, his dreams are haunted by a memories of the war. And the house that Nick and his family move into, is haunted-perhaps.
I just finished reading her contemporary novel, many-layered Another World, a sometime ghost story, sometime family drama, sometime history lesson. The main protagonist, Nick, has a 101-year old grandfather,Geordie, a survivor of the Battle of the Somme. In the days after WWI, when PTSD was unheard of, what did survivors do? They were supposed to carry on, but of course it didn't work for many. As Geordie is dying, his dreams are haunted by a memories of the war. And the house that Nick and his family move into, is haunted-perhaps.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Reading Again
I've finally caught up with my library reading list, but a heavy weight one is waiting for me at the library. So...
I mentioned Atlantic and not finishing it. It's a good feeling to be able to say, "This is a wonderful book, but one that should be read a bit at a time, to absorb everything. So I'll put it down." I listened to Simon Winchester's Krakatoa and really liked it, so maybe I'll finish Atlantic that way. Wait For Me! the book by the Duchesss of Devonshire, was definitely a look at another world, and well worth reading. I came away with mixed feelings about the Mitford family, but this is one strong woman. Having read Georgiana, the biography of the late 18th-early 19th Duchess, the comparison between the two women, the contemporary one, who has so much control of her life, and the other, really tragic woman, made the book more interesting.
Onward. I took most of yesterday off and finished The Wave, subtitled In Pursuit of Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean. Susan Casey's style may not be for everyone, but I couldn't put it down. It's divided between the people whose work takes them on the oceans of the world, and those who go there for surfing. Sounds pretty weird, but for me it works. I've never been interested in surfing, but reading about people who live for it drew me in to their lives. Who on earth would want to ride a 100 foot wave, or for that matter, a 50 foot one? The other chapters dealing with scientists searching for the causes of the waves that cause cargo ships to sink without a trace were intense. Casey writes about people searching for answers, and the opinions of many people that climate change is going to be the reason that life on the coasts of the world is going to be changing rapidly.
Having read a great deal of Atlantic just before reading Casey's book gave me a bit of a background. The combination of the two was just a little be scary.
I mentioned Atlantic and not finishing it. It's a good feeling to be able to say, "This is a wonderful book, but one that should be read a bit at a time, to absorb everything. So I'll put it down." I listened to Simon Winchester's Krakatoa and really liked it, so maybe I'll finish Atlantic that way. Wait For Me! the book by the Duchesss of Devonshire, was definitely a look at another world, and well worth reading. I came away with mixed feelings about the Mitford family, but this is one strong woman. Having read Georgiana, the biography of the late 18th-early 19th Duchess, the comparison between the two women, the contemporary one, who has so much control of her life, and the other, really tragic woman, made the book more interesting.
Onward. I took most of yesterday off and finished The Wave, subtitled In Pursuit of Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean. Susan Casey's style may not be for everyone, but I couldn't put it down. It's divided between the people whose work takes them on the oceans of the world, and those who go there for surfing. Sounds pretty weird, but for me it works. I've never been interested in surfing, but reading about people who live for it drew me in to their lives. Who on earth would want to ride a 100 foot wave, or for that matter, a 50 foot one? The other chapters dealing with scientists searching for the causes of the waves that cause cargo ships to sink without a trace were intense. Casey writes about people searching for answers, and the opinions of many people that climate change is going to be the reason that life on the coasts of the world is going to be changing rapidly.
Having read a great deal of Atlantic just before reading Casey's book gave me a bit of a background. The combination of the two was just a little be scary.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Happy New Year
I've been so busy raising Fingal I haven't read much. Have you ever noticed that wehn you request books from the library they all come in at one time? Right now I am truly overwhelmed. I have five at home and two waiting at the library. Soo. I read most of Simon Winchester's Atlantic. I am a pretty fast read but after a week I gave up on page 300 and somthing. Not that it isn't interesting it's just DENSE. The early exploration was fascinating as were the sea battles, but with the rest of the books staring at me I put it down. Now for a chnage of pace, I'm reading Wait For Me, by Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire. I have read other books by and about the Mitford clan, and am enjoying this one. Stacked up on a table are Driving on the Rim, by Thomas McGuane, one of the many fine Montana writers; Mink River by Brian Doyle, set on the Oregon coast; and the one I'll probably read next, The Wave, by Susan Casey. It's subtitled In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean. My son Andrew read it and it really freaked him out. Susan Casey wrote The Devil's Teeth, a fascinating book about the Farallon Islands.
Once again I'll have the Book Lover's Calender, from which I found so many books I might never have read otherwise.
Happy New Year.
Once again I'll have the Book Lover's Calender, from which I found so many books I might never have read otherwise.
Happy New Year.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Suggestions
I've been thinking about books I recommend and ones I'd like to get for Christmas. Here are a few I've read, that you might consider.
A different take on the vampire novel: Vlad by C C Humphreys. No teenage angst no wild sex scenes. This is a well written novel about the life of the real Vlad, full of detail, great backgound. He gives a looong list of resources, and has a glossary. It begins when Vlad is a young hostage of the Turks, and ends with, perhaps, his death. It's absorbing, and I was caught up in the story of a period when the Turks spread over a large part of eastern Europe. This is a fine book for a history buff.
Having read The Birth of Venus for my book club, and enjoyed it, I am now reading Transgressions, also by Sarah Dunant.This is a totally different sort of novel. A woman and her lover have had a rancorous separation nine months before, and now odd things are happening in the house she owns in London. She comes home to find all her CD's are stacked in the middle of the kitchen table.Later, she finds her kitchen table set for dinner, and two pots of food for her cat on the floor. Hmmm. And I'm sitting here not knowing what comes next.
Maggie O'Farrell's novel, The Hand That First Held Mine is a haunting look at interconnecting lives, and a past that shapes their future. I read till 2am with this one.
Others I'd recommend: Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain; The Hearts of Horses or anything else by Molly Gloss; Behind the Scenes at the Museum or anything else by Kate Atkinson.
Mysteries by Peter Robinson, Tana French, Fred Vargas.
Funny books by Christopher Moore, Carl Hiaason and Janet Evanovich.
Fantasy by Rodrigo Garcia y Robertson
As for books I want-the next book by any of the above.
A different take on the vampire novel: Vlad by C C Humphreys. No teenage angst no wild sex scenes. This is a well written novel about the life of the real Vlad, full of detail, great backgound. He gives a looong list of resources, and has a glossary. It begins when Vlad is a young hostage of the Turks, and ends with, perhaps, his death. It's absorbing, and I was caught up in the story of a period when the Turks spread over a large part of eastern Europe. This is a fine book for a history buff.
Having read The Birth of Venus for my book club, and enjoyed it, I am now reading Transgressions, also by Sarah Dunant.This is a totally different sort of novel. A woman and her lover have had a rancorous separation nine months before, and now odd things are happening in the house she owns in London. She comes home to find all her CD's are stacked in the middle of the kitchen table.Later, she finds her kitchen table set for dinner, and two pots of food for her cat on the floor. Hmmm. And I'm sitting here not knowing what comes next.
Maggie O'Farrell's novel, The Hand That First Held Mine is a haunting look at interconnecting lives, and a past that shapes their future. I read till 2am with this one.
Others I'd recommend: Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain; The Hearts of Horses or anything else by Molly Gloss; Behind the Scenes at the Museum or anything else by Kate Atkinson.
Mysteries by Peter Robinson, Tana French, Fred Vargas.
Funny books by Christopher Moore, Carl Hiaason and Janet Evanovich.
Fantasy by Rodrigo Garcia y Robertson
As for books I want-the next book by any of the above.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Janeites
A Truth Universlly Acknowledged is subtitled 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen. Among them are Sir Walter Scott, Anythony Trollope, Virginia Woolf and C.S. Lewis. What a lineup!
I read and reread Jane Austen because I thnk there is no other author who so describes human interaction. The language may change, but the soul is the same. I read Jane Austen to relearn how to write irony. The descriptions of characters, without giving more than an indication of how they look-wish I could do that. The book is edited by Susannah Carson, and her essay is first, followed by (gasp!) Eudora Welty, followed by many more writers, from the 18th, 19th, 20th, even 21st centuries. While Pride and Prejudice remains my favorite, I also like the more complicated Emma and the disturbing Mansfield Park. Right now, because of the intense work on my own rewrites, I'm back reading Pride and Prejudice for the umpty umph time, to soothe my battered soul.
This is a great Christmas Gift for your Janeite.
I read and reread Jane Austen because I thnk there is no other author who so describes human interaction. The language may change, but the soul is the same. I read Jane Austen to relearn how to write irony. The descriptions of characters, without giving more than an indication of how they look-wish I could do that. The book is edited by Susannah Carson, and her essay is first, followed by (gasp!) Eudora Welty, followed by many more writers, from the 18th, 19th, 20th, even 21st centuries. While Pride and Prejudice remains my favorite, I also like the more complicated Emma and the disturbing Mansfield Park. Right now, because of the intense work on my own rewrites, I'm back reading Pride and Prejudice for the umpty umph time, to soothe my battered soul.
This is a great Christmas Gift for your Janeite.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Well!
Thought you'd enjoy this. How many symptoms do you have? I DO NOT have books in my bathtub and that stack on the dining table can be easily explained.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2334878_identify-bibliomania.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2334878_identify-bibliomania.html
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