Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, by David Sedaris

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One reason to read a book of essays about another's quirkily normal family, written with a sense of humor and a laugh at life's foibles is to reassure one that our family is no better or worse than any other family, that the things in our lives that we eventually laugh at are the same things that others laugh at. To that end, David Sedaris has written Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls in such a way that the reader can fully relate with Sedaris's family. Most of the essays deal with his family, childhood, health, and politics.

The book begins with "Dentists Without Borders," in which he describes visits to a French dentist. "Memory Laps" swimmingly wanders from, well, swimming, includes his grandmother moving in with the family and weaves his father's obsession (?) with the Osmond Brothers, among other bits of family history.

There are several places where the essays drag a little, making the reader feel like telling Sedaris to hurry it along or, worse yet, skip to the next essay. But for the most part, the book is well worth the read.

Disclaimer: This is a review of a book that I won from Goodread's giveaway program. Check out the program (located under the "explore" tab) for your chance to win books!

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Atria Books: A Booklovers Sampler, by Jamie McGuire

Atria Books: A Booklovers Sampler by Jamie McGuire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I won this book from the Goodreads Giveaways program; sign up with Goodreads, find their Giveaways program (at the down arrow next to the Explore link) for your chance to win cool books!

Have you ever browsed through a bookstore, found an interesting looking book, read a page or two, bought the book, then found that either: a) you happened to pick what apparently were the most brilliant two pages of the book and that the rest left you cold, or b) the rest of the book was as good as, if not better than, the two pages you read and that you now have to buy every book by this author? C'mon, if you're anything like me, you know that both scenarios have happened to you at least once. And while certain edited compilations have been interesting, while leaving out long blocks of texts, they're not quite what you're looking for.

Atria Books: A Booklovers Sampler, by Jamie McGuire is a wonderful way to read more than that page or two of several books without overwhelming the reader. The premise is that the reader gets a decent section of the book, ranging from four pages of one chapter (Colleen Hoover's Slammed) to a fourteen page segment of two chapters (The Sea of Tranquility, by Katja Millay). (The other book segments in this sampler were fro Jamie McGuire's Beautiful Disaster, Love Unscripted, by Tina Reber, Naked, by Raine Miller, and One Tiny Lie, by K.A. Tucker.)

Each segment was enough to really get a feel for the book that it came from without overwhelming, leaving the reader either wanting more, while knowing that yes, it would be worth the price, or thankful that it wasn't a longer segment. However, the samples were chosen in such a way that each segment prompted me to want to buy the entire book that the segment came from.

Both Atria Books and Jamie McGuire have a hit with Atria Books: A Booklovers Sampler. I look forward to reading other samplers from Atria Books, as well as the entire books that subsequent segments are from.

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When Katie Wakes, by Connie May Fowler

When Katie Wakes by Connie May Fowler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have been a fan of Connie May Fowler since reading Before Women Had Wings maybe ten years ago. Blame it on Oprah Winfrey: this was one of the books Oprah mentioned that I decided to read. After reading Ms. Fowler's heart-wrenching book, I was instantly hooked on her writing.

In When Katie Wakes, Ms. Fowler tells her amazing story of breaking free from years of abuse with the unconditional love of her dog, Katie. While Before Women Had Wings was fiction dealing with domestic violence, When Katie Wakes is Fowler's memoir. In it, she chronicles the emotional and physical abuse she endured growing up. However, the majority of the book deals with the abusive relationship with a man thirty years her senior and how she managed to escape.

Early on in the book, she adopts Katie, a wonderful dog who, as dogs are known to do, gives unconditional love. It is this love that eventually gives Connie the strength to leave.

Many who read this memoir might be tempted to ask "What did she (Ms. Fowler) do to warrant this abuse? Why didn't she just leave?" Both are the wrong questions, no matter who is being abused, the age of the abused and abuser, the gender(s) of those involved, etc. The first question needs to be replaced with "Why did he/she abuse him/her?" The second question has many answers: financial, emotional, family situation, lack of services (including shelters), as well as a number of reasons. Rather than blaming the victim, we should marvel at the courage it takes for the victim to leave.

Courage is what Connie May Fowler eventually shows in this stunning memoir. While Katie's unconditional love helps her gather her courage, Ms. Fowler was also fortunate to have someone who, near the end, gave her hope. Between the two, Ms. Fowler was able to fully gather the strength and courage to escape.

This memoir is a must-read for anyone who wants a reason to cheer someone discovering her bravery.

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Finally Home: Lessons On Life From a Free Spirited Dog, by Elizabeth Parker

Finally Home: Lessons On Life From A Free Spirited Dog by Elizabeth Parker
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The past decade or so have seen numerous books come out in groups: Jane Austen books (those with Jane Austen in the title and/or as an updated version of an Austen book), animal books (following the success of Marley & Me, The Art of Running In the Rain, and Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, and, more recently, vampire books.

Having read several books from the animal genre, including the much-loved Marley & Me, I decided to read Finally Home: Lessons on Life From A Free Spirited Dog, by Elizabeth Parker. (Disclaimer: It helped that it was temporarily on the "free Kindle book" list.)

Parker and her fiance found themselves the owners of a rambunctious Golden Retriever name Buddy. Buddy had gone through several owners before winding up with the couple. It didn't take the two long to figure out why he had worn out his welcome with previous owners; he was a handful. Almost half-way through the book, the couple adds a second dog, Brandi, in the hopes that a buddy for Buddy would calm him down. Eventually, the two dogs bonded.

While I kept hoping for another Marley & Me or Glenn Plaskin's Katie Up and Down the Hall, Finally Home never quite jelled. While Buddy seemed like an energetically amusing dog, the book lacked a decent path to follow. It seemed not much more than one amusing anecdote after another. Parker's obvious love for Buddy, and later, Brandi, come through. However, while John Grogan (Marley & Me) wove how Marley came into his family's life and became part of his family, and Plaskin was able to show how Katie was the thread that wove several unrelated families into a larger family, Parker's book has little flow beyond the "we bought Buddy, anecdote, anecdote, ... , we bought Brandi, anecdote..." I wanted to love the book, and while I found parts of Finally Home funny, Parker would have served her readers - and Buddy - better by showing how Buddy became part of her life and her family.

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Katie Up And Down the Hall, by Glenn Plaskin

Katie Up and Down the Hall: The True Story of How One Dog Turned Five Neighbors into a Family by Glenn Plaskin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Over the past decade or two, it seems that similar groups of books have been published in a relatively short span of time, usually following the popularity of one particular book in each genre. People rediscovered Jane Austen, and suddenly, Jane Austen knock-offs appear: Jane Austen in Boca, Jane Austen in Scarsdale, Bridget Jones' Diary, and Jane Austen Ruined My Life, among others.

Another example is the run of books dealing with families' pets, following the popularity of John Grogan's Marley & Me. Katie Up and Down the Hall: The True Story of How One Dog Turned Five Neighbors into a Family, by Glenn Plaskin is one of those pet books.

Glenn Plaskin had moved into an apartment in New York City and wanted a dog. As luck would have it, he was introduced to Katie, a beautiful Cocker Spaniel who would soon become his dog. (Okay, I should add a disclaimer here: The photo on the book's cover caught my attention, since my beloved Cocker Spaniel, Osha, had died several years earlier.) Katie soon found that if she wandered "up and down the hall," she would have friends to play with, feed her treats, and hang out with, thus helping neighbors on the same floor to meet each other and become an extended "family."

While this sweetly written book may not be everyone's cup of tea, if you enjoyed reading Marley & Me, there's a good chance you'll enjoy this. While Grogan set the bar for pet stories at 5 stars, Katie... ranks a good, solid 4.

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Caught, by Jane Schwartz

Caught by Jane Schwartz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Interesting book that, on the surface, deals with the world of pigeon chasers in Brooklyn during the 1950s. Louie is a young girl who is introduced to pigeons on roof-tops through her brother and brother's friend. When the group is found stealing birds from a man who stole from them, Louie is the only one officially caught, then dragged to the local pigeon store. After this trip, Louie meets up with Casey, who owns a large flock in the neighborhood. The late-30s Casey needs a chaser, and hires Louie on.

The surface story deals strictly with the birds, Louie and Casey's relationship on the roof, and Louie's family's concern about Louie's time on the roof. As with any decent story, though, there are various layers to sift through.

While the ending may be inevitable, the events leading up to the last page will stick with the reader, making this a book to read, set aside, and read again at a later time.

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A Woman's Eye, by Sara Paretsky

A Woman's Eye by Sara Paretsky
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What is better than reading a short mystery? How about a book-ful of mystery shorts?

Sara Paretsky, of V.I. Warshawski fame, edited A Woman's Eye, a book of short mysteries; she also wrote the introduction. It is not the only book Paretsky has edited; she followed it with Women On The Case (1996) and Sisters On The Case (2007).

In A Woman's Eye, the reader finds stories by Faye Kellerman, Sue Grafton,Sara Paretsky, Dorothy B. Hughes, and others. While many readers may find one or two stories not to their liking, most of these are well written and satisfying.

Definitely worth reading!


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Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of "To Kill A Mockingbird"

Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Mary McDonagh Murphy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When one considers how popular Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird is, it makes sense that someone would write a book celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of its publication. Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of "To Kill A Mockingbird," by Mary McDonagh Murphy is that book.

Murphy explored To Kill A Mockingbird and asked others how Harper Lee's book affected them. While it might be tempting to compare the two books, this would be an injustice to Scout, Atticus, and Boo; it would be analogous to comparing an art appreciation book with DaVinci's work. But Murphy's book does help the reader understand how loved Lee's work is.

Definitely a must read for anyone who has loved To Kill A Mockingbird.

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Two Appalachian Trail Books

Ever notice how you can go through life without reading a book on a particular subject, then suddenly find yourself reading several books on that subject in a short period of time? I've been doing that with books about the Appalachian Trail; more specifically, books by people who have walked the A.T.

Several years ago, I'd read a short article about someone who'd walked the A.T. and was immediately intrigued. Since then, I've periodically thought, If only... Many of us have dreams of what we'd do if only we didn't have a full-time job, mortgage, etc. That is where books come in; we can live vicariously, whether through a good novel, an interesting memoir, or whatever genre we've chosen for our next read.

Recently, I finished reading AWOL On The Appalachian Trail, by David Miller. I'd stumbled onto it while trying to find books for a Kindle, then started reading it when nothing else grabbed my attention. After finishing AWOL, I was excited enough about the whole A.T. experience to jump into reading Three Hundred Zeroes, by Dennis Blanchard. (My next read will probably be A Walk In The Woods, by Bill Bryson; it's been sitting on one of my book shelves for a while...) But getting back to AWOL and Zeroes...

In 2003, David Miller walked away from a job as a computer programmer to hike the Appalachian Trail. "...I broke the news to my boss. He said, 'If you need to have a midlife crisis, couldn't you just buy a Corvette?'" According to Miller, several thousand people decided to walk the Appalachian Trail (the AT) in 2003; eighty percent didn't make it. The trail's length (2,172 miles) undoubtedly had something to do with that.

Miller left Florida the end of April, 2003 to walk the trail, leaving his wife and three daughters for several months. Throughout the book, the reader learns many things about hiking the AT. First off, there are several kinds of hikers on the trail: thru-hikers, who walk the entire length of the trail at one time; section hikers, who walk a particular section of the AT; and day hikers, who simply walk a day's-worth of trail. Miller spent a good portion of 2003 as a thru-hiker.

Another thing one learns is that most hikers end up with trail nicknames. Miller nearly chose Corvette as his trail name (after his boss's comment), but decided on AWOL. (Apparently, there were other AWOLs at other times on the AT.)

Throughout, the book, AWOL/Miller describes his trip in descriptive detail; the reader gets a sense of travelling with him, experiencing what he experiences...except, maybe, the blisters which threaten to end his hike about half-way through it. Fortunately, a visit to a doctor, followed by a round of antibiotics and several days' rest (known by hikers as zero days, since they put zero miles on the trail). Miller also introduces the reader to other thru-hikers: Superman and Torch, Stretch, Tipperary, Elwood, Doc and Llama, Ken and Marcia, as well as several people in different towns and hostels who interact with thru-hikers.

There are many reasons why AWOL On The Appalachian Trail is the perfect AT book. At the beginning of each new section, Miller has a map showing the section of trail included in the chapter ahead so that the reader has a clear idea the section he's describing. He has also included numerous photos throughout the book, giving us a better look at the area. His descriptions of the trail, his exhaustion, the side trips into different towns, the other hikers, the entire experience, give the reader the distinct feeling of being there with Miller.

The second book, Three Hundred Zeroes by Dennis Blanchard, is also a very readable book, though not without a few minor problems.

The first problem - and the one that probably worked my last nerve - was Blanchard's habit of reducing people to objects. "I met a woman that was a thru-hiker; she was married to a man that was only a day-hiker." Objects are that or it; people are who or he/she.

Another problem was that Blanchard started the book by describing hooking up with an Appalachian Trail group in Florida, then wrote about the meeting, buying gear, how much some of the gear cost...While it was nice having a little background, this section seemed to slow the book down a little.

Also, where AWOL seemed to go in depth into the experience and nuances of hiking the Appalachian Trail, Blanchard seemed almost to skim through places. But that may simply be that I'm comparing two different styles of writing.

At first, I had wondered about the book's title (Three Hundred Zeroes). Part-way through Blanchard's hike during 2006, he had to head home; it turned out he needed artery bypass surgery, which lead to 300 days of recouperating before going back to complete his hike, hence 300 zero-miles days.

While some of Blanchard's book seems to wander away from the trail, giving the reader too much non-AT information (as well as the whole "that" rather than "who"), there are good points to Three Hundred Zeroes. First of all (I loved this from a personal point of view), Blanchard's home base is from Florida, and does write about places I'm familiar with. When he and a friend flew back in 2007 to finish the hike he'd started the year before, they flew out of St. Pete/Clearwater Airport. It was here that one of the funnier episodes in the book took place. (Blanchard's writing - at least in this book - shows off his sense of humor.)

When Blanchard describes getting to the St. Pete airport with his soon-to-be hiking partner, the reader is liable to laugh out loud. He describes "[going] through the usualy gyrations involving the Homeland Security shakedown...All we had were carry-on items. At the peek-a-boo bag inspection machine they found that Brendan had a serious terrorist weapon, a 20 oz. jar of unopened peanut butter. This was serious cause for alarm and it seemed that at any minute Brendan wouldbe whisked away to Guantanamo...As his accomplice, the staff took a dim view of me as well...[The] jar of peanut butter was a security risk...I was carrying my hiking pole, a potential deadly weapon...and nobody looked twice..." It gets even funnier before they get around to leaving the airport.

While I definitely found Miller's book more descriptive about the AT hike, both books had definite merits and are both worth buying. If, like me, you are unable to hike the Appalachian Trail, grab hold of these two books for the vicarious pleasure of hiking through them.

Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry, by John Piper

Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry by John Piper
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: This reviewer received this as a free Goodreads giveaway book.

Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Pleas to Pastors for Radical Ministry, by John Piper, is, no doubt, a much needed book got pastors leading their congregations. If not, it is unlikely that Piper would have come up with a new edition of his book were it not needed by many pastors. And while I'm not a pastor, but what would be referred to as a lay-person, I attempted to read this as a pastor.

That said, I had a rough time reading past the first two chapters. The first chapter begins

 "We pastors are being killed by the professionalizing of the pastoral ministry.  The mentality of the professional is not the mentality of the prophet.  It is not the mentality of the slave of Christ.  Professionalism has nothing to do with the essence and heart of the Christian ministry."

This explanation may be valid if one uses the argument that a professional is merely out for money, rather than acting as a spiritual guide for a congregation. However, according to World English Dictionary, one definition for profession is "1. an occupation requiring special training in the liberal arts or sciences, esp. one of the three learned professions, law, theology, or medicine.". If a pastor has not acquired the knowledge with which to lead his or her congregation, then the people of that church will be as leaderless as though the pastor were absent. One need not be looking for a quick dollar to be a professional paster; professional and pastor are not opposites.

The second chapter ("Brother, God Loves His Glory") starts out making God sound like an egotistical being, rather than a loving God who wants the best for His creation/children.

The chapters following the first two did have some good advice. However, if the new edition of the book was the first time one has read Piper, it might be easy to give up quickly and not get past the first two chapters. Add to that the fact that several denominations are allowing women in leadership roles, and the idea of call all pastors brothers may be a further turn-off.

The remainder of my disclaimer: having grown up in the Episcopal church - a denomination that tends to lean slightly to the left - this may have colored my views on reading this book. In all honesty, I believe that there is a place for this book, most likely in the more conservative Christian denominations. But for those of us who tend to be a little more liberal, this may be a bit difficult to read.

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Moonlight Masquerade, by Jude Deverau

Moonlight Masquerade by Jude Deveraux
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Reading Jude Deveraux's Moonlight Masquerade, my first thought was that this isn't your Grandma's romance novel.

Romance novels are not something I normally gravitate toward. My Aunt Elsie, my grandmother's sister-in-law, used to devour romance novels, then frequently pass them along. As a teen, I could never get into them; everything was too predictable. The heroine was usually naively sweet, the hero frequently border-lined on bad boy status. The hero had been hurt and needed a good woman whose love would somehow heal him; of course, Miss Naive was that woman.

Moonlight Masquerade was on Goodreads' giveaways link recently. Since I'd never read any of Jude Deveraux's work, I entered to win a copy. Technically, I didn't win, but several copies were sent to non-winners, which is how I got a copy.

Ms. Deveraux spins an enchanting tale. Sophie Kincaid has been jilted and runs to Edilean, a town that her friend Kim Aldredge describes as heaven on earth. Once in town, Sophie's car dies; as she walks away from the car, she is nearly run over by someone in a sports car. Of course, she must seek revenge against the driver, even if it is only by dumping a pitcher of beer over his head.

Of course, it turns out that Sophie has just dumped beer over the head of Kim's brother, the bitter Dr. Reede Aldredge...and Sophie's new employer.

Of course, things get more interesting...If you're a fan of romance novels, this one is a sure hit. And for those of us who tend to steer clear of the genre, Jude Deveraux's handling of the story still makes for an interesting read, the one to read on a lazy day at the beach.

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Alas, Babylon

When Randy Bragg receives a telegram from his older brother, Mark, the words Alas, Babylon jump out at him. As boys, the Braggs used to listen outside Fort Repose's African-American church and listen as the Preacher would utter those same two words throughout his sermons to warn the congregation of horrible things waiting those who went astray.

Pat Frank's novel, published in 1959, tells of a world pushed over the brink of a war so horrible that it sets civilization back a thousand years. Yet this is no Mad Max or any other sci-fi appocalypse book; it was based on what could potentially happen had the Cold War heated up.

Meeting up with Mark, Randy learns a horrible truth: career military man Mark has reason to believe that the world is about to topple over the edge to a horrific war. Handing Randy a sizable check, Mark tells his brother that his (Mark's) wife and children are flying in to Fort Repose in an effort to survive.

The family is barely in Randy's house when the war begins. The book then takes the reader into a fast-paced tale of What If the unthinkable happens.

While the book is over fifty years old, it is well worth the time to read it.

Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake

Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, by Anna Quindlen; 4 of 5 stars

Anna Quindlen has a knack for making the mundane interesting, letting the reader know that every day stuff is both universal yet individualistic. Her book Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake is no different. A former New York Times columnist, Quindlen has written essays here that explore different facets of women's lives.

In her essay Advice to My Younger Self, Quindlen writes, "It’s nothing short of astonishing, all that we learn between the time we are born and the time we die. Of course most of the learning takes place not in a classroom or a library, but in the laboratory of our own lives...[These lessons are] clear only in hindsight, frequently when some of its lessons may not even be useful anymore." That is how life is for all of us, yet it takes a true wordsmith to write this truth so succinctly.

While I've loved Quindlen's fiction since stumbling upon Black And Blue years ago, this was one of my first forays into her essays. As I read Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, I found myself occasionly thinking, "Yes! That's it exactly!" In her essay Faith, she mentions that when we're kids, days seem to fly by while the years crawl but that when we're older, it's the reverse: the days crawl by as the years fly. While I'd instinctively known this, I'd never given it much thought. For most of us over a certain age - well beyond our teens - all we have to do is look back over our lives to realize how true this is.

Well worth the read.

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World Book Night

Did you know that today marks the annual World Book Night? If you answered No, don't feel bad; neither did I. But according to an article in USA TODAY, it is! According to the article, World Book Night happens on April 23 because it's Shakespeare's birthday. (And yes, I know: if you click on the link that says Pop Candy, you'll see a darkening globe with last year's date; no matter; the time on the article was posted this morning.)

On Saturday, April 20, USA TODAY published their weekend picks for book lovers. The list consists of: The Victory Season: The End of World War II and the Birth of Baseball's Golden Age, by Robert Weintraub, The Fever Tree, by Jennifer McVeigh, How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who's Sick, by Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Your Survival Instinct Is Killing You: Retrain Your Brain to Conquer Fear, Make Better Decisions, and Thrive in the 21st Century, by Marc Schoen with Kristin Loerg, and Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, by Therese Anne Fowler.

So, celebrate World Book Night. If the books on USA TODAY's list don't sound appealing, pick another book - even if it happens to be Dr. Seuss's classic Green Eggs And Ham!

Operating Instructions:A Journal of My Son's First Year

Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year by Anne Lamott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Most readers I know - and I'm including myself here - tend to classify writers and books, even if it's on a subconscious level: there are writers we absolutely love, those we can't stand, and those we're neutral about.

Since discovering Anne Lamott's books maybe ten years ago, I've absolutely loved her writing. There are one or two of her books I couldn't get into, but that's fine, since most of what she's written is wonderfully quirky. She has this really funny, left-wing way of looking at things, not unlike my point of view, not to mention a touch of drama-queen-ness that I love.

That said, I'd been meaning to read Operating Instructions: A journal of My Son's First Year, her book about her first year as a single mom, for a while. I'm not sure why I hadn't read it completely when I first heard of it. Maybe it was the fact that my kids are grown, so it's been forever since I've dealt with a baby. But considering her son Sam is now an adult, with a child of his own, that argument was a little weak. So, I broke down and decided to give it a go.

Wow, what a book. Operating Instructions moves with the speed of a small brook, meandering slowly along, rather than with white-water-rapids speed. It was taken from the journal Lamott wrote during Sam's first year. We learn that Sam spends some time being a little colicky, which works his mother's last frayed exhausted nerve and we feel her frustration. (Fortunately, she discovers how to help Sam through this.) We see him roll from front to back for the first time. We see everything Lamott goes through, her family and friends helping out, her wonderful sense of humor and irony, her love for Sam...everything.

All in all, Operating Instructions is a good book to read for anyone who's ever had children, thought about having children, knows children, and loves funny, left-wing liberal parents. I have a feeling I'll be reading Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son's First Son, the book she wrote with Sam about his son. I'm looking forward to it.

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To Kill A Mockingbird

Here is another repost from my blog Life In The Left-Hand Lane (http://life-in-the-left-hand-lane.blogspot.com).

I'm a writer, and I'm also a reader. I feel that the two are strongly connected; most of the writers I know also read a lot. Some of us touch base periodically to get caught up on books, articles and stories we've read: "Just started reading..." "Oh, I read that last month. Loved it; couldn't put it down," or "I really couldn't get into to at all because...Finally had to put it down."

I've picked up several books - and enjoyed them - on the word of other writer/readers. I've also felt better knowing that someone else whose writing I enjoy and whose opinion on good books is similar to mine says that he or she really couldn't get into whatever book I found lacking.

Most of us have favorite books that we go back to time and again. One of my favorites is Harper Lee's classic, To Kill A Mockingbird. I just finished it again for the umpteenth time this morning. The copy I put back on one of my many bookshelves is easily the tenth (or more) copy I've owned; I tend to reread it until it falls apart. One copy that I'd bought did manage to get gift-wrapped and sent to my mom several Christmases ago; that one doesn't get added to the count.

"Thanks for sending To Kill A Mockingbird this year," Mom said when she called. It had been years since she'd read it, and had been meaning to pick up a copy. Several weeks later, she called to tell me it was better than she remembered. I'm always glad when the two of us agree on a book; reading is one of the loves she passed on to me.

One of the many things I frequently find interesting in Harper Lee's book is how she manages to tie Atticus Finch's thoughts on Mrs. Dubose's bravery at the end of Part I to the fight Atticus faces in Part II. While Mrs. Dubose's thoughts on Atticus's defending Tom Robinson are a reflection of many of the townspeople's sentiment - as well as the nation's sentiments on race during the 1930s, they are drastically different from Atticus Finch's sentiment, as well as that of several of the people who fit prominently in the book. Atticus Finch may have been appointed to defend Tom Robinson by the court; however, he intends to actually defend the innocent man.

But back to what Atticus says about Mrs. Dubose: After he returns from her house and tells Jem and Scout that Mrs. Dubose has died, he says that she was the "bravest person I know." Why? Jem wants to know. How can Atticus say this, when Mrs. Dubose held such different views from his own? It turned out that, while dying, she was addicted to morphine for the pain from her illness and she wanted to come off it before she died. Courage, to Atticus's way of thinking, isn't "'...a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her...She was the bravest person I know.'"

Before and during Tom Robinson's trial, Atticus tries his hardest to win Tom's freedom. Miss Maudie tells Jem and Scout afterwards that while the verdict was a foregone conclusion - the American South, 1930s, a black man's word against a white man's word - that Atticus was the only lawyer in the area who could keep a jury deliberating for as long as it did. Afterwards, Atticus intended to appeal the verdict. True, this may be something lawyers are supposed to do, but considering the time/place/race issue, many lawyers may not have pushed the issue. Atticus knew, going in, that it would be an up-hill battle, but he was even more courageous than he had given Mrs. Dubose credit for.

The ending - when Bob Ewell attempts to kill Jem and Scout, only to die by falling on his own knife as the reclusive Boo Radley rescues the children - is as moving as the rest of the book.

The somewhat battered copy is now back on the bookshelf, and will be retrieved in another year or so to be reread.

Repost from Life In the Left-Hand Lane

This is a repost from one of my other blogs, Life in the Left-Hand Lane (http://life-in-the-lelft-hand-lane.blogspot.com), dated December 29, 2012:

I love to read. Always have. I blame my parents, in a good way. Between bedtime stories, watching both Mom and Dad reading a wide variety of books in their spare time, and receiving books for birthdays, Christmases, and just because, I learned that books were to be explored and enjoyed. A person can learn a lot from books.

It was on one website that I frequent that I learned about another cool site called Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com. Maybe you've heard of it. Or not. But on Goodreads, a reader can keep track of books she or he has read, is currently reading, wants to read (oops, must add the Narnia series!), learn about what others are reading, what others feel are must reads and what can be passed on. One can connect with friends on the site and get emails when books (and comments on these books) are added to friends' lists.

At the moment, I'm reading several books, a habit I got into as a kid during summer vacation. Getting home after the last day of school, I'd grab a stack of five books, read the first chapter of the first book, stick in on the bottom of the stack, read the next book's first chapter, then the next book...You get the idea. When I'd finish one book, it would go back on the bookshelf, another stuck into its place, and the reading would go on. By mid-summer, I might be on chapter one in one book, chapter ten in another, five in the third...Drove my mother crazy.

"How do you keep all the stories separate?" she'd ask. Just do, I'd tell her. She'd wander off, sighing, happy, I'm sure, that at least I was reading.

"I wouldn't worry about it," my grandmother told her when she relayed it during one of Grandma's visits. "I used to that all the time." Then, as an afterthought, she added, "I still do." If it was good enough for Grandma...

Two of the books I'm currently working on are Seasons of Real Florida, by Jeff Klinkenberg, and Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, by Anna Quindlen. Both are interesting reads, similar in some ways, way different in other aspects.

Klinkenberg's Seasons..., as with his other books, is a collection of his columns first published in the Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times). He introduces the reader to all sorts of interesting characters and Florida locales. His writing makes the reader think that Klink has the perfect job: wander the state, meet cool people, see cool places, and then write about them. Jeff, if you ever decide to retire, please put in a good word for me at the Times!

Quindlen's Lots of Candles... is also a collection of short essays. (She wrote for the New York Times for several years; several of her non-fiction books are collections of some of these essays.) Her essays tend toward her observations on life.

In one of the essays in Lots of Candles..., she mentions being a control freak, to the point of having a local anesthetic when having a hysterectomy. The surgeon, knowing a control freak when she saw one, told Quindlen that she would not be allowed to talk while the surgery was going on. I really had to laugh while reading Quinlen's description of being a control freak, as I've been there. I, too, tend to be a bit of a control freak, as well as a bit of a slob.

An aside: When Paul was alive, he played Felix Unger to my Oscar Madison; we used to joke that if anyone ever did a remake of The Odd Couple using a married couple, we'd be perfect. While I'm not enough of a slob to be on an episode of Hoarders, it's only because I am a control freak. And maybe the two apparent opposites feed into each other: I can never keep my home as neat as my mom used to, or as neat as I'd love to, so why bother? But then the control-freak-ness kicks in and...

There have been times when I've been in my friend Kevin's cab and told him that I wanted to go somewhere, then proceeded to tell him exactly how to get there. Kev will usually give me a look and ask who I think is doing the driving. If I mention wanting to be in control, he'll tell me that I'm simply neurotic. Nothing like having someone know you too well...

Kevin reads a lot, too; over the years, I've noticed numerous books in his cab. (Cab driving does give one down time between calls.) He's recommended several books, and I've told him about several, even handing him a copy of Elie Wiesel's Night, a book he devoured in a day or two before passing it on. (It was an extra copy and I'd told him to pass it along.)

Paul was a reader, too, liking a variety of books from Tom Clancy and mysteries to short stories. But there were several times when I'd buy a book for myself, put it on the table, then not be able to find it later. "Oh, I started reading it," Paul would say. "You really need to read this: it's great!"

We'd discuss books, what we were reading, what stood out in the book, what inspired us for a variety of reasons...

It's a rainy Saturday, the last weekend in the out-going year. I intend to do some house-cleaning (it's that control-freak thing), but I also intend to get royally lost in a couple of books. Will I read about more quirky Floridians? More Quindlen musings? AWOL on the Appalachian Trail on my Kindle? Who knows...maybe all three. It'll drive Mom nuts, but at least she'll take comfort knowing I'm reading!

Banned Books

This past weekend, I managed to do some cleaning. Family was coming for Easter dinner, so I figured I'd at least tidy up a little.

There were piles of paper on the table and in various places around the house. Putting them in one main pile (now on the table), I glanced through them. Some of the stuff got thrown out. But among the keepers was a list of banned books that I'd printed up a while back, and it got me to thinking about, well, banned books. A tee-shirt carried by one of the progressive (read left wing) catalogs that arrive in my mail box with some regularity states "I read banned books." I really would like to buy it sometime, because I do tend to read banned books. Tell me what I can and can't read, and I'm likely to get a little cranky.

Anyway, the list got me thinking: Is there any one place to find a list of banned books? Of course, the answer is a resounding Yes. I know, you might very well be thinking, "You could Google up banned books," which is exactly what I did.

One list, put out by the American Library Association, gave a list of Banned and Challenged Classics. It has taken Radcliffe's Rival 100 Best Novels List and simply put on the ALA's site the classics that were banned and challenged. According to the site, "The titles not included may have been banned or challenged, but we have not received any reports on them. If you have information about the banning or challenging of these (or any) titles, please contact the Office for Intellectual Freedom."(1, 2; see below for links)

Curious, yet, as to what these banned classics are? Here's how I plan to do it: I will list Radcliffe's Rival 100 Best Novels List (found at http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/radcliffes-rival-100-best-novels-list/ and on the ALA's page), then put an asterisk (*) next to the books on this list that the ALA says have been banned and/or challenged, as well as boldface the banned/challenged titles. This way, you won't have to read through two lists. (Again, the ALA's banned/challenged list comes directly from the R.R. 100 Best Novels List.

Radcliffe's Rival 100 Best Novels List

1. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald *

2. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger *

3. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck *

4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee *

5. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker *

6. Ulysses, by James Joyce *

7. Beloved, by Toni Morrison *

8. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding *

9. 1984, by George Orwell *

10. The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner

11. Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov *

12. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck *

13. Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White

14. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce

15. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller *

16. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley *

17. Animal Farm, by George Orwell *

18. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway *

19. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner*

20. A Farewell to Arms,by Ernest Hemingway *

21. Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad

22. Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A. Milne

23. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston *

24. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison *

25. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison *

26. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell *

27. Native Son, by Richard Wright *

28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey *

29. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut *

30. For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway *

31. On the Road, by Jack Kerouac

32. The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway

33. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London *

34. To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf

35. Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James

36. Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin *

37. The World According to Garp, by John Irving

38. All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren *

39. A Room with a View, by E.M. Forster

40. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien *

41. Schindler’s List, by Thomas Keneally

42. The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton

43. The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand

44. Finnegans Wake, by James Joyce

45. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair *

46. Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf

47. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum

48. Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence *

49. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess *

50. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin *

51. My Antonia, by Willa Cather

52. Howards End, by E.M. Forster

53. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote *

54. Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger

55. The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie *

56. Jazz, by Toni Morrison

57. Sophie’s Choice, by William Styron *

58. Absalom, Absalom!, by William Faulkner

59. A Passage to India, by E.M. Forster

60. Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton

61. A Good Man Is Hard to Find, by Flannery O’Connor

62. Tender Is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

63. Orlando, by Virginia Woolf

64. Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence *

65. Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe

66. Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut *

67. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles *

68. Light in August, by William Faulkner

69. The Wings of the Dove, by Henry James

70. Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe

71. Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier

72. A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

73. Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs *

74. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh *

75. Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence *

76. Look Homeward, Angel, by Thomas Wolfe

77. In Our Time, by Ernest Hemingway

78. The Autobiography of Alice B. Tokias, by Gertrude Stein

79. The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett

80. The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer *

81. Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys

82. White Noise, by Don DeLillo

83. O Pioneers!, by Willa Cather

84. Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller *

85. The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells

86. Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad

87. The Bostonians, by Henry James

88. An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser *

89. Death Comes for the Archbishop,by Willa Cather

90. The Wind in the Willow, by Kenneth Grahame

91. This Side of Paradise, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

92. Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand

93. The French Lieutenant’s Woman,by John Fowles

94. Babbitt, by Sinclair Lewis

95. Kim, by Rudyard Kipling

96. The Beautiful and the Damned, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

97. Rabbit, Run, by John Updike *

98. Where Angels Fear to Tread, by E.M. Forster

99. Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis

100. Midnight’s Children, by Salman Rushdie

How many of these have you read? I know I've read quite a few of the books on this list. I also know that there are many more books that have been banned over the years that are not on this list of classics. I've also read many of those "non-classics" that have been banned. Will I continue to do so? You'd better believe it! Will I read a book simply because it's been banned? Maybe. But a good book is a treasure, whether it's been banned or not.

So, if you're looking for another book to read (I'm hoping you're already on Goodreads.com), check out this list, find one you've been meaning to read, and get started. Happy reading!



1. The link for the quote, which was on the American Library Association's website, can be found at http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics.

2. ALA's quote also has a clickable link to email the Office for Intellectual Freedom. That email address is oif@ala.org.

How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly, by Connie May Fowler

Connie May Fowler writes hard truths in beautifully gritty prose. The beauty lies in the beautifully crafted wording which paints a vivid picture. At the same time, the story propels the main character through a hard life - sometimes horrifically so - to a place where the reader knows that life will be better.

My first experience with Ms. Fowler's writing was several years ago with her book Before Women Had Wings. The book deals with child abuse, alcoholism, domestic (partner) violence, suicide, and abject poverty from a child's point of view. Avocet Abigail Jackson - better known as Bird - weaves a tale so difficult, yet mesmerizing, that a reader will almost want to put the book down, but will have a hard time doing so. It is only at the end of Bird's story that Bird and her older sister Phoebe, both of whom are white, are sent with their black neighbor, Miss Zora, to fly off to a better life.

Ms. Fowler's biography, When Katie Wakes, describes her life while living with "a man who was bent on destroying her, physically and emotionally."(1; see below) It is through the unconditional love of a dog (Katieland) that Ms. Fowler gains the confidence to leave.

In October, 2011, Connie May Fowler was at the St. Petersburg Times' Festival of Reading (now the Tampa Bay Times Festival of Reading) to promote How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly. I purchased a copy on the strength of her book Before Women Had Wings, and seriously meant to read it immediately. Unfortunately, I've only recently read the book.

The first few pages of the book - a book which takes place exclusively during the summer solstice - made me a little edgy. Clarissa Burden has a bad case of writer's block. Her distant and somewhat abusive husband, Igor "Iggy" Dupuy, an Afrikaner, photographs nude women (when he isn't taking them to bed), while letting the women think that Clarissa is his housekeeper. He treats Clarissa horribly, attempting to control her every move, even as she's their main financial support. I spent the first few pages thinking, "Honey, you really need to kick that jerk out!"

However, after Iggy decides to leave for "business" in town, Clarissa's growth begins. She takes her pickup truck, which seriously needs to be traded in on almost anything, out to run errands of her own. This includes getting rid of the huge pile of garbage that Iggy has placed in both the cab and bed of the truck, a truck which gets sold to a man she's nicknamed Cracker Barrel. The book gets stranger/more interesting as Clarissa's day progresses. When she gets home (with a beautiful yellow El Camino), the reader catches another glimpse into Iggy's abusive treatment of his wife: he treats her shabbily, then orders her to take back her new vehicle and to bring back the truck.

As with most of Ms. Fowler's books (at least the ones I've read thus far), it is in the last section of the book that Clarissa finally catches a break - a break that, along with her growth during the book, grants her her freedom. Iggy and Clarissa are atop a fifty-two foot fire tower, and...Clarissa lives with no serious injuries, a traveling carnival's Money Dog survives because of her, Iggy - a man nobody likes - is arrested, and Clarissa's writer's block is gone. How?

You'll have to read the book.

(1) Quote from Connie May Fowler's website: http://www.conniemayfowler.com/Syn_Katie.html Read more at How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly by Connie May Fowler
My rating on Goodreads: 4 of 5 stars

Talk Before Sleep

I'm in the middle of rereading Elizabeth Berg's Talk Before Sleep. It was the first book by Berg that I'd read, years ago, purchased at what had been my favorite bookstore (Brigit Books in St. Petersburg, which has long since closed). Since then, I've reread it several times; it is probably my favorite of Berg's books that I've read to date.

Talk Before Sleep is the story of friendship, told from Ann's perspective. Ann and Ruth first met at a party. Ann was immediately put off by Ruth's good looks; she soon discovers, though, that Ruth has an honesty that is even more breath-taking than her looks. However, Ruth soon discovers she has breast cancer, which ends up spreading; by the end of the book, it has killed her.

There are no actual chapters throughout the book, instead leaving a gap between segments. The book dances back and forth between the past and the present. The present follows the story of Ruth's dying and death and how her group of friends - a group of women who are as different a $1,000 cashmere sweater and a comfortable t-shirt - reacts to her illness and death, as well as each other. Ruth's boss, Sarah, is the "kind of woman who can wear a perfectly tailored silk dress to take out the garbage and not spill a single thing on it...management material through and through," while L.D. "is a football-player-sized woman I've never seen in anything but checked flannel shirts and bib overalls..." Meanwhile, the flashbacks tell how Ann and Ruth met, their developing friendship, and what happens in their lives as they inch forward to the final illness.

While a review in Kirkus states that "Berg...offers a sappy tale about a woman witnessing the death of her friend..." (https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/elizabeth-berg/talk-before-sleep/), and NYU School of Medicine's Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database states that "Unfortunately, like many books with much pathos, Talk Before Sleep often missteps into the territory of bathos...the book is mortally flawed in its two-dimensional portrayal of men..." (http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=1150), there are other sites that give the book positive reviews (http://www.storycirclebookreviews.org/reviews/talksleep.shtml , http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/talk-before-sleep ). While the men in this book might not have been as three-dimensional as the women are, I felt that it was due more to the fact that the book dealt with women's friendships during profound illness than about rounding out characters that one only sees in the periphery.

Meanwhile, for those of us who have either experienced a medical scare ourselves or of friends and family members, this book rings true in its story.

Please Look After Mom

Some books get a lot of positive press, or, at least, decent press, which turns out to be completely true. Then, there are those with the aforementioned positive press that, for whatever reason, are difficult to get into. Please Look After Mom falls into the latter category.

The different chapters appear to be written with a different character as the main person trying to find Mom, but in a stilted way. The first segment is in the third person: you go to see Mom, you wonder where Mom is, Mom is proud of you, you tell Mom...It feels more like an exercise one might find in a college writing class: "And please, write your story consistently in the third person..." The second chapter was similarly written, but with another of the lost woman's children as the central character, looking for Mom.

The premise is interesting enough: Mom has gotten lost while heading somewhere by train; her adult children must find her. Written by a more skilled writer, it could have been spellbinding. However, the stilted writing detracted from the book enough that I had trouble reading it. Granted, it may have been the fault of the translator; however, I doubt it.

If you have one book to buy this month, find another one. Borrow this one from your local library; then, if you find it more enjoyable than I did, buy it. Otherwise, find something that you're sure to enjoy for years to come.

Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin
My rating: 2 of 5 stars



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Jeff Klinkenberg

Jeff Klinkenberg has the perfect job for a writer, or, rather, a writer interested in everything Florida. By this, I mean that if a Florida writer loves seeing parts of Florida that most of us don't get a chance to see on a daily basis, loves meeting every-day-people who make their home within the confines of this strangely quirky state, loves to read books based in Florida, and want to write about all of the above, Jeff has the perfect job.

I first read Jeff's writings in the Tampa Bay Times when it was still the St. Petersburg Times. His Sunday columns describing anything and anyone from the ends of the Florida Keys to the northwest corner of the panhandle were - are - wonderfully written pieces on the nuances of whatever or whoever he's writing about.

Lately, I've been working my way through Seasons of Real Florida, one of his books where many of his previous columns eventually land. It isn't the first book of his that I've wandered into. The first time I'd picked up one of Jeff's books was while taking my first grad level class at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. Gary Mormino, recently retired, was one of USFSP's Florida Studies' founders, along with Ray Arsenault. That first grad class with Gary was the History of Modern Florida, a title my sons found amusing, to say the least.

"History? Modern?"

No matter, I explained. If it happened yesterday, it's history.

At one point, Gary asked the class to get hold of at least one of Klinkenberg's books, spend a good part of the week reading it, then letting the class know the following week what we thought. Gary even managed to hand out copies of Jeff's books so that students wouldn't have to track down copies.

"So, what did you think?" Gary wanted to know the following week. We were all amazed, amused, and fairly entertained by Jeff's writing. I'd read through Dispatches from the Land of Flowers. One of the first essay, titled "Good Times at the Desert Inn," begins with an order: "You got to have some of my chili!" The Desert Inn is located in YeeHaw Junction, or was when the article was first published in November 1994. Apparently, one could "spoon your chili,...munch your frog legs...(and) gaze in wonder at Beverly's rattlesnake skins..." (p. 17). It gets more interesting from there. After all, a state that can boast the likes of Miami, Orlando (with Disney World, et al), Tampa, and YeeHaw Junction, with its interesting people, must have something to it.

Another article in Dispatches... ("The last wild man"), is about Loren G. "Totch" Brown, an "Everglades folk hero and former prison inmate." Gary Mormino had his "History of Modern Florida" class read Totch's book; "The last wild man" added an extra layer to Totch's story.

Back to Seasons of Real Florida, the book that I'm finishing reading, Jeff mentioned other Florida characters you'll seldom read about in the history books: There's a clip on Clyde Butcher (Florida's answer to Ansel Adams), Ybor City's "Last Fish Monger" (who gave a recently murdered mobster's Christmas fish to a widow), and one on the "Black Seminoles."

In other words, if you want to read what Florida is like, beyond the big cities, pick up a book by Jeff Klinkenberg, or grab a Sunday copy of the Tampa Bay Times to see what he's writing about.

And Jeff, I have only one request: If you ever decide to retire, let me know. I want your job!

Read more at: Seasons of Real Florida by Jeff Klinkenberg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Good sight to check out...

For anyone who loves to read, I have to recommend a good website. It's Goodreads. It's free to sign up, you can keep track of the books you've read, books you want to read, and what you're currently reading. You can post what you thought of a certain book so that when you're looking for something to reread, you can remember, "Oh, yes, I loved/hated that book." You can also get an idea others are reading and what they've thought of it.

Definitely a good site to check out, if you're a reader.

Anna Quindlen

After reading most of Anna Quindlen's books, I want to know this: How does Anna Quindlen do that?

Now, before you ask, "Do what?", here's the what: How does she managed to turn the most intense, earth-shattering experiences into a novel without making it earth-shattering to the world?

Huh?

Okay, let me clarify this. In each of her novels, the main characters are living their lives, flowing along like a gentle stream, when something suddenly, sometimes catastrophically, explodes their lives into a thousand pieces, while barely making a blip in the world around them. True, there are ripples in the water of their lives, as in real life: a car accident caused by a drunk driver doesn't affect simply the people in the other car who are hurt, it also affects the drunk driver's family, friends, and possibly coworkers. But in the overall scheme of things, these experiences and happenings don't have the larger scale impact of, say, the 9/11 attacks or the falling of the Berlin Wall.

I read my first Quindlen novel shortly after its release. In Black And Blue, Fran Benedetto is a nurse and a battered wife, married to Bobby, a New York City police officer, and the mother of Robert, a boy who has learned to keep quiet. The book tells how Fran's life is normal, at least to those around her. Her secret is the horrific abuse Bobby puts her through, forcing her to leave her job, pack a scant few items, and, with Robert, go into hiding in Florida, changing their names in the process. Now Beth and Robert Crenshaw, they live in a rundown duplex. Fran/Beth is now forced to work as a home health aid, rather than as a nurse, in an effort to stay under the radar. Eventually, though, Bobby finds her, savagely beats her, takes Robert with him, then goes into hiding, himself.

Yet, throughout the book, with its horrible undertone of abuse, Quindlen is able to write Black And Blue as calmly as though writing about the weather. It is in the words she chooses to use and the way she has Fran Benedetto/Beth Crenshaw tell her story that we learn feel and experience the undercurrents of Fran, Bobby, and Robert's lives, as well as the lives effected by being in proximity.

In One True Thing, the Gulden family come across as a loving middle-class family, replete with college professor father, homemaker mother, a daughter, two younger sons. On the surface, the Guldens seem so normal, living normal lives: daughter Ellen, whose voice tells the story, has finished college and taken a job in New York City, while her brothers live at home and try to finish school.

The event that rips the Gulden family's life apart is a cancer diagnosis. Ellen comes home for a few days to find that her mother has been ill for quite some time. Her father, who has to work and is unable to care for Ellen's mother, demands that she quit her job and move back home to care for the family, which understandably causes tension throughout the entire household. When Mrs. Gulden dies, Ellen is suspected of murder; she suspects her father killed her mother, but in the end, suspects the truth.

One True Thing is also written in such a way that the reader feels like part of the action, part of the family; it is almost as if Ellen is telling the reader personally, "Remember when you and I came home? This is how I saw it." The reader is there, digging in, experiencing the roller-coaster ride without realizing, at first, how high or low the ride is going. It is simply life at its most basic.

Quindlen's book Rise And Shine details a morning show anchor and her social worker sister, the "fighting Fitzmaurices," as the former's soon-to-be ex-husband calls them. Meghan Fitzmaurice utters two words that get her into trouble from the network. Soon, she is without a job, her husband has decided to file for divorce (apparently the weekend before Meghan mutters "f#*king a**hole" under her breath - but loud enough for the mics to pick up), her sister Bridget is struggling with work and an unplanned pregnancy while in her early forties...But what really explodes is when Meghan's son Leo is shot and left paralyzed while volunteering for the group where Bridget works as a social worker.

In Blessings, a teen-aged couple drives onto Lydia Blessing's estate late one night and leave a box by the door of the garage apartment where estate caretaker, Skip Cuddy, stays. In the morning, Skip finds the infant and decides to care for the child. Soon, Lydia learns of the infant; the story tells how the baby changes the lives she touches, without being aware of it.

Finally, I found Every Last One to be Quindlen's most startling novel. Mary Beth Latham is a mother who owns her own landscape business. Mary Beth and her husband have three children: a daughter and twin sons, one of whom becomes depressed. Mary Beth focuses on this son, but is soon blindsided when a boy who has hung around her family breaks in and murders her husband, daughter, and one son before taking his own life. The other son had been away with friends on a weekend trip; at first, since he wasn't at the house, he is temporarily considered a suspect. Mary Beth, who was also brutally beaten in the attack, somehow manages to survive.

Eventually, Mary Beth and her remaining son move in with friends, then sell the house that their family was destroyed in so that they can get away from the horrible memories, or, rather, as much as one can.

As with her other novels, Quindlen has taken Every Last One, describes a normal family living the normal life before having a horrific act destroy their lives. The remaining characters are now left to try to carry on while dealing with so much: the horrors they've experienced; the murderer's mother who calls Mary Beth, blaming her for the horrors of her son's actions; knowing that, while others around them will go on with their own lives, she and her son will have to reinvent their family while trying to heal.

Most of us have learned in English and/or lit classes that a story must have some obstacle that needs to be dealt with to be worth telling and to keep the readers' interest. The best authors - the ones we continue to go back to time and again - have learned how to do this. Anna Quindlen is one of those authors who can slip that obstacle in the way it appears in real life: one moment, life is normal, the next moment, it isn't. A spouse if abusive and the other spouse goes into hiding; a daughter comes home for a weekend, only to discover a parent's terminal illness; a mic is left open a second too long and a bullet finds its target; a pregnancy; a murder. Yet, after that obstacle, Quindlen shows us how those left to deal with the aftermath deals with it.

I seriously hope Anna Quindlen is working on another novel; chances are, it'll be a keeper.

Why this blog?

I am a writer. According to certain relatives, I was born, not with a silver spoon, but a pencil in one hand and a stack of paper in the other. It did take a while to crawl my way to my mother's typewriter; it has only gotten worse since then.

One thing I've discovered over the years is that most writers are also readers. At least the best writers are. It's rather difficult to become a better writer without reading; you never really grow as far as you can without combining the two. Imagine a child just learning his or her alphabet, learning to print out the letters, and never learning to read. That child might question why have letters? What's the use of learning to make a capital A look different from a lower-case z, if there's no reading? That would be silly. And yet, for a writer to never read is just as far-fetched.

Granted, not everyone who reads writes, other than what is required of his or her job. But for someone who writes full-time, reading is fundamental. No matter what our job is, we tend to wonder how others in the same line of work are faring. And while a good book might not tell you how that writer's life is going right this minute, it does give the reader a good insight to that particular writer's mind. Stephen King and Anna Quindlen come to mind; the former might have trouble trying to write One True Thing or Black And Blue, while the latter might have a totally different spin on Carrie or The Stand.

So, with this blog, I intend to explore the books I've been reading, the authors I enjoy, the stories I plan to read. I'll be posting my first book/author post in the near future; it will probably deal with Anna Quindlen, exploring her novels (mostly) and her books based on her articles.

One last thing: If you have a book you absolutely love, a favorite author, or a book that you feel people should steer clear of, please feel free to post a comment.