Book Reviews July 2006

Unaccompanied Women : Late Life Adventures in Love, Sex, and Real Estate by Jane Juska is a sequel to the book A Round-Heeled Woman. When the author was in her late 60s, she placed a personal advertisement in the New York Review of Books. She was wanting to meet a man for romance. In this second book, she tells about the responses to the advertisement. She is candid about the difficulty of meeting men at her age. You may not always agree with this author, but she is an engaging writer.

T. Jefferson Parker writes mystery novels that take place in southern California. The Fallen is the story of a detective living in San Diego who is called on to solve the homicide of a fellow police officer. Parker writes a well-paced book, and does well describing his setting and characters.

Please Stop Laughing at Me by Jodee Blanco is a true account of the bullying of a girl. Jodee Blanco first encountered bullying in grade school, and the bullying continued throughout her school years. Bullying is definitely a problem in our society, but after reading this account I couldn’t help but feel the author could have made some better choices to help herself.

Joanne Harris is one of my favorite authors. Recently one of her earliest novels was reprinted, Sleep Pale Sister. It is the story of an artist living in London in the late 1800s. He paints from models, and eventually marries one of his young models. This is the story of that relationship. I had a hard time understanding this story.

To Hell with All That : Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife is written by Caitlin Flanagan, a staff writer at The New Yorker. Ms. Flanagan discusses weddings, working mothers vs. stay-at-home mothers, marriage, and sex. I love how this author writes, but am not always in agreement with her. She writes about child care and housework issues, but she is in the position of having enough money to pay others for her own childcare and housework needs. She does have some very interesting comments on the extravagance of weddings in this day and age.

Ordinary Miracles in Nursing is a series of articles written by nurses about the patients that touched them the most. Although the stories are good, I felt the book could have been better edited. There seemed to be too much repetition.

BOOK REVIEWS JUNE 2006

Guys Write for Guys Read is a book written to encourage boys to read. It has short chapters by different published male writers, who write of their growing up experiences. Parts of this book are hilarious, and not only boys will enjoy reading it…so will adult males! The editor of this book tells his readers not to worry about reading the whole book, but just to READ the parts that they are interested in reading. The main thing is to READ!

Girlbomb : A Halfway Homeless Memoir by Janice Erlbaum is the true account of a 15 year-old girl whose mother has been married several times. When the book begins, the mother is living with a boyfriend who is often violent toward her. After the boyfriend’s flare-ups, they often break up, but then after a little time passes, the boyfriend returns. The author tells her mother that if she takes the boyfriend back one more time, she will leave home. She winds up walking out. The setting is New York City. The author first walks to a homeless shelter, and eventually moves to a halfway house. I didn’t always agree with the author’s viewpoints, but I had great admiration for her staying and finishing her education, even when the odds were against her.

The Dead Beat by Marilyn Johnson is a book about obituary writers. The greatest thing about this book is the part about our own Heather Lende. The author describes her as “a lovely, cheerful woman who looks like a model for outdoor gear”. However, I found the book to be rather dry reading overall.

Another good book to read is called Like Family : Growing Up in Other People’s Houses : A Memoir by Paula McLain. When the author is four years old, her mother goes to the movies with her boyfriend and never returns until 16 years later. Paula McLain and her sisters live for a while with their grandparents, but then enter the foster care system. The author writes vividly of the different families they live with, and what it is like to be shuttled from home to home. The three sisters form a tight bond. This is a poignant account.

Wide Angle : National Geographic Greatest Places is a gorgeous book full of color photographs taken around the world. It is a way of visiting the world from your armchair.

Marley and Me by John Grogan is the story of a family and their dog. The author is a journalist in Florida. He and his wife decide to buy a puppy. The dog is uncontrollable, but the family loves him fiercely.

BOOK REVIEWS MAY 2006

Roadfood by Jane & Michael Stern is a guide to out-of-the-way places to eat in the United States. The authors have traveled around the country and eaten where the locals eat. This is an interesting book to browse. I only wish they had included Alaska!

Rodzina by Karen Cushman is a story told through the eyes of a 12 year old orphan. Rodzina is a Polish-American girl whose parents and brothers have died. She is left on the streets of Chicago. Eventually she winds up in an orphanage. All of the orphans are put on a train going west, where they will be adopted by settlers. Most of the children are made to be slaves. Rodzina is determined not to be a slave. She is not chosen by any family, and she feels unwanted and lonely. This fictional account is based on actual events that occurred in this country between 1881-1920.

If you like to read memoirs, you might enjoy Falling through the Earth by Danielle Trussoni. Danielle’s father, Dan Trussoni, was a tunnel rat during the Vietnam War. When he returned to the States after the war, he had Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. This affected all of his family. He divorced his wife. There were three children, and two of them went with their mother. Danielle chose to go with her father. This is the story of her life with her father, his drinking, and his anger. She goes to Vietnam as an adult to visit the places her father talked about, hoping to gain an understanding of her father.

David Doubilet is one of the world’s leading underwater photographers. He has published a gorgeous book of his photos, called Water Light Time. It is simply amazing to see some of the things that live in the world’s oceans! Before each section, the author tells a little about the area he dived in, and the different species. The photos are not captioned, so it really helps to read the paragraphs the author has written. I really enjoyed the sections about manta rays. There is a place where people actually swim with the rays, and the rays wrap themselves around the swimmers. Also there are some really neat-looking seahorses that look like pot-bellied dragons.

Joanne Harris is one of my favorite authors. Her newest book is called Gentlemen & Players. The setting is in the English countryside at a private school for boys. The story is told through the eyes of the gatekeeper’s child, and also through the eyes of the teachers. I don’t want to give the plot away, but I will say this – the author thoroughly surprised and entertained me!

David Watts is a gastroenterologist in the San Francisco area. His book, Bedside Manners : One Doctor’s Reflections on the Oddly Intimate Encounters Between Patient and Healer is an interesting read. After reading the book however, I decided I wouldn’t want to go to this doctor….I didn’t LIKE his manner!

Janet & Me was written by the cartoonist Stan Mack. His partner Janet was diagnosed with breast cancer, and this is an account of her diagnosis and treatment. It doesn’t seem like cancer and cartooning go together, but this book is very moving and very well written. The book is illustrated by the author.

Jeffrey Archer’s latest novel is about the art world, named False Impressions. Mr. Archer does a fine job writing suspense, and this is a real page-turner.

BOOK REVIEWS APRIL 2006

Don’t Try This at Home : Culinary Catastrophes from the World’s Greatest Chefs is a great read. Several chefs tell of their worst disasters, and how they improvised and overcame them. This book will make you laugh out loud.

Are you planning a wedding? Weddings by Hilary Sterne is a gorgeous book full of photographs. Some of the weddings that are featured are very luxurious – such as paying $3,000 - $6,000 on rose petals to blanket the aisle. This is a good book just to browse.

The Coast Guard is a huge presence in Alaska. The library has a new coffee-table sized book called The Coast Guard. The book tells the history of the Coast Guard, and also goes into detail about the different ships and helicopters, etc. that the Coast Guard uses. There is also a section on lighthouses that the Coast Guard maintains.

Sophie’s Choice by William Styron is a novel I just recently re-read again after some 20 odd years. I had read the book Who We Are : On Being A Jewish American Writer, and several of the writers had mentioned William Styron in a negative light because he wrote about the Holocaust and was not Jewish. They felt he was writing about something he did not understand. The library’s copy of Sophie’s Choice is the 20th anniversary edition, and there is an author’s note at the end. William Styron answers some of his critics. It is interesting that this book was so powerful that when the story was being filmed, the Polish people (under Communism) were forbidden to try out for parts in the movie. This novel is the story of a young Polish survivor of the Holocaust, Sophie, who comes to America after World War II. She begins a relationship with a Jewish man, Nathan, who is demented. The story is told through the eyes of Stingo, who is a writer from the South who has moved to New York to write a novel.

On October 12, 2002, over 125 photographers all over the world took photos of the United States Armed Forces. The result is a book called A Day in the Life of the United States Armed Forces. This book is very interesting and the captions for each photo are well-written.

Daddy-Long-Legs is a story written in 1912 by Jean Webster. It is the story of a young girl who was raised in an orphanage. When she reaches the age of 17, she is expected to do a lot of the “grunt” work in the orphanage. One day she is called into the matron’s office. One of the trustees of the orphanage has offered to pay her way through college. He has some stipulations : he wants to remain anonymous, and he wants the girl (Jerusha) to write him a letter every month to let him know what she is doing in school. This story is told through Jerusha’s letters to the trustee. Jerusha does not know the trustee’s name, so she decides to call him Daddy-Long-Legs.

Kurt Vonnegut is a well-respected and well-known author. He has now written an autobiography, A Man Without A Country. You may not always agree with his opinions, but he has a wonderful way with words.

The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult is a novel about a young family. The father is a graphic artist, and the mother is a professor of Dante in a college. Their daughter is 14, and one night she tells her father she is going over to a friend’s house to spend the night. However, she is really going out to a party. At the party, she is raped. The story is told through the eyes of all the family members, the boy involved, and the policeman involved. This book held my interest, but it irritated me because most of the characters were lying, and the reader has to figure out what the true story must be. Also, there are sequences done by the father in a graphic format, which I did not like.