Revisiting Agatha Christie

I managed to find the bin where my mystery books were stored and pulled out a few Agatha’s for gentle reading. Agatha is at her best when she deals with murder and not as great when she goes into spy stories. As well her earlier works are more ingenious than the ones she did late in her career but overall I love re-reading her books and have done so for years. Like Georgette Heyer, Leslie Ford and Mary Roberts Rinehart she is one of my “comfort writers” that I will read when I don’t want to concentrate on anything intense. I don’t know how many other readers have this tendency but sometimes I like to coast through a book.

Erik was saying “but there’s no suspense once you’ve read it” but I say, “it’s the ambience of the story that comforts me”. If instead of having re-read the books I have I had read a new book I would like have read another 25% of books (or even more).

What can I say I am quirky!

What's What and Who's Who

Now isn’t that an interesting title? I hope the content will be interesting also!

I thought I would mention some books that I have heard reviewed on my favorite programs:

·         Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea by Mark Blyth

·         Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Saving the World by Anand Giridharadas

·         Searching for the Stars on an Island in Maine by Alan Lightman 
The first book is about the concept of reducing spending when there is an economic downturn which is the immediate impulse of governments and which has proven time and again to be a false step. It is a belief that I have long held and I was very pleased to hear this author speak with authority on this subject (he’s an economist).

The second book was also fascinating (in listening to the author’s discussion) wherein he suggests that for those magnanimous CEO’s of huge companies such as Google, Amazon, etc. to announce they are giving away a billion dollars to invest in inner city schools (or whatever pet project they have chosen) is not serving the cause at all. Indeed he suggests (rightly in my opinion) that the fact that they have never paid their fair share of taxes in the first place they have actually caused the problem in the first place.

As I have suggested for years we look at problems upside down and we ask the wrong type of questions. This is me talking and not the authors above. For example, a question that drives me crazy is “who is going to pay for it” because the answer is obvious and the question is loaded. Anderson Cooper kept asking the question of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on “60 Minutes” the other night. A more intelligent and cogent question would be “who are THE taxpayers who are going to pay for it”.

The third book is a curious mix of physics and spirituality and the author was a very interesting speaker. I saw him on “Story in the Public Square” which is a PBS series running on Sunday mornings. In some respects I think the book has ideas also explored in Deepak Chopra’s “How to Know God”. I was amazed to hear him posit an idea that my father suggest to us some 50 years ago (I have always said my Dad was the smartest person I ever knew)! The idea? That our “personal” atoms exist after we die and go out into the universe and perhaps some day, some way, they end up in another being (not all of them, one or two, maybe more). He also reaffirmed my position that as limited human beings we have difficulty completely embracing the concept of infinity.

I am hoping to read some of these books, indeed all of them, by the end of the year but for now . . . let me enjoy The Long Valley and the ordinary mishaps of mice and men.

The Long Valley

I chose for my first book of the year to be John Steinbeck’s “The Long Valley”. It’s perfect as it is an anthology of short stories, just what the old attention span needs to kick start itself! Yesterday I read “The Murder” which was near the end of the book. I immediately got into the rhythm of Steinbeck’s writing. Today I read the first two stories in the book and again felt so comfortable with Steinbeck’s style. I love his way of empathizing with “marginal characters” which I think he is a genius at identifying and portraying in all his works.

Steinbeck’s books are highly readable and border somewhat on “comfort food” and yet are what I could term a level or two above those “comfort books” which I usually pull out for soothing. A murder or romance novel somehow is just not at the same calibre as reading about a vulnerable character whose heart is broken by seeing her chrysanthemums thrown out on the road.

Steinbeck was Dad’s favorite author and while not my favorite he is definitely in my top ten. I find his books diverse in nature although his characters, as noted above, are ordinary, vulnerable people. Dad did not introduce me to Steinbeck since we had to read “The Pearl” in grade 10 which I found incredibly boring. When Dad suggested that I read “Tortilla Flat” I said that I couldn’t because The Pearl turned me off him. Dad then took up the book and began reading and of course I started laughing and said okay, okay.

Despite having read more than half of his books I still confess that I cannot get through “The Grapes of Wrath”. I think I managed to get one third of the way through but found it so utterly depressing I simply didn’t want to torture myself any longer. John keeps telling me I should finish because there is so much to discuss in relation to the world we live in today. Maybe I will, if I ever get to that frame of mind.

“In every bit of honest writing in the world there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. There is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. Try to understand each other.”

— John Steinbeck in his 1938 journal entry

Takeaways from Bible Reading

In reading the Bible cover to cover, my personal judgment is that one can read the Bible as literature first, history second and religious philosophy a distant third.  Many authors owe a debt to the Bible as their inspiration for their own stories; writers and poets such as Chaucer, Milton, Wordsworth, Shakespeare, the Brontes, Dickens as well as contemporary writers such as Stephen King, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling and Philip Pullman (to name a few).  Our literature is strewn with biblical allusions but this is not news to any literate person.  The Bible itself as literature is worth reading as a good story with an intricate plot and many beautiful passages that read as poetry.

The Bible as history may surprise less religious people but in fact archeological finds have confirmed many of the biblical figures are in fact historical figures.  The books of Kings and Chronicles are accurate in many respects and both Pilate and Jesus are documented historical persons outside of religious writings.

Now for the crux of the Bible as religious, spiritual and moral teachings.  My personal takeaway did not change substantially from before my “Bible in one year” reading.  The most valuable lessons are Jesus’s Golden Rule “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and no one can go very wrong if they live by the Ten Commandments. 

All the other teachings are not essential to morality (in my opinion).  Rather there are guidelines to behaviour, stories with moral lessons (Job, Esther, Judges), outcomes on loyalty (Ruth), parables with many different life lessons (the Gospels).   Leviticus is a book of rules on hygiene, incest, leprosy (oh yes, leprosy seems to be stressed frequently in the Pentatuch), money lending and so forth.  Yet if one refers back to the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule then all the other lessons are (for me) either obsolete or in simply illustrations that prove that the commandments are the rules to live by. 

Overall I do recommend reading the Bible with an open mind as literature, history and morality stories.  For the religious person the Bible is a very complex string of moral stories and that’s all I will say about that (for now).

 

Bible Reading Results

Completing a year of bible reading along with taking courses on the Old and New Testaments as well as  companion reading has given me a different way of looking at both the Hebrew and Christian religion.  Instead of looking at the Word or possible philosophy or interpretation of what this or that prophet meant it was interesting to look at the writing of the Bible from a historical perspective.  As an historian the first thing one must do is suspend any belief in the writings come directly from God.  That was easy for me but for others I know that is a hard one to deal with.  Just do it in order to get a new perspective.  Why would you want that new perspective, you may ask.  For me the answer was to then be able to understand people from both sides of that perspective as well as understanding how religion(s) evolved; not necessarily to debunk religion.

I’ve always had problems reconciling the Old and New Testaments but when you understand the theory of how the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) was developed it becomes much easier to appreciate the differences in the 2 testaments.  Furthermore when you take the step to analyze the different Gospels in the New Testament you can again understand the conflicting messages both between the Old and New Testaments but also within the New Testament. itself  Looking at the Bible from a historical perspective is fascinating and enlightening.

More to come on this tomorrow.

December's Reads

My favorite read this month has to be “The Hive” by Gill Hornby.  I was by turns angry or amused and midway through I was laughing out loud.  This is a story of a clique of moms who run their version of the PTA in an English town (village? It’s never quite clear).  You can find analogies in the work place almost as easily as observing the power struggles of the Queen Bee mother and her little worker bees.  It’s a light hearted read but well written and the characters are nicely drawn.

The next book was not nearly as well written and the characters were rather narrowly drawn.  “Summerset Abbey” by T.J. Brown is the first in a trilogy but is a very sad attempt at capturing the enthusiasm of “Downton Abbey” fans.  I managed to get through it but I’m not sure I will want to read the next installment.  I would say, well if you are desperate for a light read it is alright but just borrow it from the library.  Even at the bargain bin I think it was money thrown away.  Sorry, I hate to be critical of a book but there you have it.

A friend has lent me another book “The Truth and Other Lies” by Sascha Arango, a German author.  Good grief, I have only begun this book but it has me by the seat of my bed (sorry, I am one of those who reads best in bed).  I won’t say anymore except to say that the first 3 chapters have me totally enthralled.  Major suspense and two thumbs up!

I had begun “Mr. and Mrs. Madison’s War” by Hugh Howard which is all about the war of 1812 and while it begins well I made the mistake of picking up the above mentioned book simply to browse it so sadly the Mr. & Mrs. are going to have to wait until I finish Sascha Arango’s first novel.

And then, there’s Christmas.  I wonder what surprises lay ahead of me?  Hint hint, loved ones.

Books Worth Reading in November

I noticed the other day that a Danish book “Countrymen” by Bo Lidegaard is now on sale in the history bargain section at Chapters.  This book is a great read for anyone interested in the German occupation of Denmark and the Danes’ view of “their Jews”.  There are not many books about Denmark in general nor about the Danes’ rescue of the Danish Jews from the Nazis.  This book has a very good perspective including some possibly negative aspects of how the Danish government cooperated with Germany.  I paid full price for it when I was in Dickson, Alberta but currently it is marked at $10 which is a great bargain.

I’m currently reading 2 books at the same time – “Song of the Lark” by Willa Cather which is the third of her Western American novels (the other 2 being “O’ Pioneer” and “My Antonia” both of which I have already read).  I like the way she writes about ordinary people who still manage to live an extraordinary life although not celebrated.  Cather depicts the early pioneers of Nebraska and Colorado with true empathy be they Norwegian, Bohemian, Swedish or American.  She also has a vast appreciation for nature and waxes eloquent about the beauties found in the stark prairies.

I picked up “Camelot Court” by Robert Dalleck the other day (on the eve of the election actually).  Irony of it is not lost on me.  Most of the beginning of the book is very familiar to me but I read with an open mind and in the hopes of understanding a little more of the quality and character of John Kennedy and his administration.  One of the best books I have read on Kennedy is “A Question of Character” by Thomas Reeves.  Still ahead is Dalleck’s “An Unfinished Life” which has been languishing on my shelf for a few months.  The fascination with JFK continues for many flaws, warts but so much charisma.

So many books, so little time!  I love going to the bargain books in Chapters and the other day I found some wonderful books that I can hardly wait to get at, but all in good time.  More for them next month!

 

Book Reviews for October

After my dreary review of the television schedule yesterday I thought I would cheer up my readers with some great book reviews.

Amazon offered up on Kindle for Thanksgiving the book “The Boston Girl” by Anita Diamant (author of “The Red Tent”) for a mere $2.99.  Since I loved The Red Tent I thought “why not” and I did not regret it.  The Boston Girl is a wonderful story about a young Jewish girl at the turn of the last century.  Addie Baum tells her life story to her granddaughter with humour even over the rough spots of her life.  The story is not particularly original but the character is strong, realistic and principled; just my kind of heroine.  She writes about poverty without being sordid (although there is certainly sordidness in the story), or perhaps I should say without being sensational about the poverty.  Sometimes writers get so carried away that they describes things to such an extent one is almost forced to throw up.  I highly recommend The Boston Girl as a quick, light read.

Costco had “The Underground Railway” on sale at a decent price so although I normally do not go for an Oprah recommended book because it is bound to be depressing I decided to give this one a go and I am really glad I did.  Colson Whitehead has written the book as a straightforward story of one woman’s escape from slavery in Georgia and although his visualization of creating a literal underground railway takes some getting used to it is a powerful story.  It’s well written and I can recommend this book as a good read.

Many of you may be surprised at my next recommendation which is “Christy” by Catherine Marshall.  This book first came out in 1967 and had another surge of popularity in the early 90’s when the movie and TV show aired.  For some odd reason I never bothered to read it despite the book being literally everywhere I went.  I recently came across it in the discarded bin in our library and decided it was time to read it.  I thought it would be overloaded with religion but either I am more in tune with “religious messages” or it simply is told in such a way you hardly notice “religion”.  It’s a lovely story about a sensitive young girl who is inspired to teach in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.  The characters are interesting, particularly the various children, and the author’s handling of language is amazing.  It’s a wholesome, uplifting read and I am only embarrassed that I didn’t read it many years ago.

It’s always rewarding when you discover books that make you feel “wow, that was a good one” and to find 3 in a row is like winning the lottery.  It’s been a good month!

 

Books in Summer

The reading fare has been rather skimpy over the summer or to sound more intellectual, the books I read were big fat tomes of non-fiction which included biographies of the American Adams’ family (of presidential fame, not the comic strip), the rescue of Jews in Denmark written by an eminent Danish historian Bo Lidegaard, an anthology of philosophers and a few novels including Willa Cathers’ “O’ Pioneers” and Donna Tartt’s “The Little Friend”.  This last I have only just begun but like her other two novels it is very “unputdownable”. 

I have this image of other people laying in darling hammocks under wonderful spreading oak trees reading great novels all summer long but for myself I much prefer laying in my bed with pillows propped up under my head and shoulders, my trusty reading lamp turned on, and me just peacefully reading.  When I read outdoors I find the glare of the sun on the page most irritating and the sounds of all nature around me highly distracting.  It isn’t long before I put down my book and start down a path to weed the flower bed or scoop grunge out of the fishpond.  Outdoors is for outdoorsy things and reading belongs indoors in a quiet place away from all distractions.  Or so I say.

I cannot imagine life without books and I pity those people who can’t find pleasure in reading.  While I am sure many people have pity on those of us who find perhaps too much joy in sticking their nose into a book I can only say “try it, you might like it”.  For sure there is balance in all things and it is indeed joyous to work outdoors during the good summertime but since I really, really dislike the cold I find snuggling with a book so much more fun than wading through snow while my cheeks are bitten raw by a Nor’wester.  As an afterthought when I am reading I am so absorbed that I rarely feel a craving for food.  And that is a bonus!

I already have a pleasurably high stack of books awaiting the winter season sitting primly on my nightstand.  Alright, not so primly but rather jumbled in various sizes, angles and conditions.  But oh, do they ever look inviting!  Let the reading commence.

Book Reviews for the Month of March

I gobbled up two wonderful books this month, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney.  The Goldfinch won the Pulitzer Prize and had me up late at night reading until my arm got sore from holding the book.  It’s a rather intense tale of a thirteen year old boy who suddenly finds himself an orphan.  There are undertones of Great Expectations I am told however I didn’t really find it terribly apparent as I didn’t ever have that feeling of dread which Dickens conveyed so well.  Nevertheless I enjoyed the book immensely but will warn readers that it is rather intense.

The Nest on the other hand is a much lighter book and while the characters (four siblings) are rather unlovable it was an enjoyable read.  I frequently found myself wondering what it would be like to anticipate an inheritance and whether I would fall into the trap these people almost galloped into.  I am not the type of person who spends what I don’t have so I would hope that I wouldn’t spend what I hadn’t inherited yet. 

In both books I found myself so immersed in the story that I really wanted to get into the book and strangle a few people . . . am I giving anything away?

I loved The Goldfinch so much that I went out and bought Ms. Tartt’s other books The Secret History and The Little Friend (both of which are rather different from The Goldfinch since they both involve murder and mystery; The Goldfinch is a straight youth novel with a twist).

More tomorrow on how I else I spent the month of March 2016.

Light Reading

Just to keep myself from going over the edge reading all that theology I picked something easy to read for bedtime.  I had loaded the Complete Works of Frances Hodgson Burnett to Kindle several months ago (it was free) and the other day I chose Emily Fox-Seton as my “light read”.  I should have known that the author of “The Secret Garden” and “A Little Princess” would not be easy reading.  After all, I have seen Shirley Temple made into a little waif in a dreary attic and seen Margaret O’Brien as Mary Lennox walled up in house of the Secret Garden.  Dark things lurk for Emily Fox-Seton and oh my goodness but I was so afraid she was going to get “drownded”.  Sometimes children and young adult books are more exciting to read than adult books.  I’m not sure why but they seem to create higher suspense levels or maybe the characters are just so much more engaging that you care more about them. 

When I wonder the shelves at the book store I rarely find a book that truly catches my attention.  The covers all look very attractive but I don’t recognize the author’s name.  A title may sound intriguing, I will pick it up and read the cover synopses and usually I put the book back.  If it does sound interesting I will look at the first page and almost always I put the book down after reading a couple of sentences.  I can always tell. 

I enjoyed my book club because we were challenged to read books that others recommended and so I was introduced to new authors who have become favorites.  Another way I “discover” books is by watching the movie first (I know, I sound like a total helot.  Back when I was younger I would shudder when anyone said such an infamous thing!)  I read book reviews and sometimes that will get me to buy a book.  And a shocking confession, if Oprah recommends it I almost always will avoid it as I find her taste in books very depressing.  I have a lot of respect for Oprah but we do not share the same taste in books.  I can only read so many books on dying cancer patients and sexually abused people.

Back to Frances Hodgson Burnett’s books.  At the time when she wrote (circa 1880’s through 1920) the rags to riches style of story writing was extremely popular and most of her work is rather sentimental for today’s taste.  Despite the sentiment though the storylines are frequently quite suspenseful even though you know the outcome will always be “happily ever after”. 

Much better than what we get in Revelations but alas, back to my studies today.

Sidelined Book Review

I promised to review Nine Parts of Desire this week but I must confess that I got sidetracked with another book. 

Whenever I go into Calgary I like to take a quick trip into Chapters and always head straight for the bargain books at the back.  Often popular books in hardcover get reduced after a year and that’s when I find some real treasures.  This week I happened to discover Fannie Flagg’s latest book “The All Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion”.  How I laughed.  Fannie does it every time, creating characters who talk in such an insane way you can’t help but want to be their next best friend.

The story is another one of those back and forth stories about 1930’s Wisconsin and current Alabama.  Fritzi is a young Polish-American girl who takes up flying in the early 1930’s and along with her brother and sisters ends up in the Army during WWII.  Meanwhile Sookie is living in Alabama and trying to control her 88 year old mother.  Sookie is beyond delightful and had me in stitches at almost every page.  Fritzi had me imaging the young Gena Davis in the role.

An interesting feature of the story was the WASPs, female pilots who flew planes from the factory to their army terminals across the USA during the war.  It’s a little known part of Woman’s history and sadly these brave and talented female pilots were not recognized for their contribution to the war effort for decades.  As well there is some history around how gas stations were first introduced across the country, how they fared during the war and how they eventually died away as family businesses.

This is an easy, light read with plenty of laughs and some enlightenment along the way.  Two thumbs up for Fannie Flagg.

 

September Book Reads in Review

It’s not often I find a book that makes me laugh out loud but I just finished one that had me bursting out loud countless times.  “The Woefield Poultry Collective” by Susan Juby is hilarious as it describes an idealistic girl’s dream of a sustainable farm which is seen through the eyes of four different characters.  I love it when I can recommend a Canadian author and I can in this case.

I especially liked the way the character of Prudence was eternally optimistic even as she takes her pitiful little “crop” of radishes to the farmer’s market and manages to survive the humiliation of the real farmers’ competition.  Fortunately for me I don’t have dreams of attending a farmer’s market so I will be spared such embarrassment!  But the misadventures were very relatable and funny.

I also enjoyed “The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend” by Katarina Bivald.  This is a Swedish author who writes about a Swedish book clerk who travels to the American mid-west to meet a fellow book lover.  It’s a nice little tale about a dying town embracing a foreigner for the sake of one of their own.  I found it very well translated which is unusual as I often find myself re-editing a translated book from the Scandinavian languages.  I didn’t find any awkward translations which was really very surprising.

Last on this week’s list is Stephen King’s “Joyland” which was so un-King like I felt it was a little flat.  I didn’t find any horror or suspense in the book and it did not end on a gruesome note or even a discouraging one.  There were a few times in the story when I got confused and thought maybe I was reading a Thomas H. Cook novel but that bit of suspense diminished almost with the next sentence.  Don’t get me wrong though, it was a nice read but it was not typical Stephen King.  It was a nice surprise, actually.

It was a quiet couple of weeks in the reading department but next week I will review “Nine Parts of Desire” by Geraldine Brooks.

Books in Review for 2015

On the lighter side of life, let’s talk about books that I have been reading lately. 

During the winter I idled away some cold afternoons with really old books that I got for free on my Kindle.  I had a marathon read of Grace Livingston Hill and Gene Stratton Porter, both authors from the early 20^th century and Grace in particular was a “Christian” writer.  I found the books soothing and simple reading and yet there were thoughts in most of the books that I read that triggered questions in my mind.  I was surprised that in the early 1900’s writers were already indicating how few people were attending church and when they did they didn’t seem to get anything out of the sermons they supposedly listened to.  It surprised me because of all the television viewing I did in my childhood where it seemed that everyone in America went to Sunday School or church and I just assumed that when people did that they were naturally disposed to have a “Christian attitude”.  In the case of Gene I felt as she got older her books took on a more sanctimonious tone where her early books were strongly nature based stories.  I really enjoyed her books “The Harvester”, “The Girl of the Limberlost”, “Freckles” and even “Daughter of the Land”.  I think I have read almost everything both authors have written and certainly recommend them for entertainment value.  A current light read would be Susanna Kearsley’s “A Desperate Fortune”.

Funniest book this year has been the old “The Egg and I” by Betty MacDonald, sheer laugh out loud moments.  And I am still jealous that she hogged such a good title!

I read two biographies “Wait for Me” by Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire which I found delightful and “A House in the Sky” by Calgary’s Amanda Lindhout which I found a little off-putting by the fact that I really thought she put herself in needless danger by being heedless to warnings.  However, it is well written and worth a read.  Pseudo-biography by Sue Monk Kidd’s “The Invention of Wings” is another really good book.  I liked it very much and felt she had done quite a lot of research on her topic.

The most satisfying book of the year has to be “All the Light You Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr.  I simply couldn’t put it down and became completely stressed to discover if the two characters would every meet.  Highly recommend this book to everyone.  In sync with this book, “Every Man Dies Alone” by Hans Fallada is another page turner and really worth reading from several points of view.  It is written in 1947, by a German, about Berlin during the war, and really nails the feeling of the time.  It helps put into perspective the question we often ask ourselves “how could good people let the Nazis get so out of hand”?   

“Go Set a Watchman” by Harper Lee is worth reading only because it is the book she wrote prior to re-writing it into “To Kill a Mockingbird”.  I am sorry to say that it is not really a great book although it is readable.  I would have to say it is a bit of a letdown especially given all the hype for months in advance.

Finally to round off the reading so far, I had a good laugh and my eyes opened with “An Idiot’s Guide to the Great Depression” which was well worth the two dollars I paid for it.  Try it, you might like it.