Small town girl saves other world

Title: A Sorcerer's Treason

Author: Sarah Zettel

Pages: 499

Publisher: Tor

ISBN: 0765343746

My brother sent me this book because it was set in Wisconsin – the Apostle Islands specifically. Plus, it is a fantasy book, which is a genre I tend to like.

The story begins with Bridget, a scorned woman in her small town, saves a stranger from a ship wreck. Bridget lives in a lighthouse during the summer and dreads returning to the town. The stranger turns out to be from another world and offers Bridget a chance to be more than a lighthouse keeper – she has premonitions and in the stranger's world, this indicates powerful sorcerer. Bridger chooses to return to return with the stranger to Isavalta and becomes quickly involved in the political intrigue of the land. She has to navigate who to trust and how magic works in this new world. The story runs like a soap-opera with lots of double crossing and disguises, passionate characters. It was an interesting diversion during a plane ride and I admired the main character as the underdog in the story.

Tiny Buddha: Simple Wisdom for Life's Hard Questions

Title: Tiny Buddha, Simple Wisdom for Life's Hard Questions 

Author: Lori Deschene  

ISBN-13: 9781573245067
Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser
Pages: 304

What happened when you crowd source the ultimate questions of life?  You get thousands of answers and eventually create a website (http://tinybuddha.com/) and write a book.  Deschene stated that she began the @tinybuddha feed because she wanted to teach people to simplify their complex lives, but in the process she learned more than what she was supposedly teaching - how to live in the moment, forgive and love herself, and lead a meaningful life.  She then took all of the wisdom she crowd sourced, did a little background reading and complied a book.

Deschene bares her soul to the reader - talking about her struggles as an adolescent, the disappointments in her life and silly decisions, all the while, trying to be a better version of herself.  Each section is focused on some of the big issues of life like money, love, happiness, meaning and relationships.  She introduces the chapter with her own experiences, what led her to ask the question and some of the actually Twitter replies.  

It is ironic that Deschene pokes fun at the self-help industry as she didn't find much solace in the numerous books she read, yet she provides a book to fuel the industry.  It is a quick read, and one that you can pick up whenever you have a few moments.  Although I didn't learn anything new, it was a good reminder to be intentional in setting and living my priorities rather than letting the minutia of life overwhelm me.

Tut as a Telenovela

Title: The Murder of King Tut:The Plot to Kill the Child King - A Nonfiction Thriller

Author: James Patterson & Martin Dugard

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

ISBN: 978-0316034043

Pages: 352

I have loved all things Egypt since I was in elementary school. I read all the school library books, did reports on mummification and the afterlife and as an adult, I've visited Egypt, the pyramids, the Valley of the Kings etc. I was in awe at the King Tut exhibit in the Cairo museum, as I think are most people. The gold death mask gleamed in the bright lights and the smooth, child-like face of the boy-king was haunting.

I was trolling through the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium Digital books and happened to stumble on Patterson's King Tut mystery. Now, I'm not much of a mystery reader, but I recognized his name. This will be good, I thought. Too bad that wasn't true. As fascinated as I am by all things Egypt, I had a tough time making it through this book.

The story takes place in three time periods – Ancient Egypt, early 1900s and Howard Carter's life, and modern times Florida in Patterson's office. Patterson book-ends Tutankhamen and Carter's stories with his own writing and research of their times, which is quite jolting. As for King Tut, he backtracks to grandfather, King Amenhotep III, who, according to Patterson, dreaded installing to the throne the “abomination” of Tut's father, Akhenaten, first known as Amenhotep IV. Akenaten, along with Nefertiti, brought a monotheistic view of religion to the Egyptian pantheon with the worship of Aten and moving the royal center to Akhetaten, at the site known today as Amarna. Patterson contends that there was great in-fighting for the throne, with many considering Akenaten a traitor to Egypt because of his lack of interest in conquest and traditional religious rites. With his death, Tutankhamen was made Pharaoh, which was cemented with his marriage to his half-sister, Ankhesenpaaten. Patterson's portrayal of the royal intrigue rivals any daytime soap-opera, with backstabbing and steamy sex included.

Carter's life is portrayed as one of unfulfilled ambition. His taste for Egypt was instilled by hanging out at the mansion of the wealthy Amherst family, Didlington Hall. Carter hired on to be a sketch artist in Egypt, a trade learned from his father. While there, Carter dreamt of finding the elusive Tut's tomb. Carter's career rose and fell with his ability to secure funding, and the whims of the British/Egyptian diplomacy, but eventually he did find the tomb. A few years after cataloging the find (which took several years), Carter died in 1939 a lonely man in English, attended by few.

Patterson boasts about the amount of research conducted by his partner,Martin Dugard, but there seems to be a lot of speculating and fictionalizing in this book. It is sub-titled “A Non-fiction Thriller” which definitely is a misnomer – it was mostly fiction and decidedly not a thriller. The short, choppy chapters were frustrating and the constant time-change was distracting.

Philosophy Made Simple

Title: Philosophy Made Simple

Author: Robert Hellenga

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

ISBN: 0-316-05826-2

Pages: 277

Spoiler Alert – This book does not have a happy ending. I like happy endings. I think there is too much sad news in the world, that when I read a book of my own choosing, I would like it to have a neat, tidy, happy ending. I like to escape from the real world of drought, tornadoes, child pornography, cancer etc. I guess I expected this book to include painful examinations of life, since it does have philosophy in the title, but as I was carried away with the story, it seemed like it was building to a happy resolution, but on the “inauspicious day” of the main character's daughter's wedding – everything fell apart, and I was sad.

This is one of the Off the Shelf Challenge books that I've been meaning to read. Several years ago, when it seemed like I had more “free” time because I was only working one job and going to school full-time, I started listening to undergrad course online. One class that I especially enjoyed was PHI 110: Introduction to Philosophy by Missouri State University on iTunes. It was a nice review of the foundations of philosophy that I was supposed to get as an undergrad, but never did. Around that time, I stumbled on Hellenga's book at the University Bookstore and thought it might show how someone “really” thought about philosophy in everyday life. So, I ordered it from Paperback Swap and it has sat on my shelf since.

I really related to the introduction of the book. Everything had changed for Rudy – his wife died, his three daughters moved away to live their lives, and he was left alone with the dogs in the family house in Chicago. The girls and grandkids would visit, but it was no longer their home. Since my parents are about that same age, it made me think about how they must be feeling with us kids out of the house, living our lives and only visiting briefly. I too am nostalgic about the family memories we created in the house – the Christmases, birthday, confirmations, graduations and other paties but also the little things like letting the rabbits run around the living room while the cat watched uninterested, eating pizza on Sunday nights and watching the Wonderful World of Disney, turning off the lights during a thunderstorm to watch the lightning out the picture window and eventually sharing our home with Grandma during the last years of her life. These memories are a part of me – but are they a part of the house?

Rudy decides to sell the house and become an avocado farmer in Texas. At first the girls are supportive, but as reality sets in - they dread the loss of their family home and seem to be afraid of recognizing that their father is a person in his own right with hopes, regrets and a life. What accompanies Rudy through all the changes is a college textbook Philosophy Made Simple. His wife has been an art history professor and he acquired a lot of her knowledge, but not all of her tastes for art, history and philosophy. With a new space and open time, Rudy begins contemplating the big questions of life – What is beauty? What is happiness? What is the meaning of life? How do I know?

Plato's Allegory of the Cave and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, the thing-in-itself (das Ding an sich) are his touchstones throughout his philosophical meanderings in the midst of living life. He builds a life in Texas, farms avocados, plans and hosts his daughter's Indian wedding, and makes peace with the affair his wife had in Italy a few years before she died of cancer. Along the way, he tries out his philosophical understandings on his Mexican foreman, a Mexican paramour, the author of the textbook (who is a charismatic uncle of his new son-in-law), and a Russian and his artistic elephant Norma Jean that paints and is eventually abandoned to Rudy's care.

One of the interesting conversation in the book was about happiness – not just what it was, but when are we the happiest, or what was our happiest moment. “The pandit was quick to disagree: “Trying to reach happiness by fulfilling your desires is like trying to reach the horizon by running toward it. True happiness is to found not in the fulfillment of desire, but escape from desire.” (p. 212). Rudy counters with the idea “I think people are the happiest when they're standing on the threshold of a new life . . . “ His daughter continues with the illustration of the urn in Keat's poem Ode to a Grecian Urn, “It is not the kiss, but the moment just before the kiss that's the moment of real happiness” (p. 213). As soon as we get what we desire, we begin to desire something else. It is the absence of desire – the contentment of what we have, and being grateful for it.

The Postmistress

Title: The Postmistress
Author: Sarah Blake
Publisher: Berkley Trade
ISBN: 0425238695
Pages: 384

Over a year ago, NPR's All Things Considered had an interesting feature on Sarah Blake's novel, The Postmistress.  It sounded like an interesting historical fiction book - an intertwining of three women's lives through the mail and radio - the intrusion of modern communication on every day lives.   From the NPR story, I was interested in learning more about Frankie, a female American reporter living on the bombings of London and learning how to be a war correspondent from Edward R. Murrow, one of the few "real" people in this novel.  After recommending it to my mother-in-law, who bought it at a flea market and gave it to me after she finished it, I settled in for what I expected to be a gripping read.  The intertwining of stories was interesting, but the only character I really cared about was Frankie.  However, the chapters alternated between telling the story of Frankie; Iris an uptight, single, emancipated postmaster (mistress in England); and Emma a timid, un-emancipated new wife of a small town doctor. 

The story begins with a modern time Frankie titillating a cocktail party with the story of an undelivered letter. What would be the fate? Not knowing what the letter entailed.  Then the story dissolves back to WWII.  Both Emma and Iris hear Frankie's broadcasts from London.  With Murrow's tutelage, Frankie finds the voices of the streets to help the world hear and feel the war - especially a hesitant America that doesn't want to involve itself in the war "over there".  Frankie brings the names and lives of Londoners trying to survive the constant shelling, waiting, hiding and dying.  Iris, the postmistress of the small coastal town of Franklin, MA, is determined to keep order in the town through her meticulous handling of the mail.  However, the feeling that "something is coming" fills everyone.  Doctor Fitch gets his new wife Emma, an early orphan of the flu pandemic of WWI, and begins to settle into a blissful family life.  However, Frankie's constant stories of the war unsettle Dr. Fitch and his wife, and when a patient dies under his supervision, Dr. Fitch looks for redemption by volunteering as a doctor in London, leaving a pregnant Emma behind.  Like Penelope waiting for Odysseus, Emma writes and waits for him to come home.  Iris becomes involved with a local man who is convinced that the Germans will arrive in U-Boats to invade America.  She does not want her orderly life upset, so she tends to ignore both him and the reports from Europe about the severity of the war.

Frankie is in the thick of it, as she takes shelter with the rest of London underground during the bombs, but find the reality of war is told in the daily things - the suddenly missing traffic cop, the apartment building that is half blown ahead while the other half is in perfect order.  She meets Dr. Fitch one night in the shelter, where they each poke at the other's emotional soft spots.  When Dr. Fitch leaves the shelter, he is hit and killed by a taxi cab.  Frankie takes his last letter to Emma, intending to mail it, but without ID, his body is not identified and no notice is given to Emma about his death.  Her reporter flatmate is concerned with the plight of the Jewish refuges across Europe, and when she is killed, Frankie takes up the cause.  Murrow sends her into the heart of Europe to ride the trains and record the voices of the travelers(which the author admits is historically inaccurate).  What Frankie finds is chaos, death and displacement with very little hope.  She returns with several recordings of people's hopes and fears, but doesn't know what to do with them.  Murrow sends her back to the States to recuperate.

Still having the last letter in her possession, Frankie decides to give it, in person, to Emma.  However, the small town-ness envelopes her and when she realizes the Emma doesn't know her husband is dead, she refuses to hand it over.  At the same time, Iris had been hiding the initial letter from Dr. Fitch's colleagues in London saying he was missing.   When the final notice is given, Emma is surrounded by people who will take care of her, including Iris, Frankie and Otto (an Austrian Jewish man hoping for word from his wife in Europe).  That same night, Iris's lover's nightmare/prediction comes true, as a U-Boat shows up and kills him, yet with early warming, the coast is safe.

I was anticipating a really engrossing read, but I can't see this met my expectations.  The NPR pre-view sounded really good, but it felt more like getting stuck with flat soda at a movie that was so boring I noticed how much my butt went numb.  Since the character of Frankie was supposedly based on Martha Gellhorn, I think I will do some more reading about her!

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

Title: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

Author: Stieg Larsson

Publisher: Knopf

ISBN: 978-0307269997

Pages: 576

I mentioned to a friend the other day that I was reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest and she said, "I don't think I'm going to read those books. I heard that they are violent crime books that lean toward pornography." I hate to admit it, but that description is fairly accurate. This is the third book in the series of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. (I also have to admit that I mistakenly picked up and read book 3 before book 2. Oops!) I'm generally not a crime book type person, though I did enjoy several V. I. Warshawski novels, mostly because of the Kathleen Turner movie of the same name. However, "everyone" was reading the Girl with Tattoo series a few years ago, my father-in-law gave me the books, and then the American movie came out. BTW - glad I read the book before the movie - like is often the case, the book was better than the movie, but the movie was good if you hadn't read the book (according to my husband).

The title is very appropriate for the book, which I especially love! The metaphor of Salander stirring up the hornets in the secret government conspiracy is absolutely spot on. The story begins with Salander being carted off to the hospital after being shot in the head. Blomkvist "rescued" her from almost certain death, but then has to deal with backwoods cops who think he had something to do with not only Salander's injuries, but the murders and assaults of several other people. Disentangling the 30 year conspiracy and clearing Salander's name becomes Blomkvist's mission. It begins with Salander's father, as ex-Russian spy who defected to Sweden and concealed for his valuable information - even though he abused Salander's mother mercilessly. As a teenager, Salander took revenge by throwing a Molotov cocktail, but rather than killing him, it resulted in Salander being committed to a mental institution and abused by a twisted psychiatrist, which was alluded to in the first book. Since the government didn't want people looking into the incident, "The Section" continued to hide and cover-up the unpleasantness. I now realize that there was a whole lot of stuff that happened in book 2 that I missed, like the murders of some of Blomkvist and Salander's allies, which led to Salander tracking down her demonic father and half-brother, which resulted it her current situation of a bullet in her head.

While Salander is operated on and recovering in the hospital, the conspiracy begins to unravel. Salander's father is murdered by The Section to prevent further confessions, but this leads to more people suspecting illegal and unconstitutional dealings deep within the government. Blomkvist continues to get help from his part-time lover Berger (editor of his magazine) who transfers to a rival newspaper. She is involved in petty office politics and a stalker/harasser, which had no bearing on the central plot, other than to make Berger edgy. Blomkvist makes a deal with another secret group within the government to investigate The Section, and through this, finds several more allies - including a new lover, a fitness fanatic security guard.

One of the most interesting character, which isn't developed fully, is Blomkvist's lawyer sister, Giannini, who agrees to represent Salander, even though Giannini's specialty is civil cases. However, it turns out that Giannini's background in psychology is useful, as is her background in abuse cases.

Even though Blomkvist and Salander don't meet again until the last few chapters, they have an ongoing conversation via chat. Even though Salander is under hospital arrest without visitor, Blomkvist manages to smuggle her a PalmPilot (Hee-hee, modern readers would not have a clue what this is - but I had one!) and she "taps" out to her hacking group for help in the investigation.

Having read the first book, I realized that Larsson spends a long time setting up his stories. To me, it was like watching the show Unchain Reaction based on Rube Goldberg's machines. In the show, the first 25 minutes is all about the concept, design and sorting out the problems and the finale lasts all of 2 minutes. In Larsson's book, the set-up takes 3/4 of the book, but once I was that invested in it, it felt like hitting the top of the hill on a roller-coaster - I just held up my hands and screamed!

Returning to my friend's comment about the violence and the prom - yes, it was pronounced. There are graphic descriptions of the murders, abuse (physical and sexual), and various altercations. As horrible as this all is, it makes Salander seem all that more amazing - to have survived and thrived under conditions that took away her freedom, rights and dignity. I can't say I would recommend this book to everyone - even though it was an the best seller list and such, I think it would appeal to a particular group of readers, unfortunately none that I know, so this book is going to The Little Free Library!

Hunger Games - The Series - Better Late Than Never

 
Title: The Hunger Games - Catching Fire - Mockingjay
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic
Pages: 374, 391, 390

    Since the movie has been out, I'm not going to go into detail about the plot.  Even if you haven't seen the movie, I'm sure you know it.  In some future world, after a great civil war, the government reminds the people each year of the death and destruction of the revolution through The Hunger Games.  A boy and girl from each of the 12 districts are chosen to fight to the death in the arena and televised to all.  The main character, Katniss, takes her sister's place in the Games and incites a new revolution through her refusal to play the Game as the government intended.  As a coming of age story (across all 3 books), it includes a love triangle and search for identity, while she becomes both the most hated and loved icon in this civilization.

     Reading the series, I was transported back to my own adolescent time of struggle, persecution, wonderment, and discovery.  I read this book with the purpose of being entertained, not enlightened, and enjoyed the ride immensely.  As many others have detailed, there are some very gruesome deaths and the idea of kids killing each other is quite horrifying, but the fictional arena and competition isn't much different from Survivor, Amazing Race, and the multitude of other reality shows.  What will it take before we begin to celebrate the gladiators of modern times?