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Monthly Archives: October 2012

The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris- David McCullough

31 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by Bookwormier in Book Reviews, History, Non-Fiction

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book review, David McCullough, History, Non-fiction, The Greater Journey

4.5 Stars

David McCullough is best-known for his weighty biographies of Truman and John Adams. 1776 was downright fluffy by comparison! This was an enjoyable departure from his usual topics and my main complaint was that I found myself wanting more.

McCullough skips over some of the most famous Americans in Paris, like Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, and starts in 1830, when James Fenimore Cooper (of Last of the Mohicans fame) and Samuel Morse went to Paris to absorb the culture and cultivate their artistic sides. I hadn’t realized (or more likely, had forgotten) that Morse was an accomplished painter before he went on to invent the telegraph.

I mean seriously, what kind of talent just “dabbles” in epic paintings and then decides to do a bit of tinkering that changes communications forever?

In those early days, the voyage on a sailing ship was long and hazardous, and relatively few Americans went to Paris. Most that did were interesting in studying art or medicine. There is a fascinating chapter on the study of medicine in Paris, which was the most advanced in the world at that time. Warning: don’t eat lunch while reading about these “state-of-the-art” operating theaters.  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. studied there and came back to eventually become dean of the Harvard Medical School.

Once steamships and the railroad became popular, thousands of Americans swarmed to Paris and McCullough’s focus widens considerably. It seems that for a time, Paris itself takes center stage. As a fan of that lovely city, I didn’t mind one bit. Pretty soon, it seemed like anyone who was anyone was traveling to Paris, taking in the sights, or making their marks. Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, P.T. Barnum (with Tom Thumb) and George Catlin with a troop of Iowa Indians in full regalia, all make their appearances.

Soon, McCullough zeroes in again, this time on American ambassador Elihu Washburne. Through his letters, we get a first-person account of the Siege of Paris (Franco-Prussian War) and the subsequent horrific Paris Commune. Even though I’ve read about these events in history books, this account was far more compelling and memorable.

Even though the entire city was laid low in the aftermath of the Commune, Paris never stays down for long, and Americans couldn’t stay away. Some of the most prominent to appear in the later part of the century were painters Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent. The final focus is on American sculptor August Saint-Gaudens, who did all of the work on the massive bronze statue of Admiral Farragut in Paris, as well as the casting of the mounted Sherman who stands on the edge of Central Park.

While McCullough seems to favor the visual artists in his choices of focus, he does give us a very good idea of how important Paris was to all sorts of influential Americans. It was interesting to see how many were able to absorb and enjoy the city’s many delights, all while remaining relentlessly patriotic and even more convinced of their “Americanism.”

I really don’t have any significant criticisms- I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I would have liked to read more about Henry James’ time in Paris (The Ambassadors and The American are among my favorites), and I was disappointed that the book ended with the end of the 19th century. I’d love to read more about Americans in Paris in the 1920’s. I’ll see what I can find and put it on my list!

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The Casual Vacancy- J.K. Rowling

25 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by Bookwormier in Book Reviews, Fiction

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book review, fiction, J.K. Rowling, The Casual Vacany

4 Stars

the casual vacancyI really hope that no one reading J.K. Rowling’s first venture into “grown-up” literature is expecting Harry Potter. I know that I wasn’t, but I still have to admit that The Casual Vacancy was a shock to my wizard-friendly system. Even though it’s billed as a tragicomedy, I found it mostly tragic, and hardly comic at all, except maybe in the blackest sense.

Set in the fictional West English village of Pagford, The Casual Vacancy centers around a race for a seat on the Parish Council that has been suddenly vacated, due to the untimely death of one of the councilors. It turns out that the dead councilor was the leader of a political faction in Pagford, supporting a connection with “The Fields,” a particularly unpleasant council estate (or housing project, for Americans).

His body is practically still warm as battle lines between his faction and the opposing one are hastily redrawn. In this fashion, we get to know a great many Pagford citizens, as well as a family living in The Fields. Chaos is sown by disaffected teenagers, the children of several of the candidates for the vacancy, when incriminating evidence against each candidate is mysteriously posted on the Parish Council’s website.

We get an especially unvarnished look at the life of Krystal Wheedon, a 16-year-old girl living in The Fields with her heroin-addict/prostitute mother and 3-year-old brother, Robbie.

Rowling touches on a lot of hot-button issues including racism (there is a Sikh family of doctors in Pagford), welfare policies, child abuse and molestation, alcoholism and drug use, and a lot of other fun things.

What can I say? This book was a real bummer. It was well-written, in a straightforward, non-literary manner, with moments of brilliance. It just presented such a bleak view of human nature. It seemed like every one of the many characters, children included, was despicable, pathetic, or both.

It was a page-turner, too. Once you get past the initial confusion of the dozens of characters, the pace is gripping. I read the 500 pages in just two sittings. I’ve seldom felt such a mix of suspense and depression. I had to eat chocolate throughout, to keep from getting too down. Usually, if a book is this upsetting, I can read at a much slower pace. Not the case here.

Rowling is a fantastic storyteller, and I think she pulls this off quite well. This will never surpass Harry Potter, because people will inevitably compare. I did catch a thematic similarity, in that, just like in HP, the youngsters in The Casual Vacancy are forced to pay for the sins of their parents- the adults have really screwed things up for them. They do go some way toward exacting some justice, although it’s ultimately an exercise in futility.

**SPOILER ALERT***

I found the ending horribly tragic. After Krystal’s little brother drowns in the river, she commits suicide by overdosing on heroin. As awful as that is, I felt a bit of relief for the two of them, because their lives were so terrible already and were almost inevitably headed in an even worse direction. Even though there were a few people who wanted to help Krystal, her two main sources of support were recently dead, and no one else cared enough. That her most plausible ambition was to get pregnant as quickly as possible, so she could get her own government-subsidized housing away from her train-wreck mother was nearly as tragic as her death.

I can’t say I truly enjoyed this, but it was a good read.

Fifty Shades Trilogy- E.L. James

19 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by Bookwormier in Book Reviews, Fiction, Romance

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book review, E L James, erotica, fiction, Fifty Shades Darker, Fifty Shades Freed, Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Trilogy, romance

2 Stars

I finally read these, loooong after everyone else did, apparently. I was pretty sure they wouldn’t be the kind of thing I like, but at least four different random people  told me I MUST read them. Then, a few rather serious bloggers picked them apart, at which point I really started to feel left out. Love ’em or hate ’em, there’s no question that Fifty Shades became a cultural phenomenon, and it IS fun to see what the fuss is about.

Fifty Shades of GreyEven though I really didn’t care for these overall, I did manage to read all three books (well, I pretty much skimmed through the second one), which is more than I can say for the average romance novel. I suppose I did want to find out what happened, even if I could guess it pretty well in advance.

Anastasia Steele (like any real person has a name like that) is a shy, awkward college senior who is thrust by fate into the path of 27-year-old billionaire Christian Grey. Of course he’s gorgeous, and she’s in awe. He’s very damaged, due to a bad childhood, and never has normal relationships. He’s been with a lot of women, but they always have to sign non-disclosure agreements, so no, not at all normal.

He falls for Ana rather improbably quickly and duly presents her with a NDA, which she never signs. There is a LOT of sex. So much in fact, that I found it hard to believe that Christian could continue to run his empire, or that Ana could perform her new job with any sort of competence. And for all the talk about how weird and kinky he is, the sex is pretty much vanilla.

Of course, Christian showers Ana with goodies, and goes so far as to buy the company she works for, so he knows what’s going on with her. He’s super-controlling, way beyond the point of creepy. He wants to dictate what she eats, what she wears and how she spends her days. I just couldn’t see how any of that was very appealing.

The part that’s like crack for women is that over time, Ana finally gets through to Christian, so he can really open up and they can have a normal (or in this case, perfect) relationship.

I know that women love this stuff, and it’s why romance novels are so popular. Creepiness aside (don’t let your daughters date this guy!), Christian Grey is a brooding prince charming who chooses shy, mousy Ana over all of the incredible women he has access to. What girl in her right mind doesn’t love that?

Unfortunately, these books aren’t very well-written. Cliches abound, the internal and external dialogue is incredibly repetitive (I gladly would have strangled Ana for thinking “holy cow!” after the thousandth time.) and Ana comes across as pretty stupid, and a doormat.

When the whole scenario seems so implausible, it’s hard to really enjoy. Maybe I wasn’t reading it in the correct frame of mind. I’m probably too critical.

 

The Flight of Gemma Hardy- Margot Livesy

15 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by Bookwormier in Book Reviews, Fiction

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4 Stars

Set in 1950’s and 1960’s Scotland, The Flight of Gemma Hardy is a modern-day retelling of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. At first, I thought the story was simply following the British literary trope of the poor orphan, at the mercy of heartless relatives, sent to live in harsh and scary conditions. Not until a nearly-adult Gemma makes her way to the Orkneys as an au pair do the similarities to Jane Eyre become clearer.

Does it work?

Mostly. What doesn’t ring altogether true to me is Gemma’s whirlwind romance with Hugh Sinclair, the wealthy, mysterious landowner she works for. It’s a bit hard to believe that an 18-year-old could really fall for a 41-year-old. Even harder to believe is Mr. Sinclair falling for her- especially because it happens the day after the woman he has been chasing is unveiled as a gold-digger. So, in one day, he goes from being seriously interested in a sexy blonde closer to his age, to falling in love with little Gemma? I guess it’s possible, but I had to suspend disbelief there.

However, in my youth, I received broad experience in the gothic romances- particularly those of Victoria Holt– so the story of the wealthy older man falling in love with the mousy young governess is a familiar one to me.

I also don’t completely buy the “horrible” thing Mr. Sinclair does in his youth. Sure, it’s bad, but he was 18 at the time and facing something really awful. That Gemma would immediately reject him at the secret’s unveiling, just days after she had promised him that she would love him no matter what had happened in his past just seems kind of inconsistent and smacks of immaturity.  Yet another good reason to not fall in love with an 18-year-old.

And what is it about these deep dark secrets that can’t be unveiled until after the wedding? Do you really want to be stuck with someone who now thinks you’re a horrible person? What if Gemma hadn’t found out until after the wedding, but reacted the same way? That would have been much worse.

Okay, I’ve been way too critical so far. Because the truth is, barring those few things, I really enjoyed this book. I loved just about every setting, from the Dickensian boarding school, to the windswept Orkneys to Iceland’s unique landscape.

The novel is fundamentally, about a young person’s search for identity and belonging and the way that Gemma succeeds in her quest is in the end, quite satisfying.

Freakonomics- Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

07 Sunday Oct 2012

Posted by Bookwormier in Book Reviews, Non-Fiction

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book review, Freakonomics, Non-fiction, Stephen Dubner, Steven Levitt

 4 Stars

FreakonomicsI love these kinds of books, full of cool information about a random assortment of things. Freakonomics is written by a University of Chicago economist (Levitt) and a New York Times journalist (Dubner) and really reads more like pop sociology than economics.  It is in fact, economic theory applied to all sorts of cultural phenomena. The authors argue that the incentives frequently studied by economists can also be effectively applied to all sorts of topics, providing explanations for all kinds of behavior.

Here are the things covered:

Cheating in teaching and Sumo wrestling.

The way the Ku Klux Klan and real estate agents control information for their own benefit

Why most drug dealers still live with their moms. The trade is not very lucrative at the lower levels, but participants still have good reasons for entering it.

How the legalization of abortion contributes to a lower crime rate, and the opposite scenario in Ceausescu’s Romania.

The impact of good parenting on education. It’s surprisingly low.

How your child’s name reflects your socioeconomic status.

It’s quite an assortment of topics! I was surprised to find that I found them all pretty much uniformly interesting. It was one of those books where I constantly stopped reading to say to my husband, “Hey, did you know ________?”

I felt on somewhat shaky ground when it came to the methodology and some of the claims made. This is definitely not an academic book, so the number-crunching was kept to a minimum, but I wouldn’t have minded a bit more.  There were a few times I felt I was just taking the author’s word for something. Or maybe I was just uncomfortable with the conclusions. The fact that more abortions leads to less crime appears pretty irrefutable as presented. It makes sense, but the implications on all sides make my skin crawl.

What is essentially a bad thing leads to a desirable social outcome. Also, there is an implication that “undesirables” can be eliminated before birth, and that some women-particularly of a certain age and socioeconomic status- aren’t good mothers. The whole thing makes me feel icky.

Still, overall a fun and informative read with plenty of food for thought.

Due to the super-success of this book (I swear, every nerdy wonk I know, myself included, has read this), there is a sequel, Superfreakonomics and a blog, to keep readers updated on new developments in the world of rogue economics.

Master and Commander- Patrick O’Brian

06 Saturday Oct 2012

Posted by Bookwormier in Book Reviews, Fiction, Series

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Aubrey-Maturin series, book review, fiction, historical fiction, Master and Commander, Patrick O'Brian, series

5 Stars

A bit of background- I’m a British Royal Navy FREAK. It all started when my parents started getting the Time-Life series about the seafarers. First, I got totally into pirates. (In fact, my mother still has an extremely violent story I wrote in the 4th grade about being captured and nearly boiled alive by Blackbeard). The next book in the series was Fighting Sail. Oh boy. I was completely hooked. Lord Nelson became my first and rather enduring crush. I still feel a bit mushy about him.

Unsurprisingly, this is one of my favorite series‘, ever. I read all of the completed books about ten years ago, and it’s time for another round. I’d already read the Horatio Hornblower series by C.S. Forester, which was entertaining, but in my opinion, far inferior to O’Brian’s work.

Although, I much enjoyed the ITV Hornblower. Ioan Gruffudd and Jamie Bamber made the most adorable naval officers EVER, thereby introducing many women to the joys of the British Navy.

Master and CommanderSo, enough gushing for the moment. The Aubrey-Maturin series follows the adventures of Jack Aubrey, a Royal Navy captain, and his best friend- surgeon, naturalist and spy- Stephen Maturin. In Master and Commander, Aubrey receives his first command, a brig christened Sophie. He has also just met Maturin at a concert, where they nearly come to blows over Jack taking, shall we say, an overly active role in appreciating the music.
Jack has a warm and forgiving nature, however, so he and Stephen quickly bond over their shared love of music, and Jack soon invites him to fill the post of surgeon on the under-staffed Sophie. They proceed to gallivant all over the Med, blasting away with cannon, fighting with swords, playing violin/cello duets, taking prizes, and generally having a great time.

Finally, the Sophie is taken by a French ship, and Jack has to get through a court-martial- par for the course for the captain who’s lost his ship. He is exonerated, and the book ends on a happy note, preparing us for his imminent promotion to Post Captain, in Book 2.

What else can I say? These books are perfection. There is just about non-stop intrigue and action, but the characters are wonderfully developed and realistic. O’Brian doesn’t hold back on the naval jargon, which is at first bewildering (read Fighting Sail or The Wooden World beforehand or during), but really immerses you into life at sea. The language is so period-perfect, it’s hard to believe that O’Brian lived and wrote in the 20th century.

These books stand out in every way- as action-packed history, as great literature, and as a faithful depiction of the world at that time.

I should probably also mention the movie: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World starring Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany. I love it also, even though the plot only loosely follows that of the books. Russell Crowe is a perfect Jack Aubrey, and even though Bettany doesn’t fit the book’s physical description of Maturin, he inhabits the role wonderfully. Even if you’re not interested in the books, I highly recommend the movie.

The Small House at Allington- Anthony Trollope

04 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by Bookwormier in Book Reviews, Fiction, Uncategorized

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Anthony Trollope, book review, Chronicles of Barsetshire, fiction, The Small House at Allington

5 Stars

This book is fifth in the six-book Chronicles of Barsetshire  series. Although I really enjoyed the whole series, which largely focuses on the clergy in Barsetshire, a fictional English county, this book was my favorite of all of them.  Maybe because it had a bit of a Jane Austen feel to it, with most of it focused on the romantic lives of some of the young gentry.

And, if I have to choose between romance or the feud between the Bishop of Something and the Vicar of So-and-so over how many hymns should be sung in a proper Anglican service, well then I’ll choose the romance. Believe it or not.

It’s also former British PM John Major’s favorite book. Weird.

The Small House at Allington

The Small House at Allington  revolves around the Dale family- a widow and her two pretty daughters, Bell and Lily. They live on a small house on the Allington estate, owned by their uncle/brother-in-law, Squire Christopher Dale. Bell is already in love with the local doctor, while Lily has been admired from afar by the awkward, yet lovable John Eames, a clerk at the tax office.

Their quiet world is turned on its ear by the arrival of handsome, glamorous Adolphus Crosbie,  a friend of the squire’s nephew. Even though Lily has no money, Crosbie is smitten, and proposes to her rather quickly. Lily really falls for him, but Crosbie’s feelings aren’t quite as strong. Within a few days of leaving Allington, his head is turned by the apparently wealthy Alexandrina de Courcy (the de Courcys are a staple in this series) and he jilts Lily for her.

Of course, Lily is heartbroken yet saintly, but the rest of us eagerly await Crosbie’s comeuppance. Fortunately, we don’t have to wait too long, because even before the wedding, Crosbie can’t help but make unfavorable comparisons between his fiancée and Lily Dale.

He thought this marriage would further his career, but he managed promotion on his own, with a raise that would have made marriage to Lily possible almost right away, if he’d bothered to wait more than a week before throwing her over. So of course, he’s miserable and his marriage is a personal and financial disaster, since his wife brings him no money, but expects him to maintain her in the style to which she is accustomed. Also, her family is awful.

Lily is sweet and patient and almost nauseatingly perfect throughout. It’s almost upsetting that she never has a real tantrum, but Eames steps in and beats up on Crosbie the first chance he gets, since Lily has no other male relatives willing to punish him for the broken engagement. Unfortunately, no one ever tells Lily that Eames is her knight in shining armor, so she continues to regard him as a friend, and their romance never develops.

All that is a bit frustrating, but in a fun way, and Trollope has such a way with words and engaging characters, that there is never a dull moment. At least Bell finally marries her doctor, although they’re both pretty boring.

A lot of the fun with Trollope is his minor characters that populate the entire series. They create an entire community of interesting people who give what appears to be a sleepy countryside some real drama and fun.

I’ll probably gladly re-read the whole series again at some point. If you’re looking for a “light” classic, The Barsetshire Chronicles are just right.

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