1) A Land of Ghosts by David Campbell: This account (nonfiction) of an ecologist's work in documenting the diversity of life in the huge Amazon basin is beautifully written and combines information on botany, ecology, history and anthropology. It gave me lots to think about without requiring a lot of technical scientific information and without drumming up a lot of guilt about conservation or lack thereof. 2) A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel: This memoir of growing up in the 1950s in the mid-West brought many smiles of recognition and was fun. 3) Dusk on the Campo: A Journey in Patagonia by Sara Mansfield Taber: The author and her husband spent several seasons in the bleak world of southern Argentina and Sara took it upon herself to interview the women who lived that isolated life, asking them how they kept their spirits up while living a life of hard physical work with little social contact. It's a stripped down commentary about what is really important in life. I'd love to hear about what others are reading and/or viewing. |
| Books, Movies, and TV |
| Mysteries to Die For Recommendations and reviews from Linda M. and Jan |
| Feb. '08, from Clarence's bio: Clarence and Marva both enjoy watching CSI New York, CSI Miami, and NCIS. Clarence likes Cops and America's Most Wanted. They aren't big readers. |
| Books |
| Feb. 24 from Jan: Just finished Storm Runners by T. Jefferson Parker, another of my favorite writers. What an original plot! Loved it. |
| Apr. '08 from Jan: Just finished Forward from Here by Reeve Lindbergh, daughter of Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. It made lovely bedtime reading, a great improvement over those mysteries that have been keying me up so it's hard to go to sleep. Lindbergh seems so likable. She writes in a mellow style about her perspective upon turning 60, learning to live in a small town in Vermont, her friends, her animals, and her family. (Did you know that Charles Lindbergh---yes, that Lindbergh--- had three other families besides her own, simultaneously, in Europe, between ages 50 and 65? That was really hard for Reeve to deal with, once she found out.) I highly recommend her book. What are YOU reading? |
| There's a new non-fiction book out, Where Did I Leave My Glasses?, by Martha Weinman Lear, in which she says that many memory experts believe that we are biologically programmed to forget. I'm reminded of my computer's suggesting that I have too many short-cut icons on my desktop. Gotta get that book, 'cause my memory is getting really sketchy... |
| Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog by Ted Kerasote Another gentle book chosen to put me in a mellow mood for sleep. It's about the relationship between a Wyoming man and the stray dog who befriended him and how it enriched his life. Such a good read, with lots of LOLs ("Laugh-Out-Louds"). Here's a quote. (Don't you feel like this sometimes, maybe after Thanksgiving dinner?) When I returned two hours later, I found him lying on his spine, his rear legs splayed, his front paws hanging limply over his chest, his breath coming in shallow gasps. His stomach bulged like a python's after it has swallowed a pig. In an instant I saw what had happened. I had just opened a forty-pound bag of kibble and had given him two big bowls of it. Forgetting to empty the rest of the bag's contents into the plastic garbage pail where I stored his food, I had left the bag against the wall. Worse still, I had left it open. Merle had stuck his head in and eaten. [He had eaten 12 pounds in 3 hrs.] He now looked as if he were going to die. He didn't look in the least regretful, though. In fact, he wore a blissful smile. "Merle." I leaned close to his ear, putting a hand gently on his belly. It was tight as a drum. He groaned painfully and opened his eyes. They were glassy. Faintly, he flopped his tail back and forth: "Let me die in peace." A few moments later, he rolled onto his side and squeezed through his dog door, his belly scraping its lower edge. He clumped across the porch and onto the grass, but he didn't get far. Heaving several times, he vomited up an enormous pile of kibble. Sniffing it, he wagged his tail appreciatively and glanced back at me. A bigger wag of his tail: "That was so good." Then he headed over the bridge toward [his dog girlfriend's home], perhaps to tell her that he had at last fulfilled his life's dream: He had finally eaten as much as he wanted. |
| Apr. 27, '08 from Jan |
| TV Favorites |
| May 5 from Dicksy: Have been checking the author list. Will look forward to more good reading. A book I read about two years ago (unfortunately I do not remember the author's name) was Ahab's Wife*...very good. Also in the past have enjoyed reading Ann Rivers Siddens books. Completed The Kite Runner about a month ago. Look forward to A Thousand Splendid Suns. |
| *Beginning of review in the Oct. 22, 1999 Austin Chronicle (http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobas e/Issue/review?oid=oid%3A74301) Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer by Sena Jeter Naslund William Morrow & Co., $28 hardcover Sena Jeter Naslund's novel Ahab's Wife is very much like a romance novel with an English degree. If you don't remember Ahab's wife from Melville's novel, don't worry, because neither did he. Arguably the most hypermasculine American writer next to Hemingway, Melville allowed Ahab only a scant few lines for a character that Naslund harnesses to an epic-sized novel. Over hundreds of pages, Una, Ahab's young bride, tells her life story. Magically born a proto-feminist and agnostic (how she arrived at such free thinking is unfor- tunately left a mystery), she is sent by her kindly mother to be raised by her liberal aunt and uncle because her father is a violent, religious zealot who intends to beat piety into her. She lives an idyllic few years at the relatives' lighthouse home and then, at the age of 16, two articulate, self-taught sailors, Giles and Kit, arrive at the lighthouse and really get things going. Torn between these two young men, Una impetuously decides to go to sea, disguises herself as a boy, and presents herself at their vessel. This turns out to be a bad mistake. (Jan's note: Read the book to find out why!) |
| Movie Favorites |
| Jan: Forgot another book that I just finished last week, Advise and Consent. It is approximately 50 years old but pretty good, and written by Allen Drury. I believe he was awarded a Pulitzer for this work. It is political fiction, enjoyed reading it. Regards, Dicksy |
Forgot another book that I just finished last week, Advise and Consent. It is approximately 50 years old but pretty good, and written by Allen Drury. I believe he was awarded a Pulitzer for this work. It is political fiction, enjoyed reading it. Regards, Dicksy |
| Jan: Forgot another book that I just finished last week, Advise and Consent. It is approximately 50 years old but pretty good, and written by Allen Drury. I believe he was awarded a Pulitzer for this work. It is political fiction, enjoyed reading it. Regards, Dicksy |
| Have you read any of Cynthia Harrod-Eagles’ books? She has a couple of series, but I’m reading the Bill Slider crime novels. The other series is a historical one and currently has 30 titles in it – since I like to read from the beginning, the number is a bit daunting and I don’t know if my budget will stretch that far! When I finish the Slider series, I’ll see if I can get a copy of the first book in the Morland series, The Foundling, and see how I like it. Who knows – maybe the Baytown library will have it. Stranger things have happened. Characters in the Slider series use literary references and wordplay, which I enjoy. So far I have finished Orchestrated Death and Death Watch and have started Necrochip. E-mail today from my Houston independent bookstore, Murder by the Book, informed me that Elizabeth George has a new Lynley novel out and I have ordered the new books by Ben Rehder and C.J. Box. I’ll have to hold off on E. G. and a few others until another credit card cycle! |
| May 17, '08 from Linda M. |
Have another book to add to your list. Read this one a couple of years ago, A Million Little Pieces, by James Frey. This was an Oprah's Book Club Selection with a bit of controversy surrounding it. The author published this book as an autobiography and Ms. Oprah strongly recommended it. Turns out the book was fiction and she gave him a face-to-face royal tongue-lashing on national T.V. Anyway it is written as a first-person account of a drug addict. Even though it is fiction, it does provide a bit of insight into the despair and depths of drug addiction. For anyone who has been associated in any way with addiction it is worth reading, and gives some superficial insight into the problem. Mr. Frey has written another book, recently released, that has gotten good reviews. Unfortunately don't remember the title. Also for anyone with Harry Potter-age children or grandchildren, you might check those books out.....I see them as fantasy stories, not as antichrist as many do. And, Songs in Ordinary Time is another good book. |
| June 15, '08 from Dicksy |
| May 6, '08 from Dicksy |
| Apr. 27, '08 from Jan |
| Jan. '08 from Nancy D. |
| June 15 from Dicksy: Favorite TV shows: M.A.S.H, M.A.S.H, M.A.S.H, M.A.S.H,...the TV Show, not the movie. Also West Wing (now off of the air), Boston Legal, and Wheel of Fortune. Can you tell what sophisticated tastes I have? |
| Have you read any books by Stephen White? His series’ main character is a clinical psychologist who is married to a prosecutor (who incidentally has MS, though this book does not include his wife as a character.) The title of this book is Kill Me. I just finished it and it was quite interesting. A rich man who enjoyed a number of hazardous pastimes (fast cars, skiing, diving) was seriously injured on a ski trip the same week one of his friends who had opted out of the ski trip to go diving in the Caribbean got caught in an underwater cave. By the time his diving partners got him out, he had been without oxygen for over 6 minutes and consequently they didn’t take the usual decompression steps bringing him up. Of course, the combination of the two situations meant that the friend, while officially still alive, was unlikely to ever regain consciousness; if he did so, he would not have much brain function. While talking with another friend on the ski trip, our character learned of an organization which he began calling the Death Angels who, for an obscenely large sum of money, would contract to kill a client if he were to have an accident or illness likely to end in death. Some time after this the man found out that he had a brain aneurism. Surgery was a possibility, but had a fairly high chance of permanent damage; doing nothing meant that the aneurism could burst at any time and result in death or permanent disability. Our rich fellow, who also had a brother dying of ALS, decided he would not want to live knowing that his last days would be painful or that he would not be sentient, and contracted with the organization. In spite of being told up front that once he entered into the contract and made the necessary payments he could not change his mind and withdraw, he began to have second thoughts. He began seeing the psychologist to be able to talk though his situation. Of course, once he started trying to get out of the death contract, things began to happen. Jeffery Deaver, in a note on the cover, described the book as a “thinking person’s thriller.” I agree!! |
| May 6, '08 from Dicksy |
| July 13, '08 from Linda M. |