Outside of a Dog » What are you reading

March…ing on

Barbara Pollock — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:52:41 +0000

February was a rough month in many ways. We, here in northeastern Ohio, experience the snowiest February on record, well it was if you count the snow fall on the 29th, the last snowiest February only had 28 days. We ended with 6 calamity days (one was for a power outage) off school, one over the state max. We will be making up a day in June I guess.

I managed to contract one of the raging flu viruses and was down for three days. I slept for two and one half days and I still do not feel up to par. I wish I could say I made good use of my sick days reading but I slept for most of them, waking only to find my medication then back to sleep.

As March begins I hope we are finished with snow, I am looking forward to beginning to work in my gardens. I pull out bunches of day-lilies last fall and would like to replant that area with a butterfly and hummingbird garden. I am also thinking of developing a runoff or rain garden. Rather than sending all of the water that runs off the house and driveway out into the storm sewers, a runoff garden holds the water (run off) in a low spot until it percolates down into the earth. This results in less pollution in streams. We have a boggy area that is the result of water from the drive that should work well when I take out the grass. You can read more about this type of garden here.

I have done some reading over the past two weeks and ticked off a few of my 888 books. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan is the story of a newly wedded couple on the first night of their honeymoon. Innocent they both harbor fears of what the night will bring. Using flashbacks and insights into human emotions McEwan’s story builds to an unexpected and tragic end.

I buzzed through two YA novels. Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan and The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga. Loved them both. Nick and Norah live in New Jersey but make the club scene in NYC. Nick plays in a band, Norah is the daughter of a music executive both are on the rebound from a broken heart. Thrown together on a fateful night the question is will they really connect or just bounce off each other. Lots of new metro teen talk here, at least to me. Fan Boy is miserable, currently a sophomore at the head of his class he has only one friend, his mother is remarried to the step-fascist and pregnant, his only refuge is his love of graphic novels and his determination to become the next great graphic novel writer. When along comes Kyra, Goth Girl. Kyra is wild and unpredictable and loves comics as much as he does. She lures him in and when he shares his graphic novel and desire to publish she pushes him to work harder. Both Fan Boy and Goth Girl live in their individual world of secrets and are in danger. An engaging story that will not let you down.

The last book I finish was The Tenth Muse My Life in Food by Judith Jones. Growing up in New York in the first half of the 1900’s Jones’ family ate in the English tradition. Most food was bland with few if any spices added and garlic and onion were banned. Despite this Jones developed and interest in cooking and loved to eat. After college she persuaded her parents (this was in 1948) to allow her to take a trip to France with friend. The friend returned, Jones stayed in Paris until 1951. It was in France that she found both of the loves of her life. Her husband Evan Jones and cooking. Back in the states she is appalled at the state of American cooking, every thing was aimed at fast and easy with no thought to taste. Hired by Knopf to edit French translations she had no thought of editing cookbooks until 1959 when the manuscript from Mesdames Julia Child, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle arrived on her desk. The rest of the story is history. With the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking she began her career editing and publishing cookbooks and in the process improving the state of cooking in the US. Her story is an exciting, funny and fascination mixture of the process of developing a new cookbook, her personal philosophy about food and cooking and her life with her husband and family. A throughly enjoyable book.

Books I loved

Barbara Pollock — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:34:12 +0000

I have begun to read the books from my 888 Challenge under the books that I loved as a child category (see What are you reading). My first title is Drums along the Mohawk by Walter D Edmonds. Edmonds, the author of the 1942 Newbery Winner The Matchlock Gun, (another of my favorites) published Drums in 1936. It is the story of the German (Palatine) setters in the Mohawk Valley of New York and their struggle against the British, Indians and Tories during the American Revolutionary War. Sir William Johnson was an early settler in the Mohawk Valley, a friend of the Iroquois he kept them on the English side during the French and Indian war. At the on set of the Revolution Johnson ’s son Sir John Johnson and other loyalists were driven out of the valley to Canada. These Tories retained the loyalty of some of the Iroquois tribe (Mohawks, Seneca, Onondaga, Cayuga and some Tuscarora) while the Oneida joined the Americans. From 1777 thought 1788 the British and their Tory and Indian allies waged a relentless war against their former neighbors.

Drums along the Mohawk is the story of this struggle as seen from the eye of Gil and Lana Martin a young couple just beginning their lives together. The story is beautifully written just as I had remember. Edmonds’ prose flows as I once again became intimate with his characters. With each attack of the “destructive,” as they were called, the people of the valley were forced to move to the forts for protection and watch as their homes and farms were burned and families and neighbors killed. Without sufficient support from the government they were unable to launch effective campaigns until late in the war. But in the end they do survive.

The reader will be somewhat surprise by the non-PC terms used for ethnic groups but must remember this was written in 1936 and the story takes place in the 1780’s. The characters would not have had our 21st century values and ideas. Historically Edmonds’ novel is very accurate. For more information on the history of the valley in the Revolution visit Drums Along the Mohawk.

The Palatine were a group of people from the Palatinate of section of Germany that was devastated by the 30 Years War. Most were Lutheran and appealed to Queen Anne of England for aid. Thousands escaped through Holland to England and then to the English Colonies of North America. They were an industrious people with prosperous farms, and mills. They worked hard to freely hold their land. The earlier settlers in this area (English and Dutch) considered them to be ignorant because they were slow to adopt the English language and tended to settle together. To find out more about the Palatines visit Who were the Palatines?

What are you reading?

Barbara Pollock — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 13:21:33 +0000

One of the most interesting things I have found recently found in the blogosphere are book challenges. Now in the old days a book challenge meant that someone was trying to have book taken off the shelves of a library. Today the term has taken on a new meaning: it is a challenge to read a specified number of books over a limited period of time. They can also include restrictions such as a certain genre, or author. Some of the challenges I have seen in the past year are the Notable Book Challenge to read 20 books from the NY Times Notable book list; the 48 hours Challenge to read and blog about your reading for 48 hours straight; The Young Adult 2008 challenge to read 12 YA novels during 2008; and the Expanding Horizons Challenge to read books by authors of other ethnicities. The challenge I decided to take up is the 888 Challenge. This challenge required the reader to read 8 books from each of 8 categories (the readers choice) during 2008. This will be a total of 64 books but the reader may have up to 8 books in more than one category for a total of 56 books. I chose this challenge because it will require me to stretch beyond my usual reading habits. Choosing my categories was difficult, I wanted to expand beyond my usual mysteries and historical novels but I still want to enjoy all of the books. I wanted to use this as an opportunity to reread some books from my past and to read some books I would not usually choose. After I determined the categories, I had to find books I thought I would like in each of them. Here is my list as it stands today. I still need to add a few titles to three lists and some others may change later.

Favorites from my youth

~~The Black Stallion by Walter Farley~~
The Matchlock gun by Walter D. Edmonds
The guns of Bull Run by Joseph A. Altsheler
The catcher in the rye by J. D. Salinger
Betsy Zane by Zane Gray
Calico Captive by Elizabeth George Speare
Little women by Louisa May Alcott
~~Drums along the Mohawk by Walter D. Edmonds~~

Global Reading

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra
Certainty: A Novel by Madeleine Thien
Autonauts of the Cosmoroute: A Timeless Voyage from Paris to Marseille, by Julio Cortazar and Carol Dunlop
Wash This Blood from My Hands by Fred Vargas
The kitchen god’s wife by Amy Tan
~~On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan~~

Cold War Thrillers

Manchurian candidate by Richard Condon
The spy who came in from the cold by John Le Carre
Year of the tiger by Jack Higgins
Saving the queen by William F. Buckley
The Tristan betrayal by Robert Ludlum
The Cardinal of the Kremlin by Tom Clancy
Eye of the needle by Ken Follett
The Honorable Schoolboy by John Le Carre

NPR Books

Autonauts of the Cosmoroute: A Timeless Voyage from Paris to Marseille, by Julio Cortazar and Carol Dunlop
The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved by Judith Freeman
~~Tenth Muse by Judith Jones~~
This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust
Wash This Blood from My Hands by Fred Vargas
~~On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan’s~~
Backcast: Fatherhood, Fly-fishing, and a River Journey Through the Heart of Alaska by Lou Ureneck
Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’nan

Historical Mysteries

The Janissary Tree: A Novel (Edgar) by Jason Goodwin
A murder on the Appian Way by Steven Saylor
Dragon’s Lair by Sharon Kay Penman
~~Bone Rattler by Eliot Pattison~~

Young Adult

~~The Absolutely True diary of a part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie~~
The White Darkness (Printz) by Geraldine McCaughrean
~~I am the messenger by Markus Zusak~~
The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Born to rock by Korman, Gordon

2007 Award Books

~~The Absolutely True diary of a part-time Indian (National Book Award) by Sherman Alexie~~
The Gathering (Man Booker Prize) by Anne Enright
Certainty: A Novel (Canada First Novel Award) by Madeleine Thien
The Janissary Tree: A Novel (Edgar) by Jason Goodwin
The Road (Pulitzer) by Cormac McCarthy
The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Caldecott) by Brian Selznick
The White Darkness (Printz) by Geraldine McCaughrean
Sacred Games (National Book Critics Circle) by Vikram Chandra

Non-fiction

This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust
Three Cups of Tea Mortenson
Tenth Muse by Judith Jones
Autonauts of the Cosmoroute: A Timeless Voyage from Paris to Marseille, by Julio Cortazar and Carol Dunlop
The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved by Judith Freeman
The Worst Hard Times by Timothy Egan

Strike through indicates books I have finished.

If you would like to join the challenge go to 888 Challenge to read the complete rules and submit you list.