"Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson

"Three Cups of Tea" (Nonfiction) by Greg Mortenson. I enjoyed this book of nonfiction and intricate details of how the author, Greg Mortenson, describes his transition from working the night shift in a burn unit hospital to wanting to make a career change, and a change in his overall perspective of life. 


This man's need to help people led him to sleep in his car to save on rent so he could later use that money for supplies in the construction of school across the world in Pakistan.  This American man would make trips to Pakistan in the course of his career.  But his initial visit brought him to terms with the fact that he was privileged in his life in America.  That unlike many of the people he came in contact with his new job, back home, he did have safety and security.   


 After he spent many months in Pakistan he realized that he had the most interest in the actual construction of buildings and he narrowed his outlet to the building of schools for girls.  The amount of school for girls is strikingly low considering that girls are not encouraged to pursue an education, and instead encouraged to work in the home.

 Mortenson learns first that the completion of the schools wasn't a piece of cake even with an exorbitant amount of money, because of the fact that there were just too few roads that led into the mountainous regions of Pakistan.  He also realized that he'd have to build a bridge, first and foremost to get supplies over.  Once the first bridge was up and the first school, Mortenson would have to convince many Americans to help fund the making of even more schools, and he is still working his dream till this day.

"The Boy Who Would Be Shakespeare: A Tale of Forgery and Folly"by Doug Stewart

"The Boy Who Would be Shakespeare" by  Doug Stewart.When a young boy wishes to be twinkle in his father's eye, he'll do anything to get noticed.  When his job as law clerk in his father's business fails to get notice, he cuts straight to the source of his father's read pride and enjoyment: Shakespeare.  This  boy's new friend just happens too have a secret treasure chest full to the brim, with Shakespeare's original poetry, Or is it really Shakespeare's authentic work?

I enjoyed the character of William Henry (the son) and how he was so determined to recreate works of Shakespeare, even if was forging the individual poetry.  The prospects took weeks to months at a time, with calligraphy and writing that turned out quite beautiful.  The ignorance of the father and his nature towards his son was unbelievable.

As for the boy, you'd think someone who had so much talent for forgery could become change his career altogether, but age of Shakespeare led to many limited career possibilities.

"The Year of Pleasures" by Elizabeth Berg

   

"The Year of Pleasures" by Elizabeth Berg

 I distinctly remember reading the "The Year of Pleasures", by Elizabeth Berg when I was traveling from a large city to a very small town. 

In this novel Betta Nolan is left a widow after her husband's long battle with liver cancer, she is forced to rediscover herself as an individual, although for two decades she has shared interested with her now deceased husband, and she must rediscover all new interests.  

How does one recreate a new life, when they hammered out a life of routines with someone in the existence of marriage?  The writer, Berg, shows readers the year of pleasures by displaying an arrangement of pleasures that anyone can relate to so as readers can commemorate on their own pleasures and what makes them individual.

The character of  Betta Nolan begins her new life with the start of a cup of coffee everyday.  This transitions into a friendly greeting with her neighbors and then the upkeep of her new home.  She enlists the help of the neighbors as contractors and painters. She ends her days with the invitation of guests to a homely-made dinner.  

I am a romantic, in that ,I loved how the husband (before he died) created a treasure trove of small discoveries for his wife to find even after his death: a small array of trinkets she had collected from garage sales they had previously visited together.  Attached to these trinkets are small messages for the wife to open and discover one after another so that she would never feel completely alone after his death, making the mourning process slightly easier.    

"The Pact" by Jodi Picoult

   

 

 

 

I read "The Pact" by Jodi Picoult after it was recommended by a coworker who proclaimed "this is one of Picoult's Greatest Books."

 

I particularly loved how the narrator descibes the character of Gus.  Gus is to the point.   She is fast in her speech, and a regular on-the-go mother.  Gus' character is the first in many of Piccoult's novels to be a woman who sounds less like the feminine, nurturing, sensitive type and more of the funny, almost manly type. 

 

 I like how Picoult introduces the parents of Chis and Emily as spirited couples who seem like the oldest of friends; getting together for dinner. 

 

The character of Gus disappears just as fast as she arrives to the dinner.  And in her frenzy of work, and no play attitude, Gus, the a"Waiter", is not the traditional waiter in the sense of we think of waiters, but in fact, her job description is actually to "wait".  Wait in line for tickets, or wait as a stand-in for a client who has in detention.  This highly stressful position fits Gus' personality. 

 

With the introduction of Chris going to trial, there were many similarites between Picoult's other novel's describing prison scenes;including "House Rules" and "Perfect Match" with the description of the jail cells, the uniforms worn in prison, and the demeanor of the guards  and/or detectives in regards to their job and obvious dislike of the suspect.  Listening to how a prisoner made a home-made tatoo instrument out of contraband needle and screwdrewer was absolutely horrifying. 

 

The overall prison setting was horrific: from poop-smeared walls in "the hole" to the descriptive way one uses his own prison garments in substitution of writing pads for doodling creative designs, in times of boredom.     

"Eat Cake" by Jeanne Ray

   

 "Eat Cake"  by Jeanne Ray. When a family begins to struggle because the husband gets laid off from his job at the hospital.  Ruth, a Minneapolis wife and mother must step up her role as a housewife, and come up with a plan to save the family from financial disaster.  The wife has a scheme to create tiny, individual cakes in perfect ,little boxes that she makes from her own kitchen to sell (Don't try this at home).

 Ruth is a tremendous baker who has  been baking for years, and she has her own kitchen filled to the brim with necessary baking materials.  The business seems successful, if not for the misery of  the long last father, the pianist, who comes to live with them, after he has broken both his hands.

 Maybe its the cake that makes the book so memorable.  But Ray does an excellent job of showing a struggling family.  A family with a rebellious teenager unwilling to help a family in crisis.  She does an excellent job in showing a father whose pride is destroyed at the sudden loss of his job, and loss of even more pride when his leading-lady must come up with a business plan that he initially believes will fail. 

Lastly, Ray does an excellent job showing a grandmother's bitterness when her husband returns, and an overall coming together of a family to help one another.

This may be a food critics best choice awards with its mouth watering descriptions of its cakes.  Note-to-self:  Barrow the book again to retrieve the fantastic recipes located in the back pages of the book.  

"Killing Lincoln" By Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

 








I read "Killing Lincoln" by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard.  Historical narrative is a new genre of choice for me, but I thought I'd have a go at it; for which I'm glad.

The in depth way for which O'Reilly portrays Lincoln is amazing.  Lincoln is 35 pounds under weight during presidency.  Barely do we understand (as people not in office) the extremes of the political world and the tole for which one partakes in presidency or otherwise. Fun fact that I found out is that most presidents go through carpal-tunnel- like symptoms after shaking the multitudes of hands during campaigning. 

I found that the narrative goes in depth into the actual battle scenes, whether its factual or not is something to be questioned.  But a funny suggestion is to listen to the audio version of the narrative and the way O'Reilly pronounces the word "Cavalry",  which he pronounces as "Calvary" like Mount Calvary.

Thinking back to the days in history class, little does history suggest Booth's background and his premeditation into Lincoln's death.  Book makes plans to kill Lincoln in a theatre, this we know.  But do we know about the confederate secret service's involvement in this plot, or Secretary of War-Stanton's involvement?  Stanton who opposed Lincoln could manipulate the process of election after Lincoln and the Vice President died, leaving Stanton as an option for presidency.  Also some small facts associated with the white house include that it wasn't heavily guarded during Lincoln's presidency.  In fact, there was no gate or fence guarding the white house, and even lobbyists were allowed to sleep on the first floor of the white house.

  

"The Poe Shadow" by Matthew Pearl

"The Poe Shadow" by Matthew Pearl.  I thought this novel would read much the same as Matthew Pearl's, "The Last Dickens".  Unfortunately, I think it lacked much of the action that too place in "The Last Dickens."  Although we do see the action the sought out aid of the real-life model for Poe's genius-sleuth, detective C. Auguste Dupin who comes to America in the search of the real killer of Poe.  I would have appreciated a little less of the discrete details of this detective, and appreciate more of a glimpse inside Edgar Allan Poe's career and details leading up to his death.

Pearl writes too much about Dupin, who cares if the detective was rude to his house servants and unfriendly.  Who cares that he disregarded a person when they talked. He was a detective after all, a man of observation not a man of social etiquette. I didn't expect to be reading Sherlocke Holmes, but with this novel I may as well have read the whole Sherlocke series with the depth of detective characteristics shown. 

The way that the french detective explains his perception of Americans once he arrives in America does not surprise me.  He says that Americans are rude, that they are too direct and spit their tobacco juice on the streets: unawares of any passer-by.

"Too Much Happiness" by Alice Munro

 

"Too Much Happiness" by Alice Munro

I listen to this this multi-storied novel novel as an audio book.  I was astounded by the dramatic opening of the book where readers are introduced to the couple Lloyd and Dori.  When Dori, the wife leaves one day to take a break from her husband, she comes home to find all three of her children killed by Lloyd.  Dori visits him in prison to try and figure out what led him to this madness, but he avoids all topics and Dori is left to talk with him about what's on TV in the prison.  

The story of  Sophia Kovalevsky, who was a late-nineteenth-century Russian émigré and mathematician stands out in my mind.  Here is woman who follows her lover to Paris, Germany, and, Denmark.  Her lover Maksim Maksimovich Kovalevsky sees this girls misfortune and pities her, and that is why he took it upon himself to send this girl oversees and pay for her college.

  This story had a "Lolita" feel to it: Old guy  pays for a young girl's desires, Old guy wants something in return. 

The girl apparently loves all the gifts in the beginning, she loves her chiffon sweaters and wears them to her College, just so that can "feel" what its like to go to a private college.  She has all these initial ideas of what its like to go to college and eat fine dining, but in fact she has no interest in the education whatsoever.  This ignorant girl plays into the Sugar Daddy's hands quite  nicely.  I felt that this guy always wanted something in return from the girl.  And of course control over her.  And it doesn't surprise me when he has someone follow her, just to make sure she's not seeing someone else, and not partying over at the college.  The girl things she wins when she found out she had a female stalker who trailed her in her car, and when she leads this woman off a beaten course, but who really wins with this sort of control?

 

"Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa Lee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" Lisa Lee. During 19th Century China, two young Chinese girls are best friend's at a young age, as their families unite and their mother's are adamant at keeping their young girls in good health and high statues. 

 

 

 Their mothers will do anything to procure their families status and they agree to bind their daughters feet.  The literal meaning of foot binding is to keep one's feet in tight bandages to ensure one's feet will no longer grow to their average lengths and keep them small and dainty.  This was Chinese tradition.

 

  It was thought that their tiny feed would attract a male suitor who likewise respects Chinese traditions and values, and the so-called strength of a woman's character in keeping up with the feed binding.  A Chinese husband would ensure a daughter's well-being and by being married, it would take up the amount of dept incurred upon a household for having a Chinese daughter in the first place.  

 

Some of us may shirk at the though of foot binding and societal lengths at keeping a woman beautiful, but how is this any different than the lengths we go to, even in America to progress the heights of our daughters status?

 

Take the reality show "Dance Mom's".  The instructor is supposed to bring these young girls into limelight and make them tough, but instead she belittles and humiliates these girls. 

"Mao's Last Dancer" by Li Cunxin

   

I enjoyed "Mao's Last Dancer" by Li Cunxin, tremendously.  The character of Li Cunxin is chosen to be a dancer at a young age.  He is just one of the many chosen during the Chinese revolution of the 1960's.  This is at a  time when stakes are high, and the chance of starvation for the Chinese people is even higher. 

One boy makes up his mind that he'll do all he can to practice dancing and pirouetting until he can't anymore. This is the difference between his family being able to eat or not at the end of the day.  Li Cunxin is thrown into taking one opportunity after another in the dance world.  He takes auditions as readily as he can, proving himself to be a confident young boy, even though he has no deep passion for dancing in itself, but knowing that dancing could feed his family.  

A reader can easily empathize with the struggles Li Cunxin is up against.  During  his training, he is taken away to an all boy's dance academy where he'd stay for months, even years at a time, without his family. 

This reminds me of modern day Chinese Olympic gymnasts who are taken away from their homes when they were as young as five years so they can be trained Olympians. And only when they achieved Olympic status would they be granted the opportunity by the government to see their family.  This only would be the highest award for these gymnasts (not even the gold medal itself).

The fact that the boy was deemed as flexible in the beginning was one of the main reason's he was chosen to be a dancer.  It was not his appearance or his families names, but the fact that he could bend to unbelievable proportions.  The boy took this fact and made it his dancing trait. 

How many of us have, had the chance to be the first at trying something new?  How many of us dared to contine to be the first even though we question our own interest in the pursuit?

"Lake of Dead Languages" by Carol Goodman

"Lake of Dead Languages" by Carol Goodman.  Jane is a teacher of Latin at a school she attended as a child.  This novel in fascinating as it describes the Heart Lake School for girls, and a mystery that lays beneath the lake waiting to be revealed.

I loved the novel's rich description of the lake's ice and snow and the and the childhood connections with the lake, from skating to peering out at its dangers. The book has a "Parent Trap", the movie feel to it when it describes crossing the lake in order to meet friends who are otherwise not allowed to cross the lake.

 I, too, have spent childhood summers at a lake, for summer camp, and the way character of Jane describes this experience is very soothing.  Jane's role as a teacher leaves her admired by many of her students.  When she tells her students to keep a journal of their feelings, she is able to find secrets about her students that remind her of cult like instincts and secret pacts that she, too, kept with her own friends as a child.  

"House Rules" by Jodi Piccoult

   

"House Rules" by Jodi Piccoult.  Listening to this audio book, I enjoyed hearing the calm soothing voice of the reader who read for the voice of Jacob (one of the main characters). Jacob has asperger's syndrome, and along with it many obsession compulsive things that he does in his routine schedule. When Jacob is thrown between a quarrel between his tutor and their boyfriend, he find that he can use this situation to his advantage.  

You see, one aspect of Jacob's obsessions is that he loves crimes shows, criminology, the study of crimes, and when Jacob's tutor turns up missing he decides to recreate the crime scene, unfortunately this turns Jacob into a likely suspect.

I enjoyed the description of Jacob's OCD' s.  Jacob has to eat food according to the color, easily enough, but when you compound this with eating one specific color, to eating it on a specific day, it can be more challenging.

  For instance on" all-white-food-Friday" :he'll eat a meal of mashed potatoes, rice, and Bread.  This created a challenge for his Mother who cooks his meals, not to mention that minimizing the amount of gluten intake can be helpful for people with Asperger's: this means his mother will also have  to find gluten-free food options for the meal preparations as well.

More on Jacobs obsessive compulsions, when he goes to the grocery stores, he expects to see the "sample lady" serve her routine samples on a specific day, if he doesn't he may have an episode of thrashing about until he needs to be put in a hold by his mother.  Jacob also avoids the color yellow, all of his clothes need to be organized according to color, and he must have his money his wallet organized according to the dollar amount, facing the upright position.  

Reading about Jacob's asberger's helped me understand when at the world of asberger's looks like, and to see how the writer depicts the way his mother copes with her son's disability is amazing.  I enjoyed the character of Jacob describing his own symptoms of what its like to have asberger's and how he explains how many of his actions are just plain unavoidable.

"A Man of the People" by Chinua Achebe

While driving back from Texas, I was reading Chinua Achebe's novel, "A Man of the People." This spark of interest in Achebe's writing came from remembering "Things Fall Apart" for which I read earlier as a teenager.  The main character, Odili Samalu, a teacher began to believe that his former teacher Chief Nanga (corrupt member of the cabinet) no longer cared for him or his people  for which he was governing over. 

Odili decided to do something about it, and revenge is what he took over Chief Nanga. Odili enters politics and campaigns against Nanga. Odili believed that Nanga was a leader that took whatever he wanted and cherished the moment of being a leader, and not necessarily leadership itself, and Odili proves how much sacrifice and hard work it takes to be a real leader.

          At the gym, I am reminded time, and time again, of this idea of taking responsibility for one's own actions and it comes to me in the weirdest types of ways. It reminds me of the preserverance I had to take in pursuing the Lazy Man's Triathlon at the YMCA gym.  And it reminds me of how many times I didn't want to go to an event, but showed up anyway for the experience and for the Hope that by showing up, I am taking an opportunity that will give me leadership skills. 

"The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norton Jester

"The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norton Jester Milo. A young boy is so bored with life he decides to have an adventure of a lifetime.  His daily routine was racing home as fast as he can just so that he can ignore the world and everything in it.  He finds himself in a wander land with two kings who rule that land: Dictionopolis, for his love of words, and Digitopolis, named for his love of numbers.  These kings quarreled and created a rift in their division of societies and their rule over them.  Milo the boy realizes he must save reality and rhyme, to bring normalcy to a world where things are extremely off balance.

I found that some of the book has a "Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" vibe to it.  The fact that Milo comes off as such a bore in the introduction of the novel ,and then having him wake up to a world of make belief was hopeful to me.  The book introduces so many bizarre characters, I only wish the writer had time to explore those characters more, and bring their purpose into Milo's existence more meaningful at the close of the book, instead of just introducing them to get Milo through the exploration of the two kingdoms.  

I like the fact that Tock, Dyne, the .58 boy, and Chrona-the-Great all gave Milo gifts that would help him explore the land,but these gifts seemed a bit of the Wizard of OZ type: not useful at all.  Overall, the book needs a sequel, to explore a second visit to the now changed attributes that Milo created.

"Major Pettigrew's Last Stand" by Helen Simonson

 Major Pettigrew's Last Stand",by Helen Simonson. This novel caught my attention with the secret love connection between a British citizen and Ms. Ali, a Pakistani, store owner. 

The character of the Major (Mr.  Pettigrew) came off to me as old and stiff.  His obsession with his father's heirloom's, two Churchill rifles causes a family conflict, over whether to sell the beloved guns or to keep them.  The rifles were split up, between Mr. Pettigrew and his now deceased brother: Berti, so if he does plan to keep them, he'll have to find a way to convince his brother's widow: Bertie that they are important enough to be joined together.

 Bertie's wife Majorie wants to sell them.  She finds the symbolism of passing down the heirlooms as insignificant, and is willing to take take the opportunity of selling them as fast as she can. Unfortunately the Churchill's can't sell well separately, so she'll need to convince the Major with the sale.  And that's where Ferguson, a potential American buyer of the Churchill's comes into the story.  His scheme to buy the Churchill's is clever enough, if not for an unfolding drama that unfolds with Ms. Ali's family and the Major himself.   Will the Major succumb to departing with the rifles in order to hang on to Ms. Ali?  Or will the Major strengthen his hold to the rifles even more, in order to hang on to his father's legacy?