I'm a Stranger Here Myself

I'm a Stranger Here Myself: notes on returning to America after twenty years away by Bill Bryson 288 pp.

Bill Bryson spent most of his adult years in England before moving back to the U.S. with his wife and kids. This book is a collection of articles he wrote for Night and Day magazine in England about the differences between American and British Life. He points out absurdities, excesses, difficulties, and serious problems that he encounters with humor and great insight. Included are a hilarious parody of I.R.S. instructions, a solution for the mad cow disease problem in England, ruminations on hotline phone numbers for things like dental floss, American holiday oddities, and the abundant stupidity of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The audiobook version of the book kept me amused and frequently laughing out loud during an otherwise tedious drive to Cleveland.

Bleeding Edge

Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon  477 pp.

I wanted to like this book. And if I had read it instead of listening to the audiobook, chances are I would have. It has stuff I like in a novel: a wise-cracking snarky protagonist/Jewish mother/fraud investigator, a murder mystery, billionaire tech moguls, embezzlement, terrorists, Russian gangsters, black ops, secret agents, and a "deep web" virtual reality program (think Second Life but sinister) all in the time period just before and after 9/11. The story was all but destroyed by the narration of actress Jeannie Berlin who sounds like Penny Marshall doing Laverne on a bad day. Mispronounced words, weird inflections, and disjunctive sentences that stop and start as if she paused at the end of the line instead of the punctuation mark made this an unpleasant listening experience. Why did I keep listening? I don't really know. I deserve a cheroot, which is not pronounced chair-root. I encourage people to read, not listen to, this book.

Murder on Ice

Murder on Ice by Alina Adams 299 pgs.

Rebecca "Bex" Levy is a research assistant for 24/7 Sports.  She does research on Ice Skating competitions and competitors and wrangles the on air "personalities" Francis and Diana Howarth...a long retired couples team that have been married for years but can barely tolerate each other.  The World Championships are going mostly as planned but when a seasoned Russian skater wins the gold over the favored American, there is a bit of a scandal.  The situation becomes much more interesting with Italian judge Silvana Potenza turns up dead in what might be a suicide but is more likely murder.  Bex has a domineering boss who assigns her to solve the mystery in time for prime time coverage a few days away.  Always willing to figure out answers, Bex starts her investigation and deals with the the crazy world of amateur international skating. A fun little mystery. 

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Sisterland

Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld 400 pg.

Violet and Daisy are identical twins with the "senses"..they seem to know things in advance, a bit of ESP that isn't always 100% accurate but still pretty good.  Violet embraces this ability while Daisy runs from it by changing her name, never talking about it and doing her best to ignore it.  But then Violet predicts and earthquake is coming.and even gives a date.  This creates some stress between the sisters.  Violet is getting airplay and Kate (nee Daisy) is on the defensive with her friends who are, naturally, earth scientists.  Jeremy is Kate's perfect husband and a professor at Washington University (yes, the book is set in St. Louis).  At the same time she is wishing Violet would stop talking about the earthquake, Kate is getting ready by stocking up on supplies and planning for how she will protect her children.  I don't want to give any spoilers but lets just say the earth does move but not quite as predicted.

As with Sittenfeld's other books (I've read all but one), I loved the writing, I loved the relationships between the characters and I loved the way the story sort of meanders but also provides surprises.  Violet is a wonderful character and I looked forward to reading everything she said.

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Zealot: the Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth / Reza Aslan 296 p.

Aslan asks us to consider the historical human Jesus of Nazareth as distinct from Jesus the Christ,  to the extent that we can see him at all in the historical record.   And in fact, there is little historical information which is specific to Jesus.  Aslan's method is to take the few known facts about Jesus and lay them against the totality of known historical information about his time and place and draw reasoned conclusions that way.  There is a lot to think about here, but Aslan's primary point seems to be that Jesus can be understood in light of the many other apocalyptic messiah wannabes roaming 1st-century Palestine.  They were itinerant preachers who, for the most part, challenged Temple authorities, sought a return to a Judaism uncorrupted by the exploitative practices of the High Priests,  and got in trouble with the law, usually with fatal consequences.

 Zealot was fascinating and completely absorbing and I have only a few criticisms.  I found Aslan's frequent lapses into Marxist language rather silly, but this is harmless enough.  People have been calling Jesus a proto-Marxist since Karl was in diapers.  More troubling were Aslan's occasional statements, presented as factual, which are after all only logical surmises.  

Still, this was a great read, my favorite part being the juicy information about the conflict between Saul/Paul in the diaspora and James, Peter and John in Jerusalem.  Detailed and readable endnotes and a long bibliography.

Totals for September

Totals for September books/pages:

Patrick 3/1469
Karen 5/1556
Kathleen 4/1420
Christa 4/1238
Linda 6/1885
Marilyn 2/623
Kara 13/2741
Donald 1/128
Annie 2/864
TOTAL 40/11,924

Let me know if you see any errors.

The Bitter Kingdom

The Bitter Kingdom by Rae Carson (Girl of Fire and Thorn book 3); young adult, fantasy; 448

Queen Elisa is facing threats on multiple fronts:  at home a civil war is brewing as rebel nobles dispute her claim to the throne; but to the north and east, the hostile Invierne nation threatens to invade her country, unless she gives herself up as a willing sacrifice.  To make matters worse, Hector, the captain of her royal guard--and her betrothed--has been kidnapped as a hostage to ensure her compliance with the Invierno demands. 

I loved this conclusion to the series every bit as much as the first two.  Recommended for fans of Tamora Pierce and Robin McKinley. 

The Lemonade War

The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies  175 pp.

Somehow I neglected to blog about this one the first time I read it. Now that I reread it in preparation for this month's 4th-6th grade book club I'll say a little about it. In the last week before school starts Evan is unhappy because his younger sister is skipping third grade and will be in his class when school starts. Jessie, while a whiz at school subjects like math, doesn't understand the feelings of others very well. She doesn't understand why her brother is so mad at her. When Jessie wants to set up a lemonade stand with Evan he refuses. Each makes their own and they have a bet who will make the most money in the last few days before school starts. They try different methods to increase the business at their stands including partnerships with friends, diversifying, and franchising--all terms which are explained in the story. In the end there is a happy ending but not without some sabotage and theft to stir up more problems. This is the first book in The Lemonade War series.

The Interestings, by Meg Wolitzer

The only bad thing about this book is the title.  At first I wondered if I really would some to care about the teenagers at the artsy camp called “Spirit-in-the-Woods,” a name as precious and pretentious as the kids who call themselves “The Interestings” are when we first meet them.  Most are privileged, a couple are poor and on scholarship, and all have some degree of artistic giftedness.   But over the intervening years as they age; have great success or tiny failures; and endure the joys and tragedies of adult life, the reader does find them very interesting.  The relationships between the childhood friends become complex and believable.  You will particularly like the homely Ethan Figman – everybody at camp does, and later when his animation series Figland is a success a la The Simpsons, the whole world agrees.  Others find their adult lives a diminished version of what they had envisioned.  They remain connected into late middle age, but loyalties are tested by one big secret.  Recommended.  468 pp.

Mo' Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

Mo' Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, memoir, 282 pages.

Amhir Thompson has been making music since he was a child. He rode around the country, touring with his mother and father since he can remember, and played drums in their bands almost that long. He co-founded the Roots, with high-school classmate Tariq Trotter, when they both wanted to beat another classmate in their school's talent show. That classmate went on to found Boyz II Men. And Tariq (Black Thought) and Questlove have been together ever since, making music. Quest has produced and played with Jay-Z, D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, John Paul Jones, and lots and lots of people whom I am not cool enough to know.Now, of course, he and the rest of the Roots are Jimmy Fallon's Late Night band. An interesting story, well told.-Patrick

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