Eligible, by Curtis Sittenfeld

A modern retelling of Jane Austen’s beloved Pride and prejudice with a Midwestern flavor.   In Sittenfeld’s witty version, Darcy is a darkly handsome, taciturn, Stanford-and-Harvard-trained neurologist who has moved to Cincinnati where the novel is set.  His friend and fellow doctor is Chip Bingley, who two years previously was the bachelor on the TV show Eligible but didn’t find his soulmate.  The five Bennet sisters, as always, are in need of husbands.  Let the fun begin.  I couldn’t put the book down once I started it but raced through as if I had no idea how it might end.  The author has captured Austen’s voice very well, with Mrs. Bennet and the long-suffering Mr. Bennet being particularly well-drawn.  Sittenfeld successfully mixes in such trendy topics as yoga instruction, crossfit training, transgenderism, shopping addiction, and reality TV into a comedy of manners and never loses the humanity and humor of the original.  I look forward to seeing the author at the Friends of the Library’s February event.  485 pp.

June totals!

Christa  10/2893
Cindy  6/1834
Kara  6/2152
Karen  8/2422
Linda  3/881
Patrick  5/1677
Rob 2/884

Total: 40/12,743

Old Age

Old age: a beginner's guide / Michael Kinsley 160 pgs.

Journalist Kinsley writes honestly about his situation as a Baby Boomer with Parkinson's disease.  He has already gone through the denial stage and also spent some time just ignoring it but now it seems true that he is getting older.  Oh yea, the Parkinson's thing just gave him a somewhat earlier look at the ravages of age and what is coming for everyone else.

Kinsley writes about his goals and the goals of his generation.  He writes about running into Robert McNamara on an airplane, he writes about his idea for an important legacy for the Boomer generation.

This book is light-hearted yet serious. The author comes across as someone who recognizes his blessings before considering his tribulations.  I'm not sure it is a real beginner's guide but then again, I'm not yet old so don't really need one.

I'm Thinking of Ending Things

I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid, 210 pages

A man and his girlfriend are driving through the country to visit his parents at their farm. It's the girlfriend's first time meeting his family and instead of being wracked with nerves, she's wondering why she decided to come along, as she's considering ending things with the man. It's a fairly simple premise for a story: these two passing time talking, while the girlfriend thinks over their relationship and weighs her options.

But this is no simple story. This is easily the creepiest, tensest book I've read in a LONG time. While nothing terribly dramatic happens for the bulk of the short novel, Reid keeps the reader unsettled, slowly building the tension. I'm glad I wasn't home alone when I finished reading this late at night; I'm equally glad that I had a new light-hearted book on hand to read a bit of before I attempted to sleep. This one will stick with me and keep me shuddering for a long time.

Also: I must point out that this is Reid's debut novel. If this gripping tale is any indication of what he's got in store, I'm preparing for many sleepless nights in the future. Keep an eye on this one.

Jonah's Gourd Vine / Zora Neale Hurston, 229 pp.

A simple story of one man's rise and fall, told very, very well.  I'm intrigued by the motif of crossing the water (here, the creek) which reappears in Moses, Man of the Mountain.

Arab Jazz / Karim Miske, trans. by Sam Gordon, 242 pp.

In a quarter of Paris in which Muslims, Jews and Christians live together, sometimes uneasily, a beautiful flight attendant from a family of Jehovah's Witnesses is horrifically murdered.  The crime scene is heavy with confusing religious symbolism, and the victim's neighbor and friend, Ahmed, fears he must solve the crime before the police or risk being accused himself.

Arab Jazz has a complex and ultimately coherent plot, and very nicely developed characters.  The story unfolds in an unpredictable way; maybe that's the Jazz?

Grunt

Grunt: the curious science of humans at war / Mary Roach 285 pgs.

Mary Roach writes about the most interesting topics.  This book has chapters on shark attacks, genital reconstruction and diarrhea. How can anyone dislike science?

Per usual, Roach has a way of leading the reader through topics in the most enjoyable way.  She is the master of getting herself into unusual situations and then asks all the questions you would ask.  Have more soldiers died of diarrhea than combat injuries?  How do you protect sailors from shark attack? How great are maggots at cleaning wounds?

Another home run by Roach.  Already looking forward to her next book.

Delicious Foods

Delicious Foods by James Hannaham, 371 pages.

Eddie has lost his hands sometime before or during his escape from Delicious Foods. Whatever the story of this double amputation is, Eddie is not anxious to share. He and his mom, Darlene have been having rough times since her husband was killed. Nat was murdered and mutilated in a brutal racist attack in

So, maybe the coolest book to have at least part of the story narrated by crack cocaine. Crack is named “Scotty” here (maybe everywhere, I don’t know), he knows all the workers at Delicious Foods, dances with them inside their heads. He's sympathetic to their plight, and is always on the lookout for new friends. The author, who reads the audio, does a great job with the two voices, and his non-judgemental tone is eerily chilling in a couple of scenes where everything depends on brave acts and quick decisions by well-meaning characters and where those efforts are hampered by the several actors agreeing that now would be a really good time for a hit from the pipe, just to calm their nerves. Eddie is a good solid, strong character, but by the end his story is overwhelmed and overshadowed by the stories of his parents particularly Darlene, and at times it’s Scotty who tells the story best. 

A strange story, but great.

The Story of Hong Gildong

The Story of Hong Gildong Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Minsoo Kang, 100 pages.
Hong Gildong, a legendary character in Korean literature, was the illegitimate son of a high minister during the reign of King Seonjong. This may have referred to a king who reigned in the late 1500s, or it may have been one of two who reigned in the 1400s. It's also possible that he may have been fictional. Scholars disagree. In any case, it was common during that time for illegitimate sons to be treated poorly; barred from civil service, kept from taking important exams, etc.
Hong Gildong, while a loyal son, who loved his mother and respected his father, rebelled against the system. He used his intellignce, his training, and his incredible strength to quickly rise to the top of a large group of bandits. Hong Gildong and his band win every prize they seek to steal. Hong's band grows to become an army and they conquer many lands. Hong Gildong has great power, but never quite forgets the slights he suffered because of his birth.

Pumpkin Flowers: A Soldier’s Story

Pumpkin Flowers: A Soldier’s Story by Matti Friedman, 242 pages

Avi's story start's the book. Avi was a letter writer and a member of the Fighting Pioneer Youth. That was his unit while doing his mandatory service in the Israeli Defense Force. During the 1990's The Fighting Pioneer Youth was one of two units that took turns assigned to guard the Pumpkin, a hilltop outpost in Lebanon, just across the Israeli-Lebanese border. 

After a chapter or two Friedman explains how cross-border raids into Israel in the late 1960’s led to that country’s  1982 intervention, militarily, in the Lebanese Civil War. By 1985 the Israelis had withdrawn for the most part, occupying isolated outposts in a buffer zone in a narrow strip of Lebanese territory right outside of Israel.
Friedman follows several units, including his own, as they deploy to the Pumpkin, and as the conflict, and opposition to it heat up.
An interesting book about an under-explored bit of recent history.