Book 7 (2015) Half Broke Horses: a True-life Novel *** by Jeannette Walls

Another stunning book by Jeannette Walls who also wrote The Glass Castle.   Both are must reads.

This one is about her grandmother, a very strong and unusual woman, written in the first person by Walls.  Her style as again very rigorous and powerful, suitable for the horrific stories of grit and determination.   

One of my personal takes was the contrast of poverty and hardship and deprivation with the comparative luxuries they had, compared to my own upbringing. I had to fight the feeling of "this doesn't ring true", making me mistrust my opinion that my experience was not typical or my memory defective.   For example, having horses was a rare luxury in my upbringing.

Book 5 (2015) House of Mirth **** by Edith Wharton

I read this for a UBC course and found it most entertaining.  Hilarious writing, although Ira Nadel thinks Wharton overwrites (compared to Virginia Woolf). Apparently, there is controversy over whether Wharton says the heroine committed suicide on purpose or accidentally.   And a new letter to Wharton's doctor can be taken either way.  Other contemporary books by friends of Wharton's (e.g. Daisy Miller) had heroine's committing suicide at the end.  It was a serialized book and the ending was not written when the serials started, so perhaps that accounts for the ending, and accounts for the arguably overwritten last two chapters.   All a little too reminiscent of high school literature course nitpicking on novels that are essentially unrealistic entertainment with an overlay of meaning and allegory.

Book 2 (2015) The Corrections ** by Jonathan Franzen

At first I liked it better than his first book, Freedom, for his writing about the older couple (funny but not original) and their adult children, but toward the middle it got boring as the characters ran around frantically as though in a pointless movie, and then toward the detiorated into a mess.  Good history of Lithuania? I couldn't be bothered to read carefully.

See review of Freedom on this blog.

Book 1 (2015) Land of the Painted Caves ** by Jean Auel

5th and final of the set, finally. Readable.  Story of a woman set 25000 years ago.

Book 24 (2013) Falling Man * by Don DeLillo

A tedious book about the aftermath of 911.   Ira Nadel of UBC thinks it's fabulous.

Book 23 (2013) Hero (zero) by Rhonda Byrne

I loved her previous books but this one is a loser.  No insight to be gained.  The extraordinary person as an example is not helpful.

Other books by the same author:
The Secret
The Power
The Magic

Book 6 (2012) Willful Behavior ** by Donna Leon

Another great read starring Venice, Italy.

See other reviews on Donna Leon's Brunetti series on this blog.

Book 24 Freedom ** by Jonathan Franzen

A story of modern times, incorporating many events and personality types of the last half of the 20th century.   Franzen tells a great story and has deep insight into human behaviour.    I really tired of the characters who while interesting had many moral flaws.   


Flaws --- male writer's fixation on sex, Amerian writer's need to create larger than life characters, and extreme plots and events, happy ending.


I would recommend it but it's not flawless

Book 8 (2011) A Sea of Troubles** by Donna Leon

Another treasure in the Comissario Guido Brunette series.   A new setting, the island of Pellestrina on the lagoon, and active involvement by Signorian Elettra.  
A must for Italy lovers who want to learn the inside scoop about Italian culture and politics and read a great mystery with interesting characters.

Book 77 The Glass Castle **** by Jeannette Walls

This is a memoir of Jeannette Walls upbringing by two disfunctional parents.  I was avoiding this book as I expected another dreadful Frank McCourt slog through misery.   I was very pleasantly surprised.  

Walls' parents did neglect their 4 kids, but there was a lot of fun and good memories too.   I don't suggest that anything in their upbringing was justified anything but just meaning that the book is readable and stays with you, but doesn't deliver permanent scars to the reader's soul) .   The parents were dreamers and the mother depressed or bipolor and the father was an alcoholic.   They hung on percariously moving constantly on a whim or when the situation was untenable.   Finally, as the children fled to make their own way in New York, the parents followed and became homeless willingly.   The mother actually had property worth millions, but did not want to sell it.  

This is a must read because it is unique in it's subject matter, treatment and readability.   Wall's writing is amazing, in so many ways.   It is a fast read, every word essential and interesting.   The editing is rigorous and skillful.   The style is unique and consistent.   There is a consistency of design like Jane Austen or Frank Lloyd Wright.   Walls describes the facts and some feelings, and through the action.

Other books about bad/odd parents:

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress ** by Rhoda Janzen

Book 74 The Girl of His Dreams ** by Donna Leon

This is one of Leon's best in the Brunetti series.  The themes are the church and religion, on which she is more than cynical, and gypsies or Rom as they are called.  

Other books with church/priest themes reviewed on this blog:
The Bishop's Man * by Linden MacIntyre
The Italians **** by Luigi Barzini

Book 68 (2010) The Help **** by Kathryn Stockett

This is an excellent book about black maids and their white women bosses.   Most of it takes place in Jackson Mississippi in 1964.   Stockett captures the detail of this narrow and disgraceful universe in every sentence.   A deep racist attitude defines the US to this day (we have only to look at Katrina for proof).  

The story is told by several of the black maids and a young white women who wants to be a writer and decides to write their story.   Mississippi in 1964 is a dangerous place for anyone who dares even the slightest defiance of the white women's rules so the project must be carried out with great secrecy.   Even having a "high yellow" baby was not allowed as it blurred the boundaries of race.   The baby had to be put into an orphanage.  

Stockett's characters are wonderful and I was able to understand if not really feel the humiliation and fear of their daily lives.   I also felt some guilt and shame for being white and maybe not always being as enlightened as I should have been.  

I didn't put this book down.  

Other great books with US race theme:

Inheriting the Trade*** by Thomas DeWolf (non-fiction)
Slaves in the Family**** by Edward Ball (non-fiction)
Book of Negroes** by Laurence Hill

Book 58 (2010) Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home* by Rhoda Janzen

Very funny book.   It's more too.   Janzen offers insight into the psyche of a woman raised as a Mennonite but not living as one.   For instance, why she stayed in an abusive marriage for 15 years.  The heroine is her mother, a very wise woman.   A lot like Loris' mother maybe.  

Book 22 (2010) About Face** by Donna Leon

 Always wonderful.