Becky's Books –

by Stewart Gordon
2008 / 228 pages
non-fiction / history – Asia
rating: 8.75

Reading this book not too long after Civilization by Niall Ferguson enlarges both of them, I think. Makes me wonder what kind of “apps” (Ferguson’s term) Asia had in the thousand years prior to Western domination.

Oh well, Gordon is a noted historian and his book is an interesting look at what was going on in Asia, from Tunisia to Beijing to Goa and southern Spain. Using the primary accounts of nine different individuals Stewart moves from monks to philosophers and traders and an apothecary showing the connections.

http://stewartgordonhistorian.com/journal-of-asian-studies.html

Quarantine
by Jim Crace
1998 / historical (?) fiction
Rating – 8

Interesting fictional take on Jesus’ time in the desert being tempted by Satan. Great character development and wonderfully well written.  Historical period only in the sense that Jesus is a character, otherwise it might possibly take place anytime up until 1950 or so.

by Charles Palliser – 2013
historical crime fiction
rating – 8

First book of 2014 and it’s a decent start. I wasn’t familiar with Charles Palliser prior to Rustication but I gather he has a notable oeuvre and good following. I’m curious now about his prior work, Quincunx.

When a student was expelled from Oxford, Cambridge or Durham he was said to have been “rusticated,” at least in mid-19th century England. And that’s what has happened to 17-year old Richard Shenstone, the opium addicted and very troubled 1st person narrator (we read his diary and a couple notes by C.P.) of this rather horror-tinged gothic tale.

He returns home to the rural community of Thurchester where his mother, the widow of a clergyman, and his sister are in deep trouble financially as well as socially. What has happened? Or rather, what is happening? Incredibly vulgar letters start showing up, animals ale mutilated, threats are made while Richard harasses the women and stays up late at night wandering the countryside. Is Richard the mad villain? There is nothing in his diary to directly indicate that. Does he even know what he’s doing?

This is a page-turner, folks, and not for the faint of heart, but it’s also a rollicking good yarn where the puzzler aspects along with the language provide the focus.

(in a somewhat new format to accommodate ye olde iPad)

These are my best reads of 2013: (about 175 books)

Fiction
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
The Door by Madga Szabo
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
HHhH by Laurent Binet
Warlock by Oakley Hall
? The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (if I finish in time)?
My Brilliant Friend and The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante (a planned trilogy)

Crime
Sycamore Row by John Grisham
Sandrine’s Case by Thomas Cook
Light of the World by James Lee Burke
The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon by Alexander McCall Smith

Nonfiction
What God Hath Wrought by Daniel Walker Howe
The Thirty Year War by C.V. Wedgewood
Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie
Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

These are the books I read in 12/2013:

The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante ~ rating 9

Orange is the new Black by ____ ~ rating 6

Blood and Beauty by Sarah Dunant. ~ rating 5

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt ~ rating 9.5

** Reading has slowed considerably but I have more to do.

Questions of Travel
by Michele de Kretzer
2013 / 481 pages
rating:  5 /contemp fiction

Well whaddaya know-  one of the epigraphs in de Kretzer’s book is from E.M. Forster’s Howard’s End (which I just barely finished).   The epigraph:

“Under cosmopolitanism, if it comes, we shall receive no help from the earth.  Trees and meadows and mountains will only be a spectacle…”  (and there it ends)

So much for the good parts of this novel.   I only read it to be able to write a scathing review.   There is no story in this novel – at all – it’s a load of words strung together describing the lives of two different people,  usually on two different continents,  as they go through their childhoods,  adolescence,  young adulthood,  etc. and end up in other places as tourists or travelers or something. >>>>MORE>>>> 

The Ophelia Cut
by John Lescroart (#14 in the Dismas Hardy series)
2013/432 pages
read by David Colacci 16h 20m
rating:  A /crime

I enjoy Lescroart for some good solid crime fiction.  Dismas Hardy the protagonist for this series is a defense attorney in San Francisco but he came from working as a detective for the city so he has friends on the prosecutorial side of the aisle and he’s the brother-in-law of Moses McGuire,  a city cop,  married to Hardy’s sister,  Trea.  >>>>MORE>>>>

Howards End
by E.M. Forster
1910 / 318 pages
rating: 9 / classic Brit

This is a reread but from so long ago I seem to remember almost nothing.   I did enjoy it though and I do remember enjoying it the first time.

This is a thoroughly character driven novel – there are a few plot devices but most of Forster’s energies were spent on developing the characters of Margaret,  Helen and Tibby Schlegel as well as Henry Wilcox and his son Charles.  >>>>MORE>>>> 

Return of the Native
by Thomas Hardy
1878 / 448 pages
rating:  9.5 / Brit classic

I was very interested in reading this book until I read the first chapter.   Oh-oh – bo-ring!   But I picked it up later and was automatically fascinated.   Go figure – but that’s happened to me before so I’ll often give a book two or three tries before really setting it aside.   The Classics Reading Group II prompted this read.

Hardy loves to weave nature’s wonders into his stories along with the flaws of humans and their society.  >>>>MORE>>>> 

The Last Chinese Chef
by Nicole Mones
2007/ 278 pages
read by Elizabeth Rogers /James Chen /10h 54m
rating:   7 /romance-cooking

I got this one in an Audible sale because it sounded kind of interesting what with a liberal dose of Chinese culture and cuisine featured (according to the reviews).   It’s basically a romance and I don’t think I realized that at all when I got it.   Not only that but it’s flawed as a work of fiction.  Still, for some reason,  I wasn’t disappointed – except in the female narrator who just kind of grated at times with too many elongated vowels – and the ending was totally lame.   In its defense, >>>>MORE>>>>

The Fourth Watcher: A Novel of Bangkok
by Timothy Hallinan
2008/320 pages
read by Victor Bevine 10h 53m
rating  A / crime  (#2 in Poke Rafferty series)

In this gritty, fast-paced novel of Bangkok,  the series protagonist,  Poke Rafferty, a travel brochure writer who has been living in that city for some time,   decides he wants to write a novel and hires a detective in order to learn some tricks of the trade.   One aspect of this training involves 3 men following Rafferty,  but there is a 4th watcher – unrelated to the lesson – and this guy is serious.

Rose is Rafferty’s significant other until they become  >>>MORE>>>

David and Goliath:  Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants
by Malcolm Gladwell
2013/ 320 pages
rating: 7.5 / nonfiction – psychology

I didn’t get along with this book terribly well until the last quarter or so.  I’ve read others by Gladwell and been quite pleased that I did but for some reason this one seems different – the last quarter excepted.

Gladwell’s interpretation of the Biblical David and Goliath story is mostly not different from the way I was ever taught – I don’t think his ideas >>>>MORE>>>> 

The Ocean at the End of the Lane
by Neil Gaiman
2013/259 pages (Kindle)
rating:  7 /  fantasy

First off,  I am NOT a fantasy fan and I’m not sure I would have read this had it not  been for the Bookies II reading group where there are fans of the genre.   The book did get a lot of hype though and from the reviews it was widely enjoyed.  (sigh)

A middle-age man returns to the scene >>>>MORE>>>> 

Zoo Station
by David Downing
2007 / 304 pages
read by Simon Prebble 10h. 1m.
rating  B / WWII spy novel

I am so ready for a straightforward crime/spy novel.  This choice is thanks to 4_Mystery_Addicts reading group.

Between Kristallnacht  in late 1938 and the invasion of Poland in September of the next year the future of Europe became clearer – Hitler would lead the way into war.  InDanzig (Gdansk) which was not a part of Germany until >>>>MORE>>>> 

The Luminaries
by Eleanor Catton
2013/848 pages
rating  9.5 / literary and historical

The setting for this marvelous,  page-turner (kept me up very late last night)  is  Hokitika, New Zealand circa 1866, during the gold rush there.  The first Part,  about half the book,   takes place in the Smoking Room of the Crown Hotel.   The rest of the book generally takes place in the same area and either earlier or later.

Characters – There are many characters and it’s very confusing for the first couple of chapters,  but then it straightens out as one or two (or sometimes more)  of them take part in each chapter.   There is a character list to refer to >>>>MORE>>>>

Sanctuary
by William Faulkner
1931/ 315 pages
rating:  7.5 / classic

This is one of Faulkner’s lesser known works and with good reason, imo.   He said himself it was a “pot-boiler” and written only for the money.   That may have been partially true,  but it’s still Faulkner and some scholars have some interesting ideas as to themes and symbolism.

Meanwhile,  the story is of the rape of a rich college girl from >>>>MORE>>>>

Civilization: The West and the Rest
by Niall Ferguson (Brit)
2011 / 432 pages
Rating:   8.5 /  Socio-Economic History

Very interesting book – I’ve thought some of these things but I don’t think I’ve ever read them – not put together like this, anyway.  This book is about why what we refer to as the West has been the dominant power in the world in the last 50-60 years.   Ferguson has organized the material very well,  it’s thoroughly readable (deliberately at a YA level)  and although he digresses a bit much for my tastes,  it’s all there for a reason – to re-examine history and find out why the West dominates.

In the Preface it is stated there are 6 basic things >>>>MORE>>>>