Caught My Interest

The living Christmas tree is now in the house awaiting decoration, himself is preparing to travel across the pass to see eldest and play Santa Claus since eldest has to work and can’t come home (sigh). Youngest plopped all his books in a pile yesterday and then washed his running clothes that he keeps at school (good!). Cat is complaining that life doesn’t revolve around him like it should, Chico finally has his bounce back after the ear infection to end all infections, and Elly would like me to drop more food on the floor in the kitchen. The dried peppers that himself dropped the other day do not count as food in Elly’s eyes. Just a few more presents to buy for himself, stockings are done, and three more batches of lemon bread and I am good to go for Christmas. Now to finish Trespass which is really, really good. I hope all your preparations go well and Happy Holiday’s to all my bookish friends.

I don’t know if my cousins read my blog but if they do – this book is for all their kidlets. From Bibliophile By the Sea comes the story of Owen and Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendshipp. Owen is a baby hippo stranded in a tsunami. After being rescued, he is transferred to an Nature Preserve in Africa and he finds a new mom in 130 year old tortoise. And if you look here – there is a picture book about the same hippo called Mama.

Kim of Reading Matters briefly mentioned an Australian Author who was unknown to me – Elliot Perlman so I dug through some of Kim’s reviews of his previous work and I am very interested in Seven Types of Ambiquity which sounds somewhat reminiscent of The Slap. Since Perlman’s book was published first I am intrigued to see if I like it better. I will end with a brief quote from her review:

It’s about an unemployed teacher briefly abducting Sam, the seven-year-old son of an ex-girlfriend, and the consequences of that one misguided incident and how it impacts on so many different lives in so many different ways. It’s also a psychological thriller, a court room drama, a romance, a satire, an insightful commentary on modern day existence, morals and values, and a kind of literary juggernaut that borrows the title of a well known non-fiction book by William Empson on literary criticism. Throw in politics, big business and prostitution and pretty much every genre and theme is covered here. You certainly can’t complain about its breadth of scope.

Lord of Misrule which won the 2010 National Book Award is reviewed at length by Kevin From Canada. If this book, about the horse racing world, is on your radar, I highly recommend his review not only because Kevin is a good writer but he also has personal knowledge of the complex world of horse racing which greatly enhanced his review.

Hungry Like A wolf led me to Tony’s Top ten list which led me to Ether: Seven Stories and a Novella by Evgenia Citkowitz. Citkowitz is the daughter of author Lady Caroline Blackwood and pianist Israel Citkowitz. For a brief period of time, Poet Robert Lowell was her stepfather. Tony writes, “Evgenia Citkowitz has a way of telescoping the events that occur in these stories down to their interesting bizarre essentials.  You can tell that she cares deeply for all of her characters, wishes them the best no matter how much things go awry.   The stories are not at all straightforward, but are told with a severe slant so they can not be summarized.  The writer is aiming for and achieving something deeper than just a point.” All I can say is Wow and does my library have a copy?

It is time for 2010 wrap-up reports and Rebecca of The Book Lady’s Blog mentions several she reviewed last year and there are two that need to be on my list. The first, a short story collection called Mattaponi Queen by Belle Boggs is set in the south and feature fantastic writing, a strong sense of place, and are filled with the dichotomy of dreams and reality as well as “quiet revelations, both explicit and implied, that shape and re-shape the reader’s experience of characters whose understandings of their lives are, like Cutie Young, “delicate in [their] moods” and always changing.”

The second book is for my wonderful niece Jessica and is called Click: When We Knew We Were Feminists and features 29 essays by young women discussing “What was the moment that made you a feminist? Was there one person, event, book, or idea that made it happen?”

The Millions has a report on the 13 most underrated books of 2010. As they say, most of these will not be found in the New York Times but deserve recognition. I was interested in James Hynes Next, Charlie Huston’s Sleepless, and Toby Ball’s The Vault. The article did include Julia Orringer’s The Invisible Bridge. While I enjoyed the book, it would not make my top list for 2010.

The Guardian from the UK reviews 1222 by Anne Holt featuring retired police inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen, a snow storm to end all storms in, a derailed Norwegian train, taking refuge in an old hotel, and deaths ala Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. Your classic “locked room” mystery with a detective who doesn’t want to detect and rising tension.

And finally for all lovers of The Phantom Tollbooth (my eldest’s favorite book and one of mine as well), Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer have collaborated on a new book, The Odious Ogre, a picture book for all ages and favorable reviewed in this week’s New York Times Book Review.

 

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