Desultory “daily” notes:

March 30, 2008

This is the last day of our “tax trip” to Vallejo.  We have had a nice time with Melinda visiting for the weekend.  She lives in Kansas but her older son and his family live in San Ramon which is only about 20 minutes from our Vallejo house so she came over to spend a couple of days with us.  She has lent me the next two Maisie Dobbs books (the series she started me on in February) which I don’t have to return until July-something to look forward to reading and no pressure to read quickly.  I finished the 1^st book in the Julia Spencer-Fleming series, also Melinda’s recommendation, and can look forward to getting the next one from the library after I read a couple more for the Book Challenge.  Melinda also recommended three other books for me to read:

Zigzag by Ben Macintyre, the true story of an MI5 double agent during WWII based on files released by the British a couple of years ago;

Killing Floor by Lee Child, the first in a series of novels about Jack Reacher, a former military policeman who travels incognito solving problems as he meets them-there are 12 books in this series so far, so if I like it I’ll be set for quite a while;  and

Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera, a young adult novel about a Maori legend and Maori culture.

I will be examining these sometime soon.  I’m not likely to run out of ideas for reading.  It is nice to have someone to “talk books” with for awhile.

We took Melinda to a new (for us, that is) winery in Napa (which is about 45 minutes from Vallejo) called Hess Collection.  The wine was good and they have a wonderful art gallery that takes up two floors-museum quality modern art.  My favorite artist was Franz Gertsch, especially his woodcut prints.  I also liked Magdalena Abakanowicz, especially her fiber art and Frank Stella.  We’d like to go there with our son  Marty sometime as he, too, really enjoys art museums.

I had hoped to finish Silmarillion this month for the BC but I’m only a little past the halfway point so I guess I’ll have to wait until April to get credit for that.  I also need to read the J.D. Robb book I borrowed from Mary in January.  I did a better job journaling this month but didn’t get as much reading done.  I guess it is a trade-off.  At least I’m caught up with my summaries.

Lorenz, Konrad Z.:  King Solomon’s Ring

I believe I found the missing link between animal and civilized man. It is us. -Konrad Lorenz, ethologist, Nobel laureate (1903-1989)

I loved this book-and I think my husband Jim will, too.  He’s reading it now.

Lorenz was an ethologist, one who studies animal behavior especially in its natural habitat.  The variety of animal species with which he had experience was incredible and his obvious fascination with them and even love for them radiated through the entire book.

The following review from Amazon by Carrie Laben of Brooklyn, NY (sorry–I couldn’t make a link) expresses my feelings exactly:

In readable, friendly style, Konrad Lorenz uses illustrations from his everyday life among animals of all kinds to illustrate a variety of fascinating points. The balance between anecdotes and theory is well handled and the book stands out both as education and as entertainment. I find the sections dealing with keeping animals in captivity especially worthwhile - Lorenz explains clearly and concisely why most people feel sorry for captive animals for all the wrong reasons, this section should be required reading for most people who think that they are promoting ‘animal rights’. Highly recommended.

The chapter on buying pets should also be required reading.  He gives meticulous detail about how to care for pets and why exotic pets are only for those knowledgeable enough and who have enough time to care for them properly.

Lorenz does not idealize animals nor try to make them seem more like humans and he pulls no punches in showing how ferocious and dangerous animals can be to each other as well as to man.  But he has great respect and affection for all animals, recognizing their attributes as part of God’s creation (he actually says it in those terms at one point).  After reading this book I will definitely get more out of my animal watching in our backyards at home and in Vallejo.

Bass, Dr. Bill & Jon Jefferson:  Beyond the Body Farm

This is a follow-up to the memoir Death’s Acre I read in 2006.  (see review below) In this second book Bass discusses different cases he has been involved in since he started the “body farm.”  They are all interesting-even the ones that aren’t completely “solved.”  I was especially interested in the woman, Joanna Hughes, who convinced UT to let her design her own major as a forensic artist.  She now uses a sculpture technique with skulls to put faces on unidentified corpses.  She has a remarkable success rate in her so far brief career.  Her case was fascinating as is her procedure.  I also learned a lot about the Buddy Holly plane crash in the story of Bass’s exhumation of the Big Bopper.  Because I am interested in forensic anthropology I found this book enjoyable-and a quick read.

(The following review was written in March 2006. It was the second review I wrote for my new adventure in journaling my reading.  The first review was of the book that encouraged readers to get more from their reading and suggested journaling as one technique to use. I will revisit that book sometime soon since I think it will give me ideas how to improve my blog–although that is not a topic he covered.  Both of these books were bought while I was in Monterrey where Jim had a conference for a week.)

Bass, Dr. Bill & Jon Jefferson:  Death’s Acre

A review in USA Today at the hotel in Monterey put me on to a mystery Carved in Bone: a Body Farm Mystery by Jefferson Bass that sounded like it might be one I would enjoy.  But when I went to the book store it was a $30 hardback that I wasn’t sure I wanted to pay that much for-I’ll try the library first.  However, in the bio blurb I learned that Jefferson Bass is a Pseudonym for these two writers and this was their first book together-a memoir of Bill Bass’s career as a forensic anthropologist who founded the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee to study the decomposition of human corpses in order to be able to more accurately pinpoint the time of death.  The book is fascinating with several case studies in addition to explanations of how a forensic anthropologist does his job. The introduction is written by Patricia Cornwall, author of The Body Farm which I read several years ago (in Savannah) - she based her novel on Dr. Bass’s work and he appears in the book (under a fictitious name, of course).   I started it on our trip and finished the night we got home-2 books in one week-and both non-fiction!  Maybe I will get back into the habit of reading regularly.  (When I got home I did get the mystery from the library.  I was okay but I was glad I hadn’t spent $30!)

(My library finally tracked down a copy of the Jefferson Bass mystery in June of 2006–new books are hard for them to get– and the following is the review I wrote for it.)

Bass, Jefferson:  Carved in Bone

I had a good time reading this book but I don’t think it was quite as good as the review in USA Today which I read in March when we were in Monterrey) indicated it would be.  The forensic detail was fascinating-probably what I enjoyed most about the book.  I also enjoyed the “local color” of the Tennessee area around Knoxville-I wonder if Cooke County exists.  I’m sure there is some county that it very similar to the area they describe but maybe under another name.  The plotting is a little weak; I had most of the mystery solved about half way through. Also for two intelligent men-a forensic anthropologist who has a PhD, is the head of a University department and also devised the Body Farm and his buddy, an upper echelon police detective-the protagonists surely put themselves in too many dangerous situations without having any plans for either escape or back-up.  I found that a little unbelievable-at least tell somebody where you are going!  The two “hillbillies” who always seemed to be there to bail them out were a lot smarter than the “educated” men.  But this is “escapist” literature so I shouldn’t be too critical-it certainly was a lot better story than The Da Vinci Code!  I’m sure there will be another effort from this writing team and I will read it.

Chesterton, G.K.:  The Man Who Was Thursday

A fantastical story with more twists and turns than a labyrinth; this was a great read for the time we were in Monterrey for the wedding (2008). The story is about a man who has been recruited to track down a master criminal-but that is only the tip of the iceberg.  He infiltrates the ranks of the criminal by impersonating the person whose code name was Thursday-hence the title.  I was able to anticipate some of the “surprises” but that in no way diminished my pleasure and the ending  was magnificent-although many reviewers disliked it because it did not neatly tie up all the loose ends.  However, this book was not about answers but questions.  I will definitely reread this one, and next time I’ll read the introduction first to help me get even more of the symbolism.  Chesterton introduces some very profound ideas in this one.  It was a good choice for the BC-one I had been thinking about for years and finally got to–which was the purpose of the Challenge!

Tey, Josephine:  The Man in the Queue

This was the first Alan Grant mystery (Elizabeth MacKintosh’s first book, 1929) which she originally published under her other pseudonym, Gordon Daviot.  The first novel under the     Josephine Tey pseudonym was A Shilling for Candles (1936), also an Alan Grant novel.   The other Alan Gran novels were To Love and Be Wise 1950, The Daughter of Time (1951), and The Singing Sands (1952).  Also as Josephine Tey she wrote Miss Pym Disposes (1947), The Franchise Affair (1949), and Brat Farrar (1949).  She died in London on February 13, 1952.  Tey was a master at writing mysteries that contained ingenious puzzles but also equally interesting characters.  She was more like Dorothy Sayers than Agatha Christie in that her books were novels that contained mysteries.  My favorite Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None, also falls into this category.  It is curious that Alan Grant, like Ngaio Marsh’s Roderick Alleyn, did not need his salary as a policeman to earn his living as he had a considerable inheritance that would have sufficed for his needs.  They both seem to be “gentlemen detectives”, but unlike Dorothy Sayer’s Lord Peter they were employed by the police.

This first mystery has an ingenious puzzle involving a death by stabbing that happens in the line of people clamoring to get tickets for the final performance of a famous actress who is leaving to go to America the next day.  The characters are interesting the clues are very well hidden.  Even in this first effort you can see why Tey was considered one of the queens of the Golden Age of detective fiction.

Spencer-Fleming, Julia:  In the Bleak Midwinter (Melinda recommended this) 

I really enjoyed this first book in the series and plan to read the others.  The two main characters, a new female Episcopalian Priest and an agnostic Chief of Police meet over a case of an abandoned baby and find they have a lot in common including both serving in the military under war conditions, the Chief, Russ Van Alstyne, in Viet Nam and the priest, Clare Ferguson, in Desert Storm.  The development of the characters and the progression of their friendship are as important as the mystery plot in this novel.  I will be interested to see how this plays out in the next novels, because Russ is married and Clare is a priest.  I hope the author handles this potential time bomb well.

Desultory “daily” notes:

March 14-Friday

I had a very busy week and no time for journaling but tonight we are spending our second night in Monterrey and Marty is at the rehearsal dinner so maybe I can spend some time catching up.  We are here for Ty’s wedding tomorrow and staying in the house of one of Marty’s dance friend’s family.  We arrived yesterday evening and went to dinner at Fifi’s on Forest Avenue-just a short ways away from where we are staying with wonderful food, good atmosphere and very nice people.  This morning we lounged around the house because Marty didn’t feel well and wanted to rest before all the activities.  I got a chance to finish my book, The Man Who Was Thursday.  I finished the story last night and today I read the Introduction (it was advised to wait to read this until after you read the book because it revealed most of the plot devices) and the 3 short pieces at the end which were related to the story.  It was a book with lots of Christian ideas and symbolism.  I will have to read it again, this time reading the Introduction first, to really get a good grip on all the points Chesterton is making.

About 4:00 PM we dropped Marty off for his rehearsal and dinner and we went to Cannery Row (the one Steinbeck wrote about) to wine taste at Bargetto tasting room and then had a glass of wine at Taste of Monterrey, a wine tasting room featuring many wineries from the area and a fantastic view since it is on the second floor of the building.  While sitting and looking at the water (where we got to watch 2 otters cavorting in the open bay) we talked with a woman from the area who recommended that we have dinner at Schooners in the Monterey Plaza Hotel at the end of Cannery row.  It was a great recommendation-we had a wonderful meal of halibut and an excellent desert.  All in all we had a very nice and relaxing day and time in the evening to get my journaling is done.  As Pepys would say-”and so to bed.”

I decided took back in Journal 1 where I periodically work at reconstructing my reading life before I started journaling to see if I had included this book–here’s the entry:

Steinbeck, John:  Cannery Row (College & later Reedley Book Group Sept. ‘99)

One of my favorite books that this short lived group read-I think I was the one to suggested it.  Some scenes you just never forget-like Doc and the toads.  This is definitely worth a reread!

Winspear, Jacqueline:  Birds of a Feather

The second book in the Maisie Dobbs series, this story deals with a case of finding a young woman in her 30’s who runs away from her father’s house and the wealthy father wants her returned.  As Maisie searches for the girl she finds a connection with 2 murders that the police are investigating and also with a supposed suicide. The key clue is white feathers left at the scene of the crime.  When the significance of these clues is revealed I was curious if Winspear had invented the organization, The Order of the White Feather.  I should have trusted her-I googled it and not only did the organization exist but there was a picture of the advertisement for it that was mentioned in the book and a report from the daughter of one of the recipients that bore out Winspear’s “take” on the organization.  This series seems to be winner!

Desultory “daily” notes:

March 3, 2008

Today I found this quote for Jim’s Kiwanis Newsletter:

I believe I found the missing link between animal and civilized man. It is us. -Konrad Lorenz, ethologist, Nobel laureate (1903-1989)

I have a copy of Lorenz’s first book, King Solomon’s Ring, so I think that is what I’ll read next for the Book Challenge.  Lorenz was a scientist who spent his career doing close watching of animal behavior, allowing them to live freely in his house and surrounding yards.  I think this should be an interesting as well as entertaining book.  It’s one of the Time/Life Minor Classic selections that I bought in the ‘80’s (as was the Thurber book I read in January).  I’m finally getting around to reading them.

One of those classics I did read at the time I bought them was Kabloona, which was about life among the Inuit’s. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep it when I moved to California.  I’m sorry now because it was very good and I’d like to read it again.  Below is the review of the book which I put in Reading Journal 1–an on going attempt to reconstruct my reading life before I started doing the yearly journals:

De Poncins, Gontran:  Kabloona (Life Among the Inuits) (Time/Life Book-‘80’s) 

In 1941 De Poncins published a memoir telling about the 15 he months spent among the Inuit people of the Arctic. He is initially appalled at their uncivilized lifestyle but eventually morphs from a “Kabloona” (a white man) to an Inuit.  Poncins recreates both the 1930’s world of France and the world of Frozen Canada.

It’s been years since I read “Kabloona” and I don’t remember the specifics of the book.  What I do remember is the basic humanity of the people, the hard life they lived, and the culture shock between my life and theirs. I remember the book forcing me to question my idea of “progress,” “civility,” and “modern man”. Books such as Kabloona and Mutant Message Down Under, a story by Marlo Morgan about living with aborigines, tell us more about our roots as a species than many of the great thinkers and philosophers, whose only reference is modern man, are able to do. (Kabloona has the advantage of being a true story, describing the lives of actual people while it is happening.) When you read books like these you pause and reflect, trying to discern what it means to be “human.”   I remember being surprised that we “civilized” people have more in common with “primitive” people than appears on the surface.

The story dives deep into the interior life of the author as much as it details an ethnographic examination of (primitive) Inuit life. The myths and values of the Eskimos contrast sharply with the bourgeois morals of a gentleman of Paris. For example, in Eskimo culture, there is little concept of private property…that’s why an Eskimo man will let you borrow his wife or a snow knife. (I did wonder how the wife felt about that concept!)  Language in the arctic is fascinating.  A polar bear is HE WHO HAS NO SHADOW. There are more than a hundred words for “snow.”

Far away in the cold desolate Arctic, author Grontran De Poncins learns what it means to be human. This is a romance, a classic reminiscent of Robinson Crusoe and a terrific read!

March 7, 2008

Well, at least I’m doing a better job journaling this month than I did in February but I’m not getting as much reading completed-possibly because I’m trying to read too many things at once!  Yesterday when I had an entire afternoon and evening to read I couldn’t stay awake.  Even after sleeping most of that time away I still had a better and longer night’s sleep than I have had all week.

Melinda called today and, among a bunch of other things, recommended a mystery series she is reading by Jacqueline Winspear about a detective in the 1920’s named Maisie Dobbs.  I looked them up on the library web site and lo and behold Reedley has a copy of it and it was checked in so I ran down to get it this afternoon.  But I’m trying not to start it until I finish the 3 other library books I’m reading-Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin (I’m having trouble sticking to this one, even with only 100 more pages to read!), A Higher Purpose: Profiles in Presidential Courage by Thomas J. Whalen (Jim’s grandmother’s maiden name), and Poet’s Corner by John Lithgow (I will probably buy this one when the ban is off-I have it on CD but not the book).  I also need to finish King Solomon’s Ring for the Book Challenge.

The book about the presidents I checked out on a whim on Wednesday because one of the chapter about Chester A. Arthur with whom I share a birthday.  I had always been a little ashamed of him but according to Whalen, although he was a pretty scummy politician up to the time he became president, when Garfield was assassinated he was a remarkably good president.  He not only rose to the occasion and eschewed all political chicanery but he sacrificed his political future by following Garfield’s agenda (which before Garfield’s death he had continually tried to undermine) and pushed through congress the first Civil Service reform bill to stop government jobs being given out in return for political favors.  The Pendleton Act which he rammed through set up the Civil Service Commission and required that applicants for federal jobs must pass a test to be considered and when they were placed in jobs the job was stable; when new political appointees accepted posts that supervised worker they could not fire them in order to give the jobs to their friends.  Since my husband is a research scientist for the USDA, we are grateful to Chester A Arthur and Jim and I  will drink a toast to him on our shared birthday in October.  There are 8 other presidents profiled in this book and I think I will go ahead and read at least some of the rest of the stories.

March 8, 2008

Now back to the Time/Life Books that I purchased about 25 years ago!  I read two of them soon after I bought them:  Kabloona which I mentioned earlier and which I no longer have, unfortunately, and Disraeli by Andre Maurois which I have summarized in Reading Journal 1 and still own.  Last month I read Lanterns and Lances by James Thurber and this month I’m reading King Solomon’s Ring by Konrad Lorenz, which is a wonderful book about his work as an ethologist (one who studies animal behavior).  It is delightful to read and an in depth study of animal behavior at the same time.  I have five other Time/Life books:

The Forest and the Sea by Marston Bates, subtitled-A Look at the Economy of Nature and the Ecology of Man with an introduction by Loren Eisley.  I seem to be on a “naturalist” kick this year!

Three Came Home by Agnes Newton Keith-a memoir of her time of captivity in a Japanese internment camp in Borneo during WWII.  This will be a difficult read at least emotionally but I think it is important to remember.

The Big Sky by A.B. Guthrie-a fictional account about a mountain man in the Rockies in the 19^th century.  I remember my Dad talking about this book when I was a child and I will finally read it.  I wish I had done so before Dad died so we could have talked about it together.

Fancies and Goodnights by John Collier-a book of short stories featuring the weird and the bizarre that is highly recommended by Michael Dirda (so it can’t be bad!).  I do wonder if I had any idea of what it was when I bought it but it will be good for me to stretch my reading into unexplored areas!  Of course, I did read some Shirley Jackson in my past life and I think she might fit into the weird and bizarre category.  Maybe I should look her up again!

The Natural by Bernard Malamud-a story about a baseball player in the early part of the 20^th century that was made into a movie in the latter part of the 20^th century.  This one is at Marty’s house.  I ought to read it someday.

I am having a good time exploring my personal library during this time of not being able buy books.  I also enjoy exploring the public library.  Hopefully, I am developing good habits that will keep my book buying urges in better control, purchasing only those books that are good enough to keep and reading them as I purchase.

March 9, 2008

Well, I couldn’t wait to start Maisie Dobbs. I finished King Solomon’s Ring Friday night so last night (Saturday) I started Maisie. I read 2/3’s of it before I went to bed. This afternoon I finished it. Melinda was right—I do like it!

Today she sent me another recommendation—Out of the Deep I Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming. I looked it up on Fantastic Fiction and found out it is the third book in a mystery series about a female Episcopal Priest who is also a “detective.” I ordered the first one in the series from the library , In the Bleak Midwinter, when I ordered the second in the Maisie Dobbs series, Birds of a Feather. I’d better be careful or I will be reading more out of the public library than out of my library!

I won’t have any trouble reaching the goal Tucker set. I’ve already read nearly 3,000 of the required 3,500 pages to be read by June 30^th, but I would like to read at least 10,000 pages by the end of this year. I just have too many good books that need reading and that at one time or another I wanted to read badly enough to buy. I have 2 Josephine Tey mysteries that I haven’t read yet and 3 more to buy when the book ban is off so it’s not as if I can’t find good mysteries in my library.

I am being tempted on many sides, however. The book section in today’s paper (on Sundays we get about 1/8^th of a page for books if we get any at all!) reviewed two mysteries that I want to read. One was the newest J.D. Robb, Strangers in Death, which I won’t get to this year because it’s something like number 27 and I think I’m ready for number 9 next. However, the end of the review made me think that maybe I don’t need to be embarrassed by my enthusiasm for these books. The reviewer said: Best for: Anyone who enjoys lively writing. If you’re hesitant to dive into the Eve Dallas books because the prolific Roberts also writes romance novels, get over it. The characters are compelling, the plot suspenseful and the sci-fi twist is an added dimension.

That about sums it up for me. I really don’t care at all for Nora Roberts’ books but her alter ego writes very well!

The other book reviewed was The Anatomy of Deception by Lawrence Goldstone. This is an author with which I am not familiar and I don’t know what else he has written, but this one sounds intriguing. The following is the entire review:

The history: In the late 1800’s, patients who entered a hospital were more likely to die than get better. But medicine was on the brink of a spurt of advances, brought about partly by the work of men like University of Pennsylvania Professor William Osler, who fought against the idea that autopsy was ghoulish, and the first chief of surgery at Johns Hopkins, Dr. William Halsted.

The mystery: The body of a young woman is brought in, and Dr. Osler looks stunned and abruptly ends his autopsy teaching session. When the woman’s body disappears and a fellow physician is poisoned, young Dr. Carroll is faced with a moral medical and forensic dilemma.

Best for: Will appeal mostly to readers who enjoy historical novels or have an interest in medical history.

For me: I like both, so I figure this will be my cup of tea if it’s well written. I’ll have to research it. (nb–it got pretty good reviews on librarything.com so I will check it out soon.)

Winspear, Jacqueline: Maisie Dobbs

My friend Melinda recommended this book, the first in a series, to me when she visited us this month.  What fun to find a new mystery series, and from an author who isn’t dead so eventually there may be even more than the five already published. It’s also nice that there aren’t so many that it will take me years to catch up! This book does a good job of introducing us to Maisie Dobbs and giving her life history while still keeping up interest in the “mystery.” The novel is set in 1929 and deals with the effects of WWI on the lives of many of the characters. The middle section does a flashback to tell us about Maisie’s life and her rags to riches story.  There is also quite a bit about the war, especially the work of the medical personal who had to deal with the battlefield casualties—rather like MASH. Maisie is a very interesting character and I can see that character development will be a large part of the series.  With all this background I am anxious to see how the characters continue in the ensuing books.

Although Maisie has set herself up in business as a private investigator I would consider this a novel with a mystery in it rather than just a mystery story.  It’s interesting that some of the branches in our library system (which covers the entire San Joaquin Valley in central California–several counties) shelve this in fiction and others shelve it in mystery.  Even the librarians can’t agree!