BW9: March Gadabout

Devonport Library, New Zealand 

We are heading into March and will be cruising around the coast of Australia, stopping at a couple ports of call before sailing to New Zealand.   We'll stop in on the Dunedoo Bush Poetry Festival in New South Wales, drop in on Lian Hearn, best known for her Tales of the Otori series as she launches her new Tale of the Shikanoko series with Emperor of the Late Islands.  Plus, we'll be celebrating the 82nd birthday of our author flavor of the month  David Malouf,  I currently have  Ransom in my backpack.

In his first novel in more than a decade, award-winning author David Malouf reimagines the pivotal narrative of Homer’s Iliad—one of the most famous passages in all of literature.

This is the story of the relationship between two grieving men at war: fierce Achilles, who has lost his beloved Patroclus in the siege of Troy; and woeful Priam, whose son Hector killed Patroclus and was in turn savaged by Achilles. A moving tale of suffering, sorrow, and redemption, Ransom is incandescent in its delicate and powerful lyricism and its unstated imperative that we imagine our lives in the glow of fellow feeling.

Once we hit New Zealand, you better put on your walking shoes, because we'll be gadding about the continent, taking one of Auckland's Literary walks. Add to that learning more about the Maori culture, as well as taking the Haiku pathway in Katikati.  We'll be dropping in on our other author flavor of the month - Joan Druett, maritime historian and novelist.  I have Island of the Lost World on board and can't wait to read it.

Auckland Island is a godforsaken place in the middle of the Southern Ocean, 285 miles south of New Zealand. With year-round freezing rain and howling winds, it is one of the most forbidding places in the world. To be shipwrecked there means almost certain death.

In 1864 Captain Thomas Musgrave and his crew of four aboard the schooner Grafton wreck on the southern end of the island. Utterly alone in a dense coastal forest, plagued by stinging blowflies and relentless rain, Captain Musgrave—rather than succumb to this dismal fate—inspires his men to take action. With barely more than their bare hands, they build a cabin and, remarkably, a forge, where they manufacture their tools. Under Musgrave's leadership, they band together and remain civilized through even the darkest and most terrifying days.

Incredibly, at the same time on the opposite end of the island—twenty miles of impassable cliffs and chasms away—the Invercauld wrecks during a horrible storm. Nineteen men stagger ashore. Unlike Captain Musgrave, the captain of the Invercauld falls apart given the same dismal circumstances. His men fight and split up; some die of starvation, others turn to cannibalism. Only three survive. Musgrave and all of his men not only endure for nearly two years, they also plan their own astonishing escape, setting off on one of the most courageous sea voyages in history.


Using the survivors' journals and historical records, award-winning maritime historian Joan Druett brings this extraordinary untold story to life, a story about leadership and the fine line between order and chaos.

Join me as we sail the ocean's blue and check out Goodread's list of books set in New Zealand, books by New Zealand Authors,  as well as books set Australia, and Booktopia's list of top ten favorite Australia authors! 

Happy travels! 

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Please link to your specific post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you don't have a blog, leave a comment telling us what you have been reading. Every week I will put up Mr. Linky which will close at the end of each book week. No matter what book you are reading or reviewing at the time, whether it be # 1 or # 5 or so on, link to the current week's post.

BW8: R.I.P. Umberto Eco and Harper Lee

Brenda Burke Fine Art 

This is a sad week for the book world as we have lost both Umberto Eco (84) and Harper Lee (89).  

Umberto Eco studied medieval philosophy and literature at the University of Turin and his thesis about Thomas Aquinas earned him a Laurea Degree in philosophy. He was a cultural editor for Radiotelevisione italiana, italy's national public broadcasting company and a lecturer at the University of Turin.  He has a 30,000 volume library in his apartment in Milan and a 20,000 volume library in his vacation home near Rimini,

Nasim Talab who wrote The Black Rose says in Brainpickings Umberto Eco's Library: Why Unread Books Are More Valuable to Our Lives than Read Ones:  

The writer Umberto Eco belongs to that small class of scholars who are encyclopedic, insightful, and nondull. He is the owner of a large personal library (containing thirty thousand books), and separates visitors into two categories: those who react with “Wow! Signore professore dottore Eco, what a library you have! How many of these books have you read?” and the others — a very small minority — who get the point that a private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market allows you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary.

Harper Lee studied law at the University of Alabama and wrote for the school newspaper, but never finished her degree.  She moved to New York City and worked as an airline reservation agent while pursuing writing in her off time.  After completing To Kill a Mockingbird, she became Truman Capote's research assistant.   She accompanied him while he traveled and helped him conduct interviews and wrote up all the notes for his novel In Cold Blood.   Capote minimized her role in the creation of the story, thus destroying their friendship.  To Kill a Mockingbird was published to great acclaim.  Interest in Lee declined when no further books were written or published. In 2015, Go Set a Watchman was published.  The book was  a sequel to Mockingbird, a story Lee had written first, but had been held back by the publisher.  

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”  ` To Kill a Mockingbird

I currently have  Eco's Foucault's Pendulum on my nightstand which I'll be reading this week. Join me in honoring both authors by reading one of their books this year. 

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 Please link to your specific post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you don't have a blog, leave a comment telling us what you have been reading. Every week I will put up Mr. Linky which will close at the end of each book week. No matter what book you are reading or reviewing at the time, whether it be # 1 or # 5 or so on, link to the current week's post.

BW7: Be my valentine!

Happy Valentine's Day to all my bookish peeps.  Check out the History channel's what you don't know about Valentine's day, then enjoy a bit of chocolate while reading all about romance, brought to you by Karen, our 52 Books queen of romance.  I've already added quite a few to my wishlist! 

Jeff Nebeker 

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Due to my great fondness for romances, I've been asked to do a post on the topic.

I read voraciously and widely growing up.  Between the ages of ten and fourteen, I can remember reading:

Cherry Ames as well as The Godfather.

The Hardy Boys as well as Mary Renault.

Agatha Christie as well as Valley of the Dolls.

Georgette Heyer as well as Sherlock Holmes

The Bobbsey Twins as well as Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask.

My reading was not censored other than when my mother found me reading Sergeanne Golon's Angelique when I was eleven. She told me that I could read it at age 16.  Being the obedient child that I was (and I was!), I promptly finished it the next time I was home alone.  By fifteen, I still read widely, but I had a definite fondness for romances and had amassed a hundred plus collection of Harlequins and regency romances which my parents teasingly called Literary Junk.

That teasing is something that romance readers frequently encounter.  It's curious, but readers of other genre fiction such as mysteries, science fiction, fantasies, and suspense thrillers do not seem to encounter the same disparagement.  Romances are often accused of being poorly written, formulaic trash.  Yes, I've encountered my share of poorly written romances; however, I've also encountered books in other genres that were poorly written.  I'll agree that romances do follow a formula.  The organization Romance Writers of America defines a romance as being comprised of “a central love story and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending.” 

 I'll deny that all romances are trash; as with other categories of fiction, what one reader may love, another may despise.  In spite of these and other criticisms, romance readership thrives and is responsible for some twenty percent of all adult fiction sales according to a January 2016 Publishers Weekly article.  Romances outsell each of the other genre fictions as well as Classics; only General Fiction has a larger share of the market. For some enjoyable defenses of romance as a genre, see A Spirited Defense of Romance Novels by Grace Danielson Perry, In Defense of Romance by Amanda Deadmarsh, and In Defense of Romance Novels or Imma Read What I Want by Elyse. 

Had you asked me at fifteen to describe a romance, I'd likely have answered, “A woman (usually young and innocent) meets a man (generally older, more experienced, and frequently a nobleman, sheik, or successful businessman); complications ensue; they fall in love and live happily ever after.” It's that triumph of love and that happily ever after that keeps me reading romance; in a world with dark places, I'll take all the love and happiness I can find.  

I like what romance author Courtney Milan says, “I love romance novels because they are about big things and small things: about politics and life and cancer and war, and about home and hearth and making a perfect cookie, sometimes in the same book. They’re a reminder that not everything important is front page news—and, in fact, some of the most important things are details. They’re about the importance of building community.”

My concept of a romance has broadened considerably since I was fifteen.  The main characters do still meet, complications do still ensue, and they do still fall in love; they might live happily ever after or happily for now.  A big difference is that the main characters might include:

• two college students … Sarina Bowen's Ivy Years series
• two men … Rowan Speedwell's Illumination
• two women … Karelia Stetz-Waters' Something True
• a threesome  … Lauren Dane's Laid Bare
• young professionals … Julie James' FBI/US Attorney series
• mature individuals (AKA those who are my age) … Penny Watson's A Taste of Heaven
• a dragon or a djinn … Thea Harrison's Dragon Bound and Oracle's Moon
• werewolves … Patricia Briggs' Alpha and Omega series
• a non-verbal caveman … Shay Savage's Transcendence
• an alien from another planet … Michelle Diener's Dark Horse
• an alien in a world like our own … Grace Draven's Radiance
• a detective in the future … J.D. Robb's ...in Death series
• a convict who served time … LaVyrle Spencer's Morning Glory
• spies … Joanna Bourne's The Spymaster's Lady
• active military … M.L. Buchman's Night Stalker's series or Jessica Scott's Homefront series
• a female or male prostitute … Courtney Milan's Unclaimed or Laura Leone's Fallen From Grace
• Someone with Asperger Syndrome … Jennifer Ashley's The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie
• someone suffering depression … Heidi Cullinan's Carry the Ocean
• someone who has suffered a stroke … Laura Kinsale's Flowers from the Storm
• someone with physical disabilities … Amy Harmon's Making Faces or Mary Balogh's Simply Love
• someone blind … Lisa Marie Rice's Midnight Angel
• someone deaf … Mary Balogh's Silent Melody
• individuals of different races … Pamela Clare's Naked Edge or Amy Jo Cousins' Level Hands
• individuals with a strong faith … Laura Kinsale's Flowers from the Storm and Elizabeth Camden's Until the Dawn

The above list includes many of my personal favorites.  If you're looking for a romance recommendation, let me know.  And happy Valentine's Day!

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 Please link to your specific post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you don't have a blog, leave a comment telling us what you have been reading. Every week I will put up Mr. Linky which will close at the end of each book week. No matter what book you are reading or reviewing at the time, whether it be # 1 or # 5 or so on, link to the current week's post.

BW6: Side trip to Burma

Burma by Robert Kelly

As it is known to happen, I zigged, when I should have zagged, got sidetracked, took a rabbit trail and ended up in Burma.  Officially it is now called the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. General elections were held in 2015, the first since 1990, which began the transition from an authoritarian rule and a new parliament convened on February 1st.  I happened to have stumbled upon this happy little factoid, after I found Jan Phillip Sendker's A Well Tempered Heart a few days ago at Barnes and Noble.  

Almost ten years have passed since Julia Win came back from Burma, her father’s native country. Though she is a successful Manhattan lawyer, her private life is at a crossroads; her boyfriend has recently left her and she is, despite her wealth, unhappy with her professional life. Julia is lost and exhausted. One day, in the middle of an important business meeting, she hears a stranger’s voice in her head that causes her to leave the office without explanation. In the following days, her crisis only deepens.

Not only does the female voice refuse to disappear, but it starts to ask questions Julia has been trying to avoid. Why do you live alone? To whom do you feel close? What do you want in life? Interwoven with Julia’s story is that of a Burmese woman named Nu Nu who finds her world turned upside down when Burma goes to war and calls on her two young sons to be child soldiers. This spirited sequel, like The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, explores the most inspiring and passionate terrain: the human heart.

I wasn't quite paying attention to the spirited sequel part so we''ll see what happens when I start to read it as I prefer reading books with sequels in order. That in turn sent me down another rabbit trail, leading me to George Orwell's Burmese Days.

Imagine crossing E.M. Forster with Jane Austen. Stir in a bit of socialist doctrine, a sprig of satire, strong Indian curry, and a couple quarts of good English gin and you get something close to the flavor of George Orwell's intensely readable and deftly plotted Burmese Days. In 1930, Kyauktada, Upper Burma, is one of the least auspicious postings in the ailing British Empire--and then the order comes that the European Club, previously for whites only, must elect one token native member. This edict brings out the worst in this woefully enclosed society, not to mention among the natives who would become the One. Orwell mines his own Anglo-Indian background to evoke both the suffocating heat and the stifling pettiness that are the central facts of colonial life:


"Mr. MacGregor told his anecdote about Prome, which could be produced in almost any context. And then the conversation veered back to the old, never-palling subject--the insolence of the natives, the supineness of the Government, the dear dead days when the British Raj was the Raj and please give the bearer fifteen lashes. The topic was never let alone for long, partly because of Ellis's obsession. Besides, you could forgive the Europeans a great deal of their bitterness. Living and working among Orientals would try the temper of a saint."

How could I pass it up after the comparison with E.M. Forster and Jane Austen. *grin*  And Facts and Details site with its list of folk tales, classical works and modern writers lead me on merry chase around the interwebz, as well as Sadaik, the online manuscript chest for all things literary in Myanmar, where I found a list of Burmese writers as well as literature in translation. 

Happy trails!  

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Please link to your specific post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you don't have a blog, leave a comment telling us what you have been reading. Every week I will put up Mr. Linky which will close at the end of each book week. No matter what book you are reading or reviewing at the time, whether it be # 1 or # 5 or so on, link to the current week's post.