Crisis, Pursued by Disaster, Followed Closely by Catastrophe

CRISIS, PURSUED BY DISASTER, FOLLOWED CLOSELY BY CATASTROPHE: A MEMOIR OF LIFE ON THE RUN: Mike O'Connor: Random House: Biography: 304 pgs.

The author grew up in the 50's in a seemingly normal family. His parents met in Europe during World War II, and his father brought his mother back to America and started a family. You soon realize that they are anything but normal, and that there is a huge black cloud hanging over their lives. Just as the family would get settled in one place and begin to live comfortably, their father would force them to flee. These late night escapes over the border to Mexico forced the children to leave behind friends, pets, possessions and any stability they may have felt. This is a fascinating story of the author's quest to uncover his parents secrets and piece together their story long after they had both passed away.

DEF

Now and Forever

NOW AND FOREVER; Ray Bradbury; New York: William Morrow, 2007; Fiction; 209 pp.
"Somewhere a Band is Playing," and "Leviathan '99" are the two novellas which make up Bradbury's latest. "Somewhere a Band is Playing" is vintage Bradbury--a young man fetches up in an isolated Western town for reasons unknown even to himself, where he finds a group of friendly but enigmatic people. He soon discovers that Summerton has no children and a purely cosmetic graveyard filled with empty graves. What he later learns, and who he becomes are different than anything ". . . dreamt of in [our] philosophy." "Leviathan '99" is a failed radio play made into a long short story meant as a space-age homage to Moby-Dick. Alas, it fails as a novella as well. Bradbury's Ahab is chasing a comet and the sterility of a computer-filled space ship in the cosmic void plays out as though it were on an empty sound stage. In short, read the first, give the second a miss.

LW

Ant Farm: And Other Desperate Situations

ANT FARM: AND OTHER DESPERATE SITUATIONS: Simon Rich: Random House: Nonfiction: 139 pages

Rich has written a collection of short, humorous pieces, many of which appeared previously in the Harvard Lampoon. Favorites for me included the crayon namer whose divorce is affecting his work, resulting in colors like “Sad Blue,” “Sad Red,” and “Sad Green”; the Sultan of Brunei who orders his wife back into her “fortress of rubies”; and a half page example of what the legal system would be like if life were like middle school. This is a fast, funny, often irreverent read.

MBC

THE MAYTREES: Annie Dillard: Harper Collins: 2007: Adult: 224

THE MAYTREES: Annie Dillard: Harper Collins: 2007: Adult: 224

The narrative of this book follows sturdy and simple Lou who lives at the edge of the sea with her carpenter husband Maytree. Maytree is easily distracted and after 14 years of marriage moves away to Maine with longtime friend, Deary. The two return 20 years later when Deary is dying and needs hospice that only Lou can offer.

Simple, and seemingly callous in its plot, Dillard's "Maytrees" is anything but. Maybe it’s about the courage it requires to live a life of commitment, or the nuances of forgiveness...I'm not even sure. Either way, the language Dillard uses to describe the sea and this small cast of tragic characters is fresh and truly haunting. This is the first book I've read that was really too much for me: too beautiful, too sad, too poignant, and too otherworldly. It was unreal - in a good way.

BES

Here if you Need Me: A True Story

HERE IF YOU NEED ME: A TRUE STORY; Kate Braestrup; New York: Little, Brown, 2007;
Non-Fiction; 2007.

When Kate's husband Drew, a Maine state trooper, was killed in a car crash, she took up the life he had wanted for himself. After completing her studies at the Bangor Theological Seminary, she became a chaplain for the Maine Fish and Game Warden Service, her job to comfort the loved ones of those lost in the woods. Interspersed with her stories of love, loss, and fearsome tragedy is her own story of her husband's death, and her own beautifully expressed spiritual belief. As befits her ministerial calling, Kate Braestrup writes like an angel--Here if you Need Me is funny, tender, and enlightening by turns, and all at once. As a Unitarian Universalist minister, she believes in a more amorphous expression of deity than some might hope for, but this book still shines with faith and a good heart.

LW

The World Without Us

THE WORLD WITHOUT US: Alan Weisman: St. Martin’s Press (2007): nonfiction: 324 pages.

If all humans disappeared overnight, what environmental time bombs would we leave behind; how long would it take for our cities to become archaeological digs; what would become of the domestic and wild animals on our planet; how long before a nuclear power plant experienced a meltdown? This is a book about the environment with a different and almost morbidly fascinating twist. It is unlikely that all of us will disappear overnight, but whether we are here or not, someone will have to deal with our legacy. The imaginative thesis of this book is compelling and sustained by solid scientific writing and vivid descriptions. I highly recommend this book.

SH

Stardust

STARDUST: Neil Gaiman: Harper Perennial: 2000: 250 pages

The village of Wall which is aptly named for the long wall dividing the town from the Faerie lands guards the break in the wall day and night. For no one is allowed through the gap except when the market fair comes to the large meadow beyond the wall every 9 years.

Seventeen year-old Tristan Thorne, who is unknowingly the result of a night of passion between an enslaved faerie and villager, proclaims to his true love that he will travel beyond the wall to retrieve the star they just watched fall, if she will agree to marry him.

Tristan knows nothing about the faerie world. So when he finally finds the star, he is shocked to discover the star is a young woman and that others are searching for her as well. Most notably there is a group of feuding princes and an evil witch.

Neil Gaiman is an excellent storyteller with a great imagination. The story and characters really come alive. This book felt like a traditional fairy tale.

AJ

First Among Sequels: A Thursday Next Novel

FIRST AMONG SEQUELS: Jasper Fforde: Viking: 2007: 363 pages.

Delighting readers since publishing his first novel, The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde sets his fifth Thursday Next novel 15 years later. Thursday Next, a former literary detective agent has now settled down with her husband, Landen (who exists again) to raise their children— slacker teen Friday, brilliant mathematician and fourth grader, Tuesday, and the youngest, Jenny.

Thursday claims she is now an ACME carpet installer, but it is really just a front for her SpecOps job in the real world and Jurisfiction job in the book world. While trying to deal with renegade Jurisfiction apprentices, the Goliath Corporation who wants to turn the book world into a tourist trap and deadly cheese curd, Thursday must convince her lazy son Friday to join the ChronoGuard in order to save the future.

If you’ve never read a Thursday Next novel be prepared for far too many subplots that generally go no where, but if you’re a fan of satiric literary humor, you’ll enjoy every one of them.

AJ

Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men

BOYS ADRIFT: THE FIVE FACTORS DRIVING THE GROWING EPIDEMIC OF UNMOTIVATED BOYS AND UNDERACHIEVING YOUNG MEN; Leonard Sax; Non-Fiction;
New York: Basic Books, 2007; 267pp.

Which of us has not noticed the listlessness of many young men in the rising generation, including a lack of interest in anything much beyond playing video games? In “Boys Adrift: the Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men,” Leonard Sax, a physician and research psychologist, discusses what seems to be wrong and what might be done to repair the damage. The five factors he identifies are 1) Changes in school which make Kindergarten the new First Grade, pushing children, especially boys, into hating school because they are asked to learn things they are not ready to learn. 2) Video games, which satisfy boys’ “will to power” without requiring them to achieve anything, or to learn the most important attributes of adulthood, such as patience. 3) Medications for ADHD which are prescribed to ameliorate many different behaviors which may or may not really be attention deficit disorder. 4) Endocrine disruptors in the environment (this may be news to most of us) that generally come from eating and drinking from plastic receptacles (or sucking on a binky), and which affect boys much more negatively than girls. 5) Loss of the societal rites and rituals of advancing to manhood, and the devaluation of manliness in popular culture. Dr. Sax’s discussion of a subsequent “failure to launch” will ring true for many parents and other concerned adults, and his final chapter on detoxing the modern environment for boys and girls should provoke both thought and action. Though Dr. Sax’s book is written in a conversational tone, his documentation is thorough and impressive. This is an important book, especially for parents and educators, but for anyone who is concerned with the well-being of our society and its young people.

LW

Looking for Alaska

LOOKING FOR ALASKA: John Green: Puffin: 2006: Fiction: 256 pages

This is a compelling young adult novel that follows the lives of a group of high school students sent to live in an exclusive boarding school in Alabama. The narrator is a smart, quiet, and unpopular kid who spends his free time memorizing the last words of famous people. The story is funny and light-hearted as the narrator meets and forms friendships and finds a niche of interesting kids to smoke, drink, study and pull pranks with. Then, an event occurs that forces the students to confront their choices and realize their world can end in an instant. I would not recommend this book to young teens, but, adults and older teens will find that the story inspires them to think about what's really important, and about how our lives and decisions affect each other.

An ALA Printz award winner for excellence in young adult literature.

DEF

Kabul Beauty School

KABUL BEAUTY SCHOOL: AN AMERICAN WOMAN GOES BEHIND THE VEIL: Deborah Rodriguez: Random House: Nonfiction: 275 pages

Deborah Rodriguez, a hairdresser from Holland, Michigan, joined a humanitarian mission to Afghanistan in 2002. Initially, no one knew how her skills as a hairdresser could benefit a war-torn country, but she soon discovered that the beauty industry was one of the few professions open and empowering to Afghan women. After her initial trip to Afghanistan, Rodriguez returned with the help of corporate sponsors to assist in running a beauty school and became the close friend and confidante of the women in her classes. She tells her own story and the story of Afghan women in this fascinating book.

This is such an interesting look at modern life in Afghanistan. I especially enjoyed it because I recently read A Thousand Splendid Suns and recognized a lot of the history and geography Hosseini introduces in the novel. The two books make wonderful companions.

MBC

Sammy's House

SAMMY’S HOUSE: Kristin Gore: Hyperion: Fiction: 384 pages

In this sequel to Sammy’s Hill, Samantha Joyce is working as a health care advisor for Vice President Gary in an administration that is struggling with outside opposition and internal vice. Meanwhile, Sammy’s boyfriend Charlie, a reporter for the Washington Post, has taken a promotion and moved to New York, creating difficulties for the couple.

I really enjoyed Sammy’s Hill, but Sammy’s House was less interesting to me. The politics seemed to overwhelm the story this time around, and I got bored of the Washington scene and slamming opposing political parties. Sammy Joyce is still an enjoyable character and the ending sets up the story for at least one more book.

MBC

Divisadero

DIVISADERO: Michael Ondaatje: Alfred A. Knopf: 2007: 273 pages.

Michael Ondaatje’s first novel in six years is unusually structured yet beautifully poetic. It is the story of an unconventional family growing up on a rural farm in 1970s Northern California. Anna, Claire and Coop are siblings of sorts until an incident of violence leaves them scattered and reeling into their adult lives. This is also the story of Lucien Segura, a World War I era French poet and novelist.

It is difficult at first to see how these two stories connect. But Ondaatje’s subtle and graceful imagery coaxes the reader to discover the parallels between Anna’s and Lucien’s experiences.

Although this novel might require a second reading to fully grasp what is teaming just beneath the surface, Ondaatje’s rare gift for language and observation will make it worth every minute.

AJ

Practically Perfect In Every Way

PRACTICALLY PERFECT IN EVERY WAY: MY MISADVENTURES THROUGH THE WORLD OF SELF-HELP—AND BACK: Jennifer Niesslein: G.P. Putnam’s Sons: Nonfiction: 343 pages

While watching Oprah one day, Jennifer Niesslein decides she’s not really as happy as she should be and embarks on a self-help journey, reading popular books on relationships, organization, health, and parenting and experimenting with the advice she finds on her family and friends.

This was an interesting read, but, because the book examines lifestyle choices and values, I sometimes strongly disagreed and struggled with the author’s point of view. Niesslein is usually fairly self-aware in her narration (recognizing that her readers might disagree with her take on things and seeing the things that influence her decisions), which is one of the strengths of the book. My head did start to spin, though, during her foray into money management.

MBC

Fame, Glory, and Other Things On My To Do List

FAME, GLORY, AND OTHER THINGS ON MY TO DO LIST: Janette Rallison: Walker Publishing: Young Adult: 186 pages

Jessica, a junior in a small New Mexico town, dreams of Hollywood stardom. She is devastated when a lack of funds threatens cancellation of the school play. Into her life steps Jordan, a new student whose father is a famous actor. Jordan wants to keep this hidden, but Jessica hatches a scheme to save the play by revealing his identity to the drama teacher and promising that he will audition for a role.

This was a quick, enjoyable read. Jordan has a hard time being the son of a famous actor and Jessica doesn’t help the matter, but it all works out in the end. A fun young adult book.

Crashing Through: a True Story of Adventure and the Man Who Dared to See

CRASHING THROUGH: A TRUE STORY OF ADVENTURE AND THE MAN WHO DARED TO SEE: Robert Kurson: Random House (2007): nonfiction: 306 pages.

Crashing Through is a very interesting account of a man blinded at age 3 who has his sight restored through an experimental surgery 45 years later. In case you didn’t know, such a thing is almost unheard of – there have only been about 20 documented cases of a completely blind person having their sight restored. You will gain an enhanced appreciation of how blind people adapt and you will be amazed to learn how difficult it is to see. The book is as gripping as fiction and, like good fiction helps you see life from a new vantage point.

SH

If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period

IF A TREE FALLS AT LUNCH PERIOD; Gennifer Choldenko; NY: Harcourt, 2007; Young Adult; 217pp.
Kirsten McKenna's life is on the skids--she has gained 40 pounds, her best friend Rory has ditched her in favor of popular, bossy Brianna, and her parents are always fighting and may be cruising for a divorce. "Enjoying" only intermittent access to the cruel clique Rory has joined, she makes friends with a black kid, Walk, and a Latino boy named Matteo, both of whom have entered her tony private school on scholarship. Some things about this book are predictable--the evil blond clique girls, the awkward protagonist, the warring parents, and the beleaguered children of color--but Choldenko is such a fine writer, she mostly pulls it off. Walk is the most interesting character here: a brilliant, self-possessed young man, sure of who he is and wants to be at a very early age. The twist at the end is a bit contrived, but young people should be drawn in to this story of trying to fit in at an awkward age.

Me and Mr. Darcy

ME AND MR. DARCY: Alexandra Potter: Ballantine Books: 2007: 356 pages

Emily Albright runs a bookstore and after her last few dating experiences wishes all men could be like Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. So when her best-friend and co-worker suggests a wild weekend on a beach in Mexico, Emily does just the opposite and flees to England for a tour through the historic Austen countryside with a bus-load of grannies and one foul-tempered man.

This novel has the unfortunate experience of getting released at the same time as Shannon Hale’s Austenland which has the same plot concept though the stories go in very different directions. Me and Mr. Darcy also has some strange twists like when Emily meets the real Mr. Darcy in some kind of (never fully explained) time-warp incident. If you enjoy romantic spin-offs of Austen’s novels then you will still get some pleasure from this story, but there are better books out there.

AJ

When the Emperor Was Divine

WHEN THE EMPEROR WAS DIVINE: Julie Otsuka: Anchor Books: 2002: 144 pages.

The story of a Japanese-American family, known only as Mother, Girl and Boy and their experience in a Utah internment camp. The father was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy prior to this and had been sent to a similar camp in New Mexico.

The story begins when the mother sees notices posted around Berkeley, CA instructing Japanese residents that they must evacuate. The next three years are spent in shoddy lodgings in the Utah desert with highs over 100 in the summer and below freezing in the winter. The family returns to their home in Berkeley after the war and must assume their old lives, but nothing is the same for them. They must deal with the trauma from their experiences and hostility from their neighbors.

This book really drives home the injustice of the Japanese-American experience during World War II. They did not see themselves as Japanese any more and indeed had nothing to go back to in Japan. The children didn’t even know how to speak Japanese. The author has created a quick but thorough look at this moment in history.

AJ

The Namesake

THE NAMESAKE: Jhumpa Lahiri: Houghton Mifflin: 2003: 291 pages.

In the 1960s Ashoke and Ashimi Ganguli immigrate from India to America for Ashoke to go to school at MIT. Ashima soon gives birth to their first son. The Ganguli’s end up putting their son’s pet-name on his birth certificate because the grandmother’s name for the baby never arrives from Calcutta. He is named Gogol after the Russian author because one of his books literally saved Ashoke’s life in a train wreck.

Gogol grows up an American boy who hates his name which is neither Indian nor American. He tends to blame his discomfort with his world on his name. Before entering college, Gogol legally changes his name to Nikhil, the good-name his parents finally decided on but never actually used.

This novel follows the Ganguli family through their assimilation into Western culture and how difficult it can be for children born into different customs to understand their parents’ transplanted traditions and for parents to comprehend why their children don’t see the world the same way they do. The story was a little disjointed at times, but I really felt like I was seeing the world through an immigrant’s eyes.

AJ

Verdigris Deep

VERDIGRIS DEEP; Frances Hardinge; London: Macmillan, 2007; Young Adult; 328pp.
Three friends miss their bus and need money they don't have to catch a different one or they will be in deep trouble at home. Josh, the cool older guy, drops down into a wishing well to fish out coins for the bus, with wildly unexpected consequences. Ryan, Chelle, and Josh suddenly find themselves endowed with creepy powers apparently designed to help them grant wishes to the true owners of the coins. But what happens if the stated wish is hiding a deeper, maybe even subconscious wish? Ryan and his friends soon find themselves over their heads (in more ways than one) in this ingenious, funny, often truly frightening tale.

LW

Cute, Quaint, Hungry and Romantic: The Aesthetics of Consumerism

Cute, Quaint, Hungry and Romantic: The Aesthetics of Consumerism:Daniel Lopez: Basic Books: 2000: Nonfiction: 270

In his book, Daniel Lopez doggedly "show(s) how the aesthetics of consumerism are the lies we tell ourselves to preserve our individuality even as we enjoy the luxuries of the mass market." Throughout reading this I couldn't help but feel paralyzed by any and everything I have ever been inclined to buy. Lopez sardonically examines almost every aesthetic that is used to sell us suckers things we don't really need: Cuteness, Zaniness, Deliciousness, and Quaintness to name a few.

This book was relentless in its cynical approach to consumerism. In most cases it was a lose-lose situation - you were trendy and shallow if you fell for the advertising tricks or pretentious and self righteous if you didn't. However, except for a few chapters of one rant too many, it was a fascinating read. In a chapter about food Lopez suggests that the can (as in canned food ) had the "same effect on the kitchen as television had on culture, leveling regional cuisine, internationalizing food, and producing a kind of dietary Esperanto in regions once dependent on meats and vegetables of local farmers." Well worth the wade through Lopez' wordy sentences and Ph. D language.

BES

Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts

Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts

By Clive James

W. W. Norton, 2007. 876 pgs. Nonfiction

This fascinating and unusual book includes over 100 biographical sketches—some of people you’ve heard of and some of people you’ve never heard of (I recognized about half the names). Each sketch gives some information about the individual—often with a slant to a very particular aspect of the person or their contribution to civilization. Each sketch also seems to become a platform for launching into a related or sometimes apparently unrelated topic, such as in the sketch on Marc Bloch, wherein he launches into a diatribe against Ezra Pound.

There are a fabulous number of very quotable passages (I jotted down my favorites as I went—it’s not often a book prompts that sort of reaction). Here are three of my favorites: Speaking of Camus he states “The Gods poured success on him but it could only darken his trench coat: it never soaked him to the skin”. During the sketch on Dick Cavett is found “It might be said that the United States is the first known case of a civilization developing through disintegration”. Also in the vignette on Bloch he writes “Admirers of Ouspensky, Gurdjieff and Wilhelm Reich were all under the illusion that profundity can be attained by embracing principles with no basis in science. The occult and the mystically profound are perennial shortcuts to a supervening vision: a worldview without the world”.

Superbly written, erudite, literary, and humorous--this work is a very good read.

Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder

Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder
By David Weinberger
Times Books, 2007. 277 pgs. Nonfiction

The internet has prompted a revolution in information science. This book is about the emerging methods of finding information. These methods are applied to locating music (iTunes), books (Amazon and WorldCat), real estate (Zillow and PropSmart), photographs (Flickr), encyclopedias of information (Wickipedia), used stuff of every sort (eBay), and the list goes on.

Weinberger sets for three orders of information. The first order is the arrangement of things (books alphabetical on a shelf, for example), the second order involved a representation such as cards in a card catalog. With the first two orders things were like leaves on a tree and to get to any given leaf one had to follow the correct path of branches and twigs to get to it. The third order is digital. Now we forget about the branches and just rake the leaves into the piles we’re interested in.

Very accessible with plenty of examples (that will have you pulling up websites on your computer), this book includes a little library science, a few facts from history, a bit about biology, while being essentially a work of philosophy.

F5: Devastation, Survival, and the most Violent Tornado Outbreak of the Twentieth Century

F5: DEVASTATION, SURVIVAL, AND THE MOST VIOLENT TORNADO OUTBREAK OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY; Mark Levine; New York: Hyperion, 2007; Nonfiction; 307pp.

Heavy Weather junkies (you know who you are) will be glad to get their hands on Mark Levine's book about the greatest tornado outbreak in the twentieth century which occurred on April 3-4, 1974. Tension boils up like thunderheads on a hot summer's day in Limestone County, Alabama, where we become acquainted with the folks whose lives will be unmade by tornado after tornado dropping from black skies later that day and into the night. We know what is coming--they don't. Levine's narrative teeters on the verge of melodrama, but rarely tips over, making his book a terrifying and heartbreaking story of sudden death and unimaginable destruction. Levine interrupts the narrative a couple of times with philosophical, political, and sociological musings that might profitably be skipped, but F5 is otherwise a gripper and a half.

LW

The World is Flat: a Brief History of the Twenty-First Century

THE WORLD IS FLAT: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY: Thomas L. Friedman: Farrar, Straw, and Giroux: Non Fiction: 488 pages

Thomas Friedman comes out and makes the claim that the world is indeed flat. And how is it flat you ask? Globalization. He shows that through advanced technology, connections are made in today's world that force your company to not just compete with the other firms in town, but ones across the globe.

You feel smart just reading this book. I finally understand the .com bust. Who would have thought. At times Friedman gets on a bandwagon and you need to skim, but overall the book is filled with interesting facts that will make for great conversation at your next dinner party.

KK

The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner: Khaled Hosseini: Riverhead: General Fiction: 352

This aching exercise in redemption and self-knowledge centers around two young Afghan boys. Amir is the wealthy son of a prestigious man in Kabul and Hassan is his racially inferior servant. Though Amir has all the bounty that life has to offer, it is Hassan that has all of the courage and character of nobility. When Amir's cowardice stops him from intervening in a brutal attack on the ever innocent Hassan, the shame of the haunting memory permeates his whole life - even after he moves to America. Amir finally finds redemption when he travels back to war torn Afghanistan to face his demons and the characters from his past.

This book was as sad and epic as I wanted it to be, and then some. It did all of the standard "literary" things beautifully: Christ figure, characters changing places over time, self discovery, the return home, issues of redemption and forgiveness etc... I thought the story was thought provoking and heartbreaking, not to mention an insightful view into modern Afghanistan. I guess what I liked the most about it was the idea that people have both parts to them; good and bad, and even the bad can "make it right again" as the book suggests - but it won't be easy.

BES

Sanctuary

SANCTUARY: Beverly & David Lewis: Bethany House: Fiction: 320 pages

This book was a delightfully quick and easy read. It had a little suspense (who is after Melissa and why), a little romance ( Melissa and Ryan had the perfect courtship and marriage until...), a little religion (the generic type), a little cultural insight on the Amish and Mennonite ways of life and a lesson on the true meaning of friendship. While the ending is a little shmaltzy, I recommend this book to anyone who just wants to sit down and read a nice clean book.

mpb

The Wisdom of Menopause

THE WISDOM OF MENOPAUSE: Christiane Northrup, M.D.: Bantam Books: Nonfiction: 589 pages

This was a mercy reading. My sister who lives in a non-libraried part of Idaho, asked me to read this book. She had been impressed with this very well respected author while watching a PBS TV program. Her question was, "should I buy the book?" My answer, NO! I dragged myself through 3/4 of the the book before I found anything I considered useful. However, in defense of the book, if you are having a midlife crisis, gotten or getting a divorce and need mental support that you are doing the correct thing, by all means read this book. For me, the majority of this book seemed to be the author's own whinny self-therapy session. The parts that were helpful (diets, medical terminology etc.) seemed scrambled and difficult to understand. I did finish the book but it exhausted my brain and my patience.

mpb

Telegraph Days

TELEGRAPH DAYS: Larry McMurtry: Simon & Schuster Audio: Western

I was excited to read/listen to a Larry McMurtry book, he has after all won a Pulitzer Prize. Unfortunately, I do not recommend this book to anyone. The reader's voice (Annie Potts), annoyed me to the end. I plowed through the entire book waiting for a plot to develop. It barely happened. The promiscuous activities of the the main character were focused on way too many times for my liking. Basically, brother (Jackson) and sister (Nellie) come to Rita Blanca after their family dies off. Brother becomes the sheriff; sister becomes the telegraph operator. Brother kills bad guys; sister sleeps with every man who comes into town. Brother get drunk; sister goes of to manage Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Brother is deputy; sister comes back and becomes mayor. Brother is still deputy; sister goes to Tombstone and marries. Brother dies; sister ends up in Hollywood. Buffalo Bill dies; end of book. There you have the entire book, you've been spared having to read 416 pages or listening for what seemed an eternity.

mpb