Helen Simonson

Fiction 2010, 355 pages

Boring!!!

(FYI, this is the book for age 62 in the NYT "Best books from 1-100.")

December 2022

TJ Klune | Fiction, 2011

370 pages

The plot is delightful!  On his 18th Birthday, Bear (aka Derrick), finds himself completely responsible for his eight-year-old brother the Kid (aka Tyson), when their mother leaves them a letter with $135.50, and takes off with her boyfriend, never to return.  Three days later, Bear graduates from high school, along with his two best friends since second grade, Creed and Anna.  His plans for college disappear and his life is in disarray ... he will never abandon the Kid, whom he loves very deeply.  Anna (now Bear's girlfriend), Creed, Creed's older brother Otter (aka Oliver), and next-door neighbor Mrs. Pacquin all commit to fully support Bear and the Kid, with love, babysitting, school pick-ups, money (Bear won't take any of that) and whatever else is necessary for the care and feeding of his young brother, a brilliant vegetarian ecoterrorist-in-training who refuses to watch cartoons and instead watches documentaries on cruelty to animals, PETA, environmental change, and radical ecoterrorism.

The plot is pure delight!  Such love and support all around!

That is the plot, but the interwoven story is about Bear and Otter, and Bear, with considerable difficulty, coming to terms with being gay. I am a romantic, and I love reading about love, sex, romance, joy, and anguish.  However, I am giving this book three hearts because I want you to go into this novel with your eyes wide open.  There is A LOT of  love, sex, romance, joy, and anguish between Bear and Otter!!  If that works for you, you will find this novel enjoyable.

Bear, our main character, is expertly written in first person, and his inner thoughts are included in italics.  His inner thoughts are a riot!  There is much in this book to smile, giggle, and laugh at.  I guffawed loudly near the end a few times! Plus, of course, there is the pure sentimentality of a family (created) that we all perhaps deeply desire.  Heartwarming and funny, this is another TJ Klune success.  It is a tough call if this book or House on the Cerulean Sea is now my favorite Klune!

Enjoy!

December 2022

A.G. Riddle

Fiction 2022 | 451 pages

A small group of scientists creates a company called Absalom and invents a machine that can send people into the past ... way into the past, like the Triassic Period, 200 million years ago.  They were attempting to build a machine that would transport an object instantaneously to a different location.  (Watch out, FedEx!) Unsure of the market for transporting people, they discovered countries and governments found the technology useful for coping with hardened criminals … getting them out of this place and time, but not actually killing them.

And then, one of the Absalom scientists, Nora, is murdered.  Her business (and love) partner, Sam, and his daughter Adeline are prime suspects.  Sam quickly realizes he needs to confess to the murder, which he didn’t do, to remove suspicion from his daughter (who is also innocent!)  His colleagues send Sam back to the Triassic Period, as he is now officially a “murderer.”  Meanwhile, the scientific team improve and adapt the machine, making greater and more significant innovations, until they agree with Adeline’s intention to travel back to 2008, the year of her birth, and relive the past up to and through the time Nora is killed ... to find the murderer.  One the murderer is found, the advance time-travel machine can bring her father back, and life will continue on its journey!

The time travel is fun (though sometimes a bit confusing).  The character development of many characters … Sam, Adeline, Nora, Daniele, Constance, Elliott, Hiro … is astounding.  It takes great talent to develop clearly this many characters and A.G. Riddle is up to the task!  Eventually, many threads come together in the end of the novel, and confusing pieces make sense.  There is such a sense of compassion in this novel ... FROM some characters (Constance, e.g.) and FOR others (Hiro, e.g.)  This is a fun read!  I think I will try another A.G. Riddle.  He has written ten other novels.

November 2022

Madeleine L'Engle

Fiction 1962 | 236 pages

A Wrinkle in Time is a 1962 classic young adult novel about Meg, a 13-year-old girl who is unsure of herself, quite sensitive, doesn't know her place in the world, and has two scientist parents and three brothers. Meg travels across space and time to achieve her own coming of age. Though I am reading this classic 60 years beyond its publication, I found it fun, engaging, even if somewhat dated in its science.  What's not to like?  Some didn't like its Christian message.  Huh?  As an atheist, I consider myself somewhat hyper-aware of Christian messages.  I missed the "Christian message" completely myself!!

A Wrinkle in Time follows three children as they cross the barriers of time and space.  Mrs Whatsit, a very old celestial being disguised as a woman (and has two compatriots, Mrs Who and Mrs Which) visit Meg, her mother, and her younger brother Charles Wallace.  Soon Meg, her prodigious younger brother Charles Wallace, and friend Calvin travel across the universe in search of Meg’s father, who, once found, does NOT solve all their problems.  It is Meg, a girl who combines both the ordinary and the extraordinary, who overcomes the book’s villain with the power of a simple human emotion, love.

If you read this in fourth grade, as my friend Jen did, or missed it all together, it is a delightful quick read into the early days of science, science fiction, and fantasy.  Enjoy it now, as an adult!

November 2022

Ron Rash

Fiction 2008 | 362 pages

During the depression, in 1929, newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travel from Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to harvest timber and create a timber empire.  Their story is dark, visceral, deadly, and, yes, loving.  Serena, our main character, is an unfathomably strong and powerful woman, capable and resourceful (an anomaly at the time) who knows her own mind.  She is also ruthless, ambitious, greedy, malicious, amoral, a megalomaniac, and a sociopath.  And a murderer.  The 100 timber workers, with the Pemberton’s at their head, struggle with death, maiming, poverty, issues of significant safety, and a government movement to create the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, right on their land.  (As an aside, the most-visited National Park in the US!)

Many reviewers write about the beauty of Rash’s writing.  He has a beautiful turn of the phrase; eloquent, descriptive, intense.  However, I did not find his writing quite as compelling as many did.  He solves every problem by murdering someone.  I found this very uncreative.  I think it would have been a more interesting story if he explored other means for solving problems.

We get to know Serena in depth, and to some extent, her husband Pemberton.  But the rest of the characters blur together in their superficiality.

Perhaps it is unfair of me to judge a book harshly by the story it tells, but I have.  There are many murders, along with countless deaths and loss of limbs by logging.  Virtually all the murders are not explained. It is unclear why these people must die.  I abhor gratuitous violence, and I believe that is what Rash writes about, his strong female characters notwithstanding.  I finished this because it is a book club read, but I do not recommend it. I am very intrigued to hear why the gentle spirit who recommended this book to us, did so.

November 2022

Steve Hagen

Nonfiction 1997 | 161 pages

I was raised Catholic.  I suddenly realized while reading Buddhism Plain & Simple that we had ONE book to go to, if we wanted to understand the teaching of Catholicism.  The Bible.  Okay, and maybe The Catechism.  Buddhism doesn't have a Bible of sorts, and so the dharma is written about by scholars, teachers, buddhas, monks, nuns, lay people.  No wonder I have been confused!

This book, Buddhism Plain & Simple, has begun to make it clearer to me.  No matter what words are used, or the interpretation provided, at least part of the foundation of the dharma of Buddhism are the Four Noble Truths and The Eightfold Path.  I know this is over-simplifying, but a framework is starting to build for me that I can hang other teachings onto.

Hagen, in this book, writes unrelentingly about "seeing."  Seeing reality, seeing truth, seeing right action, seeing duhkha (suffering).  I feel urged and encouraged to "see."   While I don't exactly know how to do this in all circumstances, I find this to be a clear and powerful message.

The last third of the book focuses on the illusion of self.  I don’t understand this concept at all!  Of course, “understanding” is not even the “right” word ... it is about seeing.  Anyway, I have much more to learn.  How thrilling!

This is a great book for us beginners!  I recommend it highly!

Thank you for the loan, Thom.

P.S.  I still haven’t seen the "Mysterious Figure" on page 28, for what it actually is.  Do you see it?

November 2022

Alexandra Horowitz

Nonfiction 2009 | 362 pages

I found this book fascinating, cover to cover.  Horowitz is a cognitive scientist and she reports on significant dog research, introducing me to the concept of umwelt (an organism's unique view of the world; how they interact with the environment); addressing what we have discovered about how dogs communicate with one another and us; how they see, smell, and hear; how and why they bond; what they learn and how they learn it; how they change as they age; and other topics.  She intersperses the research with tales about her own dog Pump (aka Pumpernickel) and frequent humor.

I read Inside of a Dog with thought and considerable interest.  The only criticism I have is that it is so chock-full of information, it will be difficult to retain much.

Goodreads readers were not nearly so enamored.  3.6 on their 5.0 scale is not glowing. Many found Inside of a Dog boring and long-winded.  I did not!  I recommend this book strongly if you are a dog lover.  If you love it or if it bores you to tears, either way, please leave your comments!

November 2022

Thich Nhat Hahn | Nonfiction, 2017

224 pages

I have decided to learn more about Buddhism, so you will see a few more books over the next months.

This book disappointed me. I assumed I did not know much about dharma.  I guess I do.  There was some, but not much, that was new to me.  It is broadly about a spiritual practice of mindfulness, compassion, and enlightenment, presented through the Buddhist Three Doors of Liberation: emptiness, signlessness, and aimlessness, but with a preoccupation with suffering and attachment. The perspective of "she needs to be fixed" is central to this writing.  He clearly states we "need to live differently," as though we all are unconscious, unlearned, unaware, un-awake.

That being said, the concept of inter-being (chapter 2) is a great reminder of truth and reminds me of Braiding Sweetgrass and The Overstory ... tomes about the environmental unity of all beings, and about transformation from one form to another.

I most enjoyed learning about the eight bodies.  In my mind, it is a useful model or metaphor that helps me comprehend the various ways I am pulled; the various aspects of deep joy I feel; the sometimes-conflicting sources of wisdom I experience.  The eight bodies are the:

• Human body
• Buddha body
• Spiritual Practice body
• Community body
• The Body Outside the Body
• Continuation body
• Cosmic body
• Ultimate body

If you simply want to learn what to do or how to be ... read the “Afterword."  It is an excellent summary of the implications of the material in this book, and the choices and perspectives you might invite into your life.

I recommend this book if you want to consider another perspective on your own spirituality.

October 2022

Ted Haynes

Fiction 2019 | 236 pages

While dredging Mirror Pond in downtown Bend, a skull is found.  It is a young woman.  Who was she and how did she arrive here?  She has an interesting story, all wrapped up in who her relatives are, the cities of Bend and Prineville, and Rajneeshpuram.

As with the last Haynes' book I read, the Mt. Bachelor Murders, Haynes begins with a good solid mystery, but then confounds the story by adding murder after murder and crime after crime into it.  Again, the story is overly complex and poorly written.

The only reason to read these Haynes books is to enjoy the city of Bend, Bend history and stories, the vividness of the Bend topography.  Otherwise, I do not recommend.

October 2022

TJ Klune | Fiction, 2021

376 pages

I love his characters; I love his magic and whimsy; and how he suspends reality; I love his gayness.

In this TJ Klune, Wallace Price is a mean, unkind attorney who dies suddenly of a heart attack.  Mei, the Reaper, comes to Wallace's funeral to collect him.  The only other people at his funeral are the partners in his law firm and his ex-wife.  A sad showing!  Wallace crosses over into a holding place ... a tea shop ... in which he transforms himself from an angry being into a kind one and prepares for the final crossing into whatever is next.

So, yes, there is un-realism and magic (some of the characters, including the endearing dog Apollo, are ghosts, and some are still-alive human beings.)  We witness Wallace's transformation, and, though the novel is a touch saccharin and maybe a little too long, still it is playful and engaging.  It will inspire you to a range of emotions and thoughts about death, kindness, transformation, relationships.  Klune interjects humor into this topic, which could be maudlin.  Here is a place I laughed aloud.  Wallace, in his ghost form, is moving the planchette on a Ouija board for a cruel and obnoxious visitor to the tea shop. It is quite difficult for a ghost to learn to move items!

""What are you, ten?' Nelson asked, though he seemed to be fighting a smile. 'You need to be scarier.  Tell her you're Satan, and you're going to eat her liver.'

'This is Satan,' the Thin Man says as the planchette moved.  'I am going to eat your diver.'

'Liver!' Nelson said.  'Liver.'

'I'm trying,' Wallace said through gritted teeth.  'It's slippery!'" (Pg 170)

Oddly, it strikes me that this novel would make for an excellent play. Except for one very brief moment when Wallace wants to escape death and runs off into town, the entire novel takes place in one house where Mei, Nelson, Hugo, and Apollo live.  It would require one single stage set ... all the great action that occurs, occurs right there in the house and tea shop.

Though this book doesn't quite live up to its successor, The House in the Cerulean Sea, it is still a delightful read.  I am going to pick up another TJ Klune and explore this interesting author further. Yes, I recommend Under the Whispering Door.

October 2022