Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
Published April 2005 by Simon and Schuster
Source: bought this one

Publisher's Summary:
From Buffalo to Alaska, Washington to the Dry Tortugas, Vowell visits locations immortalized and influenced by the spilling of politically important blood, reporting as she goes with her trademark blend of wisecracking humor, remarkable honesty, and thought-provoking criticism. We learn about the jinx that was Robert Todd Lincoln (present at the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley) and witness the politicking that went into the making of the Lincoln Memorial. The resulting narrative is much more than an entertaining and informative travelogue -- it is the disturbing and fascinating story of how American death has been manipulated by popular culture, including literature, architecture, sculpture, and -- the author's favorite -- historical tourism. Though the themes of loss and violence are explored and we make detours to see how the Republican Party became the Republican Party, there are all kinds of lighter diversions along the way into the lives of the three presidents and their assassins, including mummies, show tunes, mean-spirited totem poles, and a nineteenth-century biblical sex cult.


My Thoughts:
Having heard Sarah Vowell on NPR many times, I no longer need to listen to her books on audiobook; I read her books in her voice in my head. You have to. Really. They are so much funnier when you do. Which is not to say they aren't funny to begin with because they are so much fun and so snarky. Which is a rare thing in a book about history.

Sarah Vowell does not drive. Which means her fans owe her friends and family a debt of gratitude. Here, she's dragged them all over to sites related to Lincoln, James Garfield, and William McKinley and the men who killed them. I'd have been happy just to learn what I learned about Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth and all of the amazing coincidences that intertwined the two families or the way Teddy Roosevelt rose to the presidency because of McKinley's death. But in both of those cases, it was more a matter of filling in what I already knew. With Garfield, though, it was nearly all new to me. It shouldn't surprise anyone, considering the times he lived in, to know that Garfield might well have survived his assassin had doctors not repeatedly thought it was a good idea to stick their dirty fingers into his wound.

No one has ever said that Sarah Vowell's books are boring. Nor has it ever been said of them that they are without bias. Assassination Vacation is no exception. Which was just fine with me; she and I largely agree politically. If, on the other hand, you tend to lean right, you may not enjoy her writing as much. Still, Vowell is more than willing to take shots at all politicians. Except Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln she loves.

Conception And The Baby Brokers by Deborah Clearman

Concepcion And The Baby Brokers by Deborah Clearman
Published Marcy 2017 by Rain Mountain Press
Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher and TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary:
In nine thematically linked stories set largely in Guatemala, Concepción and the Baby Brokers brings to life characters struggling with universal emotions and dilemmas in a place unfamiliar to most Americans. From the close-knit community of Todos Santos to the teeming danger of Guatemala City, to a meat-packing plant in Michigan and the gardens of Washington DC, Deborah Clearman shows us the human cost of international adoption, drug trafficking, and immigration.

A Cup of Tears, the opening novella, reveals a third-world baby farm, seen through the eyes of a desperate wet nurse, a baby broker, and an American adoptive mother. In “The Race” a young man returns to his native village to ride in a disastrous horse race. “English Lessons” tells of a Guatemalan immigrant in Washington DC who learns more than English from a public library volunteer. A teenage girl tries to trap her professor into marriage in “Saints and Sinners.”

With searing humanity, Clearman exposes the consequences of American exceptionalism, and the daily magic and peril that inform and shape ordinary lives.


My Thoughts:
When you're struggling through a reading slump, it's tempting, very tempting, to stick to books that seem like they can't miss. Oh heck, it's often tempting to do that. But TLC is always offering me books that are, as I called them the other day, "take a chance" books. And I'm hard pressed to turn those books away because I know that this blog owes some of what it is to the authors and publishers that were willing to give me books early on. From them I learned that small publishers are just as likely to have wonderful authors and unique and marvelous books as the big guys. In Concepcion And The Baby Brokers and Deborah Clearman, Rain Mountain Press has a wonderful author and a unique and marvelous book.

Guatemala can feel, like all of the countries of Central America except Mexico, a bit like a lost country. I've never read any book set there. Or for that matter, any book about anyone from there, that I can recall. Clearman opens readers eyes to life throughout Guatemala, especially village life - especially the poverty that drives so many to seek a better life in the north.

All of the stories are strong but my favorites were the three that made up the opening novella. In a story where we expect to find "bad" guys, Clearman reminds readers that people have lives we know nothing about and we shouldn't be so quick to judge. And that, sometimes, people do the right thing, even when it's incredibly painful. Clearman's writing it not showy but she does does paint vivid pictures of the land, the clothing, and the food of the countryside. Most importantly, she helps readers understand the people of the region and it's always good to try to understand other cultures.

Thanks to TLC Book Tours for including me on this tour and to my friends for always putting books into my hands that they know will push my buttons. For other opinions, check out the full tour.

About Deborah Clearman 

Deborah Clearman is the author of a novel Todos Santos, from Black Lawrence Press. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous literary journals. She is the former Program Director for NY Writers Coalition, and she teaches creative writing in such nontraditional venues as senior centers, public housing projects, and the jail for women on Rikers Island. She lives in New York City and Guatemala.

Visit www.deborahclearman.com.

Life: It Goes On - May 7

Sunshine and warm temps = a very happy Lisa this week. It meant I got to do lots of productive and fun things. Which also meant I didn't get a whole lot of reading done this week which is disappointing because I have some really good books going right now.

By the end of today, we'll have all of our planting done. I spent most of my half day at nurseries and planting. With the wedding coming up, I wanted lots of color in my yard so I planted about a half dozen more pots than I usually do. The first thing I planted was a pot to go into the planter that Miss S's mom gave us last year when she visited; it ties that happy weekend celebrating the engagement with the upcoming nuptials.


This Week I'm:

Listening To: I'll be finishing The Newlyweds in the next couple of days. The wife in this book is from Bangladesh and I'm learning a lot about that country, which I'm enjoying quite a lot. Next up is Cynthia Bond's Ruby. Andi, of Estella's Revenge, convinced me to read this one after she wrote this review.  It could definitely make for some emotional drives home from work.

Watching: The Voice (some really impressive talent this season), we finished the most recent season of Longmire (wow-cliffhangers abound!), and I started watching Grace and Frankie. I'm sure hoping that The Big Guy will spend plenty of time away from the house so I can watch more of that. It is so well done - funny and touching.

Reading: Miss Burma, which is so good and, like The Newlyweds, I'm learning so much about another country. Speaking of reading, while I was downtown yesterday for the season's first Farmer's Market, I got some time to prowl through my favorite used book store. Although, it does make me a little claustrophobic - it's a bit like a hoarder opened a book store.

Making: Chicken alfredo dip for food days at work, a new recipe for black bean and corn salad, and blonde brownies with M & M's (the recipe made a 9x13 pan - I'd say they were a hit because just six people polished off the entire pan!).

Planning: This week has a fairly empty calendar. Although, last Sunday the calendar looked pretty clear and I ended up out and about quite a lot. Anyhoose, the plan is for the week to be spent working on the house, doing those things that I've wanted to get done but just haven't gotten around to. Like taking down valances in the dining room and picking up new sheets for one of the guest room beds.

Thinking About: You know me by now so you'll already know that I'm thinking about logistics. What still needs to be done, making lists so nothing falls through the cracks, wondering how we're going to make it all happen smoothly. Miss H admitted the other night that she's looking forward to getting out of town the week after the wedding in no small part because she'll need a break from the crazy person (that would be me) she's had to live with in the days leading up to the wedding.

Enjoying: Spur of the moment got to go watch our great-niece at her track meet and wish her a happy birthday, Star Wars night at the baseball park with friends, and dinner on my sister's patio with her brother-in-law and his wife. It was a good week!

Feeling: Like I should be doing something more productive. But I was a busy girl yesterday and I'm feeling a little slow today.

Looking forward to: Right at this moment, I'm just trying to live in the present.

Question of the week: If you garden, what's the one thing you absolutely must plant every year?

Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout

Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
Published April 2017 by Random House Publishing
Source: my copy courtesy through the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary:
Anything Is Possible explores the whole range of human emotion through the intimate dramas of people struggling to understand themselves and others.

Here are two sisters: One trades self-respect for a wealthy husband while the other finds in the pages of a book a kindred spirit who changes her life. The janitor at the local school has his faith tested in an encounter with an isolated man he has come to help; a grown daughter longs for mother love even as she comes to accept her mother’s happiness in a foreign country; and the adult Lucy Barton (the heroine of My Name Is Lucy Barton, the author’s celebrated New York Times bestseller) returns to visit her siblings after seventeen years of absence.

My Thoughts:
So it's a book by Elizabeth Strout. I'm reading it and I don't even need to read a summary to know that. Which means I went into this book with absolutely no clue what it was. Which is often a good thing. In this case, it was a bit of a jolt when I started reading and, all of a sudden Lucy Barton was in the story. And by a bit of a jolt, I mean I wasn't sure at all that I liked it. I wondered if Strout had decided to take an easy out and just use some leftover material.

But, wait. What if Lucy's hometown of Amgash has stayed with her and she wanted to visit the people in that town more closely? Or, is she just brilliant and planned it all along? I don't know. I just know that it didn't take me very long to get over my initial hesitation.

There is nothing flashy about Strout's writing. There are no gripping plots nor literary gymnasts (ala Michael Chabon). Instead, not a word is wasted in these quiet stories of people in pain, people hiding secrets.

Charlie McCauley, for example, who has fallen out of love with his wife:

"The very stuff that would make him roll his eyes now - her utter foolishness, the useless, nauseating softness that lay at the center of her - had thrilled him quietly that day with a rush of love and protectiveness as the autumn smell of earth filled him, kneeling there with the trowel."

Despite her economy of words, Strout still paints vivid pictures.

"Panic, like a large minnow darting upstream, moved back and forth inside him. He was suddenly as homesick as a child sent to stay with relatives: when the furniture seemed large and dark and strange, and the smell peculiar, each detail assaultive with a differentness that was almost unbearable. I want to go home, he thought."

This is how you write damaged characters. And this is how you treat them with compassion,  without glossing over their flaws. Every person has a story. Elizabeth Strout is brilliant in the way she tells those stories.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante and Mama Shepp's Family Recommends

December 21, 2013 - why, yes, that's when Rhody aunt wrote recommending author Elena Ferrante. She had just finished My Brilliant Friend, which she "adored" and recommended to our family's female readers. She was off to check out the rest of the books in the series as well as Ferrante's previous books, including Days of Abandonment. I made a note of the recommendation because she recommended it and because it definitely sounded like a book I'd enjoy. And then I forgot about it, so much so that even when it seemed like every blogger was talking about the Neapolitan novels, I didn't recall the recommendation at all. Until, thanks to 40 Bags In 40 Days, I was cleaning out my email account and found the recommendation and decided it was time to read Ferrante.

My Brilliant Friend (Neopolitan Novels #1) by Elena Ferrante
Published September 2012 by Europa
Source: bought it for book club

Publisher's Summary:
Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Ferrante’s four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its protagonists, the fiery and unforgettable Lila, and the bookish narrator, Elena, become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflictual friendship. Book one in the series follows Lila and Elena from their first fateful meeting as ten-year-olds through their school years and adolescence.

Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her protagonists.

My Thoughts:
Okay, let me just say up front that some people may tell you that this book could be read as a stand alone book. Don't listen to them. Yes, there is something of an ending to this book. But it's also clear that it's merely the end of a chapter in the lives of Lenu and Lila and that things are going to get very interesting in the next novel.

Also, this book series has possibly got the worst covers. They are one of the reasons I didn't pick up these books sooner. Because, it turns out, I do judge books by their covers, no matter how many people recommend the book, apparently.

As it turns out, I should have listened to my aunt three years ago.

I liked this book. A lot. Ferrante makes the neighborhood come alive - the relationships between its denizens, the violence of their lives - but she also makes readers feel the insularity of the neighborhood. It's easy to forget the characters live in Naples and not a small village.

"I feel no nostalgia for our childhood: it was full of violence. Every sort of thing happened, at home and outside, every day, but I don't recall having ever thought that the life we had there was particularly bad. Life was like that, that's all, we grew up with the duty to make it difficult for others before they made it difficult for us...The women fought among themselves more than the men, they pulled each other's hair, they hurt each other. To cause pain was a disease."

I loved the relationship between Elena and Lila. Elena, who's telling us her story, struggles with her relationship with Lila. There is so much about Lila that Elena admires but often to the point that she becomes jealous of it. It's sometimes hard to tell if the girls are even still friends.

"I felt grieved at the waste, because I was compelled to go away, because she preferred the adventure of the shoes to our conversation, because she knew how to be autonomous whereas I needed her, because she had her things that I couldn't be a part of...because, in short, she would feel that I was less and less necessary."

We know from the beginning, as Elena looks back on their relationship, that it will remain rocky. Yet, the two seem to have a bond that cannot be broken. I can't wait to read the next book to see what life has in two for these girls and how their relationship will continue to influence their lives.