My reading runs the gamut as evidenced by this past weekend’s book selection. Despite the Friday into Saturday snowstorm and resulting 3 hours of non-stop shoveling of heavy wet snow while it was still raining and all neighbors around me having issues with their snowblowers on Saturday (thank God for Aleve!), I managed to complete 4 books and start #5.
First, I finished my already started “from the fringe” book about UFOs. I can’t say that I am a believer, but I’m not really an all-out skeptic either. Something is going on but what exactly it is is not something I can even begin to explain. It’s fun to read about though and to look at the pictures. This book had plenty of sightings to peruse, but overall, it was pretty dry reading as the authors were trying to be scientific and all. I understand, it’s a fringey topic and loading on the science will hopefully reduce that aspect, but I prefer a more gossipy, sensational, Fate magazine approach with science sprinkled in but not as the main course. Maybe that makes me shallow and superficial, but I don’t understand physics and math and never will.
Next up was short story mysteries by all women authors. Nothing too modern here, all old school. Just the way I like it. The only thing, the print was HUGE, so that meant the book was finished quickly despite how thick the book was. And I skipped the stories I’ve already read in other anthologies, about 5 of them. That’s one of the problems with the mystery anthologies. They typically have about half to a third of the same stories you’ve already read. Unless you stick to just a few editors (like Hitchcock and Ellery Queen), your chances of re-reading a story are pretty good.
Then I cleared my book palate with a nice piece of Hollywood fluff from Anita Loos, the woman who wrote “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “But They Marry Brunettes”. This was supposed to be a biography on Norma and Constance Talmadge, but seemed to be more of a hodge-podge of their lives. It was a funny but disjointed read. Anita does have a very humorous turn of phrase and the quotes from the Talmadge sisters’ mother made me laugh out loud a few times. You don’t come across characters like that very often anymore.
And last is the best of the bunch. I loved reading this book. I forgot I was reading and just floated along with her prose like a leaf in a brook. I was a bit hesitant as the flap doesn’t do justice to the story. The reason I bought the book was because I did some dipping (test reading of several paragraphs) in the store, liked the writing, the book was on sale, and so I took a chance on it. I’m glad I did. Suffice to say, if you are at all interested in Japanese culture (1800’s to early 1900), smooth yet descriptive writing, and like a strong female lead character who’s thought by others to be simple but is actually very complex, you’ll like this story. Briefly – it’s about a girl from New York with a bent for learning languages who ends up in Japan through circumstances beyond her control and her life takes a 180 as a result of a fire. She becomes part of a Japanese family’s household who is renowned for teaching the Tea-ceremony (“way of Tea”) to noblemens’ and merchants’ sons (no female is allowed to teach the ceremony) and entertaining members of the Emperor’s family. Changes in women’s roles in Japan as a result of the influx of barbarians and the impact on both the lead character (who knows she is a foreigner and is trying to make her way in the Japanese world) and her “older sister” (who is Japanese) are covered in the story. I can’t go in much more detail or I’d end up giving away the many plot twists and my favorite “figurative metaphorical bitchslap” that the lead character indulges in near the end. I very much recommend it. I finished it in one sitting, that's how much I liked it!
First, I finished my already started “from the fringe” book about UFOs. I can’t say that I am a believer, but I’m not really an all-out skeptic either. Something is going on but what exactly it is is not something I can even begin to explain. It’s fun to read about though and to look at the pictures. This book had plenty of sightings to peruse, but overall, it was pretty dry reading as the authors were trying to be scientific and all. I understand, it’s a fringey topic and loading on the science will hopefully reduce that aspect, but I prefer a more gossipy, sensational, Fate magazine approach with science sprinkled in but not as the main course. Maybe that makes me shallow and superficial, but I don’t understand physics and math and never will.
Next up was short story mysteries by all women authors. Nothing too modern here, all old school. Just the way I like it. The only thing, the print was HUGE, so that meant the book was finished quickly despite how thick the book was. And I skipped the stories I’ve already read in other anthologies, about 5 of them. That’s one of the problems with the mystery anthologies. They typically have about half to a third of the same stories you’ve already read. Unless you stick to just a few editors (like Hitchcock and Ellery Queen), your chances of re-reading a story are pretty good.
Then I cleared my book palate with a nice piece of Hollywood fluff from Anita Loos, the woman who wrote “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “But They Marry Brunettes”. This was supposed to be a biography on Norma and Constance Talmadge, but seemed to be more of a hodge-podge of their lives. It was a funny but disjointed read. Anita does have a very humorous turn of phrase and the quotes from the Talmadge sisters’ mother made me laugh out loud a few times. You don’t come across characters like that very often anymore.
And last is the best of the bunch. I loved reading this book. I forgot I was reading and just floated along with her prose like a leaf in a brook. I was a bit hesitant as the flap doesn’t do justice to the story. The reason I bought the book was because I did some dipping (test reading of several paragraphs) in the store, liked the writing, the book was on sale, and so I took a chance on it. I’m glad I did. Suffice to say, if you are at all interested in Japanese culture (1800’s to early 1900), smooth yet descriptive writing, and like a strong female lead character who’s thought by others to be simple but is actually very complex, you’ll like this story. Briefly – it’s about a girl from New York with a bent for learning languages who ends up in Japan through circumstances beyond her control and her life takes a 180 as a result of a fire. She becomes part of a Japanese family’s household who is renowned for teaching the Tea-ceremony (“way of Tea”) to noblemens’ and merchants’ sons (no female is allowed to teach the ceremony) and entertaining members of the Emperor’s family. Changes in women’s roles in Japan as a result of the influx of barbarians and the impact on both the lead character (who knows she is a foreigner and is trying to make her way in the Japanese world) and her “older sister” (who is Japanese) are covered in the story. I can’t go in much more detail or I’d end up giving away the many plot twists and my favorite “figurative metaphorical bitchslap” that the lead character indulges in near the end. I very much recommend it. I finished it in one sitting, that's how much I liked it!
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