#31
Title: Olive Kitteridge
Author: Elizabeth Strout
Genre: Fiction - short stories
Challenges: 100+, Read and Review, Pages Read, Book-a-Week, Read Your Own book, 100 Shots of Short Reading, Book Awards
Rating: B+
Published: 2008
Dates read: 5/5/09 - 5/30/09

From the back cover - “At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.

“As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life -- sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition -- its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.”

This book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction this year (2009) and is a compilation of short stories about the life and Olive Kitteridge and what impact she has on and impression she leaves with other people in her town. I could identify with her son and the manipulative way she treated him in the story, Security. In reading this I completed the Book Awards challenge.

#30
Title: The Little Friend
Author: Donna Tartt
Genre: Novel
Challenges: 100+, Audiobook, Read and Review, Support Your Local Library, Pages Read, Seconds
Rating: B +
CTs/No. of Hours: 18/27
Published: 2002
Dates read: 4/9/09 - 5/29/09
Read by: Karen White

From the back cover - “From the author of The Secret History, comes a dark, suspenseful novel of lost childhood. Harriet Dusfresnes is a child in Mississippi, haunted by the murder of her brother when she was just a baby. He was found hanging from a tree in their backyard; his killer was never identified, nor did the family ever recover. Only Harriet’s teenage sister might have seen what happened that day, and she has blocked it out from her memory. Harriet grows up immured by the family’s lasting grief, living mostly in a world of her own imagination. But her dead brother Robin is a link to lost happier times. Therefore, in the summer of her twelfth year, she decides to find his murderer and exact her revenge ….”

I love Tartt’s books. She is a wonderful storyteller, full of descriptive passages and characters. Would love to hear more from this author whose book, according to Entertainment Weekly is ’an elegant, edifying work of art.’

#XII
Title: Songs of Solomon
Book: The Daily Bible in Chronological Order 365 Daily Readings, New International Version (NIV) with devotional insights to Guide You through God’s Word.
Commentary: F. LaGard Smith.
Genre: Religion
Challenges: 100+, Read & Review, Operation Actually Read the Bible
Rating: A
Dates read: 5/26/09 - 5/26/09
No. of pages - 4

In this 20th book of the old testament Bible, we find a book also known as The Song of Songs. Again, Smith says “In addition to the proverbs which he authored and inspired, Solomon also wrote the lyrics of over a thousand songs. As a psalmist Solomon may have been surpassed only by his father, David. Yet, unlike the many recorded psalms of David, only two, or perhaps three, of Solomon’s psalms are preserved. One of these (Psalm 72) refers to a visit by the Queen of Sheba and has already been presented in an earlier section. The second song attributed to Solomon (Psalm 127) does not easily fit into any single historical context and is therefore presented here as a further example of Solomon’s lyrical work.

“Another special collection of lyrics which may also be Solomon’s work is included at this time …. The title “Song of Songs” would suggest acceptance of the song as the most beautiful of all the songs or psalms. Unlike most of the preceding literature, the “Song of Songs” deals more with love than with wisdom, prayer, or praise.

“Because the speakers are not easily identifiable, it is difficult to make the writing unfold as any king of drama. Furthermore, since the various parts of the song focus upon the speaker’s innermost thoughts and passions rather than portraying what is actually happening to the people involved, it is not even a love story in the usual sense.

“The song reflects the feelings of a lover and his beloved -- that is, a bridegroom and his bride. Despite language which is unusually graphic and sensual in description, there is no hint of improper lust. And while the song dispels notions of celibacy and asceticism as an ideal, it does not presume sexual relations outside a marriage relationship.

“On its face, the Song of Songs is a beautiful and striking statement about human love. It suggests that all life, including human sexuality, is holy because God has created it. There is in the song a celebration of life simply for its own beauty and experience.

“Although the writing itself makes no reference to history, purpose, religion, sin, salvation, or even God himself, many have seen in its celebration an allegory representing the love relationship between God and man. For many Jews it presents god as the lover and the nation of Israel as the beloved. With the coming of the Messiah, it will be seen by many as an allegory of Christ and his church. Whatever else its purpose may serve, the Song of Songs expressed unrestricted joy in a relationship of love.”

#XI
Title: Proverbs
Book: The Daily Bible in Chronological Order 365 Daily Readings, New International Version (NIV) with devotional insights to Guide You through God’s Word.
Commentary: F. LaGard Smith.
Genre: Religion
Challenges: 100+, Read & Review, Operation Actually Read the Bible
Rating: B+
Dates read: 5/16/09 - 5/25/09
No. of pages - 20

In this 20th book of the old testament Bible, we find the sayings of Solomon and others. According to Smith, “(a)s the historical record has indicated, Solomon the wise king is the author of literally thousands of proverbs. The proverbs are short poems, usually in the form of couplets, which set high ethical standards and give practical advice for daily living through the use of comparative, or perhaps antithetical, imagery. For example:
A word aptly spoken
Is like apples of gold in settings of silver.
Or;
The kisses of an enemy may be profuse,
But faithful are the wounds of a friend.

Such poetic verses place high value on wisdom and sharply contrast good and evil, righteousness and wickedness, justice and injustice. Both in style and content the proverbs are somewhat typical of the wisdom literature prevalent during this time, not only in Israel but in other countries as well, including Mesopotamia and Egypt. Of particular similarity is the Egyptian ‘Teachings of Amen-em-opet.’ It is not known which culture influenced the other, if indeed there is any connection at all. However, the Hebrew proverbs are distinct in that all wisdom is seen as flowing from the true God, rather than being a mere accumulation of human observation and experience.

Many of the proverbs and other wise sayings recorded in Scripture may have been written either earlier or even later than Solomon’s time --- including several by Agur and Lemuel, whose further identities, are not revealed. Putting aside questions of specific authorship, and simply recognizing that a substantial number of the sayings are written by Solomon, the entire collection is presented at this point.

The various proverbs and wise sayings, which number more than 600, fall amid several discourses and narratives on wisdom. To facilitate understanding, the proverbs and wise sayings are presented here under appropriate topic headings. (Many of the proverbs could easily be placed under more than one topic, and therefore the topics themselves are necessarily arbitrary.) By seeing the individual proverbs in the context of others dealing with the same subject, one can gain a richer appreciation for ‘the wisdom which comes from above.’”

#29
Title: Passing On
Author: Penelope Lively
Genre: Novel
Challenges: 100+, Audiobook, Read and Review, Support Your Local Library, Pages Read, Seconds
Rating: B +
CDs/No. of Hours: 4/6
Published: 1989
Dates read: 5/22/09 - 5/27/09
Read by: Sheila Mitchell

From the back cover - “Helen and Edward Glover, middle-aged brother and sister, both unmarried navigate the difficult weeks and months following the death of their domineering and manipulative mother. They have lost touch with the England of the 1980s, and their upbringing has made it hard for them to survive. Helen is confronted with a crisis of emotion she cannot resolve; Edward is deliberately blind to an important part of his nature.

“Passing On is a subtle and challenging story about what parents do to children and about inheritance.”

Might I add to this last sentence “even from beyond the grave.” I see my own family in this story -- somewhat dysfunctional but healing and moving on.

#X
Title: 2 Samuel
Book: The Daily Bible in Chronological Order 365 Daily Readings, New International Version (NIV) with devotional insights to Guide You through God’s Word.
Commentary: F. LaGard Smith.
Genre: Religion
Challenges: 100+, Read & Review, Operation Actually Read the Bible
Rating: B+
Dates read: 4/5/09 - 5/12/09
No. of pages - 17

In this 10th book of the old testament Bible, we find David becoming King. Smith tells us that “David must surely have mixed emotions as he considers the future. He is obviously relieved to be free of Saul’s constant threats, but the mantle of responsibility is now his.

“The most significant move which David will make as king of Israel is the capture and occupation of Jerusalem, known even until this day as the City of David. To that city he will also return the sacred ark of God and make initial plans for the building of a permanent temple. For all his efforts, David is assured by God that he and his family will be blessed.

“The account of these initial years begins with David seeking God’s guidance -- one of the many traits which makes David such a special leader for God’s people.

“Although David’s position as king is secure in God’s sight, David will have to fight for his kingdom in order to make it secure in the eyes of men. … Yet in the midst of defending his kingdom and spreading its borders offensively, David falls victim to his own lust and becomes both an adulterer and a murderer. (Here again may be a warning that God’s people must be on guard against both external and internal enemies.) David’s subsequent repentance and upright attitude show why, despite such serious offenses, he will later be called a man after God’s own heart.

“ Perhaps nothing is sadder for a righteous father than to be burdened with a rebellious son -- a son who so envies his father’s power that he is willing to oppose him openly and to disgrace him in every possible way. David has been blessed abundantly, but not with the loyalty of his son Absalom. The account of Absalom’s rebellion provides an insight into the political intrigue of David’s time and a further insight into the heart of this extraordinary king.

“As the historical record of this period begins, there is the record of the birth of David’s son Solomon. Solomon will prove to be an altogether different character from that of his brother, and will one day succeed his father on the throne.

“Two major calamities strike Israel during David’s reign, though it is not clear exactly when either occurs. The first calamity -- a famine -- befalls Israel as a consequence of the late King Saul’s attempt to exterminate the Gibeonites -- a violation of the agreement of protection made years earlier by Joshua and the nation of Israel.

“The second calamity is a death-causing pestilence brought on by David’s decision (somehow incited by Satan) to number is army. The wrong in this act does not readily appear … (but) God forgives David …”

“… David now makes preparation for the building of a permanent temple. The site he chooses, a simple threshing floor, is not a surprising one in view of his most recent experience. It must grieve David to realize that he himself will not erect this magnificent edifice of worship. Yet he cannot help but play some part in its inception, and thus he beings to organize the project. He then gives his son Solomon the responsibility for completing the work and enlists the aid of his princes in the construction of this national symbol of commitment to God.”

#28
Title: Alentejo Blue
Author: Monica Ali
Genre: Novel
Challenges: 100+, Audiobook, Read and Review, Support Your Local Library, Pages Read, New Author, Around the World, London 2012 Olympics,
Rating: B
CTs/No. of Hours: 7/7.5
Published: 2006
Dates read: 5/11/09 - 5/22/09
Read by: Anna Fields

From the back cover - “Monica Ali’s stunning second book is a collection of stories set in the Alentejo province of Portugal, linked by characters and by a vivid sense of place and time.

Teresa is a beautiful young girl from the village who is supposed to marry a suitable man from the same community but who wants to see the world. Vasco is a café owner who is losing business to the new internet café down the road. The unseemly, dysfunctional, but strangely riveting Potts are a family of ex-patriots, trying to cobble a life together, at odds with one another until they run into trouble on the outside. We also meet several English tourists; a young couple engaged to be married and confronting each others’ weaknesses and idiosyncrasies for the first time and an older woman imagining a new life, fantasizing about never return home.”

Not much plot but descriptions of characters, their personalities and the setting are very beautiful.

#27
Title: The Fear Place
Author: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Genre: Childrens
Challenges: 100+, Audiobook, Read and Review, Seconds, Support Your Local Library, Pages Read
Rating: B
CTs/No. of Hours: 3/4.5
Published: 1994
Dates read: 5/10/09 - 5/11/09
Read by: Ed Sala

From the back cover - “When the boys’ parents are called away by a family emergency, Doug and his older brother Gordon are left on their own in their Rocky Mountain campsite. The brothers are fighting, though, so it isn’t long before Gordon stomps away from the campsite, leaving Doug completely along.

“When neither Gordon nor his parents return after three days, twelve-year-old Doug fears the worst. He knows Gordon has gone to a high ridge in the Camanche Peak Wilderness -- the Fear Place. Will Doug and a newfound friend -- a cougar -- find his brother, or will Doug’s terror of heights prevent a rescue?

“Newbery-Medal-winning Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is the author of more than eighty children’s books. She drew on her own fear of heights to write The Fear Place, which is destined to become a children’s adventure classic. The combination of her award-winning, realistic writing style and Ed Sala’s well-paced narration is irresistible.”

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Naylor’s tale set in Colorado and Doug’s courage as he faces both the elements and his nemesis.

#26
Title: White Fang
Author: Jack London
Genre: Classic
Challenges: 100+, Audiobook, Read and Review, Seconds, Support Your Local Library, Books to Movies, Pages Read
Rating: A+
CTs/No. of Hours: 7/9.5
Published: 1906
Dates read: 5/3/09 - 5/10/09
Read by: Norman Dietz

From the back cover - “Born of One-Eye and the she-wolf the Indians called Kiche (Key-Chay), White Fang is the only gray cub among a litter of red-coated pups. Under Kiche’s firm guidance, White Fang learns the immutable laws of the world -- the law of the meat, the law of the predator, the law of survival. But nothing in White Fang’s upbringing prepares him for his greatest and least predictable adversary -- man.

“Captured by the Indian Gray Beaver, and separated from his mother, White Fang knows little affection, only the cuffs and curses of his new master. Isolated and proud, he must fight other camp dogs in order to survive.

“But White Fang’s life with the Indians is pleasant compared to what will happen to him at Fort Yukon, when the cowardly Beauty Smith buys him from Gray Beaver and trains him to hate, to fight for his life week after week by attacking and destroying other dogs in the pen.

“After months with Beauty, White Fang’s nobler qualities are as remote and distant as the memory of his mother. His confrontation with the mad god-man -- has all but ruined him. Soon he will be little more than a vicious and useless renegade, loved of no one, doomed to die a brutal death in the ring. “

Then one day two trappers arrive at the Fort and White Fang’s days are forever changed. He learns a new life, moves to a new place and becomes a new animal. The metamorphosis he goes through is phenomenal and one you don’t want to miss. I thoroughly loved this story and want to see the movie which I’m sure will be altered a bit from this classic London story.

#25
Title: The Eagle in the Egg
Author: Oliver LaFarge
Pages: 309
Genre: War - Non-fiction
Published: 1949
Challenges: 100+, Read and Review, A-Z, Pages Read, Read Your own Book, Book-a-Week
Rating: B
Dates read: 2/26/09 - 5/4/09
From the inside flap - “In nothing were we weaker when war was declared than air transportation. Although our airlines had been continually expanding, there was little co-ordination between them and the Air Force. Equipment, though well adapted to the needs of commercial aviation, was not suitable for military flying and was dangerously scarce. The only organization even resembling an Air Transport Command was the British “Ferry” System, and it was operated on a small and specialized scale.
One of the miracles of the war was the dramatic growth, from this most unpromising egg, of the mightiest system of airways ever achieved. By 1945 the ATC flew routes all over the world. It was able to move tons of supplies over the 20,000 foot passes of the Himalayas, to fly into Japan the entire invading force, and to carry hundreds of thousands of tons of cargo across the oceans of the world. It controlled bases in Arctic wastes and in tropical jungles and bound the earth more closely together than had ever been possible before. The problems of organization for such an empire were fantastic and impossibly complicated, and they were surmounted only by the boldness and imagination of the men in command. Their work has changed the whole pattern of world aviation.
The history of military transport flying is important for Americans because it is also the history of our commercial air fleet. When Pearl Harbor came, the Navy was able to follow a well-established procedure in organizing its transport fleet, but the Air Force had to start from scratch, improvising and testing as it went along. And its achievement has not been limited to the war years. The remarkable effort of the Berlin airlift, which was made possible only through techniques developed during the last seven years, has proved the present worth of our Transport Command as an implement of National Policy, as well as a potential arm in time of war.”
I bought this book some years ago because I thought it was LaFarge’s autobiography. Then I began reading it and discovered, yes, he is in it but in a bit part. Yet he did live through the war, was very interested in the Air Transport Command and flew with pilots who carried out a variety of specialized duties during WWII. Through his dedication to the subject we have a wonderful account of many aspects of the ATC. LaFarge says he’s barely scratched the surface; however, I found it detail packed and thoroughly enjoyed many of the stories he related.

#24
Title: Sam Spade, P. I.
Author: Dashiell Hammett
Genre: Mystery
Challenges: 100+, Audiobook, Read and Review, Seconds, Support Your Local Library
Rating: A
CTs/No. of Hours: 6/6
Published: 1950
Dates read: 4/27/09 - 5/1/09
Performed by: Howard Duff, etc.
From the back cover, “Hard boiled private eye Sam Spade (Howard Duff) brought the gritty adventures of San Francisco’s most unusual clients to the radio. The unique creation of writer Dashiell Hammett and producer/director, William Spier, Sam’s weekly exploits brought him just enough money and excitement to keep him in business.”
As a rule, the stories all begin with Sam calling Effie, his office girl and telling her the status of the most recent caper he’s involved with so she can get prepared to take dictation and write up the report. The first ten episodes run 30 minutes, and are brought to you by Wildroot Cream Oil, Charles. The last episode runs 60 minutes and is called The Kandy Tooth and has characters from the Maltese Falcon in it.

#23
Title: The Good Terrorist
Author: Doris Lessing
Genre: Classic
Challenges: 100+, Audiobook, Pages Read, Read and Review, Seconds, Support Your Local Library
Rating: A-
CTs/No. of Hours: 10/15
Published: 1985
Dates read: 4/7/09 - 4/26/09
Read by: Nadia May
From the author of The Grass is Singing comes a contemporary, well-paced story of finding a place in society. Alice is a young woman in London, living with a group of other unemployeds and trying to eke out a living in an abandoned council housing project. She and her friends are bashing Thatcher's government at the same time laboring to make habitable number 43. As each day goes by the original five -- Pat and Burt, Jim, Alice and Jasper are continually scraping to make ends meet while fixing the plumbing, electrical and structural problems of a council house. New people come -- the lesbians Roberta and Fay; the handyman, Philip ... A couple from next door, Carolyn and Jocelyn. Police continually knock on the door in the middle of the night. Where will it all end?
Good story -- with IRA overtones.