Archive by Author | Sherry

Mr. Emerson’s Wife by Amy Belding Brown

Jul29

A few months ago, I first read Best Intentions by Emily Listfield about the disintegration of trust in a marriage and the slippery slope to infidelity. Then I read The Other Side of the Lake by Mary Lawson about adultery and sibling rivalry. To complete the unplanned trilogy, I read Mr. Emerson’s Wife, in which said wife, Lidian Jackson Emerson, is torn between her duty to her husband, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and her love for young Henry David Thoreau. As insightful and psychologically truthful as all three books were, I was ready for something different by the time I finished the third book. Enough adultery, how about some murder, mayhem or injustice? (Just kidding!)

Mr. Emerson’s Wife is the fictionalized history of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s second wife, Lidian. I don’t know how much of the story is true, but I assume the basic timeline of events is factual. For instance, Thoreau actually did live with the Emersons for over two years, including during nine months that RWE was away on an extended tour of Europe. Another friend, Margaret Fuller, also lived with/visited the Emersons for extended periods of time and may or may not have become romantically involved with Mr. Emerson. The Emerson household was unusual to say the least.

Both Emerson and Thoreau are presented in the novel as apostate Christians, having rejected the Christian faith in the name of intellectual honesty. Their “honesty” doesn’t seem to have given either of them much comfort or courage in the face of suffering. Then again, as the novel tells it, Lidian’s faith doesn’t really comfort her much either when the Emersons’ oldest son, Wallie, dies of scarlet fever.

Thoreau is an interesting character in this novel. He seems to able to experience the most horrendous events–the death of his beloved brother, the fire that burned down acres of woods near Concord, and adulterous assignation with Lidian—mourn and grieve deeply, and then block those same events from his memory almost as if they had never occurred. Can a person do that?

I already had an image of Emerson as something of a cold fish. The language he uses in his essays is so formal, almost pretentious, or at least it sounds that way to modern ears. Now, after reading Mr. Emerson’s Wife, I’m not sure I’ll be able to read the essays without probing them for references to Emerson’s personal life. I can’t imagine that I would have survived emotionally or spiritually in the rarified atmosphere of nineteenth century Concord and its transcendentalists, no matter how intellectually stimulating the conversation or how high the moral aspirations. From the perspective of this novel at least, the foundation looks a little too sandy.

In Which I Am Born

Jul28

In 1957, the year I was born, Ed Sullivan had Elvis on his show for the third time, showed him only from the waist up, and said: “This is a real decent, fine boy. We’ve never had a pleasanter experience on our show with a big name than we’ve had with you. You’re thoroughly all right.”

Published in 1957:
The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss.
On the Road by Jack Kerouac.
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak.
On the Beach by Nevil Shute.
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
If Death Ever Slept by Rex Stout.
Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot

Movies released in 1957:
Loving You with Elvis Presley.
Jailhouse Rock with Elvis Presley.
The Bridge on the River Kwai with Alec Guinness, which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

On the actual day of my birth an earthquake shook Mexico City and Acapulco. But I doubt if my mom noticed it way out in West Texas.

Also born on July 28th (not 1957): Beatrix Potter, Gerard Manley Hopkins

Last year I wrote a list of lists and a bit of a meditation on the number 52. 52 is an interesting number with lots of associations. It’s a good number for lists, and I used it this year a few times to confine and order my thoughts in certain areas:

52 Ways to Celebrate Independence Day
52 Things That Fascinate Me
Summer Reading: 52 Picks for the Hols

I have several other lists of 52 in the works. I think I’ll stick with 52 (and 12) for lists; it just feels right.

53 is more solitary. It’s prime. In fact, it’s an Eisenstein prime. Whatever that means. And 53 is a self number. 53 is obviously not a number for links and lists and affiliations and organization. 53 is independent and somewhat isolated. It’s unique.

For this year, I’ll enjoy being 53, somewhat solitary, odd, and eccentric. Perhaps I’ll even be reclusive at times, as much as one can be reclusive in a family of ten people. I enjoy alone and different and distinctive and slightly idiosyncratic. 53 is the number of countries in Africa, so I’ll continue to work on my African reading project. But 53 isn’t the number for much else. It stands alone.

But at the same time, I still get to be 52. I still get to make lists and connections and relationships. Life, like numbers, has a rhythm. Pull back and enjoy your individual times of 53-ness, and then be 52 or 12 or whatever age the Lord has given you to be and fill the year with people and books and written words and encouragement and the messiness and joy of relationships.

That’s how I plan to celebrate this next year of becoming what God has for me.

And I might memorize Isaiah 53, a very 53-ish passage of scripture:

1 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.

8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
And who can speak of his descendants?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was stricken.

9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

11 After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

Books About Teddy

Jul24

Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough.

River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard.

Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris.

Theodore Roosevelt is one of my fascinations. I read McCullough’s Mornings on Horseback back in March, but I never got around to reviewing it. It was a lovely narrative biography of the young Teddy Roosevelt and a good attempt to bring to light some of the influences and experiences in his childhood and youth that made Teddy Roosevelt the man he became. However, the book stops rather abruptly just as young Theodore is on the brink of his national political career. I was primed and eager for more “Teedy” after reading Mornings.

A few Teddy-isms:

“For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly makes all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.”

“There are two things that I want you to make up your minds to: first, that you are going to have a good time as long as you live – I have no use for the sour-faced man – and next, that you are going to do something worthwhile, that you are going to work hard and do the things you set out to do.”

“Don’t hit at all if you can help it; don’t hit a man if you can possibly avoid it; but if you do hit him, put him to sleep.”

“A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.”

“In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”

“I can be President of the United States, or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both.” Teddy’s response to a request to better control the behavior of his eldest daughter, Alice Roosevelt.

“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”

“I don’t think any President ever enjoyed himself more than I did. Moreover, I don’t think any ex-President ever enjoyed himself more.”

“If I’m to go, it’s all right. You see that the others don’t stop for me . . . I’ve the shortest span of life ahead of any in the party. If anyone is to die here, I must be the one.”

That last statement was made to a member of Roosevelt’s expedition through the Amazon when Roosevelt was so seriously ill with fever and infection that he was not expected to survive to complete the journey of exploration. On this expedition Theodore Roosevelt was 55 years old, and until his leg became infected he could keep up with or outlast any man in the group.

Theodore Roosevelt became president at forty-two, when William McKinley was assassinated. Although he wasn’t the youngest man ever elected president (that was Kennedy, age 43), Teddy was the youngest to become president. When TR’s second term was over, he was still only fifty years old, making him the youngest ex-president, too.

T.R., b. 1858, is my favorite of all the presidents. I don’t say he was the best or the wisest or the one I would most agree with politically, but he would definitely be the most interesting dinner guest of all the presidents. He was a talented politician and statesman, but he was also real and straightforward and ingenuous. That’s an amazing combination.

What people said about Teddy Roosevelt:

“Look out for Theodore. He’s not strong, but he’s all grit. He’ll kill himself before he’ll even say he’s tired.” ~A doctor who knew young Teddy Roosevelt.

“Now look–that d— cowboy is President of the United States!” ~Senator Mark Hanna after hearing of McKinley’s assassination.”

“You must always remember that the President (TR) is about six.” ~Cecil Spring RIce

“One subject I do know, and ought to know, is the birds. It has been one of the main studies of a long life He (TR) knew the subject as well as I did, while he knew with the same thoroughness scores of other subjects of which I am entirely ignorant.” ~Naturalist John Burroughs.

“Mr. Roosevelt is the Tom Sawyer of the political world of the twentieth century; always showing off; always hunting for a chance to show off; in his frenzied imagination the Great Republic is a vast Barnum circus with him for a clown and the whole world for audience; he would go to Halifax for half a chance to show off and he would go to hell for a whole one.” ~Mark Twain

“And talk! I never saw a man who talked so much. He would talk all the time he was in swimming, all of the time during meals, traveling in the canoe and at night around the camp fire. He talked endlessly and on all conceivable subjects.” ~Brazilian Colonel Candido Rondon who led with TR an expedition down the previously unexplored River of Doubt in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.

“The truth is, he believes in war and wishes to be a Napoleon and to die on the battle field. He has the spirit of the old berserkers.” ~William Howard Taft.

Teddy Roosevelt “read so rapidly that he had to plan very carefully in order to have enough books to last him through a trip.” ~Roosevelt’s son, Kermit.

“Death had to take him in his sleep, for if he was awake there’d have been a fight.” ~Thomas R. Marshall, Vice-president of the U.S.

“Never before has it been so hard for me to accept the death of any man as it has been for me to accept the death of Theodore Roosevelt. A pall seems to settle upon the very sky. The world is bleaker and colder for his absence from it. We shall not look upon his like again.” ~John Burroughs

I saw River of Doubt at a bookstore in South Dakota, and I had to buy it. After viewing Teddy’s unmistakeable visage on Mount Rushmore and then seeing the Badlands Teddy’s old stomping grounds, I had to read about this Amazonian journey of exploration undertaken after Roosevelt’s disappointing loss in a bid for a third term as president. Teddy Roosevelt was intrepid and courageous to a fault, and he lived for adventure. At the age of 55 a trip down an unexplored South American river in canoes passing through the territory of savage and violent native tribal peoples who had never seen a white man before should have been out of the question. And the fact that the trip almost ended Roosevelt’s life makes it all the more fascinating.

I’m still reading the my third book about Theodore Roosevelt, a biography that begins with TR’s sudden elevation to the presidency. I’m finding it just as interesting and inspiring as the other two were. I’m not tempted to undertake any physical feats of daring and bravery, but I do want to live as passionately as Teddy Roosevelt. Don’t you know that heaven itself is a more lively and passion-filled place because God created Theodore Roosevelt and took him to explore the universe of God’s creation?

What I Read in South Dakota

Jul19

My motto is, “Never go anywhere without a book.” Our trip to South Dakota was no exception to this rule. Although we saw beautiful scenery, experienced the inspiration of Mount Rushmore, and enjoyed a day at the lake with family and friends–and I ate more good food than any one person should—, I still managed to squeeze in some reading time.

They Never Came Back by Caroline B. Cooney. Recommended by Jen Robinson. Typical Cooney. A case of mistaken identity, or is it, turns into a family mystery and crisis, when Cathy/Murielle must confront the truth about her parents and her past. This one is quite similar to The Face on the Milk Carton in some ways. If you’ve read that one and want to read it again, reworked, you’d like They Never Came Back.

The Big Steal by Emyl Jenkins. Recommended by Carrie at Reading to Know. Cute ‘n cosy mystery, not really a murder mystery, but rather centering on antiques and theft and family history. Antique appraiser Sterling Glass is hired to determine the truth about an insurance claim filed by the museum at Wynderly, home of Hoyt and Mazie Wynfield, now deceased millionaires who furnished their manor with all sorts of novelties and antiques, some of which may not have been what they seemed. I enjoyed it enough that I’d like to look up the first in the series, called Stealing With Style. You might like it, especially if you’re interested in both mysteries and antiques.

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter. I really like the Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter. Suffice it to say that my 15 year old daughter read this book, the fourth in the series, and then we had to stop by the bookstore in Sioux Falls to buy books two and three. I already had the first book in the series at home and refused to buy it again. These books are clean and fun and light-hearted and just right for a vacation time read. Semicolon review of I’d Tell You That I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You.

The ones I didn’t finish:

Good Behavior: A Memoir by Nathan L. Henry. I dipped into this one, an ARC that I was sent by the publishers and that is due out in July, 2010. All I can say is this story is supposed to be a “moving story of redemption” about a sixteen year old who’s sent to jail for armed robbery. I’m sure Nate’s story “tells it like it is.” But I looked at the ending (because the middle didn’t look headed toward redemption at all), and it looks as if Nate is trusting in his own will power and desire to make something of his life to keep him out of trouble. I strongly doubt it will work, and even if he does stay out of jail, he has nothing to give his life meaning other than learning and writing. No Holy Spirit. No Jesus. No God. No church. What happens to Nate when he faces death or suffering? How does he choose good over evil, except in a pragmatic attempt to keep himself from going back to jail again? The book is “gritty” and full off-bombs and other crude and profane language, not to mention sex and murder fantasies and actual violence. Not recommended.

Run With the Horseman by Ferrol Sams. Recommended by Laura at Lines in Pleasant Places—in a comment here.I stuck with this one a lot longer because the writing is delightful. But I finally got tired of Porter Osborne Jr.’s fifteen year obsession with sex of all kinds. The book is very Southern, very funny in places, and as I said quite well-written, but there’s an awful lot of speculation in areas I just wasn’t in the mood to visit.

Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love and the Search for Home by Kim Sunee. Recommended by My Friend Amy. Korean American adoptee searches for her identity in France in an illicit relationship with an older man. I felt sorry for Ms. Kim in her lostness, but I lost interest in the search which seemed to be going nowhere interminably, although the recipes were interesting.

100 Movies of Summer: North by Northwest (1959)

Jul14

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writer: Ernest Lehman
Starring: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, and Martin Landau.

Karate Kid says: The movie had a fairly interesting plot, but I didn’t like it that much because it didn’t confuse me. I thought it was predictable.

Betsy-Bee says: The movie wasn’t really scary, but it got my attention when the suspenseful parts came.

Z-baby says: It was about a guy getting mistaken for somebody else. He got drugged and arrested, and they were chasing him.

Mom says: I like North by Northwest because I like Cary Grant. And some of the scenes are unforgettable: Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) running through the corn fields to get away from the crop duster assassin, Thornhill and Eve Kendall climbing around on Mt. Rushmore, the flirting on the train and the meeting in the woods.

Some lovely dialog, too:

Thornhill: In the world of advertising, there’s no such thing as a lie. There’s only expedient exaggeration.

Roger Thornhill: The moment I meet an attractive woman, I have to start pretending I have no desire to make love to her.
Eve Kendall: What makes you think you have to conceal it?
Roger Thornhill: She might find the idea objectionable.
Eve Kendall: Then again, she might not.

Roger Thornhill: What’s wrong with men like me?
Eve Kendall: They don’t believe in marriage.
Roger Thornhill: I’ve been married twice.
Eve Kendall: See what I mean?

Roger Thornhill: I don’t like the games you play, Professor.
The Professor: War is hell, Mr. Thornhill. Even when it’s a cold one.
Roger Thornhill: If you fellows can’t whip the VanDamm’s of this world without asking girls like her to bed down with them and probably never come back, perhaps you should lose a few cold wars.
The Professor: I’m afraid we’re already doing that.

IMDB link for North By Northwest
Screen shot gallery for North by Northwest.
Buy North by Northwest at Amazon.

100 Movies of Summer: Unforgiven (1992)

Jul12

Director: Clint Eastwood
Writer: David Webb Peoples
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, RIchard Harris, Jaimz Woolvett, Frances Fisher

Mom says: When writing about the movie Red River, I said, “Dunson shoots or threatens to shoot a few men in cold blood basically for just getting in his way or challenging his authority, and that part was rather shocking to my youngest (and to me).” Now that I’ve seen Unforgiven, Red River would be a walk in the park.

Unforgiven is a western about cowboys and gunslingers, too. The movie begins with a shocking scene of graphic violence when a cowboy cuts up a prostitute’s face because she says something he doesn’t like. It get worse after that. I lost track of the body count towards the end. The language is crude, profane, and socially unacceptable. None of the characters is really very likable or sympathetic.

But what really bothered me were all the moments when I felt as if I were left hanging. I kept asking over and over again, “What the heck was that?” Why did Clint Eastwood’s character, William Munny, suddenly decide to leave his kids and go kill somebody after eight or nine years of peaceful pig-farming? Why did his friend Ned go with him? What was the significance of Little Bill’s bad carpentry? Comic relief? Or was he living in a shaky house, metaphorically speaking? Why were the prostitutes so vengeful and willing so spend so much money to get revenge? Why were two cowboys held responsible for the knife cutting when only one of them did it? What happened to the journalist fellow? Why was he in the movie at all? Why couldn’t Ned shoot at the critical moment? Why could Will shoot at all of the critical moments? Was the point of the movie that people never really change? If so, why does the Kid seem to learn from his violent act that he’s not really a killer at all?

Maybe the point of the movie was that people are crazy and unfathomable and don’t follow the movie western formulas. Although I easily can believe that, I don’t want to think about the fact that I inhabit a world in which violence and murder are so easy for some, the “unforgiven”, and so shattering and unrepeatable to others (the forgiven?). If the goal of the movie was to make me think and to turn movie conventions on their heads, Unforgiven was successful. I just don’t want to spend much time thinking about what the creators of this movie gave me to ponder–mostly a lot of unanswered questions and raw, violent brokenness and spiritual emptiness.

Key quote:

The Schofield Kid: [after killing a man for the first time] It don’t seem real… how he ain’t gonna never breathe again, ever… how he’s dead. And the other one too. All on account of pulling a trigger.
Will Munny: It’s a hell of a thing, killing a man. Take away all he’s got and all he’s ever gonna have.
The Schofield Kid: Yeah, well, I guess they had it coming.
Will Munny: We all got it coming, kid.

I don’t recommend this movie for children (rated R), and I actually felt uncomfortable with my 13-year old watching it. He lost interest fairly quickly, though. Adults who are interested in the western genre might find the movie has “redeeming qualities.” Not my favorite, but it did make me think.

IMDB link to Unforgiven.
Buy Unforgiven at Amazon.

100 Movies of Summer: Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Jul8

Director: Otto Preminger
Writer: Screenplay adapted by Wendell Mayes from the novel by John D. Voelker
Starring: Jimmy Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Eve Arden, Arthur O’Connell, George C. Scott

Mom says: The actors in this movie were of particular interest:

Jimmy Stewart is always good. The unassuming, but brilliant, country lawyer who outsmarts the big city sophisticates has become a cliche, but my man Stewart does the role with panache and credibility.

Lee Remick plays a beautiful and enigmatic young wanton, Laura Manion, and she has the allure to pull it off. She may be one of the most beautiful actresses I’ve ever seen. She was offered the role after first choice Lana Turner had a disagreement with director Otto Preminger.

Duke Ellington did the musical score for the movie, and he makes a cameo appearance.

George C. Scott plays prosecuting attorney, Claude Dancer. (Isn’t that a great name for a prosecutor? I wonder if it’s from the novel.) I couldn’t place him. I knew I knew him, but in this movie he’s so young. I just didn’t associate him with grizzled old Patton.

Ben Gazzara is, of course, Paul Bryan, the fugitive in Run for Your Life. In Anatomy of a Murder, Gazzara is Lt. Frederick Manion, on trial for shooting the man who raped his lovely young wife. He’s not a sympathetic character.

The movie keeps you guessing to the end. Did he or didn’t he? Was he justified? Was he insane? I thought it was a very cynical movie. Nothing is as it seems. No one can really be trusted. Defendants don’t really get exonerated as they do in Perry Mason, but rather they get off on a technicality or a mistaken doubt on the part of the jury.

Maybe that’s the way the world really is, but I prefer tales of innocence vindicated or guilt revealed and punished. I can see why it’s a good movie. Lee Remick, especially, gave a brilliant performance. The story reminded me of the perennially popular novels of John Grisham, right down to the jaded view of justice and the courtroom drama. But Grisham is more hopeful somehow.

The only hopeful thing about this movie was Jimmy Stewart’s indefatigable and irrepressible attitude. You just can’t keep a good man down.

I read the first chapter of Anatomy of a Murder by (Judge) John D. Voelker here. I might like to read the rest of it someday and compare it to the movie.

Link to Anatomy of a Murder at IMDB.
Buy Anatomy of a Murder at Amazon.

100 Movies of Summer: Adam’s Rib (1949)

Jul6

Director: George Cukor
Writers: Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin
Starring, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy

Brown Bear Daughter says: Good movie. Very feminist, which is not necessarily a bad thing. However, the feminism was sort of undermined in the end when Spencer Tracy fakes tears in order to get Katherine Hepburn back, saying later that he only did what all women do. Ehhh.. I guess I think the wife (the one on trial) was sort of crazy, and I don’t believe that someone of the male sex is actually more likely to be exonerated from such a crime.

Mom says: Not bad, but I think neither the feminists nor the traditional marriage crowd would be completely pleased with this story of husband and wife who are both lawyers litigating against one another in the same court case. She says the woman who shot her adulterous husband should be acquitted because a man who did the same thing to his wife and her lover would be exonerated. He says the law is the law, and people shouldn’t be allowed to go around waving and shooting loaded guns at each other. I’m on his side.

However, when the characters in the film go on to argue about the nature of marriage itself, I’m not so sure I’m with Mr. Tracy/Assistant DA Adam Bonner nor with Ms. Hepburn/Amanda Bonner. He says something to the effect that marriage is not meant to be a competition and implies that defense attorney Bonner isn’t “fighting fair.” She says at the end of the movie that “there’s no difference between the sexes. Men, women, the same.” Nonsense. If it’s legal and the judge allows it, it’s fair in the courtroom. And of course there’s a huge difference between the sexes, thank the Lord.

According to IMDB, the movie screenplay was “inspired by the real-life story of husband-and-wife lawyers William Dwight Whitney and Dorothy Whitney, who represented Raymond Massey and his ex-wife Adrienne Allen in their divorce. After the Massey divorce was over, the Whitneys divorced each other and married the respective Masseys.” Adam’s Rib is comedy, so you can guess that the ending

IMDB link to Adam’s RIb

Road Trip Game

Jul4

The Semicolon family is going on a road trip (someone will be left here to guard the henhouse)! We’ll be traveling for the next two weeks, and I may or may not have internet access. Don’t worry: I’ve left you some good stuff to read while I’m gone, just in case.

Anyway, I thought of a game to play with the blog along the way. I’m going to take a lot of my blog business cards and scatter them all along the way. I plan to leave one in every motel, fast food joint, tourist trap, roadside attraction, and gas station from here to, well, almost but not quite to Canada. If you come to visit Semicolon because you found one of my cards, please leave a note in the comments. Tell where you found the card and if you’d like to share, tell us your favorite book.

The rest of you, regulars and googlers, are welcome to leave a comment, too, while I’m gone. Tell us where you’re going on vacation this year. Or tell us where you’d like to go if you could. Are you taking a road trip? Do you enjoy driving? What do you do to entertain yourself and the kids, if you have them, on the road?

And most important of all, what books will you be taking on vacation with you? I already have a bagful packed and ready to go.

Sunday Salon: Books Read in June, 2010

Jul4

Adult Fiction:
The Laws of Harmony by Judith Hendricks.

Very Good, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse.

So Much For That by Lionel Shriver. Ms. Shriver rants about health care, and tells a pretty good story. Semicolon review here.

Mandala by Pearl S. Buck. Set in India, not China.

Children’s and YA Fiction:
Dolphin Song by Lauren St. John. Semicolon review here.

Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce. Semicolon review here.

The GIrl Who Saw Lions by Berlie Doherty.

Escaping the Tiger by Laura Manivong. Laotian refugees escape to Thailand, then to America. Semicolon review here.

Exposure by Mal Peet. Soccer and celebrity in South America. Semicolon review here.

Claim to Fame by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Would you like to be able to hear anything anyone said about you, anywhere in the world? Semicolon review here.

For the Win by Cory Doctorow. Computer games and organized labor? Semicolon review here.

The Long Way Home by Andrew Klavan. Sequel to The Last Thing I Remember. Semicolon review here.

Countdown by Deborah Wiles. Where were you in 1962? Semicolon review here.

Ice by Sarah Beth Durst.

Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George.

Beautiful by Cindy Martinuson-Coloma. Finalist for the 2010 Christy Award for Young Adult Fiction. Semicolon review here.

Nonfiction:
Get Me Out of Here by Rachel Reiland. Memoir of a woman diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. Too Freudian for me, but it seemed to work for the author.

Disrupting Grace: A Story of Relinquishment and Healing by Kristin RIchburg. Another memoir, this time about a failed adoption. The adoptee in the story seemed, in my amateur judgement, to have a juvenile version of BPD, but in children it’s called “attachment disorder.” Semicolon review here.

Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream by Adam Shepard. Semicolon review here.