Sunday Salon: What I’m Reading, Watching, Enjoying

Oct22

The Sunday Salon.com

Can a thriller be literary? by Adam LeBor from the London Financial Times.

“So what exactly is a thriller, and how does the genre differ from ordinary novels? The key word is conflict. The protagonist will confront a series of threats before the plot builds up to a climax, which is often violent. The hero will confront his inner demons along the way and be forced to make an impossible choice. All this should unfold in vivid scene-setting that takes the reader into a new and unknown world.”

What a great idea! Little (20 book) public lending libraries. I want one.
Little Free Library.

Literature-inspired sneakers and iPhone cases. I would want some of these if my favorite books were included. Maybe The Three Musketeers would be worth showing off.

I spent my TV watching time for the past couple of weeks with the first (and only) season of the program Commander in Chief, starring Geena Davis as the vice-president of the United States who is unexpectedly thrown into the job of president after the sudden death of the sitting president. It was a good series, 18 episodes about an independent woman acting as a credibly authoritative president. Unfortunately, the writers or somebody associated with the show couldn’t sustain the “political independent” part of the equation. The “bad guy” in the show is, of course, a nasty old Republican, played wonderfully by Donald Sutherland, and President Mackenzie Allen is supposed be an independent, neither fish nor fowl, neither Democrat or Republican, neither liberal nor conservative. So she supports an airline strike instead of ending it by presidential fiat, sends the FBI into Maryland to solve some crime without authorization, defends gay marriage, and finally, in fit of liberalism that can’t be denied, she resurrects the ERA and tries to get it ratified by three more states so that women can finally have the equal rights that have been so long denied to them. You may or may not agree with all of those policy decisions, but liberal Democrat is the only label that can be used meaningfully to describe a person who pursues those policies and others on the show.

And, yet, it was a well-acted, engaging TV show, and I’m not sure why it was cancelled after only one season. Wikipedia cites “declining ratings.”

I’ll be reading a lot more INSPY-nominated books, Cybils-nominated easy readers and early chapter books, twentieth century history, and anything else that takes my fancy. So expect review of those genres and books, coming up for your reading pleasure.

What are you reading, watching, and enjoying these days?

The Berlin Boxing Club by Robert Sharenow

Oct19

Nominated for 2011 Cybil Awards, Young Adult Fiction category. Nominated by Teacher.Mother.Reader.

Berlin, 1935-1938. Fourteen year old Karl Stern doesn’t look Jewish, and he doesn’t feel Jewish. His family has never been religious, and Karl’s name doesn’t give him away either. However, Germany is slowly but surely becoming a place where it doesn’t matter what you think or believe or feel: being Jewish is like being a rotten apple. And, according to Nazi propaganda, the rot will come out and become apparent for all to see.

So, Karl is one of those “self-loathing” Jews who denies his heritage and just wants to fit in. He wishes he could join the Hitler Youth like all of the other boys in his school. He wishes he weren’t Jewish. The problem with reading these Holocaust and pre-Holocaust novels is that one knows the ending. Karl won’t be able to hide from his Jewish background for long. His family isn’t safe in Germany no matter how much his father thinks that Nazism is a passing political phase. The Nuremberg Laws and Kristallnacht and Dachau and the entire Holocaust itself are coming, impending doom hanging over the events of any novel set in pre-war Germany, especially any novel involving a Jewish protagonist.

Yet, The Berlin Boxing Club held several surprises and revelations for me. I didn’t know much about German heavyweight boxing champion Max Schmeling who stars in this novel as Karl’s mentor. As Karl learns to box from the champ, he “comes of age”, and he learns to respect his own father, an intellectual and an art dealer with his own secret past. Over the course of the novel, Max Schmeling, the hero of Aryan racial superiority, has two fights with black American heavyweight champion, Joe Louis. I had a vague memory of the matches, but I didn’t remember who won.

I learned about Schmelling, about the culture and atmosphere of pre-war Berlin, about the art scene in Berlin at that time, about boxing, and most of all, about how complicated people can be. Schmeling hobnobs with the Nazi elite, including Hitler himself, and yet Schmeling’s manager is Jewish.

Karl feels the contradictions and conflicts of the time within himself. He’s an artist and a fighter. He loves his intellectual father, but he identifies with the more physical men at the Berlin Boxing Club. He despises and fears homosexuals, but it is a homosexual friend who rescues him and his sister on Kristallnacht. He admires and is grateful to Max Schmeling, but he doesn’t know if he can really trust him.

I would recommend this book for older teens. Some of the scenes and characters are too mature for younger readers. As I think about it, the book would make a good movie, but it would definitely be rated at least PG-13, probably R.

Mr. Putter & Tabby Ring the Bell by Cynthia Rylant

Oct18

Cybils nominee: Easy Readers. Nominated by Maria Ciccone at The Serpentine Library.

Cynthia Rylant has published twenty Mr. Putter & Tabby books with this latest adventure, Mr. Putter & Tabby Ring the Bell. If I were a first grade teacher or librarian at an elementary school, I’d buy all twenty, line them up on an accessible shelf and watch the books fly off the shelf. And I’d watch the smiles and the laughter. And the soaring reading abilities and enjoyment.

In Mr. Putter & Tabby Ring the Bell the fall weather reminds Mr. Putter of school, and Mr Putter waxes nostalgic for the sight of erasers and pencils and globes and schoolrooms. Mr. Putter then has an idea: why not take Tabby and go to school for show-and-tell? Of course, Mr. Putter’s neighbor, Mrs. Teaberry and her pet, Zeke, a rather disreputable-looking dog, tag along. But what ae they to do when the first grade teacher expects Tabby and Zeke to do tricks for the first graders?

My favorite character in this story was Zeke the dog. Zeke is the kind of dog who wears a half of a stolen cake on his head. Then he eats it. He loves banana cake. He also eats a whole tray of cupcakes. Zeke’s tongue hangs out a lot, and he probably drools. And he learns a new trick—all in the course of a forty-four page easy reader.

If you already know and love Mr. Putter and Taby (and Zeke), this book is a worthy addition to the canon. If not, Mr. Putter and Tabby Ring the Bell would be a great introduction to a great series.

Z-baby: “Mr Putter wants to go to school even though he’s really old. I don’t know why.”

*This book is nominated for a Cybils Award, and I am a judge for the first round thereof. However, no one paid me any money, and nobody knows which books will get to be finalists or which ones will get the awards. In other words, this review reflects my opinion and Z-baby’s and nothing else.

Kylie Jean, Blueberry Queen by Marci Peschke

Oct18

Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books. Nominated by Jennifer Glidden, Capstone Press.

Kylie Jean, who lives with her family in Jacksonville, Texas, has a lifelong dream: she wants to be a beauty queen. I’ve never heard of Jacksonville, but it’s a real town in East Texas, Cherokee County, and it has a population of 13,868 (2000 census). Jacksonville is “the Tomato Capital of the World”, but it’s blueberries that play the starring role in Kylie Jean’s journey to becoming a beauty queen.

In the story the big festival in Jacksonville every year is not Tomato Fest, but rather the Blueberry Festival. Kylie Jean wants to be Blueberry Festival Queen, and since Kylie Jean is not only pretty, inside and out, but also determined, she enlists some help and sets out to realize her dream.

I’m not much on beauty pageants, but I liked Kylie Jean. She talks and acts “Texas” through and through with her “right pretty” and her “hollering” and her “yes, m’am” and “no, m’am.” I liked the way Kylie Jean makes a list of the things she needs to do to enter the beauty pageant, and she goes right down the list, checking each thing off as she gets it done. And I learned a few things you might not know (I didn’t):

“Shouting is not ladylike.” Beauty queens don’t shout.

“Beauty queens always wear a slip because it is classy.”

“Pretty is as pretty does . . . means being nice to the old folks, taking care of little animals, and respecting [my] momma and daddy.”

I’ll just bet at least one of those pieces of information is new to you, too. Consider it a part of your free education in Texas culture.

Z-Baby: “I think all of the books about Kylie Jean look good: Rodeo Queen, Hoop Queen, and Drama Queen.”

*This book is nominated for a Cybils Award, and I am a judge for the first round thereof. However, no one paid me any money, and nobody knows which books will get to be finalists or which ones will get the awards. In other words, this review reflects my opinion and Z-baby’s and nothing else.

1926: Events and Inventions

Oct17

January 27, 1926. Scottish inventor M. John Baird demonstrates his new machine capable of the wireless transmission of moving pictures using a cathode ray tube. The invention is called by its inventor, television.

'Robert Goddard with his Double Acting Engine Rocket in 1925' photo (c) 2010, NASA on The Commons - license: http://www.flickr.com/commons/usage/February 25, 1926. Francisco Franco becomes the youngest general in the Spanish army.

March 16, 1926. Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fuel (gasoline and liquid oxygen) rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.

April 7, 1926. An assassination attempt against Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini fails. Italian Fascist Party member march in the streets and vow their loyalty to Mussolini. The Pope says that Mussolini is obviously being protected by God.

May 3-12, 1926. General Strike in Britain. A coal miners’ strike begins on the 1st of May, and on the 3rd a general strike in support of the coal miners is called. The general strike causes the shutdown of mines, transportation, iron and steel works and other industries and paralyzes the country for 10 days. The general strike ends when public opinion goes against the striking workers, but one million coal miners are still on strike.

June 13, 1926. Marshall Joseph Pilsudski takes dictatorial power in Poland. Many Poles believe that the Polish army will under Pilsudski’s command will soon attack SOviet Russia.

September, 1926. Nationalist Chinese Kuomintang troops under General Chiang Kai-shek capture hang-kow and begin the unification of China. China has been suffering for the past several years, since 1916, under the fighting of warlords in various regions who refuse to answer to a central government.

October 23, 1926. Leon Trotsky is removed from the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Josef Stalin is becoming more and more powerful.

December 25, 1926. Japan gains a new emperor after the death of Emperor Yoshihito who had ruled Japan for the past 14 years. Twenty-five year old Emperor Hirohito, who has been regent for his ailing father for the past five years, will now become Japanese head of state on his own.

Notable deaths in 1925: Harry Houdini, Rudolph Valentino, Eugene Debs, Annie Oakley, Mary Cassatt, Claude Monet.

Over the Edge by Brandilyn Collins

Oct17

Nominated and shortlisted for the INSPY Awards, Mystery/Thriller category.

Brandilyn Collins is a popular and award-winning writer of faith-driven suspense novels. Her books have sold well, and she’s written a lot of them. She’s also a survivor of chronic Lyme disease. Unfortunately, by the time I read a third of the way through Over the Edge, I was fairly sure that:
a) the author had battled Lyme disease herself or with someone in her own family, and
b) the author had an ax to grind and a lesson to teach.

I have a friend who received a very delayed diagnosis of Lyme disease. She has dealt with devastating illness and much pain. I do understand that Lyme disease and its diagnosis are controversial subjects with much suffering and pain involved. I understand the temptation to use fiction as a teaching tool to make people aware of the difficulties facing those who have Lyme disease. But maybe nonfiction would be a better way to go.

In this story, Janessa McNeil, married to research doctor Brock McNeil, becomes infected with Lyme disease. Her husband, whose life research is invested in the idea the chronic Lyme disease doesn’t exist and that Lyme can be cured by a simple, short course of antibiotics, doesn’t believe that Janessa is really sick. Nor does he believe that an evil intruder infected Janessa on purpose–to get Dr. McNeil’s attention.

Yeah, it’s kind of far-fetched, and I’d have a hard time believing it, too. In fact, despite the fact that Brock, the husband, is an adulterer and and a liar, I had a sneaking sympathy for him throughout most of the book. That’s because I don’t like being preached at and emotionally manipulated in my suspense novels. It makes me cranky.

If you’re looking for a fictional tract on the trial and tribulations of chronic Lyme disease sufferers, Over the Edge is your book. If you read Over the Edge and want “the other side of the story” about the so-called “Lyme Wars”, you might try this page from the CDC. I’m not taking sides, just reporting the facts, m’am.

1925: Arts and Entertainment

Oct17

Visitors flock to the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, France beginning in April, 1925. The art displayed at the show features bold coloring and geometric shapes, and it’s sometimes called Cubism domesticated. This “art deco” style persists in everything from architecture to fashion to dishes from 1925 into the early 1940’s.

An art deco building in Madrid:

'Cine Callao (Gran Via, Madrid)' photo (c) 2010, dalbera - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

French fashion designer Coco Chanel worked in the art deco style and exhited her fashions at the 1925 Exposition in Paris:

'Coco_Chanel' photo (c) 2011, chariserin - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Art deco stairway:

'Art deco stairway' photo (c) 2008, R/DV/RS - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Art deco cocktail set:

'Art Deco Cocktail Set' photo (c) 2011, Artdecodude - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Can you find your own example of art deco, which persists to this day, in your house or neighborhood?

1925: Events and Inventions

Oct17

January 3, 1925. Benito Mussolini (Il Duce) announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy.

'General Chiang Kai Shek' photo (c) 2010, SDASM Archives - license: http://www.flickr.com/commons/usage/March, 1925. Chiang Kai-shek becomes leader of the Chinese nationalist Kuomintang (party), following the death of Chinese premier Sun Yat-sen. The picture is a young General Chiang Kai-shek.

April 25, 1925. Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg Is the victor in extremely close German elections. He becomes the first popularly elected president of Germany. Although von Hindenburg supports a return to the monarchy, he has promised to uphold the republican constitution.

June 29, 1925. A bill is passed in South Africa that bans black South Africans from doing skilled jobs in all industries. Afrikaaners (people of Dutch descent) and other white South Africans (mostly of British extraction) combine to make the already widely practiced color ban legal. Afrikaans, a Dutch-based dialect, is made the official language of South Africa.

July, 1925. While in prison, German leader Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf, a book promoting himself, Nazism, and anti-Semitism.

August 8, 1925. The Ku Klux Klan demonstrate their popularity by holding a parade in Washington DC; as many as 40,000 male and female members of the Klan march down Pennsylvania Avenue. The ceremony the Klansmen had planned at the Washington Monument is rained out.

'Conference of the Big Three at Yalta' photo (c) 2008, Marion Doss - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/October 31, 1925. Reza Khan Pahlavi becomes Shah of Persia (Iran). He has been ruling Persia since 1921, but now that his rule is official, the Shah vows to modernize his country.

December, 1925. Josef Stalin uses the year 1925 and following years in the 20’s to consolidate more and more power in his hands, gradually putting down all opposition groups within the Soviet Communist party. In December, at the 14th Soviet Communist Party Congress, Stalin wins approval of a new policy called “socialism in one country.” The USSR will no longer pursue world socialist revolution as its first priority. Leon Trotsky, Stalin’s main rival for power in the Soviet Union, favors the idea of international permanent revolution, called by some people Trotskyism. The picture shows Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin in Yalta in 1945 at the end of World War II.

No Room for Dessert by Hallie Durand

Oct17

Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books. Nominated by Jama Rattigan. And here’s Jama’s interview with author Hallie Durand about her Dessert trilogy.

Dessert Schneider, the most important and firstborn child in the Schneider family, feels as if she’s been forgotten as her younger sister and two younger brothers get the lion’s share of the attention. But if Dessert can win the Thomas Edison Contest in her class at school for the invention that will improve people’s lives the most, she’s sure to get the attention that she craves.

Dessert is self-centered, attention-seeking, and highly competitive. She’s also funny, inventive, and real. Typical eight year old. I liked Dessert, even when I cringed a little at her grandiose plans and thoughts and her cockiness about winning the contest. Lack of self-confidence is NOT Dessert’s problem, until . . .

Z-baby’s going to love this one, and after she reads it, I’m planning to have her make a notebook of her own inventions. After all, as Mrs. Howdy Doody, Dessert’s teacher, says, “Thomas Edison filled three thousand five hundred notebooks with his ideas! Let your minds dance! Let your minds go crazy! Let your minds fly to the moon and back!”

*This book is nominated for a Cybils Award, and I am a judge for the first round thereof. However, no one paid me any money, and nobody knows which books will get to be finalists or which ones will get the awards. In other words, this review reflects my opinion and Z-baby’s and nothing else.