War - Really, What Is It Good For?

32. In The Garden of Beasts

Once again we see that really war is about male ego and one upping each other.  One day one guy likes another guy, then they hate them and are hell bent on taking power away from them.  Only in retrospect does anyone give anyone else any credit.  Dodd could have never been successful because no one wanted him to be.  Hitler was successful because instead of just gossiping about people and bad mouthing them he had them killed.  It is all so ridiculous, they say they have the good of the country and its people at heart but they don't.  They have their own interests at heart and their own desire to be right is paramount.

I read a comment on Facebook TODAY that said that people who voted against saying the Pledge of Allegiance before the Eugene City Council meetings should be taken out and beaten as traitors to the flag.  I wonder if this man would see the direct correlation to his words and Hitler's actions if he read this book.  Doubtful, I am sure he would just say that what he thinks is right.  It makes me ill.  And shameful.  And scared.

As for the book itself, I was really looking forward to it but found myself disappointed because it felt boring. It was certainly well researched and well written but I have heard a lot of it before.  Plus, it is about a man going to Germany to stop a war that we all know proceeded to happened and was more atrocious than anyone ever could have imagined, so the ending was clear from the beginning.

Remember When...

I remember when, as a kid, we would go to the library.  The Boulder Public Library was very open with a lot of windows, a lot of light, and I can still remember the smell of all of those books.  You would walk up a ramp to the second floor, passing widows and art displays.  Then, to the left, was the kids section.  Shelves and shelves of books, higher than I could reach.  There were bean bag chairs and stuffed animals (I think).  And the librarians were very nice, but best of all...  I used my own card, to pick my own books.  I learned a lot of responsibility from using the library as a kid.  You had to take care of those books and get them back on time - thank you mom! - under no circumstances did you want to disappoint those people by ruining a book.

What happened to wanting to take care of others peoples' things even better than your own?  I still love library books, I love the way the hardbacks stay open, and how the paper smells, but they seem to be used much more harshly than I remember.  Last week I got a book that hasn't even been out that long and was struck by the fact that it was water damaged already.

I understand that we live in Oregon, but come on!  Then I started to notice other things...

I NEVER dog ear book pages, and I would certainly never do it to a book that wasn't mine!  And I often eat while I read yet never seem to leave little morsels behind.  One page was even sparkling with glitter and I just figured that I didn't really want to know.

Sad that libraries are losing more and more money to keep up their building and to buy new books, but then hey have to pay to repair stuff like this?  Pathetic really.  People need to take pride in things like this.

Down the Highway

31. The Rachel Papers

Amis is a very good writer and he does stream of consciousness like not other, but sometimes it just goes on for too long and that is how I felt about this book.   

Charles Highway is a few hours away from turning 20 and he feels like this is the end of adolescence so he sits back to review his life so far, but mostly his interactions with his family and his first love.  But what most of it al comes down to is the realities of growing up and when you come to understand that in a lot of instances the build up to events is much more exciting than the actual even itself.  

I think this is a very realistic look in to the mind of a teenage boy, very rude and bawdy, but also so self absorbed that I am not sure this story was very important to tell.  Charles simply had no heart, so I walk away from the book glad to have it in my rear-view mirror.

What The Hell?

30.  The Postmistress

The description of this book reads:

In 1940, Iris James is the postmistress in coastal Franklin, Massachusetts. Iris knows more about the townspeople than she will ever say, and believes her job is to deliver secrets. Yet one day she does the unthinkable: slips a letter into her pocket, reads it, and doesn't deliver it.

Meanwhile, Frankie Bard broadcasts from overseas with Edward R. Murrow. Her dispatches beg listeners to pay heed as the Nazis bomb London nightly. Most of the townspeople of Franklin think the war can't touch them. But both Iris and Frankie know better...

And my issues begin:

- Iris James, postmistress insists on being called the postmaster throughout the entire book, so why is this the title?
- "coastal Franklin, Massachusetts", is in fact not coastal at all.
- "believes her job is to deliver secrets".  She never once says this, or thinks this. In fact, it seems that she thinks her job is boring.
- And our thrilling plot device: "she does the unthinkable: slips a letter into her pocket, reads it, and doesn't deliver it." Too bad that NEVER EVEN HAPPENS!!!  She is asked to put a letter aside and delivers it as promised, without ever opening it!!!  Who the hell is getting paid to write these descriptions and why isn't it me!!!
- "Her dispatches beg listeners to pay heed as the Nazis bomb London nightly." Umm, not really.  They are somewhat interesting stories of life in the Blitz but she never asks anyone to pay heed.

My review of this book is that it is horrible. The plot is bad, the characters are undeveloped and uninteresting.  And overall is was rather depressing and trite.  But more than all of that, the people who are trying to sell it don't even seem to know what it is about.  I have read books expecting one thing and getting another but this book was simply NOT what is said it would be.

Summer Chills

29.  Shadowed Summer

This book is a good old fashioned ghost story.  A young girl in the south is bored over her summer vacation and decided to go mess about in the graveyard, never a good choice!  She thinks she sees something and so comes back with a Ouija board, really never a good choice!  Turns out there is a ghost who needs some help to have their true story told before he can rest.

This is a YA book and I found it a bit predictable, but I am well over the recommended age range so I doubt that would be true for the intended audience.  I read it in a day and found it hard to put down but have to admit that while I enjoyed it I won't probably remember any of it next week.

Still Hate the Name, But the Book I Liked

28. Nemesis

So this guy is Norwegian. Stieg Larsson is Swedish, as are Henning Mankel and Johan Theorin.  And Peter Hoeg is from Denmark.  I think when you lump that all together you call it Scandinavian, but truthfully I don't really know and it all kind of gives me a headache!  But it is safe to say that Scandinavian (?) mysteries are all the rage at the moment and I have fallen victim to the scuttle butt.

In the past year or so I have read mysteries by all of these authors and they are all very good.  A bit meandering and always going on and on about the snow, but good.  Nemesis, however, is by far the tightest.  And by that I mean, that the plot it well laid out and all the little hints and red herrings have follow through (it is a series of books so a few lines are left hanging but you know they will be dealt with if you stick with the series).  There are no endless descriptions of street names and traffic routes, and no trips to Ikea.  However, there are some characters names that are far to similar to others, there are certain jokes and slang that have been lost in translation, and there are too many damn police officers!  It is funny that I have found this last fact to be true with all of these books.  I guess I am used to American authors who like to believe that people do things on their own instead of asking for and utilizing outside help.  So when there are about 15 characters who are all on the police force I tend to get confused and lump them all together.

Anyway, I can't see the trend in these mysteries being popular settling down anytime soon, especially with new movies being made of the Millennium trilogy, but for me I am not sure I will stick with it but if I do Nesbo is the man I will be returning to.

A Day Without Rain

This winter has been very cold and wet, and that has been very hard to deal with.  I can't even remember the last time we had a day without any rain.  Until today...

A few days after learning a college friend tragically died in Afghanistan, and the day after learning the horrific news that another college friend lost his three year old son, the sun comes out.  There are no words...  Especially for someone like me who always has a hard time with words.  I never know what to say or how to say it.  I am better at doing things than saying thing. So I got up this morning and went to hike Spencer's Butte.  On the trail I picked up two rocks, one for Joe and one for Brody.

And as I climbed the trail and ran back down, slipping and sliding in the mud, I held those rocks tight and squeezed them hard, putting all of my energy and focus on nothing but them.  All my sadness and regret, and prayers for those left behind to deal with such fucked up realities.  All of my anger and questions. And when I reached the end of the trail I left them in the sunshine.  Rest well sweet boys.

After, I took myself to the only place I know where I can completely take my mind off things.  Smith Family Bookstore is a wonderful used bookstore in Eugene and I guess when I am surrounded by so many stories I am able to take my mind off of all the stories going on in my mind and truly get lost.  And that was all I wanted today, to get lost.