Book 30 - Lake Wobegon Days - Garrison Keillor

Today's book is another that has been sitting on my bookshelf for nearly three decades. I don't remember why I even bought it, or if I bought it at all. I wasn't even a big fan of Garrison Keillor back then, although I now listen to "A Prairie Home Companion" on a fairly regular basis. Well, whatever the reason for having the book, I finally got around to reading it.

Book 30 - Lake Wobegon Days - Garrison Keillor

As I mentioned above, I am a fan of Keillor's radio program, but that hasn't always been the case. Keillor's humor moseys along at it's own pace, not really being concerned with getting anywhere quickly, and I think that it is a style that doesn't really start appealing to you until you get a little older. At least that's how it works for me. Now I love listening to his skits about Guy Noir, or the cowboys, and even his news from Lake Wobegon, which is a regular feature of the program. Lake Wobegon is supposedly a small town in Minnesota which does not appear on a map due to surveying errors. In reality it exists only in the mind of Keillor, although it bears a strong resemblance to any number of small farm towns of the region. It's fictional existence does not prevent Keillor from bringing the town to life, and in Lake Wobegon Days, he paints an elaborate picture of the town and it's people.

Keillor starts off with a fairly extensive history lesson on the founding of the town, once known as New Albion, and on its early settlers. He then talks about the role Protestantism played, gently lampooning the worship practices of the various splinter sects, before launching a Walden-esque journey through the four seasons, with a brief intermission between winter and spring to discuss the reporting of news in the town, and wraps up with a chapter that focuses on the power of preaching, among other things.

There is no overarching plot to the book. Instead it ambles along, presenting vignettes that describe the people of the town, and their way of life. It frequently time shifts from Keillor's boyhood to the present, and is rife with asides that are often presented in the form of footnotes, a technique which I found a bit distracting. One such footnote, an extensive manifesto written by a former town resident criticizing his upbringing, occupies the bottom half of 20 pages. In it's defense however, I found this manifesto to be one of the best parts of the book.

While the book paints a vivid picture of small-town life in Minnesota, I was disappointed with the lack of a cohesiveness, which made it hard for me to finish. If you are a fan of the radio show, especially "The News from Lake Wobegon" segment, you might enjoy learning some of the history of this imaginary town, and you might like hearing some of the early stories of the families that inhabit the place, but for me it just wasn't that compelling. Still, it was a popular book when it came out, so feel free to not accept my judgement of the book and to read it yourself.

Book 29 - Still Life with Woodpecker - Tom Robbins

I'm a world-class procrastinator, as is evidenced by the fact that I am woefully behind in this challenge. Another indicator is the fact that this book has been on my shelf for close to thirty years, waiting to be read.

Still Life with Woodpecker - Tom Robbins

As the subtitle on the book says, Still Life with Woodpecker is sort of a love story, in a redhead-stoner-philosopher-environmentalist-anarchist kind-of way. It tells the story of Princess Leigh-Cheri, the daughter of a deposed monarch of a small but apparently strategically significant country. King Max, his wife Tilli, and the Princess live in exile in the United States, on the shore of the Puget Sound, with their faithful servant Gulietta, in a house given to them by the CIA.

The princess, seeking purpose to her life, decides to get involved in saving the planet. After much begging, her parents allow her to travel to an environmental conference in Hawaii, with Gulietta serving as her chaperone. Here she meets Bernard Mickey Wrangle, an anarchist bomber known as "The Woodpecker," who it turns out has plans to blow up the conference. After despising him briefly, she falls in love with him, and has to wrestle with the conflict of her feelings for him vs. the moral obligation to turn him in.

Eventually Wrangle is apprehended, and has to spend time in prison. The Princess cloisters herself in her attic, attempting to duplicate the conditions her imprisoned lover is experiencing. In her solitary state, with nothing more to read than a pack of camels, she develops a world view centered around the imagery on the cigarette pack involving pyramids, redheads (both she and Wrangle have fiery red hair), and alien races. Unfortunately, the press catches wind of her self-confinement, and when word gets back to Wrangle about what she has done, he gets the wrong idea about her motives and dumps her.

Don't worry, I haven't divulged the entire story. Besides, with Robbins' writing, getting there is half the fun. The story is full of humor, psychedelic imagery, odd-ball philosophy and solopsistic interludes where he discusses his love/hate relationship with his new Remington SL3 electric typewriter, which he is using to compose the story. It also discusses the purpose of the moon, and explores how to make love stay.

All-in-all, I thought it was a fun read, albeit a little dated (it was published in 1980). Maybe if I'd read it when I bought it, I wouldn't have had to make that complaint.

Book 28 - The Girl Who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson

I've got too much stuff to do, so no preamble this time. Let's just get down to the review, shall we?

The Girl Who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Played with Fire is Stieg Larsson's second installment in the posthumously published trilogy about Lisbeth Salander, the young, brilliant, tattooed, and socially distant computer hacker, and Mikael Blomkvist, the middle-aged, doggedly tenacious investigative journalist. Salander's prodigious computer skills allow her to gain access to information that would be off-limits to most, while Blomkvist employs his reporter's instincts and persistent nature to get to the truth of whatever he investigates. Their work together in the first book managed not only to solve a forty-year mystery but to bring down the evil financial empire of a wealthy industrialist and arms dealer. Together they make a formidable team.

But alas, they are no longer together. Salander, once Blomkvist's lover and friend, has cut all ties with him, and refuses to answer his calls or emails. In fact, she has basically cut all ties with everyone and is travelling around the world. So how is a woman who is considered by the state to be incompetent, and has only a modest income from her job as an investigator for a security firm able to do this? Well, it seems she used her computer skills to claim a 20 billion Kronor consolation prize from the Cayman island accounts of the arms dealer she helped take down.

Upon her return, she buys a huge new place of her own, and bequeaths her old place to a part-time female lover. Snooping into Blomkvist's computer, she stumbles upon a name from her past: Zala. Driven to investigate, she visits the home of a couple who is working with Blomkvist on an expose of the sex trafficking industry. The next day, the couple is found dead, and Lisbeth is the chief suspect. Later another body turns up, the body of her state "guardian," which reinforces the notion that Salander is the culprit.

A media frenzy and a nationwide manhunt ensues. Armansky, Salander's employer at the security firm, doesn't know what to believe, but has sufficient doubts such that he launches an investigation of his own, and makes his resources available to the police. Blomkvist, convinced of her innocence and suspecting that the real killer's motive was something in the sex-trade expose that was about to be published, launches an investigation as well. Salander is also investigating, but her target is the mysterious Zala, a name that evokes so many painful memories.

I hadn't originally intended on reading this quite so soon after the first one. There are only three, and of course there won't be any more, so I wanted to savor each one a bit before launching into the next. I'm glad I didn't wait though, because I thought this book was even better than the first. I thought the plot was more complex, and the action moves much more quickly than in the first one. If you like a good mystery thriller with a dark edge, this is a book you should check out!

Book 27 - Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson

My local library has a cart that sits next to the information desk with a sign that says, "Good Books You May Have Missed." It was here that I stumbled across this week's book, Snow Falling on Cedars. I had heard of the book, and had heard it was supposed to be good, so I decided to give it a try.

Book 27 - Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson

Set on San Piedro, a small island in the Puget Sound of Washington State, Snow Falling on Cedars tells the story of the trial of a Japanese-American man named Kabuo, who has been charged with murdering Carl Heine, a white man. The trial takes place in the mid-fifties, and anti-Japanese sentiment runs high in the small town. Kabuo has motive and opportunity, and there are pieces of circumstantial evidence which may or may not point to his guilt, but Kabuo maintains his innocence against the accusations of the zealous prosecutor, who seems to be capitalizing on the jury's predjudices against Japanese in order to get a conviction.

As children and teenagers, Hatsue, Kabuo's wife, was involved with a caucasian boy, Ishmael, the son of the local newspaperman. They spent countless hours in secret together, lest their families find out and forbid them to see each other. Finally, when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, Hatsue and her family, along with all the other Japanese and Japanese-Americans on the island are rounded up and taken to an internment camp. Ishmael makes her promise to write, and thinks that one day they will be together again, but Hatsue has already decided that she does not love Ishmael, and while at the camp she meets Kabuo, with whom she falls in love and marries. Ishmael continues to carry a torch for her, and this influences his actions in relation to Kabuo's guilt or innocence.

With this book, I was hoping for more of a mystery story, and less of a Harlequin romance. The story, while beautifully told, is predictable, and in my opinion seems to be overly focused on Ishmael's obsession with Hatsue. This is not to say there weren't other elements that were interesting: the culture of the Japanese-American families; the cruelty of the internment; the prejudices the Japanese-Americans faced both before and after the war. But in the end, I found it a somewhat unsatisfying read.

Obviously many people liked this book, so feel free to read it if you like.

Book 26 - When You Are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris

I'm halfway there! Twenty-six books down, twenty-six to go! Of course, it's already the middle of October, but never mind about that. I have three more books already completed and I'm halfway through a fourth, which I'm hoping to finish by the end of the week. In other words, I'm still cranking it out, and although it's going to take some effort at this point, I have every intention of making it to 52 without having to resort to Reader's Digest Condensed Books.

Speaking of condensed literature, I love essays, especially humorous ones. All through the 80's and 90's, and into the new millennium, I could not wait to read Dave Barry's column every Sunday in the Washington Post magazine. Barry now only does the annual "Year in Review" feature, and although I miss him, I love Gene Weingarten's replacement column. I'm also a fan of Twain and Swift, and of P. J. O'Rourke, who despite his conservative pedigree, or perhaps because of it, is one of the best humorists of our time. But one essayist I had never got around to reading was David Sedaris. I had heard him read his essays from time-to-time on "This American Life," the popular storytelling show that airs weekly on NPR, but I had never sat down to read them myself. I had originally put Naked, which I believe is his second book, on my list of potential reads for this project. However, when I saw a hardback version of When You Are Engulfed in Flames sitting in the bargain bin at Border's for four bucks, I knew that would be my introduction to Sedaris' work.

Book 26 - When You Are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris

David Sedaris is a man of extremes. He can take the most mundane experiences and hold the reader rapt with the details. Conversely, he can take the most bizarre people and situations and make them seem human and normal. But no matter which direction he steers the reader, the ride is always funny, albeit uncomfortable, for Sedaris humor has an intensely dark side.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames is Sedaris' sixth and most recent book. His essays are mostly autobiographical, and range from childhood, to his college days, to his current life both here and abroad with his boyfriend Hugh. At first blush it would appear there is a fair amount of embellishment to his tales, but perhaps not as much as one would think. Sedaris channels weirdness, and when he can't find the truly weird, he manages to make everyday life seem weird and interesting.

Some of the tales focus on his youth. In "The Understudy," he and his sisters are forced to endure the substitute babysitter from hell. "Road Trips" recounts his attempts to come out to his friends about his homosexuality, and tells of his virginity's close call with a supposedly straight trucker who picks him up hitchhiking and wants to him to perform sexual favors for him. In "What I Learned" he tells us how he tried to temper his parent's enthusiasm for his attending Princeton by informing them that he is going to major in Patricide.

Other stories focus on his contemporary life. "April in Paris" and "Aerial" take place while he was living in Normandy with his partner, while "The Smoking Section," the book's longest essay, has Sedaris and Hugh moving to Tokyo so he can quit smoking. Perhaps one of the funniest parts of the book is a subsection of "Brother Can You Spare a Tie," an essay on his problems with fashion and accessories, in which he discusses his experience with the Stadium Pal, an external catheter designed so truckers on cross country hauls don't have to stop to urinate. I stumbled across a YouTube link for Sedaris reading this on the Letterman show. I highly recommend taking a moment to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBdymtyXt8Y

Sedaris' writing is not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but if you've got a twisted streak to your sense of humor, you will most likely find him quite hilarious.

BTW - Sedaris has a new book called Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk. The Washington Post ran a promotional article about Sedaris and the book last week, and the online version has a video of Sedaris reading from the new book. Here's the link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/03/AR2010100304162.html

Book 25 - The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver

Some years back, a friend of mine talked me into joining a book discussion group. I loved to read, but at the time I was such a workaholic that most of the reading I did was professional in nature. A book group seemed like just the thing to encourage me to read for the fun of it.

The local Border's offered several clubs, each with a particular focus. There were clubs that read mysteries, clubs that read romances, and clubs that read science fiction, but all of those seemed too limiting. Then we stumbled upon the "Eclectic" group. This sounded like a great idea! We could read classics, modern fiction, biography, it didn't matter!

The group met once a month, at Border's, and a Border's employee led the group. We were technically allowed to pick the books, but sometimes indecision within the group allowed the Border's guy, whose tastes leaned toward science fiction and fantasy, to exert undue influence on the selection. However, for the most part we chose our own books, and though the process was often fraught with bickering and multiple elimination votes, we managed to pick some pretty good selections.

One of the more memorable books, at least for me, was a book by Barbara Kingsolver called The Poisonwood Bible. It is the story of an evangelical Baptist family that travels to the Belgian Congo to preach the gospel to the heathen locals. The family is almost destroyed by the trials that they face, and they gain a new understanding of this country and it's culture, as it struggles to be an independent nation. I found this book to be riveting, and promised myself that I would read another one of her books one day. This brings us to today's review:

Book 25 - The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver

A lacuna is a gap in a manuscript, where the text is missing or illegible. It can also refer to a small pit, or a hollow cavity. In Barbara Kingsolver's book The Lacuna, it is both. Harrison Shepherd is the son of a Mexican woman and an American man. His parents estranged, he spends his youth with his mother in Mexico. His mother's main interest seems to be bagging a wealthy man before time takes away her youth, so to pass the time Shepherd reads voraciously. One day he is given a pair of diving goggles by one of the employees of the house they are staying in, and he spends many hours swimming and observing the ocean life. Eventually he finds a cave, a lacuna, that is only visible at certain times, when the tide is just right. At the other side of this cave is a hidden cove that can only be reached by those who can make the long journey.

Eventually, Shepherd returns to America, and while attending a boarding school in Washington, DC, he finds himself in the middle of the Bonus Army riots. Leaving the school under mysterious circumstances which become clear later, he returns to Mexico, and begins working for the famous muralist Diego Rivera and his fiery wife Frieda Kahlo. Initially a plaster mixer, he becomes the house cook. Later when Rivera offers asylum to Lev Trotsky, the leader of the Bolshevik revolution, Shepherd becomes one of his assistants, typing up manuscripts, helping with translations, and recording much of what transpires in his journals.

Under tragic circumstances, Shepherd eventually returns to America, this time to Asheville, North Carolina, where after a while he settles into a career writing books which romanticize ancient Mexican civilizations. He is enormously successful, until his past associations with communist sympathizers draw the attention of the FBI and the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Kingsolver constructs the book as a series of Shepherd's journal entries, letters, various newspaper articles, and book reviews, which gives the story a choppy feel. This seems to be intentional. I've read a few reviews that complain about the weakness of the central character, but this seems deliberate as well. In both of these cases Kingsolver seems to be saying what Shepherd said throughout the book. That it is the part that is missing - the lacuna - that is the most important part of the story.

While this is probably not Kingsolver's best work, I still found it to be an enjoyable read. However, if you were only going to read one of her books, I'd make it The Poisonwood Bible.

Book 24 - Cannery Row - John Steinbeck

If you read my book reviews, you know that I usually start off with a preamble of sorts. My preamble for this entry was about cutting funding for public libraries. I apparently had a lot to say. It quickly wound up being twice as long as the review, and it still wasn't finished. I wanted to post this and move on, so I decided to cut it out completely. I may publish it as a separate entry when I get a chance to edit it. Until then, I will spare you and get on with the review.

Book 24 - Cannery Row - John Steinbeck

Cannery Row is John Steinbeck's picture of life in the cannery district of Monterey, California, during the years of the Great Depression. Mack and the boys are a group of largely out of work men, who live together in the Palace Flophouse, a property they are "looking after" for Lee Chong, the neighborhood grocer. Mack and the Boys want to do something nice for Doc. Why? Because everybody wants to do something nice for Doc. And who is Doc? Doc runs a biological specimen supply house, and is looked up to as being the wisest and most learned man of the community.

Mack and the boys get the idea of throwing a party for Doc. They manage to raise some money (by doing some work for Doc), and while Doc is away on a job, they start the party (in Doc's lab, of course), in anticipation of Doc's return. Doc is late getting back, and by the time he does, the party is over and his lab is trashed. This causes some bad feeling between Doc and Mac's boys for some time, but after Doc helps them with their dog, things become right again, and the boys throw another party, which unlike the last one is a roaring success.

That's really the gist of the story. You might think that's a rather thin premise for a novel, but it's really not. Cannery Row may be light on plot, but it paints a vivid picture of Depression Era California through a series of slice-of-life vignettes and a great set of characters, which Steinbeck uses again in the same setting in his novel Sweet Thursday. There is life and death and happiness and sadness and beauty and ugliness. But above all there is generosity. Doc is generous with his time and knowledge. Dora, the local madam, helps families pay for groceries. Even Lee Chong, a fairly shrewd businessman, is generous with his credit - up to a point. Almost everybody seems to do what they can to keep those around them from falling prey to the hardship that surrounds them.

This is the fourth Steinbeck book that I have read, and I must say I enjoyed it. Earlier this year I reviewed The Pearl, and many years ago I read Of Mice and Men, and The Winter of Our Discontent, all of which I really liked, too. If you want to jump into his work, this isn't as short as The Pearl, but it is not too long either, and I think it is a worthwhile read.