Tag: book review

You Learn by Living, by Eleanor Roosevelt

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You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling LifeYou Learn by Living:Eleven Keys for a More Fulfulling Life

Finished 7-12-08, rating 4/5, non-fiction, pub. 1960

“It is a brave thing to have courage to be an individual; it is also, perhaps, a lonely thing.  But it is better than not being an individual, which is to be nobody at all.”                  Chapter 7

“What counts, in the long run, is not what you read; it is what you sift through your own mind; it is the ideas and impressions that are aroused in you by your reading.  It is the ideas stirred in your own mind, the ideas which are a reflection of your own thinking, which make you an interesting person.”         Chapter 1

I knew and still, in many ways, know very little about Eleanor Roosevelt.  She wrote this book only a few years before she died and in it she chronicles what the many years of her life taught her.  She covers a variety of topics: learning, fear, using your time, maturity, readjustments, usefulness, individuality, getting the best out of people, responsibility, politics participation, and being a public servant.  This book holds up remarkably well and many of the affairs of the world are eeerily relevant today.

Eleanor was born to priveledge and the book makes that evident.  Some of the advice, while coming from a good place, seems somewhat elitist.  On the other hand, she is a woman who has seen the people of the world at their best and worst and has come away with a passion for life and making the world a better place.  Her antedotes about some of the important men of the day, her lunch with Calvin Coolidge and conversation with Mr. Krushchev are two that come to mind, make the book that much more interesting.  I found the book enlightening, inspiring, and educational.

She talks a lot about raising children and I think this would be a wonderful gift for a mom-to-be or new mother who has an interest in history or even the empowerment of women.  I think you’ll be better off for having read this book.

The Widow, by Carla Neggers

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Cover ImageFinished 7-5-08, rating 3.5/5, Romantic Suspense, pub. 2007

How would your life change if your husband was murdered four days into your honeymoon?  For Abigail, it changed the course of her career and the obsessed way in which she chose to spend her time.  She became a homicide detective, convinced that she would some day learn enough to find her husband’s killer, but seven years later she was still stuck reliving the past, looking for answers.  Then one day she receives a phone call that sends her back to Maine, where her husband was killed and she still owned a house.

Once in Maine there is a large line-up of potential suspects.  Abigail is familiar with all of them because she has never stopped investigating them.  While fighting for the truth she finds the time to finally heal from her husband’s death and fall in love. 

This was a fun book that will keep you guessing.  Here’s the post on my meeting Carla Neggers https://stacybuckeye.wordpress.com/2008/05/02/carla-neggers-book-signing/

The Blue Hour, by T. Jefferson Parker

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Cover ImageFinished 7-1-08, rating 3/5, thriller, pub. 2000

“Use the years to live well.”    Chapter 35

Retired detective, Tim Hess, is asked to come back to work as a consultant.  Hess is taking chemo and radiation treatments and will be forced to take orders from a young, brash detective that has just sued her last partner for sexual harassment.   He takes the job and is hoping to pass on his years of wisdom to his partner, Merci.  Merci, for her part, is an ambitious woman who has not yet figured out how to play well with others.  They are tracking a serial killer and using the time to learn what each other has to offer.

I liked Hess, but not Merci.  I thought the mystery was good and moved fast.  I did not really like the last chapter, it didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the book.  I didn’t love it, but it was good.  This is the first in a series just about Merci and I’m curious to see if she softens enough for me to really like her as the series progresses.  We’ll see.

Open House, by Elizabeth Berg

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Cover ImageFinished listening to on 6-27-08, rating 3.5/5, fiction, pub. 2000

“There were just families yelling at their kids not to drown and teenagers walking around like billboards, acting as if their bodies would never change.They’re so oblivious to the fact that they’ll get older.  Sometimes I want to grab them and say, ‘Hey!  I used to look like you!  Ha-ha-HA!!'”

“Yes,” Lydia says.  “That’s what I want to say to you sometimes.”  She sips her tea.

My God.  Of course that must be true.  Of course it must!  What’s a little cellulite next to a face full of deep wrinkles?  What’s a face full of deep wrinkles next to infirmity?  When does the time come when you stand in front of your grown-up woman’s mirror and feel contentment for what you see there?  Ever?—Chapter 12

Sam is a 42 year old mother, daughter, best friend, and soon to be ex-wife.  She has never had to support herself and 12 year old son, Travis, and has decided that the best way to do this is to take in boarders at her large suburban home.  Travis is not crazy about the idea and everybody else just thinks she’s crazy.  First there’s mature Lydia, then sad Lavender, and finally fabulous Edward.

She goes on a shopping spree at Tiffany’s.  She calls Martha Stewart and Martha calls her back.  She makes new friends.  She goes on a date.  And most importantly, she stops crying.

I love the rare simplicity of Elizabeth Berg’s writing and her ability to tell a story with real depth in such a concise and readable way.  Her characters are always recognizable as someone you know or might meet someday.  This story of a woman facing life after divorce is a triumph.  I’ve read quite a few of Berg’s books and by the end I always feel as if I’ve gained some insight. This is no exception.

The Bone Collector, by Jeffrey Deaver

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Cover ImageFinished 6-23-08, rating 4/5, fiction, pub. 1997

 I remember seeing the movie with Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie, but the only thing I really recall with any detail is Denzel as a quadriplegic.  The book is not as easily forgettable. 

 Lincoln Rhyme was a brilliant criminologist for the NYPD until he was injured in the line of duty.  Now he is paralyzed and desperately wants to die.  Patrolwoman Amelia Sachs has just found her first dead body and is about to be whisked into a high profile, politically charged case without her consent.  The two become unlikely partners in tracking a serial killer who is leaving as many living victims as dead ones.

The fast-paced action is balanced with two totally unique characters.  Rhyme and Sachs are complicated and their interaction and growth made me want to start reading the next Lincoln Rhyme book immediately.  And that rarely happens.  There is lots of violence.  Two scenes in particular were disturbing (rats and a mouthful of carotid artery) and were the only reason I didn’t rate this book a little higher. 

My only other issue is that I have a copy of the book with Denzel on the front, so that’s how I’m picturing Rhyme, but it is clear in the book that Rhyme is not black.  I think Sachs said at one point that he looked like Robert DeNiro.  I like picturing Rhyme as Denzel (who wouldn’t?),  but when repeated references were made to his white skin it threw my mental picture off. 

It’s a great thriller and I highly recommend it.

Four Seasons in Rome, by Anthony Doerr

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Cover ImageFinished 6-19-08, rating 4.5/5, memoir, pub. 2007

Subtitle-On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World

“Too much beauty, too much input; if you’re not careful you can overdose.”  (Winter)

“It is a Metropolitan Museum of Art the size of Manhattan, no roof, no display cases, and half a million combustion engines rumbling in the hallways.”  (Winter)

Doerr won the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts & Letters and was awarded a year in Rome with a home, an office, and a paycheck.   This memoir is his love letter to Rome, his wife, and his two young boys. 

Anthony, his wife, Shauna, and their six-month-old twins, Owen & Henry, arrive in Rome in the fall.  His first perceptions of Rome took me back to our own trip to Italy in April.  The discussion of the toilets, the crazy traffic, the confusion on how to order and pay, the absence of fat people, and the absolute awe of the history, all made me smile in agreement and remembrance.  Moving into winter there is the visit to St. Peter’s Basilica and watching the Pope being carried by, the five minutes alone in the Sistene Chapel, and seeing the Pantheon for the first time.  The game of bus golf sounds wonderfully fun and just up my alley.  Take a bus (or train) and randomly get off at stops and see what’s there before doing it again.  In the spring the Pope dies and a new one is chosen right in their backyard.  Shauna is hospitalized.  The heat of summer overwhelms them and they take weekly trips out of Rome to Umbria.

My copy is marked with lines and exclamation points that make it easy for me to go back and read my favorite passages (there are many).  I have already gone back and read many of the passages and pages I loved most and I just finished the book yesterday.  He has passages on Rome, on parenting, and on the splendor of life that will stick with you.  I highly recommend this memoir- especially if you love Italy or have had twins.

Phantom Prey, by John Sandford

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Cover ImageFinished 6-16-08, rating 3/5, fiction, pub. 2008

Cop turned investigator, Lucas Davenport, is back in his 18th novel.  This time he’s investigating the Goth scene after a wealthy young woman who fancies herself Goth goes missing.  The mother of the missing girl is friends with Weather, Lucas’s wife, and she leans on Lucas to find her daughter. 

Almost as soon as Lucas begins, three more Goths are killed with little time between.  And when Lucas is shot, he knows that he is onto something big.  There was also a secondary investigation involving a bad man named Siggy and his pregnant girlfriend, Heather.  It was this secondary story that I liked the most.

I’m a big fan of this series, but this one was not one of my favorites.  It was good, but it didn’t draw me in as quickly as it usually does.  And there a distracting amount of colons used in the book.  I know that seems weird, but if you read it let me know if you saw it too.  And the story with Del and Cheryl was a little predictable.  I highly recommend the series and I always think it’s better if you start a series at the beginning (which would be Rules of Prey).

Pepper Pike, by Les Roberts

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Cover ImageFinished 6-12-08, rating 3.5/5, mystery, pub. 1988

 “Cleveland is a pretty good place to live, I guess, if you don’t mind the weather.”    Chapter 4

This is the first in the Milan Jacovich mystery series.  Milan is an ex-cop and current private investigator.  He is called one night to play body guard for 12 hours, only when he arrives, there is no body to guard.  The next morning he is contacted by the wife of the missing man and Milan is hired to find him.

Milan is forced to come in close contact with the rich of the CEOs and politicians to the powerful of the mob.  He is shot at and beaten up and in the end, shoots someone too.  Where is the mysterious Richard and is he still alive?  While trying to answer this question, Milan finds himself dating Richard’s ex-mistress and getting kicked out of the Chagrin Valley.

This book is wonderful in its depiction of Cleveland.  There are so few books that are set in this city and is the perfect backdrop for this gritty detective.  It’s nice to feel at home as you sit down to read.  I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

A Day No Pigs Would Die, by Robert Newton Peck

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Cover ImageFinished 6-8-09, rating 4/5, young adult, pub. 1972

“But when you kill pigs for a living, you can’t always smell like Sunday morning.   You just smell like hard work.”                      Chapter 2

I finished this last night about midnight and it was a two tissue book.  I know many read it as kids, but not me.  I had no idea what to expect or else I may not have read it, but I’m better off because I did.  Maybe it hit me harder because I was already a little bummed after Jason and I watched the movie We Are Marshall last night.  It was a good movie, but not one to leave you happier than when you started.  Anyway…

Rob is a twelve year old Shaker living on a Vermont farm.  This book chronicles that year of his life as he grew into a man.  Rob’s life consisted mainly of his farming chores and school.  He was the last child left at home and he was the only one left to help his dad.  His story was exciting and heartbreaking.  Rob birthed a calf and received a brand new pig, Pinky, for payment.  Pinky and Rob became inseparable.  Rob had many life lessons that year and they were all touching  and some (three in particular) moved me to tears.

Being a city girl, these are a few of the things I learned about farm life.  Pigs and cows cannot live next to each other.  If you need to top your chocolate cake with nutmeats, kill a gray squirrel and take the chewed nutmeats out of his belly and toast them before putting them on your cake.  Weaseling a dog is barbaric.  There are more, but these were the ones that stuck, although I did gain a greater appreciation for farmers.

This is based on the life of the author growing up as a boy in Vermont and if you haven’t read it you should.  It will take you back to a simpler time when 13 year old boys were forced to become men.  It will make you smile and it will break your heart.

Skinny Dip, by Carl Hiaasen

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Cover ImageFinished 6-7-08, rating 3.5/5, fiction, pub. 2004

“At the stroke of eleven on a cool April night, a woman named Joey Perrone went overboard from a luxury deck of the cruise liner M.M. Sun Duchess.  Plunging toward the dark Atlantic, Joey was too dumbfounded to panic.

I married an asshole, she thought, knifing headfirst into the waves.”   –First three sentences of the book

Chaz throws his wife over the side of the cruise ship that they happen to be on to celebrate their 2nd wedding anniversary.  He has planned and thinks that he has done everything right, the perfect crime.  Only Joey is rescued by ex-cop, Mick.  Revenge is sweet and Joey, instead of going to the police decides to play dead and drive her husband crazy.

Chaz has no redeeming qualities, except in bed, but even that skill has abandoned him after he kills Joey.  He is also a man on the take and his benefactor gets nervous and sends a bodyguard named Tool.  The detective on the case knows something is wrong, but can’t prove anything.  Chaz slowly unravels and tries to commit another murder and then one after that. 

I enjoyed this very much.  It was fun and zany and had all of the crazy characters you’d expect from Hiaasen.  I only wish Joey had more depth.  Tool was the character with the most growth and that was  an interesting choice for Hiaasen to make.  Not a bad one, just a little unexpected.  This is my second Hiassen novel and while I preferred the first one this one is good too.