So Many Precious Books, So Little Time

Week 7 (6 for me) February 13-18.

Friday-2 Biking

Saturday-4 walking

Sunday-0

Monday-2 biking

Tuesday-1 walking

Wednesday-0

Thursday-0

Total this week:9

Total for challenge: 45

Saturday my husband and I took the skytrain to downtown to see some of the Olympic pavilions.  Boy did we walk!  Just to get to them and back was a walk.  Unfortunately,  we didn't see much.  A lot of the pavilions were closed to the public.  The one's that we open and didn't have huge ,and I mean huge, line-ups were pretty much just selling liquor.  The walking was great though and taking in the atmosphere was good too.  We ended the day with dinner and the free concert with WILCO.  We love WILCO and didn't even have to stand in line.  Our friend lives in a hi-rise building facing the concert stage.  We sat in her cozy living room, sipping tea.  How lucky is that?

Isaac and Poe are best friends and recent high school graduates. Isaac wants to go on to college but is worried about leaving is disabled father alone to fend for himself. Poe doesn't really have any aspirations. Isaac finally decides to go to school after all and steals $4000 from his father to help him get there. He tells Poe of his plan. To save money he will walk, hop trains, and hitch-hike to Berkley, California. 

Isaac talks Poe into walking with him to the abandoned steel mill and hang out with him one more time before he leaves the town for good. They start a fire inside but all of a sudden some men show up. Isaac is scarred and wants to leave, but as usual, Poe need to show how tough he is. Isaac makes an excuse to leave and hopes for Poe to follow but he doesn't. While outside Isaac hears Poe and goes back inside to see the men beating Poe and threatening him with a knife. Isaac throws something at the head of one of the men and the man goes down. It leaves Poe enough time to make his escape.   

This one act changed the lives of Isaac,Poe, and the town forever. 

I want to thank Lisa Munley of TLC Book Tours for getting me to read this book. I was sent a copy of this it before it originally came out. Because I had not requested it, I put it at the back of my advance reader copy pile. I read some great reviews and wanted to read it but just didn't get to it. Then Lisa contacted me and said that she noticed it was on my TBR and that she was organizing a book tour for it. She gave me the little push I needed to finally read it. Now that I have, I can't believe I waited for so long!

This book has been compared to the great John Steinbeck. In my opinion a very hard standard for any other writers to achieve. I am a huge Steinbeck fan. That said, I must say that I agree that there are many elements that live up to the Steinbeck standard. There's a well written and developed story of gut wrenching consequences, a great character studies that are oh, so well drawn out. Meyer is no Steinbeck but he does come close. I give my highest praise to Philipp Meyer and his debut novel, American Rust. 

Yes, a debut author that we can compare to Steinbeck. I look forward to reading more by Philipp Meyer, can he continue to live up to the Steinbeck standard? Time will tell.

5/5

Be sure to look for my giveaway of this book tomorrow!

Philipp Meyer’s Other TLC Book Tours Tour Stops:

Tuesday, January 12th: The Blue Stocking Society
Monday, January 18th: Literary Feline
Tuesday, January 19th: Book Club Classics!
Wednesday, January 20th: A Circle of Books
Thursday, January 21st: One Person’s Journey Through a World of Books
Tuesday, January 26th: Luxury Reading
Thursday, January 28th: Ready When You Are, CB
Tuesday, February 2nd: Rough Edges
Thursday, February 4th: Bibliophile by the Sea
Tuesday, February 9th: Becky’s Book Reviews
Thursday, February 11th: The 3 R’s Blog
Friday, February 12th: Beth Fish Reads
Monday, February 15th: Bibliofreak
Tuesday, February 16th: Books on the Brain
Monday, February 22nd: Lit and Life
Thursday, February 25th: Steph and Tony Investigate

Thanks to Anna of Hachette Books for making this giveaway possible!

Jo-Jo (already won it)
JustPeachy

I still can't seem to get enough T.C. Boyle, so for this week I read two more short stories from his collection, 'After the Plague.'

The first story I read was 'Termination Dust'. The travel agency Ned and his partner, Peter own in Alaska organized a fund raiser. 107 women "of all ages, shapes, and sizes," came from Los Angeles to be auctioned off as dates to the highest bidder. It is said that in Alaska, there are two men for every one woman.

Ned fell instantly for Jordy and enjoyed conversing with her, until Bud came and interrupted. The three of them sat down and ate together with Ned trying to be civil to Bud for Jordy's sake. After dinner the bidding begun and soon Jordy was being auctioned off. There was a bidding war between Ned and Bud but Bud won. Ned just couldn't go any higher and he couldn't figure out where Bud got that kind of money from.

The next morning Ned went to find Jordy but she had left the hotel. A friend of hers told Ned that Jordy went with Bud to his cabin and that she would be back in time to catch the plane the next day. Ned knew that there was no way that Bud would get her back in time, if at all. Ned drove all day with urgency to rescue Jordy from the lying and manipulative Bud.

This is another demonstration of T.C. Boyle's fertile imagination and excellent writing skill. I recommend this story.

The next story I read was 'Killing Babies'. When Rick gets out of rehab in California he goes to live and work with his brother, Phillip in Detroit. He must keep out of trouble for the next 6 months or face jail time. Phillip is a doctor who lives with his wife and children in a really nice house.

Rick and Phillip have never been close but Rick decides he will make the best of the situation. He is to work at Phillip's clinic as an entry level lab technician. Mostly menial tasks such as cleaning test tubes and taking out garbage, etc. 

When Rick and Phillip drive up to the clinic the first day there are a bunch of protectors outside. It turns out that abortions are performed at the clinic. None of the workers inside the clinic, including Phillip want to talk about the protesters with Rick. On another day, the protesters are outside Phillips house. 

I won't say anymore for risk of giving out spoilers. This story has the far reaching consequences that I have come to expect from the expert writing of Boyle. I highly recommend it no matter what side of the abortion issue you are on.

When I thought about historical books that I could post about for the letter "e", I immediately thought of Jane Eyre.  How could I not think of it?  It's a historical classic by a Brontë sister, no less.

I believe I have seen every film version of this book ever made, all very good.  I fell in love with the story at a very young age.  However I didn't read until my adult years.  I read it with my Classics Club on Yahoo, before my days of blogging.  We had a great discussion of it, which really add to my enjoyment of it.

I won't bore you with writing about the story, seeing as most of you know it.  If you don't know it, what planet are you from.  It's a classic that should be read, so read it.  I would love to hear your thought on it.  Do you think it should be considered a classic?

Week 6 (5 for me) February 6-12

Friday-2

Saturday-0

Sunday-2

Monday-0

Tuesday-2

Wednesday-0

Thursday-2

Total this week: 8

Total for challenge: 36

Last year, I had the opportunity to review the award winning 'My Splendid Concubine' by Lloyd Lofthouse. I really enjoyed it and told Lloyd that I would love to review his sequel. Luckily, he took me up on and my offer.

'Our Hart' is the continuation of the fictionalized account of the real person, Robert Hart. In 'My Splendid Concubine' he was an interpreter for the British Consulate in China. He fell in love with two concubines, Ayaou and her younger sister Shao-mei. At the end of the book, Shao-mei, was killed by someone out to get revenge on Robert.

In 'our Hart', Robert and Ayaou grieve over Shao-mei and Robert tries to better protect Ayaou. As his career grows, so does his family. Ayaou has children and their eunuch servant, Guan-Jiah becomes a surrogate uncle for the children. Robert became the deputy commissioner of customs for the Ch’ing dynasty in his late 20's. and it kept him away from his family for long stretches at a time. He was indispensible to the dynasty and work for them in to his senior year. They fondly referred to him as "Our Hart".

Our Hart is the story of Robert's lifelong career in China and his relationship with Ayaou and his lifetime servant, Guan-Jiah. Lloyd Lofthouse does a great job pacing the story and keeping the reader engaged. I thought the story got a bit repetitive with Ayaou's whining and questioning Robert's love but other than that it was a great story. Note, that I read an uncorrected proof, so perhaps some of Ayaou's whining was reduced. 

Though 'Our Hart' could be read as a standalone book, I highly recommend that you read 'My Splendid Concubine' first, as it gives you quite a bit of background that makes 'Our Hart' a richer read. I highly recommend both of these books to historical fiction lovers who are interested in Chinese culture.

If you are interested in learning more about the books, Robert Hart, and China, Lloyd Lofthouse has a blog with some great links to explore.  It is called, Learning China.

4/5

Thanks to Paula Krapf and Penny Sansevieri of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. and Lloyd Lofthouse for a copy of this book.

Also reviewed by:

Thanks to Anna of Hachette Books for making this giveaway possible!

BelindaM
Amy