Catching up on the books
Feb. 20th, 2006 08:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mojosmomI can't believe I haven't journaled a book since January 3. I also can't believe I've read so few books in the last several weeks. I'd better get cracking!
#2
Rituals of the Season, by Margaret Maron
A Judge Deborah Knott mystery. A prosecutor is the victim of an apparent drive-by shooting. Was it personal, or was it related to the possibility that an about-to-be-executed Death Row inmate is actually innocent? The mystery is solved amidst the preparations for Deborah's wedding. Enjoyable as usual.
#3
The Velvet Lounge: On Late Chicago Jazz, by Gerald Majer
I didn't actually finish this one. It wasn't what I expected. I was expecting some real writing about Chicago jazz, jazz clubs and musicians, and what I got was a stream of consciousness in which Majer uses Chicago jazz as a starting point for reminiscences about his life, and not very good stream of consciousness at that. Majer is a poet, and perhaps that doesn't translate well to prose.
#4
Weight, by Jeanette Winterson
Part of Canongate's Myth series, this is Winterson's take on the story of Atlas and Heracles. Heracles needs Atlas' help to steal the apples of the Hesperides, and so takes on the weight of the world for the moment.
#5
P.I. on a Hot Tin Roof, by Julie Smith
A Talba Wallis mystery. Typical New Orleans stuff: corrupt judges, eccentric night life, disappearing coastal shrimping. Said corrupt judge is found dead, an apparent suicide, and there are a lot of people who aren't crying, including some members of his own family. But they are blaming Talba, since she had been investigating him. And then it turns out it wasn't suicide after all.
# 6 & 7
Full Cupboard of Life and In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, by Alexander McCall Smith
Precious Remotswe books. Good as usual.
#8
Murder & Mystery in Chicago: Stories from Sara Paretsky to Robert Bloch
Short stories and a novella, all set in Chicago. Some better than others, of course, but I especially liked Dorothy B. Hughes' evocation of the seediness that used to be Randolph Street in her novella, The Spotted Pup.
#9
From London Far, by Michael Innes
Cambridge professor mutters a phrase of poetry in a tobacco shop which is taken to be the secret password, and finds himself in the midst of a gang of art thieves. He runs into a younger, female academic with a streak of adventure who has also accidentally fallen among thieves. She recognizes him from having attended his lectures on Martial! It's delightfully erudite. At one point the woman uses a bit of underworld slang, causing the professor to muse on how canting language changes much more quickly nowadays (just after WWII) than it used to. Delightfully odd and intelligent.
#10
House of Paper, Carlos Maria Dominguez
Whilst walking down the street and reading a volume of Emily Dickinson's poems, a professor of Latin-American literature is hit by a car. Some time later, a book which she gave to a former lover is returned, encrusted in cement. Her colleague travels to Argentina to find the sender and return the book, and finds himself tracking down a man who built a house from books. This is really a meditation on the relationship between people and their books. I certainly recognized myself here: "Every year I give away at least fifty of [my books] to my students, yet I still cannot avoid putting in another double row of shelves; the books are advancing silently, innocently through my house. There is no way I can stop them."
#11
Almost Like Being in Love, by Steve Kluger
A novel told in letters, memos, lists, etc. Boy meets boy, boy loses boy, and twenty years later, will boy get boy back? Craig and Travis meet in high school (boarding school) and fall in love, but college separates them. Years later, Travis, tired of flitting from relationship to relationship, realizes that Craig is still the one for him. And he sets out to get him back. But there's a catch: Craig has been living with, and madly in love with, another man for the last twelve years.
A wonderfully funny and true book. I especially love the comments each makes in his journal about his crush on the other, before they know it's shared. Craig about Travis: "There's nobody else like him in the whole world. And he thinks that's a handicap? QUESTION: How come he wants to hang out with me?" Travis on Craig: "Bulletin: He has a dimple in his chin that you can only see when he (a) smiles, and (b) smiles at me. May I be struck dumb if I'm making this up."
Travis' search for Craig and his plots at renewing the relationship, and Craig's love for Clayton and confusion when Travis pops back into his life, will have you really caring about what happens. And you won't be sure about what you want to have happen.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure Kluger was sure what he wanted to have happen, either. The ending reads as though Kluger had written himself into a corner and couldn't quite figure out how to get out. But despite that the book is definitely worth your time.
Due to the baseball connection (Craig is a jock in high school and teaches Travis all about baseball, and a minor league baseball player is an important character), I think I'll hold on to this and release it at the Gay Games this summer. The softball games will be right in my neighborhood.
Okay, that's enough for now. I've got a couple more in the TBJ (to-be-journaled) pile, but they can wait.
#2
Rituals of the Season, by Margaret Maron
A Judge Deborah Knott mystery. A prosecutor is the victim of an apparent drive-by shooting. Was it personal, or was it related to the possibility that an about-to-be-executed Death Row inmate is actually innocent? The mystery is solved amidst the preparations for Deborah's wedding. Enjoyable as usual.
#3
The Velvet Lounge: On Late Chicago Jazz, by Gerald Majer
I didn't actually finish this one. It wasn't what I expected. I was expecting some real writing about Chicago jazz, jazz clubs and musicians, and what I got was a stream of consciousness in which Majer uses Chicago jazz as a starting point for reminiscences about his life, and not very good stream of consciousness at that. Majer is a poet, and perhaps that doesn't translate well to prose.
#4
Weight, by Jeanette Winterson
Part of Canongate's Myth series, this is Winterson's take on the story of Atlas and Heracles. Heracles needs Atlas' help to steal the apples of the Hesperides, and so takes on the weight of the world for the moment.
#5
P.I. on a Hot Tin Roof, by Julie Smith
A Talba Wallis mystery. Typical New Orleans stuff: corrupt judges, eccentric night life, disappearing coastal shrimping. Said corrupt judge is found dead, an apparent suicide, and there are a lot of people who aren't crying, including some members of his own family. But they are blaming Talba, since she had been investigating him. And then it turns out it wasn't suicide after all.
# 6 & 7
Full Cupboard of Life and In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, by Alexander McCall Smith
Precious Remotswe books. Good as usual.
#8
Murder & Mystery in Chicago: Stories from Sara Paretsky to Robert Bloch
Short stories and a novella, all set in Chicago. Some better than others, of course, but I especially liked Dorothy B. Hughes' evocation of the seediness that used to be Randolph Street in her novella, The Spotted Pup.
#9
From London Far, by Michael Innes
Cambridge professor mutters a phrase of poetry in a tobacco shop which is taken to be the secret password, and finds himself in the midst of a gang of art thieves. He runs into a younger, female academic with a streak of adventure who has also accidentally fallen among thieves. She recognizes him from having attended his lectures on Martial! It's delightfully erudite. At one point the woman uses a bit of underworld slang, causing the professor to muse on how canting language changes much more quickly nowadays (just after WWII) than it used to. Delightfully odd and intelligent.
#10
House of Paper, Carlos Maria Dominguez
Whilst walking down the street and reading a volume of Emily Dickinson's poems, a professor of Latin-American literature is hit by a car. Some time later, a book which she gave to a former lover is returned, encrusted in cement. Her colleague travels to Argentina to find the sender and return the book, and finds himself tracking down a man who built a house from books. This is really a meditation on the relationship between people and their books. I certainly recognized myself here: "Every year I give away at least fifty of [my books] to my students, yet I still cannot avoid putting in another double row of shelves; the books are advancing silently, innocently through my house. There is no way I can stop them."
#11
Almost Like Being in Love, by Steve Kluger
A novel told in letters, memos, lists, etc. Boy meets boy, boy loses boy, and twenty years later, will boy get boy back? Craig and Travis meet in high school (boarding school) and fall in love, but college separates them. Years later, Travis, tired of flitting from relationship to relationship, realizes that Craig is still the one for him. And he sets out to get him back. But there's a catch: Craig has been living with, and madly in love with, another man for the last twelve years.
A wonderfully funny and true book. I especially love the comments each makes in his journal about his crush on the other, before they know it's shared. Craig about Travis: "There's nobody else like him in the whole world. And he thinks that's a handicap? QUESTION: How come he wants to hang out with me?" Travis on Craig: "Bulletin: He has a dimple in his chin that you can only see when he (a) smiles, and (b) smiles at me. May I be struck dumb if I'm making this up."
Travis' search for Craig and his plots at renewing the relationship, and Craig's love for Clayton and confusion when Travis pops back into his life, will have you really caring about what happens. And you won't be sure about what you want to have happen.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure Kluger was sure what he wanted to have happen, either. The ending reads as though Kluger had written himself into a corner and couldn't quite figure out how to get out. But despite that the book is definitely worth your time.
Due to the baseball connection (Craig is a jock in high school and teaches Travis all about baseball, and a minor league baseball player is an important character), I think I'll hold on to this and release it at the Gay Games this summer. The softball games will be right in my neighborhood.
Okay, that's enough for now. I've got a couple more in the TBJ (to-be-journaled) pile, but they can wait.
