Saturday Review of Books: June 9, 2012

Jun8

â€œThere are two perfumes to a book. If a book is new, it smells great. If a book is old, it smells even better.â€ ~Ray Bradbury

Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Hereâ€™s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesnâ€™t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.

Then on Friday night/Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where youâ€™ve written your book review. Donâ€™t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after youâ€™ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book youâ€™re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews theyâ€™re most interested in reading.

After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.

Where I Belong by Gillian Cross

Jun6

“There are guns and bandits in this story. And supermodels. And there’s drought and starvation, too.

Does that bother you? Are you wondering how they can all come together? Well, that’s how life is these days. Things don’t happen neatly, in separate little places. We’re all linked together by e-mails and phones and the great spider’s web of media that spans the world.

That’s where this story is set. The world. It’s the story of Abdi and Khadija and Freya (that’s me),and what happened to us because of Somalia . . . “

Gillian Cross is a prolific British children’s and young adult author. She won the 1990 Carnegie Medal for her book Wolf, and the 1992 Whitbread Children’s Book Award for her novel The Great Elephant Chase. And I had never heard of her nor of any of her books.

Her latest book, Where I Belong, is wonderful story about two Somalian immigrants in London and their encounter with the world of high fashion and supermodels. Khadija, a young Somali who has been sent to England to get and education and help her family, becomes Qarsoon the Hidden One, a model for the famous fashion designer Sandy Dexter, but Khadija, and her guardian the fourteen year old Abdi, are both unaware of how small the world has become and how events in London can impact events in Somalia almost overnight.

I like books that give me a window into other cultures and into communities that I don’t know much about, and this book does both. I got a glimpse of Somali culture and of the world of high fashion. The suspense and characterization were obviously written by a master author. I’m ready to find some more books by Ms. Cross and check this new-to-me juvenile fiction writer. Has anyone else read any of her books?

Oh, and isn’t that cover photograph fantastic?

Book Tag: The Great Outdoors

Jun5

Today is National Trails Day, a day that exists to “bring the next generation outside and into the wonder of the natural world.” Since I am what a friend once called a “hothouse plant” (you should hear what my enemies call me), I generally celebrate holidays of this nature, that is “nature holidays”, by reading a good book about getting outdoors.

So in today’s edition of Book Tag, please suggest your favorite book, fiction or nonfiction about The Great Outdoors, getting out and enjoying God’s creation, sunshine and open spaces.

Remember the rules: In this game, readers suggest ONE good book in the category given, then let somebody else be “it” before they offer another suggestion. There is no limit to the number of books a person may suggest, but they need to politely wait their turn with only one book suggestion per comment.

My kick-off suggestion is Peter Jenkins’ classic A Walk Across America, the true story of a young man who decided to walk across the country from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific in search of . . . himself? Meaning? Patriotism? It’s a great story, and I absolutely loved living vicariously through Mr. Jenkins’ journey through the United States of 1979. (Jenkins only made it to New Orleans in the first book, so there’s a sequel, The Walk West.)

Oh, and thanks for the summer reading suggestions from last week. I’ve already reserved a few of the books you all suggested at the library so that I can read them this summer, outdoors while watching someone else hike down a lovely woodland trail. From my lawn chair. Under a shade tree.

Ready, set, go!

May Check-In: North Africa Reading Challenge

Jun2

Did you read any books for the North Africa Reading Challenge in May? I didn’t, unfortunately, read anything this past month that was set in North Africa.

I (we) will be concentrating on reading about Northern Africa this year. It’s a good place to start because I think we could all afford to know a little more about this part of the world from which so much of our heritage comes and in which so much has been happening lately. In my template, there are eleven countries in Northern Africa: Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia, and Western Sahara. (South Sudan is a brand-new country in this region, and of course books set in South Sudan count, too.) The challenge is to read eleven books either set in this region or written by authors from this region in 2012. I hope to read read at least one adult book and one children’s book from each country. The children’s books may be more difficult to find.

You are welcome to try any one of the following challenges—or make up your own.

1. North Africa Tour: Read at least one book from each of the eleven countries in Northern Africa. Since the challenge runs for eleven months, this challenge would entail reading one book per month.

2. African Country Concentration: Read five books set in one of the countries of Northern Africa or five books by authors from one of the countries of Northern Africa. Example: Read five books by Egyptian authors.

3. Children’s Challenge: Read five to eleven children’s books set in Northern Africa. Adults are welcome to do this challenge either with a child or not.

The Northern Africa Challenge begins on January 1, 2012 and ends on December 1, 2012. If you choose to read eleven books for this challenge, that will be one book per month. You can still join. If you would like to join me in this challenge in 2012, please leave a comment. I will keep a list of challenge participants in the sidebar, and I will link to your reviews, if you write them and send me links, on my Africa pages. (If you already have book reviews on your blog related to Northern Africa, those books don’t count for the challenge. However, if you send me the links at sherryDOTearlyAtgmailDOTcom, I will add your reviews to my Northern Africa page.)

Did you read any books in May set in North Africa or written by North African authors? Have you reviewed those books on your blog? If so, please leave a link here so that we can share our journeys through the countries of northern Africa.

Saturday Review of Books: June 2, 2012

Jun1

â€œIt doesn’t matter if it’s a book, magazine, newspaper, billboard, instruction manual, or cereal box–reading generates ideas, because you’re literally filling your head with ideas and letting your imagination filter them for something useful. If I stopped reading, I’d stop thinking. It’s that simple.â€ ~Twyla Tharp

Favorite Movie Quotes

May31

Cindy at Notes in the Key of Life has thirteen of her favorite movie quotes posted today. I like all of hers, and here are some of mine. These are mostly the lines we use in our family as a sort of shorthand:

Cary Grant in Arsenic and Old Lace: “Insanity runs in my familyâ€¦ It practically gallops.”

White Christmas:
Bob Wallace (Bing Crosby): Let’s just say we’re doing it for an old pal in the army.
Phil Davis (Danny Kaye): Well, it’s not good, but it’s a reason.

Gone With the Wind:
Prissy: “I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ babies.”
Scarlett: “I’ll think about that tomorrow. . . After all, tomorrow is another day.” (Pronounced with one’s best Southern accent, of course.)

Benjy Benjamin (Mickey Rooney) in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World: “Now look! Weâ€™ve figured it seventeen different ways, and each time we figured it, it was no good, because no matter how we figured it, somebody donâ€™t like the way we figured it! So now, thereâ€™s only one way to figure it. And that is, every man, including the old bag, for himself!”

Jimmy Stewart in The Philadelphia Story: “C.K. Dexter Haaaaven!”

The Princess Bride is the most quotable movie of all time. Cindy already quoted Inigo Montoya on revenge. Some other notable PB quotes:

Grandson: “Is this a kissing book?”
Westley: “As you wish.”
Vizzini: “Inconceivable!” “Never get involved in a land war in Asia.” “Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line!”
Inigo Montoya: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
“Let me ‘splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.”
Bishop: “Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday. Mawage, that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam… And wuv, tru wuv, will fowow you foweva.”
Miracle Max: “It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive.”

And what are your favorite movie quotes?

What Do You Think?

May30

Two “literary” movies are coming out in December, 2012. I can’t decide what I think about either one. I have a tendency to be conservative and like what I’m already used to seeing, but these are at least somewhat appealing.

Les Miserables, starring Hugh Jackman, Ann Hathaway, Russell Crowe, Eddie Redmayne, and Amanda Seyfried.

The singing by Ms. Hathaway is a little uneven, but the sets and costumes look wonderful. What do you think?

The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo DeCaprio, Carey Mulligan, and Joel Edgerton.

For this one I definitely prefer the version with Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, and Sam Waterston. Mia Farrow just captured the character of Daisy, and I’ve always enjoyed watching Mr. Waterston and Mr. Redford.

Book Tag: Summer Setting, Summer Reading

May29

How would you like to play book tag this summer? The idea for this game originally came from Carmon at her blog Buried Treasure, but since she no longer seems to be keeping a blog, I thought we’d play here.

“In this game, readers suggest a good book in the category given, then let somebody else be ‘it’ before they offer another suggestion. There is no limit to the number of books a person may suggest, but they need to politely wait their turn with only one book suggestion per comment.”

So, the category for today is: Summer Setting, Summer Reading.

What are the best books you’ve read that are set during summer or make you think of summer or seem just right for summertime reading?

I’ll start off with a couple of links to posts here at Semicolon, and a suggestion.

Summer Reading: 52 Picks for the Hols
Death in Summer: Mysteries for Hot Days

And my suggestion to start off this game of book tag is Three Men in a Boat (to Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome. Three young men and a dog named Montmorency go boating down the Thames to improve their health and disposition. They meet up with angry swans and assertive steam-launches, among other obstacles, but they are nevertheless determined to finish out their “fortnight’s enjoyment on the river.”

It’s funny in a Wodehousian way, and I think it takes place in the summer, at least during some sort of holiday time.

So, ready, set, go! What’s your summer book recommendation?

Saturday Review of Books: May 26, 2012

May25

â€œForce yourself to reflect on what you read,
paragraph by paragraph.â€ ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West

May25

“[S]he had forgotten that it is the first concern of love to safeguard the dignity of the beloved, so that neither God in his skies nor the boy peering through the hedge should find in all time one possibility for contempt . . .”

I’m not sure what that statement means, to guard someone else’s dignity before God and man(?), but it is interesting to think about, as is this little story by Rebecca West, her first novel, published just as the First World War was ending in 1918. In 1914, The Soldier, Captain Christopher Baldry, is a sort of a hero, returning from the war, but the book is really about the women that Captain Baldry left behind: his cousin Jenny, his wife, Kitty, and his first love, Margaret.

The Return of the Soldier is another amnesia story, but it has an atmosphere and a poignancy that some of the other stories in the genre lack. Chris Baldry comes back from the war having lost his memory of the past fifteen years. The story is narrated by Jenny, Chris’s cousin, who grew up with Chris and who lives in his house as a companion to his wife, Kitty.

There are lot of questions raised in the story and left to be answered by the reader:

Is Jenny a reliable narrator? Are the thoughts and motivations of the other characters really as Jenny describes them or are we being told a tale that is only true in part from Jenny’s perspective? And who is Jenny? Why is she there, and why is she so interested in telling this story? I tried to read the story carefully, but I was never sure about Jenny’s personality and motivations.

What kind of person is Chris? Was he really happy in his marriage and his home before the war? Would he want to return to the war and “do his duty”, or is his amnesia not only an illness but also a subconscious running away from the horrors of the battlefield?

Who really loves Chris Baldry, the soldier? I would say that the woman who sacrifices herself for him is the one who really loves him. Who is that? Well, you tell me after you’ve read the book.

I recommend that you read this one slowly and carefully, paying attention to the details of time, setting, characterization, and plot. I wonder if watching the 1982 movie version of this novel, starring Alan Bates, Julie Christie, Ian Holm, Glenda Jackson, and Ann-Margret, would help at all in answering any of the questions, at least from the perspective of the screenwriters, the director, and the actors who made the movie.