Category Archives: Books I enjoy!

It’s Saturday! Seems I Can’t Read to Please Someone Else

Most of the time I manage to be quite good at talking to people about books. Since I’m genuinely happy to hear about people reading, I like to believe that my sincerity comes across, even when they are reading books that don’t interest me in the slightest.

But this time I got carried away. Reading a book so I could talk about it and have it in common with my in-laws seemed such an easy thing to do. Especially as my library has it.

Actually, the recommendation was for three books by Paullina Simmons: “The Bronze Horseman”. “Tatiana and Alexander” and “The Summer Garden”. I didn’t really understand that the books were related, and on the covers of the edition in the library it doesn’t say so, so I took out “Tatiana and Alexander”. Even if that was a mistake, I do give full credit to the auth0r that the book stands very clearly on it own.

The book is told, in turns, by each of the main characters. I found Alexander’s story interesting. At times it reads like a “Die Hard” movie without Bruce Willis, and I kept wondering how the author was going to get Alexander out alive of each situation. Tatiana’s story was not my cup of tea quite quickly.

Although it is certainly an easy book to read, after 170 pages I simply got bored. I have no intention of reading any more of it (there are 550 pages!) to please anyone. Especially when they start mentioning promises to dead sisters of the bride…

So far have managed to steer away from the topic of books with my in-laws!

Saturday’s Book: “Painter of Silence” by Georgina Harding

The timing was perfect; just as Baiba Svenca told me about this book, which she was sure I would enjoy, I was asked to choose an audio-book as a gift.

Painter of Silence is a good choice of a book for me, both as a tale and as an audio-book. The book spans a period which begins well before World War II,  and continues into the period after it, moving between the times to draw you into the tale. There are many rich descriptions and I find that in an audio-book (with a good reader, of course!) it is easy to conjure the visual images being described of the unfamiliar Romanian countryside and villages.

One of the main characters of the story, is Deaf. He is the “painter of silence” and the author involves us to a suprising degree in how he viewed the world growing up, while sharing with us how his world viewed (and accepted) him. Through people’s interactions with him (particularly Safda, the girl who knew him from infancy) we see the other characters developing and the clouds of war building up and threatening their existence. The deaf person became the one you could tell anything to.

I wonder if the author had first hand experience with Deaf people. I found very little information about Ms. Harding on the Internet. In any case, I’m sure you don’t have to be a teacher of English to deaf and hard of hearing students to feel involved and enjoy this book!

Saturday’s Book: “Run” by Ann Patchett

After my lack of success with my previous library book, I decided to wait no longer. I checked out the third and last Ann Patchett book that the library owns. I really enjoyed the previous two.

What a great choice!

Its difficult to describe the book without spoiling it, as part of its charm is the unpredictable manner in which the story progresses. It takes place in BOSTON (that’s kind of an added perk -I spent my childhood in a Boston suburb with Irish Catholic children) and thereIS an extended family whose lives the reader gets involved in. But just when I feel I know how the plot will play out in the next chapter it veers away and surprises me. Yet it all ties in and does move forward.

The best image I can think of is a searchlight, surpising you anew with each thing it illuminates.

I suppose it is just as well that I will probably finish this book before the trip to Liverpool. I really should try to sleep on the flight and I have trouble stopping and turning off my night light with this one!

 

Saturday’s Books: From Baldacci to McCall Smith

I’m not the least bit against reading a book with a happy end. I mean the kind when you know there’s going to be a happy end from page one. In fact, I need it from time to time.

And I’m perfectly willing to let the hero ” have” a miracle if the writing is good. Even if it happened on Christmas.

But I will absolutely not put up with books that adhere to a mold and are so predictable. I found David Baldacci “One Summer” to be laid out as if ready for a film with Jennifer Aniston (though not sure she is right for the heroine in this case). Person remains alone with 3 children (won’t spoil the miracale) and has to learn to deal with them. Enter person of opposite sex alone with a child. All learn to live again and love again. He DOES write nicely but I couldn’t stand it and abandoned the book.

I moved to “The Full Cupboard of Life” by McCall Smith, from the “No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency”. It is also a book where I know there will be a happy end but so very different! I smile and chuckle and can never predict how Mma Ramotswe will deal with something. I just know that she will!

 

Saturday’s Book: “The Heritage” by Lenz, Part Two

FIFTY PAGES.

I began the week, Sunday morning, with only fifty pages left to read. When I get this close to the end of a book, a good book, I have been known to drop almost everything and read.

This week it only happened today. Now that my talk on Sunday has been given, 3 different staff meetings have been attended and dinner for 15 people is behind me, today I “resigned” from everything, sat and read until I finished the book.

Good book.

Lenz so very cleverly manages to paint a universal tale by telling a very personal tale, rich with details. He deals with the extremely hot rod of a subject of defining homeland, of the beauty and dangers of patriotism and the price of rewriting history. Although one recognizes World War 1 and 2, he does not give time-lines or maps. In fact he does not directly name things you would expect

If I said, when reading part one, that parts of the book reminded me of an Emir Kusturica film, the second part reminded me at times of the POWERFUL movie “The White Ribbon” (Michael Haneke, the one who just won an Oscar for “Amour”). The final 50 pages are dramatic. While the book opens with the fact that the hero burned down The Heritage Museum, and all through the book one has suspicions, but only at the very end does Lenz make it crystal clear why it was done.

A book that highlights the power of understatement.

Off to the library tomorrow – holiday coming!

T

It’s Saturday! Discussing Reading Habits on a Nature Hike

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day, perfect weather for a nature hike in the Carmel Mountain. Its been a rainy winter and the flowers are in full bloom. Our timing was good, and we had already started walking when the ground warmed up enough for the storks to rise in the circular fashion that allows them to take advantage of the warm air and use it as an elevator. I’m not exaggerating, thousands of storks passed over us! Its migrating season! So very very impressive! No pictures though, very hard to catch.

Unsurprisingly, our friends tend to be people who enjoy reading too. This time we were discussing different reading habits. We seemed to be neatly split down the middle. Half of us (including me!) have to read every single day. Some days less, sometimes more, but every single day. I find that all day my thoughts are darting in a multitude of directions. Reading is a time of focusing on something outside my daily life. I find it very relaxing.

The other half feel that when they read they want to spend a lot of time reading and have continuity (read the book often). They feel too tired to read every day and prefer to save their reading for holidays and vacations.

Which group do you identify with?

It’s Saturday! “A&P” by John Updike

If you had asked me to name some important American Writers I would have mentioned John Updike.  But the sad truth is that I hadn’t actually read anything by him (the fact that I watched “The Witches of Eastwick” on TV doesn’t really count).

It turns out that there are free New Yorker Magazine podcasts of short stories that appeared in their Magazine years ago. Each story is read by a different author and there is a discussion about the story with the paper’s literary fiction editor.

My first choice was Updike’s story. I listened to it and then found it online too (I’m not linking to it, don’t know about copyright here). I really enjoyed it. You see the scene so clearly, even though the story depicts a time period long gone. I could easily imagine it, the characters are so believable.

Since then, in the first two days after I listened/read the story, I encountered mentions of it! First there was the article about Brendan O’connell – an artist who paints Walmart (sounds awfully odd, doesn’t it?). He mentions the story as one of the sources of his inspiration.

When I began telling my older brother about this, he just heard the name Updike and told me that he’ll never forget the first short story he had learned in college, which was A&P.

I’ll see what the library has of his – any recommendations? In any case, am still reading “The Heritage Museum”. My friend Dorit surprised me with a copy of the book in English so I immediately abandoned the archaic Hebrew translation in two volumes. It is really good!

Saturday’s Book: “The Heritage” by Siegfried Lenz – Vol. 1

Yes, that’s right, volume one. This book, at least in its Hebrew translation (from German), comes in two volumes. I read much slower in Hebrew than I do in English, however the book itself is not a “slow read” at all. In fact it reads just like a screenplay, I don’t think it needs much adapting for the cinema at all!

The book begins by the burning down of the Heritage Museum of an area in Germany called Mazuria. This is not a spoiler as this is the event on which the rest of the book is based – a tale of the reasons why such a dramatically violent act of obliterating the past are called for. In Hebrew it is not called the Heritage Museum but rather “The Homeland Museum”. I understand the author wants to give the word its proper meaning, not the one of slogans, of parties that came later. His main message is not clear to me yet, but I understand from the recommendations I  got that it will most certainly be.

The narrator of the book, who is the one who burned the museum, lies in his hospital bed, describing to a visitor how he came to do what he did, beginning in his child.  The descriptions are vivid, detailed and rich,  of a world long gone, not necessarily a beautiful one either. At times the tales remind me of films by Emir Kusturica – a combination of squalid life, poverty and ignorance combined with extraordinary events and humor. Unfortunately, the book doesn’t have the wonderful music that the Kusturica films have!

Will write again about this book when I get to volume two. A pity I didn’t get a hold of the book in English though, the translation is a pretty old one. It doesn’t matter – couldn’t have read the original version in any case!

 

Saturday’s Book: Listening to “The Red Notebook” by Paul Auster

I downloaded this for free at the Open Culture site.  It is read by the author. I can’t really comment on their selection as I really wanted a book to listen to and got as far as the letter A…

I had my misgivings as whether Paul Auster was a good choice. I had loved “Mr Vertigo” and the “Music of Chance” when I read them years ago. But I did not like “Leviathan” and couldn’t finish “the New York Trilogies” (too much of the same!).

But it turned out to be an excellent choice. The Red Notebook is a collection of short, odd tales, that the author collected over the years from his own experiences and those of his friends. Each tale stands on its own so its fine when  you need to stop frequently and listen to it in pieces.

My only regret is that it is only an hour! Now to look for another one!

Saturday’s Book: “Murder Over the Border” By Richard Steinitz

Not only am I reading this fast paced murder-mystery novel set in Israel in the early 1990’s,  the author has kindly agreed to be my first guest on my Saturday’s Book Posts! So, without further ado, please welcome Richard Steinitz!

Richard, in the almost 30 years I’ve known you, you have always been surrounded by books. What made you, a “book exhibitionist” (your term, not mine!) of ELT materials, decide to take the plunge and write a novel?

I never even thought seriously about writing a book, until the Army stepped in!

I had the good fortune to do Reserve service one summer at a small outpost near the triangle border – the junction of Israel, Jordan and Syria, at the meeting of the Jordan and the Yarmukh rivers.

The physical location was beautiful, and nature stepped in with a band of gazelles that wandered around the base. They were small enough and light enough so that they didn’t set off the mines that were scattered outside the barbed-wire fencing, and so they could come very close to where we were. One of our jobs was to sit in a little bunker on the side of the hill, with a tin roof over our heads to keep the sun off, and a huge telescope inside it. The job was to watch the movement of Jordanian Army vehicles, going up and down the road that parallels the border on the Jordanian side, and write down in a notebook every one that drove past. The job was boring, to say the least, since only half a dozen or so army vehicles drove down that road in a given day (and not many more civilian ones). The telescope was for us to be able to see whether they were military or civilian vehicles, and if possible, to identify the units they belonged to, by the flashes painted on them.

So I spent a bit more time watching the gazelles than I probably should have, and really regretted not having a camera with me to photograph them.

This combination of gazelles, telescope and boredom rattled around in my mind for a long, long time. It seemed to me to be a great idea for a story of some kind, even though I had no experience in story-writing and no intentions of doing any writing.

One day, and I cannot even remember when, the seed germinated and I started to write – without any real plan or outline. I had no idea what the final story would look like, or what would happen in it. It took me seven years to write what became “Murder Over the Border”, though I did do a few other things too.

You chose to write a murder-mystery novel. Who are your favorite murder-mystery writers?

That’s easy – Robert Parker is definitely Number One. He wrote quite a long series of books about a private detective called Spencer – with no first name. I love these books, because they are very sparsely written, with very neat text and no superfluous words at all. The stories are really gripping, and you have a great feeling of identification with the main character.

I really like Dorothy Sayers, the English author of the Peter Whimsy series. She is out of favor these days, due to some anti-semitic remarks in some of her books, but that does not detract from their quality – or so I think. And lastly, John Sandford, the author of the “Prey” series, which take place in Minnesota and feature Lucas Davenport as an on-again, off-again police detective. These are quite violent in part, but the violence is always a legitimate part of the story – it is not there just to titillate the reader. His Minnesota settings make me want to visit there as soon as I can.

 You write in English and have lived in the USA , England and in Israel. What made you decide to place the setting in Israel?

Well, Israel is the place I know best, having spent over two-thirds of my life here. And the events that inspired the book took place here. I think writing about my life in the USA, or about the UK, would be much more difficult, but that is not to say it could not be done – it just would require a lot more research.

 Are you working on another book already?

Yes, I am. It is quite different in many ways – I’m writing it in the first-person rather than in the third person narrative, and it is only partially concerned with Israel. It does have a Jewish theme to it though and it takes place is several locations – so what I said in the previous question really is true. I’ve had to do a lot of research on locations and events, and to tell the truth, I really like that.

 Thank you, Richard, for being such a pleasure to interview. And a big:”thank you” for lending me a hard copy of the book– I don’t own an e-reader! Off to continue reading – have read more than half and am in suspense!