Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

Quick review as it's late and I want to get my weekly post in on time... LOVED Three Cups of Tea, the story of an amazing man who, after (literally) stumbling on an impoverished village in Pakistan after a failed attempt to climb K2, promised to come back and build a school for the kids who had no chance of a future without an education. Not only did he build a school there but after years of working on a shoestring budget, he built dozens and dozens of schools, traveling to this volatile area over 25 times.

When 9/11 hit he was in Pakistan, a hero to the people there who couldn't believe that a foreigner, an American, cared so much about their children. After we started bombing Afghanistan, where he was also helping to educate children, he saw all of his hard work crumble, as local people were killed by our blanket bombs. How, he wondered, did Americans think they were going to try to save these folks (win their 'hearts and minds') by destroying their homes and property? His humanitarian work did more for building good will then American soldiers there to 'free' these people from their oppressors.

An amazing book. I couldn't recommend this one more... an incredible man doing his part for world peace. God bless him and his efforts.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

When my brother Bill urged me to read this book last spring, I did what I always do when someone recommends a book — I ran to the bookstore to buy it. (Hence, my still humongous pile of books…) Besides being recommended, it fulfilled my usual requirements: rave reviews, beautiful cover, and a nice hefty book (657 pages in paperback). But when I read the back blurb summary, it did not really interest me. I did the unthinkable, and left without purchasing the book. Fast forward two months, and there my brother is again, urging me to read it. I ask him the question even though I already know the answer, “Is it because it’s about twins?” (My brother is an identical twin). “Well, yeah, that’s part of it.” Aha! I felt so smart. He promised me that, even though he never cried during E.T., (my sister and I will never forgive him for that) he cried reading this book. So, of course, I had to buy it.

It took me longer than a week, just long enough to lapse into the new month. But it was so dense, not a quick read at all, and I did not feel so smart anymore. I really liked the characters. What’s not to love with a story that starts with the birth of conjoined twins, whose father is the surgeon who flees his small Ethiopian hospital when they are born, and the mother is his assistant, Sister Mary Praise, who dies while giving birth? Yes, conjoined twins, a doctor and a nun; sounds like the start of a great joke, right? It was not surprising to read in the acknowledgements that John Irving is an influence for Verghese – it sounds like a plot that Irving could really get into. Of course, there would be a wildebeest or at least a goat involved if he wrote it.

Anyway, I digress. I did love the story. The fact that everyone mentions the conjoined part is a little deceptive, since this is a problem corrected at their birth. The more interesting thing is that Shiva and Marion are mirror-image twins, which is a bit rarer to hear about. (My brothers are also mirror-image twins, one lefty, one righty, etc.) Their lives are the basis for the story, but there are so many characters orbiting around them that I could not possibly summarize the story in this space. Plus, I try not to do that – you can read a summary anywhere; especially good ones are on the Times or Amazon websites.

Verghese is an accomplished doctor as well as a writer, a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. But this book has a lot more doctor than writer in it, and it is not for anyone with a weak stomach. Vaginal fistula, female circumcision, aortic aneurism, anyone? They’re all here. I really love something I just read in the NY Times review, “One would, I suppose, be ill advised to use this novel as a textbook for liver transplantation or bowel surgery, but it might almost be possible.”

Anyway, if you can get through the graphic surgery parts, there is a moving story underneath. The settings, mostly in Ethiopia, but also in New York and Boston, were vividly described (ok, the hospitals) and the historical context was enlightening. There were characters I really cared about. I discovered many interpretations of the title, and I felt like I got a small medical education for the inexpensive price of a paperback, so really, what’s not to love?

The Art of Keeping Cool by Janet Taylor Lisle

My dad gave Jimmy this book for his 10th birthday this summer because it's written by a woman who lives in Little Compton, RI, where we spend our summers. Jimmy is an avid reader, he gobbles books up like candy, a trait which I'm particularly proud of.

This one, though, he read and seemed to have some reservations about. I hadn't picked it out for him and didn't know much about it but as he told me the story and how very sad parts of it were I decided I really needed to read it myself, if only to share the experience with him and be a sounding board if he had any questions.

So the premise is a small coastal town in Rhode Island (clearly our Little Compton) during World War ll. The narrator, 10 year old Robert, has recently moved to the town with his mother and sister, to live with his dad's parents while his dad is away in Europe fighting the war. The town is in a strategic coastal location so forts are built near the beaches, with hidden guns and secret hideaways. Robert's cousin Elliot befriends Abel Hoffman, an old German artist who appears in the town one day and makes his home in the woods living in an old boat frantically working on his art and also mysteriously seen on the beaches with a pair of binoculars. With the war raging and submarines spotted off shore the townspeople quickly become suspicious of Abel and his motives for living amongst them. Abel tells the boys his story, that he was an artist living in Germany targeted by the Nazis for his radical ideas and forced to escape to America.

The inevitable happens, Abel is attacked by the townspeople and is killed.... then Robert's dad's plane disappears over France.

SO this is what probably gave Jimmy pause about the book. Lots of different themes and events which are frightening for a 10 year old. Happily, Robert's dad is found and is ok (thank goodness) and Robert and his family are reunited.

No mention of the Holocaust which was just fine with me, there will be a time and a place for that and I'm thankful it wasn't included in the book. We talked about it and he seemed to learn from the book, sad lessons perhaps, that people aren't always kind to each other.

Even sadder, for me anyway, is that for him not every book can be Percy Jackson or Captain Underpants.

The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl

When Rita, (from the new book club I am so lucky to have joined) offered me this book, I declined at first, due to my previously mentioned humongous pile of to-be-read books. But, when I saw it was by Matthew Pearl, I changed my mind. The Dante Club is also on my pile, since my husband recommended it. For some reason though, this book called to me first. So, I cheated and it bypassed all of the others for a place in my bag while I was traveling last week. When I was younger, I loved mysteries. Now, many years later, ahem, I am more intrigued by a mystery that has some sort of historical basis. Ok, maybe that does have something to do with my age – I love stories about things much older than me.

The Last Dickens asks the question, “What if Charles Dickens really did finish Edwin Drood, and we only had to find it?” With Dicken’s untimely death, he literally left the world hanging — reading the sixth installment of an announced twelve in the serialized version of his story The Mystery of Edwin Drood. This story is told from the American publisher’s point of view; who, at the time, was in a precarious position. Because there was no international copyright protection then, virtually anyone who could get their hands on the overseas’ edition could go ahead and print a pirated copy in the United States. The official publisher, then, races against several unsavory characters to find the alleged manuscript. There were many moments in reading this that called to mind The Alienist, which is, to me, a favorable comparison. I love to read about old New York, and the parts that take place in London are vividly depicted as well. I’ve always loved reading Dickens, I just never knew what an interesting person he was. The facts surrounding his life and his great fame also provided a perfect backdrop for the story. There is even a little romance, though the less sexy, more New England kind (the publisher is based in Boston).

The question this book asks is one we sometimes ask ourselves, is a secret ever a good thing? But, in true mystery fashion, we wonder if there’s even a secret after all; maybe some things were just never meant to be, and some stories better left untold.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Two things:First, I didn't read this 864 page book in one week and second i read this one through DailyLit.com which sends subscribers a page a day of the book of your choice (thanks for the tip Kath!)... so though I have been pretty adverse to getting a Kindle I've now read one of the longest books in the history of fiction on my (relatively) small IPhone day after day since last january. Difficult to explain but I loved the idea of delving into a great work of fiction as an aside, as an adjunct to my regular reading. I was about 3/4 of the way through last week and decided to do the last 300 page final sprint as my book this week.

Of course this is book, often called 'the greatest novel ever written' is one of Tolstoy's best. He brilliantly interweaves the lives of several characters in 19th century Russia. I loved the descriptions of the upper class where visitors were invited to drawing rooms for drinks and stimulating conversation and after peeling away a few layers of a marriage they were found to have mostly unhappy, unfulfilled lives. When Anna Karenina makes the shocking decision to leave her husband for the dashing Count Vronsky she has made a choice which will be both freeing and unbearably painful.

The other main character, Levin, a 'gentleman farmer' spends most of the book going through agonizing moral dilemmas. Should he profess his love for the woman he wants to marry? When she rejects him should he pursue her again? Where is his place in the social class? Especially among lower class workers who make their living off of his land? He goes through chapters and chapters of religious revelations which were somewhat difficult to muddle through.

The writing, though, is classic and brilliant. Anna's tragic end is both stunning and haunting, it will stay with you long after the book is done.

Abide with Me by Elizabeth Strout

I was a fan of Olive Kitteridge, so when Elizabeth Strout was a guest speaker at our library author lunch I did my usual thing and bought all of her other books. This of course only added to my giant to-be-read pile, but thank goodness she only had two others. Anyway, after hearing the author, who was a little sketchy as a speaker, I was a little tentative with my hopes for these books. I also read later that they were not as good as Olive. Well, I have to say that I really did enjoy this book. There were times that it was a little tough going – parts of the story were overwhelmingly sad. But, if you’re looking for a good cry, Elizabeth Strout does sad and depressed very well.

Tyler Caskey is the beloved pastor of a close-knit Maine community. After his wife’s early death, his life begins a steady decline that forces him to examine all of the things he once believed so strongly. For such a truly good man, this is a difficult thing to watch. He is not perfect, of course. He is not the best parent, not the best son, but he had always been a wonderful minister; so when that falls apart he is left with a bunch of unmanageable fragments of a life.

What I find so wonderful about Strout’s writing is the tremendous detail she brings to every character, and there is a whole town’s worth in this book. There are minor characters here that are better developed than the main character of other books I’ve read. I also love to read about these hardened northerners who are not overfriendly, but who will be there for you in a crisis, and will not remind you of it later. Even the title of the book was picked with such care. The hymn “Abide with Me” recurs as a theme throughout the book, and, when the organist plays it toward the end, I almost cried. Ok, maybe I did, but just a little.

Juliet Naked by Nick Hornby

Ok, I’m taking a ditto on this one. When I checked on this blog a week or two ago I saw that Janie had just posted the book I was about to finish. But, I am going to say it still counts for me, and put my two cents in here for what it’s worth.

I am a big fan of Nick Hornby, and I think I’ve read all of his other books by now. I even read One Day earlier this summer because people compared him to Nick Hornby. Yes, I will try to get a life.

Since Janie gave a summary already, I’ll be brief. I enjoyed this book, though I will say it wasn’t one of his best. I always read them for the charming characters and their smart and funny repartee. That was all here, but something about it seemed unfinished. When I read the last page it was so abrupt that I turned it over expecting more. So, while I enjoyed it as I was reading it, I’m still trying to figure out if it was worth all of the abuse I took from my daughters who could not stop giggling about the hilarious name of the book Mommy was reading.