Shattered Dreams: My LIfe as a Polygamist's Wife

By Irene Spencer

This is Irene's story of her experience as the second wife of a man who eventually had 10 wives. Both Irene and her husband were members of a fundamentalist Mormon sect that believes in the polygamy espoused by the founders of the Mormon religion. It is a pretty far-out doctrine which I find amazing that anyone would ever believe came from God and not from the unbridled lusts of a bunch of dirty old men. According to the author, Brigham Young claimed that there are spirits in the universe that need bodies to inhabit and that it is the duty of righteous men and women to provide these bodies and the best way to do that is through polygamy. They also were taught that men could become gods if they married at least two women (although seven or more is better) and had as many kids as possible. (Never mind that the ratio of men to women is about 50/50 so if one man has 10 wives then nine men must have none. Irene's man proves the ratio: he had 29 sons and 29 daughters.) As for the women, they could only become goddess if they help their man have as many wives and children as possible. They were also taught the "law of purity" that required abstinence from sexual relations before marriage and after becoming married during pregnancy, lactation, menses and after menopause. Of course the real reason for the purity law is to take some of the pressure off the man who is trying to service his herd of women and give him a break from his sexual duties. In Irene's case, she and her man only had sex to get her pregnant. She had thirteen kids with him and probably had sex with him less than thirty times in the more than two decades they were together.
Irene was raised in this strange sect and when she turned seventeen she decided she wanted to be a polygamist's wife. So she married her half-sister's husband. Right away she was miserable. Seems like her new man had neither the time or resources to spend on his new wife. Also the first wife didn't like sharing. But so what? That didn't stop him from going out and getting new wives over the course of the years. He ended up with 58 kids before he died at the age of 51. When I read he had died young, I figured it was from exhaustion. (It wasn't, he died in a car crash.)
This man dragged his wives and kids from place to place, from shack to shack, always short of money, making his families live on beans and little else, dozens of them crowded into one small house, living without electricity or indoor plumbing or even running water. Everyone worked like dogs trying to raise food and earn money to support the herd. It was never enough. Every time they would get a little ahead, he lead them off to another and usually worse place.
Even though Irene wanted to live the polygamous life, she found she didn't really have the temperament for it. She always felt neglected and very lonely. She longed for intimacy with her man and rarely got it. Every time he brought a new women into the herd, it tore Irene up. Her life was one of constant deprivation and labor and bearing so many babies nearly wrecked her health. She wanted to do what she thought was the right thing but she became so depressed she longed to die. Still, she stuck by him, even though, towards the end, she longed to escape.

This is an amazing story of Irene's journey through polygamy and fanatical religion and out to sanity and peace of mind and spirit. It is a story of love, hard work, endurance and survival. It is also an enlightening look at how people can be controlled and ruled by beliefs that seem silly to outsiders looking in. I felt sorry for Irene, but I couldn't help thinking that she only got what she wanted. She wasn't forced into polygamy. She saw how miserable it made her mother. She bought into the fantasy but she sure did bruise herself on the reality.

Review by Kirkus Reviews:   https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/irene-spencer/shattered-dreams-2/.

The Keepers of the House

By Shirley Ann Grau

This novel won the Pulitzer Prize for 1965.

The Howlands have lived and prospered in central Alabama since the early days of the 1800s. The first William Howland settled there and built his home. He was killed by Indians but his sons carried on after him. Eventually the Howlands ended up owning a lot of valuable land in the county and became one of the the wealthiest families in the area. As their fortunes grew so did their house.
Despite their prominence, the Howlands were not particularly well liked. The locals considered them a bit peculiar. The Howlands didn't flaunt their wealth and perhaps their neighbors didn't really understand just how much of the local economy depended on the well being of the Howland family's current representative, Abigail. But they are about to find out, because, in the words of Abigail at the start of the story, "I shall destroy as much as I have lost."
Abigail's grandfather, William, acquired a housekeeper after his wife died. The housekeeper, a mixed-race black woman named Margaret, became his mistress. Margaret and William had three children, Robert, Nina and Crissy. The eldest, Robert, is the same age as William's only grandchild, Abigail, who lives there also. All three of Margaret's kids look white and all three are sent away to school up north to give them the chance to live as white people. It is what their mother wanted for them. But being sent away like that causes some angry and hard feelings among the children.
Abigail grows up and marries John Tolliver, an ambitious man who wants a career in politics. He sees Abigail's wealth and prominence as a stepping stone to his career, although she does not believe this, despite her grandfather's warning. Tolliver is a bigot and a racist, or at least this is how he presents himself, because he knows that it is what will appeal to the racist and bigoted voters of the Alabama of that time (1950s-60s). He joins the KKK and the White Citizens Council. He is a smart politician and is zeroing in on the governorship when the family secret is leaked to the press by an angry and vengeful Robert: William Howland and Margaret were married, she wasn't his mistress, she was his wife. The instant Tolliver hears this news, he leaves Abigail and shortly files for divorce. His political career is now ruined and he no longer has any use for her and so he cuts out and heads back to his home town.
The county knew that Margaret's children were fathered by William and that was OK. But the idea that he actually married a black woman is not OK. Even though Margaret and William have been dead for years, still the mob must have its revenge and takes it out on the only Howland available, Abigail.

I found this to be a really interesting and engrossing story, although sad and depressing. This is not a happy tale, not at all. Margaret and William suffer because they cannot reveal their marriage or that their children are not illegitimate. The three mixed race kids suffer because they are sent away from their family. Abigail suffers when her marriage falls apart and she is forced to bear the brunt of the county's anger against her grandfather. No, it is not a happy tale but it was a fascinating read.

Review by Kirkus Reviews. 

Peyton Place

By Grace Metalious

This book came out in 1956, although it is set in the late 1930s & early 1940s. It was an exposé of small town life in New England. Set in the fictitious town of Peyton Place, it focuses mainly on three people, Constance MacKenzie and her daughter Allison and Selena Cross. Constance is a prosperous shopkeeper with a secret, a secret that is unknown even to her daughter, Allison. Constance was never married. Selena Cross has a secret too. She was impregnated by her stepfather and had an abortion performed by the local physician, secretly of course, since abortion was not legal then. Allison doesn't really have any secrets but she makes up for it by being ultra-sensitive. Allison is so sensitive that she has to spend a week in the hospital when she discovers the housekeeper's dead body hanging in Allison's closet. The housekeeper hung herself when she finally faced the fact that her husband raped her daughter, Selena.
Yes, Peyton Place is chock full of secrets. Like the boy who enjoys the frequent enemas that his loving mommy is pleased to administer. Like the old lady who enjoys peeping at her neighbors as the man gives oral sex to his pregnant wife in their backyard. Like the high school principal who forces sex on a reluctant Constance for her own good. Like the mill owner who blackmails his employees into backing him in civic matters like zoning and schools. Yes, Peyton Place is a nasty place, but I guess the point of the novel is that nasty as it is, it is pretty typical.
Peyton Place was a shocker in its day. It is still a good story, though it comes across now as a bit soapy. It touches on almost all the sins of modern life: incest, child abuse, teen sex, hypocrisy, alcohol abuse. About the only thing missing is drug abuse. Religion even comes in for a few whacks when a protestant minister reverts to the religion of his childhood, Catholicism. And the local Pentecostals mistake a raving drunk who wanders into their church meeting for a prophet speaking in tongues. (That was actually a pretty funny scene as was the scene with the drunks on a bender in the cellar.) At times, I found the book a little dull and I didn't care for the oh so sensitive Allison. But still I am glad I read it.

A Piece of Cake: A Memoir

By Cupcake Brown

When Cupcake Brown was 11 years old, she discovered her mother's dead body. Her mother had suffered a seizure and died during the night. After receiving this devastating blow, she and her brother were ripped away from the only father they had ever known and given over to a man they had never met, their biological father. This man wasted no time abandoning his two children to the foster care system, as he was only interested in gaining access to whatever funds they would receive from their mother's estate and from the Social Security system.
The home the children were placed in was abusive to say the least. It got so bad that Cupcake ran away, several times, only to be returned to the abusive foster family or placed in other foster families that were also abusive. Raped and sexually abused, Cupcake ended up on the street, surviving by prostitution, eating out of garbage cans and masking her pain with an escalating series of drugs and alcohol. During the course of her teen years, she joined the Crips gang in Los Angeles. After she was shot in a drive by, she left the gang, but continued to abuse any drug that came her way and supported her druggie lifestyle by stealing, prostitution and a series of jobs that she managed to hang onto despite her crumbling lifestyle. As she describes it, "After smoking crack or using various forms of speed all night, my heart would be beating so hard and so fast that it felt like it was going to (literally) explode. My eyes would be trying to see everything everywhere at once, and my body would be zooming. Because of these 'health reasons,' I allowed myself to drink in the mornings. And when I couldn't get away long enough to sneak a couple of drinks, I'd pop reds, T's, blues, or valium. Of course the downers and booze did what they were supposed to: calmed my body down, slowed my heart rate, and steadied my eyes. Problem was, they slowed everything down so much that I'd damn near fall asleep at my desk, in the bathroom, or wherever I happened to be when they kicked in. So to counteract the booze I'd toot some crank or pop some beauties or yellow jackets at lunch. They lifted me up and gave me the oomph I needed to make it through the afternoon."
Her drug and alcohol abuse got so bad she ended up sleeping behind a dumpster and turning tricks to earn the funds for her next hit. Then she caught a glimpse of her reflection in a gas station window and was shocked and alarmed by what she saw: "You look like one of those starving children in Africa, I told myself. Honestly, those children looked healthier than I did at that moment."
At this point she realized that if she didn't get some help she could soon be dead. She got herself checked into a hospital and entered a 12 step program. Using the daily meetings, her sponsor, and turning her life over to God, Cupcake turned her life around. Not only did she kick booze and drugs, she went to college and graduated with honors, moved on to law school and eventually became a lawyer.

This is an inspiring story that points out that it isn't the adversity that ruins a life, it's how one chooses to respond to it. Cupcake buried her grief and pain with drugs and alcohol and she was only able to truly live her life when she turned from chemical anesthesia and faced the brutal pain of her horrific past.

For another review of this story, check out Bookreporter.com

The Reivers

By William Faulkner

This novel won the Pulitzer Prize for 1963.

This is the story of a boy, a stolen car and a stolen racehorse. It is set in 1905 and the car in question belongs to the boy's grandfather. The grandfather's driver, Boon, takes advantage of his employer's absence and he sets out on a trip to Memphis and brings the grandfather's grandson, Lucius, along, as a kind of insurance, I guess. They also have a stowaway on board too. Hidden under a tarp is Ned, a family retainer.
Boon is bound for Memphis to visit a woman he likes who works in a bordello. Why Ned decided to come along isn't made clear until the very end of the story. Boon and Lucius are not there very long before they find out that Ned has sold the car in exchange for a racehorse, a stolen racehorse. This particular racehorse is famous for not liking to race. Ned explains that he can get the horse to run and win and with their winnings they will be able to buy back the car and get back home and maybe Lucius' grandfather won't put them in jail. Meanwhile, Lucius gets a thorough education in the facts of life that he later wishes he could unlearn, thanks partly to Otis, a creepy and nasty boy who is a guest at the bordello.
Lucius also is witness to the tempestuous relationship between Boon and Corrie, who is one of the bordello girls, and Butch, a corrupt official who also wants Corrie.

I hadn't read Faulkner before reading The Reivers. This story started out really hard to read, the style very dense and meandering and full of interjections. Fortunately, it becomes more readable before long. The details of the car/horse race swap went over my head, being very tangled and rather unlikely, as far as I could tell. I didn't really get that part of the story, maybe because I am not a gambler and I don't follow racing and I don't know anyone who does.
Other than that, it was an engaging story, often times amusing, and Lucius a likable kid and the stowaway, Ned, a fount of down home wisdom. It was a fun and sometimes scary trip back to the old south and the days of the "Jim Crow" laws.

Review by Jonathan Yardley in The Washington Post: "William Faulkner's Southern Draw: 'The Reivers'"

the hollow chocolate bunnies of the apocalypse

By Robert Rankin

This book was named SFX Magazine's best book of the year, according to the cover, and to quote the cover, SFX described the book as "unputdownable."
I found it very "putdownable." To begin with, I was just put off by the premise, a city of living toys and of nursery rhyme characters. But I kept up with the story because it had been recommended to me as a fun read. So a series of violent murders, described in loving detail, occur. One of the murders is presented as being gruesomely funny. I didn't think it funny, just gruesome. A hollow chocolate bunny is left at the scene of each murder. Maybe I missed it, but I never found where the significance of these bunnies is explained. True, there is a lot of nonsense in the book. One of the running jokes that is that one of the main characters, a toy bear, has no thumbs and it greatly inconveniences his life.
The two main characters are Jack, a young outsider just arrived in Toy City, and Eddie, the toy bear. Eddie is the associate of one Bill Winkie, who is a private detective. Winkie was paid to investigate the really nasty murder of Humpty Dumpty but Winkie has vanished. Eddie ropes Jack into helping him carry on the investigation but then the bodies start piling up, including Little Boy Blue and Mother Goose. Eddie and Jack realize they have a serial killer on their hands, a serial killer who is taking aim at all the big names of Toy City.

This book was an OK read. There is a lot of silly stuff in it that is supposed to be funny but I guess it just didn't appeal to me. I found the book kind of juvenile, except that the murders are just too gruesome to be appropriate for juvenile reading matter. I had never read any of this author's books before, but apparently he has published lots of novels. Maybe I just happened across a dud. It happens, even among the best writers.
If you are a fan of his works, then you would probably enjoy this story too.

Review from Publishers Weekly:   https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-575-07401-9.

The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years

By Bernard Lewis

Bernard Lewis is an authority on Islamic and Middle Eastern history and an Emeritus Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton. He has written several books about the Middle East and Islam.
As the title says, this book is a brief history of the Middle East from the beginnings of Christianity up to modern times. Written in 1994, it is now a tad dated. It is a comprehensive look at the history of a part of the world that is composed of many different peoples and cultures united under one religion, Islam. This is not to say that Islam is the only religion in the region but it certainly is the dominant one.

This book lays out a good overview of the area, discussing the different dynasties in brief and concentrating on the forces that drove the history of the area. Bernard Lewis is English born and bred and sometimes the language is a bit difficult. I had to keep a dictionary nearby to look up words at times. Some foreign words, Arabic and other terms, are used throughout. I would have preferred their English versions. Despite these quibbles, though, I found it a very well laid out, interconnected look at the history of this area of the world.

For a deeper review of this book, visit Daniel Pipes. Daniel Pipes is an author, historian and Middle East analyst.

Garden Spells

By Sarah Addison Allen

Sydney Waverley is in trouble and the only safe haven she can think of for herself and her young daughter Bay is back home in the little town she grew up in with her sister Claire and their grandmother. She shows up without warning expecting to find her grandmother, but instead finds Claire, her older sister with whom she has had a rather strained relationship. The grandmother has died and now Claire owns the old house with its very special garden, a garden filled with magical flowers and a cantankerous apple tree that likes to toss its apples at people.
Claire, a caterer, uses the magical flowers in her recipes. Sydney and Bay move in and try to fit into the town that Sydney fled when she was just a teen. With a little help from Claire, Sydney discovers that Claire is not the only sister with a special talent.

All throughout this story, I was struck by how much it resembled Alice Hoffman's novel, Practical Magic. Like the Hoffman story, Garden Spells features two very different sisters with special talents, one of whom is running away from an abusive man and, as in the Hoffman story, the man ends up dead, although his death is not shown in Allen's story. The fugitive sister seeks refuge back in their home town and turns to her more settled, calmer sister for help, another similarity. Practical Magic is the better book, I think, with more depth and a more complex and engrossing story than Garden Spells. This is not to say that Garden Spells is a bad book. It just suffers by comparison to Practical Magic. Even though it is a bit of a lightweight, I still enjoyed reading it and found it fun and engaging.

Publishers Weekly review: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-553-80548-2.

The Edge of Sadness

By Edwin O'Connor

Pulitzer Prize Winner Fiction 1962

This novel was considered to be a shocker in its time, debunking the myth of the, to quote from Loyola Press, "super-competent and authoritarian but lovable leader, the wise counselor, gregarious extrovert, and heroic celibate (who could nevertheless flirt with the ladies)."
This is the story of Father Hugh Kennedy who grew up in an Irish Catholic parish and was lucky enough to serve in a similar parish in the same town when he was a young priest. While he was thus employed, his father became ill with cancer. As he watched his father waste away in pain and suffering, Father Hugh became more and more distressed. After his father finally died, Father Hugh found refuge from his pain in the bottle.
At first, he was able to control his drinking, but eventually he ended up in rehab. After rehab, he went back to work but soon found himself back in trouble with alcohol. This time he went to the rehab center for almost four years, learning to deal with his depression and his alcoholism.
Eventually he had to leave rehab and get back to work. His bishop kindly gave him charge of a quiet, run-down parish in the poor part of his home town. Father Hugh settles in and basically just hides, letting most of the parish work rest on the shoulders of his young curate.
Bursting upon this quiet scene one day is an old acquaintance from his previous life, Charlie Carmody. Old Charlie is not a nice fellow, in fact, Father Hugh's father described him thus, "As fine a man as ever robbed the helpless." Father Hugh naturally wonders this unpleasant old man wants from him as Charlie insists Father Hugh attend Charlie's upcoming birthday party. Father Hugh agrees to attend, even though he inwardly quails at seeing again all his old friends from before. And so Father Hugh reestablishes contact with Carmody family and in the process finds himself.

This is quiet story of a priest finally coming to terms with his own lack of commitment and it is a strangely engrossing and ultimately compelling read. Father Hugh discovers that his best friend John, who is also a priest, is suffering with a terrible crisis of faith. This forces Father Hugh to look at the reality of his own life, coming to a better understanding of how he has failed in his own commitment to his role as a priest and pastor.

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

Iran Awakening

By Shirin Ebadi

Shirin Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her work for children's and women's rights. She is the first Iranian to receive this award and the first Muslim woman to receive it.
Iran Awakening is about her experiences with the repressive revolutionary religious government that took over Iran after the overthrow of the Shah.
Initially, Ebadi supported the movement to overthrow the Shah because his government was corrupt and repressive and not democratic. She fancied that the new regime would be more democratic than the old. She soon discovered how mistaken she was. As she says, "It took scarcely a month for me to realize that, in fact, I had willingly and enthusiastically participated in my own demise. I was a woman and this revolution's victory demanded my defeat."
Shirin Ebadi before the revolution was a law judge, presiding over a court room. After the revolution, she was only permitted to be a law clerk as a woman was not deemed fit to be a judge. She tries to conform but eventually leaves the court to move into private practice. Her focus becomes abused children and women who have no one to defend them or stand up for their rights in this cruel, male-dominated society that the revolution has created and sustains.
The main problem with the revolution in Iran and in all fundamentalist Islamic societies is their desire to enforce an outdated, centuries-old legal code based on a macho, tribal culture that views women and children as the property of the men in their lives. As Shirin says, "The laws, in short, turned the clock back fourteen hundred years, to the early days of Islam's spread, the days when stoning women for adultery and chopping off the hands of thieves were considered appropriate sentences."
Shirin takes on the cases of abused children and women and of the other victims of the regime. She brings these cases to public notice and comes under the hateful gaze of the government fanatics. She lives knowing that her life is in danger and that she could be killed or locked up at any time, as has happened to so many who have spoken out. Indeed she discovers in government transcript between a government minister and a death squad member that she is reviewing for a legal case that she is on the list of people to be killed: "The next person to be killed is Shirin Ebadi."
After decades of living under a religion-dominated government, Ebadi has come to believe that democracy will only be achieved when religion and government are completely separate. As she says, since the Islamic Republic considers their interpretations of Islam to be divinely inspired and nonnegotiable, how can tolerance and an appreciation of inalienable human rights ever be guaranteed under such a system? The only solution is to separate the two.
Despite the overbearing tactics of the Islamic government in Iran, Ebadi continues to believe that "an interpretation of Islam that is in harmony with equality and democracy is an authentic expression of faith." She also believes that change will come to Iran eventually, even if it takes decades.
At the end of the book she warns the US that using strong arm tactics against Iran will only backfire because it will serve to strengthen the regime's hand against any dissidents and prompt Iranians to stand behind their government out of defensive nationalism.

An interesting look at life inside Iran in the decades following the Islamic Revolution, Ebadi's book is informative, compelling, engrossing and well worth reading.

Review from Kirkus Reviews:   https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/shirin-ebadi/iran-awakening/.

Lethal Guardian

By M. William Phelps

What one wouldn't do to protect an innocent child. Beth Ann Carpenter was willing to end a life to save her little niece, Rebecca, from Rebecca's abusive step-father, Buzz Clinton. Beth Ann vamped her besotted boss, Haiman Clein, not only into finding a hitman but also paying the hitman's fee. All Beth Ann had to do was provide a photo of the intended victim, Buzz Clinton.
This tale of love turned to obsession (the obsession of Beth Ann for her little niece, Rebecca, and the obsession of Haiman Clein for Beth Ann) really starts with the Carpenter family. As the author says, in the Carpenter family, Beth Ann could do no wrong and her sister, Kim, could do no right in their parent's eyes. So when Kim gave birth to a girl with developmental problems, of course her parents stepped in to care for the baby since Kim was a loser who was, according to them, an unfit mother. Kim, not known for her strong character, let them run roughshod over her and she pretty much surrendered her responsibilities to her parents and her sister, Beth Ann.
The picture changed when Kim met Anson "Buzz" Clinton. Buzz provided the backbone that Kim lacked. With his encouragement, Kim moved to bring Rebecca back into her life and home, igniting a custody fight with her parents & Beth Ann who were now not only trumpeting Kim's unfitness but also claiming that Buzz was abusing both Kim and Rebecca. This despite repeated investigations into the abuse allegations that never revealed any trace of abuse.
The Carpenters were further alarmed when they found out that Buzz was planning to move Kim and the kids to Arizona, a long ways from Connecticut and a state where grandparent's rights didn't weigh much with the courts.
Not only is this case interesting because of the desperation of the Carpenters to protect Rebecca from a person they saw as an abuser, but also because of Beth Ann's involvement of Haiman Clein. Haiman Clein was completely enamored of Beth Ann, a young, pretty lawyer who had recently started working at Clein's law firm. Clein was not the upstanding citizen he appeared to be at first glance. An officer of the court he may have been but he lived as though laws were for everyone but himself. Embezzling clients' monies, abusing legal medications and using illegal drugs, involved in wife-swapping and other sexual shenanigans, Haiman Clein was quite a piece of work. It is not surprising that when Beth Ann suggested that Buzz Clinton should be taken out that Haiman Clein was all for it. He even had the perfect guy to go to for it, his drug dealer, Mark Despres.
This is a riveting tale, one that almost makes one believe in fate. So many times in this story, if one person would have stood up and said, "Enough!" then maybe Buzz Clinton wouldn't have been shot to death and left to lay on the highway. The author presents the case clearly and tells the tale of the untimely end of Buzz Clinton in such a way that leaves little doubt that justice was served when Beth Ann Carpenter, Haiman Clein and Mark Despres received their sentences for murder.

Review from True Crime Book Review:   http://truecrimebookreviews.blogspot.com/2009/03/lethal-guardian-by-mwilliam-phelps.html.

The Septembers of Shiraz

By Dalia Sofer

What was it like to be a wealthy Jew in Iran after the fall of the Shah and the rise of the Islamic totalitarian regime? Isaac Amin and his wife Farnaz and their young daughter Shirin are living the good life when it all comes crashing down when Isaac is arrested and thrown into prison. His crime? Well, truly his crime is being a wealthy Jew. His alleged crime is that he is spying for Israel. This is based on the fact that he has traveled to Israel a few times in the past and that is proof enough of his guilt to the intolerant religious fanatics running Iran after the fall of the Shah.
Isaac is a self-made man. He father was a cold and indifferent man and an alcoholic. Isaac built his business from the ground up. He and his family have lived well, traveling to Europe, owning a vacation home; he drives a Jaguar.
At the start of the novel, Isaac is suddenly arrested and imprisoned. He is interrogated and tortured when he refuses to admit to being a spy.
His wife, Farnaz, doesn't even know where her husband has been taken. She visits the local prisons trying to track her husband down. She is never permitted to see him. His brother, who is a bootlegger, comes to Farnaz for money so that he may flee the country as he is afraid he will soon be arrested too. He is not the only one anxious to escape. All the time Farnaz hears of people who are sneaking out of Iran. All the time she hears of people who have been arrested on the slightest of pretexts and executed. A talented pianist friend is arrested and murdered. His crime: he played the piano for the Shah.
While Isaac is suffering under harsh treatment in prison, his employees take advantage of his absence to loot his business and steal his assets. Farnaz catches them in the process and tries to stop them. She pleads with them and asks them why they have turned against the man who gave them good jobs. Their response is to call her a "dirty Jew."

This is a very good story about a terrible, cruel regime and its destruction of a nation as seen through the eyes of a family subjected to its excesses. Although it is a work of fiction it tells the truth about Iran and religious intolerance. It's a must read for anyone interested in the Middle East.

Review by Caroline Miller in The Guardian:   https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/sep/20/roundupreviews.fiction.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

By J.K Rowling

The last and final installment of the saga of Harry Potter and his arch-enemy, Lord Voldemort, aka Tom Riddle. In this story, Harry and his best friends Ron and Hermione set out in search of the horcruxes, the items in which Voldemort has planted bits of his soul, which make it impossible to kill him. Not only do they have to find the horcruxes, a task given them by their deceased head master, Dumbledore, but they must also destroy them, not an easy thing to do.
At the start of the novel things are not good for those who oppose the Death Eaters, Voldemort's followers. The Death Eaters have managed to infiltrate the halls of government and Dumbledore's killer, Snape, is now head master at Hogwarts school.
Harry Potter is wanted for questioning in the death of Dumbledore as Potter was seen leaving the scene of the crime in the previous novel. And witches and wizards who come from muggle (non-magical) families are under attack as "thieves" of magic.
Harry and his friends set out to do the task Dumbledore had given them, and they decide not to attend their last year at Hogwarts. Now that Harry is seventeen he is considered an adult and he is not required to attend school any longer.
While on their search for the horcruxes, Harry and company find out about the Deathly Hallows, which turn out to be three objects, one of which Harry already owns, the invisibility cloak. The other two are the elder wand and a stone that can bring the dead back to life. All three items belonged originally to Death himself.
Harry becomes entranced by the idea of the Deathly Hallows, especially the magic stone because he wants desperately to have his parents and his guardian, Sirius, back in his life again. He even thinks of giving up the search for Voldemort's horcruxes and looking for the three items instead. But the untimely death of a very good ally gets him back on track and makes him put aside his doubts and rededicate himself to destroying Voldemort.
Harry realizes that Voldemort must have hidden one of the horcruxes at Hogwarts because Hogwarts was a very special place to Tom Riddle, Voldemort. So the last actions of the book take place at the familiar stomping grounds of Hogwarts. A long battle takes place between Harry and his allies and Voldemort and his supporters. The struggle leaves many dead including some important characters, people close to Harry. Harry, of course, has to confront Voldemort and he does so unarmed, ready to die for the cause if need be.

I enjoyed the story, more than I did some of the Potter stories. This novel is not fun, like the first few Potter stories were. In this story, Potter has to face the facts that Dumbledore was a human and flawed and that Snape is also not the man Potter believed him to be. Potter also learns to accept his destiny and to face it like a man.

Review by Catherine Bennett from The Guardian:   https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/jul/28/booksforchildrenandteenagers.jkjoannekathleenrowling.

A Death in the Family

By James Agee

Pulitzer Prize winner in fiction 1958

James Agee was only 6 years old when his father was killed in a car crash. In this novel, he revisits that time in a fictionalized form. James Agee also died suddenly, of a heart attack at age 45 in 1955, leaving his very young children without their father. This last novel of his was published posthumously.
The first part of the novel is a prose poem called Knoxville: Summer 1915.
I am not a fan of prose poems and I found this section repetitive and sort of irritating, especially as the author goes on and on about the watering of the grass.
The subject of the novel is plainly stated in its title, A Death in the Family. The father has to travel to another town because his father is very ill and may be dying. On his way back home after seeing his father, the man is killed in a car crash, just like Agee's own father. The rest of the story is about how the man's family, his wife and two small children, react to his death. The story only covers a few days and ends on the evening the man is buried. There is a schism within the family, the man who died and the mother's father and brother are essentially not religious, but the mother and her sister and mother are. Some of the story deals with the schism. A lot of it concerns the dead man's little boy and his thoughts and actions as related to losing his father.

If this wasn't a Pulitzer Prize winner I would have never picked it to read. This is not the sort of story I care for, this meditation in loss. I don't care for introspective subjects and especially I don't care for stories about religion.
This is not to say this is a bad novel. I can see where many readers would enjoy and appreciate it. I am sure it is a very worthy book. I am just glad I never have to read it again. :)

Review by John H. Fincher in The Harvard Crimson:    http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1957/12/5/james-agees-a-death-in-the/.

Odd Thomas

By Dean Koontz

I first became acquainted with Odd Thomas in Koontz's third novel about Odd, Brother Odd. I didn't particularly like that novel and so I was not planning to read any more books by Koontz.
Oddly, though, before I read Brother Odd, I had seen mention of Koontz's character Odd Thomas and decided to read the book, Odd Thomas, as it sounded intriguing. So I put in a request for the book at the library. Years went by and I forgot about the request.
Then a few weeks ago the library informed me that my requested book was in. I didn't know what book they were referring to and was surprised that it was Odd Thomas. Well, since they went to the trouble to fill my years-old request, I decided to go ahead and read it.
So, since some of what I said about Brother Odd applies here also, I will quote from my review:
"It's about a young man named Odd Thomas. He ended up with the name Odd because of a typo on his birth certificate; he was supposed to be named Todd. But the name Odd fits him better because, to paraphrase the movie, he sees dead people.
Ghosts appear to Odd when they need his help dealing with the baggage from their lives that is preventing them from crossing over and entering eternity. The ghosts can't speak, but Odd is very intuitive and is able to figure out what they need from him ... Odd soon discovers that something very sinister is happening when malign spirits that feed on human suffering begin flocking..."
In this story, the malign spirits, called bodachs, are flocking around a customer at the cafe where Odd works. This customer, whom Odd calls Fungus Man because he reminds Odd of a mushroom, captures Odd's attention. Odd decides he needs to take a closer look at Fungus Man because the collection of bodachs around him are portents of violent death in the near future. Odd investigates and comes to the conclusion that something terrible is in store for the town where he lives.

I didn't care for this book anymore than I liked the other Odd Thomas story, Brother Odd. For one thing, Koontz has nothing good to say about modern culture and in fact hates the way the modern world is trending so much that he declares that the bodachs are the twisted, warped essence of voyeurs from the future surfing back through time to feed and glut on the violence and suffering of the past. Also, although Odd can see the lingering spirits of the dead, in this novel, as in Brother Odd, the main part of the story concerns Odd's desire to deal with and prevent whatever impending violence that has drawn the attention of the voyeuristic bodachs. So what could be a look at spirits and ghosts and life after death turns out to be just another thriller-type horror story. If you like that sort of thing then you would probably enjoy Odd Thomas.

Review from Publishers Weekly: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-553-80249-8.

Beyond Oil: The view from Hubbert's Peak

By Kenneth S. Deffeyes

Kenneth Deffeyes is a retired petroleum geologist and a Harvard professor. He worked for many years in the petroleum industry.
In 1969, a geologist, M. King Hubbert, published his findings on the total quantity of oil resource. His conclusion was that oil production would peak and then begin to decline in about 2000 as world-wide oil resources were depleted. Deffeyes agrees with Hubbert, although he estimates the peak as occurring in 2005. Anyway, the point of this book is that it is now time to look to other sources for energy production as oil becomes more scarce and more costly.
In this book, Deffeyes looks at the sources of oil. He also has a chapter explaining how to calculate Hubbert's findings, but, as he explains, it is not necessary to read that chapter (chapter 3) or look at the calculations to read and understand the rest of the book. He also looks at oil resources that are difficult and expensive to exploit such as oil shales and tar sands. He looks at natural gas, which is fated to decline as it is another diminishing resource. He also talks about alternate fuels like uranium, hydrogen and fuel cells. He also briefly mentions ethanol, if only to point out that it costs more energy to produce than it produces and is only profitable because of government subsidies.
The whole point of this book is that industry and governments need to move immediately to begin implementing alternate energy sources as oil production is certain to decline in the near future.
This was a surprisingly interesting book, especially to me because I know nothing about this subject. I found it very informative. My only quibble with it is that it didn't go into more detail about non-geological energy sources, such as hydroelectric, wind generators and the infamous ethanol refinery. At the end of the book, the author advises that if a person wants to invest some money, he suggests royalty trusts. According to him there are at least 20 oil and gas royalty trusts in the USA. As gas and oil become more scarce, these trusts are bound to increase in value: a tip from an industry insider!

Review from Kirkus Reviews:   https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kenneth-s-deffeyes/beyond-oil/.

Andersonville

By MacKinlay Kantor

This novel won the Pulitzer Prize for 1956.

Although this is a work of fiction, the Civil War prisoner stockade it is based on, Camp Sumter, also known as Andersonville, was a real place. It was a overcrowded outdoor prison for Federal soldiers captured during the U.S. Civil War. Conditions were so bad that more than 12,000 prisoners died during their captivity, mostly from dysentery, scurvy, and malnutrition. Conditions were so overcrowded and filthy that a small scratch or mosquito bite could become infected to the point of gangrene and death. The prisoners were not policed and conditions were so desperate that, as a consequence, the strong preyed on the weak. A photo of the prison camp is online at the Library of Congress: Andersonville.
In Andersonville, Kantor tries to give the reader a taste of life inside one of the most notorious prisoner-of-war camps ever. He profiles various inmates and details their struggles to survive, and in many cases, their failure to do so. He also shares the lives of some of the local people and of the prison superintendent, Henry Wirtz. Wirtz was the actual superintendent of the prison, and although he was merely doing as he was instructed by his superiors, as is pointed out in the novel, he was executed by hanging in 1865.
The novel starts out with local plantation owner, Ira Claffey going for a walk on his neighbor's land. He loves walking in this area because it is a beautiful, piny forest full of wildlife and birds. He is enjoying his walk, basking in nature when he comes across two men. He talks to the men and discovers that the beautiful forest has been selected to be the site of a new stockade. The many trees will provide the lumber needed to build this stockade and the stockade will be used to imprison captured Yankee soldiers.
The novel ends with Ira once again walking across the desolate and ruined land where the forest used to stand. Now the stockade is deserted and Ira remarks upon the relicts left behind by the now freed prisoners: a crude, handmade sandal; torn clothes and rags; a cooking pan fashioned from a sheet of tin. He reflects upon the defeat the South has suffered and he hopes that some day he and his fellows can learn to love and accept the government they tried so hard to resist.
This was a really long book, trying to tell a really big story. A story so big, that only small sips and samples could be attempted. The Claffey family provides the frame of the story, but even their story is rather shallowly dipped into. I found these small dips and sips a bit dissatisfying and I would have preferred a story that focused on a handful of characters and told their story with more depth.
But still, it is an amazing look at a horrible time in American history and well-worth reading for that alone.
This novel was written in the 1950s and I felt that it has a rather anti-black slant to it. Blacks are mentioned and usually a described in somewhat derogatory terms: "Pet could not count past the sum of her fingers, though sometimes she tried to add the sum of her toes; but this bothered her because she had lost one toe ... and she could not quite understand why she never seemed to have as many toes as she had fingers." "Coffee might understand but dimly what his master had been about, and why..." "The dumb affection and faith they gave to Ira stemmed (much of it) from an awareness that he could do many of the same tasks they performed, and often do them better." "When he was young he had walked through an area in New York ... where besotted people white and black sprawled actually in the swill of the roadway, and wild eyes rolled in kinky heads thrust, slathering, cursing inarticulately, from windows." I sort of got the feeling that Kantor believed that maybe black people would have been better off if kept in slavery! He certainly paints them as inferior to whites in their understanding and intelligence and more suited to life as servants or field hands than to anything else. But that's just how he came across to me.

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

Lean Mean Thirteen

By Janet Evanovich

Thirteenth in the Stephanie Plum series, this one finds Stephanie under suspicion for the disappearance of her ex-husband, Dickie. Stephanie pays Dickie a visit at his office and she goes ballistic when she sees a photo of her archenemy, Joyce, on Dickie's desk. She has to be dragged off Dickie and shortly there after Dickie vanishes and of course Stephanie is the number one suspect.
With the help of the enigmatic Ranger, Stephanie investigates Dickie's disappearance and also brings in a couple of bail skips, including a taxidermist who specializes in exploding rodents and a roving tax accountant slash grave robber. Grandma Mazur makes a few appearances as do Lula and Joe Morelli, all recurring characters in the series.

I enjoyed this story, although not as much as I have the earlier novels. These later novels just do not have as light a touch as the first ones in the series have. But this was still a good read.

Plum Lovin'

By Janet Evanovich

Another aside in the Stephanie Plum series, this novel takes up where the previous aside, Visions of Sugar Plums, left off. In addition, this story adds an important family event to the Stephanie Plum saga, in that Stephanie's sister Valerie finally marries Albert Kloughn, thanks to Stephanie's maneuverings. In fact, that is what Plum does through out the story, helps people find love. The semi-divine Diesel pops back into Stephanie's life and pretty much dragoons her into playing Cupid while he tracks down the woman who normally fulfills that role because she has gone missing.
What can I say about these, as the author calls them, "Stephanie Plum Between-the-Numbers Novels"? They just don't measure up to the regular Stephanie Plum novels and I find the supernatural stuff disconcerting in this detective novel series. Unless you are desperate for a story about Stephanie Plum, you probably aren't missing much if you give these a skip.

Review from Publishers Weekly:   https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-312-30634-2.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

By Mohsin Hamid

I guess it is just too much to hope for, a balanced approach to 911 by a Muslim. Mohsin Hamid's approach is certainly not balanced. He suffers from the same tunnel vision that seems to afflict most Muslims. In this story, the main character actually smiles when he hears about the destruction of the twin towers. Which is OK, in a work of fiction. But reading that part of the story, I got the strong feeling that the character wasn't the only one smiling at this terrible tragedy: it felt like the author was also grinning at America's comeuppance. The author thoughtfully goes on to explain why the USA deserves this fate: it's because we don't mind our own business! We actually have the nerve to demand accountability in those governments and countries to whom we provide aid! The Gall! To quote: "I reflected that I had always resented the manner in which America conducted itself in the world; your country's constant interference in the affairs of others was insufferable. Moreover I knew from my experience as a Pakistani—of alternating periods of American aid and sanctions—that finance was a primary means by which the American empire exercised its power. It was right for me to refuse to participate any longer in facilitating this project of domination..." He goes on to say, "Such an America had to be stopped in the interests not only of the rest of humanity, but also in your own." At this point in the story narrator has become a terrorist, although this is never explicitly stated, but it is hinted at, "What exactly did I do to stop America, you ask? Have you really no idea, sir?" He doesn't admit doing anything and we don't see him doing anything, as the story ends abruptly, but that question is the question of a guilty conscience.
However, as much as I dislike the author and his narrow viewpoint, I did enjoy the story. I found it instantly engaging and it kept me interested for most of it. It follows a young Pakistani man, Changez, as he graduates from college and gets a prestigious job with a New York financial concern. In the course of the story, he becomes enamored with an American woman, Erica. Erica, who is a metaphor for America, fails to return his affection because she is still attached to her long dead lover. All this was very captivating. But it became rather tedious at the point where the character decides that everything that is wrong in the world is America's fault. Also the abrupt ending was very dissatisfying. Overall, I can't recommend it.

Review by Laila Halaby on The Washington Post:    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/19/AR2007041903000.html.

A Miracle of Catfish

By Larry Brown

First a word about the author and this book. The book was published posthumously, as Larry Brown died before the book was finished. It was decided to publish the book anyway, with the author's brief notes about the ending chapters.
I was not familiar with this author's works so didn't know what to expect from it. I must say I really enjoyed reading this book to as far as it went, which was not to any kind of conclusion. The characters are interesting and varied and engaging. A mystery is hinted at concerning one of the main characters, an old farmer named Cortez Sharp. As the novel moves along, you discover that Cortez is a man of mixed motives, often times cruel and cold and rather repellent. Yet, somehow, one cares about him and about the new pond he had just had stocked with thousands of baby catfish. And about the other persons in the story, Jimmy, a little boy, and his sad, angry family that live in a trailer near the old farmer's place, and the old man's daughter, a plus size model who lives with her boyfriend, an artist who has Tourettes.
One thing I didn't like about the story was the author's love for lists. He just loves making long lists which are a pain to read. One of the worse was his description of all the stuff for sale at a big flea market: "...guns, chickens, chicken cages, chicken grit, pottery, tractors, toys, ponies, mules, donkeys, burros, horses, dogs, quilts, homemade jellies and jams and preserves, ribbon cane syrup, tomato relish to put on your peas, cookware of all types, including rusty castiron skillets and dutch ovens, candles, musical instruments, ironwork, new tools, old tools, trailers, antiques of every kind, furniture, knick-knacks, rabbits, rabbit cages, rabbit feed, rabbit feeders, rabbit waterers, frozen pen-raised quail, fishing equipment, tillers, lawn mowers, chain saws, stump grinders, portable sheds, portable water pumps..." And the list goes on and on. Too much for me!
Anyway, although I enjoyed the story, the fact that it is unfinished was off-putting. If you are a huge fan of Larry Brown, you probably won't be bothered by this. If not, you might want to give this one a skip.

Review by Mary McCoy on Pop Matters:   https://www.popmatters.com/a-miracle-of-catfish-by-larry-brown-2496217813.html.

The Old Man and the Sea

By Ernest Hemingway

This novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953.

Santiago is having a string of bad luck. In all his many years, only once has he gone this long without catching a fish, 84 days. So he decides to take his boat out farther than most fishermen go and try to catch a really big fish. If he is successful, he will make enough money to live off of all winter.
So off he goes to catch his big fish and he does hook a big one. This is one monster marlin, maybe 18 feet long, longer than Santiago's little fishing boat. He fights to keep the marlin on the line, keep the fish from breaking the line and getting away. It is a battle that goes on for several days and nights, with the fish towing the fisherman further and further out to sea. Santiago suffers terribly in the battle, but he is determined he will have that beautiful fish. Finally he manages to harpoon the marlin and he ties the huge fish to the side of his boat because it is just too huge and too heavy for him to haul it in. He hoists his sail and heads back home, tired and worn out. But then the sharks show up...
I didn't want to read this story. I was afraid it would be too butch for me. I don't like fish and I don't like fishing and I especially don't like stories about fishing. In fact, I checked the book out and it sat around and I finally had to take it back without reading it. So I checked it out again and decided I would just sit down and plunge in. To my surprise, I read the book in one sitting. It really is an engrossing and surprising read, although a bit of a morality tale, which I don't generally care for. If this is Hemingway, then maybe I will try reading more of his works. (Probably not.)

Review by The Guardian.

Catch-22

By Joseph Heller

Bombardier Yossarian has a problem...people are trying to kill him! He is determined that they will not succeed. Who is trying to kill him? The Germans and the US Army.
Yossarian is a bombardier flying out of a small island off the coast of Italy during World War II. He has flown the maximum allowable number of combat missions several times and should have been sent home months ago. But every time he gets close to reaching the maximum number, his superiors increase the number. They want to earn brownie points with the big brass, even if it means sacrificing their troops. But Yossarian knows he can't continue to cheat death and so he flatly refuses to fly any more missions. He is determined to get out of the war alive.

This is a kind of hard novel to read. The story jumps around a lot, from the past to the present and sometimes it is rather hard to follow. Also, it is filled with a kind of double talk, where just accusing someone of doing something wrong is as good as a conviction. A sample of the sort of double talk the novel is filled with:

"I'm sorry, sir. But I don't know how to answer it. I never said you couldn't punish me."
"Now you're telling us when you did say it. I'm asking you to tell us when you didn't say it."
Clevinger took a deep breath. "I always didn't say you couldn't punish me."

This kind of nonsense is the basis of most of the humor found in the novel, if you can call it humor. Mostly, I would say the perspective of the book is like this, to quote from the book:

'Nothing warped seemed bizarre any more in his strange, distorted surroundings. The tops of the sheer buildings slanted in a weird, surrealistic perspective, and the street seemed tilted.'

Which pretty much describes the book: warped, bizarre, strange, distorted, weird and surrealistic.
Did I like this story? Yes and no. As much as it is hard to follow and as much as the twisted perspective is rather irritating and oft times frankly unbelievable, still, somehow, this book tells the truth about us. And it is unforgettable.

A Border Passage

By Leila Ahmed

This is a memoir of Muslim woman, Leila Ahmed, about growing up in Egypt in the 1950s and 1960s. I really enjoyed reading about Leila's early life in Egypt and I was frankly astonished at the commonalities we shared as girls of a similar era, even though we lived in two far distant cultures, she in Egypt and I in the USA. She grew up reading and speaking and being educated in English, attending school run by the British until the troubles that forced the British out of Egypt. We played similar games, enjoyed similar friendships, family outings, sports: she did things that I had never pictured an Islamic female doing.
But still, she acknowledges that her culture is one that is hostile to and dangerous to women and that life as an Islamic woman is one of restrictions and limitations for most women. She escaped these restrictions by moving first to Britain then ultimately to America.
I was struck by how angry she is at the racism she faced upon coming to Britain. She mentions how she was spit on when riding on a bus by a fellow passenger when he realized she was not Israeli but was Egyptian. Her resentment of being classified as "colored" and therefore less human than whites appears throughout the book. But this is completely understandable.
She goes into some detail on the transition of Egypt from being Egyptian (as she was raised to think of herself) to being Arab and part of the whole Middle Eastern situation and not really African anymore. She also, towards the end of the book, traces Egypt's transformation from support of a homeland for the Jews in Palestine to being totally against the new country of Israel. This part was particularly surprising for me for I didn't know of Egypt's early support for the Jews. She also discusses how this change from pro to anti-Jew has changed Egypt's formerly tolerant pluralistic & multicultural society to an Islamic-only society where non-Islamics are openly hated and persecuted. It is a story well worth reading.

The Caine Mutiny

By Herman Wouk

Winner of Pulitzer Prize in fiction for 1952.

This story centers on young Willie Keith who enlists in the Navy because he doesn't want to end up in the Army. Willie is a dilettante. A smart, well-educated man from a background of wealth and privilege, Willie prefers to spend his time playing piano in seedy New York night clubs than hold down a real job. But with the war, Willie has to face the facts that he could be drafted and end up in the Army. To escape that fate, he joins the Navy. His first assignment is at headquarters on Hawaii, a cushy, easy job that enables Willie to take up, once again, playing piano and amusing the local admiral. But then the fun ends and Willie is assigned to a minesweeper, an old World War I battleship called the Caine.
The Caine is pretty much a rust bucket and on its last legs but the Navy still has some use for the old battleship. Whether it is hauling targets for practice shots, providing escort service, moving troops around, or minesweeping, the old ship has a vital role to play in the war. Willie is not to happy with his new assignment and he especially doesn't approve of the ship's captain whom he regards as lax and sloppy and on whom he blames the dilapidated condition of the vessel and the ragtag appearance of the crew.
So when the captain is assigned to a new post, Willie is pleased to see the new captain, Queeg, believes in running a tight ship. But as time passes and the new captain seems less than competent, some of the crew begin to believe their captain is not playing with a full deck.
I am not a fan of war stories but this is not really a war story. It is more a study of bad leader and the effect of his poor decisions upon the people who depended on his leadership. It is kind of a long story, but very readable. An interesting side note to the story is the on again, off again romance between Willie and a young night club singer from the wrong side of the tracks (as Willie's mom sees it).

This is another time and another place and people then were perhaps not as aware of mental illness as most people are today. They were too quick to label Queeg as mentally ill when he was probably just stupid, cowardly, nitpicking and rigid. Even at the point where the mutiny occurred, Queeg was not raving or irrational. At most, one could say he was petrified with fear as the ship faced raging seas during a typhoon. I guess the worse one could say about Queeg was that he was incompetent and one wonders how such a poor seaman rose to the position of captain.
This is an interesting and engaging story and a fascinating picture of life on a Navy ship and is well worth reading.

Review from Kirkus Reviews.

Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy

By Shlomo Ben-Ami

This is a look at the history of the Arab Israeli conflict starting with the early days before the Zionists had managed to make a state of Israel. Right from the start both sides refused to consider their opponents views as valid. To the Arabs, the Israelis are Zionist, western crusaders and invaders who have taken over what is rightfully Arab territory. To the Israelis the Arabs are backward, religious fanatics who refuse to accept the reality of the state of Israel.
The state of Israel was founded by the United Nations in 1947. The Israelis immediately found themselves under seige by their Arab neighbors who had voted against the formation of Israel and who refused to accept the presence of the Jews on Arab land, i.e., Palestine. The Israelis held on to the land and even expanded the borders beyond that stated for them in 1947. Then in the Six Day War in 1967, they acquired even more territory, including the jewel in their crown, Jerusalem.
What do the Israelis want? They want security. They want to survive. And they want the holy places that are mentioned in their holy writings. They especially want Jerusalem. What do the Arabs and Palestinians want? Well, what they really want is for the Jews to get out of the Middle East and go back where they came from. But Israel is staying put. So, what do the Arabs want if they can't get rid of Israel? They want a state for the Palestinians, a place where they can live in safety and security on their traditional homelands. They also want the right to bring back the Palestinian refuges who fled during the wars, about 5,000,000 people. And they want Jerusalem.
Back in 2000, President Clinton and his team put together the best compromise that was workable for both sides. Israel was willing to accept the terms, even to sharing Jerusalem with the Palestinians and accepting Palestinian statehood. But Arafat could not accept them. He knew if he went back to his people and told them they would have to share Jerusalem, that Israel would not go back to the 1947 borders and that the refugees would not have the right to return that his ass would be grass and that civil war would be likely between the more moderate & practical Palestinians and the Islamics like Hamas and Jihad. Since then, Israel has built themselves a safety barrier to try to stop the Palestinian terrorist attacks. The Palestinians are in a state of chaos as Hamas and Fatah wrangle over who is going to lead their people. And it is still a huge mess. But as Ben-Ami points out, if responsible and brave leaders would be willing to sit down and work out a compromise, then there is still hope.
Ben-Ami takes a close look at the process of trying to bring about peace between Israel, its neighbors and the Palestinians. He shows where leadership failed on both sides, not only because of mistakes and miscalculations, but also because the respective populations of both sides would not accept the compromises required for peace.
In the last chapter of the book, Ben-Ami reccommends that an international effort must be made and a protectorate set up in the Palestinian territory that will give them the peace, security and stability that is so desperately needed in the Middle East.

Review by Ian Black from The Guardian:    https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/feb/11/highereducation.news.

The Awakening Land

By Conrad Richter

The Awakening Land is the name given to a trilogy of novels written by Richter, The Trees, The Fields, and The Town. The Town won the Pulitzer Prize for 1951.
The novels follow Sayward Luckett and her family as settlers in the then wilderness of the Ohio valley, an area of deep, immense forest. In the first novel, The Trees, the Lucketts build themselves a cabin in a forest so dense and tall that the forest floor rarely gets any direct sunlight. They survive mainly on the game that abounds in the area. The forest is filled with giant trees, trees that have never been logged or known the effects of forest fires. These huge trees become the enemy of the people trying to settle there, trying to clear them away to make room for fields and pastures.
Worth, the patriarch of the family, isn't really a farmer. He's a hunter, a woodsman and loves to be out on the prowl, exploring new territory. After his wife dies and after his young daughter Sulie is lost forever in the forest, he becomes tired of the responsibility of taking care of his children and he just walks off into the forest, leaving his kids to be raised by his daughter, Sayward.
She does the best she can, but her brothers and sisters often don't acknowledge her authority and the family suffers for it. Her brother Wyitt follows in his father's footsteps into the wilderness. Her sister Genny marries a lowlife and her other sister Achsa runs off with him.
Through it all, Sayward stays strong. She hopes for the best for her siblings but accepts the fact that they have to live their own lives and make their own mistakes.
In The Fields, Sayward is married and has a family of her own. She and her husband, Portius Wheeler, live in the Luckett family's original cabin. With their own two hands, they cut the big trees and cleared fields to grow crops and raise livestock. Portius is an educated man and a lawyer and their children are taught to read and write. However, most of the money earned is produced through Sayward's farm and from her land. Life is still very hard and requires massive amounts of sheer labor just to survive.
The last book, The Town switches focus from Sayward to her youngest child, an ailing boy named Chancey. A town has grown up on Sayward's land and as the largest landowner in the area, Sayward has become wealthy. Portius even insisted on building them a large, new house although Sayward wanted to stay in the little Luckett cabin that she had lived in for so many years.
Chancey suffered from a rheumatic fever as a tot and had a weak heart as a result. In their fear for his health, his parents restricted his activity severely and he spent most of his days just quietly sitting and dreaming. When a doctor recommends to Sayward that Chancey start to take some exercise, Chancey finds his quiet world turned upside down, much to his displeasure. He has become so accustomed to think of himself as an invalid that his mother's insistence that he get off his stool convinces him that she doesn't care about him. He decides that Sayward and Portius are not his real parents and he invents a long lost family for himself, a family who will love and pamper and cater to him.

These three books are a wonderful look back at an era that is hard to envision now. What suffering they endured and what back-breaking labor! These books are almost as good as a trip back in time. They really immerse the reader in the culture and life of the people of that time and place and their language where cougars are called "painters" and wolves are "night dogs." It is hard, though, to read of the destruction of that grand old forest that used to cover so much of the eastern United States and of the destruction of the wildlife that dwelt in those shaded, ferny depths.
When I first started to read The Trees I immediately recognized the name Sayward Luckett. I remembered her from the miniseries starring Elizabeth Montgomery as Sayward and Hal Holbrook as Portius which aired in 1978. It must have made quite an impression on me that I could still remember the name and I can picture Elizabeth's face even now. I remember at the end of the show, when Sayward was an old woman, the people going and getting little trees from the forest to plant in their town at Sayward's instigation. For by then she had stopped hating the trees and had begun to appreciate how much trees add to the landscape. Ain't it the truth, "You don't know what you've got till it's gone."

The Dead Beat

By Marilyn Johnson

An interesting look at the obituary, written by a fan of the art of writing obituaries.
Who hasn't read an obituary? Reading the lives of strangers in an idle moment, or reading about a headline maker who has recently died? Or reading the obituary of someone you knew and loved. It's something virtually everyone has or will do at sometime or another. Apparently it is something that a lot of people like to do regularly. They are connoisseurs of the obits. They even have their own newsgroup: alt.obituaries.
Marilyn Johnson is one such connoisseur. She has not only written many obituaries, but she makes a point of searching out and reading the fascinating and striking little histories of those passing out of time and into eternity. She loves obituaries and this book displays her love of this special and unsung form of reporting. Well worth reading even if you aren't one who is normally given to perusing the obit page.

Review by Simon Garfield from The Guardian:     https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/nov/19/biography.features1.

The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club

By Laurie Notaro

Laurie Notaro is a humor columnist from the Phoenix, Arizona area. I was not familiar with her work till I read this book. She writes a pretty funny story if you don't mind that most of her humor is based on her escapades while being three sheets to the wind.
As I was reading these stories, I couldn't help but think that Laurie Notaro is either an alcoholic or well on her way to being one. The things she writes about were very similar to what I had read in the writings of admitted alcoholic, Augusten Burroughs. The difference is that Burroughs became aware that alcohol was ruining his life, while Notaro still seems to believe that alcohol is just a good way to have fun.
This attitude bothered me. I hope that she has matured since then and now realizes that alcohol is best enjoyed in moderation and that getting drunk off your ass is never a good idea. Not even when you are young and foolish.
The "idiot girls" mentioned in the title are only dealt with very briefly, the stories mostly center on the author herself.

If you enjoy stories about stupid young women getting even more stupid abusing liquor, then you'll probably like this book. As for me, I just hope that Laurie Notaro is now clean and sober. Living life as a drunk is no life at all.

Review from Publishers Weekly:    https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-375-76091-4.

What's So Funny?

By Donald Westlake

John Dortmunder is one of life's failures. First off he is a career criminal. Secondly he is cursed with bad luck. It's too bad, because he is pretty good at what he does: he's a burglar. If it weren't for his bad luck, he would be a wealthy man. As I have followed his dubious career as told in the Dortmunder novels, I have seen him come so close to the big score only to have it all slip through his fingers, usually do to some unexpected twist of fate.
In What's So Funny, Dortmunder and gang have the opportunity to steal an extremely valuable gold and jeweled chess set that had been originally made for the last czar of Russia. But the revolution ended the czar and the chess set ended up in a warehouse where it was discovered by a group of American soldiers during World War I. They smuggled the chess set back to the USA only to have it stolen by one of their confederates.
At the start of the story, the descendants of one of the soldiers, Mr. Hemlow and his granddaughter, have finally tracked the chess set down and they come to Dortmunder to get him to grab it for them. But the chess set is being fought over by the thieving soldier's descendants and has been locked in a very secure bank vault pending litigation. Dortmunder knows he can't bust into a bank vault, but Johnny Eppick, the ex-cop who is working for Mr. Hemlow, has compromising photos of Dortmunder pulling a heist, and Dortmunder is forced to do the impossible.
Helped by his usual pals, Andy the lock man, Stan the driver, Tiny the muscle and others, Dortmunder comes up with a brilliant plan. Breaking into the bank vault is out. But what if he can arrange for the chess set to be brought out of the vault? This is a surefire, can't fail plan...or will another fortune slip through Dortmunder's sticky fingers?

I enjoyed this novel, just like I have enjoyed the previous Dortmunder stories. If you are a fan of the series, you won't be disappointed in this new installment. But I keep hoping that one day Dortmunder will finally pull off the fabulous score that will set him and his gal May and the rest of the gang up for life. But knowing poor, doomed Dortmunder...

Review from Curled Up with a Good Book:    http://www.curledup.com/whsofuny.htm.

The Way West

By Alfred B. Guthrie, Jr.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction 1950.

This is the story of a wagon train headed west on the Oregon Trail in 1846, starting off in Independence, Missouri and headed for the Columbia River and Fort Vancouver in the Oregon Territory. This is story of hardy pioneers, determined to reach their goal, despite hardship, accidents, sickness and death. People do die on the trail, one to fever, one to snakebite and one to premature birth. But the pioneers keep on trucking, looking for the gold at the end of the rainbow. At one point, the wagon train splits apart, as one group decides to head for California as they have heard the trail is easier than the one to Oregon. The pilot of the train, Dick Summers, is an old mountain man, trail wise and eager to get away from civilization and farming and back to his roots. His great wisdom and sound advice are the key to the success of the effort as he guides the pioneers through treacherous river crossings, across burning deserts, and on steep, nearly impassible mountain tracks. It's a pretty good story, engrossing and easy to read.
This novel was made into a movie in 1967 starring Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, Richard Widmark and Sally Field.
A word about the way the native peoples are portrayed in this book. Guthrie doesn't have a much sympathy for the people who will end up being pushed off the land by his doughty settlers. He most often describes them as dirty, smelly, naked, thieving, lousy and shiftless, with their hands out for whatever they can beg or steal from the settlers passing through their country. At one point, one of the characters is describing an Indian cemetery, saying, "You'll never set your eye on more good Injuns than right there," meaning all the dead Indians. I wouldn't call it an even handed or fair portrait but certainly typical of the times in which it was written.

Review by The Pulitzer Project.