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The Way West

by A. B. Guthrie, Jr. 1949, won Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1950

Lije Evans, his wife, Becky, and son, Brownie, decide to go to Oregon with a wagon train. 1840’s, I think. Lije convinces Dick Summers to be the pilot. They leave Independence, MO with about 12 other families in wagons. At first, a cruel, greedy, arrogant, impatient man named Tadlock is the captain. One of his first orders is to kill all the dogs. Evans refuses to let that happen to his beloved dog, Rock. Only one dog is actually killed.

Eventually, Tadlock is removed as captain and Evans is voted in as captain. Tadlock wanted to continue-rush-on – while his hired man is dying of camp fever. So the men voted Evans as captain – big, strong, good man – didn’t think he had it in him to lead a wagon train to Oregon – but his wife (big, strong Becky) knew it all along, and with the piloting of Dick Summers – wise old mountain man (not really that old) who knew the way and kept them out of dangers, they make it!

Brownie, 17 yr old son of Lije and Becky, falls in love with Mercy McBee, beautiful quiet 16 yr old daughter of the McBee’s – family of poor white uneducated.

Mack, a man whose wife, Amanda, is frigid, drives him crazy so one night when Mercy is dancing at camp, he takes her away and has his way with her. Mercy falls in love with Mack but keeps silent about it. Mack learns how to deal with Amanda and when Mercy is pregnant and tells him, he can’t help her. He says isn’t there someone you could marry?

Brownie loves her and marries her – she told him what happened and he marries her anyway. He tells no one but Dick Summers.

Dick and Brownie develop a strong bond. While hunting buffalo together, Brownie saves Dick – thrown from a horse and about to get charged by a buffalo – Brownie shoots the buffalo dead in the nick of time. Dick saves Brownie’s life when he decides to hang back so he could carve his name and Mercy’s name on Chimney Rock and gets attacked by Indians. Dick rides up and convinces the Indians not to scalp him.

Charles and Judie Fairman – little son Tod always sick with fever – going to Oregon where there will be no more fever but little Tod, who just wants to play, runs off chasing a grasshopper, gets bit by a rattlesnake and dies.

Buffalo stampede on a stormy night. Evans in the midst of it – shooting to steer them away from camp – worried Brownie is crushed, but he’s okay. Camp is spared.

Crossing the Snake River – all the wagons make it except the Byrd’s – Evans saves Mrs. Byrd from drowning, but she is 6 months pregnant and loses the baby that night.

Tadlock and a few others decide to go to California instead of Oregon. When they hear how dangerous it will be getting to Oregon, the last 800 miles.

Brother Weatherby, old Methodist preacher, who comes along because God has called him to Oregon. Devout, judgmental, but performs admirably throughout – funerals, sermons, prayers – Mercy and Brownie’s wedding.

They finally make it to the Columbia River. Dick Summers disappears in the night despite Evans trying to convince him to stay on to Willamette.

Last 2 paragraphs: “He let himself look around and saw the Byrds’ and Fairmans’ boats lapping close behind and, on his own, Brownie idle with his sweep and Becky with the home gleam in her eye and Mercy sitting by her. Mercy who, Rebecca said, was going to have a child. Sweet Mercy who would bring a baby to the house. Blood of his blood, Evans thought. Blood of his blood once removed.

“He winked at his women and spoke loud about the tremble in his throat. “Becky,” he said, “Hurray for Oregon!”

Another book by A. B. Guthrie, Jr. is “These Thousand Hills” about the world of cattle ranchers in the 1880s. Published in 1956.

Alfred Bertram Guthrie, Jr. lived most of his life in Montana. He wrote the screenplay for Shane, died in 1991.

The Pearl

by John Steinbeck, 1945

Finished in 2 days. Exquisite, painful story about Kino, Juana, and little baby boy, Coyotito. Coyotito gets stung by a scorpion – that Kino, his father, couldn’t catch in time. Jauna, Coyotito’s mother, sucks out the poison but decides they must see the doctor. The rich doctor won’t see them because they have no money. They go pearl hunting and Kino finds a huge, perfect pearl. The doctor and the whole town find out. The doctor comes to visit, gives the baby a pill of white powder and gelatin. One hour later, baby Coyotito is vomiting. Doctor comes back, pretends to cure him. Asks for a fee. Kino tries to sell the great Pearl at the pearl buyers the next day. They are all working for the same man, unbeknownst to the town. They all say, this Pearl is too big, no one wants it! Kino decides to leave for the big city. That night, someone tries to steal the pearl, Kino kills him. Juana tries to throw the pearl in the ocean. Kino beats her. Kino, Juana, and little Coyotito escape for the city. They are tracked through the desert and into the mountains. Hiding in a cave, Kino kills the trackers at night but not before one errant shot finds his little son and kills him.

Kino and Juana trudge back to their little town on the Gulf with their little bundle – throw the Pearl into the sea.

Last 2 paragraphs: “And the pearl settled into the lovely green water and dropped toward the bottom.The waving branches of the algae called to it and beckoned to it. The lights on its surface were green and lovely. It settled down to the sand bottom among the fern-like plants. Above, the surface of the water was a green mirror. And the pearl lay on the floor of the sea. A crab scampering over the bottom raised a little cloud of sand, and when it settled, the pearl was gone.

“And the music of the pearl drifted to a whisper and disappeared.”

A story of how great wealth can ruin, utterly, your life.

Great Expectations

by Charles Dickens, 1861

Pip as a young boy meets an escaped convict in a church cemetery. The convict scares him into bringing him food and a file to cut off his leg iron. Pip does this. Pip lives with a much older sister and her blacksmith husband, a saint of a man, Joe Gargery. The sister is a mean, abusive woman, to both Joe and Pip.

Pip gets hired by a rich, broken-hearted woman, Miss Havisham. He goes to her house and entertains her and her adopted daughter, Estella. Pip falls in love with beautiful Estella as a young lad the first day he meets her.

Pip grows and becomes an apprentice to Joe in the forge. He is dissatisfied with the commonness of his life and relatives, when he comes into his Great Expectations by anonymously donated money. He moves to London, meets good friend Herbert, the genius lawyer Mr. Jaggers and his clerk, Wemmick.

After years of the good life, Pip meets his true benefactor, the convict he helped so long ago, who had been exiled from England and earned his fortune all for Pip – to make him a gentleman.

Pip recoils from him at first but gradually, with Herbert’s help, learns all about him – he is actually Estella’s father! The convict’s wife had killed a woman in a jealous rage but Jaggers was able to get her off – the woman becomes Jaggers’ housekeeper and Jaggers takes Estella, then 3 yrs old, and gives her to Miss Havisham to raise. Miss Havisham was jilted by an evil man, Compeyson, who led a life of crime and coaxed the convict (Magwitch) to join him. When he gets caught, the jury pins it all on Magwitch. Magwitch knows nothing about his daughter still being alive – Pip figures it all out and reveals it to Magwitch (Mr. Provis) as he lay dying in the prison hospital. Pip tried to get Magwitch back out of England before he got caught but Compeyson finds him and turns him in – exciting river escape attempt ending with Magwitch grabbing Compeyson out of his boat and them both going under. Magwitch comes up alive but wounded and then arrested. Penalty of death since he was never to return to England. Compeyson drowns.

Estella was raised by Miss Havisham to be cold-hearted and cruel. Pip always thought his benefactor was Miss Havisham but when he finds out it isn’t, he confronts Miss Havisham and exposes her cruelty – to raise this beautiful daughter and toy with Pip all these years – thinking there was hope for him to marry Estella. Miss Havisham shows deep remorse when her cruelty is exposed. But Estella goes and marries a real turd – Drummle – against Pip’s warnings.

Years later, Pip returns to Miss Havisham’s (now deceased-mansion torn down) to visit the old place and finds Estella there! By that time, she had endured an abusive marriage to Drummle, who died while abusing a horse. She is now a widow and realizes the good heart in Pip.

Last paragraph: “I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so, the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her.”

What a rich, beautiful tale! The characters so deep and picturesque. The growing up of Pip from young, sweet boy, to young gentleman who gradually learns that goodness of heart is never something to be ashamed of (he was often ashamed of Joe as he grew up after meeting Estella and coming into his expectations).

The clerk, Wemmick, was one of my favorite characters. He and Pip become special friends – Wemmick lives in a little cottage he turns into a tiny castle with a moat and everything. Wemmick takes care of his aged parent (Aged P.) with love, patience, and tenderness.

I haven’t mentioned Biddy – She was a young girl who ends up befriending Pip as a boy, teaching him, then coming to help Joe and Pip’s sister – who by that time was completely destroyed mentally by a murder attempt that left her alive but barely. Biddy nurses Pip’s sister until she dies. Biddy loves Pip but knows he loves Estella.

After many, many years, Pip decides to return to the forge and ask Biddy to marry him – he arrives on the day of Biddy’s wedding to Joe! Pip is so very happy for them – he truly loves them both. That is when he goes to the garden and meets Estella there.

The relationships between Joe and Pip as a young boy, Pip and Herbert (dear friend), Wemmick and the Aged P, Biddy and Pip’s sister, Pip and Provis (Magwitch), Joe and Pip (Joe comes to London to nurse Pip back to health) are full of self-sacrificing love, care, devotion. Sometimes humor.

Miss Havisham is a very interesting character. She is jilted on her wedding day (by Compeyson) and she never recovers. She stops all the clocks in the mansion, she leaves her wedding dress on, she never goes outside again, she leaves the dining room with wedding cake on the table. When Pip is there the cake is full of cobwebs, spiders, mice. When Pip finally confronts her years later when he finds out she is not his benefactor and that he was merely used to be a toy to Estella’s cruelty, she shows deep remorse. Pip decides to walk through the garden and then leave forever (the garden and all the grounds are decayed and wretched). He decides to check on her one last time and she has gotten too near the fire and bursts into flames. Pip saves her life by wrapping her in his cloak. His arm and hands get burned in the process. I have not written this book report in very good order, but it is such a rich, detailed, engrossing tale! I loved it!

Thank you, God, for Charles Dickens and Mark Twain, my 2 favorite authors!

The Arabian Nights

Translated by Husain Haddawy

“This translation is of the complete text of the Mahdi edition, the definitive Arabic edition of a 14th century Syrian manuscript, which is the oldest surviving version of the tales and considered to be the most authentic.”

Shahrazad marries the King Shahrayar who typically puts his wives to death after one night since his 1st wife cheated on him. She asks if she can tell him a story. He says yes, and so each night she tells him a story or a part of a story and he never puts her to death because he’s excited to hear the rest of the story the next night.

My favorite was “the Third Dervish’s Tale.” He was a prince who gets shipwrecked and ends up in a palace with 40 beautiful women. He lives in paradise with them for 1 year. When they have to leave for 40 days they tell him there are 100 rooms in the palace and he can explore 99 of them but cannot go in the 100th or they will lose him. After 39 days he has explored 99 rooms – all beautiful and delightful and Satan tempts him to open the door plated with gold – he does and that is his undoing – he rides a black horse who flies away with him and dumps him on a roof and kicks him and tears out his eye.

This is a common sentence throughout the stories: “There is no power and no strength save in God, the Almighty, the Magnificent.”

I also liked the last story, “Jullanar of the Sea.” About a ‘mermaid’ who becomes the wife of the king of Persia – a good and benevolent king, and bears him a son who is as beautiful and wonderful as she is. He (Badr) grows up and they try to find a wife for him. He eventually marries the Princess Jauhara and, “Then King Badr and his wife and mother and relatives continued to enjoy life until they were overtaken by the breaker of ties and destroyer of delights. And this is the completion and the end of their story.”

“Translator’s Postscript”

“Tradition has it that in the course of time Shahrazad bore Shahrayer three children, and that, having learned to trust and love her, he spared her life and kept her as his queen.”

Most of the stories were full of beautiful palaces with rooms, gardens, birds, fountains, beautiful princes and princesses, slave girls, music and singing, and fantastic events–supernatural events, some demons, magic.

The Prince and the Pauper

by Mark Twain, 1882

Fabulous book! Set in 1500’s in England. Two little boys; one the prince, the other a pauper (Tom Canty) change places. The real prince learns what it feels like to be poor and downcast and to see his laws in action (such unfairness!). The pauper becomes rich and catered to. In the end, the real prince is accepted back to the throne and rules with compassion. Miles Hendon is an adult which befriends the true prince when he is on the streets. He protects him, takes his lashes for him, and saves him from the rabble. He calls him his little lunatic. He doesn’t believe he is really a prince. The interplay is so precious! Absolutely loved this book!

Last lines: “‘What dost thou know of suffering and oppression? I and my people know, but not thou.'”

‘”The reign of Edward VI was a singularly merciful one. Now that we are taking leave of him let us try to keep this in our minds, to his credit.”‘

Of Love and Evil

by Anne Rice, 2010

Book “lite” about assassin turned true believer who works for the Angels now. Is sent back to Rome in 1500’s to save a young Jewish scholar and put a ghost to rest. Not much depth to her writing; “fluff.”

The Help

by Kathryn Stockett, 2009

Another fantastic modern novel! A real page-turner, set in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960’s. Three heroes: 1. Miss Skeeter, the young white girl who just graduated from college and wants to be a writer. 2. Aibileen, the black maid who takes care of Mae Mobley, little 2 yr old white girl, and cooks and cleans for Miss Leefolt. 3. Minny, the black maid who has a sassy mouth and many children of her own and an alcoholic, abusive husband.

The demon in this book is Hilly Holbrook who epitomizes the evils of racism. She is the League president and one of Miss Skeeter’s best friends, along with Miss Leefolt (Elizabeth).

Skeeter misses her old maid, Constantine, terribly. She loved her like she was her mother. But she’s mysteriously gone when Skeeter returns from college and Skeeter’s mother only tells her she quit. She gets a job for the Jackson newspaper writing Miss Myrna-household hints. She knows nothing about keeping house so she uses Aibileen for her tips. She keeps asking Aibileen what happened to Constantine but Aibileen won’t tell her. Through it all, Hilly tries to get Skeeter to add a column for separate restrooms in homes to be built for the maids because everyone knows colored people carry all sorts of diseases. Skeeter refuses.

Eventually, she is prompted to write about what she really cares about by a Helen Stein-publisher for Harper and Rowe. Skeeter talks Aibileen into telling her story of what it’s like to be a black maid for white people. Aibileen then convinces Minny to tell her story. Minny works for Celia Foote, a white woman who is from the poor white country folk who meets and marries Johnny Foote – who used to date Hilly. Hilly never got over him.

Celia wants to belong to the League but they never allow her to be a member. She loves Minny and Minny gradually comes to trust her. Minny saves her life when she has a 4th miscarriage. Johnny loves Celia and loves Minny too. Celia can’t cook or clean – she can only garden. It’s a wonderful part of the book.

Eventually, 12 more maids agree to tell their stories. What spurred this was Hilly getting her maid, Yule May, locked up for 4 years in the penitentiary for stealing (a cheap ring that Hilly didn’t like – Yule had asked for a loan for $70 to pay tuition for her twin sons. Hilly refused.)

Much of the book is the suspense of meeting clandestinely with the maids getting the manuscript together and the worry of what would happen if the white people in Jackson realize the book is about them. The book does come out – and everyone in Jackson is reading it, wondering if it’s about them. And Minny’s ending – about the Terrible Awful thing which Minny decided to put in at the end, saves them from Hilly’s wrath. The Terrible Awful was a chocolate custard pie Minny baked for Hilly after Hilly spread lies all over town about Minny so no one would hire her. Minny was Hilly’s mother’s maid. When Hilly put her in a nursing home, then she had to find a new job to feed her 5 kids and drunk abusive husband. Then Hilly tried to get Minny to work for her (which would have put Minny’s friend, Yule May, out of a job) but Minny refused. Hilly had told all the white women in town that Minny was a thief and no one would hire her. That’s when Minny makes the custard pie and brings it over to Miss Walters where Hilly is waiting for the people from the home to come pick her up. Hilly eats two slices and asks Minny what she put in there that makes it so good. Minny put her own shit in the pie! That’s the Terrible Awful. And that’s the end of the book – called Help. Minny knew that when Hilly reads that part of the book, she will tell everyone in town that the book is not about Jackson.

Saves them. Not until after some tense moments before Hilly gets to the end of the book.

The book ends with Skeeter getting a job with Harper and Row – hating to leave the maids – worried sick about them. Aibileen tells her to go – so does MInny.

Aibileen is let go by Miss Leefolt at the urging of Hilly – not before Hilly accuses her of stealing – but backs down when Aibileen confronts her with all that she knows about Hilly and all the writing she could do in prison. But Aibileen gets to be the new Miss Myrna – Skeeter told her boss that Aibileen is the real Miss Myrna and he agrees to hire her. Poor Mae Mobley cries and cries. So does Aibileen.

And Minny’s husband Leroy gets fired (he works at a plant owned by Holbrook). Leroy tries to kill Minny – she escapes with the 5 kids and calls Aibileen. Aibileen calms her down – Minny will leave Leroy for good. She has a good job for life with Celia and Johnny Foote. She will finally be free from the abuse working for good people who appreciate her.

Fantastic book!

Sleeping Tiger

by Rosamunde Pilcher, 1967

Sweet little romance about 20 yr old English girl (Selina) who goes to a Spanish island in search of her father and finds her true love (George, 37 yrs old) instead. She has to dump her lawyer fiance who is only marrying her for her money and George has to dump his drunk American ex-patriot girlfriend. They end up in love and happily ever after. Lots of wonderful characters and the setting was beautiful–too short, though!

Kristin Lavransdatter: II, The Mistress of Husaby

by Sigrid Undset, 1925

Not as good as first book – very difficult to understand – almost all of it – entangled politics, difficult to pronounce/remember characters. But – still really good! Norway 1300’s.

Kristin & Erlend are married. He takes her to his manor – Husaby. She starts to make things better there. Has 1st son, Naakkve – almost kills her. She has a ton of guilt over her and Erlend’s premarital sex. She does penance – walks 20 miles barefoot with Naakkve – spends time at a church – then returns. Many years go by (well, maybe only 10) – she has 6 more sons: Naakkve, Bjorgulf, Gaute, twins Skule and Ivar, Munan, and Lavrans. But, she bears a grudge against Erlend all the while. She cannot forgive or forget any wrong he ever did her. Almost destroys them. Finally, she realizes what he means to her after he is arrested for high treason and faces death. He is imprisoned and found guilty. While waiting in prison, Simon, the man Kristin’s father, Lavrans, wanted her to marry but she spurned for Erlend, arranges very difficult meetings that finally get the king to release Erlend. Simon is such a sweet man – he never stopped loving Kristin, yet he is not bitter. He does end up marrying her little sister when she is 15 and they have a daughter and finally a son after 6 years.

Even though so much I couldn’t understand, it’s still a great book!

Her dear father, Lavrans, and her mother, grow old and die in this book. Kristin marvels at the love Lavrans and her mother, Ragnfred, have at the end of their lives – deep, deep love She never saw it while growing up.

Erlend loves, her, adores her, puts up with her bitterness and unforgiving heart and stays true to her until he decides on a whim after many, many years to have a fling with Lady Symiva (not sure, I can’t read my writing). She’s the one who turns him in for treason after he spurns her. Turns out she read some of his letters.

Kristin’s father ends up liking Erlend and respecting him and scolds Kristin for her meanness to Erlend.

None of their 7 sons dies -all are able to make it out of infancy. They are all handsome lads.

Quiet Strength

by Tony Dungy, 2007

Insider’s look at the NFL and Coach Tony Dungy, a very Christian man. He put God first and his faith never waivered, despite getting fired by the Bucs in 2002 after he turned the team around over years starting in 1996. And his oldest son’s suicide on Dec. 22, 2005. He won the Super Bowl in 2007 with the Indianapolis Colts.

The Yearling

by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Pulitzer Prize Winner, 1939

BEAUTIFUL BOOK!! The Baxter’s, Penny (Dad), Ma, Jody-son, live in a clearing on high ground in Florida. They farm and raise or hunt all their food. Tote water from the sink hole. Nearest neighbors are the Forrester’s, typical moonshiners. They are bothered by a bear – Ol’ Slewfoot – who kills their stock in the middle of the night. Jody is lonely, adopts a fawn, it grows up, eats their crops, and must be shot. This about kills Jody, he runs away, almost starves to death, comes home a man.

Incredible descriptions of hunts (Jody and his Dad finally get Ol’ Slewfoot one Christmas day), fishing, nature (flowers, birds, streams, forests), people (his ma; his Dad, Penny; The Forrester’s, esp. Lem, Fodderwing, Buck; Doc; Grandma Huho; Oliver; etc.)

We grow up with Jody. What a beautiful, wonderful book!!!

Last few sentences:

“Flag – He did not believe he should ever again love anything, man or woman or his own child, as he had loved the yearling. He would be lonely all his life. But a man took it for his share and went on.

“In the beginning of his sleep, he cried out, “Flag!”

“It was not his own voice that called. It was a boy’s voice. Somewhere beyond the sinkhole, past the magnolias, under the live oaks, a boy and a yearling ran side by side, and were gone forever.”

Perelandra

by C.S. Lewis, 1943

(2nd in the Space Trilogy)

Ransom is taken to Perelandra (Venus). It is a land of floating islands, friendly beasts, bubble trees, and yellow gourds delicious beyond belief. The Bubble trees refresh you better than a cool shower on a hot day. The Yellow gourds, which grow on trees, taste so good–they are filled with a delicious liquid. The land is spongy and soft. The nights are dark but warm and the days are beautiful and filled with yellow light. If it rains, it is warm and you can go to a special place where the trees shelter you. It’s Paradise.

(more…) “Perelandra”

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, 2008

Recommended by Christie Leighton, finished 7-10-10 camping up at Chambers Lake, gorging myself on Gorp, pringles, cheese and crackers and wine!

By Mary Ann Shaffer and her niece, Annie Barrows. Annie finished the book when Mary Ann’s health prohibited her from doing so, August 2008.

What a LOVE STORY!! Guernsey is a Channel Island occupied by the Germans in WWII. Amelia has a pig roast illegally and invites fellow islanders. They get caught on the way home. Elizabeth makes up a story that they have a literary society and asks if they’d like to join. Thus starts the amazing tale of Islanders come together during German occupation. Elizabeth befriends a German officer. They have a child, Kit. German officer, Christian Hellman, is killed over Italy, I think. Elizabeth is taken away from them while they were amidst the occupation, because she was helping a young adolescent Todt slave worker who was almost dead. The islanders didn’t know she was dead until they got a letter from Remy Giraud, who was with her until her execution in camp Ravensbruck. A guard was beating a poor menstruating girl and Eliz. grabbed the rod and started beating the guard. They took her out the next day, had her walk in a row of poplars, she knelt down and they shot her in the back of the head.

None of this you discover until Juliet Ashton, a young English writer, gets a letter from Dawsey because he got her book by Charles Lamb and wanted to know if there were any other books by Charles Lamb. It’s all a series of letters from Dawsey and other Islanders to Juliet and back and between Juliet and her publisher Sidney Stark and her best friend, his sister, Sophie. It keeps you en-rapt until the end – after Juliet moves to the island, jilts Mark Reynolds, falls in love with Dawsey, adopts Kit, and finally professes her love to Dawsey and asks him to marry her and he says yes.

What a wonderful, wonderful book!! Loved every minute of it. Every page, every letter. One of the most interesting characters is Isola Pribby, an islander who makes potions and tonics. Sidney stays with her while visiting Juliet. She is a character!! She finds out Sidney is gay. They develop quite a friendship. He sends her books – Phrenology – study of bumps on head. She reads everyone’s bumps on their heads, including Billy Ree’s, who was on the island to pick up Oscar Wilde’s eight letters written anonymously, signed with his initials only, to Isola. Grandma Pheen and her Duplicitious Bump was extremely large and they foiled her attempt to steal the letters and give them to her trash journalist lover.

Isola is a treasure! As are all the islanders! LOVED this book!!!

Here are the different books the islanders read:

Selected Essays of Elia, by Charles Lamb (Dawsey Adams)

Wuthering Heights (Isola Pribby)

The Pickwick Papers (Amelia Maugery)

Jane Eyre, Agnes Grey, Shirley, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (These are books Juliet mentions to Isola because they are by the Bronte sisters.)

Selections from Shakespeare, also books by Mr. Dickens and Mr. Wordsworth (Eben Ramsey)

Poetry by a Roman named Catullus (Clovis Fossey)

Poetry by Wilfred Owen (Clovis Fossey)

Poetry of William Wordsworth (Clovis Fossey)

The Letters of Seneca (John Booker)

Past and Present by Thomas Carlyle (Will Thisbee)

The Double Comfort Safari Club

by Alexander McCall Smith, 11th #1 Ladies Detective Series, 2010

Phuti Radiphuti has his leg crushed by one of his delivery men who backed his truck into him. He has to have the lower part amputated. His Aunty won’t let Mma Makutsi visit in the hospital but Mma Ramotswe gets that changed and he heals up very fast and is released. His Aunty takes him to her house and again won’t let Grace visit. In the end, Mma Potokwane finds out and roars her way to Aunty’s home with Mma Makutsi and Mma Ramotswe and takes Phuti to the Orphanage happily where Mma Makutsi can see him every night.

Violet Sephotho deceives a young man, Mr. Kereleng, into buying a house and putting it in her name. Then, refusing to marry him, he comes to Mma Ramotswe for help. She goes to her attorney friend who ends up being the one who did the original deed. He had never filed it and had put the wrong address on it. So Mma Ramotswe & Mma Makutsi go to her house saying a new deed will need to be signed and Violet knows Mr. Kereleng won’t sign it and goes berserk, attacking Mma Makutsi.

Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi go north to Maun to safari camps looking for the guide of a Mrs. Grant who left him $3,000 in her will – not knowing the name of the camp except it’s an animal or a bird. They go to Eagle Island Camp first and think they found the guide until he shows them a picture of Mrs. Grant and it’s not the same woman. Mma Ramotswe has another guide, Mighty, take her to another camp, the Lion’s Tail, and finds the real guide – who happens to be marrying the other guide’s sister, and will end up giving him most of the 3000 as a bridal prize.

Pretty good book – not quite as good as Tea Time for the Traditionally Built.

Out of the Silent Planet

by C.S. Lewis, 1938

Marvelous Book! Fantastic Story!

Ransom is kidnapped by Weston and Devine – taken in their spaceship to Malacandra where they were going to turn him over to the Sorns for a human sacrifice, they thought. Ransom escapes and meets up with the Hross – a friendly, large, fur-covered people. He lives with the Hross for awhile – learns their language and ways. Then they go on a hunt to kill a hrnakra – a shark-like creature and Ransom kills the Hrnakra but his friend, Hyoi, is murdered by Weston and Devine.

Ransom is supposed to go to Oyarsa, an eldil had spoken to Hyoi before the hunt, but Ransom insisted on the hunt so after Hyoi is killed, he starts the trek to Oyarsa. He climbs to a Sorn, Augray, who carries him the rest of the way to Meldilorn. There, Ransom speaks to Oyarsa. And then the bent ones, Weston and Devine, are brought to Oyarsa. He interviews Weston – finds out his plan – kill everyone on Malacandra so humans can take over. Banishes he and Weston. Ransom decides to go to Earth with them rather than live on Malacandra. They barely make it home – first thing he asks for when he leaves the space-ship, “A pint of bitter.”

The earth is the silent planet because it is ruled by the evil one. Malacandra has 3 peoples – hnau – the Hrossa – who fish and farm – the Sorns – who are the thinkers – and the pfifltrigs – who mine gold (sun’s blood – what Devine was after) and make beautiful objects. They all live in peace – no crime, murder, hate, envy. They have eldils among them – strong spirit beings they can see, but Ransom could only sense by changes in the light – Oyarsa was the head eldil.

Space travel – beautiful descriptions of a heavenly, healing light which Ransom drank up while on the spaceship – not cold and dark like we think of space. One side of ship was light – the other was night.

“There was an endless night on one side of the ship and an endless day on the other: each was marvellous and he moved from the one to the other at his will, delighted.”

On the light side: “…through depth after depth of tranquillity far above the reach of night, he felt his body and mind daily rubbed and scoured and filled with new vitality.”

Also, beautiful descriptions of Malacandra – bright blue waters that were warm. Purple trees, rose pink clouds that were solid actually and greenish spires/mountains of ice.

Mostly what Ransom realized was that there was nothing to fear on Malacandra. Weston and Devine never could get to that point. Their minds/hearts were darkened by our bent earth.

Fantastic Tale!

Tea Time for the Traditionally Built

by Alexander McCall Smith, 2009

Great book! LOVED this one!! Mma Ramotswe solves the mystery of why the soccer team, the Kalahari Swoopers, are losing all of their games. Actually, her foster son, Puso, figured it out – it was that the owner, Mr. Molofololo, kept changing things and their shoes were uncomfortable so they couldn’t play their best football any more. Mr. Molofololo thought there was a traitor on the team but it turned out to be him and his insistence on them wearing these new shoes!

Also, Violet Sephotho goes to work for Phuti Radiphuti’s Double Comfort Furniture Shop, selling beds. Her idea is to steal him away from Grace. She sells many beds. Mma Ramotswe decides to have Charlie go buy a bed. He plays interested but then says he has to think about it and she propositions him – if you buy this bed, I’ll help you try it out. Charlie tells Phuti – not knowing it was Phuti – and he fires Violet on the sot. She is a wicked woman!

And Mma Ramotswe’s little white van dies – she is so very sad. Mr J.L.B. Matekoni buys her a beautiful blue van. She still misses her little white van and she and Fanwell drive to the junkyard to get it back but it was already sold.

One very poignant part was Mma Ramotswe’s worry and love for Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni on the day he goes to help a friend in his garage in Lobatse.

“She waved back from the window, and suddenly, inexplicably, felt an urge to rush out into the yard to speak to him before he left, to tell him something…She gave his hand a squeeze. “I wanted to thank you,” she said. He was puzzled “For what? Thank me for what?” “For everything you’ve given me, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni.”

“He looked away. He was not one for displays of emotion; he never had been, but it made his heart swell to be thanked by this woman who stood for so much in his eyes; who stood for kindness and generosity and understanding; for a country of which he was so proud; who stood for Africa and all the love that Africa contained.”

BEAUTIFUL BOOK!! LOVED IT!!

Tinkers

by Paul Harding, 2009

Finished as fast as I could – like abstract art – all over the place, written like his notes of nature while on acid. It did have a main story in between the “trips.”

A man is dying of cancer – laying in his living room – memories of his father, an epilectic, who left them because his wife was going to have him committed. He was a loving, gentle, creative man who sold pans, brushes, soap, etc. on his wagon over the dirt roads of Maine. He never made much money. He thought his wife loved him but she was a cold-hearted woman – couldn’t stand him or their 5 kids. He moved one night to Philadelphia – sold his horse and wagon, started as a bag boy, met a wonderful woman who loved him, married him, and helped him in his seizures-took him to a good doctor and his seizures all but stopped. In 1953, he went to visit his grown-up son.

This son is the one who is dying of cancer – and as he dies, he remembers his father. This son, George, was a tinkerer – clock repairer, loved all his clocks. Set in 1900’s (early).

The Miracle at Speedy Motors

by Alexander McCall Smith, 2008

Not the best Ladies Detective book. Mma Makutsi & Phuti Radiphuti buy a bed – velvet heart headboard. It doesn’t fit into Mma Makutsi’s house when they delivered it the next day, so she has them leave it outside. The rainy season starts and ruins it. She buys a cheap replacement – lies to Phuti and then tells the truth eventually.

Mma Ramotswe has to find the family of a lady. She does through Mma Potokwane – the orphan director – but ends up being incorrect but that’s okay because they end up glad they are not related (brother & sister but now can be husband/wife).

Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni listens to a doctor who tells him his daughter Motholeli could walk again. He takes her to a clinic in Johannesburg, spends 25,000 (Mma Ramotswe finds out how much, and rather than let him mortgage the garage, she secretly sells about 6 of her prize cattle), but alas, it doesn’t work and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni cries. Motholeli is fine and happy though.

Lastly, Mma Ramotswe is getting anonymous threatening letters at the garage. Mr. Polopetsi delivers one to her so she suspects him. Charlie sees who drops them off and tells Mma Ramotswe it’s a woman. It ends up being Violet Sephotho, the glamour girl in Mma Makutsi’s secretarial class.

Last Paragraph: “But one had to be careful, Mma Ramotswe herself: one should not ask for too many things in this life, especially when one already had so much.” (that is what I wrote, but I don’t think that is correct.)

Lorna Doone

by R.D. Blackmore, 1869

LOVED THIS BOOK! Wonderful hero of heroes, John Ridd, falls in love with Lorna Doone, even though her people killed his father. He rescues her from the wicked Doone’s and she is restored as Lady Lorna Dugal, because the Doone’s had kidnapped her and killed her parents and brother. John loves her even though he is a farmer and she a lady. She loves him and forsakes her title and money to come back to the farm and marry John. It is their wedding. They have just said, “I will,” and John is ready to kiss her. A shot rings out and his Lorna falls into his arms. He knows who did it – jumps on his horse, chases him and kills him – Carver Doone – the wickedest Doone of them all.

But, amazingly, Ruth Huckabuck, the young lady John would have married if not for Lorna, realized Lorna was not dead, and nurses her back to full health. Then she nurses John (who Carver managed to shoot before John killed him) back to health and they live happily ever after.

Beautiful, Beautiful book! Many characters (Tom Faggus and his horse, Winnie; sisters, Annie and Lizzie; beloved mother; Jeremy Stickles, King’s officer; Uncle Ben (Reuben) and his granddaughter, Ruth Huckabuck; Gwenny Carfax, the little maid of Lorna; John Fry, John’s lazy worker full of character). Beautiful descriptions of nature – meadows, farms, flowers, rivers, ocean – and people. Great adventure story and love story. Good conquers evil. Good is so very good – evil is so very evil, but nothing graphic. LOVED IT!!!