by Julia Child and Alex Prud’homme, 2006
All about how Julia Child and her husband, Paul, lived in France from 1948 to 1954. Julia fell in love with French food and cooking. She wrote Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It took about 9 years, I think. She’s quite the perfectionist! Beautiful France – she absolutely loved it. Not sure I would have liked the food, though – organ meats, fish, eel, etc.
by David Benioff, 2008
Leningrad, WWII, in siege by Germans. Lev Beniov, young 17-year-old Jewish boy, gets arrested for looting (stole a knife off a dead German), thrown into the Crosses-Russian prison. Kolya, handsome soldier, thrown in same cell for desertion (went to town to get laid). They do not get executed but instead are sent on an impossible mission to find a dozen eggs for the Colonel’s daughter’s wedding. They have a week. There are no eggs in Leningrad.
by Charles Dickens, 1850 (821 pages)
Last line: “Oh Agnes, Oh my soul, so may thy face be by me when I close my life indeed! So may I, when realities are melting from me like the shadows which I now dismiss, still find thee near me, pointing upward!”
What a tale – what characters – the underdogs are the heroes in the end – the rich snobs waste away in meaningless lives, or die.
by Pearl S. Buck, 1931, Pulitzer Prize winner
I miss my messed up Chinese family already! What a great book! Wang Lung’s father arranges marriage for him to O-Lan – kitchen slave in the Great House of Hwang. Wang Lung is a farmer. They work so hard they eventually become wealthy landowners. O’Lan is a Proverbs 31 woman. Because of her hard work, her family prospers. But Wang Lung takes a mistress after he is prosperous. Breaks O’Lan’s heart and causes all kinds of unhappiness in his home.
by Nevada Barr, 1993
Good mystery set in Guadalupe Mtn of Texas. Anna Pigeon is a National Park Service ranger. Discovers fellow ranger dead in the wilds supposedly by mountain lion. She is suspicious, though. She gets sabotaged on a hike, falls, very treacherous, but doesn’t die. Then another ranger, Craig Eastern, dies of snakebite in his tent. Anna figures it out: it’s Harland Roberts, another ranger. They are capturing collared lions in the national park and using them for canned hunts for the wealthy. She figures it out, confronts him in the night in the desert, ends up fighting, wounding him badly, leaving him there to either die or get picked up. The end.
by Sy Montgomery, 2006
Very compassionate and animal-loving female author. “Compassion means “with suffering.” Went home to be with Dad when he was dying of cancer even though he had written her off when she married Howard Mansfield (Jewish). Then, her mother, who was really the culprit, got cancer too and again she went home and cared for her. I couldn’t have done that.
by Alexander McCall Smith, 2006
Beautiful, beautiful book! Mma Ramotswe’s cases include a young chef who catches her boss stealing food for her husband and then is accused of blackmailing the boss. Mma Ramotswe discovers the person blackmailing the boss is Aunty Emang, a Dear Abby-type person who ends up being a tiny, purely evil person. “Her visitor’s small face, with its darting, slightly hooded eyes, was impassive, but there was something in the eyes which disturbed her. Evil, she thought. That is what I see. Evil.”
by Thomas Hardy, 1891
Tess, beautiful beyond belief, eyes and lips especially, long dark hair. Her mom sends her to the D’urbervilles (fake ones) to maybe make them rich. Instead, she is raped by Alec D’urberville. She goes home, has a baby, which dies at age 1. She goes to work on a dairy farm. Falls in love w/Angel Clare. He begs her to marry him. She refuses for a long time. Finally gives in. She tells him on the first night of their honeymoon that she was raped.
by Mary Stewart, 1976
“bistered” lilies – bistered means brown
“yesty” waves – yesty not in my dictionary
Bryony Ashley’s father dies after being hit by a car. Bryony returns to England from Funchal, Madeira. She returns to Ashley Court, the mansion with a moat and a maze that has been in her family forever.
by M.M. Kaye, 1955
Miranda Brand goes to Berlin with cousin and his wife, Stella. Soon is involved in murder of Brigadier Brindley, who told story of stolen diamonds. Then the governess is murdered. Turns out it was Stella – she was going to murder Miranda – jealousy and wanted money. Miranda and Simon Lang, the detective, end up in love and married at the end.
Not M.M. Kaye’s best mystery. Still need to read “Death in Kenya” and “Shadow of the Moon.”
by George Orwell, 1949
“Big Brother is Watching You.” Winston Smith works in the Ministry of Truth for Big Brother, the Party of Oceania. He rewrites history constantly – that is his job. He knows that things are not as they want him to believe. He hates Big Brother. He falls in love with Julia, another worker in the Fiction Department. After a few months, they are discovered by the Thought Police. They are taken to the Ministry of Love and tortured and brainwashed until they become the robots Big Brother wants them to be. They no longer love, they no longer doubt anything Big Brother says. They believe it all.
“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”
Oceania/Big Brother is run by 4 ministries: “The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with Torture, and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation.”
Big Brother slogans: “Ignorance is strength. War is Peace. Freedom is slavery.”
‘Two Minutes Hate’ – all workers go to telescreen and watch and hear Emanuel Goldstein, enemy of the party, talk. It brings out hate, rage, violence. Then they go back to what they were doing.
Telescreens – on everyone’s wall – always on – always playing or spouting propaganda and lies – even on while you sleep in case you say something while you are dreaming.
‘Newspeak’ – the official language of Oceania – coming into existence – eliminating words that allow people to think about things against Big Brother. Words like ‘free,’ ‘equal.’
Proles – the people who are not working for Big Brother – ordinary people – “the swarming disregarded masses, 85% of the population of Oceania…” They work and breed.
“If there is hope, it lies in the Proles,” Winston writes this.
The party wants to maintain absolute power forever. The Inner Party members are the only ones with enough to eat and comfortable homes. The rest of the world, including outer party workers like Winston and Julia, live in filthy rundown apartments that are cold and dirty, they never have enough to eat. Nothing is plentiful except for Victory Gin. The Party controls everything and every thought, even memories, because they rewrite the past.
Bottom line: A Godless world sucks, big time.
by Wilkie Collins, published in serial form 1859-1860
Walter Hartright runs into the woman in white on a road at night going towards London. She enters his life again while he is teaching painting to 2 young ladies in Fairlie’s Limmeridge House. Walter falls in love with Laura Fairlie, 1/2 sister of Marian Holcombe. But she is betrothed to Sir Percival Glyde. The woman in white tries to warn Laura to not marry him. She does anyway. He’s a scoundrel and once he has her it is clear he wanted her money only.
by Alexander McCall Smith, 2004, Book #6 in The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series
Moved me to tears!
Mma Ramotswe has a man hiding under her bed. He escapes but loses his pants on a mattress spring. Never figure out who he was. The next day, the trousers are gone (she had hung them outside) and a pumpkin was there. It turns out Charlie had given her the pumpkin.
by Philip Yancey, 1997
Is God unfair? Is God silent? Is God hidden? Reads Bible from cover to cover in 2 weeks. Analyzes it from those 3 questions. In O.T. God was not silent or hidden – didn’t result in faith or obedience. Jesus – God not unfair, silent, or hidden. Holy Spirit – in us – we are to be the work of God now.
by Daniel Defoe, 1719
Robinson Crusoe decides to leave his safe, middle-class existence in York, England on 9/1/1651, against the advice of his father and mother and others. He takes a sea voyage to London. But the ship gets hit by a storm. They manage to get on another ship before their’s “founders” – sinks. Safe on shore, he doesn’t go home with his tail between his legs: “…that they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent; not ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which only can make them be esteemed wise men.”
by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883 (1850-1894, died in Samoa)
An old pirate shows up at an inn in England. The Admiral Benbow Inn, owned by young Jim Hawkins’ father.
The old pirate’s fellow pirates show up to steal his loot but Jim and his Mom get to it first and escape the Inn and hide. Jim doesn’t know he’s taken what they want more than anything – a map of Treasure Island and where the Capt. Flint’s treasure is buried.
Jim shows the map to Squire Trelawny and Dr. Livesey and they decide to get a ship together to sail to Treasure Island. The Squire recruits sailors and most are pirates, including Long John Silver, one-legged pirate, who poses as the cook for the boat. Original name of the book was going to be “The Sea Cook.”
They arrive on Treasure Island and Jim ends up saving the day 3 times: One – he overhears mutineers’ plans. Two – He meets Ben Gunn on the Island, a former pirate who ends up saving the good guys. Three – He captures the ship back from the pirates. The ship is called the Hispaniola.
Ben Gunn ends up saving the day because he had been left for dead on the island 2 years ago, and had set himself up a nice cave, found the treasure, packed it all up to his cave. He and Jim take care of the Squire, Dr. Livesey, and the Capt. and end up saving them from the no-good pirates.
The pirates all end up dead except three and Long John Silver. Long John Silver ends up striking a deal with Dr. Livesey and the Squire that they won’t prosecute him. They allow him to sale with them back to England but he ducks out with one bag of treasure at the first habited port they come to, never to be seen again.
Great action adventure tale. Lots of nautical terms I didn’t understand. Parts of the island were nice but other parts weren’t – swampy and disease-infested.
by Yann Martel, 2001
This book was recommended by Sara K.
“I have a story that will make you believe in God.” Piscing Molitor Patel – named after a swimming pool – Pondicherry, India. His dad was a zookeeper. He grew up in a zoo. His Mom and Dad, fed up with Mrs. Ghandi, decide to move to Canada. They board a cargo ship, TsimTsum, that sinks in the Pacific Ocean. Pi ends up the only survivor on a lifeboat with Hyena, Zebra with broken leg, Orang-utan, and Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker. The Hyena kills the Zebra and the Orang-utan. Richard Parker kills the Hyena. Then it’s just Pi and Richard Parker, alone on the boat for 227 days. Pi builds himself a raft from oars and life vests and lives on the raft tied to the boat. He learns to fish and feeds and trains Richard Parker. They are both almost dead when they drift to a floating island of algae.
by Charles Dickens, 1859
London and Paris, approximately 1770 to 1793 or 1794, French Revolution 1789
Wow! What an incredible story! Dr. Manette is rescued from 18 years in prison in France. His daughter, Lucie, now an adult, cares for him and makes him whole again. They participate in a trial of Charles Darnay, a former French aristocrat, wrongly accused of treason. He is freed, not guilty, mainly because of the expert questioning and defense of Stryver, through his friend, Sydney Carton. Both Charles and Sydney fall in love with Lucie. Charles marries Lucie and they have a special home in England. But Charles decides to return to France to try and save an old servant. He ends up imprisoned in France during the French Revolution, a time when La Guillotine is killing up to 60 people/day. Charles is due to be beheaded but because Sydney Carton looks like him, and is so smart, and cares so deeply for Lucie, he devises a plan – gets into prison and switches places with Charles – and dies in his place! Sydney had once pledged to Lucie that he would be there for her if she ever needed him. And he was.
The story begins, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” and ends, “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.” (Sydney Carton at his death, sacrificially, in place of Charles Darnay.)
WOW!! (Need to get movie – Masterpiece Theatre – ending made Wayne cry!)
Recommended by Sandy Calhoun.
by Alexander McCall Smith, 2003
(5th book in the ‘No. 1 Ladies Detective’ series)
Mma Ramotswe and Mr. JLB Matakoni finally get married! The orphan mgr, Mma Potokwane arranges it all (a surprise) after the parachute jump event, which she had trapped JLB Matakoni into, but Mma Ramotswe got Charlie, one of the apprentices, to do it instead, so he could get famous with the girls.
Mma’s case this time was for a rich lady, investigating 4 suitors. She only investigated 2 and they both wanted her for her money, but the first one, the teacher, wanted her money for the House of Hope, home for “bad girls,” and it turns out the rich lady didn’t care. She discovered her passion to help the girls also and willingly wanted to marry this man and help him out.
Mma Makutsi moves into a new house; 2 rooms with a yard!
Sweet, funny book!
by Catherine Marshall, 1967
Christy Huddleston, 19 yrs. old, volunteers to teach in a mission school in Cutter Gap, Tennessee in 1912 (Appalachia). She learns to love God and the poor mountain people who have it so hard. Some are mean, cruel. But in the end, love conquers. She teaches 67 children in a one-room school house. She is mentored by Miss Alice, a Quaker woman with a deep and joyous faith in God. She (Christy) thinks she is in love with David Grantland, the pastor, but on her deathbed she is pulled back from Heaven by Dr. Neil MacNeill, the mountain doctor, praying to God, confessing his sins and surrendering to God.
Beautiful book! Especially her descriptions of Heaven near the end:
Light was drawing me irresistibly, dazzling light, refulgent light of a quality I had had but hints before…The grass was dotted with flowers – I spotted buttercups and the orchid of fairy fringe and the vermilion of fire pinks, and mountain bluets like patches of sky fallen into the grass – all of such intense coloration that they were not like flowers at all: they were explosions of color…over there was the light…green wood, green wood, flower-starred grass. The air was crystal. It was as if some sun of suns was glinting off numberless prisms, shattering the light rays, deflecting them, reflecting them so dazzlingly that I had to put my hand up to shield my eyes…Bathed in its luster, the leaves of the trees, the blossoms on the boughs, the blades of grass did not seem to be lighted from the outside. Rather the light appeared to come from the inside of each object, from its heart, from its very nature…energy in balance. Something had been stripped from my eyes..For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then, face to face…”
She was dying of typhoid – the cove was in an epidemic and she had finally succumbed after nursing so many others. But, she doesn’t die. She is pulled back from the brink by Dr. MacNeill’s loving prayer to God at her bedside.