Sunday Salon ~ bookstore bounty

BOOKS

After lunch last Sunday, Donna and I went to the bookstore in sight of Applebee's door.  As a matter of fact, when she told me to pick a restaurant, I chose that one for its proximity to the bookstore.  After all, I'm a bookie, aren't I?  Bookie, bookaholic, book blogger, something like that, all of that.  Anyway, I rarely walk away with nothing, and that visit was about average.  Donna got five or six books, so I think I was entirely circumspect in going home with only two young adult novels.

Patience, Princess Catherine ~ by Carolyn Meyer, 2004, YA fiction (England)

Catherine of Aragon grew up expecting she would someday become the queen of England — not a dejected teenage widow.  But that is exactly what happens when fragile Prince Arthur, to whom she has been betrothed since the age of three, dies only months after their wedding.  Her power now obsolete, Catherine is exiled to a dank castle in a remote part of the country.  She is stranded there for years with little money and no control over her own fate.  The one ray of light in her lonely life is her friendship with handsome Prince Henry, her deceased husband's younger brother.  A marriage to Henry could elevate Catherine from her precarious position and give her the crown that she was once promised.  But will Henry take the risk of making the destitute princess his queen?

Mary, Bloody Mary ~ by Carolyn Meyer, 1999, YA fiction (England)

Mary Tudor is a beautiful young princess in a grand palace filled with servants.  She is accustomed to sparkling jewels, beautiful gowns, and lavish parties.  Then, suddenly, she is banished by her father, King Henry VIII, to live in a cold, lonely place without money, new clothes, or even her mother.  At first it seems like a terrible mistake.  Even when her father has a public and humiliating affair with a bewitching woman, Mary remains hopeful.  But when he abandons her mother, marries his mistress, and has a child with her, Mary begins to lose faith.  And now, dressed in rags, she is summoned back to the palace to be a serving maid to her new baby half sister.  Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII, is a servant in her own home.  Believe it or not, it's all true.

I had checked out six books about Eleanor of Aquitaine, who married into the Plantagenet dynasty.  So these Tudor princesses, one the mother of the other, moved me on down the line of English royalty into a later century or two.  Although these books may be in my public library, buying them as remaindered books makes sense to me.
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STATS

Just finished:  Defending Jacob ~ by William Landay, 2012, fiction (Massachusetts), 8/10

Currently reading:  American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation ~ by Jon Meacham, 2006, politics and religion

Up next, or actually, also currently reading:  Ninety Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life ~ by Don Piper, 2004, memoir

Totals for 2012:  15 finished + 1 DNF (did not finish) + 9 reviews

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LIFE

Three years ago today, I had quadruple bypass surgery.  Talk about life-changing!  I was missing from the blogging scene for weeks, with only two possts between mid-December and mid-March.  I returned with a post I called "Ya gotta have heart."  Then no more posts for a couple of months.  Since I "started over," I consider this my new birthday.  That means I'm three years old today!

I actually had a first birthday party, which I dubbed my rebirthday, inviting my post-surgery support group to party with me.  We played games — well, only the pin-the-tail game shown here, which had special rules for the elderly, meaning (in this case) anyone over ten.  And for you youngsters who don't know, the ancient technology in this photo is called a record player — it plays vinyl records, which I still have in two heavy boxes.  The very first song on the first album picked by one of my friends that day was Carole King's "You've Got a Friend" from her Tapestry album — "Ain't it good to know that you've got a friend?"  How appropriate was that?

Raegan, my 2-year-old great-granddaughter, is very proud of her artwork.  Good job, Raegan!

Visit the Sunday Salon's Facebook page for links to more posts.

Bookstore Booty

The Reluctant Fundamentalist ~ by Mohsin Hamid, 2007, fiction (Pakistan)
I have eyed this one for a long time, so when I saw it on sale, I got it.

At a café table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with a suspicious, and possibly armed, American stranger. As dusk deepens to night, he begins the tale that has brought them to this fateful meeting. Changez is living an immigrant’s dream of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he is snapped up by Underwood Samson, an elite firm that specializes in the “valuation” of companies ripe for acquisition. He thrives on the energy of New York and the intensity of his work, and his infatuation with regal Erica promises entrée into Manhattan society at the same exalted level once occupied by his own family back in Lahore. For a time, it seems as though nothing will stand in the way of Changez’s meteoric rise to personal and professional success. But in the wake of September 11, he finds his position in his adopted city suddenly overturned, and his budding relationship with Erica eclipsed by the reawakened ghosts of her past. And Changez’s own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and perhaps even love.

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant ~ by Anne Tyler, 1982, fiction
I've read most of her fiction, but just never happened to get this one, until now.

Pearl Tull is nearing the end of her life but not of her memory. It was a Sunday night in 1944 when her husband left the little row house on Baltimore’s Calvert Street, abandoning Pearl to raise their three children alone: Jenny, high-spirited and determined, nurturing to strangers but distant to those she loves; the older son, Cody, a wild and incorrigible youth possessed by the lure of power and money; and sweet, clumsy Ezra, Pearl’s favorite, who never stops yearning for the perfect family that could never be his own. Now Pearl and her three grown children have gathered together again–with anger, hope, and a beautiful, harsh, and dazzling story to tell.

The Face on the Milk Carton ~ by Caroline B. Cooney, 1990, YA fiction
I have three of Cooney's books stacked beside my desk right now, still waiting (Out of Time, 1996; The Terrorist, 1997; Prisoner of Time, 1998).  When I wrote about the two time-travel books, I also had another book by Cooney called Whatever Happened to Janie? (1993).  I'm sure it, too, is on one of my shelves or still in a box from my recent move. 

No one ever really paid close attention to the faces of the missing children on the milk cartons. But as Janie Johnson glanced at the face of the ordinary little girl with her hair in tight pigtails, wearing a dress with a narrow white collar — a three-year-old who had been kidnapped twelve years before from a shopping mall in New Jersey — she felt overcome with shock. She recognized that little girl — it was she. How could it possibly be true?  Janie can't believe that her loving parents kidnapped her, but as she begins to piece things together, nothing makes sense. Something is terribly wrong. Are Mr. and Mrs. Johnson really Janie's parents? And if not, who is Janie Johnson, and what really happened?

Bookstore Booty

Adam & Eve ~ by Sena Jeter Naslund, 2010.
I managed to buy only this one book at the bookstore today.  Dust jacket summary:

Hours before his untimely — and highly suspicious — death, world-renowned astrophysicist Thom Bergmann shares his discovery of extraterrestrial life with his wife, Lucy. Feeling that the warring world is not ready to learn of proof of life elsewhere in the universe, Thom entrusts Lucy with his computer flash drive, which holds the keys to his secret work.

Devastated by Thom's death, Lucy keeps the secret, but Thom's friend, anthropologist Pierre Saad, contacts Lucy with an unusual and dangerous request about another sensitive matter. Pierre needs Lucy to help him smuggle a newly discovered artifact out of Egypt: an ancient codex concerning the human authorship of the Book of Genesis. Offering a reinterpretation of the creation story, the document is sure to threaten the foundation of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religions . . . and there are those who will stop at nothing to suppress it.

Midway through the daring journey, Lucy's small plane goes down on a slip of verdant land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East. Burned in the crash landing, she is rescued by Adam, a delusional American soldier whose search for both spiritual and carnal knowledge has led to madness. Blessed with youth, beauty, and an unsettling innocence, Adam gently tends to Lucy's wounds, and in this quiet, solitary paradise, a bond between the unlikely pair grows. Ultimately, Lucy and Adam forsake their half-mythical Eden and make their way back toward civilization, where members of an ultraconservative religious cult are determined to deprive the world of the knowledge Lucy carries.

Set against the searing debate between evolutionists and creationists, this novel expands the definition of a "sacred book," and suggests that true madness lies in wars and violence fueled by all religious literalism and intolerance.

I've already read five chapters and am really enjoying this book so far.

Books for my birthday

Chattanooga: Then and Now ~ by William F. Hull, 2007, history

"Twenty-five years ago, the citizens of Chattanooga met together to plot the future of their city by reinvigorating the town’s origins by the river. Changes since then have refreshed the city and the waterfront, renewing energy in this friendly Southern town. This volume documents the landmarks that remain and the ones that exist only in images and fading memories."

The book above is from my daughter Sandra, who knows I'm interested in local history, and the books below are a gift from me to me.  I traded in a bunch of used books and got most of these, then went to another bookstore and bought another couple of used books.

A Change in Altitude ~ by Anita Shreve, 2009, fiction (Kenya)

"Margaret and Patrick have been married just a few months when they set off on what they hope will be a great adventure-a year living in Kenya.  Margaret quickly realizes there is a great deal she doesn't know about the complex mores of her new home, and about her own husband.  A British couple invites the newlyweds to join on a climbing expedition to Mount Kenya, and they eagerly agree.  But during their harrowing ascent, a horrific accident occurs.  In the aftermath of the tragedy, Margaret struggles to understand what happened on the mountain and how these events have transformed her and her marriage, perhaps forever."

The English Teacher ~ by Lily King, 2005, fiction (New England)

This "is a story about an independent woman and her fifteen-year-old son, and the truth she has long concealed from him. Fifteen years ago Vida Avery arrived alone and pregnant at elite Fayer Academy. She has since become a fixture and one of the best teachers Fayer has ever had. By living on campus, on an island off the New England coast, Vida has cocooned herself and her son, Peter, from the outside world and from an inside secret. For years she has lived largely through the books she teaches, but when she accepts the impulsive marriage proposal of ardent widower Tom Belou, the prescribed life Vida has constructed is swiftly dismantled."

Sisters of the Earth: Women's Prose and Poetry about Nature ~ edited by Lorraine Anderson, 1991, women's studies

This "is a stirring collection of women’s writing on nature:  Nature as healer. Nature as delight. Nature as mother and sister. Nature as victim. Nature as companion and reminder of what is wild in us all. Here, among more than a hundred poets and prose writers, are Diane Ackerman on the opium of sunsets; Ursula K. Le Guin envisioning an alternative world in which human beings are not estranged from their planet; and Julia Butterfly Hill on weathering a fierce storm in the redwood tree where she lived for more than two years. Here, too, are poems, essays, stories, and journal entries by Emily Dickinson, Alice Walker, Terry Tempest Williams, Willa Cather, Gretel Erlich, Adrienne Rich, and others — each offering a vivid, eloquent response to the natural world."

The Queen of the Big Time ~ by Adriana Trigiani, 2004, fiction (Pennsylvania)

This is "a novel about an Italian family living in Roseto, Pennsylvania. The eldest daughter Nella is ambitious and determined to make a life for herself far away from the rigors of farm and factory life. But then she meets and falls in love with a handsome carefree poet Renato Lanzara, the son of the town restaurateur. When he suddenly disappears without an explanation, rumors about a forced marriage to a girl in another town and criminal activity begin to circulate through the village grapevine. Returning after five years, and a week before Nella's wedding, Renato shakes up not only Nella's life but also the lives of Roseto's townspeople."

Sarah ~ by Marek Halter, 2004, fiction (Canaan)

"Sarah’s story begins in the cradle of civilization: the Sumerian city-state of Ur, a land of desert heat, towering gardens, and immense wealth. The daughter of a powerful lord, Sarah balks at the marriage her father has planned for her. On her wedding day, she impulsively flees to the vast, empty marshes outside the city walls, where she meets a young man named Abram, son of a tribe of outsiders. Drawn to this exotic stranger, Sarah spends one night with him and reluctantly returns to her father’s house. But on her return, she secretly drinks a poisonous potion that will make her barren and thus unfit for marriage.  Many years later, Abram returns to Ur and discovers that the lost, rebellious girl from the marsh has been transformed into a splendid woman — the high priestess of the goddess."

Bookstore booty ~ some nonfiction

Bait and Switch by Barbara Ehrenreich (2005) highlights the people who’ve done everything right — gotten college degrees, developed marketable skills, and built up impressive résumés — yet have become repeatedly vulnerable to financial disaster, and not simply due to the vagaries of the business cycle. Today’s ultra-lean corporations take pride in shedding their “surplus” employees — plunging them, for months or years at a stretch, into the twilight zone of white-collar unemployment, where job searching becomes a full-time job in itself. As Ehrenreich discovers, there are few social supports for these newly disposable workers — and little security even for those who have jobs.

In What on Earth Have I Done? (2007), Robert Fulghum writes about traveling the world — from Seattle to the Moab Desert to Crete — looking for a few fellow travelers interested in thinking along with him as he delights in the unexpected:  trick-or-treating with your grandchildren dressed like a large rabbit, pots of daffodils blooming in mid-November, a view of the earth from outer space, the mysterious night sounds of the desert, every man's trip to a department store to buy socks, the raucous all-night long feast that is Easter in Greece, the trials and tribulations of plumbing problems, and the friendship one can strike up with someone who doesn't share the same language.

In The Great Awakening (2008), Jim Wallis takes a look at what it will take to solve the issues of extreme and needless poverty, global warming,environmental degradation, terrorism and the endless cycle of violence, racism, human trafficking, health care and education, and other pressing problems.  He shows us that a revival is happening as people of faith and moral conviction seek common ground for change.  He reminds us that religious faith was a driving force behind national reforms such as the abolition of slavery and the civil rights movement.  "Great awakenings" happen periodically at crucial times to propel us toward the common good. The time is ripe for another transformation.

Bookstore Booty ~ five more books

I support independent bookstores, so once again, these books all came from an independent bookstore.

The Five Books of Miriam: A Woman's Commentary on the Torah ~ by Ellen Frankel, 1996, religion.

"Weaving together Jewish lore, the voices of Jewish foremothers, Yiddish fable, midrash and stories of her own imagining, Ellen Frankel has created in this book a breathtakingly vivid exploration into what the Torah means to women. Here are Miriam, Esther, Dinah, Lilith and many other women of the Torah in dialogue with Jewish daughters, mothers and grandmothers, past and present. Together these voices examine and debate every aspect of a Jewish woman's life — work, sex, marriage, her connection to God and her place in the Jewish community and in the world."

The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts ~ by Richard Peck, 2004, YA fiction (Indiana)

"If your teacher has to die, August isn't a bad time of year for it," says Russell Culver, fifteen, who's raring to light out for the endless skies of the Dakotas to join a team of harvesters working the new 1904 all-steel threshing machines. School's only standing in the way of his Dakota dreams. Maybe now with his teacher in the ground, Hominy Ridge School will shut down for good.

Steal Away Home ~ by Lois Ruby, 1994, YA historical fiction (Kansas)

"When twelve-year-old Dana Shannon starts to strip away wallpaper in her family's old house, she's unprepared for the surprise that awaits her. A hidden room — containing a human skeleton! How did such a thing get there? And why was the tiny room sealed up? With the help of a diary found in the room, Dana learns her house was once a station on the Underground Railroad. The young woman whose remains Dana discovered was Lizbet Charles, a conductor and former slave. As the scene shifts between Dana's world and 1856, the story of the families that lived in the house unfolds. But as pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place, one haunting question remains — why did Lizbet Charles die?"

Missing May ~ by Cynthia Rylant, 1992, YA fiction (West Virginia)

"When May dies suddenly while gardening, Summer assumes she'll never see her beloved aunt again. But then Summer's Uncle Ob claims that May is on her way back--she has sent a sign from the spirit world.Summer isn't sure she believes in the spirit world, but her quirky classmate Cletus Underwood--who befriends Ob during his time of mourning--does. So at Cletus' suggestion, Ob and Summer (with Cletus in tow) set off in search of Miriam B. Young, Small Medium at Large, whom they hope will explain May's departure and confirm her possible return."

California Blue ~ by David Klass, 1994, A fiction (California)

"Teenager John Rodgers and his dying father find themselves on opposite sides of an environmental battlefield. At issue is a new species of blue butterflies that John discovers on a jog through land owned by the lumber mill that employs his father and most of his town. An ALA Recommended Book for Reluctant Readers and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year."

Bookstore booty

Today's books all came from an independent bookstore.  I support independent bookstores.  The big chain stores can undersell the small indies, but owners are more likely to be book lovers who can tell you something about any book in the store.  Tell me about your favorite independent, owner-operated bookstore.



Three books by Caroline B. Cooney ~ Out of Time (1996) and Prisoner of Time (1998) are about time travel, which fascinates me.

Synopsis of Whatever Happened to Janie? (1993): "No one ever paid attention to the faces of missing children on milk cartons. But as Janie Johnson glanced at the face of the little girl who had been taken twelve years ago, she recognized that little girl -- it was herself."


Face to Face ~ by Marion Dane Bauer, 1991

Bauer's On My Honor is one of my favorite YA novels, so I'm excited to find another.  Synopsis of this one:  "Picked on at school by bullies, 13-year-old Michael confronts his fears during a trip to Colorado to visit his father, a whitewater rafting guide whom Michael hasn't seen in eight years."


Things Not Seen ~ by Andrew Clements, 2002

Synopsis:  "Bobby Phillips is an average fifteen-year-old boy. Until the morning he wakes up and can’t see himself in the mirror. Not blind, not dreaming—Bobby is just plain invisible. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to Bobby’s new condition; even his dad the physicist can’t figure it out. For Bobby that means no school, no friends, no life. He’s a missing person. Then he meets Alicia. She’s blind, and Bobby can’t resist talking to her, trusting her. But people are starting to wonder where Bobby is. Bobby knows that his invisibility could have dangerous consequences for his family and that time is running out. He has to find out how to be seen again—before it’s too late."



South of Resurrection ~ by Jonis Agee, 1997

This is a collection of short stories about "people who love, lose, and try again." I don't know what attracted me to this one, since I don't often read story collections.



City of Light, City of Darkness is a graphic novel (1993).  The story is by Avi (an author I have met), and the art is by Brian Floca.  I probably won't review this book because it simply seemed silly to me.  There's no depth, and I couldn't figure out why people would do the things they did.



The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs ~ by David Pryce-Jones, 1989.

Synopsis:  "This important book explains how Arabs are closed in a circle defined by tribal, religious, and cultural traditions. David Pryce-Jones examines the tribal forces which, he believes, drive the Arabs in their dealings with each other and with the West. In the postwar world, he argues, the Arabs reverted to age-old tribal and kinship structures, a closed circle from which they have been unable to escape, and in which violence is systemic. A healthy corrective, a thought-provoking study." -- David K. Shipler, New York Times Book Review



And finally, a little religious humor with YHWH Is Not a Radio Station in Minneapolis by Craig McNair Wilson, 1983.  "YHWH" are the Hebrew letters for the name of God.  This book plays with the alphabet, like a children's book of ABCs.

TALK BACK

Do you ever shop at independent bookstores?  If so, tell me about your favorite independent, owner-operated bookstore.