Howling Frog Books

Time for another wrap-up post!  Robin wants to know : 1) How many books did you read this year? I'll be at 200 or so by year's end. 2) Did you meet or beat your own personal goal? I joined the 150+ Challenge just for fun, but I was pretty sure I would hit it with no problem.  Number goals are not really my thing.   3) Favorite book of 2012? (You can list more than one or break it down by genre) There were lots, and I'm not even sure how to pick.  For sure: And There Was Light Doctor Zhivago  The Book of the City of Ladies Madame Bovary Periodic Tale s Behind the Beautiful Forever s 4) Least favorite book of 2012 and why?   I probably didn't finish it, whatever it was.  I know there were some like that but no longer have them in my brainspace.  Of the books I finished and blogged about, I'll go with The Romance of the Rose .   The first third was fine, but Jean de Meun --I would like to have a few wor ds with you...

It is high time that I start officially joining up to the challenges I've picked out.  The lovely Robin is hosting her 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge for the 5th year!  This challenge is actually the one that got me to start blogging in the first place (so that I could join it), and this will be my 4th year .  Robin says: 2013 52 Books in 52 Weeks Are you ready for another round of Reading 52 books in 52 Weeks? Whether you are just joining in or continuing on for another round, the rules are very simple. The goal is to read one book (at least) a week for 52 weeks. Make the year easy and casual or kick it up by exploring new to you authors and genres. Challenge yourself to read at least some classics or delve into that chunkster (more than 500 pages) you always wanted to tackle. The goal is to read 52 books. How you get there is up to you.  Since this is our 5th year, I challenge you to a 5/5/5 challenge . Read 5 books in 5 Categories and/or ...

K Blows Top: A Cold War Comic Interlude, Starring Nikita Khrushchev, America's Most Unlikely Tourist , by Peter Carlson This is a pretty irresistible book.  In 1959, at the height of the Cold War, President Eisenhower sort of accidentally invited Khrushchev to visit the United States for a couple of weeks.  The visit was a surreal media circus that defied belief!  It's amazing to read about.  All these unbelievable things happen and there's something new and strange every couple of pages. Khrushchev was a dictator responsible for the deaths of thousands (at least).  He was also a shameless ham who knew how to work a crowd and get laughs.  And he had a really bad temper and could destroy the world if he felt like it.   It was an interesting combination for the nervous Americans taking him around the country.  Carlson comments: [Khrushchev] recognized that his trip was not just a diplomatic journey; it was an opportunity to put on a TV sh...

The Convert: a Tale of Exile and Extremism , by Deborah Baker Deborah Baker found a box of letters and documents in a library archive and was drawn into the story of how Peggy Marcus, a Jewish girl from the suburbs, became Maryam Jameelah, a vocally conservative Muslim writer.  It was 1962 when Peggy changed to Maryam and left her New York hometown forever in order to live in Pakistan and help build an ideal Islamic society--which is pretty amazing when you consider that she didn't actually know any Muslims in her community.  The world she was born into could not have been further removed from what she wanted out of life.  The story is far more complex than it seems at first, though, and by the end I was left wondering about a lot of things. Maryam Jameelah's life story is hard to put down.  Baker braids together the letters, her research, history, and eventually meetings with Jameelah herself in an effort to understand it. I'm having a hard time figuring out w...

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, by Katherine Boo I don't think I've read many books like this.  Katherine Boo spent years visiting a shantytown slum in Mumbai getting to know the residents very well indeed, and eventually wrote their story.  She writes as though she was not there.  We get to know several neighboring families in the slum: a family that sorts garbage for a living, the very angry disabled woman next door, a politically-ambitious woman who wants to become the slumlord, her daughter who attends college and teaches children.  They all live next to a lake of sewage behind the Mumbai airport, and their place is called Annawadi. Boo's chronicle centers around an incident that causes huge trouble for Annawadi residents, stemming out of jealousy, anger, and ordinary neighborly bickering.  Everyone has their own story and hopes for a better life; it's amazing to read about how they mostly keep going, not just...

What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite , by David DiSalvo Who could resist this title?  Not me.  David DiSalvo explains what makes for a 'happy' brain (that is, a brain that avoids risk or loss or harm and therefore doesn't get killed or have to work too hard) and why these energy-saving, protective tendencies are both helpful and harmful.  When I first saw the title, I thought "Oh, it's a book about overcoming the natural man!"  (As in, Paul's 'natural man' image in the New Testament.)  Which it kind of is in some ways. Brains like habits, default patterns, and the easier road every time (also addictions).  But if you always do what your brain wants you to do, you'll wind up kind of unhappy, not to mention a lazy slob.  So DiSalvo spends this book coming up with a list of about 50 (!) strategies and tips for motivating yourself, thinking productively, and generally taking advantage of how your brain works. A str...

Periodic Tales: a Cultural History of the Elements, from Arsenic to Zinc, by Hugh Aldersey-Williams I just love books like this, especially when they're about chemistry. (Also: such a pretty cover!)  Aldersey-Williams meanders around the periodic table, giving us history, cultural meanings and associations, and science in about equal portions, with the odd personal story thrown in for fun.  He divides the book into five sections called Power, Beauty, Craft, Fire, and Earth , and so there is a certain amount of coherence in the narrative.   Since everything is made of elements, elements show up everywhere and the book has a little bit of everything.  It's very fun. Aldersey-Williams is quite funny as well.  I enjoyed his style and some of his stories made me laugh out loud.  In a section about the discovery of iodine, he talks about Humphrey Davy's trip to France, which was both a scientific trip and a honeymoon journey.  Davy thought science...

The Shadow of the Wind , by Carlos Ruiz Zafón Until fairly recently I had never heard of Carlos Ruiz Zafón, and suddenly he was all over my blog reader.  Two or three book bloggers posted about him at once, and I thought I'd try out the book that people were talking about.  One blogger can't stand him and I wish I could remember who it was because now I want to ask why, so if you know, tell me! I read The Shadow of the Wind , which is the first of three books that center on the Cemetery of Forgotten Books--a giant secret repository for books, guarded by a keeper.  Once you select a book from the Cemetery, you become that book's guardian for life. Daniel is ten years old when his father takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.  He chooses The Shadow of the Wind , a novel by an obscure writer named Julian Carax.  Daniel learns that his is apparently the last copy in existence, since a mysterious person has been systematically seeking out and burning Car...

The Magic Half , by Annie Barrows I just got this book for my little girl, who loves Barrows' Ivy and Bean series of books.  (In fact we named two of my mom's chickens Ivy and Bean, to go with the other two, Beezus and Ramona.  Our chickens all have literary names.)  And, fun fact: I learned that Annie Barrows is also the author of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society , which I rather enjoyed for its depiction of Guernsey life under Nazi occupation. Oh, you wanted to hear about the actual book?  OK.  Miri always feels a little forgotten, sandwiched as she is between two pairs of twins.  When her family moves into a large old farmhouse, she finally gets her own room in the attic, and up there she finds a glass lens that takes her back in time to 1935.  There she meets Molly, who has a rotten time of it as the orphaned niece and household skivvy.  Together they hatch a plan to fix Molly's life... I thought this was a very nicely ...

Bab: a Sub-Deb, by Mary Roberts Rinehart I downloaded and read this book (free) from Amazon after seeing Aarti's review .  And now I have a problem: I absolutely loved it!  But I can't figure out how to tell you about it without saying everything Aarti already said better.  So go read her post, and forgive me for my less-than-adequate words here. Bab is 17 and a 'sub-deb'--she's stuck at school until her older sister is married off and Bab can come out herself.  Bab is not about to let that stop her, though--she's got things to do!  Like concentrating on her Career.  Or falling in love and worrying over whether this is The Real Thing.  Or, mostly, getting out of the  horrifying scrapes she is constantly getting into. The whole book is written as Bab's essays or diary, complete with constant misspellings.  Don't let that stop you from reading a great book!  Bab is over-the-top hilarious, but she's also a real teenage girl you'll r...

Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms , by Lissa Evans It's been a while since I had a children's book here--I've been in the mood to read lots of Serious Literature, I guess.  But I saw this at the bookstore and promptly wanted to read it, and happily the library had a copy. Stuart Horten, age 10, is in a funk because his family has moved to a new town right at the beginning of summer, and now there are these nosy girls chasing him for their newspaper.  But it's not long before he finds a mystery to solve; 50 years ago, his great-uncle disappeared and was never seen again.  Stuart's dad ignored the clues Tony left behind for him to follow, but Stuart is going to figure out what happened!  Only things have changed an awful lot in 50 years;  things are changed or missing, memories have faded, and a very greedy person is on his trail. I enjoyed the story quite a bit; it has a really nice atmosphere and mystery to solve.  It was very fun to read--I laughed out ...

The Pharaoh's Secret, by Marissa Moss This is a great story for older kids or YA.  I know there are lots and lots of kids' adventures in Egypt (though this one pre-dates Riordan's Kane Chronicles), but this is a worthy read. Talibah and her brother Adom are visiting Egypt for the first time, even though both their parents are native Egyptians and scholars of Egyptology too.  They had always looked forward to taking the kids to Egypt, but then Talibah's mother died, about 5 years before the story begins. Talibah keeps running into references to the Pharaoh Hatshepsut, and feels a strong pull to find out more.  Pretty soon she's having weird dreams and meeting people who give her mysterious artifacts--she and her brother have a job to do that is connected with Hatshepsut and the rest of her family.  At the same time, memories of their mother are surfacing; this all has something to do with her, too.  It's all very mysterious, but together Talibah and Adom p...

Social Q's: How to Survive the Quirks, Quandaries, and Quagmires of Today, by Philip Galanes This was a fun quick read I picked up at the library.  I love advice columns--who doesn't?--and Miss Manners is my all-time favorite.  Philip Galanes started an advice column in the New York Times, and here's his book.  It's very New Yorky, full of tips on social dilemmas common in New York.  It's also a fun read and has some good advice for people who don't live in New York, so if you like advice columns, it's perfectly fine.

Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men Into Boys , by Kay Hymowitz I really liked Kay Hymowitz's last book on marriage in America, so I grabbed this new book as soon as I saw it and read it right away.  Hymowitz correlates a lot of current statistics and societal trends for her thesis that men in modern America haven't got a clear life plan and aren't all that happy about it.  Some of Hymowitz's data:  women are now a majority on college campuses worldwide (and would be more so, if the colleges weren't quietly letting male students in with lower scores because people don't want to attend colleges with a strong imbalance).  In cities, the younger women out-earn their brothers, even when they choose less remunerative types of jobs.  Popular culture portrays men as overgrown children, not too bright and mostly interested in beer, pizza, fart jokes, and hot women--and they're constantly told that they're not needed as husbands or fathers, since...

V is for Vengeance , by Sue Grafton I always read the latest Kinsey Millhone book as soon as I can; I think it's a requirement for former Central Coast residents.  (Millhone mysteries are set in a pseudonymed Santa Barbara, so sometimes Kinsey visits my hometown of Santa Maria.  It's SB's much less posh neighbor.) I almost didn't stay with this one, though.  The first chapter is all about a kid trying to win money at poker, and there is nothing more boring than a game of poker!  Luckily the kid gets thrown off a parking garage by page 20, so I kept going.  It's a complicated mystery, with mafia guys, rich lawyers, respectable-looking thieves, and all sorts of people.  Definitely worth the read.

The Western Lit Survival Kit: an Irreverent Guide to the Classics, from Homer to Faulkner, by Sandra Newman I'm a sucker for guides to great literature, and also Sandra Newman is hilarious.  I didn't quite mean to actually read this book instead of Dracula (which I am reading, and it's good, but less easy to carry around), but it's so funny that I zipped right through it.  Almost every page had something that gave me the giggles and made me look around for someone to collar and read a bit aloud to. This guide to the Western Canon is what you should give to your friend who has to learn something about the classics and doesn't want to.  I would give it to my husband if he suddenly found himself in that situation.  Or you can give it to your literary friend with a sense of humor.  Newman is pretty caustic much of the time, and reverent never.  Like Western lit itself, things are not always squeaky-clean. A sample bit, on Balzac: "As a writer, Balzac s...

I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced , by Nujood Ali with Delphine Minoui This has been on my wishlist for a couple of years now, but inexplicably, none of the local libraries bought a copy until recently.  I found it on the New Books shelf at work yesterday and promptly took it home. Nujood Ali was an ordinary little girl living with her poverty-stricken Yemeni family until she became the victim of a common crime--her father sold her, at age 10, as a bride to an acquaintance in his 30s.  The next several months were a nightmare, but Nujood waited for her chance, gathered up her courage, and went to the city courthouse where she had heard someone could help her.  She told the judge she wanted a divorce, and so set off a media storm that helped other girls come forward to ask for divorces. Child brides are not at all uncommon in Yemen. The age of consent was 15 until a couple of years ago, and even so, about half of Yemeni brides were underage.  No young girl had ev...

Of This and Other Worlds , by C. S. Lewis Last week Scribacchina wrote about non-fiction about fairy tales , which prompted me to go through my mom's bookshelves to see what she had.  I snagged four or five books, because I really need more books on my pile, and of course the one I read right away was a book of essays on stories by C. S. Lewis.  I am pretty sure that will surprise no one. It's just a collection of various pieces on one theme; some of them were never published or even finished.   A couple are only a page or so long and were written for book blurbs or similar.  I had fun reading them.

Jane-Emily , by Patricia Clapp A homeschooling cyber-friend of mine recommended Jane-Emily to me a few weeks ago.  I missed out on this book as a kid, but I would have loved it!  OK, I did enjoy it as an old grownup too.  I gave it to my daughter and she thought it was great. Louisa takes her young orphaned cousin Jane to spend the summer in the country at grandmother's house, but Jane becomes unnaturally preoccupied with Emily, a young girl who died years ago.  Emily was both frighteningly demanding and spoiled by her over-fond father, and she still wants what she wants.  It's a good spooky ghost story that is just the right level of scary. One particular element of the story caught my attention; none of the characters really keep secrets from each other.  At no point does anyone think "I'm not going to tell the others about this because [insert silly reason here]."  Keeping secrets for no reason other than to keep the plot going is so endemic t...

From Newbury With Love , edited by Anna Horsbrugh-Porter and Marina Aidova It's about time I came up with a book that is a little more substantial than popular dystopias or mysteries.  So here is my new book that I love.  Petya at the Migrant Bookclub blog recommended it very highly, and then some wonderful mystery person from the WTM book club sent it to me as a present! Only I don't know who it was. The book is a collection of letters (I love collections of letters) that starts in the early 1970's, between an elderly English bookseller and a young family in the Soviet Union, in what is now Moldova.  Harold, in England, wrote letters of friendship and encouragement to Marina, a little girl whose father had been sentenced to several years in a gulag.  The families corresponded for years, and although many of the letters are missing, you can see the friendships developing and Marina growing up. The letters and photos, together with notes from Marina explaining ...