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the Breeze - Books |
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the Breeze - Books |
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David McCullough - 1776 - What's this? theBreeze reviewing another current bestseller? You bet! My good friend John Darab suggested this book. John is rarely off the mark; rarely.The author got my attention immediately. My education was good, especially high school, taught in part by John Bircher Rhode Islanders. We canoed around Providence to prove it an island. We visited the slaver cells there. Yet, once in class, the history books were as good reading as encyclopaedia volumns; no life. David McCullough as done away with that kind of history. His is in your face, personal. He states that a common impression of the 'patriots' was as often as not phrased like tavern sluggards and skulkers. He quotes a different opinion, that of Joseph Reed, assistant to Washington, who at the time was not very popular, nor much of a general strategist. He just got his arse kicked in New York, a couple of times. To quote Reed, "I am lost in wonder and surprise. Your noisy sons of liberty are, I find, the quietist in the field. An engagement [battle], or even the expectation of one, gives a wonderful insight into character." [pg. 204]. That quietness, the just going about doing what must be done, is characteristic of Americans pressed to action. Maybe even still found in a surprising place - the Red Sox. I wonder if their contests with the Yankees are not a throwback to the times of the Revolution. Of New Yorkers of the time, mostly loyal to the King, "...In their pride and conceit, which are inimitable, in their profaneness, which is intolerable... in their Toryism, which is insufferable." [pg. 123] Yet, I find the inner New Yorker to be resiliant, and most straightforward. It may be from the closeness of the city. A treasure for personal space, a no-nonsense quickness. About this book:
Interview with David McCullough |
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Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - What's this? theBreeze reviewing a current bestseller? My apologies. I didn't know. It's a murder mystery story, and much more. D.M. Degraf, wrote the following review, from a much more qualifed point of view. And so, it is offered for you, with my thanks. “Mark Haddon absolutely ‘got it right’ in this book. From descriptions of how overwhelming the man-made world is for us on a sensory level, to frustration with a society that expects us to learn how to recognize neurotypical facial expressions based on simple drawings -- I'm really impressed, everything really does reflect how many of us experience life. Even the way he'll be talking to an adult one minute and they'll suddenly lose their temper at him, or how his mind digresses to his perseverative interests, and his belief that animals are just as good (if not better) than humans, is exactly what my life has been like. It was like reading something written by my own brain. :-) Parents and friends of autistics can also learn a great deal about how to interact with us in a way that makes us comfortable from the book.” From this book: Excerpts/Quotations from the text |
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Ron Koertge - Stoner & Spaz - For sixteen-year-old Ben Bancroft - a kid with cerebral palsey, no parents, and an overprotective grandmother - the closest thing to happiness is hunkering alone in the back of the Rialto Theatre, watching Bride of Frankenstein for the umpteenth time. Of course, the last thing he wants is to run into someone like drugged-out Colleen Minou, resplendent in ripped tights, neon miniskirt, and an impressive array of tattoos. But when Colleen climbs into the seat beside him and rests a woozy head on his shoulder, Ben has that unmistakable feeling that his life is about to change. Suggested reading by FX, and by our newest staff reviewer, CX.
From this book: Excerpts/Quotations from Stoner & Spaz |
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Stanley Elkin - The Living End - Killed during a
senseless holdup, compassionate and kindhearted Ellerbee finds himself on
a tour of the ultimate theme park - Heaven & Hell. We learn the truth
of what it was really like for Christ on Earth, and afterward, from a
discussion with Dad. A revealing new look at the Truth of God completes
the story. No Imprimatur here. An ingenious, fully-humored fiction.
From this book: Excerpts/Quotations from The
Living End |
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Eva Hoffman - Lost In Translation - Lost in
Translation is a deeply felt meditation on the nature of language and its
crucial connections to personal identity. Eva Hoffman explores the agony
of learning to articulate in a new voice which can encompass all the
tongues we must speak in our lives: the language of dreams and intimacy,
of political discourse and academic argument, of memory and gossip. Her
journey is one from the Poland of her childhood to adult life as a
professional New York writer, and one from the nostalgia, rage, and
alienation of internal exile to the fully fledged "invention of another
me."
From this book: Excerpts/Quotations from Lost
In Translation |
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Fay Weldon - Worst Fears - Ms. Weldon, British
author recommended by my writer-daughter Jennifer who currently resides in
Calstock, England, gives us a wickedly funny take on widowhood as an
aggrieved woman gleefully avenges herself on both the living and the dead.
I picked this book based on it's opening paragraph.
Alexandra Ludd, a popular, talented actress, is devastated when she learns that husband Ned has died of a heart attack at their country home. Alexandra learns that not only was her marriage a sham, but that her friends and family are not loyal as they seemed. When at the funeral her husband's mistress, Jenny, receives more sympathy than Alexandra and even her dog, Diamond, snubs her, Alexandra realizes it is she who has been shallow and vain, and embarks on a journey to discover what really sustains romantic love. It was at about the halfway point of this story that I came to the startling realization that the humor I had denied from self was indeed there, in spades! From this book: Excerpts/Quotations from Worst
Fears |
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James Salter - Light Years - Ever found yourself on
the receiving end of a surprise? How about a surprise divorce you never
saw coming? Salter's characters are boldly painted in the story of a
perfect marriage that simply falls apart from disuse and the insistent
intrusion of life and friends and of the changes that take place in all of
us. A beautifully scripted tale of a family that slowly disintegrates as
each of its members grows up. It is so real that it's frightening.
From this book: Excerpts/Quotations from Light
Years |
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Sherwood Anderson - Winesburg, Ohio - Each chapter
is a story, seemingly independent. About alienated, unhappy, often lonely
characters living in a small town. The characters have the vagaries and
flaws of reality. They also have hope, their desires, dreams, lusts,
disappointments, all under a small-town veneer.
The author conveys a deep understanding of the subtleties of human character and motivation. Each story focuses on one incident in the life of different residents of the small town. Pay close attention to the characters. As the book unfolds, they start to appear in each others lives, creating a rich tapestry. From this book: Excerpts/Quotations from
Winesburg, Ohio |
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Milan Kundera - The Unbearable Lightness of Being -
An enthralling look at the sadness and joy of modern life. The Unbearable
Lightness of Being is an amazing ride through the lives of four lovers as
well as a peek into Kundera's own mind. Heartbreakingly sad, and gut
wrenchingly funny. An old man in some aspects, a kid in other ways, yet
integrated. The European acceptance of take life not too seriously, like
an old soul.
More on the Author and this book as a movie: Milan
Kundera |
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Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Love in the Time of Cholera
- Power, passion, lust and waiting are all aspects of this acclaimed and
magnificent novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
This is the book with the ending you always wanted yet never believed a writer could pull it off. The story is at once both intriguing and heart-shattering, the characters are realistic. This is the story of an ill-fated love between two members of a small town in South America, and the story of their courting, a courting that lasts for over half a century. The author, a Nobel Prize winner, is all human. From this book: Quotations from Love in the Time
of Cholera |
