Dearest Friend A Life of Abigail Adams by Lynne Withey

   What an engaging book! It was nonfiction that read like fiction; a good story well told, richly woven and easily read. Lynne Withey was far from stingy in telling Abigail Adams' story in her own words, readily taking from Mrs. Adams' own correspondence to tell her story in her own words as much as possible. The book was very insightful and drew me into the time.
   Abigail Adams fascinated me. Her responsibility for her family, her sense of duty and willingness to sacrifice what she wanted most for what was necessary spoke to me personally; her words were some that I spoke myself when my husband deployed, repeatedly. The way she sought to improve herself, to enhance her education and saw it as an extension of her role as a wife and mother, her willingness to be in the fight for her husband and children were opinions and feelings that I share.
   And then there was the Abigail Adams whose rigidity and unwillingness to recognize any opinion that differed from hers as anything other than selfish or naive or detrimental or just simply wrong, wrong, wrong. I have to admit I also recognized her moral certainty, though I believe not entirely her rigidity. (I hope my "Venture Books That Impacted Me" proves that for me.)
   I felt like I should pray to be both more and less like Abigail Adams by turn. She was a paradox to me, someone by turns that I admired and would have liked to know and whose company I would not have sought and thought her more than a bit dishonest with herself in the bargain. As I said. A paradox.


Favorite Quotes:

Regarding the raising and education of children: "These first principal[s] which grow with their growth and strengthen with their strength neither time nor custom can totally eradicate."

&

"What strang Ideas they have ours is the task to fix them right, that they may surpass thire mothers in every [thing]."

John Adams in a letter to Abigail describing the Congress at the moment: "There is scarcely animation enough in either house, to excite attention. One may sleep in the midst of a Debate. I have not yet tried however."


Overall Opinion:

In two words: Read it!


Rating:

An I Would Read It Again Book


Links to: John Adams by John Patrick Diggins  

The Wit & Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln by Anthony Gross

"Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who knew me best that I plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow."  -Abraham Lincoln 

 Divided into parts, this title is composed of anecdotes and quotes from the life of Abraham Lincoln. They are snapshots into his life that encourage the reader to learn more about our sixteenth president. While I enjoyed the stories and smiled, laughed and cried by turn, it is not a sit through and read book.
   For me, at least, I enjoy more a continuous narrative as opposed to anecdotal starts and stops. This is a companion book; one you pick up and read for a bit in between activities or other books.


Favorite Quotes:

Speaking of a lawyer: "He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met."

In response to a letter: "Dear Madam, 'When you ask a stranger for that which is of interest only to yourself, always inclose [sic] a stamp.' "

Regarding himself and General McClellan: "...well, I'm the longest, but he's better-looking."

In response to a temperance committee's belief that the curse of the Lord was being visited upon the Union for the Army's drinking: "he said it was rather unfair on the part of the aforesaid curse, as the other side drank more and worse whiskey than ours did." (Lincoln himself did not drink.)



Overall Opinion:

Take your time with it the more better to enjoy the anecdotes rather than trying to get through them.


Rating:

8

Fault Line by Laurie Alberts

   It's been a slow reading week so far, but this book was worth the time. Fault Line is a stark, uncompromising view of Laurie Albert's life and her relationship with Kim Janik. It is unapologetic, grim and doesn't hesitate in its revelations.
   Laurie is sixteen when she meets Kim, a junior at Harvard. They quickly form a relationship that is fragile, broken and unyielding from the beginning. Both Laurie and Kim are broken vessels and spend their on and off relationship of fifteen years trying to seal the leaks with pieces of each other, other men (in Laurie's case) and a quest for greater knowledge (Kim's case).
   Laurie Albert's writes the book in response to Kim's death, an event that shakes her core despite the fact that she has been a wife and mother for more than seven years and has not had any contact with Kim in about ten. Her writing is beautiful in its honesty. She spares herself no criticism, whether her own or the reader's. She bares herself in the process and tries to be equally honest about Kim, though I think in her love she spare's him a little.


Overall Opinion:

Fault Line is a haunting story that demands that its readers look at themselves and ask their own hard questions.


Rating:

Yes!

Lose Your Ass and Regain Your Life by Kirstie Alley

   Let us say that I was not impressed and that I didn't walk away from the book with an understanding of how you were supposed to "lose your ass and regain your life".  I think there were supposed to be lessons in each of the chapters. (Shrug) There were definitely stories in each of the chapters. Each chapter is prefaced by current diary entries which are followed by stories from the past. Neither the entries nor the stories appear to have much in common.
   I didn't understand her assertion that she was a no one when, by her own telling, she had cute boyfriends that everyone wanted and/or popular, rich friends. I also just didn't like her very much; there was just something about her that seemed crass and profane. (It wasn't really the language either, though I'm not much of a swearer myself. I think "Friday" is hilarious, never get tired of it. "Pulp Fiction" is still a good movie. I don't know. Sometimes cussing just hurts my ears; I think it's all in the delivery.)
   There is one moment in Chapter 15 that felt like the almost only unguarded moment in the book. I liked her there. I also liked her when she spoke about her children. The majority of the book feels defensive and "on" and I think that's why it was so hard for me to like it. On the flipside, it's so speedily written that reading it is done in a matter of a couple of hours.


Favorite Quotes:

None.


Overall Opinion:

It was confusing. I wasn't sure where the title, diary entries and chapter stories were supposed to meet to tell one story.


Rating:

5

Hard Call Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them by John McCain with Mark Salter

   Compiled of portraits of a wide array of people across the world and throughout modern history, Hard Call is a book that inspires the reader to expand their reading list and to learn more about themselves. The book is divided into six chapters that highlight the qualities necessary to good decision making by profiling different people and their characters within the chapters.
   Winston Churchill, King Camp Gillette (don't you think the invention of the razor should have been obvious to someone named Gillette?), Anwar Sadat, Reinhold Niebuhr and Robert Gould Shaw are just a handful of the personages the reader meets. Mr. McCain does a fabulous job of bringing his pages to life. You are drawn into the profiles, learn new things and relearn some you may have forgotten. The profiles are fleshed out and give enough background to allow the reader the sense that they have read something worth reading.
   I do have two cons, however. The first is the introductory piece for each chapter; I found them to be a little "lecturey". The second is the surprising number of missing "the's", "is's", "and's" and other small grammatical absences. It is a bit perplexing to me that there are so many. It was also a bit distracting.
   I almost forgot. There are connections to two other "Venture" books thus far, A Useful Woman and The Last Hero. One of the connections is thin, but it's there. The other is a little stronger. I'll leave you to determine which is which.  :) Finding the connections was definitely a fun aspect of reading the book! I am (Warning: Excessive synonym usage follows!) liking, fancying and enjoying finding these connections and feeling the dots in my brain connect!!


Favorite Quotes:

Attributed to Winston Churchill: "One might as well breed slow race horses."

"In the end, self-confidence is only a virtue when it is premised on the author's certainty that he has prepared himself, in the past and in the present situation, to make the best decision he can. All else is vanity, perhaps the worst attribute that anyone who is responsible for making important decisions could possess...Once the decision is made, and its execution ordered, confidence should become fortitude."

Attributed to Karl Bonhoeffer: "Who stands firm?...Only the one for whom the final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all these, when in faith and sole allegiance to God he is called to obedient and responsible action: the responsible person, whose life will be nothing but an answer to God's question and call."

"We must establish and defend strictures on our own conduct that will protect justice from the demands of our egos. And we must have the humility to accept the guilt we share in by the actions we might be required to take to do justice."

Attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr: "Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man's inclination to injustice make democracy necessary." & "Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness."

"We may not know the full answer in our time. To history, in its poor imitation of God's timeless judgement, one man's life lasts no longer than the spark of a struck flint. But the flame it kindles lasts a bit longer, and thus the full achievement awaits a later, posthumous judgement."


Overall Opinion:

An excellent book overall. Great synopses of men and women who contributed to their day and our time. 


Rating:

9


Links to: A Useful Woman The Early Life of Jane Addams by Gioia Diliberto & The Last Hero A Life of Henry Aaron by Howard Bryant

Learning to Sing Hearing the Music in Your Life by Clay Aiken

   I have to say, I didn't know a lot about Clay Aiken before the book. I remembered him losing and I remembered seeing him recently and thinking, "Yikes! Not so good." I'd also heard about him having a baby with his friend, something I don't mind saying I thought was a bad idea, not to mention selfish. I really thought it was yet another example of celebrities thinking about what they want while giving shockingly little thought to what would be good for the children in their lives. (Think names like Audio Science and Huggle Bunny Snufflewuffer. Okay, I made the second one up, but really, is it any worse than some of the others your thinking of right now?)
   Neither of the items on my current list of Clay Aiken knowledge were in the book.
   The book is disjointedly written. It is separated into topical chapters that are composed of short anecdotes that are supposed to relate to the musically themed chapter names. I didn't get the feeling that the chapters were meant to be a compilation of anecdotes though, which led to the disjointed feeling. I kept waiting for the stories to tie together, but they never seemed to quite do it. It was simply written and easily read; a good thing since I got tired of waiting to learn more.
   Here's the rub. Despite Aiken's best efforts, I ended up not liking him very much. The effort he expended to make the reader believe he's just folks became an example of he "doth protest" too much. There were times as a reader/observer that I did root for him/feel for him; there are instances in his life that make it impossible not to. Overall though, he spent so much time trying to pat himself on the back without letting the reader catch on that I walked away feeling insulted. A little more candor and I would have walked away feeling more respect for him.
   A side note: as a mother I found some of his stories of the treatment he was subjected to reprehensible. I don't understand the just plain meanness and torment that his mother allowed him to receive. It was difficult for me to learn; I could not share his enthusiasm for his mother after that. (Whether she acknowledged and apologized for it Clay Aiken doesn't say.)


Favorite Quote:

"Hard work is not a value you enjoy as you acquire it. But it is a value you come to appreciate later-and disdain the absence of in others."


Overall Opinion:

If you like it, it's easily read and the time passes quickly. If you don't like it, it's easily read and the time passes quickly.


Rating:

5


  

Open An Autobiography by Andre Agassi

   Everything I knew about Andre Agassi prior to reading his book: he played tennis, was with Brooke Shields, his face was recognizable to me. What I know about Agassi now is, well, more than that. Open was a good book, written in a way that was seemingly, pardon the phrase, open and fair to those around him. In an autobiography, I think those are good attributes.
   Mr. Agassi is a driven man, raised by a driven father. He lived a professional life he didn't want and was seemingly unachored, personally, until he found a purpose greater than himself that he could fulfill because of his professional life.
   When writing about people he doesn't like or with whom he personally struggled, Andre Agassi is either tight lipped or balanced in his description of the problems. To wit, his relationship with Brooke Shields which, from his description leads the reader to conclude that it was more a poor match with neither one being the complete bad guy. Though he is clear that his decision to propose was poorly made leading to an inevitable conclusion.
   As a person who appreciates spouses who are careful in their speech about each other to outsiders and generous in their praise of the other, I liked his approach to Brooke Shields and I loved the way he spoke about his current wife and their children.
   Mr. Agassi was fair to his family and spoke plainly about his father when he could have been ugly. His confusion and apathy, his immaturity and contrariness are well-spelled. I think the reader will walk away thinking he's a complainer who could have changed his life but didn't or someone who was genuinely torn and lost and didn't develop the maturity neccessary to deal with his life or a bit of all those things (the opinion that's closest to mine).
   The thing I liked most about this book was its lack of quotation marks. It seemed to keep a rhythm and flow that kept you in the book and left the feeling that you were remembering the events with him, rather than being told about the events by him.


Favorite Quotes:

"Her name is Wendi. She's one of the ball girls, about my age, a vision in her blue uniform. I love her instantly, with all my heart and part of my spleen."

"I try to rest, but it's hard with an albino pit bull eyeing you."


Overall Opinion:

You want to pat him on the back and shake sense into him by turns, but you also want to hear how his story ends.


Rating:

8
  

Tudor Portraits Sucess and Failure of an Age by Michael Foss

This was a really interesting book. Rather than focusing on the monarchy, which I assumed based on the title, Mr. Foss introduced the other main characters of the age. More, Walsingham, Gilbert, Greshem and even Mary Tudor; which was interesting because she was a monarch.
   Tudor Portraits gave an inside look at the time and background of the age. It elaborated on the economic picture, the familial, political and economic ties of the eras main players and, what I thought most intriguing, drew a portrait that included the context of the time. I've read some nonfiction that covered the 16th century before, but it usually focused on the monarchy and it was really interesting to draw that focus out and learn more about the movers and shakers behind the throne.
   I really enjoyed learning about how these people were perceived by the men of their day. In a time of religious persecution, corruption and class distinction, it appeals to my desire for a broader understanding to know where they fit in on the days scale. Were they more, less or average? Were they held in general esteem or were they reviled? Was their motive only money? Were they genuinely seeking religion or was it a power ploy?


Favorite Quotes:

His (Sir Thomas Greshem) pleas, backed by certain influential men and supported by Dansell's unfailing ability to bungle..."

Queen Elizabeth:
"Now the wit of the fox is everywhere on foot, so as hardly a faithful or virtuous man may be found."

"The brutal may show a disinterested lust for blood, but the courtier of gentle breeding, if he is to gain honour from the squalors of war, must endow the terrible business with noble purpose."

Richard Hooker:
"In polity as well ecclesiastical as civil, there are and will be always evils which no art of man can cure, breaches and leaks more than man's wits hath hands to stop."

Robert Greene written in his Repentance:
"I light amongst wags as lewd as myself, with whom I consumed the flower of my youth."

Describing the gypsies, Robert Borde is quoted, "They be swart and do go disguised in their apparel contrary to other nations. They be light-fingered and use picking; they have little manner and evil lodging, and yet they be pleasant dancers."


Overall Opinion:

I definitely appreciated the book. My only request would have been a current day comparison of money at some point. That would have really helped for the framing.


Rating:

Good Snapshot Read

Christina Aguilera by MaryJo Lemmens

Disclaimer:  For everyone who loves press releases and believes a publicist's every word, this biography is for you. For those of us who think biographies should be written more objectively, put the book down and run, don't walk, away. 
   I wondered at the cover, but since it was on the shelf and had a 921, I assumed (my own fault, I do know the wise saying) that it was next on my shelf pick. After I saw the first page I rechecked the spine and noticed the YA. And you know what? That only made it worse for me. Shame on you MaryJo Lemmens, shame on you. For writing such an unquestioned piece of fluff and delivering it to a youthful audience you should be ashamed. Did you merely solicit Christina Aguilera's agent/publicist/manager/lackeys as your background sources? Did it cross your mind once(?!) to avoid even the slightest bias? Was the relative lack of worldly knowledge or the general naivete of your proposed audience simply a green light to insult them with your "work"? Does it mean anything at all to you that you had a golden opportunity to reach a youthful audience and enhance their knowledge and critical thinking through a subject that might attract otherwise nonreaders and instead you threw it away? You should be relegated to Teen Beat, since it appears you are incapable of writing anything more than promotional publicity.
   One of my biggest problems with this biography is the lack of objective investigation into Aguilera's background. Case in point. Aguilera's father was in the Army. She states that moving so often caused a lack of close friendships and difficulty in her life. Her parents divorced when she was seven, how many close friends do you have in kindergarten and first grade that are irreplaceable? How many best friends do you have when you're three?
   Moving on from that, admittedly minute, argument, here is the larger one. Aguilera states her father was abusive. I am not disputing that. I am taking umbrage at her painting the military in general as being rife with domestic violence. Aguilera is quoted in a USA Weekend magazine as saying, "The MPs would come, but a lot of them were doing the same things [to their wives and kids]." ????????? Her mother divorced her father when she was seven; again, how much could she really have known about the world around her?! A lot of the MPs were beating up their families?! And it just gets a pass? In a book? That's supposed to be nonfiction? No contextual framing? No fact checking? Nothing?!
   I know I don't know what she heard growing up. I know I don't know how the situation was handled at the time. I know that I was not there. But is it possible, just possible, that perhaps things weren't done because charges weren't filed? Perhaps her mother was reminded, by her husband or someone else, that her husband's career and their livelihood would be affected by charges. But, even were that the case, wouldn't the decision to file have been her mother's and not anyone else's? Does it really mean that "domestic violence was quite common on military bases"? Is someone who was seven and younger capable of determining that charge? "In her experience...there were few support systems families could turn to for real help." Wow, I didn't realize that by the time you turn seven you have learned how to access services and determine that they have been exhausted. Way to leave it at that Ms. Lemmens. Way to drop that unchallenged picture on any kid who picks up the book and then walks away with that nugget as golden based purely on the location of your book. Because if it's nonfiction it has to be true, right?
   The book is rife with how beautiful, talented, wonderful, etc., Christina Aguilera is. When the slightest negativity about her personality or approach is mentioned, the Aguilera spin on why she behaved or said what she did is the last word on it, thereby giving Aguilera's point of view the last impression.
   Had this book been an autobiography I would have found it less insulting; you expect people to write about themselves less candidly and more myopically than an outsider. But who needs to do it for themselves when someone else can do it for you. As the writer says, "She may not be the squeaky-clean role model of modesty and virtue that some people would like her to be but she is a role model in another way; she is a strong woman who can stand up for herself, fight for what she believes in, and always stay true to herself. As far as positive messages in the media go, that's about as good as it gets." Brava, MaryJo Lemmens, brava.


Overall Opinion:

I hated it. It's an insult to kids by completely dismissing any opportunity to treat them to a book written intelligently and engagingly.


Favorite Quote:

Not being a large fan of bootlicking, I couldn't find one.


Rating:

A complete waste of time!!!

A Useful Woman The Early Life of Jane Addams by Gioia Diliberto

   I have been waiting for enough time to write this review. This book gave me a lot to think about and was so worth the time it took to read it! A Useful Woman is the type of 920 book that makes the genre as good as it is; informational and enjoyable. Gioia Diliberto writes clearly, appreciates the reader's need for context clues and cites well.
   Jane Addams was completely new to me; I knew nothing about her before reading the book and resisted a Wikipedia sneak peek to find out. I'm glad I did. It was fun to meet her as I read the book and, I think, a little less confusing. Jane Addams was a feminist, activist, unionist, charity working liberal. She put her time, money and life where her mouth was and agree or disagree with her she lived her beliefs. Keep in mind that Jane Addams was born in 1860, a different time indeed.
   A little about me. I am almost ardently anti-union, I enjoy spending money on May 1 because it's May Day and have little sympathy for feminism as it is known today. That being said, I also believe there was a time when unions and feminists were necessary and on the right side of the issues more often than the wrong side. Jane Addams' era was one of those times. She provided educated women an opportunity to work and gave educational and vocational opportunities for the poor by running Hull House. She worked hard and dedicated her life to improving the lives of the poor and uneducated in a concrete way. Ms. Addams saw traditional charity as little lasting help and believed that education and vocational instruction were the way to change lives.
   Jane Addams was not perfect, and in fact, was a pacifist (something that goes against my moral grain), but she stuck to her guns. I always appreciate someone who says what they mean and means what they say. Whether I agree or disagree with someone, I respect those who stand by their opinions; it seems that Jane Addams was one of those people.
   Gioia Diliberto emphasizes the "drudgery" of a woman's life in the home as though all women were unhappily confined. It's an obviously feminist perspective, but seemed pretty fair in her assessment of Jane's good and bad characteristics. Jane Addams' perspective that women were morally superior is an expression of the time that seems to still abound today in the argument that there would be fewer wars if women were in charge. Both are arguments that are equally silly then and now.
   One of my favorite things about the book was that Diliberto didn't tell the reader how much money Jane was left and leave it at that. She went on to tell the reader what the money would be worth today; it is something that makes a difference in understanding the context of the time.


Favorite Quotes:

Written by John Addams (Jane Addams' father) in his diary, "Integrity above all else. Am firmly impressed that 'Honesty is the best Policy,' and hope that I may by all means and through all hazards stick to the above Proverb. Let come what may, let me stick to the above."

Written by Jane Addams, "Life's a burden, bear it. Life's a duty, dare it. Life's a thorn crown, wear it. And spurn to be a coward!"

Jane Addams: "If you don't take charge of a child at night you can't feel a scared trembling little hand grow confiding and quiet as soon as it lies within your own."

Ellen Starr, one of Jane's friends: " I love Franscesco better than any child in the world. I would like to own him if I could make enough money to buy his clothes & food...we omit the small circumstance that his parents probably want him. Italians never give up their children."

In response to the district's corrupt alderman, Johnny Powers, who bought off the constituent's: "Indeed, what headway can the notion of civic purity, of honesty of administration make against this big manifestation of human friendliness, this stalking survival of village kindness? The notions of the civic reformer are negative and impotent before it. They give themselves over largely to criticisms of the present state of affairs, to writing and talking of what the future may be, but their goodness is not dramatic, it is not even concrete and human."


Overall Opinion:

What an interesting book. Full of history and contextual references.


Rating:

9


Links to: Hard Call Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them by John McCain with Mark Salter

Great Gunfighters of the West by Carl W. Breihan

   What a fun book. It came with quite a few technical difficulties, but that didn't stop the book from telling its tale and telling it vividly. Great Gunfighters of the West profiles nine gunfighters, some of whom I knew of and most whom I didn't. If you walk away with nothing else, you will walk away with thankfulness that we live in a much more lawful America.
   Whew! I have seen my share of westerns and I still was struck by a certain titillating fear of living in the West during the 1800's to the turn of the century. I know the context of your own personal time defines your reaction to events, but still, I am thankful that this time is my time.
   I was struck by how many of these men were so bad and still sought after to be lawmen of the towns they lived in. (The author states that it was not uncommon to hire badmen to keep the others in line, which I suppose makes a certain kind of sense.) I also found it interesting to see how often they returned to the areas they were already in trouble in. That reminded me of the car chases that take place in the driver's neighborhoods. I always think that I would get out of Dodge (after reading about the actual Dodge City, I am surprised more people didn't) and wondered why the profiled gunmen didn't. I suppose, like our current hoodlums, there is something to be said for familiar places and faces.
   As to the technical difficulties. There was a consistent, though not completely unnerving, use of grammar errors. There was also an assumption of the readers familialarity of the profiled characters and their time, that left me a little confused. I think that this good book could have been at least a really good book if the author had taken the time to tease out some of the background that he alluded to in his profiles. Chapter 8 felt rushed, I think because there was either not enough to tell, the author felt more of an obligation to include him, or both.  The addition of a bibliography of his source materials would have been helpful as well.

Favorite Quotes:

"This was Wild Bill Longley. Cold-blooded, vicious, psychopathic. The only good thing that can be said of him is that he died young, and most of those who knew him thought that wasn't soon enough."

Written to a Texas newspaper before his (Bill Longley's) hanging: "And now, boys, remember the road Bill Longley had travelled, in disobeying his parents, and when you start to do wrong remember that a very small wrong always leads to still greater ones, and so on until finally, nothing will seem wrong to your if you follow the wrong road."

Bat Masterson on gunfighting: "The main thing is to shoot first and never miss."

"He (Ben Thompson) suffered from insomnia and liked to spend the night roving from one quarter of the town to another, usually shooting playfully at anything he saw."

Clay Allison: "Go heel yourself, varmint. I'm waitin'."

Overall Opinion:
At any rate, and my goggle-eyed reading aside, Breihan whet my appetite for a more in depth look at the subject. That's a good thing for an author to accomplish.

Rating:

7

God Grew Tired of Us A Memoir by John Bul Dau

   What a beautiful story. John Bul Dau is a Lost Boy and begins his story from his village in Sudan until his present day life in America in 2007. He tells the story of his flight and refugee status in different camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. The grueling marches that span a country. Being shot at, beaten, crossing crocodile infested rivers, naked, starving, dying of thirst. And yet, through it all, his spirit, hope, faith, courage and strength shine through.
   God Grew Tired of Us testifies to the enduring legacy that marks a man who is raised with faith, family and character. Throughout the book, John Dau's simplicity and natural curiosity are evident. Having been born in a part of the world that knows little of the outside, modern world; everything is new to him, everything we take for granted as a given, he accepts with appreciation and thankfulness.
   I read A Long Way Gone  by Ishmael Beah, his story is remarkable and heartrending, but it did not move me in such a character shaping way. God Grew Tired of Us challenged me in a way that I believe I needed to be challenged. It made me examine myself and the way I look at my daily "trials".

Favorite Quotes:

"Sometimes all you can do is keep going, even in the face of great danger."

I am ashamed to say it, but in the time of our greatest crisis, most of the people of Duk Payuel turned away from their social traditions and focused on saving their own families."

"That was my first ride in a car or truck. For the first time, I moved faster than the thiang or the lion, and I glimpsed a vision of the modern world: fast, blurred, and chaotic."

"The desert achuil trees soaked up the moisture and started to sprout tiny green leaves. They spread their branches and touched the limbs of other trees, like boys holding hands."

"It was the sweetest thing when I felt the spirit of the Lord moving through me. It was like drinking cold water on a hot day."

"In America, students ask the teachers, "Will this be on the test?" and they try to find out what part of the textbook they don't have to read. Ha! What a piece of cake that is. That is not school. That is not the way to get anywhere in life."

On being asked if he had children or a wife, in that order: "Now why did he ask that? In the Dinka culture, if I had children then I had a wife, and if I had a wife then I had children. I did not know that the two did not necessarily go together in America. That idea still takes some getting used to."

"It violated the Dinka way of life to refuse education, even when more education lay on the horizon."

"We made up a song about a saying among my people, "A human being can never be eaten." The song means the test of a man lies in the good or bad things he does, not in his physical body. A man who brings help to his community proves his worth."

Overall Opinion:

I am glad, glad, glad I read this book!

Rating:

10 out of 10

John Adams by John Patrick Diggins

   Until I read John Adams I didn't know just how much I idealized the time of America's founding. I saw everyone on the same page, thinking along the same lines; ready to hold hands and sing Kumbaya. I knew there were differences, but I thought they existed more between the Tories and Whigs. I enjoyed this biography for the insight into the time and for opening my eyes to the realities that people are people; a perspective I usually am pretty good at keeping, but, for some reason, I neglected to a fault.
   I learned that I "personally" like John Adams more than Thomas Jefferson. John Adams was smart and insightful and, at times, puzzlingly shortsighted. He loved his wife. I learned that President Adams was a real person who would probably recoil from the celebrity with which he is currently held.
   John Patrick Diggins' book is a short 175 pages that most likely hit the main points and leaves the minutia for a longer treatise. Diggins still does a good job of painting a picture, though whether the picture is more of Thomas Jefferson or John Adams, I'm not quite sure.

Favorite Quotes:

"Ben Franklin described Adams as "always an honest Man, often a Wise One, but sometimes and in somethings, absolutely out of his Senses."

"His father...wanted his son to study Latin...When he protested that he hated the subject, his father replied: 'Well, John, if Latin-grammar does not suit you, you may try ditching, perhaps that will...' Young John looked forward to the "delightful change," only to discover after a day and a half of hard, backbreaking work that he preferred Latin to labor. Finally at nightfall 'toil conquered pride, and I told my father, one of the severest trials of my life, that, if he chose, I would go back to Latin-grammar. He was glad of it; and if I have since gained any distinction, it has been owing to the two days' labor in that abominable ditch.'"

"The great sin, announced Adams the Puritan, is passivity and complacency. "Let us dare to read, think, speak and write.'"

"Years earlier they (Adams and Benjamin Franklin) slept in the same room, and when Adams closed the windows tight before turning in, he would awake shivering to find that Franklin had opened them wide and, instead of allowing Adams to get back to sleep, Franklin would give him a lecture on the virtues of fresh air."

"Party politics in America begins in bravado and ends in bathos, an electoral campaign that promises a climactic resolution and succumbs to the ordinary trivia of everyday politics."

"'Why, he (Adams) asked, 'are the personal accomplishments of  beauty, elegance, and grace, held in such esteem by mankind? Is it merely from the pleasure which is received from the sight of these attributes? By no means. The taste for such delicacies is not universal; in those who feel the most lively sense of them, it is but a slight sensation, and of the shortest continuance; but those attractions command the notice and attention of the public; they draw the eyes of the spectators.'"

Overall Opinion:

A good introduction to John Adams; leaves me definitely wanting to learn more.

Rating:

7


Links to: Dearest Friend A Life of Abigail Adams by Lynne Withey

The Last Hero A Life of Henry Aaron by Howard Bryant

 Well, I'm a day late, but I finished the last book of my first checkout. Yay!! Whew!!! The Last Hero A Life of Henry Aaron was my first book from the 921 section of the Victorville City Library. It took the longest time to read (4 days, I read Plum Lucky in the middle of it), due mostly to the technical and unfamiliar material I was trying to absorb.
   To the book...
   The first thing I was struck by was that as unfamiliar as I am with baseball statistics, its technical aspects and just baseball in general, there was a lot that was familiar and bell ringing to me; it was a reminder of how certain events, people and places permeate our national conscience and culture. I do not follow baseball, or any sport for that matter, and yet names beyond Aaron, Ruth, Mays, DiMaggio and Robinson were bell ringers. Names like Selig, Mantilla, Spahn, which I know are famous to those in the baseball know, but to me were just names I knew but couldn't put an immediate finger on why I knew them. Pafko (I learned his name first from watching Cop Out, very funny movie by the way) made me feel like an insider since I already knew a fact about him (again, from the paranthesis above).
   The second thing that struck me was how exciting Mr. Bryant made baseball. I admit that there were times I got  a little lost in the play by plays, not knowing baseball was something of a hamper when I was trying to place who was on which team, but there was always a tidy finisher that let know how it ended. His enthusiasm for the sport was infectious and would catch anyone, maybe especially a fan. It seemed that a baseball person would be even more caught up; either reliving the play they watched or seeing it for the first time because it wasn't on TV for a younger generation to catch on the classic channel.
   The Last Hero captured several things. It captured baseball, the challenges posed by segregation and integration and Henry Aaron. This biography took a close look at America not just in the time of Henry Aaron, but also of his grandfather and father. It allowed you to understand why he behaved as he did, even if you didn't agree with it. Mr. Aaron came through as a whole person; you were able to see him as others, both friends and outsiders, saw him as well as how he saw himself in an open and clear way.

Favorite Quotes:

"He especially softened for the impatient, uncomprehending children born three decades after he'd swung his last bat, all of them unsure why their wistful and dutiful fathers were pushing them in front of this grayed, unfamiliar man, and even more bewildered why they spoke with reverence in their creaking voices instead of displaying unbending fatherly authority."

"The boys from Whistler would ride their bikes (the ones who had bikes) over to Toulminville for weekend epics that would last on the Carver Park dirt for hours and in memory forever."

" 'See, that's what you needed to survive. You needed the good ones, the ones who understood you were a person just like them. They had to go along with it all, because that's the way things were, but they didn't put their knee in your back, either.' "

"Above the fold, adjacent to the photograph of Henry, was a news story, dateline Little Rock, Arkansas, detailing a white mob beating several black students attempting to enter Central High School."

"Two on, nobody out, and the tying run at the plate, and Fred Haney about as motionless as a cigar store Indian."

"As you entered the Braves clubhouse, an oversized refrigerator loomed to the right, a frosty glass door revealing shelves of Fanta grape and orange soda distributed by the Coca-Cola Bottling Company. Next to the fridge sat the cigarette machine and a tub filled with ice and Piels beer. A side table housed assorted sundries-sunflower seeds, tobacco, bubble gum-and a jar, about ten inches high, brimming with amphetamines."

Overall Opinion:

I can't say that I think I'll become an ardent baseball fan now, but I did walk away with an urge to watch some of the moments I read about. And, perhaps, to eat a box of Crackerjacks (which I don't actually like, and were not mentioned in the book) and a hot dog during the seven inning stretch.

Rating:

Baseball Fan or Not, Read the Book


Links to: Hard Call Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them by John McCain with Mark Salter

A Real Boy A True Story of Autism Early Intervention, and Recovery by Christina Adams

   I have to admit that I was incredibly hesitant to read this book. You know the "must see" movie that everyone is talking about, the one you kind of want to see, but you're not sure if you can handle the heavy theme. That's what I was feeling about A Real Boy. I was wrong.
   The theme is tough. Mrs. Adams and her husband ask themselves and each other unanswerable questions about what caused this to happen. Mr. Adams blames his wife for her use of pitocin during labor, knowing it is unreasonable. Mrs. Adams blames herself, while thinking she would never accuse her husband if the shoe were on the other foot while remembering days that she blamed her husband for things that happened to Jonah, knowing that her blame was equally unreasonable. Their days seem exhausting, draining and confusing. And yet, the story that is woven transcends all of that. Over the cacophony of hurt, anger, confusion, fear, you hear the siren song of their love, determination and hope overwhelm the noise.
   A Real Boy tells the story of the Adam's family discovery that their almost three year old son Jonah is autistic and what they do to help him recover. Jonah's story is beautifully, though a little confusingly told. It is filled with milestones and seemingly blinding quick accomplishments, followed by flashes of setbacks and periods of difficult days that feel more like afterthought inserts. It is sometimes difficult to grasp because you hear good things, good things, good things and then, out of the blue, it has been a bad week all along for Jonah, and by extension his family.
   The overall story is a snapshot of a family smacked between the eyes and hanging on, by hook or by crook, to their love for each other and their son; determined to make the best possible future they can. Yes, the theme is heavy, but A Real Boy is, in the end, a love story.

Favorite Quotes:

"...I kept the milk-based formula and added cheese and ice cream to his diet, in love with watching him eat foods that would strengthen his bones and fill his mouth with pleasure."

"From the kitchen, I can hear Ross's low voice and Jack's softer one as Ross tries to explain Jane's techniques. I've read some autism therapy books, and I am prepared, even hopeful, for a fight, since they say recovered kids often fight in the beginning. So I stay in the kitchen and make row after row of cookies, grim and hopeful, as the cries come from the living room."

Overall Opinion:

I am glad I read this book. Had I not decided to read through the library I most likely would never have picked it up; it would have been my loss.

Rating:

A Good Read