September (Audio Books)

The King of Torts - John Grisham  (Read by Dennis Boutsikaris) [abridged audio book]

Predictable and irritating ... I hate worrying about a character because of his stupidity. The insight into the legal system Mr. Grisham provides is always interesting. The reader is excellent.

Love the One You're With - Emily Giffin  (Read by Kathleen McInerney) [audio book]

Sweet and well written. Another excellent reader.

Summer Listening

A Portrait in Sepia - Isabel Allende (Book-on-Tape)
    Definitely worth reading (or listening to).
    Thank you, Paula!

READING: The Blue Suit by Richard Rayner

The Blue Suit: A Memoir of Crime

1995, Houghton Mifflin Co.

From the dust jacket: "...is a story about the absence of identity. Born in West Yorkshire, Richard Rayner had a peripatetic childhood, until, it seemed, he found some sense of place when he attended Cambridge University in the mid-70s. But far from affording him security, Cambridge, combined with the study of philosophy and an obsession with books, was the setting for the start of a bizarre life of crime. Mounting debts propelled Rayner into a series of frightening, foolish, and hilarious adventures."

My comments: Rayner became a small time crook, following the footsteps of his father. I'd call his adventures 'madcap' or better yet, adventures of a mad person, and I didn't think them at all funny. Nevertheless, the memoir is worth reading, and the book kept my interest all the way to the last page. The writing itself is excellent.

READING: A Bright and Guilty Place by Richard Rayner

A Bright and Guilty Place: Murder, Corruption, and L.A.’s Scandalous Coming of Age
2009, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Miraleste Library Book Club selection for April 2010.

A splendid read about L.A.'s dark side of the 1920's and 1930's. Included are also lots of references to and background on the people whom the streets of LA are named after, and descriptions of many familiar neighborhoods and famous buildings.

Web page: www.brightandguiltyplace.com

READING: Too Late to Turn Back: Barbara and Graham Greene in Liberia by Barbara Greene

While Graham Greene was busy keeping notes on the journey though Liberia (in 1935), he did not realize that his 23-year-old cousin Barbara, who "rashly agreet to go with him...into the jungle", was also doing so. "Too Late to Turn Back contains the humorous, foot-sore and richly evocative Aftican adventure of a young woman who set out from the world of Saki and the Savoy Grill and returned quite profoundly changed."
An introduction by Paul Theroux, probably my favorite travel writer, is part of this 1981 Penguin Travel Library edition. (205 pages)

LISTENING: Loved Walked In by Marisa de los Santos

Published by Recorded Books, 2005; narrated by Alma Cuervo and Jennifer Ikeda.

"Summary: Thirty-one-year-old Cornelia Brown adores classic romantic films. Anything starring Jimmy Stewart or Cary Grant will do nicely, especially The Philadelphia Story. Unapologetically idealistic about love, Cornelia appears to catch the break of a lifetime when the dashing Martin Grace, her own personal Cary Grant, comes strolling into her life. But Cornelia's life truly changes one snowy day when she looks up to find troubled 11-year-old Clare Hobbes standing before her."

Marisa de los Santos is a poet and novelist (with a PhD!!) who can write so as to make the reader savor every sentence, delight in each character and live their moments as one's own. The same characters are followed in Belong to Me.

LISTENING: Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon

The first of Father Tim novels, narrated by Scott Sowers, published by Recorded Books, 2007.

I've read (or listened to) most of the Mitford Series novels, and find each of them a delight and I marvel at Ms. Karon's insight into human nature.

READING: Black Lamb amd Grey Falcon: A Journey through Yugoslavia by Rebecca West

The book is "widely recognized as Rebecca West's most distinguished non-fiction work. It describes a journey she and her husband took through Yugoslavia in 1937, a journey overshadowed by the growing inevitability of the Second World War. The landscape and people of Yugoslavia, its history, cultures, religions and politics, are brilliantly observed as Rebecca West untangles the tensions that rule the country's history as well as its daily life."

Originally published in 1941, I'm reading the 1986 Penguin Books edition. Since the book has 1150 pages of small print, I expect to finish it sometime in 2010. I read the first 200 or so pages in 1989 (I know because of a note/book marker with 1989 written on it)...but I just started where I left off and will reread the beginning after I reach page 1150.

READING: The Dog Who Came to Stay by Hal Borland

Do you pick a book by its cover?...Buy a bottle of wine by its label? I often do, and, often, the choice turns out to be a good one.
I selected The Dog Who Came to Stay from its spine picture just by browsing the stacks at PV library. I'm not really a dog person even though we have a dog, but reading this 1961 novel/memoir was wonderful and I gained a lot of insight into what it really means to be a dog "owner".
The wine had the best label I've seen in a long time...but I gave the bottle away so I'll have to let you know if it lives up to its label in the near future.

LISTENING: The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Read by Scott Brick.

Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America: "Bringing Chicago circa 1893 to vivid life, Erik Larson's spellbinding bestseller intertwines the true tale of two men--the brilliant architect behind the legendary 1893 World's Fair, striving to secure America’s place in the world; and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction."

The book deserves all the paise and awards it has received.
Miraleste Book Club selection for November.

Publisher's web page: Random House/Crown/Devil in the White City

LISTENING: Angels Flight by Michael Connelly

Read by Dick Hill.

A Harry Bosch mystery, set in 1990's Los Angeles. 1998, Grand Haven, MI: Brillance Audio.

Neighborhood Book Club selection for November.

READING: Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley

An Easy Rawlins mystery, set in post-WWII Los Angeles. 1990, Washington Square Press

LISTENING: The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

Read by Robertson Dean. Published by Santa Ana, CA: Books on Tape, p2006.
Immensely enjoyable once I got used to the ornate language. The discriptions of nature and the insight into human nature are excellent.

LISTENING: What I Did for Love by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Read by Julia Gibson. Published by Westminster, Md.: Books on Tape, p2009.
Really well done and entertaining romance about a young Hollywood celebrity.

LISTENING: Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith

Second novel of the 44 Scottland Street series; audio book performed by Robert Ian MacKenzie.

For the most part it is as funny as the first book, with majority of the same characters, but a bit sad in places too.

See the real Scotland Street, kindly posted by Linda on her Occasional Scotland blog.

LISTENING: Summer of My Amazing Luck by Miriam Toews

Read by Erin Moon. (An excellent reader.)
Recorded Books, 2009 (Book published by Turnstone Press, Canada, 1996.)

"Toews's first novel, The Summer of My Amazing Luck, finds humour and poignancy in unexpected locales. The protagonist is a teenaged single mother, on welfare, who moves to a low-income housing project in Winnipeg to escape the emotional trauma left in the wake of her own mother's death. Toews invokes, ridicules, and defies class-based stereotypes in her portrayal of these lively characters' daily struggles, from cheap strollers to lost love, and joys. This book won the 1996 John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer, and was adapted into an award winning drama by playwright Chris Craddock." - The Canadian Encyclopedia

LISTENING: 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith

Read by Robert Ian Mackenzie; first book of the 44 Scotland St. series.

An absolutely delightful series of vignettes about the characters occupying 44 Scotland St.

READING: Depths by Henning Mankell

Miraleste Library Book Club selection for June 2009.

2006, The New York Press. Translated from the Swedish by Laurie Thompson. Set in 1914 in Sweden.

Mankell is the writer of Kurt Wallander mysteries (I have not read any of them yet) for a total of 37 novels and many plays.

I do not recommend this book - it is very dark, without being at all uplifting. ("...a dark immovable story that literally measures the depths where Fascist personalities grow." - from Expressen, Sweden).

LISTENING: Life Sentences by Laura Lippman

Read by Linda Emond.

An interesting story about a best seller writer of memoirs who returns to Baltimore seeking to discover more about a childhood friend who was sentenced for killing her baby, and in the process realizes that she did not quite capture the truth in her last book.

LISTENING: Remember the Sweet Things: One List, Two Lives, and Twenty Years of Marriage by Ellen Greene

Recorded Books Inc., 2009. Narrated by Barbara Caruso. "The author describes her struggles with divorce and single parenthood before meeting her husband, Marsh, whose many kindnesses she would jot down and make into a cause for thanks and celebration every Valentine's Day."