May book review

"The Summons",
by John Grisham






Judge Atlee, a powerful and beloved judge from Clanton, Mississippi was on his death bed when he sent a typed "summons" to his two sons to appear before him to work out the details of his estate. The summons gave the date and time just as the judge has always tried to rule their lives.

Ray Atlee, the eldest son is a professor of law at the University of Virginia and Forrest was a drug addict. The judge appears to have died just before Jay arrives and Forrest shows up an hour later. In the mean time Ray has found 13 boxes of $100 bills (over 3 million dollars) and don't know how the "honest old judge" could have saved that that much money.

It was a quick read at under 400 pages and can't say it was up the "Grisham Standard" one has come to except but it was still worth reading.

April book review

"The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck.

It has been decades since the last time I saw the movie "The Grapes of Wrath". A 1940 black and white movie starring Henry Honda. I had never read the book but as always the book is the better of the two (that is saying something since the movie was so great).

This is the most POWERFUL book I have ever read, period! Yes, sometimes the Pulitzer Prize committee gets it right. Partly because my family were the "Joads" only a few years later with only slightly improved conditions and partly by the magnificent way it is written.

Steinbeck's novel is based on articles he had written in San Francisco. The book is about "the Joad" family, one of many thousand (or hundreds of thousands) of Oklahoma "Okies" that were driven from their sharecropper homes because of the great depression and the dust bowl.

Just hard working "salt of the earth" people that just wanted to be able to feed their family at the end of the day.

If you think "money hunger companies" are some thing new, then you need to read this book. How about the whole family picking oranges all day and just making enough money to feed the family one meal.

Not only is it a novel but a great history lesson as well. While fictionalized, it is based on the facts of the era.

If you only read one book this year, PLEASE read this one.

March Book Review

"Pretty Boy Floyd", by Larry McMurty (of "Lonesome Dove" fame) and Diana Ossana.





The true facts of any famous person will always be disputed and the life and times of Charley "Pretty Boy" Floyd has many that can not to proven and this novel is written with the known facts, innuendos, and a certain amount of artistic license.

One fact is certain, times were hard in depression era Oklahoma. The novel conjours up the "Joad" family in "Grapes of Wrath". Charley helps enough poor people with food and tore up land mortgages at banks that his was often refereed as the "Robin Hood Bandit".

Pretty Boy Floyd had a wife and a son, a steady girl friend, plus an older woman (lover and mentor in his criminal live), and George Birdwell (his partner in crime).

Charley and George robbed so many banks in Oklahoma that the bank insurance rated doubled in a year.

This a not a book for the prudish but I found it a very intriguing read. After reading the book, I checked out some of the other facts and legends of Floyd online as I knew very little about him before I read the book.

January Book Review

For a couple of years I have been reading a blog about a female taxi cab driver in New York City. I have not linked to her before because I try to keep this blog family friendly and she is not afraid of the "f" work. I enjoy her blog very much and when she wrote a book, I knew that I wanted it for Christmas. Zac (who told me about the blog) gave it to me and I dove right in and read it cover to cover.

"HACK, How I stopped worrying about what to do with my life and started driving a yellow cab." by Melissa Plaut.




She tells about getting her "hack licence" and her adventures in the cab as one of the few female New York City cab drivers. She is college educated and took this job because she was not handling the office politics of the corporate world very well.

Drop by her blog and start at the beginning for insight into her book.

December Book Review

With my December book review, I would like to remind everyone about PaperBack Swap .

I now have 45 credits,159 books listed (only my books I am willing to part with, hehe), I have received 67 books and have mailed 111 books. As you can see, I have been taking advantage of this site. They also swap audio books and now are swapping DVD's. Nice to sit home and order a book when you see one mentioned that catches your fancy. Another feature I like is the fact that when ordering a book you can have it sent to any address.

Now on to the book review.





" A Walk in the Woods", by Bill Bryson.

Subtitled, "Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail".

Bill and his overweight hiking partner, Steven Katz, set out to hike the Appalachian Trail. The "Trail" runs about 2100 miles from Maine to Georgia.

The books is more more than their attempt to walk the trail but is a lesson on the history of the trail as well as a lesson tree, plants, wildlife, how the topography was formed, with a splash of humor and human relationships thrown in.

Although they did not walk the full length of the trail, the book is really more about "discovery" than a walk of 2100 miles.

His account of Centralia, Pa. is very chilling and something that I had forgotten about.

At just 230 pages it makes for a short but entertaining read.

October Book Review

It's been awhile since I posted but I have been working 6 long days a week and just didn't feel like fighting with blogger.

"Quakertown" by Lee Martin was mentioned on a blog I read and it did indeed turned out to be a nice read.

Based on a true story about a black settlement in Denton, Texas (in the 1920's) called Quakertown. The town wanted the land for a city park and needed to move all the black folks out. To accomplish this they enlisted one of the most respected men in Quakertown. A gardener of immense talent and offered him the job of seeing after the new park.

I back dated this to the first of the month. I have been trying that long to get it posted.

September book review

My September book review is a little late this month because, heck you don't want excuses.

"CASH OUT"
A novel by Paul Boray.

A bookie is robbed of $300,000 and his girlfriend badly beaten and raped by a Chinese gang that tells him he is going into early retirement or else. He contacts ex-cop John "Tomb" Tomie to help get even with the gang and recover his money (he offers "half" to Tomb). Tomb enlists a former cop on the Chinatown beat to help.

This novel has several twists and turn, some you see coming and some you don't. When I was thru with it, I had to recall some small details earlier in the book to see how the ending could be "the end".

The first person that shows an interest in this book will receive it free by e-mailing me their "snail mail" address. I will send it media mail to said address. Don't be bashful, I think you will enjoy this book and my book shelf is running over.

August book review

My August book review is a little late. With Tuesday being my only day off (besides Sunday when you can get nothing done) and I have been trying to get a truck bought and get our car sold, I have been my usual busy self. But I think the wait is worth the book that I will tell you about.

The book was mentioned over at http://possumliving.blogspot.com/

and it sounded like something I would enjoy. I ordered thru PaperBackSwap that I had told you about some months back. "Enough already just tell about the book."

Border Music, by Robert James Waller ( author of Bridges of Madison County).

The book tells of Cowboy Jack Carmine ( an aging Vietnam vet with flash backs) and a slightly younger Linda Lobo ( but aging adult club dancer) heading to his rundown ranch in Alpine, Texas. A second parallel story is being told about Jack's disillusioned uncle Vaughn Rhomer, a produce manager in a Iowa supermarket.

The love (or lust) story is both familiar and unpredictable at the same time. I enjoyed the book and I hope you will too.

I continue to look for books that night interest me. If you have one just throw the title my way, thanks.

July - book review

I consider this book a "must read" for everyone. Not because it is a literary masterpiece but because of its subject matter.


NICKEL and DIMED or (not) getting along in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich .


Barbara takes several entry level jobs in different cities to see if she could get by on the wages that a lot of Americans make. From being a MERRY MAID, a waitress , and a Wal-Mart employee, she struggles with the very basics. Putting a roof over her head and having enough to eat consumes more than she is earning.

The "working poor" in America have their backs against the wall every day. One paycheck (or outside help) from being homeless. I think everyone knows someone that just struggles and just can't seem to "catch up" much less get ahead in life.

PLEASE READ THIS BOOK!

May Book Review

Before I review the book, I would like to tell you about Garland Leamons. Mr. Leamons was born in 1910 and we buried him this week.

He has my bother Bob's father-in-law. 97 years young and indeed a treasure to everyone that knew him.

What does this has to do with a book review?

Mr. Leamons lived a very simple life and over sixty years ago built a home for his family about ten miles from town. Over the years I had the pleasure of visiting his home several times and had the honor of being a pallbearer when Mrs. Leamons passed away nearly 25 years ago.










Just a simple home for a simple family but when you entered you felt the love of this family.


I was just a youngster the first time I visited but I was always welcome and as I became older, we had some wonderful talks. I should say, "I listened while he talked". He had wonderful stories and I was always entertained.









It is my loss that I haven't visited in several years. So many stories that I will never have the privilege of hearing.


The life he led mirrors the life chronicled in this months book.










FOXFIRE


The Foxfire books are a series of books about the early life in the southern Appalachians mountains.

In the late 1960's, Eliot Wigginton and his students created the magazine Foxfire in an effort to record and preserve the traditional folk culture of the Southern Appalachians.

It become so popular and so many students became involved that it led to the book series.


Eliot Wigginton was the editor while his students were the authors. They talked to their elder family members and began to assemble the stories of their heritage.

Each book is a stand alone book with it's own stories but the original Foxfire book explains how it all got started.

They should be available at your local library.

April book review

As you know, I have just returned from a trip to France. It was an epic journey for me as it was the first time to leave the USA. Having taken several tours on a motorcycle including one of 5700 miles, I thought I would review;












"Jupiter's Travels", by Ted Simon

In 1974 Ted Simon (an English journalist) started his four year, 64,000 mile, 53 country trip around the world trip on one of the last production Triumph motorcycle.

His Triumph was overhauled several times and had one total rebuild. His travels carried him thru some of worlds harshest countries. He traveled very cheaply and tried to live at what ever level the people around him lived.

From Sudan, to being held in a prison in Brazil, to living in a commune in California, his is an adventure that will inspire.

I hope you enjoy this book as I found it to be a very interesting read.

March Book Review

Even though WALDEN TWO was written in 1948, it is the "bible" for many of the communes of the 60's.

Walden Two is the name given a utopian community in the delightful fiction. "Walden" after the Henry David Thoreau book ( still haven't read it. Am I going to have to get a switch?)

Several communes were started using this book as their charter. Several still remain, the most noticeable being Twin Oaks .

In the book, Rodger ("Rodge") and Steve Jamnik, two young men returning from service at the end of WWII, stop by the office of Professor Burris to ask if he knows anything about a man named Frazier, and the new society Frazier is trying to build. Burris remembers that Frazier was a classmate of his in graduate school, one with radical ideas. He sends a letter to Frazier and immediately gets a reply inviting him to visit the community. Burris agrees to take time off from his academic duties to accompany Rogers and Steve on a visit to "Walden Two," Frazier's community. Rodge's girlfriend Barbara, Steve's girlfriend Mary, and Burris' Colleague Castle, also come. The population of Walden Two is about one thousand people, all of whom seem to be healthy and happy. They live in dwellings, eat in common dining spaces, raise their children in a nursery, and grow and build much of what they need. The standard workday lasts only four hours, or less; no one is paid wages--but nothing at Walden Two costs money. Each of the visitors responds to the community differently. Castle finds it challenging he spends the duration of the visit arguing with Frazier about such a community like Walden Two. Burris, on the other hand, finds himself somewhere in the middle: he is skeptical that such a community could work, but he finds Frazier's arguments compelling and he cannot forget the evidence of success in front of him. Steve and Mary are both convinced that this is the life for them; they decide to stay at Walden Two. Rodge, too, is convinced, but Barbara is not; he leaves Walden Two with her at the end of their visit. Burris decides to return to his academic life. However, at the train station he suddenly realizes that he would rather try life at Walden Two, for whatever it's worth, than go back to the university. He walks back to Walden Two and begins his new life there along with the rest of the group.

Everyones idea of "Utopia" is a little different but this is a very thought provoking book.

Feburary book review

"STANDOFF", by Sandra Brown.











This month I thought I would throw a little something different at you. I read mostly nonfiction but I do enjoy a good novel. I picked up this book just to thumb thru it and ending up reading it almost nonstop.
I will just "steal" a review as it tells the plot better than I can.

From Publishers Weekly
Workaholic Dallas TV reporter Tiel McCoy thought she would take a well-earned vacation, but while driving to a secluded condo in New Mexico, she hears a radio report that changes her plans. Teenager Sabra Dendy, only daughter of Fort Worth multimillionaire Russ Dendy, has been kidnapped. Soon Tiel learns that Sabra, who's pregnant, has run away with her boyfriend, Ronnie Davison. Smelling a story, Tiel heads for the remote town of Hera to interview Ronnie's father, thinking the couple might go there for help. But when she stops at a convenience store for directions, Tiel encounters Ronnie and Sabra bungling a hold-up attempt. As Sabra goes into labor, Ronnie takes everyone in the store hostage, and Tiel and a handsome cowboy who seems to know a lot about medicine deliver Sabra's daughter. Tiel learns that the desperate young couple are fleeing to Mexico to escape Sabra's dictatorial father, who has vowed to separate them and put their baby up for adoption. He has even threatened to kill the child, and Sabra and Ronnie have vowed to commit suicide if they are thwarted. Bestselling author Brown (The Alibi) sets up believable conflicts (Ronnie once killed a puppy, rather than return it to an abusive owner). If the dialogue and sex scenes occasionally seem stilted, this popular author's tale still hits hard and keeps moving briskly to its satisfying conclusion.

I enjoyed this book and the end is not predictable.

January book review

"ANOTHER SHOT, how I relived my life in less than a year ", by Joe Kita.

When Joe Kita turned 40 he sets out in one year to revisit several times in his life that he wondered how things might have turned out if he had taken a different road.

The book has 19 chapters with each composed as a short story. It is a very "simple read", but parts of it we can all relate to.

Chapter 1, he goes back to try to make his high school basketball team.

Chapter 3, he tries to find his beloved Camaro he sold years earlier.

Chapter 6, he tries having a "date" with his mother to understand their strained relationship.

Chapter 15, he spends a week in the desert with a survival group ( with 2 days by himself), trying to prove he is "a man".

Can't say this is a great book but it has its moments.

December book review

"Three Weeks with My Brother", by Nicholas Sparks

OK, you have probably already read this one. Nicholas and his brother Micah take a three week trip around the world together. That part of the book was "alright", but what the book is really about is telling his life story in between the story about the trip. This is a very good book "by and about" one of America's favorite authors.

November Book Review

John Steinbeck is most remembered by my generation for two of his novels that were made into movies. The Grapes of Wrath, starring Henry Fonda and East of Eden, starring James Dean.

In 1962 Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature for his account of Travels with Charley.

In 1960, after suffering a small stroke, Steinbeck and his poodle, Charley, set out to see America in a pickup truck with a camper on back. It depicks life in the '60's.


He did not keep notes and wrote the book after the trip. It was actually written in Barbados and finished in New York. It became the largest commercial success of his career.

October Book Review

Seeing "the walker" a few days ago reminded me of this book.










"A Walk Across America" by Peter Jenkins.
Peter sets out with a backpack and his dog in the 1970's and walks from the northeast to New Orleans, finds the love of his life and he and his wife walk to the Pacific Ocean. Along the way his dog is accidentally killed, he lives with a black family for several months while working at a sawmill in North Carolina, meets a mountain hermit and he and his wife are befriended by an old rancher in Colorado.

I think you will find this a very interesting book.

September Book Review

The Good Life, by Scott and Helen Nearing . This book takes the principles of Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, to heart .

What? You haven't read Walden, shame on you.

In The Good Life you are getting two of Scott and Helen's books, Living the Good Life and Continuing the Good Life.

Scott and Helen were educators and in 1932 at the height of the Great Depression moved from New York City to a run-down farm in Vermont, hoping to live a simple life. The Good Life chronicles their adventure in great detail. From telling how to build with stone, to raising a garden in an 85 day growing season ( and eating year round from the garden with very little canning and no refrigerator) , to stumbling unto their cash crop from their Maple trees. Doing all of this with only laboring for half of their time. They believed half of ones life should be devoted to leisure.

In Continuing the Good Live, Scott and Helen were at the age when most people are thinking about retirement, move from Vermont to Maine and start over. Their place in Vermont had become so popular ( from Scott's writings) that they thought of it as a "zoo".

Scott and Helen have almost a "cult following" in the back to nature community.

August book review

Hey Mom, Can I Ride My Bike Across America?: Five Kids Meet Their Country by John S. Boettner John and his wife taking 5 teenagers on a bike trip across America. These are not 17 and 18 year olds. One boy only 12 and the other 4 are 13 and 14 years old. One of the 13 year old girls is so small she has to ride a bike with 24" wheels as opposed to the normal 26" size.

They have a trip to remember all their lives. The story is about more than just the "ride" but about "small town America". These kids are from California so it is a real eye opening adventure for them.

I was truly amazed at these young kids and in awe of John and his wife for being responsible for 5 kids for over three months.

June, 2006 book

On the first of each month I will post a book that I have enjoyed reading. Some you will have heard of and others you will not.



The first is Into the Wild, by Jon Krahauer. A true story about a young man from a well-to-do family that hitchhiked to Alaska in April 1992 and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter.

You will not be able to put this book down. You know the out come but the writer does an excellent job of detailing the events that led to this tragedy. Some things still go unanswered. Hope you will check it out. Pardon the pun.