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Is ‘The Porpoise’ This Bad On PURPOSE?

The Porpoise

By Mark Haddon

Doubleday, 2019

 

If you don’t have anything better to do – like watch paint peel – check out a Catcher in the Rye Meets Flipper & Faulkner Wannbee. It’s called The Porpoise.

Plot Summary

The sole survivor of a plane crash that killed her mother, Angelica is raised by her insanely rich, overprotective father, Philippe. More of a nutcase with “issues” than he a grieving widower, the guy’s a first class Creepazoid.

 

Angelica grows up in about 40 pages.  Rumors swirl around the isolated daughter of breathtaking beauty. When a potential suitor, Darius, arrives, he guesses more than he should. He winds up hightailing it out of Daddy’s swank digs fast, with an assassin on his tail. Darius runs for his life aboard a boat, The Porpoise.

 

“Darius”? Seriously?

 

Says one breathless reviewer: “And then, over several extraordinary pages, he sails out of contemporary Britain and into ancient mythology, shedding his old self and becoming Pericles in the process.”

 

Snooze Alert

Great. A modern-day Don Juan wannbee who thinks he’s Pericles fleeing an abusive dad while trying to navigate into a Greek legend.

Yep. It’s that bad. A fact that does not go unnoticed by the Encyclopedia Britannica:

 

Pericles, play in five acts by William Shakespeare, written about 1606–08 and published in a quarto edition in 1609, a defective and at times nearly unintelligible text that shows signs of having been memorially reconstructed. …The play was based on the Classical tale of Apollonius of Tyre.

 

 

“Defective” and “nearly unintelligible text” is right.

Flickr

Gag Me

The Porpoise is supposedly based on Shakespeare’s play which is based on the legend of Apollonius. The brittle, overwrought and often unintelligible Porpoise also seems to be in the running for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Part II. As do George Wilkins’s clogged arteries.

 

It’s almost as if the author is so desperate to impress, he dumps every literary dust mote ever dashed onto papyrus and swashes them onto the page in one fell swoop. (If I want Shakespeare I’ll get the original, thank you very much.)

 

Then it’s back to Angelica, silent again. Oh, and she stops eating, too. By this time, however, she’s pretty much a footnote to a story that lurches onward focusing on Darius/Pericles.

 

Land, ho! Naw. Just kiddin’.

 

Limping Along & Anchorless

Anchor-less, the author can’t seem to decide who his protagonist is or which end is up. So he just wanders around aimlessly, spilling out endlessly descriptive passages like bread crumbs to voracious sea gulls for no discernible reason. Cuz lemme tell ya, baby. That habit neither propels nor rescues the stilted and largely incoherent story that’s already limping along on legs as wobbly as a newborn colt’s.

Pexels Stock Photo

The result is a prattling, incoherent sop that makes Benjy Compson look eloquent. (To the horror of high school English teachers everywhere, I’m not a big Faulkner fan. But Porpoise isn’t even a good knock-off of Faulkner or The Bard. That’s why I’m not linking to it. On porpoise. That’s not a typo.)

 

Sure, the back cover is peppered with effusive praise. But so was Proust.

 

Hopelessy Obtuse

With a hopelessly obtuse plot that just tries too hard, this load of horse hooey ranks right up there with a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

 

Indeed, it’s been years since I slogged through a book this bad. Don’t waste your time. I already did. With apologies to Flipper.

 

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A Rich Read to Warm Your Winter

Finding Katarina M, by Elizabeth Elo

Harrowing and haunting, Finding Katarina M is an unusual story. The writing is top-notch. The characters are dynamic. The plot is lithe and engaging, with pitch-perfect pacing and enough intrigue to grab the reader like a colt with a new bit racing toward the wire in the Kentucky Derby.

But I just couldn’t shake the feeling that it was a little too far-fetched.

A successful Washington, D.C. surgeon on a mission to Northern Nowheresville, Russia to find her grandmother who supposedly died in a Siberian gulag is recruited by the CIA to spy on black market WMD sellers after her teenage cousin and aunt, also recruited by the CIA, disappear?

Then Dr. Natalie March is accused of a double murder, refuses to leave the country, discovers a horrible secret at an abandoned gulag site, winds up in a Russian prison, escapes, and miraculously locates her long-lost aunt in an unmapped village, second star to the right and straight on to Nowhere? And snow. Lots and lots of snow.

And NYPD Detective Ruggeri, CIA spymaster Meredith Viles and her unsavory sidekick, Oleg? Straight out of central casting. And what’s up with that last minute fling with Dimitri?

Even so, the story works.

Dr. Natalie March is a respected American surgeon at the top of her game. Single and closing on 40, Natalie doesn’t have time for anything or anyone outside of a hectic work schedule, her medical journals, and her beloved mom, Vera. A Russian immigrant, Vera has multiple sclerosis and is confined to a care facility. Natalie visits her every Sunday morning.

Vera was ripped from her mother’s arms as an infant when her mother, Katarina Melnikova, was sent to one of Stalin’s notorious gulags. Natalie always presumed that her grandmother Katarina was among the millions of Russians who perished in the notorious labor camps. Until a young woman, Saldana Tarasova, shows up at her office claiming to be her cousin.

A Russian ballerina in the U.S. on a cultural exchange, Saldana insists that Katarina is still alive. She also indicates that her mother and brother, Natalie’s aunt and Cousin Mikhail “Misha”, are in grave danger in Russia.

Saldana is desperate to defect. She tries to enlist Natalie’s help. Reluctant to break the law, Natalie waffles. But when Saldana is murdered, Natalie journeys to Siberia to uncover the truth about her young cousin’s death. In the process, she’s drawn into a tangled web of deceit, double-crosses, and family secrets that pit her against the CIA and the dreaded Russian FSB.

Accused of two murders she didn’t commit, Natalie winds up in Female Prison #22 in the frozen hinterlands of Nowheresville, Siberia. There, her medical expertise comes in handy during a daring escape reminiscent of her grandmother’s run from the gulag.

And snow. Lots and lots of snow. Think Doctor Zhivago.

For the most part, Finding Katarina M. moves with the rapidity of a runaway freight train. It’s high voltage. But at times Natalie’s misadventures seem a bit contrived. We almost lose sight of her search for her grandmother as Natalie wanders through rundown Russian hotels, Siberian reindeer camps, museums, Sakha villages, and Vodka.

We later discover that Natalie’s 19 year-old cousin, Misha, also recruited by the CIA and recently disappeared, was hot on the trail of evidence exposing atrocities at the infamous Gulag Butugychag.

Finding Katarina M. is a prodigious blend of history, travelogue, family ties, and whodunit murder mystery. Skillfully knit into its 322 pages are courage, resilience, and exquisite descriptions of Siberia’s feral wilderness. In the end, Natalie discovers far more than she ever thought she’d find.

Overall, Finding Katarina M. is an engaging, rich read if you’re able to willing to suspend your disbelief and enjoy some good historical fiction. Best paired with a steaming mug of hot cocoa and a roaring fire. I’d grab an extra blanket ‘fize you.


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THIS Book Kept Me Up All Night – Here’s Why

Every once in a while you come across a book that’s so engaging, so fresh and fierce, you can’t put it down until the last elegiac sentence tiptoes across the final page.

Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens, is one of those books.

I heard Crawdads has been on the NYT Bestseller List for over a year. A natural cynic, I don’t put much stock in “best seller” anything.

So I checked this book out from my library to see what all the buzz is about. Brought it home yesterday afternoon.

I read it cover-to-cover in one sitting. Finished at 1:44 a.m.

Set in rural North Carolina over a span of about 20 years, Where the Crawdads Sing is a wistful, bittersweet story about Catherine Danielle Clark, aka “Kya.” Also known as the Marsh Girl. The story centers on Kya’s young life as she navigates the wilds of North Carolina alone. It’s a masterful tale of love and loss. Abandonment and rejection. Loneliness. Hope and longing.

Powerful and poignant, Crawdads rolled around in my head all night. And most of today.

Crawdads clusters around two time frames, the 1950s and the late 1960s/1970. The chronology could easily come unglued in the hands of a lesser talent. But Owens’s story glides between one epoch and the next as naturally and seamlessly as the channels and lagoons of Kya’s marsh and the wild lands that bookend her life.

The story opens with six year-old Kya watching her Ma trudge away from the family’s marsh shack. Clutching a cardboard suitcase, Ma walks out of Kya’s life without a backward glance.

And so begins a lifetime of loss and loneliness for Kya.

Her siblings all leave the marsh too, including her closest brother, Jodie. We later learn that Kya’s father is abusive, to put it mildly, and Ma and the other children just couldn’t take it anymore. They walk out of Kya’s life one by one, leaving the six year-old alone with her father, who’s absent more than he’s home. When he’s home, he’s usually drunk. When he’s drunk, he’s mean. And violent.

What’s a six year old to do?

Kya does plenty.

Left to fend for herself, the little girl scratches out a subsistence by harvesting and selling mussels and smoked fish to her only real friend, “Jumper.” She learns how to keep a wood stove going, cook grits, steer Pa’s boat. She sleeps on a mattress on the shack’s front porch. Learns how to read the water, tides, birds, grasses and the native flora and fauna of her marsh.

Her only friends are the sea gulls.

Shy and remote, Kya is regarded as strange and odd by the townspeople during her occasional boat trips into town for supplies. She becomes adept at hiding, especially from the truant officer.

Kya raises herself, making do with second-hand clothing and other items collected by Jumper and his kindly wife, Mabel.

With only one day of schooling, Kya finally learns how to read with the help of her friend Tate. She also learns how to count past 29. Paint and collect feathers, shells, and mushrooms.

As a young adult, Kya is still regarded as wild and strange. She’s fiercely independent and private. Shy and retiring. More at home with the creatures of the sea and the marsh than with other people. She understands nature better than people. Humans bewilder, overwhelm, and disappoint.

They also walk out.

In fact, most of the townsfolk shun and ridicule “the Marsh Girl.” Except for her childhood friend Tate, who seems to understand her.

But he abandons her, too.

Longing for companionship but afraid to risk more heartbreak, Kya keeps mostly to herself, hoping against hope that Ma will some day walk down the lane and back into her life.

A voracious reader with a quick mind, Kya becomes a self-educated expert on marsh life. Her prodigious powers of observation, analytical skills and extensive specimen collections result in the publication of several books under her byline.

But she’s still alone. Solitary. Her self-imposed solitude is both a blessing and a curse.

Later, when the dead body of the town’s star quarterback and All American jerk, Chase Andrews, is found beneath a fire tower near the marsh, foul play is suspected. Kya is arrested and tried for murder. A handful of friends stand by her.

Marinaded in hauntingly beautiful, lyrical prose, Where the Crawdads Sing is a remarkable achievement. With its keen observations of nature and wildlife, Crawdads tells us as much about marsh life, ecology, and marine biology as it does human nature.

Lithe as a great blue heron and as luminescent as a Carolina sunset, Where the Crawdads Sing is a riveting tale of the human heart and its need for love, belonging, and connections. You can almost hear the gulls cawing. Taste the salt spray. And see the fireflies glow.

Two thumbs up.


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A Simple Guide to 20-ish BEST Reads of 2019

Selection criteria for an annual “best of” list is kinda squishy, especially when it comes to books. We all have our fave authors, genres and styles, right? If a book made it onto my “best of” list, it had to include:

1. Rich, robust writing that’s a cut above.

2. A creative, clever plot that grabbed me by the throat and wouldn’t let go until The End. The story had to be powerful, poignant, or unusually memorable. Even better: all of the above.

3. Three dimensional characters that are lively, intriguing, and powerful. The type you don’t forget after you close the book.

4. Bonus points for a fresh approach on an old topic, a unique perspective, or inspiration as sound as sterling.

So here’s my totally unscientific, 100% subjective list of Best Reads of 2019. (Not every title on this list was published in 2019. It’s just the year I read it, okay?)

In no particular order, here are my top reads of 2019, by category:

MOST INSPIRING :

Bòrn Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds, Joy Adamson

My Pride and Joy: An Autobiography, George Adamson

The Winter Pony, Iain Lawrence

Tuesdays With Morrie, Mitch Ablom

The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris

Lassie Come Home, Eric Knight

MOST CREATIVE & ORIGINAL:

One of Our Thursdays is Missing, Jasper Fforde

Flame in the Mist, Renee Adieh

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of 4 Sisters, 2 Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy – Jeanne Birdsall

Out of my Mind, Sharon Draper

Maze Runner, James Dashner

The Prey, Andrew Fukuda

I Am Still Alive, Kate Alice Marshall

A River Runs Through It, Norman Maclean. I’ve read this before, but I appreciated it more the second time through.

BEST HISTORICAL FICTION:

Sky in the Deep, Adrienne Young

At the Mountain’s Edge, Genevieve Graham

Making Bombs for Hitler, Stolen Girl, and The War Below, Marsha Skrypuch

BEST NARRATIVE NONFICTION:

Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All, Various

Spencer’s Mountain, Earl Hamner (A novel, but with a strong narrative voice)

‘NEW’ AUTHORS OF NOTE (In no particular order. List not exhaustive)

Will Hobbs

James Dashner

Genevieve Graham

Lauren Tarsis

BEST NON-FICTION

The Case Against Socialism, Rand Paul

The Library Book, Susan Orlean

No Safe Spaces – Dennis Prager, et.al.

FAITHFUL FAVES:

Max Lucado, Scott O’Dell, Gary Paulsen and Sarah Sund. Also Ingrid Paulson and Richard Paul Evans. Karen Kingsbury. Debbie Macomber. And I don’t think I’ve ever met a book I didn’t like by C.W. Anderson, Walt Morey, or Maurice Sendak.

I’m working on a TBR list for 2020. What do you recommend? Holler in the Comments!


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“Born Free”: Timeless and Transcendent After All These Years

Have you ever re-discovered a book from your childhood that still has the power to move and profoundly impact you, even a half century after your initial read? If so, then you’ve found a true classic.

Pinterest

Joy Adamson’s Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds is such a book.

Evocative and compelling, Born Free is the remarkable true story of Elsa, an orphaned lion cub raised by Joy Adamson and her husband, George. At its core, Born Free is a love story. With great sensitivity and precision, Adamson chronicles the mutual affection and bond between a magnificent lioness and the humans who loved her enough to release her to the Kenyan wilds where she was free born.

It’s probably the most moving and inspiring “animal story” I’ve ever read.

Joy Adamson wrote three books about African lions: Born Free, Living Free, and Forever Free. I read them all. Born Free is my favorite.

I first read Born Free in 1969, nine years after it was first published. I was in the fifth grade. Entranced, I read it over and over. There’s something timeless and transcendent about the story that’s difficult to put into words.

I lost track of Adamson and Elsa over the years. But I never forgot the extraordinary story of a free born lioness and the humans who loved her. I recently located a library copy of Born Free. Finally.

Elsa and “Born Free” author Joy Adamson.

Opening the Forward to the Fortieth Anniversary Edition (2000), I was startled to learn that Joy Adamson was stabbed to death by a disgruntled former employee in 1980. The news hit me like a ton of bricks. I felt like I’d lost a best friend I’d never met. So it was with a mixed sense of sadness and reverence that I sat in a sun-soaked living room in a far corner of the Olympic Peninsula nearly thirty years after that sad event and re-opened a book that profoundly impacted my life, especially with regard to animals.

Lavishly illustrated with black and white photographs, Elsa’s story is still an unforgettable one. So is Adamson’s prodigious writing talent. Her breezy, bucolic style recalls another formidable literary talent who writes so evocatively about her life in Kenya: Isak Dinesen. Like Dinesen, Adamson’s descriptions of her life as the wife of a senior game warden in East Africa have a luminous quality that is almost melodic.

My favorite photo from the book. Joy Adamson and Elsa.

I read Born Free cover to cover in one sitting. Here’s a key line, from page 109:

“Her (Elsa’s) good-natured temperament was certainly due in part to her character, but part too may have come from the fact that neither force nor frustration was ever used to adapt her to our way of life. For we tried by kindness alone to help her to overcome the differences that lie between our two worlds.”

The Adamsons and Elsa succeed beyond all expectations.

Re-reading the last chapter, The Final Test, the same intense sense of sadness and loss these pages evoked in me five decades ago bubbled up again from some deep internal well. It was as if Elsa and her human pride had never left, patiently waiting 50 years for my return to their story.

Recording Elsa’s success in finding her own wild pride and mate, Adamson writes:

“We returned to camp alone, and very sad. Should we leave her now, and so close a very important chapter of our lives?”

The Adamsons decide to wait “a few more days” to make sure Elsa has been accepted by the pride.

In the final elegiac paragraph, Adamson returns to her “studio” by the river to continue writing the story of Elsa, “who had been with us until this morning.” Sad to be alone, the author writes that she tries to make herself happy “by imagining that at this very moment Elsa was rubbing her soft skin against another lion’s skin and resting with him in the shade, as she had often rested here with me.”

I cried. Again.

And that, friends, is the mark of a true classic.

 

 

Elsa on Camp Bed Photo Credit


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A ‘Champion for the Ages’

Reposting from 2018 in honor of Derby Day and the 145th Run for the Roses!

***

“Inevitable.” Isn’t that a great word? Learned it from Mom the other day. As in, the 144st annual Run for the Roses is coming up on May 5. So debates about who was the Greatest Thoroughbred of All Time are… inevitable.

Or so I’m told.

A few other things I learned:

The “Run for the Roses” is also known as The Kentucky Derby. The Derby is always run on the first Saturday in May. It’s the first jewel in the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred horse racing.

Why do I care about Thoroughbred racing? Well, I don’t. Not really. But Mom does!

She’s been reading a Walter Farley book about one of the greatest champions to ever set hooves on a race track: Man O’War. Along with legendary Triple Crown winner Secretariat, Man O’War is a top contender for Greatest Thoroughbred of All Time honors.

Back to the Farley book.

Man O’War’s remarkable life unfolds through the eyes of fictional stable boy Danny Ryan. Mom says the story is nearly as powerful and compelling as the great Thoroughbred himself. I’m not sure what the means. But it sounds good.

Here’s Mom’s review of Farley’s Man O’ War.

So when Kentucky Derby time rolls around each May, the comparisons between Man O’ War and another great champion, Triple Crown Winner (1973) Secretariat, are inevitable. At least according to Mom. Which horse gets the nod for Horse of the Century? Depends on who you ask. And what day it is.

Both possessed blinding speed. Both ran challengers off their feet. Both broke records. Both have great stories.

So whether your vote for The Greatest goes to Secretariat or Man O-War, a few things are for sure:

1) May is the perfect month for awesome horse stories!

2) Any story by Walter Farley is a great story. Inevitably.

3) Churchill Downs promises another great Run for the Roses this Saturday. (“Run for the noses”? I always kinda thought that was when Mom calls me in for dinner. But I may be wrong about that.)

4) One of the finest athletes to ever set hooves on a race track, Man O’War remains a Champion for the Ages. Just like Walter Farley.

Is it dinner time yet?

Update – May 5: Congratulations to the 2018 Kentucky Derby winner, Justify!


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The Big Summer Stretch: 150+ in 90

It was a stretch. A BIG one. But summer reading programs have been a seasonal staple since before I could walk. (Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, according to my kids.) So when it came to summer reading 2018, I decided to aim high. My goal was to exceed last summer’s achievement: 136 books in about 90 days.

Frankly, I wasn’t sure I could do it. Neither did anyone else. Except my good dog Kimber. She thinks I can do anything. Everyone else just sort of smiled and shook their heads.

But once the school year winds down, I love how one long, sun-gilded day can glide into another, peppered with good reads. Grand adventures in books. (I’ve also slogged through more than one imbecelic political shill thinly disguised as a YA “novel.” Gag me.)

Anyway, this summer’s reading program ended August 31. My final tally: 156 books in about 90 days. Whew. In the past three months-ish I’ve read:

Biogs on: Rosa Parks, Jean Laffite, and Mark Twain. John Merrick and Harriet Tubman. Queen Victoria. Nelson Mandela. Laura Ingalls Wilder. Marco Polo. Ted Geisel. Lewis and Clark. A bunch more.

I’ve traveled by book to: China, Bolivia, Ecuador, Africa, Alaska, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Great Britain. Germany. Colombia. Russia. A motorcycle race across Europe. A deep-sea oceanographic research station. Many more.

I’ve chugged through a kaleidoscopic collection of genres, all colorful, creative, and remarkable in their own right: Dystopian. Magical realism. Creative non-fiction. Humor. Drama. Historical narrative.

Pressing toward my Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 365 books in one year, I read or listened to many memorable books this summer. Short. Medium. Long.

Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order:

The Girl of Fire and Thorns Trilogy – Rae Carson

Time for Andrew – Mary Downing Hahn

The Jimmy Vega Detective series – Suzanne Chazin. Here’s my review of Chazin’s A Blossom of Bright Light.

Wolf by Wolf – Ryan Graudin

Thunder Rolling in the Mountains – Scott O’Dell

The Journey Back – Priscilla Cummings. Read my review.

My Family for the War – Anne Voorhoeve. See my review.

Unwind – Neal Shusterman

Time for Andrew: A Ghost Story – Mary Downing Hahn. Read my review.

The Wood – Chelsea Bobluski. Here’s my review.

Streams to the River, River to the Sea – Scott O’Dell

‘NEW’ AUTHORS OF NOTE (In no particular order. List not exhaustive.)

Suzanne Chazin

Khaled Hosseini

Toni Morrison – Here’s my review of her novel, A Mercy.

Erin Hunter

Andrew Fukuda – here’s my review of his first novel, The Hunt.

Rae Carson

Chelsea Bobulski

‘OLD FAITHFUL FAVES’:

Max Lucado, Scott O’Dell, Gary Paulsen and Sarah Sund. Also Ingrid Paulson and Richard Paul Evans. Karen Kingsbury. Debbie Macomber. And I don’t think I’ve ever met a book I didn’t like by C.W. Anderson, Walt Morey, or Maurice Sendak.

As you may know, I’ve long maintained that some of the finest stories and most gifted authors in all bookdom can be found in Children’s Literature. So I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention some favorites along these lines from this summer.

Like:

The Pilot and the Prince: The Life of Antoine de Saint-Exupery. The Boy from Fairfield Street: How Ted Geisel Grew up to Become Dr. Seuss. Also Some Writer! The Story of E.B. White.

Noteable ‘Sleepers’

These are books that took me by surprise. I usually scooped them up on a lark, looking for a quick, light read. These titles turned out to be engrossing and intriguing:

Cynthia Rylant’s Missing May. A touching story of how a young girl deals with the loss of her eldery aunt and foster mom, May. A Newbery Award Winner.

Captive of the Mountains, by Arthur D. Stapp. Hiking, mountaineering and a survival story. Young Chris must use his wits to survive following a hiking injury in the remote Olympic Mountains. Lots of recognizable sites for those familiar with Washington state and the Olympic Mountains. First published in 1952. Grabbed it off the free table at the library.

Run Far, Run Fast, by Walt Morey. A recently orphaned 16 y.o. from the wrong side of Chicago decides to ride the rails to California rather than get stuck in foster care or an orphanage. Nick Lyons meets up with “Knight of the road” “Idaho” Jamieson inside a west bound train. Trouble intervenes and Nick winds up stranded in the Pacific Northwest. Beautifully written by a master storyteller.

And…

If you keep a sharp lookout, every once in awhile you dig up an uber gem. Like a copy of a book published in 1974, signed by the author. Woo hoo!

Long story short (pun intended), I’m now at over 300 books read since January 1. (Yes, I read fast. ☺) So I’m within spitting distance of my 2018 Goodreads Reading Challenge: 365 books in one year. Still aiming high, I’m aiming to get there by Thanksgiving. With a little room to spare. I’ll keep you posted.

How’d your summer reading go?

Screen shot – Summer Reading Log, 31 August 2018


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Celebrating ~200 Books in 6 Months!

“We did it, Kimmi!” Mom crowed this morning. “Time to par-tay!!

Mom’s so pumped today.  She’s flitting around the house, practically dancing. So embarrassing.

Wait. Someone say “another dog biscuit?” Okay. Any time I get extra treats must be a good time. And you know I’m always up for a good time.

So, what’s the occasion? Mom says, “We just about reached our 2018 Goodreads Reading Challenge today! Almost 200 books from January 1 to June 30. That’s nearly our entire goal for the year in just six months! Woo-hoo!”

Anything for a party.

The exact number of books we’ve read in six months is 198. (That’s what the ~ means in the title. It means “almost.”) Short. Medium. Long. And I’m not talking fur coats, if ya know what I mean.

You can read more here. Also:

Judging from the extra treats, that must mean something. Something really good.

You know I like to help. I’m a Helper Extraordinaire, according to Her Mom-ness. Not sure what means. All I did was curl up in her lap and keep her company through like, eight zillion pages. (That counts, even though I spent most of the time snoozing, right?) I walked to the library with her so many times, I thought we were changing addresses. And listened to like, seven zillion audio books. Helped her figure out Overdrive.

Hmmm. Now that I think about it, I did a lot to help Mom reach this part of her Reading Challenge. There’s no telling what she’s going to do the rest of the year. Got any ideas?

Me? I just hope she doesn’t ask me to Cha-Cha. Oh dear…

 


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Rockin’ It This Summer With Reading

Kimber The Reading Dog.

Mom’s at it again. She’s skipping merrily around the house, opening every window in sight.  Humming that Temptations song. You know the one. About sunshine on a cloudy day.

Here in the ever-soggy Pacific Northwest, we take whatever we can get in the “sunshine” department. Maybe that explains Mom lately. Why she keeps crowing, “Summer’s comin’! Woo-hoo!”

Has anyone found my frisbee? Cuz frankly, what’s summer without a nice, chewy, frisbee?

Well. According to Her Mom-ness, “summer” also means the library’s summer adult reading program. Last year she read 136 books in 92 days. This year there’s a “limit”: Twenty books.

What’s up with that?

Anyway, this year’s theme is Libraries Rock. Some brain surgeon (The Powder Puff?) decided to combine the adult program with the children’s and teen reading programs. A one-size-fits-none kind of deal.

The sign-up form for tracking your reading progress includes stuff like coloring, singing a song or learning five new words. You write this down every time you finish a book.

Is there a shortage of grown-up Taste of the Wild in the building?

Not to worry. You know Mom and me and books. We’re not going to let something this silly slow us down. No siree, Lassie!

We’ve read eight books and one audio book since we signed up on June 1. Coloring notwithstanding, we’re gonna “rock” this summer. Reading highlights so far:

And a re-read of an old favorite: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.

Another stand out: Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin.

It’s post-WWII Europe with a catch. A big one: Hitler won. Now a survivor of Nazi experimentation in a death camp, Yael is on a mission to win a race and kill Hitler.

“I couldn’t put it down!” says Her Mom-ness. “It’s a barn burner.” Maybe I should grab a fire extinguisher?

I’d say more, but I feel another skipping session coming on.

 

Meanwhile, have you signed up for your library’s summer reading program? What are your reading goals for this summer?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rock skipping photo credit: Flickr – Creative Commons License


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Reading Challenge 2.0: Why I’m Going Back to Square One

If you’re on Goodreads, you probably know the average Reading Challenge for 2018 is about 51 books in 12 months. I read 136 books in 92 days for last summer’s adult reading program with the library. So what was a realistic but stretch-worthy goal for 12 months?

I set my goal at 200 books for the year. I was cruising along pretty well, picking up steam. The “brass ring” was in sight – six months early.

Until today.

Let me explain. First the not so good news. Followed by the good news and some reading highlights thus far.

The Not-so-Good News:

I was closing in on my target goal of 200 books. I went to my Goodreads account today to add a few more completed titles to bring my total to 181. Suddenly, my reading progress vanished. Gone. Poof!

Has this happened to you?

Because not a single title entered over the past five-plus months remains in my Reading Challenge. Zip. Zero. Nada. I know the site was having trouble cataloging dates and updates. But zeroing out 181 books just like that?!

Well I’ll be et fer a tater.

I can’t possibly recreate the entire list from memory. (Yes, I reported the matter to Goodreads. No solution yet.)

The Good News:

Of course I’m discouraged. Not to mention a wee bit miffed. But I’m still reading. And while it’s not exactly cheery to have five+ months of titles wiped out due to “technical difficulties,” I’m going to keep reading. In fact, I’m aiming for another target. Think of it as Reading Challenge 2.0:

200 additional titles by the end of the year.

How does that sound? (Good thing I took a few screen shots awhile back, eh?)

Meanwhile, from some prior notes I jotted down, here are some highlights from my Reading Challenge 2018 (before The Great Poofery struck):

Most Whimsical or Disarmingly Charming:

What-the-Dickens, by Gregory Maguire.

A natural disaster, three kids, a 21 y.o. Language Arts cousin/babysitter. Skibbereens and a flying thing nsmed “Pepper” with lots of sass. Teeth. What’s not to love?

– The Faerieground series, by Beth Bracken and Kay Fraser.

Twelve quick, enchanting reads about BFFs Soli and Lucy. One is far more than she seems at first glance, esp, when soneone’s made a wish inside the Willow Forest!

Most Interesting Biogs or Autobiogs:

New York to Paris – Charles A. Lindbergh.

Flying by instruments-only through fog at 1,500nft. over the Mid-Atlantic? Ay! Yi! Yi! Also white caps, porpoises, and “Which way is Ireland?”, the London-Paris runway and the Eiffel Tower.

Man O’ War – Walter Farley

Gripping Historical fiction about one of the greatest Thoroughbred champions to ever set hooves on a race track.

Creepiest

Look For Me By Moonlight.

Forget the silver stakes and garlic. Find an artist friend with a cliffside workshop and a hot stove! And whatever you do, don’t fall for some sweet-talking “30 something” dude in black who comes to stay at your Dad’d rustic, isolated inn in thd dead of winter!

172 Hours on the Moon – Johan Harstad

After yeats of budget cuts and stalled space exploration, NASA is going back to the moon, this time with three teens aboard. Once they hit the lunar surface, everything goes sideways. And astronauts start dying. Will Mia, Midori or Antoine ever see earth again?

Most Intriguing or Surprising

The Adoration of Jenna Fox – Mary E. Pearson

Hauntingly poignant and powerful, this intriguing story explores family relationships, bio/medical ethics, how far a parent might go to save a loved one, and what it means to be “human.” Earned a rare five-star rating from me.

Fairest – Marissa Meyer

A taut, compelling tale dripping with palace intrigue, rivalry and jealousy, misplaced love, blind ambition and utter corruption. Masterfully crafted. Couldn’t put it down!

Anchor in the Storm – Sarah Sundlin.

Finally. A “romance”” novel that isn’t a romp through the local garbage dump.

This uplifting, engaging story offers solid characters who are both winsome and flawed. They’re wholesome without being sappy. The clever “whodunit” plot has perfect pacing while the love story deftly combines faith, hope, tenacity, and integrity. Superb historical fiction plus plenty of surprising plot twists to keep you guessing!

Old Faves:

Just about anything by Marguerite Henry, C.W. Anderson, and Scott O’Dell.

Note About My Reviews: I hold to the axiom: “The repeated use of profanity is the hobgoblin of little minds.” Hence, no book that uses same gets high marks from me. Ever. Far as I’m concerned, if an author can’t express him/herself without “turning the air blue,” then s/he is a lousy, lazy author. Period.

Now. Back to square one. And a new Reading Challenge.

How’s yours coming?