Six Degrees of Separation: From Lonely Planet's Best Ever Photography Tips to ....

 

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Usually Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point, but for April's Six Degrees the instructions were to find a travel guide such as a Lonely Planet title or an Eyewitness title.

So the first book in my Six Degrees chain will be Lonely Planet's Best Ever Photography Tips. It features "45 practical tips and ten golden rules from award-winning travel photographer Richard I'Anson." My husband is and always has been interested in photography and he has many books on the subject.

1st degree:

My first book is also from my husband's shelves: A Wandering Eye: Travels with My Phone by Miguel Flores-Vianna. The book is filled with photos taken with his smart phone while traveling. There are some really gorgeous pictures in this book.

2nd degree:

Continuing the theme of photography, my next book is Plates + Dishes: The Food and Faces of the Roadside Diner by Stephan Schacher. This is a fantastic book, following Schacher's travels from New York up into Canada, starting with Ontario, going across to the Yukon, into Alaska, back down through British Columbia into the US. In the US he covered the western coast states, then some midwestern states, through the deep South, and back up to New York. His plan was to document the diners he visited. Per Publishers Weekly, he visited  "70 highway eating establishments, and photographed the food he ate and the women who served it to him." He made the trip using various vehicles: a Volkswagen van, a motor home, and a motorcycle. This edition was published in 2005, and Schacher's travels appear to have taken place between 2002 and 2004. There isn't much text in this book, just an introduction. The focus is really on the photos.

3rd degree:

The next link is one of our cookbooks, Retro Diner: Comfort Food from the American Roadside by Linda Everett. The book contains recipes for diner food and also includes photos of the exteriors and interiors of some old diners. We have used at least one of the recipes because we have notes in the book on suggested changes. 

4th degree:

At this point I will move toward fiction. In The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain, Cora and Nick Papadakis own and operate a small diner in rural California, not far from Los Angeles. Cora is sick of her husband and tired of running the diner. Frank Chambers, a drifter, has just arrived in the area and does some odd jobs for Nick. Frank wants Cora to leave her husband behind and drift around the country with him. The book is very well written, but too dark and dreary for me. 

5th degree:

Even though the Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout feature a lot of gourmet foods and situations focused on food and eating, Archie Goodwin often visits diners to eat, when he just wants to eat plain food, or when he isn't getting along with Wolfe, or he is out doing some errands for Wolfe. In Plot it Yourself, a mystery about authors, publishers, and plagiarism, Archie twice mentions going to Bert's Diner around the corner on Tenth Avenue near Wolfe's brownstone. Early in the book, Archie says: "I eat in the dining room with Wolfe, except when we are not speaking; then I join Fritz and Theodore in the kitchen, or get invited somewhere, or take a friend to a restaurant, or go to Bert’s diner around the corner on Tenth Avenue and eat beans." Towards the end of the book, when he thinks he will be having a meatless dinner with Wolfe at home, he considers going to Bert's to "eat hamburgers and slaw and discuss the world situation for an hour or so." Thinking about these connections motivated me to reread this book in late March.

6th degree:

I decided to stick with a novel by Rex Stout in this last link. Black Orchids collects two novellas, "Black Orchids" and "Cordially Invited to Meet Death." As I noted above, food is very important in the Nero Wolfe stories. Usually Wolfe doesn't like to have anything to do with women, but somehow, in "Cordially Invited to Meet Death," he ends up with one in his kitchen, where he is experimenting with making corned beef hash. She offers to help. 

"... corned beef hash is one of my specialties. Nothing in there but meat, is there?”

“As you see,” Wolfe grunted.

“It’s ground too fine,” Maryella asserted. 

Wolfe scowled at her. I could see he was torn with conflicting emotions. A female in his kitchen was an outrage. A woman criticizing his or Fritz's cooking was an insult. But corned beef hash was one of life's toughest problems, never yet solved by anyone. To tone down the corned flavor and yet preserve its unique quality, to remove the curse of its dryness without making it greasy—the theories and experiments had gone on for years. He scowled at her but he didn't order her out.

"Cordially Invited to Meet Death" is one of my favorite Nero Wolfe stories.

My Six Degrees took me from traveling and photography to roadside diners, to mysteries with an emphasis on food.  If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your list take you?

The next Six Degrees will be on May 4th, 2024 and the starting book will be The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop.

Short Story Wednesday — Doctorow: Collected Stories

 

My husband purchased Doctorow: Collected Stories at the 2023 Planned Parenthood Book Sale, and at his suggestion, I read some short stories from that collection, which is comprised of fifteen short stories written by E. L. Doctorow. Per the dust jacket, the stories were "selected, revised, and placed in order by the author himself shortly before he died in 2015."

I read the first five stories in the book, plus a later story I was especially interested in. Of the six stories I read, I only really liked two of the stories, but I liked those a lot, so it was a worthwhile experience.

These are the first five stories:

• "Willi"
• "The Hunter"
• "The Writer in the Family"
• "Heist"
• "The Water Works"

I did not care for "Willi" at all. I found these stories confusing: "The Hunter," "Heist," and "The Water Works." From what I have read, "Heist" was expanded to be the novel City of God.

"The Writer in the Family" was my favorite of the first five stories I read. It tells about a man who dies and how his death affects his family. The man's sisters don't want to tell his 90-year-old mother about his death, so they tell her that he has moved to Arizona. They request that his wife and two sons join in this deception. One of the sons is asked to write letters to his grandmother as if they are from his father. Not only is it a very moving story, it gets a lot across in 15 pages.

The other story I read was "Wakefield," which was first published in The New Yorker, January 7, 2008. It was one of the longer stories in the book at about 35 pages. In 2016, the story was adapted to film, starring Bryan Cranston and Jennifer Garner.

The story is about a man, Howard Wakefield, who leaves his wife and family, in a manner of speaking. I am not even going to try to summarize the story any further than that. I wanted a more definitive ending but it was still an effective ending. I liked this story very much.

Here are the first few sentences of the story:

People will say that I left my wife and I suppose, as a factual matter, I did, but where was the intentionality? I had no thought of deserting her. It was a series of odd circumstances that put me in the garage attic with all the junk furniture and the raccoon droppings—which is how I began to leave her, all unknowing, of course—whereas I could have walked in the door as I had done every evening after work in the fourteen years and two children of our marriage. Diana would think of her last sight of me, that same morning, when she pulled up to the station and slammed on the brakes, and I got out of the car and, before closing the door, leaned in with a cryptic smile to say goodbye—she would think that I had left her from that moment.

"Wakefield" is available online at The New Yorker. 

The Glass Hotel: Emily St. John Mandel

When I started reading The Glass Hotel, I thought that Paul Smith and his half-sister Vincent Smith would be the central characters. As the story opens, they are in high school. Paul resents Vincent because as a child she got to live with his father and her mother full time, whereas he only spent summers and every other Christmas with his father. He knows that is not Vincent's fault but he cannot let it go. They have a very troubled relationship.

However, later it seems that Vincent and Paul are minor characters and the story revolves more around a very rich man, Jonathan Alkaitis, who Vincent lives with for several years. (Vincent was named after the poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay.) Paul and Vincent are more like bookends to the story of Alkaitis and his financial dealings.

The biggest plot point is an illegal financial scheme, but it takes a while to show up. Later, there are vignettes that focus on what happens to those injured by the scheme and those who kept it going. However, the mechanics of the scheme are not emphasized and you don't need to know much about finance to enjoy it. This book is much more about the characters.

My thoughts:

• I did not love this book immediately, but I was intrigued. It picked up at the midpoint, and by the end I loved it. I like the structure and I like the way that Mandel tells the story.
• The book has lots of elements that tie together at the end but it often seems like many separate but connected stories. That format worked well for me, but many readers won't like that.
• I saw similarities between this book and several of the books of Chris Pavone, especially The Expats and The Paris Diversion, which mostly revolve around espionage plots. Information is given out to the reader a bit at a time, as the story unfolds. Also, many of the characters are acting almost all the time, pretending to be someone that they are not, even with those closest to them. 
• There is a huge cast of characters, most of whom show up now and then throughout the book. That can be confusing. 
• Some of the characters with the smallest roles were the most interesting to me. One of my favorites was Walter, the night manager of the Hotel Caiette, which is a very expensive, exclusive hotel on a small island off the north coast of Vancouver Island. Not many of the characters in the story are happy. Walter loves the isolation of the hotel and is happier at this job than he has ever been in his life. He only shows up at the beginning and end of the book.
• There are supernatural elements, although I could not figure out if they were intended to be real or imagined. Either way, I enjoyed that element in this book.

Emily St. John Mandel is a Canadian novelist. She has also written The Singer's Gun, Last Night in Montreal, The Lola Quartet, Station Eleven, and Sea of Tranquility.

The Silver Swan: Benjamin Black

In early March, I read The Silver Swan by Benjamin Black (pseudonym of John Banville). Set in Ireland in the 1950s, it is the 2nd book about Quirke, a pathologist working in a hospital in Dublin. I read the book for this year’s Reading Ireland Month, hosted by Cathy at 746 Books. 

Billy Hunt was in college with Quirke. They had not seen each for years; Quirke did not recognize him at first. Billy's wife has just died in a strange situation, and Billy does not want the death to be declared a suicide; he asks Quirke to see to it that she is not cut up (which seemed strange to me). Of course, Quirke is curious.

Billy's wife was Deirdre Hunt, but she also went by the name Laura Swan and ran a beauty salon, The Silver Swan. In looking into Deirdre's death, slowly, at his own pace, Quirke discovers that there are many unanswered questions, but he does not share the things he finds with  Inspector Hackett, who is also interested in the case. 

The story is much more complex than the overview above. Much of the story consists of flashbacks to events before Deirdre's death. There are many other characters, including Quirke's daughter, Phoebe. At times I was very confused about the overall plot. This did not lessen my enjoyment of the story, because the writing is gorgeous, and I was very focused on Quirke's character.

Things to note:

• Quirke is only identified by his last name. I think this continues throughout the series but not sure.
• The pace of the story is slow and it seems more like a character study or a lot of character studies thrown together than a mystery. There was not a lot of sleuthing going on (or it is not shared with the reader).
• I remember finding the first book to be dark and depressing, and that was also true for this one. But this time I was prepared. I am looking forward to reading the next book some time.
• If you are thinking of reading this book, I strongly suggest that you start with book 1 in the series, Christine Falls. It is not necessary; it can be read as a standalone. I read Christine Falls in 2010 and by the time I read this book, I had forgotten the story entirely. I knew that Quirke was a pathologist working in a hospital, and that he investigated a crime, but that was it. Events and discoveries from the previous book are mentioned often in this book. On the one hand, the author tells you enough about book 1 so that you are familiar with the story; on the other, events in book 1 may be spoiled if you read book 2 first.

Short Story Wednesday: "Forgiveness Day" by Ursula K. Le Guin

 

"Forgiveness Day" by Ursula K. Le Guin is a science fiction novella published in 1994, a part of Le Guin's Hainish cycle of books. I have not read any of the Hainish novels and I am not sure how much my unfamiliarity with those stories affected my reaction to this story. However, in retrospect I don't think that was the problem. 

First paragraph:

Solly had been a space brat, a Mobile's child, living on this ship and that, this world and that; she'd traveled five hundred light-years by the time she was ten. At twenty-five she had been through a revolution on Alterra, learned aiji on Terra and farthinking from an old hilfer on Rokanan, breezed through the Schools on Hain, and survived an assignment as Observer in murderous, dying Kheakh, skipping another half millennium at near-lightspeed in the process. She was young, but she'd been around. 

The story describes Solly's experiences as the first Envoy of the Ekumen to the Divine Kingdom of Gatay. The themes of the story seem to be feminism, misogyny, sexual repression, and slavery.

Solly is assigned a Guide and a Guard, plus a Maid. At least one of those three were with her at all times. The Maid was assigned to her as an asset, which was essentially the same as a slave, which Solly was very uncomfortable with. Women did not take part in any events that Solly attended. Solly is treated as an equal to the males in the society, to a certain extent, but it is clear that they all look down on her. She never has any contact or conversations with women, because they all wait at home for their husbands. Solly and the Guard, Rega Teyeo, have an antagonistic relationship, which is explained to some extent by revealing his very complex backstory.

She gets around her isolation to a certain extent by gaining access to Batikam the Makil. He is a transvestite, part of a traveling troupe of entertainers, and is allowed to visit her at night after his performances.

During Forgiveness Day activities, Solly and the Guard are taken prisoner by a rebel group. Up to that point they have never spoken more than necessary, but they are forced to get to know each other under the circumstances.

The first half (or more) of the story was very complex and confusing for me. I suspect I read it too fast. I went back and reread bits of it and figured out where I had gone astray, and I intend to read it again in full.

I was emotionally engaged and moved by the ending of the story, and when that happens, I figure that the author has succeeded. So my final "rating" for this story is very high.

I read this story in The Year's Best Science Fiction, Twelfth Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois. All the stories in that anthology were published in 1994.

It is also included in Five Ways to Forgiveness, an eBook published by Library of America, which includes five stories (one novelette and 4 novellas) in the Hainish cycle.

Two other short stories I have read by Le Guin are "The Shobie's Story" (also in the Hainish cycle) and "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas", reviewed at the Casual Debris blog in September 2023.

January and February Reading, 2024

 

It used to be that most of the books I read were published before 1975; I also read many books published from 1976 to 2000. A smaller percentage of the books I read were published after 2000. As I looked back on my reading in the first two months of this year, I realized that 10 out of the 12 books that I read were published after 2000.  Since I enjoyed almost every book I have read this year, I don't think that is a bad thing. I am just wondering why and when my tastes changed and whether that will continue. I did read two books published in the 1950s, one by Graham Greene and one by Seichō Matsumoto, and both were excellent books.

So here are the book I read...

Nonfiction / Nature

Vesper Flights (2020) by Helen Macdonald

This is a collection of Macdonald's essays, mostly about nature, but sometimes delving into her personal life. Many of the essays focus on birds (which is what I was looking for) but not all. The book was educational, in a fun way. Some of the essays that I especially I enjoyed: "Field Guides," about the evolution of field guides;  "High Rise," about bird watching on the top of the Empire State building, at night; "Ants," about the mating flight of queen ants and drones; "Swan Upping," about mute swans on the River Thames.

Nonfiction / Memoir

Wait for Me! (2010) by Deborah Mitford

I found this book to be a fantastic read, but maybe that is because I enjoy reading about the Mitford sisters so much. The author has a gift of telling short interesting anecdotes. The two other books I have read about the family were biographies and they focused mainly on Nancy (16 years older than Deborah) and Diana (10 years older). Because Deborah was the youngest child (of seven), her view of the family came from a different perspective. The book is divided between her childhood and young adult years with her family and her life as the Duchess of Devonshire. Both were equally of interest to me.  

Fiction

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (2022) by Gabrielle Zevin

This book is about two young people who create video games. The story starts when Sam Mazur and Sadie Green are about 12 years old and covers the next 30 years in their lives. It does focus on video gaming and the process of creating them, but it is about many other things: relationships, families, judgement and misunderstandings, and ambition. I liked the writing, and I was caught up in the story. My one complaint is that the book is too long at 400 plus pages.  

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (2010) by Satoshi Yagisawa

I read this book for the Japanese Literary Challenge and for the Bookish Books Challenge. A young woman goes to work in a bookshop owned by her uncle after a romantic relationship ends abruptly. The book is definitely not a romance; there is a lot of emphasis on human relationships, in addition to books and reading. See my review.

A Man Called Ove (2012) by Fredrik Backman

Ove is an older man, nearing sixty, who has fixed ideas about life and often doesn't fit in with societal norms. He often seems cranky or rude. His wife has recently died. Their relationship had its ups and downs, but they were a devoted couple, and she was undoubtedly the most important thing in his life. He has decided that he does not want to go on living without her. This story alternates between very funny episodes and very sad episodes, but it does lean toward the sadder ones. Some chapters tell about the three weeks after his new neighbors move in next door; others describe key times in his earlier life: his childhood, meeting his wife, and his work. I liked the structure and the way the author gradually reveals more and more about Ove and his life. It was a great read and I will be looking for more books by this author.

Crime Fiction

Chilled to the Bone (2013) by Quentin Bates

This is the third book in a police procedural series set in Iceland. The main character is a female policewoman working in the Serious Crime Unit in Reykjavík.  See my review.

Tokyo Express (1958) by Seichō Matsumoto

This was another book I read for the Japanese Literature Challenge. It was Matsumoto's first novel, published in 1958, and was first published in English translation as Points and Lines. See my review.

A Darkness Absolute (2017) by Kelley Armstrong

This is the second book in the Rockton series, and it was just as appealing as the first, City of the Lost, which I read about 3 years ago. Rockton is a small town in the Yukon wilderness, so isolated that most modern conveniences are lacking. Most of the residents are hiding from something in their past. See my review.

Wanting Sheila Dead (2010) by Jane Haddam

Book 25 in the Gregor Demarkian series. The main character is a retired FBI profiler who sometimes does consulting jobs for various police departments. This book is mostly set in the Philadelphia area where Demarkian lives. A reality show is being filmed in the very elaborate home that his wife Bennis grew up in. When a body is found at the house he agrees to check into it. See my review.

Gallows Court (2018) by Martin Edwards

This is the first book in the Rachel Savernake series. It is a departure for Edwards, both a historical mystery (set in the 1930s in London) and a thriller. I did end up liking the book, but it took me 150 pages of 350 pages to get into it, which is not ideal. I liked the way it ended and I thought it was a brilliant mystery, but I wasn't really enjoying it too much as I read it. I also wonder where the next book, Mortmain Hall, will take the main character, so I will definitely be reading it, maybe later in the year.

Judas 62 (2021) by Charles Cumming

This is the second book in the BOX 88 espionage series. BOX 88 is a covert spy agency that is not officially attached to the CIA or MI6, but has contacts in both groups that Box 88 agents can work with. In JUDAS 62, Lachlan Kite is assigned to extract a Russian chemical weapons scientist defector. He goes to the city of Voronezh in Russia as an English Language teacher. That section of the book is set in 1993. The second section is set in 2020 in Dubai. I loved the first book, BOX 88; this one was very good also. 

The Quiet American (1955) by Graham Greene

I have been wanting to read more by Graham Greene and this was a great choice. This book was published in 1955 and the events in this book took place in the early 1950s. The story is set in Saigon, Vietnam and surrounding areas when the French Army and the Viet Minh guerrillas are fighting each other. See my review.

Status of challenges

Back in November 2023, I joined the Wanderlust Bingo Challenge at Fiction Fan's Book Reviews. Five or six of the books I read since the first of the year could work for that challenge, but I still have to work out which squares they would fit best.

I read two books for the Japanese Literature Challenge at Dolce Bellezza, which ran January - February. I will continue reading books translated from Japanese throughout the year. 

I have now formally joined the Bookish Books Reading Challenge at Bloggin' 'bout Books and have completed one book so far. 

The only other challenge I have joined is the Mount TBR Reading Challenge on Goodreads. Every book I have read this year so far (15) counts toward my goal of 48 books so I may have no problem meeting that goal.

Currently reading

I just finished Your Republic is Calling You by Young-ha Kim last night. Published in 2006, the setting is South Korea. It was a different kind of spy fiction and I liked it very much.

Next I will be reading A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn. The blurb on the book describes it as a "darkly romantic crime novel set in 1950s apartheid South Africa, featuring Detective Emmanuel Cooper." It has been on my shelves for 6 years. 

The photos at the top and bottom of this post were taken at the Santa Barbara International Orchid Show that we attended last week. See the previous post for more photos. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.