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99. Truly, Madly, Greatly

Rating:  ☆☆1/2

Recommended by:  

Author:   Liane Moriarity

Genre:  Fiction

415 pages, published July 26, 2016

Reading Format:  Audio Book

 

Summary

With their two little girls, Sam and Clementine appear to have an idyllic life.  Sam has just started a new dream job and cellist Clementine is preparing for the audition of a lifetime.  Clementine has a complicated relationship with Erika, her oldest friend, who invites Clementine and Sam to a barbecue hosted by Tiffany and Vid. Two months later, it won’t stop raining, and Clementine and Sam can’t stop asking themselves what would have happened if we hadn’t gone?  

 

Quotes

“There is no special protection when you cross that invisible line from your ordinary life to that parallel world where tragedies happen. It happens just like this. You don’t become someone else. You’re still exactly the same. Everything around you still smells and looks and feels exactly the same.”

 

“No one warned you that having children reduced you right down to some smaller, rudimentary, primitive version of yourself, where your talents and your education and your achievements meant nothing.

 

“Nobody felt embarrassed in front of nice geeky people. That’s why they were relaxing to be around.”

 

“Your daughters will leave this school as confident, resilient young women.” Ms. Byrne was off, delivering the private school party line. Resilience. What crap. No kid was going to go to school in a place that looked like freaking Buckingham Palace and come out of it resilient. She should be honest: “Your daughter will leave this school with a grand sense of entitlement that will serve her well in life; she’ll find it especially useful on Sydney roads.”

 

“She accumulates stuff to insulate herself from the world,”

 

“It was interesting how a marriage instantly became public property as soon as it looked shaky.”

 

“…the terrible though occurred to her that perhaps she’d always unconsciously believed that because Sam didn’t cry, he therefore didn’t feel, or he felt less, not as profoundly or deeply as she did. Her focus had always been on how his actions affected her feelings, as if his role was to do things for her, to her, and all that mattered was her emotional response to him, as if a “man” were a product or service, and she’d finally chosen the right brand to get the right response. Was it possible she’d never seen or truly loved him the way he deserved to be loved? As a person? An ordinary, flawed, feeling person?”

 

“You could jump so much higher when you had somewhere safe to fall.”

 

My Take

Truly Madly Guilty is my fourth Liane Moriarty novel (the others are What Alice Forgot, Big Little Lies, and The Husband’s Secret) unfortunately my least favorite (hence, the 2 ½ star rating).  While it follows the typical Moriarity formula, she is unable to create the compelling story that she achieved with her other books.  There is an interesting take on hoarding that I haven’t seen addressed before.  However, its not enough for me to recommend this book.

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98. Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend

Rating:  ☆☆1/2

Recommended by:  

Author:   Susan Orlean

Genre:  Non-Fiction, Biography, History, Animals

336 pages, published September 27, 2011

Reading Format:  Audio Book

 

Summary

This book is a biography of Rin Tin Tin, the iconic star of movies and television, and his owner Lee Duncan and is a quintessentially Twentieth Century American tale.  Duncan allegedly found the first Rinty in the ruins of a bombed-out dog kennel in France during World War I, brought him to Los Angeles, trained him and got him into silent films.  By 1927, Rin Tin Tin had become Hollywood’s number one box-office star.  Susan Orlean’s book covers ninety years and explores the enduring bond between humans and how dogs were transformed from working farmhands to beloved family members as well as their role in the American entertainment industry and their use during war.

 

Quotes

“When Rin Tin Tin first became famous, most dogs in the world would not sit down when asked. Dogs performed duties: they herded sheep, they barked at strangers, they did what dogs do naturally, and people learned to interpret and make use of how they behaved. The idea of a dog’s being obedient for the sake of good manners was unheard of. When dogs lived outside, as they usually did on farms and ranches, the etiquette required of them was minimal. But by the 1930s, Americans were leaving farms and moving into urban and suburban areas, bringing dogs along as pets and sharing living quarters with them. At the time, the principles of behavior were still mostly a mystery — Ivan Pavlov’s explication of conditional reflexes, on which much training is based, wasn’t even published in an English translation until 1927. If dogs needed to be taught how to behave, people had to be trained to train their dogs. The idea that an ordinary person — not a dog professional — could train his own pet was a new idea, which is partly why Rin Tin Tin’s performances in movies and onstage were looked upon as extraordinary.”

 

“If only feelings and ideas and stories and history really could be contained in a block of marble—if only there could be a gathering up of permanence—how reassuring it would be, how comforting to think that something you loved could be held in place, moored and everlasting, rather than bobbing along on the slippery sea of reminiscence, where it could always drift out of reach.”

 

“Television wasn’t getting rid of animals, but they were no longer cast as creatures that were omniscient and heroic. They were talking horses like Mr Ed or an absurdist pig like Arnold Ziffle…Just like the heroic animals in silent films became comedians in talkies, animals on television were becoming jesters, something Rin Tin Tin had never been.”

 

“It’s human nature to set a point in our minds when we feel triumphant and to measure everything that comes after it by how far we fall or rise from that point.”

 

My Take

Having enjoyed The Orchid Thief, a previous non-fiction effort from Susan Orlean, I was curious to see what she would do with the subject of Rin Tin Tin.  The result is an uneven book that suffers from its choice of subject matter.  Neither the dog nor his owner are all that interesting.  Going in, I really didn’t know much about Rin Tin Tin, so I did learn a lot about the movie and TV star and the entertainment era that he occupied.  If you have an interest in Rin Tin Tin, then this is the book for you.

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91. Euphoria

Rating:  ☆☆1/2

Recommended by:  Julie Horowitz

Author:   Lily King

Genre:  Historical Fiction, Anthropology

256 pages, published June 3, 2015

Reading Format:  Book

 

Summary

Euphoria is the story of three anthropologists in 1933 New Guinea who find themselves caught in a passionate love triangle.  English Anthropologist Andrew Bankson has been alone in the field for several years, studying a tribe on the Sepik River in the Territory of New Guinea with little success. Increasingly frustrated and isolated by his research, Bankson is on the verge of suicide when he encounters the famous and controversial Nell Stone and her mercurial husband Fen. Bankson is enthralled by the magnetic couple whose eager attentions pull him back from the brink of despair.  Inspired by events in the life of revolutionary anthropologist Margaret Mead, Euphoria is a story of passion, possession, exploration and sacrifice.

 

Quotes

“It’s that moment about two months in, when you think you’ve finally got a handle on the place. Suddenly it feels within your grasp. It’s a delusion – you’ve only been there eight weeks – and it’s followed by the complete despair of ever understanding anything. But at the moment the place feels entirely yours. It’s the briefest, purest euphoria.”

 

“You don’t realize how language actually interferes with communication until you don’t have it, how it gets in the way like an overdominant sense. You have to pay much more attention to everything else when you can’t understand the words. Once comprehension comes, so much else falls away. You then rely on their words, and words aren’t always the most reliable thing.”

 

“I’ve always been able to see the savageness beneath the veneer of society. It’s not so very far beneath the surface, no matter where you go.”

 

“I asked her if she believed you could ever truly understand another culture. I told her the longer I stayed, the more asinine the attempt seemed, and that what I’d become more interested in is how we believed we could be objective in any way at all, we who each came in with our own personal definitions of kindness, strength, masculinity, femininity, God, civilisation, right and wrong.”

 

“Why are we, with all our “progress,” so limited in understanding & sympathy & the ability to give each other real freedom? Why with our emphasis on the individual are we still so blinded by the urge to conform? … I think above all else it is freedom I search for in my work, in these far-flung places, to find a group of people who give each other the room to be in whatever way they need to be. And maybe I will never find it all in one culture but maybe I find parts of it in several cultures, maybe I can piece it together like a mosaic and unveil it to the world.”

 

“I try not to return to these moments very often, for I end up lacerating my young self for not simply kissing the girl. I thought we had time. Despite everything, I believed somehow there was time. Love’s first mistake. Perhaps love’s only mistake.”

 

“It came to him that he didn’t like holidays. . . . They bore down on you. Each one always ended up feeling like an exam . . .”

 

My Take

While Euphoria has won a whole swath of awards (WINNER, KIRKUS PRIZE FOR FICTION 2014, WINNER, NEW ENGLAND BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2014, FINALIST, NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS 2014, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2014, TIME, TOP 10 FICTION BOOKS OF 2014, NPR, BEST BOOKS OF 2014, WASHINGTON POST, TOP 50 FICTION BOOKS OF 2014, AMAZON, 100 BEST BOOKS OF 2014, #16, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, BEST FICTION BOOKS OF 2014, OPRAH.COM, 15 MUST-READS OF 2014), it was not my cup of tea.  Sometimes, I find there is an inverse correlation between awards received and enjoyment of reading.  That was the case with me and Euphoria.  I could not get into either the characters or the story and had to plod through it to finish.  Obviously, many critics disagree, but that’s my two cents.

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69. Do More, Spend Less

Rating:  ☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Brad Wilson

Genre:  Non Fiction, Personal Finance

208 pages, published January 14, 2013

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary 

Do More, Spend Less by Brad Wilson, the founder of the moneysaving website Brad’s Deals, tells Wilson’s personal story of how he became a deal machine, including amassing  five million frequent-flyer miles and taking five star vacations for little cost, and also gives lots of practical tips on on how to get the lowest price on just about anything.

Quotes

“I paused to appreciate the moment. We were flying in international first class to a five-star hotel, enjoying a no-expense-spared two-and-a-half week European vacation with the finest services and amenities. The trip, had we paid cash, would have cost more than $50,000. Our cost? Zero.  What a life! I just knew I had to tell everyone else how they could live this way.”

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63. Peace Like a River

Rating:  ☆☆1/2

Recommended by:   Kay Lynn Hartmann

Author:   Leif Enger

Genre:  Fiction

312 pages, published August 14, 2002

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary 

Peace Like a River takes its title from the lyrics of the hymn “It Is Well with My Soul.”  Set in 1962, the book is narrated by Reuben Land, an asthmatic eleven-year-old, and tells the story of his older brother Davy and younger sister Swede. His father, Jeremiah is a school janitor and a deeply spiritual Protestant who occasionally performs miracles which are only witnessed by Reuben.  When two delinquents are prevented by Jeremiah from molesting Davy’s girlfriend, they attempt revenge by kidnapping Swede but return her unharmed. Davy kills them after provoking them to enter his home, leading him to be tried for manslaughter.  At the trial, Reuben is the only eyewitness to the killing and though determined not to betray his brother, he gives a compromising testimony that ensures the probability of a conviction.  Before the conclusion of the trial, Davy escapes.

Quotes

“Fair is whatever God wants to do.”

 

“Sometimes heroism is nothing more than patience, curiosity, and a refusal to panic.”

 

“Real miracles bother people, like strange sudden pains unknown in medical literature. It’s true: They rebut every rule all we good citizens take comfort in. Lazarus obeying orders and climbing up out of the grave – now there’s a miracle, and you can bet it upset a lot of folks who were standing around at the time.  When a person dies, the earth is generally unwilling to cough him back up. A miracle contradicts the will of the earth.”

 

“Let me say something about that word:  miracle.  For too long it’s been used to characterize things or events that, though pleasant, are entirely normal.  Peeping chicks at Easter time, spring generally, a clear sunrise after an overcast week–a miracle, people say, as if they’ve been educated from greeting cards.”

 

“Be careful whom you choose to hate.  The small and the vulnerable own a protection great enough, if you could but see it, to melt you into jelly.  Beware those who reside beneath the shadow of the Wings.”

 

“It is one thing to say you’re at war with this whole world and stick your chest out believing it, but when the world shows up with it’s crushing numbers and its predatory knowledge, it is another thing completely.”

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59. Red Rising

Rating:  ☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Pierce Brown

Genre:  Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Dystopia

382 pages, published January 28, 2014

Reading Format:  E-Book on Overdrive

Summary 

The dystopian future world of Red Rising is a place where people are strictly segregated by class and color.  Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest and relegated to a life underground working in the dangerous mines of Mars.  Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.  Soon Darrow discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago and that vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet.  He and all Reds are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.  When Darrow’s wife Eo is executed, he is chosen by a group of rebels to undergo a physical transformation that will turn him into a member of the Gold ruling caste.  His body successfully altered, Darrow’s challenge is just beginning.  He is thrown into a battle among young Golds to see who will emerge as the victor.

 

Quotes

“I live for the dream that my children will be born free.  That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them.’  ‘I live for you,’ I say sadly.  She kisses my cheek.  ‘Then you must live for more.”

 

“Funny how a single word can change everything in your life.”

“It is not funny at all.  Steel is power.  Money is power.  But of all the things in all the worlds, words are power.”

 

“You do not follow me because I am the strongest. Pax is.  You do not follow me because I am the brightest. Mustang is. You follow me because you do not know where you are going.  I do.”

 

“The measure of a man is what he does when he has power.”

 

“The world is soundless. We cannot hear, but a pack of wolves does not need words to know that it is time to hunt.”

 

“The fleas would jump and jump to heights unknown. Then a man came along and upturned a glass jar over the fleas. The fleas jumped and hit the top of the jar and could go no farther.  Then the man removed the jar and yet the fleas did not jump higher than they had grown accustomed, because they believed there to still be a glass ceiling.”

 

“Society has three stages:  Savagery, Ascendance, Decadence.  The great rise because of Savagery. They rule in Ascendance. They fall because of their own Decadence.”

 

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58. Malice at the Palace

Rating:  ☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Rhys Bowen

Genre:  Historical Fiction, Mystery

304 pages, published August 4, 2015

Reading Format:  E-Book on Overdrive

Summary 

Malice at the Palace follows the travails of Lady Georgiana Rannoch, a temporarily broke girl about London in the 1930’s who is thirty-fifth in line for the British throne. While her beloved Darcy is off on a mysterious mission, Georgiana receives a new assignment from the Queen.  The King’s youngest son George is to wed Princess Marina of Greece and Georgiana is to be her companion at the supposedly haunted Kensington Palace.  Things get complicated when Georgiana searches the Palace for a supposed ghost only to encounter an actual dead person, a society beauty said to have been one of Prince George’s mistresses.  After Darcy turns up, the investigation brings Georgiana and Darcy precariously close to the prince himself.

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56. The 4 Hour Work Week

Rating:  ☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Timothy Ferriss

Genre:  Non Fiction, Self Improvement

308 pages, published April 24, 2007

Reading Format:  Book

Summary 

In The 4 Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss focuses on “lifestyle design” and repudiation of the traditional “deferred” life plan in which people work long hours and take few vacations for decades and save money in order to relax after retirement.  He developed the ideas presented in The 4-Hour Workweek while working 14-hour days at his sports nutrition supplement company, BrainQUICKEN.  Issues addressed in the book include:  How to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour;  How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs; How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist; How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and frequent “mini-retirements”; What the crucial difference is between absolute and relative income; How to train your boss to value performance over presence; What automated cash-flow “muses” are and how to create one in 2 to 4 weeks; How to cultivate selective ignorance-and create time-with a low-information diet; How to get free housing worldwide and airfare at 50-80% off; and How to fill the void and create a meaningful life after removing work and the office.

 

Quotes

“By working only when you are most effective, life is both more productive and more enjoyable. It’s the perfect example of having your cake and eating it, too.”

 

“People will choose unhappiness over uncertainty.”

 

“The question you should be asking isn’t, “What do I want?” or “What are my goals?” but “What would excite me?”

 

“If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is, too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.”

 

“To enjoy life, you don’t need fancy nonsense, but you do need to control your time and realize that most things just aren’t as serious as you make them out to be.”

 

“The opposite of love is indifference, and the opposite of happiness is boredom.”

 

“Most people are fast to stop you before you get started but hesitate to get in the way if you’re moving.”

 

“Being able to quit things that don’t work is integral to being a winner.”

 

“Focus on being productive instead of busy.”

 

“Life is too short to be small.”

 

“I’ll repeat something you might consider tattooing on your forehead: What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.”

 

“For all of the most important things, the timing always sucks. Waiting for a good time to quit your job? The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. “Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually,” just do it and correct course along the way.”

 

“Slow Dance:

Have you ever watched kids, On a merry-go-round? Or listened to the rain, Slapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight? Or gazed at the sun into the fading night? You better slow down. Don’t dance too fast. Time is short. The music won’t last. Do you run through each day, On the fly? When you ask: How are you? Do you hear the reply? When the day is done, do you lie in your bed, With the next hundred chores, Running through your head? You’d better slow down, Don’t dance too fast. Time is short, The music won’t last. Ever told your child we’ll do it tomorrow? And in your haste, Not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch, Let a good friendship die, Cause you never had time, To call and say Hi? You’d better slow down. Don’t dance so fast. Time is short. The music won’t last. When you run so fast to get somewhere, You miss half the fun of getting there. When you worry and hurry through your day, It is like an unopened gift thrown away. Life is not a race. Do take it slower. Hear the music, Before the song is over.”

 

“But you are the average of the five people you associate with most, so do not underestimate the effects of your pessimistic, unambitious, or disorganized friends. If someone isn’t making you stronger, they’re making you weaker.”

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45. Silver Bay

Rating:  ☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Jojo Moyes

Genre:  Fiction, Romance

392 pages, published February 1, 2008

Reading Format:  Book

Summary 

Silver Bay tells the story of a romance between Liza McCullen, a pleasure boat operator in the fictional town of Silver Bay, Australia, and Mike Dormer, a hot shot developer.  Mike arrives as a guest at Liza’s Aunt’s dilapidated inn to secretly assess the development potential of Silver Bay for his London based Real Estate Development Company and before long he has fallen for Liza.   Conflict ensues when Mike’s plans are revealed.

 

Quotes

“Perhaps we all harbor a perverse need to get close to things that might destroy us.”

 

“There is nothing redemptive about the loss of a child, no lessons of value it can teach you. It is too big, too overwhelming, too black to articulate. It is a bleak, overwhelming physical pain, shocking in its intensity, and every time you think you might have moved forward an inch it swells back, like a tidal wave, to drown you again.”

 

“Hannah ran past, beaming. I remember that feeling–when you’re a kid and it’s your birthday and for one day everyone makes you feel like the most special person in the world.”

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42. Furiously Happy

Rating:  ☆☆1/2

Recommended by:   

Author:   Jenny Lawson

Genre:  Memoir, Humor

329 pages, published September 22, 2015

Reading Format:  Audio Book

 

Summary 

Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson, the quixotic voice behind the very popular Blogess blog, is Lawson’s second book and explores her lifelong battle with mental illness.  The twist is that this is primarily a humorous book that is also about embracing joy in fantastic and outrageous ways.  

 

Quotes

“Don’t sabotage yourself.  There are plenty of other people willing to do that for free.”

 

“Don’t make the same mistakes that everyone else makes. Make wonderful mistakes. Make the kind of mistakes that make people so shocked that they have no other choice but to be a little impressed.”

 

“When you come out of the grips of a depression there is an incredible relief, but not one you feel allowed to celebrate. Instead, the feeling of victory is replaced with anxiety that it will happen again, and with shame and vulnerability when you see how your illness affected your family, your work, everything left untouched while you struggled to survive. We come back to life thinner, paler, weaker … but as survivors. Survivors who don’t get pats on the back from coworkers who congratulate them on making it. Survivors who wake to more work than before because their friends and family are exhausted from helping them fight a battle they may not even understand. I hope to one day see a sea of people all wearing silver ribbons as a sign that they understand the secret battle, and as a celebration of the victories made each day as we individually pull ourselves up out of our foxholes to see our scars heal, and to remember what the sun looks like.”

 

“You don’t have to go to some special private school to be an artist. Just look at the intricate beauty of cobwebs. Spiders make them with their butts.”

 

“Without the dark there isn’t light. Without the pain there is no relief. And I remind myself that I’m lucky to be able to feel such great sorrow, and also such great happiness. I can grab on to each moment of joy and live in those moments because I have seen the bright contrast from dark to light and back again. I am privileged to be able to recognize that the sound of laughter is a blessing and a song, and to realize that the bright hours spent with my family and friends are extraordinary treasures to be saved, because those same moments are a medicine, a balm. Those moments are a promise that life is worth fighting for, and that promise is what pulls me through when depression distorts reality and tries to convince me otherwise.”

 

“We wish you a merry Christmas” is the most demanding song ever. It starts off all nice and a second later you have an angry mob at your door scream-singing, “Now bring us some figgy pudding and bring it RIGHT HERE. WE WON’T GO UNTIL WE GET SOME SO BRING IT RIGHT HERE.” Also, they’re rhyming “here” with “here.” That’s just sloppy. I’m not rewarding unrequested, lazy singers with their aggressive pudding demands. There should be a remix of that song that homeowners can sing that’s all “I didn’t even ask for your shitty song, you filthy beggars. I’ve called the cops. Who is this even working on? Has anyone you’ve tried this on actually given you pudding? Fig-flavored pudding? Is that even a thing?” It doesn’t rhyme but it’s not like they’re trying either. And then the carolers would be like, “SO BRING US SOME GIN AND TONIC AND LET’S HAVE A BEER,” and then I’d be like, “Well, I guess that’s more reasonable. Fine. You can come in for one drink.” Technically that would be a good way to get free booze. Like trick-or-treat but for singy alcoholics. Oh my God, I finally understand caroling.”

 

My Take

Jenny Lawson has a very popular website (The Blogess) and a huge fan base who love her irreverent and offbeat humor.  I’m just not one of them.  I was furiously happy when I got to the end of listening to Furiously Happy (which, by the way, was read by Jenny Lawson).

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