Grayson

Grayson by Lynne Cox

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


"This captivating best seller tells the true story of a miraculous encounter between a teenage girl and a baby whale off the coast of California."

"Together [Cox and Grayson] journey to the eventual mother-and-child reunion through a fantastical world of giant ocean sunfish, bat rays with five-foot wingspans and a school of dolphins."

I read this book at one go, mostly because it's not very dense, nor is it very captivating. The plot is well-known, of course: the baby gray whale has become separated from its mother, and will die if it can't find her again. The author helps.

I was offput by the New Age drivel woven through the story: "My thoughts were becoming negative.

"I knew that if I changed my thoughts, I could change the way I felt about what I was experiencing."

"Maybe if I think very hard his mother will hear me. Maybe she will hear my feelings with her sonar. Maybe she will hear me calling her through the water. Maybe brain waves can travel faster and longer through the water. Please, come this way, over here! I shouted with my mind.

. . .

Please hear me, Grayson's mother, swimming out there. If it's you swimming near the Huntington Brach jetty, please swim this wa: Grayson is here. Your son is here."

I suppose I sound like Scrooge -- bah humbug! to New Age Thought and attracting what you need out of the Universe. And actually, I do believe in all that. It just somehow sounded daft and pretentious in the book. Feel free to decide I was just feeling Scroogish when I read it, and ignore this scathing review. After all, it's a best seller, so millions other than me must have thought is was charming, sweet, mystical, and quite spiritual.



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Fire in Sierra Nevada Forests

Fire in Sierra Nevada Forests: A Photographic Interpretation of Ecological Change Since 1849 by George E. Gruell

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Interesting book -- clever idea to take photographs of the same areas as old pictures, showing how much the forest cover has increased in a little over 100 years.



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Emily Dickinson Is Dead

Emily Dickinson Is Dead by Jane Langton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


"The guests at the Emily Dickinson Memorial symposium are all passionately devoted to the poet. Professor Peter Wiggins is eager to revitalize her image (and his own career) by exposing a very controversial photograph. Winifred Gaw, an obese graduate student, feels compelled to make public the special bond she shares with Emily Dickinson -- the awful pain of unrequited love. And even Professor Tom Perry's new girlfriend, pretty Alison Groves, finds that her indifference to poetry undergoes a subtle change when she's selected to wear Dickinson's famous white dress.

Soon academic and romantic rivalries begin to intrude on the cultured atmosphere, and the ardent tributes to Dickinson's memory are rudely interrupted by arson, forgery...and murder."
~~from the back cover

The book began with promise. The language was witty and polished, and the plot thickened nicely. Soon however, the machinations slid from merely eccentric characters and fairly outre but still believable actions and motivations over the edge of reason to outlandish and improbable, with a soupcon of deus ex machina thrown in for further suspension of credibility.

I hate when that happens!

Dewey

Dewey the Library Cat: A True Story by Vicki Myron

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I thought Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World was just going to be the story of a cute little cat, who lived in a library. Wrong!

The book was about so much more: the values of life in a small town; how the town librarian used Dewey to strengthen the town's interest in the library, which in turn strengthened the town itself; the troubles and griefs and joys of the librarian herself and others; mother-daughter relationships ... a real treasure trove of life as a human being, decorated by an adorable cat.

Warning: this is a two hanky book!

The Crow Road

The Crow Road by Iain M. Banks

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


"It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bach's Mass in B Minor, and I reflected that it always seemed to be death that drew me back to Gallanach."

Prentice McHoan has returned to the bosom of his complex but enduring Scottish family. Full of questions about the McHoan past, present and future, he is also deeply preoccupied: mainly with death, sex, drink, Gold and illegal substances ..."
~back cover

This is an absolute gem of a book! Sparkling, witty: "a gorm-free creature called Rodney Ritchie; his parents owned Ritchie's Reliable Removals in Edinburgh and were keen on alliteration. My father had met them once and coined a new collective noun: an embarrassment of Ritchies." That set me howling with delight, and the rest of the book lived up to the beginning: slightly mad relatives, lovely references to all sorts of cultural markers and literature, a mystery so skillfully interwoven between the mad teenage angst and lust, the slight dottiness of all and sundry, that the delineation of the mystery comes as a complete surprise.

I could hardly put the book down, and am still enjoying revisiting it in my mind. Perhaps it's just that I'm daft for anything Scottish, but this book was a wonder, a jewel, a treasure. This book was everything I wanted A Confederacy of Dunces and An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England and Straight Man to be -- it makes me smile just to think of it.


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Box of Delights by John Masefield

The Box of Delights or When the Wolves Were Running by John Masefield

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

"Strange things begin to happen the minute young Kay Harker boards the train to go home for Christmas and finds himself under observation by two very shifty-looking characters. Arriving at his destination, the boy is immediately accosted by a bright-eyed old man with a mysterious message: “The wolves are running.” Soon danger is everywhere, as a gang of criminals headed by the notorious wizard Abner Brown and his witch wife Sylvia Daisy Pouncer gets to work. What does Abner Brown want? The magic box that the old man has entrusted to Kay, which allows him to travel freely not only in space but in time, too. The gang will stop at nothing to carry out their plan, even kidnapping Kay’s friend, the tough little Maria Jones, and threatening to cancel Christmas celebrations altogether. But with the help of his allies, including an intrepid mouse, a squadron of Roman soldiers, the legendary Herne the Hunter, and the inventor of the Box of Delights himself, Kay just may be able rescue his friend, foil Abner Brown’s plot, and save Christmas, too."

From Wikipedia:
"The Box of Delights is a children's fantasy novel by John Masefield. It is a sequel to The Midnight Folk, and was first published in 1935. The central character is Kay Harker who, on returning from boarding school, finds himself mixed up in a battle to possess a magical box, which allows the owner to go small (shrink) and go swift (fly), experience magical wonders contained within the box and go into the past.

The owner of the box is an old Punch and Judy man called Cole Hawlins, whom Kay meets on a railway station. They have an instant rapport, and this leads Cole to confide that he is being chased by a man called Abner Brown and his gang. For safety, Cole entrusts the box to Kay, who then goes on to have many adventures."

Other reviews:
“The book that always had the magic of a snowy English Christmas…. It’s still a lovely book, magical and funny, to be read by anybody of any age.” —The Horn Book

"This classic of English children's literature, sadly overlooked by most on this side of the Atlantic, has just been reissued in a beautiful edition by the New York Review Children's Collection...Although The Box of Delights was first published in 1935, Masefield's intoxicating prose has lost none of its pull...in this wonderful tale of bravery and intrigue that deserves to become another staple of the holidays." --The San Francisco Chronicle

"This uniquely imaginative tale would be a delight for fans of old-fashioned, English Literature and could be compared to the likes of A Christmas Carol and the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe." --CLEAR Reviews

“Masefield's novel, a plum pudding of strange adventures, English legend, and spiritual feeling, should be more widely appreciated” –The Washington Post

“This book is a writer’s oft-raided treasure trove…the world’s best ‘crossover book’…It does time-travel better than Narnia…The story floats on brilliant, eccentric dialogue and…never loses its snowy-Christmas, Nutcracker enchantment…” –The Independent (UK)

---

Normally I don't look at reviews when I'm reviewing a book. But in this case, I knew that this book is considered a classic of chilren's literature and is also cherished by grown ups. I do like children's literature! I'm passionately in love with Arthur Ransome's Swallows & Amazons series, I absolutely adore Wind in the Willows and reread it or watch any of the movies every time I get the chance to, I cut my teeth on Thornton Burgess' Mother West Wind series, etc.

But I just couldn't get into this book. Perhaps because I haven't read The Midnight Folk, thus coming in mid-story, as it were. But the plot seemed convoluted and disjointed, the characters seemed stilted, and the battle of good vs. evil (the staple of every really good children's books) seemed confused -- I never could sort out why the Wolves wanted to win or what they thought they might gain by winning.

I'm disappointed - I'd hoped to add another delicious children's tale to my collection of treasures.


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The 2011 A to Z Challenge

I didn't think I'd sign up for this again. But in the end, I just couldn't resist. I had a great time with it last year, read books I probably would have skipped over to read less challenging ones, etc. So I'm doing it again. Only this time, I have a blog dedicated especially to the challenge.

As usual, my personal challenge is to have all the books selected & read come from my TBR pile, which is enormous and threatening to take over my bedroom.

Animal Dreams

Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


"Animals dream about the things they do in the daytime, just like people do. If you want sweet dreams, you've got to live a sweet life." So says Loyd Peregrina, a handsome Apache trainman and latter-day philosopher. But when Codi Noline returns to her hometown, Loyd's advice is painfully out of her reach. Dreamless and at the end of her rope, Codi comes back to Grace, Arizona, to confront her past and face her ailing, distant father. What she finds is a town threatened by a silt environmental catastrophe, some startling clues to her own identity, and a man whose view of the world could change the course of her life. Blending flashbacks, dreams, and Native American legends, Animal Dreams is a suspenseful ove story and a moving exploration of life's largest commitments."
~back cover

A jigsaw puzzle of a book -- people and events and history moving in and out of the frame, and the whole picture slowly emerging. Remarkable for the scope of 21st century life it covers, but also a microcosm of life-as-it-used-to-be, and probably still is in small towns off the beaten path. As long as they don't have television, that is ...



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