The Mother Tongue

Bill Bryson

Hardcover, $14.99

1990

William Morrow

245 pages

Bill Bryson is a journalist and, apparently, amateur comedian.  His own website describes him as “one of the most beloved authors of our time.”  Really?  Have YOU ever heard of him?  Even if you have, it’s pretty unlikely that you love him.  My personal feelings about Bill are mixed–after all, he wrote a book on a fascinating subject, but he didn’t write it to my satisfaction!  Bill, I’m gonna give you “one of the most mediocre and not entirely terrible authors of our time.”

First, I have to make some editorial remarks about this book.  It has one of the worst jacket designs I’ve ever seen.  Shakespeare I get, but random purple ink splotches?  Come one.  Second, when you’re writing any book, but especially one that has chapters on grammar, usage, and spelling, you should get a great copyeditor.  It’s one thing to rebel against ridiculous rules of grammar, but quite another to construct sentences in which clarity is lost.  (In explaining the different meanings for number words in the U.S. and Britain, Bryson says, “a decillion in America is one plus thirty-three zeros.”  But any mathematician can tell you that one plus any number of zeros is still going to be ONE, not the number Bryson is trying to reach.)  And Bryson has a tendency to contradict himself, as in two neighboring paragraphs that begin “English is the most important language in the world” and “English is not always spoken as widely or as enthusiastically as we might like to think,” respectively.  (Disclaimer: Bryson freely admits that he has little respect for the grammarians who impose rules on us such as: don’t begin a sentence with a conjunction or end with a preposition.  Sometimes it’s hard to tell if mistakes are on purpose or not.)

And now for Bryson himself.  Arrogance and a strange, geeky sense of humor are what I got out of his writing.  He spends 2 pages giving examples of grammar mistakes made by eminent English usage authorities.  This only serves to make Bryson sound like a jerk.  He also has a propensity for using unnecessarily obscure words and for making broad statements that don’t really hold water.  E.G.: “We tend to regard other people’s languages as we regard their cultures–with ill-hidden disdain.”  I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel any disdain toward (or is it towards?) other languages or cultures.  Bill Bryson, on the other hand….Or how about his suggestion that “the Italians even have a word for the mark left on a table by a moist glass” and English-speakers don’t.  I’ve always known that to be a “ring.”  Apparently Britons say “shoelace” and Americans say “shoestring.”  Sorry, guys, I’ve got to stop and tie my shoestring.  Really??  Bryson also seems to think the L in words like “folk” and “alms” is silent…is that true?  I pronounce those L’s!  “Bollix is commonly used in America…”  If any American has ever seen or heard this word used in America, please let me know.

However, Bill does make a few good points, most notably that it’s annoying when New Yorkers say they stand “on line” and take their coffee “regular” (meaning with milk).  And his information, minus all the editorializing and dumb jokes, is actually very interesting.  The sad truth is, though, that none of Bryson’s book seems to be based on original research.  He sites other writers on nearly every page and has little or nothing in the way of primary sources.  One might do better with one of the titles listed in Bryson’s extensive bibliography.  Or better yet, try a quick search on Amazon.  This book, through no fault of the author’s, was written 20 years ago.  Though nothing in the history of English has changed in that time, certainly new research has come to light and statistics have changed.  An updated version of The Mother Tongue would require at least one chapter on George W. Bush.

Everlasting

Angie Frazier

Hardcover, $17.99

Scholastic Press

June 2010

336 pages

I’ve officially embarked upon my Summer of YA Fiction.  Everlasting started out with a lot of promise but then became so, so strange.

First–the good part.  1853: Camille sets sail with her father on his ship, her last trip with him before her impending marriage.  The ship wrecks, her father dies, and she’s left alone and penniless with the first mate.  (Who, surprise, turns out to be someone she kinda likes.)

Then it just gets freaky!  Camille discovers that the mother she thought died in childbirth is actually alive, living in Australia, and hiding a secret map that leads to a magical stone called Umandu.  The first person to touch the stone will be able to bring someone back from the dead.  Natch, Camille wants to resurrect her dad.  Throw in bad guys with guns, weird wolf/dog/man beasts, giant spiders and you have, well…not what was indicated by the cover of this book. Seriously.  When you saw that cover, you pictured the boat scene from The Little Mermaid, right?  The point is, I have nothing against fantasy books, but I do object to being tricked into reading them.

Angie Frazier is a first-time author.  Her writing is fine, although her historical detail needs some help.  (Sorry, but there was more involved in “underwear” than just a corset and drawers in 1853!!!)  So, in conclusion, I guess I’ll say: if the words “magical stone called Umandu that brings people back from the dead” doesn’t turn you off, then you should give the book a read!

Picture the Dead

Adele Griffin

Illustrated by Lisa Brown

Hardcover, $17.99

Sourcebooks

May 2010

272 pages

I’ve been holding on to my copy of this book for a long time, assuming I wouldn’t like it because it’s full of illustrations.  I don’t want to say that I was wrong, cause you know, I’m never wrong, but I loved this book.  The illustrations are lovely and add another dimension to a great story.

Jennie Lovell has just lost her twin brother and fiance/cousin (and she’s from New England, so ha!) in the Civil War.  She’s left with her evil aunt and uncle and turns to the unlikeliest of allies–a spirit photographer who claims to commune with the dearly departed.  Jennie begins to uncover secrets about her deceased fiance and his still very-much-alive brother, but the process makes her question her own sanity.  All I can say is that this book did not turn out to be what I was expecting, for better or worse.  But, as illustrated by my gushing Jack Finney review, I’m a huge fan of using images to heighten the reading experience, especially when it weaves seamlessly into the narrative.  (In this case, the illustrations are all pages from Jennie’s scrapbook.)

Definitely an interesting read–give it a try if you’re up for something cool and different!

Let the Great World Spin

Colum McCann

Paperback, $15

Random House

June 2009

400 pages

This National Book Award finalist was my first ever Book Club read!  I’ve resisted joining a club for years because I had had enough of being told what to read in school (and of then being forced to discuss it).  Granted, I was exposed to some amazing literature that way (The Catcher in the Rye, Chaucer, To Kill a Mockingbird), but also to some real stinkers (Billy Budd…I still shudder to think of it).  But I just got a new job and my co-workers invited me to join their book club.  We all work in publishing so I thought, Hey, I bet these people read great books. Based solely on my first experience (and a book that was chosen before I got my job), I think I was right.

Let the Great World Spin is Colum McCann’s latest brilliant, poignant tale.  It’s loosely “about” the infamous Frenchman who strung a wire between the Twin Towers in the 1970s and walked across it.  (See recent documentary, Man on Wire.)  The book isn’t actually about that man at all, but rather a collection of strangers (each explored in separate chapters that could be short stories in themselves) who happen to see or hear about the man on the wire.

There is Corrigan, the Irish monk living in a NYC tenement and keeping a watchful eye on the local prostitues.  There’s Ciaran, his brother, lost and flummexed by his brother’s life.  Tillie, the prostitute.  Claire, the Park Avenue wife who lost a son in Vietnam.  Gloria, who lost three sons in the war and is struggling to recover in the Bronx projects.  And more.

Like all New Yorkers, these people are completely separate from one another, at least in the beginning.  And yet, they are all connected.  Some actually enter each others’ lives in very substantial ways, while others simply remain linked by that one amazing event–a man, his leotard, and a cable wire strung between the tallest buildings in the world.

So whether you’re by yourself or with a group of people whom you hope to impress with your social acumen, Let the Great World Spin is a tremendous read.  It almost made me miss my subway stop on multiple occasions, which is pretty much the ultimate sign of brilliant literature.

Alice I Have Been

Melanie Benjamin

Hardcover, $25

Delacorte Press

January 2010

368 pages

This is really a lovely and original novel, a fictional retrospective based upon the real life of Alice Liddell Hargreaves, the actual little girl who inspired Alice In Wonderland.  Like all children, even Alice had to grow up.  This book is the result of the author’s imaginings about what it might have been like to be an adult Alice, a perpetual disappointment to those seeking a young, blond little girl and a woman plagued with doubts about her own memories.

The book was inspired by a real photograph taken by Henry Dodgson (pen name, Lewis Carroll) of the “real” Alice.  Dodgson was an Oxford mathematician, amateur writer, and photographer, primarily of little girls.  Scandal swirled around him though nothing conclusive has ever been proven.  However, his evocative photography and the whispers of impropriety make for an intriguing novel, particularly since little more than the bare, skeletal facts of his and Alice’s lives are known.  In this story, octogenarian Alice looks back upon her restrained Victorian childhood, her flawed marriage, her confused memories, and wonders just which Alice she really is–the little girl in Wonderland, the dutiful daughter, the married lady, the aging matron.  Her journey to self discovery is no less poignant and a good deal more heartfelt than her trip down the rabbit hole.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

E. L. Konigsburg

Paperback, $9.99

Atheneum

1964

176 pages

This is another one of those classic kids’ books that I somehow managed to miss in elementary school.  Everyone speaks very sentimentally about it, so when I chanced upon it at the library I decided to give it a whirl.  The biggest selling point for me was that the two protagonists of the book–12-year old Claudia and her little brother Jamie–run away from home and live in the Met.  And who wouldn’t want to do that!?

Unfortunately, this little tale of a tween wanting to “find herself” without quite knowing it left me quite disappointed.  The book is so dated that the children seem much younger than they actually are.  I guess age 12 in 1964 is the equivalent of age 8 today.  The children run away to New York City without the slightest thought that their parents might be worried.  (So selfish and short-sighted that I hated them right from the beginning.)  While they might have had many fine romps throughout the Met, most of the first half of the book is just Claudia correcting her brother’s grammar.  In the second half they set out to solve the mystery of a sculpture that may or may not have been done by Michelangelo.  Not exactly a page-turner, and certainly a disappointment after such modern-day adventures as Harry Potter and The Hunger Games.

So much great YA literature exists today that I can’t help feeling it’s time for Mrs. Frankweiler to pass the torch.

The Hunger Games

Suzanne Collins

Hardcover, $17.99

Scholastic

September 2008

384 pages

Oh.  My.  God.  Everyone had been telling me to read this book forever, which I hate.  (It kept me off Harry Potter for years, and I think we can now all admit that I was wrong about that one.)  So after Piper told me how great it is, I could no longer resist.  For the first 10 pages or so, I thought they must all be crazy.  But then BOOM!  Like a Republican win in Massachusetts, I didn’t see it coming, but this book had me hooked!  I stayed up till 2:00 a.m. reading, I carried it around, not caring if I walked into walls, I spent an entire Sunday on the couch with it.  And just like with HP, I drifted swiftly and completely into the world of The Hunger Games, so much so that I’m not sure I would have noticed had anyone spoken to me while I was reading.  I can’t say enough good things about this book; I can’t think of a single criticism.  JUST READ IT and you will understand.

The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic North America, which has been divided into 12 Districts and a Capital.  Because of a failed uprising by the Districts decades ago, each year the Capital forces two children from each District to compete in the Hunger Games.  This basically involves 24 children being thrown into a giant arena and told to fight to the death.  Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either.  This ain’t Little House on the Prairie, folks.  Collins deals with real, raw issues like starvation, corruption, and murder.  She takes on propaganda, dictatorship, and revolution.  This might not be a book for 12-year olds, but for teens who are mature enough, this could be a very powerful series.  (I’m reading the second book now and eagerly awaiting the completion of the third.)

The protagonist, Hunger Games tribute from District 12, is Katniss Everdeen, a feisty 16-year old who has consistently broken the draconian laws of her District in order to keep her family fed.  At home she leaves behind a grieving mother and little sister, as well as a best friend/brother figure.  She enters the arena with Peeta, who is a potential ally but may also end up being out to get her.  After all, only one can win the Hunger Games.

Riveting.  Powerful.  Fun.  Do yourself a favor and buy me this book read this book.

An Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore

Paperback, $23.95

St. Martin’s Press

June 2006

328 pages

I’m going to try something a little different for this review.  This book is so important, so full of potential to affect real change, that nothing I say in response can possibly compare.  Therefore, I will let the book speak for itself:

• “In Antarctica, measurements of CO2 concentrations and temperatures go back 650,000 years. At no point in the last 650,000 years before the pre-industrial era did the CO2 concentration go above 300 parts per million (ppm). Where CO2 is now–350 ppm–is way above anything measured in the prior 650,000-year record.”
• “Just 40 years ago Lake Chad was as large as Lake Erie–formerly the 6th largest lake in the world. But now due to declining rainfall and ever-intensifying human use, it has shrunk to 1/20th of its original size. The lake’s dissipation has led to collapsing fisheries and crops.  While Lake Chad withered, intense drought set the stage for the violence that erupted in neighboring Darfur, a war-torn region of Sudan.”
• 
• “The US is responsible for more greenhouse gas pollution than South America, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, Japan, and Asia–all put together.”
• “There is a misconception that the scientific community is in a state of disagreement about global warming. In fact, there is virtually no serious disagreement on the central points.”
• “We can’t sell our cars in China today because we don’t meet the Chinese environmental standards.”

So those are the bad things.  To put it simply, increased CO2  causes more of the sun’s heat to be trapped in our atmosphere, meaning global temperature is rising and ice caps are melting.  Not a polar bear?  You should still be worried.  An influx of frigid freshwater into the world’s oceans is decreasing salinity and wrecking havoc on currents, most notably the Gulf Stream, which supplies Europe with a temperate climate.  So weather patterns are changing–severe flooding in some areas, drought in others, and crazy hurricanes, tornadoes, and tsunamis.  Plus, water levels are rising, meaning land that we now enjoy (you know, like Florida and Manhattan) will eventually be gone.  Not to mention the impact on life–entire ecosystems and species are being destroyed.  And as mentioned above, global warming can be directly linked to tragic world events like the genocide in Darfur.

So why do some people still “not believe” in global warming, as if it’s Santa Claus or the Abominable Snowman?  Well my friend, that would be thanks to the Bushies.  GW hired a lobbyist for the oil industry to be his White House Council on Environmental Policy.  Philip A. Cooney spent years engaging in the art of misinformation (otherwise known as propaganda), planting the idea in people’s minds that scientists had a lot of doubt about the validity of global warming and that even if it is happening, it’s a natural phenomenon that has nothing to do with humans.  Well–and I know this is going to shock you, so prepare yourself–he lied.  Scientists do not dispute the basic concept of or facts concerning global warming.  There may be a few squabbles over the details, but absolutely no one is saying that it’s not real or that we’re not the cause.  (I mean no one with any credibility, of course.)

Here are some simple things you can do to get involved.  Remember, it is absolutely possible to stop and reverse this terrible trend.  Individual effort can make a huge difference, locally and globally.

The Illuminator

Brenda Rickman Vantrease

Paperback, $13.95

St. Martin’s Griffin

December 2005

492 pages

Getting back to my favorite–historical fiction–I enjoyed this book over the Thanksgiving holiday.  For a first novel the writing is pretty good, which is particularly hard to pull off when dealing with historical dialogue.  Though the main plot is not super interesting, the subplot and time period are fascinating, something about which I had no prior knowledge but now want to investigate further.

The main plot: In 14th Century England, the widow Lady Kathryn takes in an illuminator (illustrator) who is working on church texts.  She is losing all her money to greedy priests and rising taxes, and just wants to keep her estate in tact for her children.  Oh, and she really likes this new guy.

The subplot: Finn the Illuminator is not just working on approved church texts; he is creating an illegal English version of the Bible as part of the Lollard movement started by John Wycliffe to oppose papal authority.  The growing struggle between the establishment (i.e. Rome and the King) and the opposition (the Lollards and their protector, John of Gaunt) is riveting–I can’t believe we didn’t study this in school!  The way I learned it, the Protestant Reformation started with Martin Luther and Henry VIII, but the seeds of that movement were actually planted much earlier.

The “true history” contained in this novel makes it well worth a read, though as a protagonist Lady Kathryn alternates between stupid and annoying.  Maybe the author should consider a non-fiction project next time!

Florence Nightingale

Mark Bostridge

Hardcover, $35

Farrar, Straus & Giroux

October 2008

672 pages

Last month my roommate and I watched a fairly awful made-for-TV-movie called Florence Nightingale starring one Jaclyn Smith.  The film ended abruptly as Florence’s time in the Crimea was coming to a close, and since I knew that she had lived to be 90, I was curious about the rest of her life.  Thus, this giant tome entered my life.

As a biographer, Mark Bostridge is sympathetic without losing a grasp on the truth.  But as a writer, he ought to have more sympathy for his readers!  As many, many biographers have discovered over the years, FN left behind a plethora of diaries, letters, notes, and manuscripts.  There is scarcely a thought that entered her head or a belief in her heart that did not make it to paper.  As an historian, I can understand the excitement of finding such a treasure trove of information, but a writer needs to be able to step back and say “This factoid doesn’t actually matter.”  Bostridge’s book is littered with dates, names, facts, and quotations that don’t really give us a clearer picture of who Florence Nightingale was–they just clutter up the information readers are looking for.

However, if you can skim judiciously I highly recommend this biography, as it paints a balanced picture of Florence, flaws and all.  It is a terrible  irony that as one of the most biographed women in history, she remains one of the least understood.  Bostridge certainly moves beyond the Lady with the Lamp myth to discover the real person underneath.  The last third of the book is repetitious beyond belief, but stick with it and you’ll be rewarded with a great understanding of a great woman.