You cannot build good bicycles with unhappy workers.
– Antonio Columbo, scion of the famous Columbus steel tubing dynasty & owner of Cinelli Bicyles.
Thanks (again) to Pops for contributing today’s two-wheeled thoughts. I think there’s more to this one than bicycles. A philosophy for workers’ rights or even LIFE here, no?
Filed under: two-wheeled thoughts | Tagged: bikes, Pops | Leave a comment »
I began reading Lee Child in late 2010, with Echo Burning, and loved him. In 2011, I ran through almost the entire Jack Reacher series. I’m glad I saved this one for 2012, because it’s the last one I hadn’t read yet (not the last in the series, you realize, but the last that I got to). It was a treat, and now I’m left waiting for him to write more books. I’m concerned that it may be a little while because maybe he’ll be busy helping make the One Shot movie. I don’t know, are authors involved, or is his work done?
That’s right, they’re making a movie out of One Shot, and so the controversy begins. Like many Reacher fans, I would love to see film versions of the whole series, but: the Hollywood folks have gone in the wrong direction picking a Reacher. For those who don’t know, Reacher is a charismatic, handsome, intelligent, super-strong post-military man, 6’5″ and about 250 pounds, and blonde. And they’ve chosen Tom Cruise to play him. Sigh.
The interwebs are in uproar over this choice; not surprisingly, followers of Reacher don’t feel that the short, skinny-ish, dark-haired Cruise can play Reacher appropriately. Apparently Lee Child has come to terms with this choice, which is something that I, personally, have not come to terms with yet. I will not be able to bring myself to see this movie. I think the movie – and if it goes that far, the film franchise of Reacher movies – will end up having a different fan base than the books. I fear that no one who has come to know and love the written Reacher will be able to love Cruise in that role.
But! Reacher-in-media updates aside, I was writing a book review. Sorry! Back on track.
Bad Luck and Trouble opens with a gruesome death, and then checks in with Reacher. The former military policeman has been roaming the country with a folding toothbrush in his pocket and is not looking for any trouble, but his past catches up with him. Specifically, Frances Neagley (whom we met in Without Fail) makes contact, requesting his help. A member of their one-time elite and closer-than-blood special investigations unit has been thrown out of a helicopter and, as Reacher will repeat, you don’t throw his friends out of helicopters and get away with it. A small group of Reacher-esque badasses thus reunite to avenge their friend’s death and save the world.
This is the 16th Reacher novel I’ve read, and I confess there are a number of predictable elements. For example: Reacher’s side will win. Sorry if this spoils the ending, but he always does. For another, the hot chick will insist on sleeping with him. And finally, he’ll fade out into the sunset rather than settle down at the end, after winning, and sleeping with the hot chick.
But you know what? Predictability in these areas doesn’t lessen my enjoyment. Reacher’s cleverness and the fast-paced action and ass-kicking have never gotten old. And the action itself is not predictable; I was trying right up to the end to figure out whodunit and how we were going to get out of this pickle. Knowing Reacher will get out of the pickle is not the same as knowing how he’ll do it. I continue to eat these books up, and will continue to do so. Child, more please!
Item of interest: Bad Luck and Trouble included a much more math-heavy side of Reacher than I can remember having seen before. We know he’s good with numbers, does complicated arithmetic problems in his head for fun and all that, but this special skill (I believe he calls it a “junior idiot savant” ability) plays a larger role here than usual, which is fun if you’re into that sort of thing.
Filed under: book reviews | Tagged: mystery, Reacher, thriller | 2 Comments »
Here we are again with Bertram Wooster and his unrivaled valet, Jeeves. This is the third full-length novel in the series (see my reviews of the first two, Thank You, Jeeves and Right Ho, Jeeves). In this installment, Bertie is recovering from a hangover following his old pal Augustus “Gussie” Fink-Nottle’s bachelor party, when his Aunt Dahlia sends him off on an errand to sniff derisively at a silver cow creamer (it only gets weirder from here, stay with me) and thereby hopefully lower the price for his Uncle Tom who desires it. But a rival collector buys it out from under Uncle Tom, and Aunt Dahlia sends him off a step further: to the country home of the cow creamer’s new owner, Sir Watkyn Bassett, to steal it from him. Bertie was already on his way there, at Gussie’s request, to help patch the rift in Gussie’s engagement to the Bassett daughter, Madeline. Upon arrival, he finds the cow creamer extremely well-guarded, suspicious and threatening parties all around, and a second couple on the rocks: the Bassett niece, Stephanie “Stiffy” Byng, and the local curate Harold “Stinker” Pinker, another old school chum of Bertie’s. Before he knows it, he’s engaged to steal cow creamers on the behalves of several rival parties, and that’s just the beginning of the mix-ups to come. Bertie (and Gussie, and Stinker) are threatened with incarceration and bodily harm as well as called-off weddings, or Bertie’s enforced marriage to one or the other of the girls, among other frightening fates.
If you haven’t figured it out, funny names are among Wodehouse’s several areas of genius. Husband is still laughing at What-Whatley from Thank You, Jeeves.
This was decidedly another delightfully laugh-out-loud funny and silly Jeeves book. I had a grand time. The antics of Bertie Wooster, his many incompetencies, and the completely deadpan assistance provided by his “man” are incomparable. This series is also incomparably silly, so if you struggle with silliness, beware. If, however, you appreciate silliness, also beware: other drivers think I’m crazy as I laugh out loud while driving around with these audiobooks in my car. I highly recommend Jonathon Cecil’s narration and hope I can listen to him narrate the entire series.
On the other hand, I struggled with something in Code of the Woosters that I don’t remember encountering in the first two books: misogyny. This is Bertie’s misogyny as opposed to Wodehouse’s – although of course there is not necessarily or even very often a difference, is there? (This book appears to have been published originally in 1938, partially explaining the issue.) Bertie is afflicted by the women in his life. These are generally his female peers in their relationships with his old school friends, and his aunts (“the aged ancestor” etc.). The first person voice of Bertie, then, laments the difficulty of the female sex. What the reader finds easy to observe, of course, is that it is not just the perversities of the females that accosts him – it is also his own ineptitude, and that of his male friends. (Gussie Fink-Nottle is a hopeless wreck in ways that can be blamed on no female, unless of course one blames his mother.) If this element was present in the first two books I loved, I missed it. Here, it came up repeatedly, until I got a little exasperated with hearing about how obnoxious, trying, immoral, and difficult Bertie finds women. I wonder if he ever becomes attached to one throughout the series? I’m not put off enough to give up, so I’ll let you know in our next installment of the comic Bertie & Jeeves duo.
My final (and minor) quibble with The Code of the Woosters is in the final fate of Constable Oates. I won’t give the finish away, but suffice it to say: when we first meet Oates he is assaulted by a vicious Aberdeen terrier while riding his bicycle, resulting in a crash, and he earned my sympathy (obviously) immediately. He does nothing more offensive in the rest of the story than want his personal property returned to him; he doesn’t even appear to share in Sir Watkyn Bassett’s ambition to throw the thief in the “chokey.” For him to come up for Bertie’s hostility seems unfair to me; I felt for Oates, myself. But that’s the final quibble.
I enjoyed this hilarious book far more than I was bothered by it, and highly recommend Wodehouse for giggles aloud. Audiobook lovers, please look out for Jonathon Cecil; he has come to embody Bertie, Jeeves, and the rest to me. Laugh on.
Filed under: book reviews | Tagged: audio, humor | 4 Comments »
I shall set the scene: Cassandra Mortmain is seventeen years old. She lives in an impressive but largely ruined castle that represents various historical periods, in the British countryside near the town of Godsend. Her household is composed of her father (known as Mortmain), who had one extremely successful novel and has been writer’s-blocked ever since; her stepmother Topaz, a free-spirited New Age-y retired artist’s model; her older sister Rose, who laments the lack of attractive, romantic, wealthy marriageable men in their neighborhood; her younger brother Thomas, a schoolboy; and the household help, Stephen, who is crazy about Cassandra. They live in rather abject poverty, about to scrape bottom when the book opens. Cassandra is an aspiring writer, and is practicing by keeping a journal; I Capture the Castle takes the form of three volumes of that journal, a fairly unique format for a novel.
The action of the book begins when a pair of American brothers arrive at the local estate, having just inherited it, and bring fresh life into the Mortmains’ little world. Rose finds men to work on. Stephen pursues Cassandra. The entire family tries to goad Mortmain into finally working again. Thomas matures; Topaz worries; everyone’s world is widened by a little bit of travel, made possible by a friendship with the new Americans; and Cassandra falls in love. I won’t give it away.
This book is rapturously admired by many readers, writers, reviewers, and bloggers whom I respect, and I was excited about it. My final reaction is disappointment; not because I didn’t enjoy the book, but because for me, it didn’t live up to the hype. Cassandra is indeed a sympathetic, clever narrator. I like her. I wish her the best. Her writing is witty, lyrical, reflective, and funny. The entire cast of characters is really great fun; I thought Mortmain and Topaz were especially amusing, and Stephen is poignant. I liked it, really I did, but I read this book much more slowly than usual (the holidays, me having been sick for three weeks now, general malaise), and I didn’t miss it when we were apart; that’s not a particularly good sign. I feel that I will quickly forget it. I’m sad that I didn’t receive the strong vibrations that so many readers do – and again I must stress that I did like this book! It just didn’t take me to the heights reached by others.
By the end of the book Cassandra has grown up a bit, and the family’s circumstances have changed. It’s a coming-of-age story, involving a charismatic young woman, and it comes in a unique format, with lovely, quirky writing. I liked it. If you read it, hopefully you’ll love it, as many do. I cannot give a resounding enthusiastic endorsement, but there are lots of those out there if you’re interested.
Filed under: book reviews | Tagged: misc fiction | 2 Comments »
Just a quick note, folks: it’s time to sign up to be a book giver on World Book Night! The deal is this. On April 23, 2012 (or thereabouts, I believe they’ll let you fudge the date), which is a Monday, people all over the world will be giving away books for *free* off a list of selected titles. You can sign up here to be one of the givers in a public location of your choice (if you get selected). I have requested to give away (in this order) copies of either The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Ender’s Game, or I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. I actually submitted a number of titles back in the book-choosing phase, and only Henrietta Lacks was chosen from among my picks, but ah well. If you’re so inclined, go sign up to give away free books – how cool! And regardless, keep your eyes open on April 23; I will be interested to see where the books turn up in my hometown of Houston. And I’d love to hear about where they turn up in YOUR town!
Filed under: miscellaneous | Tagged: World Book Night | Leave a comment »
Thanks to Katy at A Few More Pages for hosting this meme. To participate, share the first line or two of the book you are currently reading and, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line.
I am always delighted to jump into another Jeeves episode by Wodehouse; they are just too darned funny! And I’ve been hooked on Jonathon Cecil’s narration of them from the start. I definitely recommend his versions on audio. Here’s our beginning of The Code of the Woosters:
I reached a hand from under the blankets, and rang the bell for Jeeves.
‘Good evening, Jeeves.’
‘Good morning, sir.’
This surprised me.
Review to come soon. Please keep your eyes open for Wodehouse; I don’t think you’ll regret it!
Filed under: book beginnings | Tagged: audio, humor | 9 Comments »
A Walk About Town is a meme hosted by Natalie over at Coffee and a Book Chick.
Last weekend, Husband and I took a trip out to San Antonio, just because. It was a fairly uneventful weekend for us, in all the right ways.
First we headed out to my family’s country home near Columbus, Texas, for Friday night. I don’t suppose I shared this information here at the time, but back in early September it burned in one of the many wildfires Texas has experienced during this year of record-setting drought. Here’s what I wrote at the time to share with friends & family when we visited to survey the damage:
From the rumors we’d heard, we expected to find scorched earth, flattened, lunar – and it wasn’t that bad at all, so I guess the overall impression is a good one. Obviously we have been extremely lucky (I said, dodged a bullet and Husband said, more like a bomb), and some of our neighbors weren’t; driving in we saw several houses along our road that had burned down to the ground.
But, it was still hard to see the destruction. Our barn is a mess of sheet metal, with the burned-out tractor buried beneath it. Parts of our property are paved ankle-deep in ash, with a few big trees standing and no undergrowth. Parts seem virtually untouched. Most of it is in between, with greatly reduced undergrowth but many larger trees standing. We guess this is because the winds were high enough to take the fire through relatively quickly.
I’m an amateur at this stuff and have no idea how many of the larger scorched trees will live, but figure some, at least, should; and I know that ash can enrich the soil for the next generation of vegetation. I’m so relieved to see that we don’t now own a solid piece of bleak, sun-baked ash. I have hope for the relatively near future. And the fact that our house was saved is great. It reeks of smoke but the first time we can open it up for 48 hours should make great progress there – right?
Just want to say thank you to the fire crews who worked to save our house. Ours, and the nearest neighbors’, were both saved literally at the door step by their efforts. Many of our neighbors out there have their primary residences and means of livelihood on the land, which we didn’t, so clearly we’re far luckier than most.
We also packed up some clothes, toiletries, dry goods, and books to take to donate for those who lost their homes. It was surprisingly hard to find someone to take them in the town of Columbus; I think it took us 6 tries before we found a well-informed woman who said they had more than they could go through already (!) but directed us to the local radio station, who were filling a trailer to take to Bastrop. Bastrop lost many 1000’s of homes and we’re glad that our stuff will go somewhere where it’s needed.
It’s been kind of a disturbing thing to see but really, all the news is good where we’re concerned.
Several months later, we’re doing really well. Pops has replaced the tractor (insurance money!) and we’re about to break ground on the new barn. The house smells fine. The ground is green again just about everywhere. Still unclear on which and how many trees will survive, but really it’s going to be okay.
I took a few shots here (all clickable for larger views):
70-year-old pine, victim of drought, not fire
site of old barn with old tractor
misty morning at very low pond
Saturday morning we headed on to San Antonio. When we first hit town we went straight to Freetail Brewing, a brewpub that Pops greatly admires. Unfortunately I took no pictures! But we had a lovely long lunch there, and sampled every beer they had on tap (no small feat at 14 beers – don’t worry, mostly we had little taster glasses). Our favorites were the Tadarida IPA (the hoppier of the two American-style IPAs available), the Rye Wit (just what it sounds; nice little peppery notes from the rye), and the Ate II (a sour wit with champagne yeast – yum!).
Then down into downtown San Antonio. We stayed just across the street from the Alamo, and walked the riverwalk.
bearded Husband on the riverwalk
night view
the quieter end
Alamo at night
As I said, it was an uneventful weekend. We walked, looked around, ate and drank, and relaxed. Just what I needed: a little change of scenery.
Thanks Natalie for hosting! Maybe one of these days I’ll do a hometown Walk About Town… what is everybody else up to?
Filed under: a walk about town | Tagged: nature, personal, travel | 3 Comments »
The bicycle saves my life every day. If you have ever experienced a moment of awe or freedom on a bicycle… We know, it’s all about the bike.
Robert Penn, in the Prologue to It’s All About the Bike
Filed under: two-wheeled thoughts | Tagged: bikes, Pops | Leave a comment »
pagesofjulia 