TPC-CultureVultures: Book Review 2009

First Quarter Review of Books Bloody Well Read!

Book List 2009

20th Century Chinese Stories - C.T. Hsia, Ed.

Borrowed? No.
Recommended? An excellent collection of modern Chinese writers, translated into English, with one major flaw: the editor, for reasons unclear to me, chose not to include writers representative of "Communist" literature, i.e, mainland China writers between 1949 and the time this collection went to press. Foolish, really, as China produced some fine writers during that period. However, this collection is well worth reading, if only for Chang Ai-ling's "The Golden Cangue."
Reread? Given away as a gift.
A Dictionary of Common Trinidad Hindi - Kumar Mahabir

Borrowed? Loan.
Recommended? Only for those interested in this somewhat arcane topic. I enjoyed reading it, I must say, since my Hindi is pretty spotty.
Reread? Returned to owner.
A Mercy - Toni Morrison

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? Toni Morrison is a brilliant writer, and outdoes herself again with this latest offering. A heartbreaker of a book, filled with the pain and incomprehensiblility of relationships, of mothers, daughters, and friends, of women at their best and their worst.
Reread? Time permitting, yes.
A Patchwork Shawl: Chronicles of South Asian Women in America - Ed: Shamita Das Dasgupta

Borrowed? No.
Recommended? Yes. This is a very powerful little book, a look at the culture gulf and how various writers have bridged it, or at least their attempts to do so.
Reread? Yes.
A Tiger In Red Weather - John Wyllie

Borrowed? Gift. From long ago. Of course, by now it has quite become incorporated into my own library.
Recommended? A fine example of detective fiction, set in Africa. The author's love for Africa is obvious. No condescension, no self- or other-delusion. He loves his characters, and you love them too, when you're done reading. A good piece of detective fiction woven into an empathetic background rich with African cultural values, customs, wisdom, and humour.
Reread? Repeatedly. This must be my tenth reading, at least.
Anathem - Neal Stephenson

Borrowed? Yes. Brian, of course, is the guilty party. How a person can lend another a 500+-page book when they KNOW one has a reading list of at least 180 books or so per year ... Mmph!
Recommended? I fully expected to dislike this book, because I've read a couple of Neal Stephenson's books before, and they're ... long. And convoluted. And Bri did say, you don't have to read further than Page X (being some subset of the total). I ended up thoroughly enjoying it and read the whole thing in two days. Quite honestly, though, the end was a bit weak. However, there's some 490 pages between beginning and end, and quite enthralling they were.
Reread? Good Lord, no. There isn't that much time left in my life.
Arms and The Women - Reginald Hill

Borrowed? A loan courtesy of the very kind Ms. Manitoba who knew from experience that the brain is not ready to read anything difficult during and shortly after surgery; and that detective fiction fits the bill perfectly.
Recommended? Yes! Reginald Hill is an excellent, excellent writer, and although there are points in this book when you think, "Hmm, maybe not," most of the time, you're thoroughly enjoying his character development, his humour, his very feminist outlook. Quite enjoyable.
Reread? No.
Baumgartner's Bombay - Anita Desai

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? I wasn't willing to like this book, and ended up ... not exactly enjoying it, since enjoyment is not the intent. It's a searing look at the Jewish war experience in India, with tints and hints of the Holocaust and the complexity of India, the baffling, sometimes irritating, sometimes mind-boggling, sometimes captivating quality of India's timelessness and unbelievable age. That said, there were a few things with which I take issue. Still, it's worth reading.
Reread? No.
Bitter Lemons - Lawrence Durrell

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? I've never really liked this Durrell. I prefer his brother, although both of them suffer from a really repulsive Jingoism pervading their work. It's less objectionable in the other brother, whose books are mostly about animals, and therefore less likely to rouse my ire with the prejudice against specific humans or groups of humans. The introduction to this work touts Durrell as the next great thing in writers of his era. Well, what a sorry lot. It's an interesting book if you plan to travel to Cyprus but despite his wordsmithing skills, I didn't care for his tone about the "Cyps," and the Turks. Well, at least I can say I've read Durrell now.
Reread? No. And I probably won't read anything else by this author either.
Blanche Among The Talented Tenth - Barbara Neely

Borrowed? Gift. I get 12 birthday gifts per year, per my request, and sometimes 24. Because I'm cheap to shop for. All I want out of life is books and music.
Recommended? Blanche is Barbara Neely's detective, a big black women who loves her life and herself, and cleans houses for a living. Quite a change from your ordinary WASPy detective, eh? Fierce, feminist, womanly, sexy, sharp, smart, and willing to kick ass, Blanche is a terrific character. Neely did a good job creating her. The books are thoroughly enjoyable, you must read them.
Reread? Every couple of years, when life sucks, I reread Blanche.
Blanche Cleans Up - Barbara Neely

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? Yes! See previous, for details.
Reread? Hell, yeah.
Blanche On The Lam - Barbara Neely

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? Yes. See above for details.
Reread? Yes, dammit.
Blanche Passes Go - Barbara Neely

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? If you haven't read Blanche, you gots ta.
Reread? Damn, yeah. And many thanks to Ms. Manitoba who found Blanche for me.
Chandranath - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? Well, the translation, quite frankly, sucks, but if you know Bangla, it's well worth reading. You can figure out what the writer meant. The story itself is, like all of Chattopadhyay's work, searing social expose.
Reread? No.
Death and The Dogwalker - (A.J. Orde) Sherri S. Tepper

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? Sherri Tepper wrote this, and several other pieces of detective fiction under the pseudonym A.J. Orde. She's an excellent writer. And the twist got me. (I pride myself on figuring out the who in whodunit long before the end.) Also, I enjoyed it. If detective fiction is your thing, if good writing is your thing, you'll enjoy it too.
Reread?
Death Comes For The Fat Man - Reginald Hill

Borrowed? Yes. Part of Ms. Manitoba's "Read this after surgery" massive loan of light reading.
Recommended? Yes. Reginald Hill is a terrific writer, and Andy Dalziel one of the most colourful characters ever to inhabit detective fiction.
Reread? Maybe.
Death's Jest-Book - Reginald Hill

Borrowed? See previous.
Recommended? Yes. The only writer, other than the erudite Dorothy Sayers, that I've ever read who mentions Beddoes' Death's Jest Book.
Reread? Maybe.
Dena-Paona - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? Like all Chattopadhyay's work, a searing look at social life in Bengal of a previous century. Translation is dreadful, though.
Reread? Not until someone puts forth a better translation. It's difficult to think in two languages at the same time.
Devdas - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? See previous review of work by this author.
Reread? No.
Dialogues of the Dead - Reginald Hill

Borrowed? The Ms. Manitoba surgical recovery loan and reading list disruption project.
Recommended? Highly.
Reread? No.
Heart Politics - Fran Peavey

Borrowed? No.
Recommended? Highly. Peavey is a political activist whose experiences span the International Hotel fiasco in San Francisco as well as several other memorable projects. She writes with heart. An inspirational book that has a lot to teach activists.
Reread? Someday.
Malay Folk Beliefs - Mohd Taib Osman

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? Professor Osman needs a proofreader. Also, a degree of style. Frankly, this book, though informative, is a somewhat dull read and, I suspect, coloured by the author's own prejudices to some degree. Recommended only for those with an existing interest in the subject.
Reread? No.
Marianne, The Madame, and The Momentary Gods - Sherri S. Tepper

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? I make no secret of the fact that I think Sherri Tepper is one of the best writers of the 20th century. It surprises me that she is not more widely known, but her very feminist stance could have something to do with that. That said, this is a very enchanting book in a trilogy aimed at readers from "young adult" to adult. Fantasy, and quite rich it is, too.
Reread? Regularly.
Marianne, The Magus, and The Manticore - Sherri S. Tepper

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? Part of a Sherri Tepper trilogy. Excellent book. Scary fantasy, in a dream-discovery sort of way.
Reread? Regularly.
Memory in Mind and Brain - Morton F. Reiser

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? If you're interested in the crossover between neuroscience and psychology, this is the book to read. Dr. Reiser is a good science writer, knowing how to hold one's interest while discoursing on a somewhat dry topic.
Reread? No.
Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

Borrowed? No.
Recommended? I don't know what possessed me to read Virginia Woolf. I suppose it was so I could say, "I've read Virginia Woolf." The epitome of bourgeois, this book is all about the internal lives of various people who really don't have to work or do very much except throw, or attend, parties. It's still better than her other two works that I also read (Orlando and To The Lighthouse) if only because her portrait of a man suffering PTSD as a result of having served in the war is excellent. Still, I'm not going to be reading anything by Woolf for a long time, I think. Perhaps posthumously.
Reread? No!
Murder on the Verandah - Eric Lawlor

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? This is an interesting (sort of) book about a true-life murder that occurred in Malaya (now Malaysia) early in the last century. It provides an often irritating look at the life of the British as the rulers of the colonies. The writer does get in a few sly barbs at the mems and sahibs of that time. What a worthless lot! Amusing if you're interested in the country, the period, murders, or colonialism.
Reread? No.
Niskriti - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? Once again, an excellent story about the tensions in the joint family ruined by a poor translation.
Reread? No.
Orlando - Virginia Woolf

Borrowed? No.
Recommended? I don't think Virgie had a very good idea of just how men think, or live. Add to that the fact that her writing consists of the endless monologues and interior life of dreadfully self-absorbed jingoistic elements of the already terribly boring British. The ultimate in bourgeois navel-gazing.
Reread? Never.
Over Tumbled Graves - Jess Walter

Borrowed? See Ms. Manitoba surgical recovery project.
Recommended? Highly. An excellent book about a woman cop and her struggles with herself and the crimes she investigates.
Reread? Probably.
Padma River Boatman - Manik Bandhopadhyay

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? Manik Bandhopadhyay, like Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay, writes about Bengali society, the rigidity, selfishness, class issues, and the people who live, love, and suffer as a result. An excellent book with a real sympathy for its characters.
Reread? Maybe.
Palli Samaj (The Homecoming) - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? Again, an excellent story ruined by a poor translation.
Reread? No.
Pandit Moshai - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? See previous.
Reread?
Power Politics - Arundhati Roy

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? Highly. Roy is as delightful in writing about politics and activism as she is in writing fiction. In this compilation of essays, she takes on meaty issues like the Narmada Dam, the way that Western nations (or representatives thereof, like Enron) continue to bilk developing countries of billions, supported by their governments (and, unknowingly, American taxpayers who are also being screwed royally by the same companies), the bombing of the Twin Towers, America, India, and their political relations, and the Indian Supreme Court. A skilful flaying of the various parties ensues, to much hilarity. And a good thing too, as her well-researched pieces reveal scoundrelly behaviour that would otherwise have you in a permanent state of blood boiling.
Reread? Someday!
Purple Cane Road - James Lee Burke

Borrowed? See Ms. Manitoba surgical recovery project.
Recommended? James Lee Burke is a fine writer of detective fiction. Truly fine. Most of his works are set in Louisiana, and I've never been there but I felt as if I had after reading this, and others of his works. What's more, I felt as if I knew and loved the Louisiana he speaks of. Gritty, violent, tough. And thoroughly enjoyable.
Reread? Sure, after the next 500 books on my list.
Recalled To Life - Reginald Hill

Borrowed? See Ms. Manitoba surgical recovery project.
Recommended? More dastardly doin's in detective fiction from a skillful writer. Delightful.
Reread? What's another 500 books between friends?
Shut Up, I'm Talking - Gregory Levey

Borrowed? Loan.
Recommended? A very amusing memoir of the writer's experiences as an intern for the Israeli embassy, which doesn't do interns. Really amusing.
Reread? No.
Skull Still Bone - John Wyllie

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended?
Reread?
Soon I Will be Invincible - Austin Grossman

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? Um ... this book is about, like, cartoon characters, or somethin. Good guys and bad guys and stuff. OK, let me put it this way: this book is from the Bharati Mukherjee School of Writing. 'Nuff said?
Reread? Nyet.
Sunset Limited - James Lee Burke

Borrowed? Ms. Manitoba surgery recovery project.
Recommended? Highly.
Reread? Maybe.
Taming the Wind of Desire - Carol Laderman

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? A book about the shamanistic traditions of Malaysia, focused on the state of Kelantan. The writer, an anthropologist by training, spent quite a bit of time there, and this particular work focuses on healing and alternative medicine. Very interesting, if your interests happen to include spiritual healing, shamanism, Malaysia, Southeast Asia, or anthropology.
Reread?
The Art of Detection - Laurie R. King

Borrowed? Ms. Manitoba surgical recovery project.
Recommended? I don't know. I like Laurie King as a writer of detective fiction, but I don't necessary like supernatural, and this one's a mix of the two. OTOH, it's not a bad read.
Reread? No.
The Bones - Sherri S. Tepper

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? This offering by Tepper is part of a horror trilogy she wrote, and it's pretty fucking horrific, though very well-written. Anyway. It scared the bejesus outa me for a few days.
Reread? Er, probably.
The Companions - Sherri S. Tepper

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? One of Tepper's most recent works. Thoroughly enjoyable, especially for those of us who love animals. Not giving away the ending, but it certainly helped me to a better understanding of my brainless muffin cat.
Reread? Yes.
The Demon-Haunted World - Carl Sagan

Borrowed? No.
Recommended? Highly. Dr. Sagan is an enthralling writer, and I love science in all its glory, so this was a marriage made in heaven. Although, being the difficult sort, I don't agree with everything he sez.
Reread? If only I had time!
The Killer Breath - John Wyllie

Borrowed? A long-ago gift, now part of my library.
Recommended? John Wyllie loves Africa and Africans, and it shows. His delight in African customs and culture comes across in this fine piece of detective fiction about his two favourite characters, Dr. Samuel Quarshie and his lovely "missus," Prudence. A must-read.
Reread? Regularly.
The Lincoln Lawyer - Michael Conolly

Borrowed? See Ms. Manitoba surgical recovery project.
Recommended? This was actually quite enjoyable, for detective fiction by a writer I'd never read before.
Reread? No.
The Long, Dark Night of Baron Samedi - John Wyllie

Borrowed? Long-ago gift, now part of my library.
Recommended? Highly. Detective fiction featuring Dr. Samuel Quarshie and his lovely wife Prudence.
Reread? Regularly.
The Margarets - Sherri S. Tepper

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? A wonderful new offering from Sherri S. Tepper. Checkidout.
Reread? Of course.
The Phor Tor Festival In Penang:Deities, Ghosts, and Chinese Ethnicity - Tan Sooi Beng

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? Fascinating, especially if your interests lie in or around the subject: folk festivals, Southeast Asia, Chinese culture, et cetera.
Reread? Someday.
The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli

Borrowed? No.
Recommended? Yes. Any serious student of politics needs to read both this book and Machiavelli's Discourses.
Reread? Not for a while.
The Tin Roof Blowdown - James Lee Burke

Borrowed? See Ms. Manitoba's Surgical Recovery Project.
Recommended? A heart-wracking detective story set in NOLA during Hurricane Katrina. Damn Gee Dumbya Bushwhacker and his worthess, corrupt horde of inept minions. Damn them forever more.
Reread? No.
The Vintage Book of Indian Writing - Salman Rushdie, Elizabeth West, Eds.

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? A wonderful collection of Indian writers, some in translation, many in English. Includes excerpts from well-known authors such as Nirad Chaudhury (who would surely go up in flames in a spontaneous act of self-combustion if he had a clue how much I dislike him), as well as writers hardly known outside India. The stories are magnificent, though. I loved this book more than anything I've read in a while.
Reread? When I have time!
The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? I didn't like this book at first, but by the last page I was utterly enthralled. I believe it was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize, although I don't know if it won. If it didn't, it certainly should have.
Reread? Maybe.
Till Morning Comes - Han Suyin

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? Highly. Han Suyin is one of those very talented writers who manages to weave politics into and throughout her work without ever making it sound propagandaish or doctrinaire.
Reread? I actually might, despite its incredible length.
To Catch A Viper - John Wyllie

Borrowed? Once a gift, now MINE!!
Recommended? Highly. More doings of Dr. Samuel and Mrs. Prudence Quarshie. What a lovely couple! And what a magical and beautiful Africa! (Magical in the best sense, as seen through the eyes of one who loves the continent and its people.)
Reread? Regularly.
To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf

Borrowed? No.
Recommended? Enough already with Woolf.
Reread? Never.
Tumbuna Stories 1, The Creation of Animal Life/As Bilong Animal - Thomas H. Slone and Jada Wilson

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? Collected folk tales of Papua-Niugini, as told by the people themselves and translated by Thomas H. Slone. A fascinating look at a little-known corner of the world.
Reread? Someday.
Tumbuna Stories 2,The Origin of People and Society/As Bilong Manmeri Na Sosaiti - Thomas H. Slone and Peter Leo Ella

Borrowed? Gift.
Recommended? See previous.
Reread?
Women, Outcastes, Peasants & Rebels - Kalpana Bardhan

Borrowed? No.
Recommended? A fascinating collection of short stories from several Bengali writers exploring the powerful social consciousness of that difficult state. Well worth reading, and I recommend it especially for those with any interest whatsoever in Bengal and in the state of the marginalized.
Reread? Probably.