The Passionate Reader

The first part of this memoir is almost entirely composed of short clipped factual sentences about growing up in poverty in India. As the story of her remarkable life unfolds, she is tormented by mixed feelings about her egotistical, volatile, abusive and unpredictable mother and her alcoholic absent father. She experienced several doomed relationships, become a qualified architect, a briefly lauded movie star, and then found her niche as a writer of both fiction and nonfiction, writing the Pulitzer Prize winning novel “The God of Small Things which got her out of poverty. She then became a vocal activist against the injustices and cruelty of modern Indian society.

She eventually seems to come to appreciate her mercurial mother’s values more than would seem approriate, and mourns her death.

The writing style is certainly engaging and makes the book readable and enjoyable. A couple of quotes: “…. I have concluded that I grew up in a cult. A good cult, a fabulous one even, but a cult nevertheless, in which the outside world was a fuzzy entity, and in the inside world, unquestioned obedience and frequently demonstrated adoration of the Mother Guru were the basic requirements for membership.”

“She [her mother] had learned early what a powerful weapon physical vulnerability could be if it was properly deployed.”

I think my wife enjoyed this book more than I did, but I nevertheless give it a.

3.5/5;

Thanks, Vera.

In this double biography, Carlton University professor, and author of ten books of history, tries to rehabilitate the lives of the mothers of Winston Churchill and of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In my opinion she fails to do so.

She conveys a lot of information about the culture and times, and I learned a lot of history. However, the superficial aristocratic world that both women grew up in leaves a lot to be desired. Vain Jeanie Churchill spent recklessly on herself, was extremely promiscuous, while one of her husbands, the father of Winston, probably died of tertiary syphilis. Sara Delano Roosevelt was a control freak, unconcerned about the poor around her and for much of her life, opposed to any of the social programs that made her son’s New Deal famous.

The numerous affairs that almost all of the characters engaged in, including FDR, make it seem that marital vows were only for others, and not applicable to the rich and famous, and they seem to be just accepted and even expected by the author.

With my background, I wondered if Jeanie Churchill had Fitz-Hugh-Curtis syndrome (gonococcal perihepatitis) and the passing mention of FDR’s kidney problems following a bout of scarlet fever make it likely that he had post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis which may have contributed to his death from a hypertensive stroke years later. The latter is speculative.

I did not enjoy this book, although I learned many details of history.

3/5

Thanks, Kit.

An older but still good Bryson nonfiction book. His eccentricity lies in part in his habit of asking questions that few if any others had thought to ask, and then attempting to answer them with deep scholarly digging into archaeology and history. In this story, he first relates the history of establishing a home, and then tours the remodelled rectory that is his home, and documents what might have gone on in different rooms, over eons of time and around the world, in similar rooms, or those of wealthier Brits.

At times the discussion is tangential to the topic of rooms; in the 32 page chapter on the drawing room, he delineates the origins of many similar names, discusses the eccentric characters responsible for designing many elaborate houses and furniture and barely mentions the rooms.

The chapter on cellars really has nothing much to say about cellars and is mainly about building materials, from stucco, brick, iron and steel.

There must be a lot of exaggeration. A surgeon claims that he performed 200 amputations in 24 hours or one every 7 minutes and 15 seconds.

Not as good as A Brief History of Almost Everything, but still very informative and entertaining.

3.8/5

Thanks, Mike.

This Canadian/British/Taiwanese author provides a personal family history intertwined with the troubled history of the island of her ancestors, including the experiences of her grandfather, a fighter pilot in the shrinking Chinese Nationalist army in the civil war, pre 1949.

There are some brief perceptive comments about global warming, seismic activity, industrial development, biodiversity, and sea water rising as they pertain to the shores and the volcanic activity of Taiwan.

The pathos of excessive nostalgia permeates this story. Although looking back may be important to see the way forward, too much of it can paralyze you.

A book that does not fit neatly into any one genre, this one may have bits of useful information for historians, and be of interest to diverse Chinese folk, but provides little new of interest for reasonably educated others.

2/5

In this novel by a British NGO who worked with Syrian asylum seekers in Greece, a young Syrian, Nuri, refuses to join his father’s business and becomes a beekeeper instead. When the civil war breaks out, he is forced to become a refugee, fleeing with his family to Turkey, Greece, and ultimately Britain.The narrator is Nuri and the story is entirely related in the first person singular.

Flashbacks provide a vivid picture of that horrible experience. But they also confused me as his PTLD dreams and nightmares seem to occur at random and I found it difficult to distinguish them from the reality and profound vulnerability he experienced. It seems that his wife has suddenly gone completely blind as a hysterical response to the trauma of the bombing.

I suspect this plot would be easier to follow as a written work, but it does expose the horror of what millions of people experienced in 2015-16.

3.5/5

Thanks, Goodreads & Book Browze.

I cannot recall ever reading a book with more interesting and erudite information about geology, evolution, paleontology, physics, anatomy, chemistry cosmology, life, and humanity’s place in the world. Not only is it highly informative, Bryson’s perspective is insightful and unique. His vast knowledge of many subjects is sprinkled with humour while he outlines the extreme improbability of our existence, and the uncertainty of any future for us as a species.

I was already a fan of Bryson having read The Body: An Owner’s Manual and A Walk in the Woods, but this is by far his most important and best work.

This book may be confusing and dense for some nonscientists but it is worth the effort to read it. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

5/5

Thanks, Goodreads

This historical novel by an English writer covers a turbulent period of British history from the 1640s, 50s, 60s and 70s. This includes the beheading of King Charles I in 1649, the turbulent and violent Parliamentary rule by Oliver Cromwell and the roundheads thereafter until 1660 when monarchy was restored under Charles II of Scotland.

The title refers to the prolonged search for the killers of the king, as they scattered around the world. The Great Fire of London in 1666 and the complicated first English Civil War between 1642 and 1646 are all described in detail.

Most of the plot is concerned with the vengeful search for General Edward Whalley and his son-in-law, Colonel Wm. Goffe who flee to what is now New England and are moved around surreptitiously in hiding by a variety of Puritanical compatriots who seem to all be convinced that they are doing God’s work and tote and quote bible verses extensively. The date of the second coming that they predict from reading and interpreting passages from the book of Revelations passes without Christ’s appearance to the consternation of many.

Some of the geography and a few street names were familiar to me, having lived in New Haven for three years; at one point it was considered to be a separate colony from Connecticut.

This audiobook narrator did not do a great job of conveying the imagined conversations of female characters.

This book may be of great interest to dedicated history buffs, and provides a vivid picture of the era.

3/5

This indigenous Cree writer, residential school survivor and lawyer, goes on a rant about the gross injustices that indigenous people have endured since the arrival of white men in what is now Canada. She is also the author of Five Little Indians; that documents extensive and systematic abuses in great detail.

About the only part of this story that I was not familiar with is her discussion of the white paper of the Pierre Trudeau government, presented by then junior minister Jean Chretien that shamelessly recommended that all special considerations for native art, culture, writing, and land ownership be eliminated and that they should simply be assimilated into the white man’s culture.

There is no recognition in this screed that indigenous people themselves seldom speak with one voice, nor any mention of the special problems that Inuit people have endured.

Not much new here, but a stark reminder of our shameful past.

3/5

This is the debut novel of an Afghan writer, who now lives in Toronto. It traces the lives of a host of Afghani refugees living in Virginia after fleeing from the Russian invasion, and their partly futile attempts to maintain a distinctive Muslim culture.

When an Americanized teen from a family who became rich strays with a boyfriend rather than accepting an arranged marriage, and then is found drowned in a canal, an investigation ensues, with anti-Islamic and pro-Islamic sentiments reaching a fever pitch. I won’t give away the plot from there, but the whole community becomes irreversibly polarized.

Unfortunately it takes about 150 pages to reach the critical event with many two or three line pages of comments by friends, neighbours, and relatives, as the author builds up the sympathy for the family that seemed to have fulfilled the American Dream, before crashing. A similar number of short pages after the event, including from investigative reporters, an attourney, and police details the deep divide within the closely-knit community of immigrants.

I picked this book up from the OPL for my wife who had it on hold, but read it before her. I almost abandoned it after 125 pages, but in the end will give it a

4/5.

Thanks, Goodreads.

I was between books, catching up on a long article in the current New Yorker about Trump’s unpardonable abuse of pardoning power for his criminal friends and supporters when my wife arrived with this book from the William’s Court lending library. It is written by by Trump’s estranged niece who provides this already outdated, and deeply troubling warning documentary.

As she reviews the sordid history of slavery, the Jim Crow era atrocities, the unprecedented theft of Native’s lands and the political responses to these crimes, no one, not even Barack Obama, escapes from her scorn when they condone or pardon those responsible. But in a latter chapter she does describe Obama as the best president since Lincoln.

The history of white supremacy from the establishment of the republic to the present day is abundantly documented with many laws, customs, and individuals implicated in maintaining it, some overt and some covert.

The COVID-19 epidemic and the bungled Trump administration to it plays an important part in this discussion, as the book ends about April, 2021, at a time of continuing uncertainty.

I found the last couple of chapters where she continues to rant about the past of American culture but offers little concrete suggestion for how to move forward other than advocating for reparations to Black Americans, to be a bit vague.

This book is clearly outdated by the 2024 reelection of Donald Trump, something that the author seems to never have seriously considered, but must deeply regret. And it is very U.S- centric with barely any other country even mentioned.

3.5/5

This is the British tree scientist’s debut scholarly comprehensive (and partly incomprehensible to me) work. In eight chapters she details how trees have shaped water, soil, fire, air, fungi, plants, animals and us over the long course of evolution.

She praises Suzanne Simard’s When The Forest Breathes, then harshly criticizes her Finding The Mother Tree, for anthroporphizing trees, although she does the same herself in numerous references to the hundreds of trees she discusses with their Latin names. I loved both of Simard’s books, which are less rambling, equally enlightening with respect to the interactions of trees and fungi, and more poetic.

There is much emphasis on the numerous aromatic compounds produced by trees to facilitate propagation and protect themselves, and a lot of detail about the evolution and genetics of trees, the details of which I would challenge any nonscientist to recall.

Although the writing tends to be choppy with some of it of questionable relationships to trees, there are also flashes of brilliance and she is perhaps unparalleled in her vast knowledge of trees.

For example: «Ripening time is nothing more than the tree equivalent of calling a taxi. »

3.5/5

Thanks, Al

Thanks, Al.

I loved this Swede’s A Man Called Ovi, but not his Beartown and have not read any of his other numerous novels. This is his latest.

In this novel set in an unspecified town and at unspefied times, a group of teens is featured because one of them has become a famous artist with one particular piece of

painting worth millions because he painted it when he was only 14 and then died young.

However, the teens are all insecure, obsessed with dying, and crooks, breakin artists, stealing cars and fighting. None are remotely normal and the families are all dysfunctional or nonexistent. Like the characters, the time lines also seem to vary without any logic or sense of continuity.

Stilted conversations and disconnected stories are so prevalent that I completely lost interest. To be fair, there is no explicit sex, with just a hint of homosexual attractions and abundant foul language. I completed my reading of it only by taking it with me on my iPad and reading while exercising on the treadmill in the gym over several days.

I will not be tempted to read more Bachman.

2.0/5

Thanks, Goodreads.

This, prominent Boston-based Dutch psychiatrist deals predominantly with PTSD, and childhood trauma of various types.

In the first part there is far too much neuroscience and neuroanatomy for the nonscientist reader, (I also got lost), with generalizations about the limited dichotomy of the rational vs the emotional brain.

The author expresses ambivalence about newer pharmaceuticals for a variety of psychoses, PTSD and depression vs talk therapy, with the inevitable side effects of the latter including obesity and diabetes, but he also shows the limited benefits of cognitive behavioral therapy as compared with a placebo. But he does document positive lasting effects of talk about PTSD therapy on the blood pressure and the immune function. And there seems to be positive effects on symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis by something called internal family systems therapy. His scepticism includes the prospect of finding genetic factors contributing to various mental illnesses, although he is cautiously positive about epigenetics.

The DSM-5, the “Bible of psychiatry” receives appropriate scorn as being complex and imprecise. Desensitization therapy is seen as of limited use.

Art, theatre, dance, and music therapy is praised but these are only evaluated in historical and uncontrolled anecdotes.

Both psychedelics and yoga practices with meditation are touted as very helpful in treating PTSD, with some limited convincing evidence presented. His greatest praise, however, is for something called EMDR, eye movement desensitizing and reprocessing, and for neurofeedback based on continuous monitoring of an electroencephalogram with very good controlled trials of both modalities.

In later chapters the author waxes eloquent about generalizations of the determinants of childhood abuse, and the social determinants of mental health generally, almost entirely confined to those in the U.S.

I may have sustained some mild form of PTSD, but never received any prolonged professional psychotherapy of any kind so I cannot easily relate to much of this discussion. Others who have been been less fortunate may well benefit more from reading this now somewhat dated and wordy book.

There is more than a whiff of self-congratulatory smugness with a distinct overabundance of quoting the results of his own research and experience, both in proper controlled studies and many anecdotes. The anecdotes include many patient names that would seem to violate usual doctor-patient confidentiality rules. And I wonder how applicable the findings are for those who cannot afford or access the best psychiatric help at Harvard.

3.5/5

This is the newest novel of the Somerset, England writer.

By about 100 pages from the end, the astute reader may conclude that the young widow is likely to become the bookseller’s wife. But they both deny their love and numerous obstacles seem to make that impossible. Only in the last few sentences do those obstacles disappear.

4.9/5

Thanks, Book Browze.

This is a Montreal Egyptian’s debut novel. I had trouble discerning whether or not it is in part autobiographical as it is written largely in the second person singular about a disgraced and alienated Egyptian doctor who moved to Montreal eschewing any contact with his wife and family. The faked death and then the real death years later in 2001 of the married man’s clandestine male prostitute lover and partime medical assistant haunts the whole story, but unlike many novels featuring gays, the sex is described discreetly and the emphasis is on the deep enduring love between them. A final emotional meeting of the narrator with his disgraced father provides the implied denouement.

The writing is insightful and careful. e.g. «Diction had pride of place. She never spoke of chance preferring the word fate…. The nuance was important. Not being on the side of losers, Meme had found that in fate she had a trusted ally to be certain of always landing on the winning side. Fate justified trials and tribulations and stamped the winners with the impress of divine intervention; chance reduced defeat to poor planning and victory to dumb luck. »

The LGBT community will love this novel but it also an intereating read for straight people like me.

3.5/5

The late Canadian/American novelist wrote this fictional story, imagining what it was like for the real Peggy Guggenheim to grow up in the moneyed aristocracy of New York and Paris before, during, and after WWl, and then up to 1958 for an Epilogue.

True to the facts, Peggy’s father, Benjamen goes down with the Titanic after working out the design of the Eiffel Tower. A variety of shallow meaningless rituals then consumes her life, with prescribed debutant balls and society feasts, until she rebels against the restrictions imposed by her mother.

Set in the moneyed world of Paris, London, New York, and Venice, Peggy flits back and forth, takes more lovers than anyone can keep track of, seeks meaning in life and finally seems to find it by establishing the surrealist art collection in Venice, also real and named after her.

The highly fictionalized story becomes nebulous and incomplete, in part perhaps because the primary author died before it was finished, leaving the final details to Leslie Jameson. But the picture presented is far from flattering with the heavy drinking, drug use and mental illnesses of the high profile Jewish families.

There are many loose ends left dangling. For example, what became of Peggy’s sister who, maybe accidentally, was responsible for two toddlers falling to their death from the thirteenth floor of a Manhattan apartment building.

I did not enjoy this book, but it is to be discussed at our book club meeting next month.

2.5/5

Thanks, Caroline.

In this novel, by an Indian/Canadian, a man named Piscene Molitor Patel, shortened to Pi, is the son of the zoo owner in Pondecherry India. At age 16, he becomes a radical, espousing Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity, practicing elements of each, and discussing their commonalities in a rambling discourse on philosophy.

When the zoo closes, the whole family with a host of animals board a Japanese cargo ship called Timitsum bound for zoos in North America. But the boat sinks and Pi as well as his mother, an Orang-outan, a lion, an hyena, rats and a Bengali tiger named Richard Parker are stranded together in a life boat for 227 days in the mid Pacific. This is where the first person singular narrative becomes fancifull and unrealistic, sometimes following Pi’s apparent hallucinations, but it still informative with insights about the nature of nature and of wild animals. Eventually only starving Pi and the weakened, but trained Bengali tiger reach Mexico.

The highly unlikely survival tale with confusing ploys to conserve water, construct a hand-crafted primitive raft and avoid being eaten by the tiger may turn readers off, but I found enough surprising insights in it to keep me engaged.

Although this was made into Hollywood motion picture and was the winner of the Booker Prize in 2002, I put little faith in either of these accomplishments.

3.8/5

This American/Canadian writer now 84, needs no introduction to most avid readers. I loved one of his books and hated others. This is his latest.

A free floating stream of consciousness is woven into the long history of the Jews, the Holocaust, the longstanding pettish biases of New Englanders and wars, the history and pros and cons of circucision, and a host of other topics, in an almost schizophrenic narrative.

A married school teacher and a librarian in a fictional town in New Hampshire in the post Civil War period, ruminate endlessly about who to adopt next from an orphanage, already having several children. They shun any religious institutions, or any from Maine, and support the right to abortions. Then the narrative switches to the 1940s and beyond. There are so many characters that it is impossible to keep track of all of them. By half way through, I was totally lost. It seems as though the author is determined to show off his impressive knowledge of a wide variety of subjects, including the languages and geography of Austria, the techniques of wrestlers, and the details and hidden meanings in old Hollywood classics.

The queen Esther of the title is really a minor character in much of the book, although the surrogate mother of the much more prominent character, Jimmy Winslow. As usual with Irving, sex is a dominant theme, with Jimmy trying to find a suitable mate to marry and procreate with among the amoral women of Vienna and thereby avoid being drafted into the army and sent to Vietnam.

In my opinion, this book is far inferior to Last Night in Twisted River, and almost as bad as The Last Chairlift. Not recommended.

2.5/5

This late Australian/American wrote this personal memoir largely about the abuse of herself and many others at the hands of her father, and the late Jeffery Epstein. His partner in crime, Ghislane Maxwell first lured the author while she was a minor into the sex trade at Mar a Lago. As such it is very current and controversial, with Prince Andrew also implicated. But it is also agonizingly detailed and tragic, describing the vast network of powerful men with their wealth used to silence their many victims. And it is doubly tragic as the emotional scars inflicted on her lead to her suicide last year.

The shamelessness and endless use of legal professionals to cover up the sex crimes of the rich and famous raises questions about the morality of the whole legal profession as well, as they willingly and knowingly tell what are clearly lies, in smear campaigns to discredit victims.

I have little sympathy for most of those who want to live a life as victims, wallowing in self-pity, but this is a clear exception. Her heroic efforts to expose the perpetrators of these heinous crimes deserve the highest praise.

For me, the book raises troubling questions about the whole fashion and modelling industry, which still portrays women as needing to be physically beautiful to please men rather than to be themselves.

This is deeply troubling read about a brave, troubled devoted soul that exposes a pervasive social evil of our times. Not at all fun to read, but important.

3.5/5

This Oxford scholar of everything living was previously unknown to me, but when I got this small book, I consumed it in just 24 hours. She outlines the fascinating lives of 23 species or subspecies that are endangered, usually nearing extinction as a result of human activity including human beings. Some of this seems to be a stretch and her claim that there has been a 70 % decline of species in the last 50 years seems to me to me to be an exaggeration.

The species featured include the crow, the stork, the hermit crab, the tuna, the spider, the pangolin, the elephant, the giraffe, the wolf, and the bear. While some of these are certainly in danger in parts of the world or for some subspecies, I doubt that most of them will become extinct worldwide. There is an emphasis on the critical destructive role of habitat destruction and climate change.

There is extensive discussion of the role that these 23 species have played in folklore and mythology, some of it quite outrageous. But there are also fascinating little known facts of their unique life cycles and their interactions with Homo sapiens, most of it new to me and I am in awe of her vast knowledge. Highly recommended.

4/5

Thanks, Book Browze.