Be Creative @ Your Library

Summer Reading Program for Adults 2009

  Reader Reviews

Thursday, November 5, 2009
Don't go to the Cosmetics Counter without me
By: Paula Begoun

This is especially important for someone with allergies and does not know what all the words mean.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Execution Dock
By: Anne Perry

Anne Perry certainly is familiar with the sordid side of England's past. Her stories are absorbing but disturbing. Obviously Britain was too busy expanding the empire to care much for the folks at home.

The author portrays her characters as seen by others very well - almost too well at times. Does anyone really have all those incisive accurate insights? Is it that Perry can capture those fleeting, almost unconscious thoughts while most of us may react to but not fully recognize and express them in writing?

This book will keep you up way past your bedtime. I look forward to reading more of Monk, Hester, and their allies in their suspenseful exploits in the name of justice.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009
The Flame Trees of Thika
By: Elspeth Huxley

Interesting reminder of the Colonial activities in Africa of the several European nations in addition to those of the British. So little is heard of W.W.I. other than that of the actions in the European theater. Battles were fought in Africa, too, and lives tragically lost.

Hard to believe the manner in which African territory was appropriated, then sold to settlers hoping to make their fortunes in a new land, so unknown and so totally different from that of their country of origin.

Enlightening descriptions of the different philosophies and lifestyles of the several native tribes mentioned.

Was all the love and labor invested in the land lost completely? Whatever became of the coffee plantations? Are there those still producing in Kenya? And what of the various individuals I came to know? The book ended much too abruptly!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009
The Murders of Richard III
By: Elizabeth Peters

Another of Elizabeth Peters' good reads. However, not for the mystery fan who is not somewhat familiar with 15th century English history.

The plot is intriguing but complicated, with too lengthy a denouement.

Monday, August 3, 2009
Losing Mum and Pup
By: Christopher Buckley

In "Tradition and the Individual Talent" T.S. Eliot says (I'm paraphrasing) that when a new work of art is created something happens to all the works of art that preceded it; that is to say, the whole existing order is, if ever so slightly, altered by the introduction of novelty, and so the value that we attribute to each work of art in relation to the whole is, and must be, for better or worse, readjusted. Similarly, whenever I read a book it oftentimes modifies my understanding of other, related books or ideas that I had previously read or considered. And so it was with my reading of Christopher Buckley's delightful work Losing Mum and Pup: A Memoir. This is his meditation on and homage to the life and death of his parents, William F. Buckley, Jr., the icon of modern conservative politics, and Patricia Buckley, the doyenne of New York socialites, both of whom died within a year of each other, the mother in 2007 and the father in 2008.

This book caught my eye because of my familiarity with William F. Buckley, Jr., through reading his essays and watching his long-running Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) show "Firing Line." Given the subject matter of Losing Mum and Pup, I fully expected that the author would be dipping into the hagiographer's wax, would be engaging in, that is, and quite understandably so, a good deal of tombstone polishing, putting the buff and shine on his deceased parents' reputations. But this is not what I found. Far from it. Instead, Buckley announces early on what I take to be the leitmotif of the book. Of his parents, he says that: [t]they were not - with respect to every other set of loving parents in the world - your typical mom and dad.

And with that he proceeds to weave, with brisk prose of elegant manufacture, a narrative that reveals just how atypical and complex was the relationship that existed between him and his parents and between the parents themselves. By way of personal affection and impartial assessment, Buckley lays bare his parents virtues as well as their vices in a manner that is at turns poignant and pointed; sympathetic and critical; insightful, witty, and funny. And Buckley point out his own filial faults and shortcomings, too. Unmistakable is the love he had for his parents.

Though ostensibly about the author's experience of watching his parents die over the course of a year, the most arresting aspect of Losing Mum and Pup is, however, the bird's eye view it affords of the dynamics of the Buckley family. It caused me especially to reflect on the nature of marriage. Consequently, I modified my stance, albeit at the margins rather than at the core, since the book lent support to my ideas, about the extent to which the unity (the differences between a couple) increases the value of a marriage. Losing Mum and Pup is a very fine read. An entertaining, earnest, and thoughtful journey from beginning to end. I recommend it accordingly.

View more reader reviews >>