Vinegar Hill

Vinegar Hill, E. Manette Ansay, 1994, Viking. Genre: Fiction. 240 pages. Finished 5/30/2010.

LesOpinion: Some books are stories; some books are works of art. Vinegar Hill is a hymn in a minor key, beautifully written, compact, and forlorn. Do not read this book on a rainy day, in the depths of your own personal discord, or thinking that when author Amy Tan called it "Little House on the Prairie gone mad" she was implying it would be mad-funny.

Quote that proves my point: "She tries to feel the smugness of faith, to know she is important and that her life has great, if hidden, meaning. But the more she has tried to claim God, the more He has rejected her. She wants to be lost in Him, but He vomits her out again and again...."

Savannah Breeze

Savannah Breeze, Mary Kay Andrews, 2006, HarperCollins. Genre: Chick Lit. 431 pages. Finished 5/29/2010.

LesOpinion: Like a good summer movie, this book is cool, mindless entertainment that only lasts for a few hours. It has no great themes or even memorable characters, but it's still a good romp. My only complaint is that most of the book is told in first person from the main character's perspective. Except for the very occasional chapters when it's told in first person from a secondary character's perspective. The problem is that both characters are women and their "voice" is exactly alike and they show up in each other's chapters, making it easy to forget which narrator was which. But, let's be honest, this doesn't exactly spell the end of Western civilization, does it?

Midas

Midas, Russell Andrews, 2005, Mysterious Books. Genre: Political Thriller. 371 pages. Finished 5/26/2010.

LesOpinion: This is a fair-to-middling political thriller that conspiracy theorizes terrorist attacks in the U.S. that are made to look like the work of foreign operatives, but that are, in fact, the work of nefarious high-ranking government officials with oil interests. If you've ever harbored a sneaking suspicion that Bush administration officials arranged the 9/11 terrorist attacks, this is the book for you. If you just like fair-to-middling political thrillers, this is also the book for you. I liked it for one reason: I've never before seen the phrase "shit fit" in print (as in "The town council would have had a shit fit."). I thought it was just something my mother used to say.

The real reason to dislike this book: not only is the author wearing sunglasses in his photo, but his bio also says that "Russell Andrews" is a pseudonym for Peter Gethers. I submit that publicly announcing that you're writing under a pseudonym defeats the purpose of having a pseudonym. I suspect Mr. Gethers has a rich, mildly disturbing fantasy life.

Heyday

Heyday, Kurt Andersen, Random House, 2007. Genre: Historical Fiction. 620 pages. Finished 5/20/2010.

LesOpinion: The Library Quest is beset with a theme, Gentle Reader: this is the 3rd book in 22 (that's nearly 14% for those of you trying to do the math in your head) that has set at least part of its story in gold rush-era San Francisco.

In Heyday, Andersen goes to great lengths to bring 1840's London, Paris, New York, middle America, and California to life. From fashion to vernacular, from science to revolution, this is a meticulous look at popular culture through the eyes of four young Americans and Britons setting out for the frontier in search of a utopian society...or gold...or both. Along with the war, politics, sleaze, and adventures, Andersen throws in casual encounters with celebrities from Darwin to de Tocqueville without making any of it feel contrived. It's a big, fat, fun, literate book that manages to be epic without containing a single enigmatic Chinaman.

speak

speak, Laurie Halse Anderson, Penguin Putnam, 1999. Genre: Young Adult. 197 pages. Finished 5/3/2010.

LesOpinion: If you were one of those people who loved high school, never worried about where to sit in the cafeteria, and could tell your parents anything, well, bully for you. For the rest of us more interesting people, there are books like this one. Anderson's brief novel is funny, heartbreaking, and spot on in its description of misfit angst.

Sure, it gets a little lesson-y and heavy handed at the end, but it's written for "young adults" (which really means "teenagers") so the lack of subtlety comes with the territory.

Best Quote: "I stand in the center aisle of the auditorium, a wounded zebra in a National Geographic special, looking for someone, anyone to sit next to. A predator approaches: gray jock buzz cut, whistle around a neck thicker than his head. Probably a social studies teacher hired to coach a blood sport."

If you despised those "teachers" as much as I did, you'll love this book. If high school was the pinnacle of your existence, move along. There's nothing to see here.

Daughter of Fortune

Daughter of Fortune, Isabel Allende, HarperCollins, 1999. Genre: Fiction. 399 pages. Finished 5/2/2010.

LesOpinion: I have no good excuse, Gentle Reader, for taking two whole weeks to read this novel. Chalk it up to too much work, a little bit of travel, and the discovery of all my favorite TV shows on Hulu.

While it's not House of the Spirits, Daughter of Fortune is still head and shoulders above the rest of the pop-lit dreck that litters the shelves of the Field Memorial. While this novel covers much of the same ground as Fortune is a Woman--gold rush San Francisco, Chinese immigration to the U.S., the subjugation of women and non-white races--comparing Allende to Adler would be like comparing Einstein to G.W. Bush: it would be just plain mean-spirited.

I'm sad to see the Allende Section of the library shelves go by with only two selections. But duty calls.