Review 361: Alone on the Wall

Alone on the Wall by Alex Honnold
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a book about climbing for other climbers. I'm not, and there was so much technical climbing language and jargon it was difficult to really grasp some of these feats. Not sure if the book was for the mainstream or not.

The layout of the book was awkward, with two writers one being Honnold in the first person the other with David Roberts adding in more info or context, although most the time it was just odd. But of the two I like his presentation better as Honnold was deep with the jargon.

Alex Honnold is the guy who was featured in the film Free Solo, which okay I understand that term now, meaning climbing alone without any ropes or hardness, nothing. Maybe I'll watch the film now, maybe.

Review 360: The Magic Kingdom

The Magic Kingdom by Russell Banks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Russell Banks can write. Was fully engrossed with the story, feels so believable and yet it is only fiction. More thoughts on this soon.

----------a while later--------------

Finished reading this book over a month ago, and not sure how I missed posting my review, as I really enjoyed the book. Russell Banks is one of the author’s that I would like to read the entire cannon.

The frame of the story is the author (a fictional Banks) found these tapes and he edited them for this story, which is an old man telling about his youth.

Harley Mann came of age in a Shaker community in Florida, where he fell in love, which was forbidden. She was older and sick with tuberculosis, and of course this not going to end well. It was told so realistically that it felt as if true. Good storytelling! Good narration too.

This is one of my favorite reads of the year.

Thanks to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

However, I listened to the book via audio from my public library. A great way to read this book. Great narrator voice!

Review 359: Bacon and Beans From a Gold Pan

Bacon and Beans From a Gold Pan by George Hoeper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



One of my top favorite reads of the year!

Wasn't expecting to be so engaged with the stories told here. It's written like an autobiography, as a first person account, but a different person wrote the book. Set during the depression, a young couple head to the Sierras, to the Mother Lode to earn their meager living by mining for gold. They call it being a sniper, along the rivers getting the fine gold flakes that the '49ers left behind as not worth it.

It's not the best written book, and wasn't expecting that. It certainly was entertaining with the tales, and in a few instances can see how society has changed. Often people helped out each other, and when a forest fire came through, everyone pitched in to help.

Review 358: Gilded Mountain

Gilded Mountain by Kate Manning
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Really enjoyed this one.

An historical fiction, set around a marble quarry mining town in the mountains of Colorado in the early 1900s. Sylvie Pelletier is our narrator who tells the story of her life that was formed in that town of Moonstone. With her schooling finished there, she soon takes on a job working for a woman printer of the local newspaper. Then was offered a summer job working as a social secretary for the wife of the mine owner.

Quickly Sylvie finds herself conflicted with being attracted to the mine owner’s son and the labor union organizer leader. This is far from a romance, as many social issues are addressed, but not overtly. I found it a fascinating and well told tale. 

I listened to the audiobook. What a great way to read the book, the narration was wonderful. Made the experience of the book more immersive. 

Review 357: Unsettled Ground

Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars



Quite a sad story about 51-year old twins still living with their mother. Jeannie can't really read, as she stayed at home so much during school years. Her mother Dot said she had a heart condition and really had to watch herself to not let it beat too hard. The book opens with Dot's death and the twins have to figure out how to manage since her death caused a cascade of secrets flowing out, many with owing money. 

There's a bit of a twist as the book goes along. Dot, well her brother too, were frustrating characters. I'd say Dot was more aggravating, but then again, she didn't get the education and socialization that she should with her mother keeping her at home as she was growing up. 

Review 356: The Ecopoetry Anthology

The Ecopoetry Anthology by Ann Fisher-wirth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Reading this book was my year-long project, although I finished a bit quicker than expected, reading it over just under ten months. I’m happy there is a book like this, yet I didn’t love it as much I hoped. 

It was nice to have a large selection of poets, and limiting the more well-known poets to a few, when their works could take much more space. Coming across a name of someone I’ve read and enjoyed before was like finding a friend in a crowded room with strangers, a moment to feel comfortable before heading off to meet new people.

I do wish the editors included dates the poems were written or published, as these poems span over decades and a date would help place the moment in which they were conceived. Breaking the book into two parts – historical and modern, was a good way in, but each section was organized differently; historical was chronological while the modern was alphabetical by last name. My preference would be for both sections to be organized the same, actually - chronologically.

A few of my favorites, but by no means all that spoke to me:

Stephen Vincent Benét : Metropolitan Nightmare 

Julianna Baggott : Living Where They Raised Me  

Peter Gizzi : Human Memory is Organic 

Louise Glück : Witchgrass 

Mary Oliver : Wild Geese  (a longtime favorite)

Ed Roberson : To See the Earth before the End of the World 

Ira Sadoff : I’ve Always Despised the Wetlands 

Gary Snyder : Riprap 

Historical section:

Stephen Vincent Benét : Metropolitan Nightmare – long but amazing!

Modern section:

Julianna Baggott : Living Where They Raised Me  (this poem spoke to me as it mentioned a film she saw as a child that affected her, and me as well…about a woman with no arms and making do, going to the grocery store, writing checks, etc. In the poem the author says she tried to do the same “practiced the barefoot art/of turning pages, scrawling my name.”  And yes, me as well, in only that I used to try to write with my feet.)

Peter Gizzi : Human Memory is Organic (maybe) doesn’t speak to me strongly today, but I do like it. Likely it stood out among the other poems before.

Then – Louise Glück : Scilla – on the opposite page of Gizzi, and okay, the next one that scrolls over to the following page – Witchgrass is good too.

Mary Oliver : Wild Geese – ah, homecoming. This poem I should memorize. I have read it many times and enjoy it every time. I feel at home with this one. A friend in the weeds of strangers.  (her other poems are good too!)

Ed Roberson : To See the Earth before the End of the World – now this is sad, and quite modern (where is the date??) and I really connected with this poem. “people chasing glaciers” and “watched ice was speed made invisible, / now –  it’s days, and a few feet further away,”  Sad! On many levels.

Ira Sadoff : I’ve Always Despised the Wetlands – funny one

Gary Snyder : Riprap – well, I’m not completely on the Snyder team…his poems are somewhat revolutionary for the time, being so placed in nature and the environment, and he has such specificity of place names and names of nature, but he has a side that I don’t like much. The selections here are good, this one I enjoyed the most of the group.

Review 355: Other People's Rejection Letters

Other People's Rejection Letters: Relationship Enders, Career Killers, and 150 Other Letters You'll Be Glad You Didn't Receive by Bill Shapiro
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Read over one day: Sunday, November 6, 2022

Wasn’t feeling too well that day and read it off and on over the day.

Is it sad to have enjoyed reading these rejection letters other people received? Some were truly sad, but others a bit funny, and a couple a bit shocking. The book is very colorful, images of the original letters. I've wanted to read this book for a long while, and glad I finally did. It was a short read.

Review 354: Liberation Day

Liberation Day: Stories by George Saunders
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Initial thoughts: Not sure why it took me so long to read that last story, it wasn't very long. Anyway, a few thoughts on the collection:

This is a collection of nine short stories. About half of the stories are fairly short, while the others are much longer, taking up most of the book. A few feel a bit gruesome, and may make one shudder with the contents, this is not due to gore, but for how humans may treat other people.

There is a bit of variety, and the author portrays different characters easily with just a few lines. All are intriguing providing a different way of looking at being human, living life in your own way.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review: 353 Time Out of Joint

Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Not a very long book. This is about a man who seems to be going insane. But then we find out yes, he is a lunatic. And his perceptions, asking what is real or not....oh so classic Philip K Dick.

Review 352: Queen of Dreams

Queen of Dreams by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Glad I stuck with the book. I almost stopped reading several times, really disliked the main character. But around the half-way point something dramatic happened, then later "9/11" happened, and the main character changed. This is one of those books where there is definite growth of a person.