Review 636: Tibet, Tibet

Tibet, Tibet: A Personal History of a Lost Land by Patrick French
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

While this book is a bit of a travelogue of Patrick French traveling through nearly every corner of Tibet, it really is more of a history of the country. French was the director of the UK organization Free Tibet Campaign. It had been about ten years since French had been to Tibet and decided it was time to return and see what the situation was like first-hand.

French travels extensively throughout Tibet and talks to people of all kinds, various age groups, rankings, in cities or very rural areas. He tries to cover everywhere and everyone it seems like, quick thorough.

For this trip he decided not to go through official channels, as part of a media person or using his office connections. So while the book is factual, he does not reveal anyone’s real name, nor does he use stories that may be too specific to identify someone. While in Tibet, talking to people, he doesn’t want the PSB (Public Security Bureau) to take interest in anyone associated with himself. It’s obvious French is a foreigner.

The stories and history of Tibet are what make this book. It’s quite horrifying to read some of what happens to people, how Mao/Beijing used force to change people from their traditional ways. There several very difficult periods, first being the actual fighting and loss for Tibet. Then quickly after came the Great Leap Forward (started in1959) which resulted in mass starvation, later The Cultural Revolution (beginning late 60s) which in Tibet had in part smashing up monasteries and religious artifacts. Many of the personal stories are from these eras, but not all.

There is much more here, such as the history and relationship of Tibet and China through the centuries. The relationship of the Dalai Lama to the people of Tibet. I found the book very informative. The book is now two decades old, have been many substantive changes since the book was published? Tibet is still not free, not autonomous despite the name of the region. The people are tightly controlled, have been since Mao took over. Good book to understand Tibet.

Review 635: Trust

Trust by Hernan Diaz
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

The book has a unique way of telling this story. It has different versions, which I found confusing at first. I didn’t know this going in. The further into the book goes the more “truthful” is the story, but it is all fiction.

Interestingly, the first two sections are told by men, the last two are by women. The third one was the longest and held more interest for me, the story was more developed. This is one of those books that you really need to read to the end and not give up on.

Review 634: Whale Fall

Whale Fall by Elizabeth O'Connor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Taking place in 1938 on a small island 5 miles off the coast of Wales, a whale washes up on the shore. The villagers try to get it back to the sea, but it does not work. The story is told from Manod’s point of view. She is 18 this summer and expected to get married, but there are only one or two boys. Manod says she needs to take care of her sister, who is 7 years younger, they are motherless, but really Manod is not sure she wants to be a wife.

Two researchers come to the island to record their way of life. They take photographs, write down the stories and record their songs on a phonograph. Manod is hired as an assistant since her English is good and can help translate from Welsh. She wants to go back with them when they leave, they even lead her to believe they will take her.

The book highlights the diminishing population of the small islands around the British Isles. The younger ones may not want to continue the traditional way of life, mostly fishing. Then the researchers who portray this life don’t get it quite right either, sometimes purposefully. It’s a short book, could be read in just a few hours.

Review 633: Fortune's Rocks

Fortune's Rocks by Anita Shreve
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Lately (past year or so) I've been reaching deep into my shelves of unread books that have been sitting there for decades. This book was one of them. Despite the length of the book it was a fairly quick read, and I suspect I would have enjoyed this book more back when I got it.

This is a fictional book very slightly based on historical fact. It takes place in the early 1900s when social mores were different than today. The main character, Olympia Biddeford is 15 and comes from a wealthy family who are summering at the seaside coast of Fortune’s Rocks. This summer Olympia turns quickly from a girl to a woman and falls in love with a much older man. Unfortunately, he is married and has several children, and very unfortunately he also falls for this teenager. Thus a love affair begins.

The age difference is more astonishing for today’s standards, and although it was an issue then it wasn't the main cause for scandal and ruin, which was being an unmarried woman and a married man. Of course, their secret love affair gets found out and ends in disaster.

The result of this is a baby born out of wedlock. Later in the book a court case is over the custody of this baby. This section is what is pulled from history, or at least the basis, as the case where a ruling was decided based on “the best interests of the child”.

The writing style was good, although the sections of the court case were a little stiff.

Review 632: Neither Here nor There

Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe by Bill Bryson
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Bryson goes to many different countries across Europe, mostly revisiting places he had been to before with a friend of his several decades earlier.

He tries for humor, it mostly doesn't work with me. The exaggeration for comedic effect was overdone. All that is okay. My main gripe with his writing is how the exaggeration was often done as a way to denigrate the place, or generalize the people. Of course, there is also the suffering of Bryson.

As I was nearing the end of the book I was starting to wonder if I will ever read another of his books. Maybe. The last couple places he visits had tipped in his favor. So often he was describing his everyday experiences, mostly complaining, but with the last couple of places he visited, there is a small amount of history.

These locations were part of the USSR that broke up when the soviet communism collapsed. When Bryson was in Sofia, a city in Bulgaria, the people were struggling; inflation was rampant and there was practically no food to be found, except for the few tourists in the only hotel in the city. This chapter he treated with a bit more humanity than I would have expected based the previous 90% or so of the book. But it did take him a minute to get there. It’s hard to be a comedian when faced with such dire circumstances.

I’m not unhappy I read the book. Bryson visited many countries I visited while on a brief European tour of my own a couple decades ago and this book reminded me of my own experiences, which does improve my impression.

Review 631: What We Can Know

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What started very slow for me, a book I nearly gave up on, ended up being something else.

The book starts about 100 years in the future, after many catastrophic events. Tom Metcalfe, along with his sometimes partner, Robin try to teach literature to college kids who have much better things to do and hardly care about the past, let alone literature. Still for Metcalfe, the poetry of Francis Blundy and his wife Vivien, also a writer, are what he studies to endless pursuit. They lived in our times of today. Metcalfe desperately wants to be the one who finds the missing corona poem, the birthday poem Blundy wrote for Vivien.

Certainly the book bogs down with the minutia of Metcalfe’s life, his character is not very appealing. I nearly bailed on the book, but continued on.

Then we get to part two and have a different point of view – it’s Vivien’s diary from the past. Here we learn of her life first hand. She had a curated past for the future researchers, but this diary was the real Vivien, and different than what we knew before.

This is a book that one could have multiple reads and get more out of on each reading. I don’t have that kind of time, too many other books I’d like to get to. But I can appreciate the quality of writing here, despite not really enjoying the main character.

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

Review 630: Picket Line

Picket Line: The Lost Novella by Elmore Leonard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have not read any of Elmore Leonard’s books before, so this may be an odd place to start. He has an extensive bibliography mostly in a genre I don’t read, so maybe this is a good place to start. The introduction covers how this novella came to be published, and a bit of history of the piece, which was first written for the screen.

What appealed to me was the labor aspect. I tend towards work fiction in a way, and this one covers that, with a union and a strike. The workplace here is a melon field in Texas, the workers Spanish speaking maybe migrants. Since there is a strike some of the pickers have different people in the field, such as a young white college kid. The story opens with three guys driving in from California.

Even though the book is short, there lacks depth of character, not much development. Perhaps there were too many characters. I’ve read shorter pieces with better understanding of a character. In any case, this did feel too short. There was some action, but it ended too soon. The story felt like a moment in a larger story.


Thanks to Mariner Books and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.

Review 629: Ludes

Ludes by Ben Stein
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is completely different than what I thought it may be. Many, many years ago I picked this up at a used book library sale, during a brief moment when I thought I’d like to be a psychologist someday. I believed this book was a psychological case study, something academic. No, it is not that.

This is a non-fiction account of a friend of Ben Stein's descent into drug addiction. Stein, who used to host a game show called “Win Ben Stein’s Money” and has appeared in films and such. He’s a writer as well, starting with the Nixon presidency. This book takes place shortly after the political writing ended and now in 1976 he’s writing for The Wall Street Journal, mostly cultural type pieces. Ironically he was the only one with any graduate work in economics on the editorial staff, yet he’s the one not writing the economic pieces.

Stein writes about his friend Lenny Brown, from their first meeting at The Wall Street Journal where Lenny tried to sell him on a financial real estate tax shelter deal on a cold call. For some reason the two clicked and they become friends. The book is a slightly autobiographical, but primarily a profile of his friend and his demise into becoming addicted to quaaludes, or ludes. Yet even here it takes a very good portion, about 40 percent of the book, before Lenny takes his first pill.

We learn all about Lenny’s life of selling and not quite making it, then he gets his break and is hired this guy Max in Los Angeles. Finally Lenny is living the life he always thought he deserved. Eventually Stein makes his way to Los Angeles too, now working with production companies.

The book is non-fiction, but all names have been changed, except Ben Stein’s and one other that is noted in the book. Yet it is written like fiction, recanting conversations and other minute details. Stein mentions how he knows these things, but there are moments when some of this must be fictionalized for the sake of the story and flow.

It's quite readable and quick, but a bit unusual really. I expect this is something that has become a bit obscure.

Review 628: The Pretender

The Pretender by Jo Harkin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an interesting historical fiction. The book is based on a figure in history for whom not much is known, however he did play an important role during King Henry VII’s reign.

The book begins in 1483 in the country with a small lad, John Collan. Soon enough his days of serenity and certainty of knowing who he is are over. At the age of ten, John discovers that the man who was raising him was not his father and he is Edward, the earl of Warwick. He is removed from the farm and all he knows and loves to be educated to be the future king, the hope of England.

Through the book, at each stage his name changes and who he has to become. He is not safe, the King spies could be anywhere, so he is moved about from time to time while he grows before all is ready for him to challenge the throne.

I really enjoyed the book. The way the story was told, the language and words used, I mostly enjoyed. The one, well two, caveats, it was fairly crude at times and a lot of cussing. The cursing may have been okay, but at times it was so jarring and modern it felt anachronistic. Yet there were often words such as distroubled, annon, and astonied, which made the book feel like it took place centuries ago.

It was a fairly sad book, for what happened to John, turned Edward, turned Simnel. The later part of the book I did not enjoy as much, how things went, but it seemed inevitable.

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did a fantastic job. He managed the various accents and characters in such a way that I was impressed by the ability and quality. I may just have to look for another book by the narrator.


Thanks to Knopf and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.

Review 627: The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street

The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book takes place for roughly six weeks while Helene Hanff finally gets over to London. Her previous book just published and the publishers want to do some publicity with her. Shortly before she left, a slight delay, as she had an emergency operation. This does add complications but she handles it well.

This book is her journal of the trip, starting with the airplane ride.

Since this is the 1970s things are different than today, such as booked two hotel rooms in case one didn't hold the reservation. Or at least that's not how I've been doing things. And as I understand it, I would be liable to pay for both if I cancel one at the last minute, or just don't show up. Anyway, Hanff is very trusting with people. She accepts all sort of invitations, many by friends of friends, but also accepts invitations by fans to go to lunch or something. She is economizing and the more she takes these lunches and dinners the longer she can stay in London.

It's a short book, entertaining but I do prefer her previous book better.

Review 626: 84, Charing Cross Road

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Re-read this short book recently, enjoyed it the second time around as well.

Liked Helene's humor. Felt like the letters included were curated, like some were missing. Made me wish to have a grand correspondence with an overseas bookseller, and get some of those nice books for such a great price. Haha!

Review 625: The Book On the Bookshelf

The Book On the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Earlier this year I read an Object Lessons series book Bookshelf, but it was a bit short for me, left me unsatisfied and curious to know more. Well it happens on my bookshelf for many, many years was sitting this book by Petroski, a book often quoted in the Object Lessons book. I’m glad I finally read it.

Petroski’s book is primarily about the history of the bookshelf, the furniture that holds books. Some history of the book itself is discussed, but that wasn’t the focus and likely there are more detailed books out there.

The furniture for books was varied in centuries past. Early forms were a type of box like a hat boxes when books were scrolls. When the book became closer to today's format there were stored in what we may call a truck but are properly called armaria. They could lock, which was important when books were few.

As books changed, the furniture did too to better hold them. As books became easier to copy, from hands to machines, then more people started to collect books. Libraries started to collect many more, and so the bookshelf came about. Still they were stored differently than today.

While books were still valuable there were chained libraries. The types of furniture and how these books were chained was a chapter or two. Some of the early shelving after the chained libraries had books facing up and at an angle. Often books were stored with the foredge showing, as this was before spines held any information on the book. It took centuries before the standard format of the bookshelf and spine out that we see today.

For most of the history of the book, and shelving, placement of shelving had to account for light. When libraries grew they had to be mindful of how the windows and shelves line up to prove the best lighting for reading. This was particularly important when the books were chained.

I had started to read this via audiobook but quickly realized that was not the best way to read this book. Since I had a print copy, I turned to reading it. Besides with audio I would have missed all of the illustrations that are throughout the book, and they definitely enhance the reading.

This is a quite detailed book, which I did appreciate. Although it is a couple of decades old, the eBook was being developed and is mentioned a few times. What dates the book is more the descriptions of the internet. But these portions are minimal.

The appendix is to be noted as here were listed 25 different ways to shelve a book. Petroski took some fun here, as it was more light hearted, and certainly not exhaustive. I noticed the bibliography at the end contained a long list of books that I could really go down the rabbit hole with this topic, but maybe I will leave it here. This one did satisfy a lot of my curiosity about the history of bookshelves. But it did make me kinda want some ancient book furniture.