Ern's Monthly Page Turners (January 2008)

Before starting this blog, I used to write a montly review of the books I read and would send it to all my friends who have a computer. After I finish composing my piece, I would send it to my own e-mail address and then forward said essay to my friends. Well, the last time I had sent the essay to an old address of mine (an address that was no longer in existence), therefore my mail said "could not send to address". Instead of hitting the forward button and typing in the correct address, I inadvertantly, hit the delete button! So now I find myself re-writing my entire essay with this short preview (in case my friends were wondering why there was no book review yet). Of course this is also my first time writing what I thought about the books I read on a blog, but I'm slowly getting used to it. The only worry I have is if my father will have a hard time finding my blog sight, he's in his late 70s but is my most avid reader and responder to my e-mails. Hopefully my sister will show him the ropes. And now for the lost essays of January's literary morsels:

1. BABYLON BY BUS: Or, the true story of two friends who gave up their valuable franchise selling YANKEES SUCK T-shirts at Fenway to find meaning and adventure in Iraq, where they became employed by the Occupation in jobs for which they lacked qualification and witnessed much that amazed and disturbed them by Ray Lemoine and Jeff Neumann with Donovan Webster - I kid you not, this really was the subtitle of the book. Although I wouldn't condone the action of these two idiots, it did make for hilarious reading. It also goes to show you how pathetic and thoughtless the Bush administration was when it came to rebuilding the country. The Coalition Provisional Authority (C.P.A.) was so lame and dysfunctional, it's no surprise that the situation got worse in Iraq after the fall of Saddam - as Ted Nugent would say - "they couldn't see pass the billfold". We all know Bush just wanted to dip his hands on Iraqi oil. The C.P.A. made it so difficult for humanitarian aide and workers to be able to do their job, while they try to put on a good face and say, "Oh Gosh darn, things are hunky-dory here." Please!! Hasn't that idiot done enough? I mean when some journalists were looking for good news out of Iraq, these two guys actually were doing some good (all without the help of the C.P.A.), so ironic that the C.P.A. later hired them. Excellent read!

2. EULALIA by Brian Jacques - The latest title in the Redwall series. I never get tired of these anthropomorphic rodents as good fights evil, evil gains the upper hand, and is always defeated by good in the end. This title also marks the twentienth anniversary of the Redwall series. If you're not familiar with this series, let me just tell you that the good rodents are mice, moles, shrews, otters, hares and badgers. They evil critters are weasels, ferrets, rats, foxes, and snakes. Of course this doesn't account for all the animals that appear in the story but it gives you a good idea of which characters you should be rooting for. This time around, an old Badger Lord named Asheye has a vision of a new leader for Salamandastron and sends a haremaid on a quest to find him. Gorath, who doesn't know his destiny as yet is captured by the evil fox Vizka Longtooth along with horde of Sea Raiders and wants to train the badger to fight for them. At the same time a chief of evil brownrats is seeking to lay siege to Redwall. With the help of a thief, Gorath escapes the Sea Raiders and is led to Redwall. It is there where he learns of his destiny and must do his duty to protect Redwall from the Sea Raiders and Brownrats before he can make his claim to be the new Badger Lord of Salamandastron.

3. THE CUSTOMS OF THE KINGDOMS OF INDIA: GREAT JOURNEYS VOLUME 3 by Marco Polo - I have once returned to the world of historic travel in Penguin Books excellent "Great Journeys" series. For me, who loves travel essays, you might find it surprising that I have never read anything by Marco Polo, even though most of us are familiar with his name and know that he had traveled the Silk Road many times. This book focuses on his descriptions of the Kingdoms of India, the people, their religions. Stories he had heard from sailors, merchants, and other travelers. Some stories exciting as all heck while others you have to take with a grain of salt. Short but enjoyable read.

4. YOU'VE GOT TO READ THIS BOOK: 55 PEOPLE TELL THE STORY OF THE BOOK THAT CHANGED THEIR LIFE edited by Jack Canfield and Gay Hendricks - As a lover of books and being an avid reader, I was captured by this title. Of course I had some misgivings about reading it, seeing how one of the editors was Jack Canfield - one of the founders of the popular but sickly sweet series, "Chicken Soup for the Soul". And seeing how this was edited by a couple of motivational speakers, the range of people isn't quite as diverse as you would hope it to be. However, there are a few people who's names you may recognize such as Dave Barry, Kenny Loggins, Malachy McCourt (brother to Frank McCourt of "Angela's Ashes" fame) and of course Jack Canfield and Gay Hendricks. Also the actress Catherine Oxenberg and novelist Jacqueline Mitchard. It was entertaining to read about what books changed a person's life such as Adolph Hitler's "Mein Kamph" or Robert Heinlein's "Space Cadet" or Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind". Of the 55 people's choices, I believe I've read about three of the titles, including Heinlein's "Space Cadet". The other two books I've read that were mentioned were Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" and Paulo Coehlo's "The Alchemist". Of course most of the titles mentioned were either self-help books, religious texts, or how-to-be-a-success type of books such as Stephen Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", "The Teachings of Buddha", and the Holy Bible. I can't really think of a book that changed my life, although I can think of one that had a profound effect on me at the time I read it - which would have been Richard Bach's "The Bridge Across Forever". A friend of mine probably can't believe that his God and Idol wasn't listed. Anthony Robbin's "Unlimited Power" or Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich". I was surprised that nobody mentioned Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People". I'm almost tempted to read a couple of similar titles - Time Out's "1000 Books to Change Your Life" and Peter Boxall's "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die". So many books, so little time. It reminds me of that "Twilight Zone" episode where a banker survives a nuclear explosion and finds himself in front of a library. Oh, the episode was titled "Time Enough at Last" - damn, I love the internet!! Of course I remember the sad ending too, when he gets ready to read, he drops his eye-glasses which shatter!!

5. PIRACY, TURTLES & FLYING FOXES: GREAT JOURNEYS VOLUME 5 by William Dampier - And once again I return to Penguin Books Great Journey series. This time around, we will travel back to the years of the late 1600s. According to the blurb about the author, Willaim Dampier sailed around the world three times and was known as a sailor, explorer, amateur anthropologist and pirate. At a time when he was broke and back in London, he decided to put his exploits to print and wrote what's become known as the first great travel book in English - "A New Voyage Around the World". This book is a collection of excerpts of his various trips and tribulations. The first part of the book describes his adventures in North, South, and Central America. He writes in detail about the various species of turtles to be found in the West Indies, about the manatee near the Florida Keys, and you can't forget about those flying foxes either - which turned out to be bats by the way. From the Americas, he sails on to Mindanao in the Philippines, to New Holland (what is now Australia), the Nicobar and Andaman Islands, and Sumatra.

6. A JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE: GREAT JOURNEYS VOLUME 15 by Anton Chekhov - My uncle would be proud of me. Why? For the simple fact of reading one of Russian's gift to western literature - Anton Chekhov. Why would my Japanese uncle be so proud of such a feat? For the simple fact that he spent a large part of his life living and working there when it was still called the Soviet Union. He even spent three years working in Siberia (and no, not a labor camp or gulag!!), he went there voluntarily. It seems the Russians paid him good money for his interpretating services. This story takes us back to 1890 when Chekhov was dissatisfied with his success and lifestyle in Moscow. He sets out for the far eastern island of Sakhalin located in Siberia and was the location of one of Russia's more notorious penal colonies. He describes his journey across Russia and Siberia through a series of letters home to friends and family. His trip resulted in his book: "The Island: A Journey to Sakhalin" which was published in 1893. The second half of this book is excerpts from that work. I don't know if I would like to go to Siberia or not but my uncle did give me a coat of his that he wore over there and said it was guaranteed to keep me warm in temperatures 50 belo2w!!

7. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN by Cormac McCarthy - I was intrigued by the storyline and thought I would read the original before seeing the film adaptation. This is my first McCarthy book as I never did get around to reading or watching "All the Pretty Horses". But now that I've read this book, I don't think I will watch the movie. Not at the theater anyway. Well maybe, as I see it's another Coen Brothers film. This had such a promising beginning. A redneck out hunting comes across a couple of bullet-riddened cars with a few bullet-riddened bodies as well, and a briefcase full of U.S. green. What to do? Leave the scene quietly and pretend he didn't find anything? Take the money and worry about the consequences later? Our hero (if you can call him that), opts for the latter choice and finds himself the one to be hunted. I'm sorry, but I couldn't give a rat's ass about the protagonist, he was just a loser to begin with and not very likable. I'm kind of glad that he got what he deserved at the end. I don't know, I think McCarthy wrote this overly violently story just for the sake of violence and it seems Hollywood has eyes for seeing green in violence. It's sad but true. Skip the book. Maybe someone else can tell me about the movie as it hasn't been released here yet.

8. EMERALD CITY AND OTHER STORIES by Jennifer Egan - Okay, I admit it, I was taken in by the title thinking that it must be related to Seattle in some way. It wasn't! I don't usually read short stories either for the simple fact that they're short! But I decided to give this book a chance as the settings of the stories take place in exotic locales such as Kenya, China, Mexico, New York City, and the island of Bora Bora. Most of the stories are kind of bleak and depressing. Not really my cup of tea.

9. FIGHTING IN SPAIN: GREAT JOURNEYS VOLUME 18 by George Orwell - Yes, the same George Orwell of "1984" and "Animal Farm" fame. But before he became world famous for those two novels, he had stopped writing for a time. In December of 1936, Orwell went to Spain and fought with the Republican side against General Francisco Franco's nationalist uprising. He later wrote about his experiences serving in Spain which would later become his book "Homage to Catalonia". Reading this account of the Spanish Civil War, it hardly seems if you could call it a war at all. Even though I have read "Animal Farm" and "1984", after reading this, I'm now curious to read his earlier novels. Although war isn't a very pleasant subject, this was quite an entertaining read. Here's something for you trivia buffs, did you know that George Orwell was shot through the neck and nearly killed in the Spanish Civil War? I didn't know that either!

10. THE CORNFLAKE HOUSE by Deborah Gregory - Here's something a little different I decided to read. The little blurb on the back of the book captured my interest. The story starts out with the protagonist, Eve, sitting in prison writing to her prison visitor, Matthew. She never says if he's the public defender or why he comes to visit. Eve is the eldest child of seven siblings, all who share the same mother but a different and unknown father. Her mother, Victoria, also possesses a bit of magic and has won them a house in a contest that was sponsored by a cereal company. The house is located in a nice part of Surrey where people name their houses with grand names like Something Manor or Shady Woods or whatever. As they won this house from a cereal company, they christen the house - The Cornflake House. It isn't until your more than half-way through the book that you find out why Eve is in prison. But Eve gets a bigger shock in the end. Apparently the debut novel of British author Gregory. Interesting.

And so ends another month of my ramblings of what I've read. Apologies to you non-readers as I didn't come across a photography book worthy of mentioning. I'm already into my second book for the month of February. And I think I have a third, except the third will just be a reference book. It's the "Windows Vista for Dummies" book. Because our operating system at home is all in Japanese, I thought it might be more convenient for me to have an English reference manual.

I only hope my father will get the hang of reading my blog. I just know he's going to have problems with it.