Sunday Salon: Doctor this

 Good morning friends.  I've been looking at all the pictures from those of you in the Midwest and Northeast and was a leeetle bit jealous of being snowed in.  You know, having God tell you "No, you can't go running.  No the kids can't go to school or sports.  No scurrying around Miss Sandy.  Sit your ass at home for two days and read, sleep and watch movies."  Wouldn't that be nice just for a couple of days?  The weather down here is gorgeous, so I shouldn't complain.  But I'd love to wear a pair of jeans and a sweater, and be forced to go dormant for a wee bit. 

This was one of those weeks where I had to relinquish myself to the schedule.  Forget about getting anything else done, forget about blogging or reading or taking naps.  I stomped my feet and demanded I be allowed my three days of Andre and three days of running.  That's mine, don't touch it.  But beyond that it was all doctor appointments.  Two for me (annual checkup, fixing a cracked crown), and three for my son (all related to his back issues).  I also had my carpets cleaned, which is a day-long event.  Whatever.  These things had to happen.

I'm getting my head around a couple of book events coming up this spring...the UCF Book Festival on April 13 (great authors and Orlando bloggers!), and the Adult Literacy League Reading Between the Wines fundraiser on April 11.  It is going to be one busy week for me!  Stay tuned for updates on both.

On the reading front, I finished "Catherine the Great" on audio, which was REALLY a phenomenal piece of work.  I also listened to our very own Lenore Appelhans' "Level 2" on audio as well.  I have just started listening to "The End of Your Life Book Club" by Will Schwalbe.  I'm just preparing myself for tears, which can sometimes be a very good thing.  

In print, I did finish Uncle Stevie's classic collection of short stories "Night Shift", and am wrapping up a wonderful, insightful book called "Wild at Heart", which is about understanding a man's soul.  I'm reading this book primarily to better parent my 13 year-old son, but provides insight to my husband and myself as well.

So we have early Mass and Animal Shelter in store for today, plus management of homework.  Yeah.  That is always fun.  I'm giving up alcohol for Lent again this year, and that day starts Wednesday, so I shall be making hay while the sun shines (says the farmers).  Hope you all have a wonderful, restful WARM Sunday!  
  

Blood Beneath My Feet: Journey of a Southern Death Investigator - Joseph Scott Morgan

 I met Joseph Scott Morgan at SIBA this past fall, and I knew without a doubt this was one book I HAD to read.  Morgan stated that someone had deemed his book "the creation of a new genre".  I'm not sure I would argue with that.

Because what is this book?  A memoir?  True crime?  A collection of really disturbing pictures?  Maybe this IS a new genre, or maybe not, but I'm not sure it fits in any I've ever read before.

Synopsis:  Joseph Scott Morgan has spent most of his career in a profession that we would all probably find fascinating and electrifying, based on all the popular TV shows...a death investigator.  He started out in this field in New Orleans, working there for six years before moving to Atlanta and performing those same tasks for an additional fourteen years.  He also was an autopsy assistant, performing over 7,000 autopsies over his career.  

Morgan interweaves the story of his childhood, fraught with violence and abuse, with stories from his years in the forensic field.  While one might attest that his youth prepared him to disengage his mind from the horrors he would witness in his adulthood, it did not.  As Morgan relates the most disturbing crimes scenes he has processed, he also is brutally honest about the toll it has taken on his physical and mental health.  How seeing all forms of death can sneak up on a guy, and cause him to wonder when his number will come up.  So at a cocktail party, when someone asks him "what is the worst thing you've ever seen"?  Joseph knows that these innocents cannot handle the truth.  There are some things no man should ever have to witness.

  

My thoughts:  I am not sure what I expected with this book.  I knew it was a must-read for me, because I am a true crime junkie.  But it wasn't quite what I thought it would be.  I guess I didn't expect so much background on the author himself.  This was not a bad thing, in fact he did a nice job of transitioning between experiences in his childhood to memorable cases in his career.

The stories are frankly horrifying.  Remember, he is investigating death in New Orleans and Atlanta - how much worse could it get?  In fact, if you have lost someone recently, I would recommend you hold off on reading this because his descriptions of decomposition, the smells, the identification of a body, and autopsy procedures are not what you want to read.  But if you ever had an interest in this profession, this is a book that will give you the cold, hard, unvarnished truth.  Morgan is jaded, and for good reason.  

Then there are the pictures.  Yes, pictures.  Some are lovely black and white photos of Morgan with his mother, grandmother, grandfather, and other relatives.  But others are of various death scenes and they are disturbing.  But you can't help yourself, you need to see.  Just remember, you can't unsee it.  

The book is relatively short and easy to read.  Morgan has a clever turn of phrase, and you can tell the man is very intelligent.  But at the same time he is bitter.  His career took the best part of him and left him changed forever.  For those of you who think it would be cool to be Kay Scarpetta, this is a reality check. 

4 out of 5 stars  

Agent 6 - Tom Rob Smith (Audio)

Tom Rob Smith originally swept me away with his fast-paced, twisted Stalin-era thriller called "Child 44" (one of the first reviews I ever wrote - ha!).  The story featured a loyal but good-hearted MGB Agent named Leo Demidov who investigates a series of grisly child murders.  This was a anti-hero I could get behind.  

So I then listened to the second installment of the series called "The Secret Speech", also featuring Leo.  Frankly, it is hard for me to remember much about the book because it was pretty fragmented and ultimately was a disappointing follow-up.  But I was willing to give it another go with "Agent 6".  I liked Leo and wanted to see what had become of him.

Synopsis:   We have advanced to 1965 where Leo is no longer in the employ of the MGB, but a manager of a small factory.  Still, the investigator in him will always be in his blood, and when his wife and two nearly-grown adopted daughters are invited as part of a goodwill tour to New York City, he becomes skeptical.  Because he is not allowed to accompany them, he sits in Moscow, helpless to intervene what will become a political conspiracy that will devastate his life forever.  

Years pass, and he continues his obsession with getting at the truth of what actually happened with his wife and girls.  He accepts a position in Soviet-controlled Afghanistan, with the goal of eventually finding a way to get to New York City.  

The author covers miles of ground, from the days when Leo met his wife in 1950, to the assassination of a black American singer and sympathizer of Communism in 1965 (modeled after real-life actor and activist Paul Robeson), to the twisted conspiracy led by a brutal FBI agent, to Leo's drug-induced fog in Afghanistan.  All of this slowly building to a grand denouement of the three-book trilogy.

My thoughts:  This was quite an ambitious effort for Mr. Smith.  The story spanned decades, encompassed multiple countries and political regimes.  Because I like Leo (sort of in the same way I like Harry Hole or Jack Reacher, with all their frailties), I happily plodded after him in this novel and was very much entertained by all the bizarre adventures.

But the fragmentation that I witnessed in "The Secret Speech" continued here. More than once I stopped listening and vaguely wondered, "I wonder if Leo ever WILL get to the US" and "I wonder if we ever WILL find out what happened over there in 1965".  Which was unnerving to me.  Normally I trust an author to deliver, but the plot was so erratic and wandering, I worried that I was going to be left for dead out in an Afghan cave, with resolutions to nothing!  

I guess I shouldn't have worried, because Smith brought things around, and finalized his trilogy in a way that was satisfying.  I asked myself if I should have taken a more open-minded approach to the book, considering it more of an epic tale than a specific, honed story.  Like Lawrence of Arabia or Doctor Zhivago.  Because he was ALL OVER THE PLACE.  This was probably confusing to me because "Child 44" was so tight and laser sharp, and very much unlike the last two books in the series.

I was also somewhat disappointed with the mystery, if you will.  Who was Agent 6?  (Again I wondered if I would ever find out, or if I'd missed something.)  Who was behind all the treachery and conspiracy?  The answer seemed pretty obvious to me, so obvious that I figured I was going to have a twist thrown at me in the end.  Not so.  It was all right there from the beginning.

Throw all of these musings into the wine press, and I guess the result would be this.  If you like reading about the progression of Russian politics over the years, of agents and conspiracies and epic tales that take you in unexpected directions, you will most likely enjoy this one.  I would recommend, however, that you read the first two books in the series to better understand and appreciate Leo.

A few words about the audio production:  I was pleased that the same narrator was retained for all three novels.  Dennis Boutsikaris does a phenomenal job in all of them, with his sarcastic Russian accent.  He made the trilogy quite a listening pleasure.

Audio book length:  13 hours and 15 minutes (480 pages)

3.5 out of 5 stars

   

Not So Wordless Wednesday: Chicago #5

This, of course, is the Sears Tower.  I mean the Willis Tower.  When you walk by it, it just BEGS to be photographed from the base.  In the past, I've actually thrown myself down on the sidewalk to capture the best angle.  

When this building was originally completed in 1973, it was actually the tallest building in the world, and it held that honor for 25 years.  (I actually went up in this tower for the first time in 1976.)  The Sears naming rights expired in 2003, but it was in 2009 when London-based insurance broker Willis Group Holdings leased part of the building and bought the rights did the name officially change.  Willis Schmillis.  It will always be Sears to me.

On this particular trip, we did NOT go up to the top - there was a 2 hour wait, which is common in the summer.  We've been up there a number of times, and it is actually worth the wait if you've never been.  They show you a great movie that was made to document the construction and design of the building, and at the top there are many photographs and memorabilia surrounding the history of Chicago (fans of "Devil in the White City" will love this).

In 2009, when Willis put their name on the place, they invested in a major overhaul of the Skydeck, which included a glass-bottom extension that sticks out over Wacker Drive.  This would be on the 103rd floor guys.  No thanks.  I would have to lay on the thing because my legs wouldn't work with that kind of view.    

Calling Me Home - Julie Kibler

 It has been a handful of months now that I've been reading the monthly books chosen and featured by She Reads, the wonderful website dedicated to all things bookish.  My takeaway regarding She Reads is this...they are on a ROLL with the books they have been selecting!  I can't even explain to you how this monthly book selection has become a highlight...it is like a little happy bonus every month.  

I'd not heard a single thing about February's selection "Calling Me Home" but from the very first page it was almost impossible to put down.  Here is the premise.

Synopsis:  Over the years, 89 year-old Isabelle McAllister has forged a warm friendship with her hairdresser Dorrie, despite the fact that most would find the bond unlikely.  Isabelle is a fussy Southern white woman, and Dorrie is a young single black mother of two children...but the two have grown close.  Still, Dorrie is taken aback when Isabelle asks her to drive her from Texas to Ohio so that she may attend a funeral.  Despite their friendship, Dorrie knows little about Isabelle's background, and has no clue who has died.  But because of her love and respect for the old woman, she agrees.  

On the road, with snacks and crossword puzzles in hand, the story is slowly revealed.  When Isabelle was a 17 year-old in 1930's Kentucky, she fell in love with Robert Prewitt, the handsome black son of the family housekeeper.  Not only was this union frowned upon, it was illegal and if revealed to Isabelle's family and community, might even have gotten Robert killed.  Isabelle's story of her one true love, and the lifetime of heartbreak and consequences it brought her, is shocking and devastating to Dorrie.  Not only does it put Dorrie's problems in perspective, but makes her glad she can be there for her friend.  

My thoughts:  One thing my rather lame synopsis will never convey is how easy this book was to read.  (The topic itself was NOT easy, don't get me wrong.)  But the prose was smooth and conversational and just flowed right off the page.  It is hard to explain but some stories are written so seamlessly, you pick it up and suddenly you are 200 pages into it.  This is not a throw-away complement for me to give.  This reading experience is not one I have often.  

The subject matter, however, is visceral.  My heart just broke in two...the losses in Isabelle's life were beyond comprehension.  And as a reader, I felt every emotion because of the tangible chemistry between Isabelle and Robert. The impossibility of the relationship, the brutality towards blacks, the unfairness of it all...I was distraught and frustrated and wanted to stomp my feet!  And these are all good things.  If a book can make me FEEL, then it has done it's job.

Yet it was a beautiful love story, and a street level view of race relations back in the '30's.  It reminded me so much of "The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove" by Susan Gregg Gilmore (which I would highly recommend as well).  This is not a book I will soon forget.

4.5 out of 5 stars  

Monday Matinee: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

 The Hobbit was one movie my family was primed to see.  The kids and I listened to the book on audio, and once we were mentally able to get past the narrator (who ultimately caused us to crash and burn when we started The Lord of the Rings), we thought it a very dear sort of story.  We were skeptical about Jackson's decision to make the book into three installments, but I guess there is profit to be had.  And we will be the suckers lined up all three times to contribute.

So my thoughts?  Overall, we were quite entertained.  I can't say we were completely blown away like we were when we first saw the LOTR trilogy.  It was new then, now it is not.  The beauty of the New Zealand landscape, the sweetness of the Hobbits with their hairy feet and pointed ears, the hideousness of the Orcs, and how easy it is to slaughter them because they are stupid.  We've done it all before.   

But there are some new characters.  We are amidst these goofy, perpetually-hungry and perpetually-singing dwarves...who made the story so dear.  We see a younger, grounded and modest Bilbo, which was definitely a pleasant treat after seeing him act a little half-baked as an older man, after the Precious had it's way with him.  This was a Bilbo that you could root for.  He is clever, courageous and loyal.  We welcomed back our beloved Gandalf too.  Gandalf rocks.

Oh yeah.  And Gollum.  For me, the scene with Gollum was the highlight.  It always was with LOTR as well.  I LOVE Gollum.  My eyes just eat him up from the screen.  His dual personality, his insecurities, his constant agony, his vulnerability.  The scene when he plays the guessing game with Bilbo is the most iconic in the entire book in my opinion.  What have I gots in my pocketses?

According to my sister, those in the movie critic circles say that the drinking game to be played with LOTR is a shot for every time somebody slaps someone else's back.  I never noticed until she told me, and now I find it getting on my nerves.  In The Hobbit, the drinking game became clear from the beginning...a shot for every time someone falls off a cliff or nearly falls off a cliff.  Dwarves, Bilbo, and many many Orcs take their turn hurtling off the sides of a precipice. I calculated about an hour of Orc battle scenes that we didn't really need, and that these battle scenes added an element of malevolence that wasn't present in the book.  But we have to make this last for three movies!  So Orc battles are the filler.

For those of you that have known me for awhile, you would be wondering what ever would I do without my dear Aragorn?  Despite the fact that he looks like he smells awful, what a handsome fellow, that Aragorn.  Well, I think I have found his replacement.

Behold, Richard Armitage, who plays Thorin, the exiled King from Lonely Mountain.  Yeah.  He isn't as gentle, with those butter-melting eyes like Aragorn.  He is angry because he has been knocked off his pedestal.  But he has a look, my friends.  It is a look with potential.

Recommended with expectations in check.

4 out of 5 stars  

Sunday Salon: Shine on you crazy diamond

 Hello my long lost friends!  Yes I am officially back from my extended blogging vacation.  Kinda weird, me sitting down to write this Sunday rambling.  So I guess I need to get you all caught up on what I've been up to.  

Pretty much sloth is what I have been up to.  Reading-wise anyway.  I HAVE been reading, but sort of a meandering kind of reading.  Taking my time, indulging in longer audio reads and books that have been sitting on my shelves for awhile.  This may come back to haunt me, as now I have to keep up, but I'll give it my best shot.  

I've been seeing a lot of Oscar movies.  So expect some belated reviews of those over the next month or so.  I'm certainly not cutting edge at this point.  I apologize if you have heard enough about Les Miserables, for example, but I have to get it all off my chest.

The kids' business still keeps me running around like my hair is on fire.  My daughter made the track team, so she is participating in practice five days a week, and meets start on the 15th.  She is also on some crazy mission to hit something like 500 community service hours in high school, so she keeps cracking the whip on animal shelter volunteerism.  Ryan started wrestling, only to wrench his back all to hell, so now he is on drugs and in PT twice a week for who knows how long.

My LASIK-adjusted eyes have finally outgrown the procedure from a decade ago and I had to break down and get glasses.  Special way to make me feel old.

Still obsessively training for my half-marathon in a few weeks.  I am SO ready for this thing to happen.  I'm sick to death of getting up at 4:30 in the morning to run during the week. And my feet and left butt check hurt all the time. 

February is #shineon month, or in other words, when all of us apostles of Uncle Stevie read his early treasure "The Shining", hosted by Fizzy Jill.  (I'd add the link here but I'm having trouble calling up her website...I'm sure it is something I'm doing.)  And because she is Fizzy Jill, we get accessories and stuff.  (Note that I have my ORIGINAL Shining book from high school.  I have to show the back of the book because the front page was ripped off in some earlier fit of terror, or over-reading, or something.)  

I'm also happily participating in C.B. James' annual Double Dog Dare, where I read only my own books, with exceptions made only for book club reads.  I so look forward to this every year.  It has changed my life.  Speaking of reading my own stuff, I just had a huge purge of books from my shelves...over a hundred titles were quickly spirited off to the library.  

Right now I am really close to finishing Uncle Stevie's collection of short stories called "Night Shift".  My son the non-reader actually read this book and begged me to re-read it so we could have an educated and spirited discussion about each story.  I'm also within a few discs of finishing "Catherine the Great:  Portrait of a Woman" by Robert Massie on audio.  This was a big stretch for me...I am not a history buff.  But I have very much enjoyed this audio.  Fascinating stuff, with all these young, hunky "favorites" and beating up on Poland and being a badass type A woman of her time.

There are big plans brewing today for the Super Bowl, as well as animal shelter and some homework assistance squeezed in there for good measure.  Hope you all have a wonderful day.  I'm so glad to be back!