Simon Winchester: Not Quite Overrated

I recently read Winchester's A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906,which I had purchased at the SF airport on my way back to Seattle. Having A) started my Winchester appreciation with the phenomenalThe Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary,B) lived in San Francisco for 5 years, including experience the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, and C) still living in earthquake country and having a somewhat unhealthy interest in them, I was sure to like the book, right? Not quite. It seems that since his success with The Professor and the Madman, The Map That Changed the World,and then Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883,Winchester'd gotten a little too chatty and fascinated with his own part of the story. The trend started with Krakatoa but got worse with The Crack in the Edge of the World. There are many fascinating things in the book, but he kept taking long diversions to talk of his experiences rather than the history or science. Let's just say, this is one more example where a good editor should have stood up against an author's ego. Sigh.

Fleck + Ward = Sollee

If you're a fan of Bela Fleck and/or M. Ward, you'll probably like Ben Sollee's new album Learning to Bend. Sollee plays cello using both traditional and very creative methods and has a sweet voice to go along with it. His style is a combination of folk and pop but avoids the over-earnest sound of guys like Jack Johnson and Dave Matthews.

Diana Gabaldon's Lord John

Gabaldon's "Outlander" series of historical novels are quite popular and I will get to them one day. In the meantime, I've been really enjoying the three books about a spin-off character from "Outlander" named Lord John. Lord John is a gay warrior/aristocrat in 17th century London. There are currently two novels, Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade and Lord John and the Private Matter and a book of novellas and a short story: Lord John and the Hand of Devils.

I'm a big fan of historical fiction and to have a gay themed series is double plus good.

I don't think it matters which volume you start with--they were written out of chronological order--but you'll probably want to read them all (I got my husband hooked already). Gabaldon has promised a fourth volume, Lord John and the Scottish Prisoner and I can't wait. Unfortunately, she says that it will be the last of the series.

Two Real-Life Dysfunctional Families Makes for Great Reading (and not A. Burroughs's)

Jesus Land: A Memoir. And you thought your family was dysfunctional. That author Julia Scheeres is able to come out of this sane is a testament to her character. Her parents were complete nuts whose idea of parenting was to issue orders through the house intercom (providing the only interruption in the Christian music usually on the system). This, at times harrowing, book covers about 10 years during which white Scheeres and her adopted black brother lived in rural and race-ignorant Indiana and then a Christian reform school in the Dominican Republic. Of course, the kids didn’t need reforming, the parents did.

Alison Bechdel’s Fun House is a dark comedy in the form of a graphic novel. I was a bit hesitant about picking this one up as I’m not a huge fan of graphic novels, but in the 80’s and early 90’s I was a big fan of her “Dykes to Watch Out For” comic strip This is her first graphic novel and it’s a polished, mature book that has all the engagement and depth of a traditional novel, or perhaps, a novella.

Two from Spanbauer

Tom Spanbauer gained significant notice in the 80s with his debut novel, The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon. This was the warm and almost mythical story of a young gay man growing up in the old American West. His two more recent novels also deserve a read. These are: In the City of Shy Hunters and Now Is the Hour. The first follows the trials and triumphs of another gay young man, but this time he’s a bit older and learning about adulthood in the yeasty East Village of the late 1980s. The story is filled with interesting characters and events. Much of it would be hard to believe if it weren’t set in New York. At times the 670 page tome feels a little ponderous, but the ending is more than satisfying.

Now Is the Hour is told mostly in retrospect from the perspective of yet another young gay man coming age in the late 60s. This time, he’s from Idaho and headed to San Francisco. So while on the one hand, it would be nice if Spanbauer would try another set-up, on the other, he does a great job with the execution. The book is not a repeat of either of the two others and stands well on its own. Once again, Spanbauer's love for his characters shines through.

Back from my extended blog vacation with some more books and music...

Well, I've been saving up a bunch of posts and have been reading more. Here we go...

Venice has a special allure for many people, including myself. The combination of canals, Italian/“oriental” architecture, Italian food and Italian language make for a sumptuous city. If you’ve ever wanted to go a bit deeper than the typical tourist, there are some great books the check out. Two that I recently read are The City of Falling Angels, by John Berendt (of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil fame) and Venetian Archeology. While these are very different books, they work well together.

Berendt’s book is a personal profile of the city written while he was staying there for an extended period. While the book uses the recent destruction of La Fenice and its rebirth from the ashes as its centerpiece, Berendt casts a wider net. We also learn about some of the neighborhoods, history, internecine politics and family strife. At times though, I wished for more detail, rather than the grazing style he uses.

Venetian Archeology traces the engineering and archeological history of its eponymous city. This volume helps us to understand not only the various ornamental and structural elements of the buildings, but how how the buildings themselves were built up on the hundreds of islands that make up the archipelago. Again, there were times that I wished for more detail or more pictorial examples, but the book is still good enough to recommend for at least library loan.