Retracing an Old Route

Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux.

In Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, Theroux recreates an epic journey he took thirty years ago, a giant loop by train (mostly) through Eastern Europe, Turkey, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, China, Japan, and Siberia. In short, he traverses all of Asia top to bottom, and end to end. In the three decades since he first traveled this route, Asia has undergone phenomenal change. The Soviet Union has collapsed, China has risen, India booms, Burma slowly smothers, and Vietnam prospers despite the havoc unleashed upon it the last time Theroux passed through. He witnesses all this and more in a 25,000 mile journey, traveling as the locals do, by train, car, bus, and foot, providing his penetrating observations on the changes these countries have undergone.

I really enjoyed reading about his revisit to the area. Now I have to reread The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia

A Christmas Treat

The Christmas Pearl by Dorothea Benton Frank.

93-year-old Theodora misses the Christmases of yesteryear and dreads the coming holidays with her dysfunctional family. She prays for help, and help arrives in the form of her long-dead family housekeeper Pearl. This special Christmas Pearl and Dora work together to rebuild her family.

I read this book on Christmas Eve. What a treat for Christmas!

Celebrate Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year.

Observed since 1982, this annual ALA event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. This year, 2008, marks BBW's 27th anniversary (September 27 through October 4).

BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.

The top three reasons, in order, for challenging material are the material is considered to be “sexually explicit” contain “offensive language,” and be “unsuited to age group.

The top 10 challenged books of 2007 are:

1. And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson, ilustrated by Peter Parnell

Reasons: Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group - I actually think this is a really stupid book, but those who would ban books think it is just evil.



2. The Chocolate War (Readers Circle)“The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier

Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence



3. Olive's Ocean (rpkg) (HarperClassics) by Kevin Henkes

Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language



4. The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1) by Philip Pullman

Reasons: Religious Viewpoint



5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Reasons: Racism



6. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language,



7. ttyl (Talk to You Later-Internet Girls) by Lauren Myracle

Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group



8.I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Reasons: Sexually Explicit


9.It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health (Robie Sex Books) by Robie Harris

Reasons: Sex Education, Sexually Explicit

10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

The top reason for the challenges appears to be sex. Apparently the people who do these challenges don't bother with the romance sections of the library.

Read a banned book this week. There are lots of people out there who think they know what books you shouldn't be reading. One of these people even wants to be Vice-President.

A Lifelong Vigil

The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks

This novel is based on the true experiences of a Civil War heroine. Carrie McGavock witnessed the bloodshed of the savage Battle of Franklin, cared for the wounded soldiers when her own home was turned into a hospital and fought to save the graves of the Confederate soldiers. Hicks does a wonderful job of evoking what Carrie McGavock’s life was like during and after the battle.

She dedicated herself to the memory of the unknown young men who died in her house and in her neighbor’s fields. Whenever identification was possible she contacted the next of kin. Over the years families from all over the south made their way to her home to visit their sons’ graves.

Carrie McGavock maintained the cemetery until her death in 1905. Since then it has been maintained by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. And here is a picture of the cemetery with Carrie's home Carnton in the background.

Bridge of Sighs

Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo

Set in an economically depressed town in upstate New York, this novel follows the fortunes of two boyhood friends, Lou C. Lynch (cruelly nicknamed Lucy) and Bobby Marconi. Bobby becomes a famous painter living in Venice, hence the title. Lucy marries Sarah, the girl they both loved in high school.

The novel begins as Lucy and Sarah prepare for a long planned journey to Italy. The history of their childhood and families unfold as the story moves between them.

Russo is really adept at writing about the lives of working class people in the Northeast. The characters are sort of grim and grey like the weather, but they hang on.

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer

This terrifying true crime story of the murder of a young mother and her baby by her Mormon Fundamentalist brothers-in-law is quite a departure for outdoor adventure writer Krakauer. He has incorporated the history of the LDS Church and the fundamentalist groups that have broken away from the main church in his chilling tale. Warren Jeffs, the imprisoned sect leader whose compound was raided this week, is a central character in this tangled story of peculiar religious beliefs, violence, and sexual exploitation.

This was a truly frightening book.

Memo to Eliot Spitzer

Bookreporter.com has a diferent view of the scandal surrounding former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer - It would have been better to buy books with that money.

If you spent the $4,300 you were alleged to have spent on the night of February 13th on books, you could have bought 172 hardcover books at an average price of $25. Read the rest of the posting..