March was another month of motley mixes in terms of books read. I finally finished a lengthy short story collection I'd been working on, and I was able to get through some more books in my to-read stack to boot. On to my thoughts!
Garthowen: A Story of a Welsh Homestead - Allen Raine (1900)
"The golden marsh marigolds glittered around her, the beautiful bog bean hung its pinky-white fringe over the brown peat pools, the silky plumes of cotton grass nodded at her as she passed, and the wind whispered in the rushes the secrets of the sea."
Garthowen's story focuses on late-19th century life in a Welsh village. Major elements and themes contained therein are the relationship of the villagers to the sea and surrounding nature, class distinctions, family relationships, and religion. The author uses flowery, descriptive prose that's very typical of the time and genre, though I found that the use of elements such as (archaic) common Welsh phrases made this more interesting than other books I've read from the same period. Throw in characters like a possibly-piratical prodigal son, a kindly village herbalist (witch?), and a sea-foundling, and you have a classic read that manages to be relaxing and exciting.
A note of interest is that "Allen Raine" was the pseudonym of female Welsh author Anne Puddicombe, née Evans.
You can find this e-book for free on Amazon.
Related Reads:
The Story Girl (Montgomery)
Equal Rites (Pratchett)
The Perfectionist: Life and Death in Haute Cuisine - Rudolph Chelminski (2005)
"'He didn't need approval, he needed to be adored. Unanimously. And we did love him, too, in spite of his weaknesses. Or maybe we loved him because of his weaknesses. He was just so fragile and so human. A lot of people who didn't know him well enough were skeptical about his sincerity because they felt like he was always play-acting, and doing a number on them. It's true. He did that. But it was only because he was trying to please them.'"
This book details the life and career of French chef Bernard Loiseau, who suddenly committed suicide at the height of his career in 2003. Author Chelminski, a freelance writer who met with Loiseau periodically throughout his career, presents a decent background into French cooking culture and the Michelin Guide/star system before giving an overview of Loiseau's family background and life.
Although I found this book could get somewhat plodding and name-heavy (Chelminski understandably finds it necessary to give readers lots of context), I will admit that it's an interesting window into both Loiseau and the extreme culinary culture that arguably led to his death.
Related Reads:
The Apprentice (Pepin)
Kitchen Confidential (Bourdain)
If You Love Me: A Mother's Journey Through her Daughter's Opioid Addiction - Maureen Cavanaugh (2018)
"I hadn't known just how much pain the world could contain. It crushes me sometimes, not just my own but the pain of so many others also trying to hang on to whatever shred of their loved ones they can."
Cavanaugh opens her memoir with a passage that's as shocking as it is relatable to family members of addicts. It's 2017, and she's driving through town after learning that her heroin-addicted daughter is about to leave yet another rehab facility. A baseball bat is rolling around in the back of the car. If she runs into her beloved daughter's drug dealer, she swears to herself, she'll take the bat and beat him to death in order to save her daughter once and for all.
It's straightforward portions like this that are the strength of If You Love Me. Cavanaugh doesn't hesitate to delve into the dark places and thoughts that, prior to having an addicted child, seemed unimaginable to her. She unflinchingly details her feelings of shock and isolation after realizing that her daughter is a serious heroin addict, her enabling and obsessive behavior, and her quest for answers that eventually lead her to founding an online support group.
As much as I wanted to like this book, though, there were enough issues that make it hard for me to recommend. First off, I didn't like that Cavanaugh doesn't explicitly note (as other similar memoirs that I've read do) that she has permission from daughter to share intimate details about her addiction. There are also large portions of the book that are dedicated to the author's online group and the relationships she formed there; while this is surely an important piece of the story, the way that it's presented makes the book drag.
Cavanaugh seems to spend a good deal of time focused on herself in her recollections while overlooking people like her other (non-addict) children - I can't fault her entirely here, but this is paired with prose that feels fairly uneven, especially as the book goes on. Finally, unlike other similar books that have something of an ending (however tenuous), this story is still ongoing, and thus the book kind of just peters out. It's a harsh reality that the cycle of relapse and rehab is common with addicts, but I feel the author could've ended on a stronger note. All in all, I appreciate the existence of this book, but there are better ones on the same subject out there.
Related Reads:
A Very Fine House (Stoefen)
Ben Behind His Voices (Kaye)
Beautiful Boy (Sheff)
The Time Traveler's Almanac [Short Stories] (2013)
"There was a sound like a gigantic bonfire burning all of Time, all the years and all the parchment calendars, all the hours piled high and set aflame."
The Time Traveler's Almanac contains a wide range of stories (72 in all) within a fairly narrow genre. Although I didn't care for every story and felt that some of the space given to longer stories or excerpts from larger works would have been better served going to a greater number of shorter stories, I enjoyed the mix overall. It contains stories spanning from the late 1800s to now, and has a good mix of female and non-European authors. By design, the genre is limited and thus I didn't find I could read a lot in one sitting, but I'd recommend it as a good starting point to explore more authors and books within the specific Sci-Fi genre.
Related Reads:
Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Twentieth Century
Guards! Guards! (1989) and
Men At Arms (1993) - Terry Pratchett
"So many crimes are solved by a happy accident - by the random stopping of a car, by an overheard remark, by someone of the right nationality happening to be within five miles of the scene of the crime without an alibi..."
This month, I finally obtained the first and second books in the City Watch/Guards story line of Terry Pratchett's Discworld. This wasn't my first time coming across many of the main characters since they appear peripherally in other Discworld story lines, but it was my first time understanding the background of the City Watch. I kind of wish I'd read them a little sooner in the mix of Discworld books I've read so far, but I also think I could probably say that about a lot of Discworld books.
In any case, Guards! Guards! and Men At Arms are both a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the solving-mysteries element to them.
The Bullet Journal Method - Ryder Carroll (2018)
"Leading an intentional life is about keeping your actions aligned with your beliefs. It's about penning a story that you believe in and that you can be proud of."
I've long been interested in Bullet Journaling, but I'd always had trouble sorting through the huge variety of online resources enough to get started. Having the basics explained to me in this book form, then, ended up being a perfect place for me to start.
The Bullet Journal Method isn't meant only for those just starting out, though; author/method creator Ryder Carroll includes explanations of basic concepts and layouts as well as example pages for beginners, but also gets into more complicated and refined elements of BuJo in the later part of the book. I'd also say that at least half of the book is focused on discussion of planning goals and life advice, which seemed a bit like padding, but was also helpful guidance for me in understanding the mindset behind using the BuJu method and setting up my own journal.
Overall, Bullet Journaling isn't too different than what I was previously doing with calendar planners, but I'm liking (and even preferring) my foray into it so far.
Related Reads:
The Happiness Project (Rubin)
Garthowen: A Story of a Welsh Homestead - Allen Raine (1900)
"The golden marsh marigolds glittered around her, the beautiful bog bean hung its pinky-white fringe over the brown peat pools, the silky plumes of cotton grass nodded at her as she passed, and the wind whispered in the rushes the secrets of the sea."
Garthowen's story focuses on late-19th century life in a Welsh village. Major elements and themes contained therein are the relationship of the villagers to the sea and surrounding nature, class distinctions, family relationships, and religion. The author uses flowery, descriptive prose that's very typical of the time and genre, though I found that the use of elements such as (archaic) common Welsh phrases made this more interesting than other books I've read from the same period. Throw in characters like a possibly-piratical prodigal son, a kindly village herbalist (witch?), and a sea-foundling, and you have a classic read that manages to be relaxing and exciting.
A note of interest is that "Allen Raine" was the pseudonym of female Welsh author Anne Puddicombe, née Evans.
You can find this e-book for free on Amazon.
Related Reads:
The Story Girl (Montgomery)
Equal Rites (Pratchett)
The Perfectionist: Life and Death in Haute Cuisine - Rudolph Chelminski (2005)
"'He didn't need approval, he needed to be adored. Unanimously. And we did love him, too, in spite of his weaknesses. Or maybe we loved him because of his weaknesses. He was just so fragile and so human. A lot of people who didn't know him well enough were skeptical about his sincerity because they felt like he was always play-acting, and doing a number on them. It's true. He did that. But it was only because he was trying to please them.'"
This book details the life and career of French chef Bernard Loiseau, who suddenly committed suicide at the height of his career in 2003. Author Chelminski, a freelance writer who met with Loiseau periodically throughout his career, presents a decent background into French cooking culture and the Michelin Guide/star system before giving an overview of Loiseau's family background and life.
Although I found this book could get somewhat plodding and name-heavy (Chelminski understandably finds it necessary to give readers lots of context), I will admit that it's an interesting window into both Loiseau and the extreme culinary culture that arguably led to his death.
Related Reads:
The Apprentice (Pepin)
Kitchen Confidential (Bourdain)
If You Love Me: A Mother's Journey Through her Daughter's Opioid Addiction - Maureen Cavanaugh (2018)
"I hadn't known just how much pain the world could contain. It crushes me sometimes, not just my own but the pain of so many others also trying to hang on to whatever shred of their loved ones they can."
Cavanaugh opens her memoir with a passage that's as shocking as it is relatable to family members of addicts. It's 2017, and she's driving through town after learning that her heroin-addicted daughter is about to leave yet another rehab facility. A baseball bat is rolling around in the back of the car. If she runs into her beloved daughter's drug dealer, she swears to herself, she'll take the bat and beat him to death in order to save her daughter once and for all.
It's straightforward portions like this that are the strength of If You Love Me. Cavanaugh doesn't hesitate to delve into the dark places and thoughts that, prior to having an addicted child, seemed unimaginable to her. She unflinchingly details her feelings of shock and isolation after realizing that her daughter is a serious heroin addict, her enabling and obsessive behavior, and her quest for answers that eventually lead her to founding an online support group.
As much as I wanted to like this book, though, there were enough issues that make it hard for me to recommend. First off, I didn't like that Cavanaugh doesn't explicitly note (as other similar memoirs that I've read do) that she has permission from daughter to share intimate details about her addiction. There are also large portions of the book that are dedicated to the author's online group and the relationships she formed there; while this is surely an important piece of the story, the way that it's presented makes the book drag.
Cavanaugh seems to spend a good deal of time focused on herself in her recollections while overlooking people like her other (non-addict) children - I can't fault her entirely here, but this is paired with prose that feels fairly uneven, especially as the book goes on. Finally, unlike other similar books that have something of an ending (however tenuous), this story is still ongoing, and thus the book kind of just peters out. It's a harsh reality that the cycle of relapse and rehab is common with addicts, but I feel the author could've ended on a stronger note. All in all, I appreciate the existence of this book, but there are better ones on the same subject out there.
Related Reads:
A Very Fine House (Stoefen)
Ben Behind His Voices (Kaye)
Beautiful Boy (Sheff)
The Time Traveler's Almanac [Short Stories] (2013)
"There was a sound like a gigantic bonfire burning all of Time, all the years and all the parchment calendars, all the hours piled high and set aflame."
The Time Traveler's Almanac contains a wide range of stories (72 in all) within a fairly narrow genre. Although I didn't care for every story and felt that some of the space given to longer stories or excerpts from larger works would have been better served going to a greater number of shorter stories, I enjoyed the mix overall. It contains stories spanning from the late 1800s to now, and has a good mix of female and non-European authors. By design, the genre is limited and thus I didn't find I could read a lot in one sitting, but I'd recommend it as a good starting point to explore more authors and books within the specific Sci-Fi genre.
Related Reads:
Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Twentieth Century
Guards! Guards! (1989) and
Men At Arms (1993) - Terry Pratchett
"So many crimes are solved by a happy accident - by the random stopping of a car, by an overheard remark, by someone of the right nationality happening to be within five miles of the scene of the crime without an alibi..."
This month, I finally obtained the first and second books in the City Watch/Guards story line of Terry Pratchett's Discworld. This wasn't my first time coming across many of the main characters since they appear peripherally in other Discworld story lines, but it was my first time understanding the background of the City Watch. I kind of wish I'd read them a little sooner in the mix of Discworld books I've read so far, but I also think I could probably say that about a lot of Discworld books.
In any case, Guards! Guards! and Men At Arms are both a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the solving-mysteries element to them.
The Bullet Journal Method - Ryder Carroll (2018)
"Leading an intentional life is about keeping your actions aligned with your beliefs. It's about penning a story that you believe in and that you can be proud of."
I've long been interested in Bullet Journaling, but I'd always had trouble sorting through the huge variety of online resources enough to get started. Having the basics explained to me in this book form, then, ended up being a perfect place for me to start.
The Bullet Journal Method isn't meant only for those just starting out, though; author/method creator Ryder Carroll includes explanations of basic concepts and layouts as well as example pages for beginners, but also gets into more complicated and refined elements of BuJo in the later part of the book. I'd also say that at least half of the book is focused on discussion of planning goals and life advice, which seemed a bit like padding, but was also helpful guidance for me in understanding the mindset behind using the BuJu method and setting up my own journal.
Overall, Bullet Journaling isn't too different than what I was previously doing with calendar planners, but I'm liking (and even preferring) my foray into it so far.
Related Reads:
The Happiness Project (Rubin)
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