The Signature of All Things

If I was expecting Elizabeth Gilbert's fiction to be like her non-fiction, I would have been disappointed. But since I had read the reviews and knew that it was not like her non-fiction, I had no preconceived notions, so I was able to enjoy the book on its own merits.

The novel is about Alma Whittaker, born in 1800 to the richest man in Philadelphia. Alma's parents are a poor British boy who worked hard and became a wealthy and renowned botanist, and a very intelligent Dutch girl from a good family who leaves everything to come with him to America. Alma receives a wider and better education than most boys of the time, and is soon joined in her schoolroom by an adopted sister, Prudence, the daughter of a murdered prostitute.

Alma is the central figure of the story, and all of the other characters are seen in relation to her. She is a fabulous character - outspoken, brilliant, hard-working, with a keen sense of humor. The turns her life takes - from Philadelphia to Tahiti to Holland - are slow to come but great adventures when they do. It's a very detailed book - I admit to skimming some sections that got too heavily into botanical detail, and Liz must be a demon of a researcher - but it was a very satisfying book.

The Signature of All Things

The Little Way of Ruthie Leming

Okay, so I started this book with no idea what to expect. My friend Shari said it was a really nice book, and to be honest, I didn't know if it was fiction or non before I started reading. But Shari was right, it's a really nice book.

The author, Rod Dreher, tells the story of his sister Ruthie, and along the way he tells his own story too. Rod and Ruthie grew up in a very small town in Louisiana, a place where family and community are everything, and where hunting, fishing, and little league are the activities of choice. Ruthie loves small-town life, but Rod is a bookish boy who dreams of traveling the globe. Ruthie and Rod pretty much live their separate lives, until Ruthie is diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.

I don't want to give too much of the book away, because a big part of it is how Ruthie and Rod live their lives, and how their lives are impacted by Ruthie's cancer. Rod's sharing of Ruthie's story is a way to tell his own story, of how he came to be the man he is, and how he has come to believe the things he believes. It's a sad story, yes, but it's also an uplifting and hopeful story. I definitely recommend it.

The Little Way of Ruthie Leming

The Last Kingdom

This is the first book in Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Chronicles, and if you like historical fiction you will not want to miss this one. Cornwell takes us to the mid-800's (yes, that's 800, not 1800) for the story of Uhtred, a young English boy who is taken hostage by a group of marauding Danes and adopted by them.

I wasn't sure I was going to like the book at first. It's very heavy on war and battle, which is not particularly my thing. But the characters just grabbed me, particularly Uhtred, who is a smart kid who seems to be able to handle what anyone throws at him, and Ragnor, the violent but good-hearted and principled Dane who changes his life forever. It's also a really compelling and true story about how the Dane's picked the kingdoms of the British Isles apart until only one - Wessex, ruled by Albert - is left standing. This is basically the beginning of the birth of modern-day England, and Albert has become known as Albert the Great.

History buffs, anglophiles, and battle-lovers will all enjoy this book. I'm looking forward to reading the next one!


The Last Kingdom

A Short Guide to a Long Life

I saw Dr. David Agus on Fareed Zakaria GPS, and he made sense to me, so I picked up his Nook book for $9 on Barnes and Noble. It's a nice book, a very quick read with mostly common sense health recommendations. This is, I think, a great book for young people and obese people, but most healthy people probably are doing or at least know they should be doing the stuff he recommends.

Most of this stuff is a no brainer - drink lots of water, exercise, practice good hygiene, eat real food. Some of it is controversial, like avoiding vitamin supplements and taking preventative baby aspirin and statins. I honestly already do a lot of what he recommends, and I don't do most of what he says not to do. But I don't think my One-A-Day is going to kill me.

A Short Guide to a Long Life

A Spear of Summer Grass

This is an absolutely beautiful novel of 1920's Kenya, where the African savannah is almost as much a character as any human.

Delilah Drummond is a 20-something-socialite whose latest scandal has even her mother in a tizzy. So she ships Delilah off to her stepfather's Kenyan estates, Fairlight, to wait for things to die down and maybe grow up a little. Delilah and her cousin, Dora, find that Fairlight has been left to fall apart, and set about doing what they can to make the place livable and working with the natives to improve the living situation for everyone. They also find a community of British ex-pats who are all a little too involved in each other's lives, among them tracker/hunter/know-it-all Ryder White, who has an immediate attraction with Delilah.

Yes, there are similarities to Out of Africa, but those are superficial. Author Deanna Raybourn has created a wonderful heroine in Delilah - she's smart, beautiful, charming, loyal, and worldly. Ryder is the perfect foil for her, and they have fabulous chemistry. And the story just drives you right along - I really couldn't put it down. This is one of the best novels I've read in a while.

A Spear of Summer Grass

Someone

This latest novel by prize winner Alice McDermott is just a lovely little novel. It's actually sort of a study in novel writing, kind of like writing the way the brain works, if that makes any sense. The main character is Marie Commeford, a young girl growing up in Brooklyn in the days between the World Wars. She's 7-years-old with thick glasses, and she's waiting for her dad to come home from the train. So begins an ordinary life told with extraordinary charm.

Marie tells her story through a series of vignettes, memories really, of the blind WWI vet who's the go-to umpire for the neighborhood stickball games; the girl down the street who dies from falling down the stairs; her brother Gabe's recitations after dinner, his attending seminar, and his abrupt departure from the priesthood for reasons unknown. And Marie remembers the important milestones in her own life: the death of her father; the first boy who loved her; and the birth of her first child. Ordinary moments that most of us experience, but told with such charm, and humor, and gentle wit, and in a seemingly haphazard pattern, that actually makes total sense.

This is just a lovely story about someone who worries she won't find someone to love, and who winds up beloved by so many.


Someone

Smile at Strangers

Susan Schorn has written an entertaining, educational, and amusing memoir about the lessons learned in her practice of karate. I'm not a martial artist, I have no desire to be a martial artist, but I really like her writing style and her sense of humor, both of which are very approachable and relatable.

Schorn is an imperfect person (a real person, thank God), who uses what she learns in the dojo to deal with pushy people, disappearing contractors, family illness, and all the other little things that can annoy us. Along the way she also gives the reader some great hints for setting limits, finding personal strength, and making oneself feel easier in difficult situations. This is a good read that I enjoyed enough to want to read more from its author, so I'll be looking up Schorn's web site in the very near future.

Smile at Strangers