Buried in Books
This is the week of the Friends of the SFPL Big Book Sale and I’ve been busy. Lots of fun, lots of work.
Here are some photos of the wonderful bookish madness. Click on these photos to appreciate the full enormity of this sale. A massive amount of work is required by volunteers, corporate sponsored volunteers, and staff to pull off this – the largest used book sale on the West Coast.
Each year, the Friends ask for table sponsors in order to raise money for the sale, so this year Book Barmy took part. Here’s the sign and the table — Graphic Novels and Comics — a most popular table indeed.
I must admit after awhile, working at the Big Sale gets pretty overwhelming, so many books ~~ etc. For a break, I sign up for extra shifts at my regular haunt, the permanent Readers Bookstore in a separate building at Fort Mason.
While back at the store, I got to meet the delightful Scott from Furrowed Middlebrow blog, photographic evidence here…my bad hair day notwithstanding.
Go to Scott’s blog, it’s fascinating, as he specializes in British Women writers from the mid-20th century. Even more impressive, he started his own imprint, Furrowed Middlebrow Books, published by Dean Street Press. This series of books had been long forgotten and unpublished until Scott got them reissued. ~~~ Those covers, sigh, I want every title…
The Big Book Sale goes on through Sunday, so if you’re in the area, stop by – info HERE.Or any time of the year come by the permanent Readers Bookstores – info HERE
Thus endeth my shameless promotion of the Friends of the SFPL, the Big Book Sale, and the Readers Bookstores.
My enthusiasm knows no shame.
In other news, we’re off to Lake Tahoe for a week. I’ve plucked a few popular thrillers from my toppling pile of publisher’s ARCs taunting me and causing great guilt.
Back next week.
Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach
I read Tulip Fever years ago en route to a holiday in the Netherlands. I wanted to learn about the tulip frenzy of the 1630’s, when bulb prices soared beyond anyone’s imagined riches. I also wanted to read about the golden age of the Dutch masters. What I wasn’t expecting was that I would be treated to a rollicking great story… complete with a sprinkling of sex and a bit of a mystery.
Set in 1636 Amsterdam, Tulip Fever is a novel of passion and deception. It is the time of the tulip craze and the Dutch were enjoying great wealth. Sophia is the young wife of Cornelis Sandvoort, a prosperous older merchant. She agreed to the marriage only because he funded her poor family’s immigration to America. Their marriage has not produced a child, so Cornelis decides to immortalize themselves by having their portrait painted. He hires Jan van Loos, an up and coming young artist. Not only does the portrait sitting bring some excitement into their dull household routine, it brings a secret love affair for Sophia and Jan. Their relationship is carried on with the complicity of the household maid, Maria who has her own secrets.
Ms. Moggach intertwines the story and her characters with the 17th century Amsterdam tulip mania and it’s eventual crash (can we say dot.com folks?). There are lies, secrets, betrayals, and plot twists that keep the reader totally immersed. Then, if you’re like me, you’ll gasp as the consequences reverberate into the various characters fates, positions, wealth, and lives.
Tulip Fever has been recently adapted into a film, which I saw recently. I have to admit I really enjoyed the film and thought it was actually a very good adaptation of the book.
The film has Dame Judi Dench as a somewhat disreputable nun and the screenplay was written by Tom Stoppard. It is visually stunning and the costumes are amazing. But I have to wonder at the 17th century fashionista who came up with these.
So which am I recommending? Well, the answer is both — Tulip Fever the book and Tulip Fever the film. Do both, I say. Film trailer HERE.
Seeing Ms. Louise Penny
We’re having a blinking heat wave, so who (or what) could entice me away from my relatively cooler ocean breeze over to Book Passage in Marin where it’s a gazillion degrees?
Okay, you’ve already guessed the answer… Louise Penny of course. She’s on book tour for her newest book Glass Houses which came out just a few days ago.
The store was packed for this appearance and I was told it had been sold out for days. It was hot and sticky but not one of us minded because Ms. Penny was upbeat, witty, and as always, gracious.
Here’s how crowded it was (I’m not in the photo — I’ve learned to sit up front left on the window ledge- where it’s less claustrophobic).
Fellow mystery writer and Ms. Penny’s good friend Rhys Bowen introduced Ms. Penny and it was great fun. If you look closely you can see the sweat on everyone’s faces. Air conditioning just couldn’t handle the hordes of Ms. Penny’s fans.
I’m back home now admiring my beautiful autographed copy of Glass Houses.
But, never fear you lucky Barmy fans ~~I’ve already read it.
So tune in over the weekend, when I promise to give you the full BookBarmy review – without spoilers.
But right now, I’ve got to get me some ice tea. It’s now late afternoon and it’s even hot out out here by the ocean.
Later gator. 
Some housekeeping
Technical Update
Thank you to all the BookBarmy Newsletter Subscribers out there. You should know we are having problems with the newsletter delivery system. Bigger brains than mine are working on the issue (or issues) and I am assured that all will be well soon. Until the problem is fixed, rest assured BookBarmy has not gone anywhere. Still here, still posting – you’ll just have to check back here yourselves every few days or so.
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The Great British Baking Show Update
There’s been a major shake up at one of my favorite series –The Great British Baking Show —The Great British Bake Off as it’s called in the U.K. (it had to be changed here because Pillsbury owns the rights to the term “bake off”) will be going to Channel 4, the British commercial network, after the Bake Off production company accepted a higher offer to leave the BBC. Mary Barry and the two comic announcers Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc — left in protest. Only Paul Hollywood will stay with the show as it moves British networks.
Being the geek that I am, I’ve done my research and PBS has bought season five which they will air here next summer. So all is not lost.
In the meantime, try and catch at least the final episode of Season four which aired on PBS recently. In the final challenge of the final episode they prepare an extravagant picnic basket fit for the Queen. It’s tension filled as the contestants have to complete a mind boggling range of items — a chocolate cake, quiches, sausage rolls, little cakes – it goes on and on, quite amazing really. … and in the end there were three …
Reading Update
Yes, my prettys, I am absorbed into Glass Houses, Louise Penny’s newest novel, which comes out next week.
At the risk of being repetitive, I urge you call in sick that day, cancel your appointments, get thee to your local bookstore and find a place to read undisturbed. All I will say is, your money and time will be well spent.
In the meantime, here is a silly interview from this morning’s talk shows. Poor Ms. Penny barely gets a chance to speak and the brash “American-ness” of the interview itself made me squirm. And what’s with the oh-so-not-clever “Penny Wise” caption throughout? But here you go. Video HERE
There — that’s all my housekeeping done – at least here on BookBarmy – around my home — not so much, because you see I am “with book”.
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
True confession time ~~ I flunked Algebra II, still can’t do most multiplication tables, and freeze when confronted with compound interest rates. So I’ve long avoided The Housekeeper and the Professor – a book about math. I knew of this Japanese novel, even gave a copy to my mathematician sister. But I continued to avoid it like my old Algebra text book (and, yes the cover is imprinted in mind and still makes me slightly nauseous).
The other week, I stopped in my library branch during one of my walks and someone had abandoned this slim Japanese novel on a table, so I picked it up just to browse. Bet you know where this is going…
From the inside cover:
He is a brilliant math Professor with a peculiar problem―ever since a traumatic head injury, he has lived with only eighty minutes of short-term memory.
She is an astute young Housekeeper―with a ten-year-old son―who is hired to care for the Professor.
And every morning, as the Professor and the Housekeeper are introduced to each other anew, a strange and beautiful relationship blossoms between them. Though he cannot hold memories for long (his brain is like a tape that begins to erase itself every eighty minutes), the Professor’s mind is still alive with elegant equations from the past. And the numbers, in all of their articulate order, reveal a sheltering and poetic world to both the Housekeeper and her young son.
Before you knew it, I was two chapters in and had checked it out to bring home.
The Housekeeper and the Professor, set in Japan, is about a brilliant math professor who, because of an accident, has a memory span of only 80 minutes. He is difficult and his sister-in-law has tried many housekeepers. Finally, our narrator winds up being placed with the Professor. She brings her young son with her the first day, and the Professor immediately calls him ‘Root’ because his flat head looks like the sign for square root.
The new housekeeper enjoys taking care of the Professor and his cottage, and Root comes every day after school. But how do you create a relationship when a memory lasts only 80 minutes? The Professor manages, as best he can, by pinning notes and photos on his suit. But we soon see that it also takes the compassion of the new housekeeper:
Somehow, I had never quite understood what it meant for him to wake up alone each morning to this cruel revelation.
“I’m your housekeeper “, I said, when the sobs had subsided for a moment. “I’m here to help you.” He looked up at me through his tears. “My son will come this evening. We call him Root, because his head is flat. You gave him that name.” I pointed to the picture on his jacket.
The housekeeper, with him all day, starts to become fascinated with the Professor’s work. He is still a renowned mathematician and wins prizes for solving intricate problems for various math journals. She starts working on simple math problems with the professor as her guide. The novel goes into discussions of factoids, prime numbers, abundant and deficient numbers, much of which made my eyes cross, but didn’t dissuade me from continuing with this unusual novel.
The bond between the Professor and Root grows deeper and each becomes important to the other. The Professor helps with Root’s homework and Root urges the Professor to fix the radio so they can listen to the baseball games together. Turns out they like the same team and start avidly following the games and compounding the all-important baseball statistics. Again, with the math.
But I must say, even this arithmetically impaired reader enjoyed some of the math-ridden sections. Who knew prime numbers could be interesting? Which, kudos to Ms. Ogawa (and the translation) is extremely hard for an author to pull off.
Finally the three attend a baseball game which proves to be tricky given the Professor’s memory issues. This passage vividly brings to life the love of baseball:
We were mostly silent as we walked through the grounds to the stadium and stood in the crowded passageway leading to our seats. The Professor was no doubt shocked to find himself in a place so utterly different from his usual surroundings, and Root was overcome with excitement at the prospect of seeing his beloved Tigers. They both seemed to have lost the power of speech and merely stared around in awe. “Is everything okay?”, I asked from time to time, and the Professor would nod and grip Root’s hand tightly. As we reach the top of the stairs that lead to the seats above third base, all three of us let out a cry. The diamond in all its grandeur was laid out before us — the soft dark earth of the infield,, the spotless bases, the straight white lines, and the manicured grass. The evening sky seemed so close you could touch it and at that moment, as if they had been awaiting our arrival, the lights came on. The stadium looked like a spaceship descended from the heavens.
The translation is beautifully done and allows English readers to see how Ms. Ogawa paints with words. And, like a spare Japanese painting, there doesn’t seem to be much going on — but there is much to interpret from The Housekeeper and the Professor.
This is a lyrical, but quiet story. There’s the interrelated connections between people, the world of numbers and ultimately the universe. The novel reminds us about the joy in the daily little things experienced with new eyes — over and over again — a cup of tea, the sound of the rain on the windows, a chat about baseball.
But, what has stayed with me — especially during the news these past few days — was the beauty and strength of the relationship between the Housekeeper, Root and the Professor — a relationship built upon nothing but respect and consideration for other humans.
The Housekeeper and the Professor is one of those original books which reaffirms the delight found when reading something totally and wonderfully unique.
Abandoned Books ~~ Part Two
I look forward to reading highly anticipated, well-reviewed books ~~ but every so often, they disappoint.
I abandon them.
Other’s rave while I scratch my head.
Here on Book Barmy, I try to limit the bad reviews, it just feels too mean. But, it’s been awhile since my LAST abandoned books post, so I guess it’s time.
With apologies to the authors, here’s some books I abandoned.
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The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
Ms. Donoghue is the bestselling author of Room. A novel of a mother and child held captive and told from the view of the child (a young boy). And while the narrative sometimes faltered and became unrealistic – I was glued to their story line, both fast paced and engaging.
Not so much with The Wonder, the story of a 19th century Irish community mesmerized by their own miracle — Anna O’Donnell, a girl said to have survived without food for months, and believed to be a saint living off blessings from God.
An English nurse, Lib, is sent to the village to observe the fasting girl and she goes without fully knowing the circumstances of her assignment, other than she is to “observe” a young girl who is claiming not to have eaten for months. Set just after the Irish potato famine, the book dwells in the dark days and mind sets of the Irish poor and their total embrace of the Catholic church. The Wonder then navigates the reader through these Irish Catholic spiritual beliefs and the not-so-veiled English contempt of the same. While, supposedly based on a true event, I found the characters stereotypical and the portrayal of the rural Irish villagers condescending. The story (and I got 3/4 of way through the book) lacked any compassion for Anna’s family or their religious beliefs.
But mostly I found The Wonder to be deadly sl-o-o-ow. Boring, actually, to read about a nurse, day-after-day watching a fasting girl, listening to her prayers, secretly checking for hidden food, and trying to stave off a visiting journalist.
I tried to absorb the author’s subtext and layered messages – the perils of fervent religious practice, the guileless of poor Irish villagers, the promise of a possible miracle or sainthood … but I could not care or carry on any further.
An digital advance readers copy was provided by Little, Brown and Company via Netgalley.
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Celine by Peter Heller
I ‘d heard about this book from some other bloggers I follow, and was very intrigued. Celine is a character: an older, elegant woman living in Brooklyn, suffering from Emphysema, but a renowned PI who bests the FBI at finding missing persons. She also speaks perfect French, is a superb marks-woman, and attended Sarah Lawrence. Now there’s a character right?
And it’s true Mr. Heller has concocted a wonderfully absurd character who has a dark past filled with secrets — from an out of wedlock pregnancy (at 15!), divorces, alcoholism, and a painful childhood.
The novel opens with a flash back to a swimming accident that takes the life of the mother of a small family. Much later Celine is visited by the daughter looking for her missing father – a famous photographer who was supposedly killed by a bear in Yellowstone Park. After the death of his wife, he distanced himself from his daughter and now she wants a full investigation into his disappearance. She is somehow convinced he’s still alive.
Celine takes on the case with the help of her partner Pete and they leave Brooklyn for Yellowstone. And so the adventure begins…but it doesn’t…
The narrative jumps all over the place, sometimes we’re in Celine’s head as she examines her thoughts and then a narrative voice steps in with its own insights about humanity or, even art… Say what?… Who was that? It’s as if there’s an omnipresent character we’re never introduced to.
There are long (many-paged) flash backs to Celine’s dark past, with long (many-paged) ruminations on her mistakes, injustices and turmoils.
When we get back to the present and the road trip with Pete, the story line starts to pick up again, but never for long and Celine’s self actualization angst once again takes over.
I kept having to ask myself, ‘where are we now?’ ‘what’s going on?’.
Finally I set Celine aside for long I couldn’t remember — and sadly didn’t care.
An digital advance readers copy was provided by Knopf via Netgalley.
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Pretend we are Lovely by Noley Reid
This book comes out next week, but I can’t –absolutely can’t — recommend Pretend We are Lovely. This is a tragic story about a dysfunctional family, trying to come to grips with their broken lives, all while they are on a rapid descent to hell.
The narrative shifts between the various family members, as we learn about the tragic death of one of their children, family eating disorders (yes that’s plural), budding teen sexuality, and very inappropriate (icky) relationships. Not only was Pretend We Are Lovely confusing, it was just too heartrendingly ugly for me to continue beyond mid-book.
An digital advance readers copy was provided by Tin House Books via Netgalley.
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Now, it’s that strange but lovely time – between books.
What next?
I need something to cleanse my palate after the bad reads above.
Perhaps this? 
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