Reading list

last updated: 01 January 1999 back to kcarlson

Reading - 1998 (link to Recent,1997, and older)

title

author

comments / quotes
(presence or lack is not intended to imply the book is bad or good, I do not regret reading any)

The Iowa Baseball Confederacy W.P. Kinsella ...I can't think of a single thing I want that all my wealth can buy me....It doesn't surprise me that none of the items on my list requires great wealth.

Cold Mountain Charles Frazier "...I behaved contrary to my heart. I'm sorry for that. And I would do it differently if given a chance to go back and revise." "That's not a thing any of us are granted. To go back. Wipe away what later doesn't suit us and make it the way we wish it. You just go on."
...Our minds aren't made to hold on to the particulars of pain the way we do bliss...
...it still tasted nevertheless like sin. He tried to name which of the deadly seven might apply, and when he failed he decided to append an eighth, regret.

Bridget Jone's Diary Helen Fielding ...although we have discovered out Inner Bitches, we have not yet unlocked them.
...You only get one life. I've just made a decision to change things a bit and spend what's left of mine looking after me for a change.
..men...are so catastrophically unevolved that soon they will just be kept by women as pets for sex...

The Good Mother Sue Miller ...the sense we sometimes have as adults of living things again through our children, of restoring to ourselves those things we've lost, of giving ourselves those things we never had.
...How could I love her without damaging her, I wondered. Not too much, not too little. Is there such a love?
...To feel you have life in someone else's imagination is to feel a kind of intimacy with them...

The Way to the Cats Yehoshua Kenaz ...in general we should have pity of everybody...

Colony Anne Rivers Siddons ...It was, for both of us, other and apart. There are no limits to our capacity for love; that is the one sure thing I have kept out of a lifetime's scant store of truths.

All Around Town Mary Higgins Clark

Every Living Thing James Herriot I've enjoyed PBS "All Creatures Great and Small" adaptations, and enjoyed his excerpted books illustrated for kids (read to Kara when she was young). 'bout time I read one of his books, eh?

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe Fannie Flagg ...You know a heart can be broken, but it keeps on beating, just the same.
...There are magnificent beings on this earth, son, that are walking around posing as humans...
Movie was good, book is better... as usual.

The Bears and I Robert Franklin Leslie for the current hunting season:
All hunting, except for survival, is a shabby postponement of growing up...
and considering the golden leaves outside:
It seems to me that only leaves possess the secret of a beautiful death...

The Doll's House Evelyn Anthony

Sotah Naomi Ragen It is strange on what insignificant and foolish trifles whole lives depend. Accidents of time and opportunity, small last-minute decisions, petty considerations not worth a moment's thought, may build or irretrievbly smash a person's whole life.

Driving Force Dick Francis interesting setting, but fairly predictable

The Grass Dancer Susan Power ...you can't say things like that. You shouldn't ever be too arrogant or too loud about who you are. I don't think I believe in God, but I believe in forces. And they're nosy. Don't tell them you're here. Don't light any bonfires. Walk in the shadows and you walk forever.

Corelli's Mandolin Louis De Bernieres Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion, it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day, it is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every cranny of your body....Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.

Daughters of the Moon
Sisters of the Sun K. Wind Hughes & Linda Wolf subtitled: Young Women & Mentors on the Transition to Womanhood
Interesting reading, I'll try to get my daughter to read it too. Some of the contributors are still in a transition of 'us and them' (women vs. men), but given the history of cultural stereotypes that is understandable.

How Late it was, How Late James Kelman stream of conscience...
...we're all different, we've all got different lives, we go our own ways, different influences and different experiences. Ye're no gony feel a...disaster just cause ye've went one way instead of the other....

yo! Julia Alvarez ...like there are really only a few big things in this world, LOVE and DEATH and LITTLE BABIES. Forget fame and fortune...
"My papi can do anything!" she would brag to her cousins....It was sweet and simple worship, a very endearing trait to our children, before they turn into adolescents who need to destroy us in order to grow up into young men and women.

Common Sense Parenting Ray Burke and Ron Herron We all need some hints...

Follow Your Heart Susanna Tamaro Look, things are never that simple in reality, they're never black or white, they're all different colors, and all of those have different shades.
The easiest thing in the world to do when you don't want to look inside yourself is to find escape hatches. You can always make it someone else's fault, it takes a lot of courage to admit that the fault--or rather the responsibility--is yours alone....this is the only way to go forward.
Breathe deeply, trustingly, the way you breathed when you came into the world, don't let anything distract you, wait and wait some more. Stay still, be quiet, and listen to your heart. Then, when it sepaks, get up and go where it takes you.

Only Twice I've Wished for Heaven Dawn Turner Trice Flowers are fine and good. But how come people forget to give children, especially little girls, flowers when they can enjoy them? Oh, the flowers don't have to be a rose or a daisy. A flower is a "How do?" A kind word. A bouquet is no worries or cares or disappointments. It's giving a little girl a chance to enjoy a good breeze--to fix herself on a dream.

The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts Louis de Bernieres It is honor that will spur men to the most futile, heroic, and stupid extremes out of bravado and machismo, and it is as though they have never heard that the days of...Don Quixote are long dead. This kind of honor is an exclusively male preserve, for the women of these lands have a code of honor that is infinitely tempered by compassion, humor, and common wisdom, which has nothing to do with those irrational, dogmatic absolutes of the male that provoke him either to astonishingly fine feats of valor or the most depressingly fatuous feats of unfathomable insanity

The Sound of Waves Yukio Misima A love story.

Alaska Michener Big book, big subject...
I do love this strange land. I think I now understand Alaska.

Jacob's Room Virginia Woolf ...with profusion, mother wit, old wives' tales, haphazard ways, moments of astonishing daring, humour, and sentimentality--who shall deny that in these respects every woman is nicer than any man?

The Crossroads John MacDonald Ok, so I've finally read something by John MacDonald.

Microserfs Douglas Coupland Geekdom... is this me? Can't be, I'm a dinosaur in their terms. Anyway, some 'random' tidbits:
...the answer is what separates tehe Microserfs from the Cyberlords.
...geeks don't know how to deal with real live [people], so they just assume it's a user interface problem. Not their fault. They'll just wait for the next version to come out--something more "user friendly."
...It must be bizarre being fabulously good-looking. I mean, at least you can disguise brains.
...randomness is a useful shorthand for describing a pattern bigger than anything we can hold in our minds.

Nostradamus His Prophecies for the Future Michel de Notre Dame Why? After hearing a friend of my teenage daughter talk about Nostradamus, I figured it was time to see what's up. Nostradamus published 1000 quatrains between 1555 and 1557 which were very obtusely worded which some claim to be prophesies. They are supposed to predict things between the birth of Louis XIV till the year 3797. I am not versed in astrology and read the selected quatrains in translation... obviously not a scholarly reading. However, as obscurely worded as they are and since the "expert" interpretations often disagree what they mean, a touch of common sense would say they could easily be applied to almost anything after-the-fact during their 2200+ year span. Next time somebody says Nostradamus predicts the end of the world with the turn of the century, remind them he allegedly predicted events for another 1797 years after that. Hooey.

`Reading - 1998 (link to` `Recent,1997, and` `older)`
`title`	`author`	`comments / quotes` `(presence or lack is not intended to imply the book is bad or good, I do not regret reading any)`
The Iowa Baseball Confederacy	W.P. Kinsella	...I can't think of a single thing I want that all my wealth can buy me....It doesn't surprise me that none of the items on my list requires great wealth.
Cold Mountain	Charles Frazier	"...I behaved contrary to my heart. I'm sorry for that. And I would do it differently if given a chance to go back and revise." "That's not a thing any of us are granted. To go back. Wipe away what later doesn't suit us and make it the way we wish it. You just go on." ...Our minds aren't made to hold on to the particulars of pain the way we do bliss... ...it still tasted nevertheless like sin. He tried to name which of the deadly seven might apply, and when he failed he decided to append an eighth, regret.
Bridget Jone's Diary	Helen Fielding	...although we have discovered out Inner Bitches, we have not yet unlocked them. ...You only get one life. I've just made a decision to change things a bit and spend what's left of mine looking after me for a change. ..men...are so catastrophically unevolved that soon they will just be kept by women as pets for sex...
The Good Mother	Sue Miller	...the sense we sometimes have as adults of living things again through our children, of restoring to ourselves those things we've lost, of giving ourselves those things we never had. ...How could I love her without damaging her, I wondered. Not too much, not too little. Is there such a love? ...To feel you have life in someone else's imagination is to feel a kind of intimacy with them...
The Way to the Cats	Yehoshua Kenaz	...in general we should have pity of everybody...
Colony	Anne Rivers Siddons	...It was, for both of us, other and apart. There are no limits to our capacity for love; that is the one sure thing I have kept out of a lifetime's scant store of truths.
All Around Town	Mary Higgins Clark
Every Living Thing	James Herriot	I've enjoyed PBS "All Creatures Great and Small" adaptations, and enjoyed his excerpted books illustrated for kids (read to Kara when she was young). 'bout time I read one of his books, eh?
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe	Fannie Flagg	...You know a heart can be broken, but it keeps on beating, just the same. ...There are magnificent beings on this earth, son, that are walking around posing as humans... Movie was good, book is better... as usual.
The Bears and I	Robert Franklin Leslie	for the current hunting season: All hunting, except for survival, is a shabby postponement of growing up... and considering the golden leaves outside: It seems to me that only leaves possess the secret of a beautiful death...
The Doll's House	Evelyn Anthony
Sotah	Naomi Ragen	It is strange on what insignificant and foolish trifles whole lives depend. Accidents of time and opportunity, small last-minute decisions, petty considerations not worth a moment's thought, may build or irretrievbly smash a person's whole life.
Driving Force	Dick Francis	interesting setting, but fairly predictable
The Grass Dancer	Susan Power	...you can't say things like that. You shouldn't ever be too arrogant or too loud about who you are. I don't think I believe in God, but I believe in forces. And they're nosy. Don't tell them you're here. Don't light any bonfires. Walk in the shadows and you walk forever.
Corelli's Mandolin	Louis De Bernieres	Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion, it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day, it is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every cranny of your body....Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.
Daughters of the Moon Sisters of the Sun	K. Wind Hughes & Linda Wolf	subtitled: Young Women & Mentors on the Transition to Womanhood Interesting reading, I'll try to get my daughter to read it too. Some of the contributors are still in a transition of 'us and them' (women vs. men), but given the history of cultural stereotypes that is understandable.
How Late it was, How Late	James Kelman	stream of conscience... ...we're all different, we've all got different lives, we go our own ways, different influences and different experiences. Ye're no gony feel a...disaster just cause ye've went one way instead of the other....
yo!	Julia Alvarez	...like there are really only a few big things in this world, LOVE and DEATH and LITTLE BABIES. Forget fame and fortune... "My papi can do anything!" she would brag to her cousins....It was sweet and simple worship, a very endearing trait to our children, before they turn into adolescents who need to destroy us in order to grow up into young men and women.
Common Sense Parenting	Ray Burke and Ron Herron	`We all need some hints...`
Follow Your Heart	Susanna Tamaro	Look, things are never that simple in reality, they're never black or white, they're all different colors, and all of those have different shades. The easiest thing in the world to do when you don't want to look inside yourself is to find escape hatches. You can always make it someone else's fault, it takes a lot of courage to admit that the fault--or rather the responsibility--is yours alone....this is the only way to go forward. Breathe deeply, trustingly, the way you breathed when you came into the world, don't let anything distract you, wait and wait some more. Stay still, be quiet, and listen to your heart. Then, when it sepaks, get up and go where it takes you.
Only Twice I've Wished for Heaven	Dawn Turner Trice	Flowers are fine and good. But how come people forget to give children, especially little girls, flowers when they can enjoy them? Oh, the flowers don't have to be a rose or a daisy. A flower is a "How do?" A kind word. A bouquet is no worries or cares or disappointments. It's giving a little girl a chance to enjoy a good breeze--to fix herself on a dream.
The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts	Louis de Bernieres	It is honor that will spur men to the most futile, heroic, and stupid extremes out of bravado and machismo, and it is as though they have never heard that the days of...Don Quixote are long dead. This kind of honor is an exclusively male preserve, for the women of these lands have a code of honor that is infinitely tempered by compassion, humor, and common wisdom, which has nothing to do with those irrational, dogmatic absolutes of the male that provoke him either to astonishingly fine feats of valor or the most depressingly fatuous feats of unfathomable insanity
The Sound of Waves	Yukio Misima	`A love story.`
Alaska	Michener	`Big book, big subject...` I do love this strange land. I think I now understand Alaska.
Jacob's Room	Virginia Woolf	...with profusion, mother wit, old wives' tales, haphazard ways, moments of astonishing daring, humour, and sentimentality--who shall deny that in these respects every woman is nicer than any man?
The Crossroads	John MacDonald	`Ok, so I've finally read something by John MacDonald.`
Microserfs	Douglas Coupland	`Geekdom... is this me? Can't be, I'm a dinosaur in their terms. Anyway, some 'random' tidbits:` ...the answer is what separates tehe Microserfs from the Cyberlords. ...geeks don't know how to deal with real live [`people`], so they just assume it's a user interface problem. Not their fault. They'll just wait for the next version to come out--something more "user friendly." ...It must be bizarre being fabulously good-looking. I mean, at least you can disguise brains. ...randomness is a useful shorthand for describing a pattern bigger than anything we can hold in our minds.
Nostradamus His Prophecies for the Future	Michel de Notre Dame	Why? After hearing a friend of my teenage daughter talk about Nostradamus, I figured it was time to see what's up. Nostradamus published 1000 quatrains between 1555 and 1557 which were very obtusely worded which some claim to be prophesies. They are supposed to predict things between the birth of Louis XIV till the year 3797. I am not versed in astrology and read the selected quatrains in translation... obviously not a scholarly reading. However, as obscurely worded as they are and since the "expert" interpretations often disagree what they mean, a touch of common sense would say they could easily be applied to almost anything after-the-fact during their 2200+ year span. Next time somebody says Nostradamus predicts the end of the world with the turn of the century, remind them he allegedly predicted events for another 1797 years after that. Hooey.

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