Middle Sister's September Reads

September was overall a good reading month for me this year. I listened to two amazing books while dog walking and cleaning, and they have helped solidify my enjoyment of the medium (although I still miss maps and photos and footnotes, so audiobooks will never take the place of a book in my life). 

The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben The Hidden Life of Trees combines synopses of current scientific research findings with an almost romantic appreciation of the beauty and strength of the forests and trees. Mr. Wohlleben combines his experiences as a forest manager in Germany of many of many years, and the many insights into trees he has gained over those years, with a deep appreciation for the many lessons the trees can teach us about helping our neighbors, weathering storms, fighting disease, and dying gracefully. This is a unique blend of science and romance, data and personal observation, that only a few times strayed into anthropomorphism and near mysticism. I love forests, I love walking through, camping, sleeping in, and just observing forests and the trees and animals that live in them, so I share the author's view of the forest as a living, breathing, vast interconnected being. I enjoyed hearing about European research into trees, fungi, and other topics covered herein. But mostly, I just enjoyed hearing and feeling the love Mr. Wohlleben has for his forest come through in his words and the poetic imagine of forests and trees he created. Recommended. Audiobook

Gods of the Upper Air by Charles King Amazing book, and on my list of best books of 2020. Mr. King traces the beginnings of anthropology as a scientific discipline ("the master science," which accolade I loved) with brief mentions of some of the big names of the late nineteenth century. He focuses on Franz Boas, and traces his career from Germany to the United States, with all its up and downs until he eventually lands at Columbia, where he trains the earliest female anthropologists, including Margaret Mead. When I was in grad school for anthropology, Boas' contributions were cited and acknowledged, but focus immediately shifted to Mead. I didn't really learn where Boas did his research and how he came to his revolutionary stands on race. Mr. King's book corrects that and spends several chapters on Boas in the field. The book then introduces Mead and Ruth Benedict, Boas' first female grad student and arguably (at least in my opinion) a far better anthropologist than Mead, and traces their personal and professional lives. Benedict was given a lot of attention in my grad school career, so she has not been overshadowed professionally by Mead, the only anthropologist most civilians can name. I was excited to learn about Ella Cara Deloria, an anthropologist and linguist who worked with Boas and whose name I had never heard in my intro classes in school; learning about her was a highlight for me. Zora Neale Hurston is the fourth female Boasian in the book, and this may be the finest summation of Hurston as an anthropologist I've read. Many books address Hurston the writer, but all too often they ignore her anthropology schooling. The book is particularly timely, given Boas' famous anti-racist and anti-fascist beliefs, both of which seem to be on the rise in the US right now. My hope is that a very small number of people who believe these are just emboldened to speak. But the parallels between Boas' society and ours are strong and unfortunate, and the final chapters are unsettling in these times. An excellent book, highly recommended. Audiobook

A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking This book focuses on just some of the science and theories so masterfully presented by the brilliant scientist many years ago in his Seminal work, A Brief History of Time. I enjoyed it very much, but this may be one book that is better read than listened to. While the narration was fine, I had to replay so many sections so that I could comprehend them that I wish I had read this rather than listened to it. I was last in a physics class nearly 40 years ago, so there was a lot of new-to-me science in here. Graduate degrees aside, this may explain why my degrees are not in a natural science. Recommended. Audiobook

Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody by Barbara Ross  Jane Darrowfield is a recent retiree who enjoys helping her friends with small problems because she is forthright and willing to cut to the chase and say what needs to be said. She is drafted by a friend to help the manager of a senior community deal with cliques that are upsetting the harmony of the community. When someone is murdered, Jane jumps in to help the police because the suspicious seniors are reticent to talk to outsiders; that is, until they discover Jane is helping the police. All in all, a pleasant mystery; easy to solve and the murderer and motive are easy to spot. Jane is a little officious, which is why her sudden moments of emotion are so jarring, and frankly, I'd have liked to see her a little more befuddled entering the dating world after so many years alone. But it's nice to see a group of seniors represented in all the diversity that group entails--not all are befuddled or sickly or have reverted to childlike irascibility. Although I must say, the closer ti get to that age group, the more worried I get about what I'll find among my contemporaries. Jane wouldn't be a close friend of mine, but she's an acquaintance I'd certainly eat lunch with. Recommended. NetGalley

The Falcon Always Wings Twice by Donna Andrews My library is getting in the way of my reading all the Meg Langslow books in order by not having all the Meg Langslow books available on audiobook (and they have only recently moved to curbside pick up of titles; another pandemic fallout). But NetGalley gave me the chance to jump ahead and read the latest Meg mystery. The twins are 11 (11!) and don't figure nearly so prominently in this book. Hey, I like kids, I just like them to be tertiary characters in my murder mysteries. This time, Meg and Family are participating in a Renaissance Faire, and murder makes an appearance one stormy night when the most disagreeable cast member is killed. I liked the send up of Ren Faires (I know folks who love them!) and enjoyed having Cordelia and Meg's grandfather represent the family rther than the boys. And do we ever learn er grandfather's name? Cordelia is never called grandmother but Cordelia, another strong woman in the family who overpowers the men in her orbit. It's not that I don't like Cordelia, but I adore Grandfather. He's warm while she's cool; he's interested in everything while she's interested in things that she decides merit her attention and not interested in anything else. He's rumpled and funny and she's a bit domineering and scary. No wonder their marriage didn't last long. Another winner in the Meg Langslow series, this was fun to read, with more entertaining characters entering the Langslow Orbit (Faulk and Tad--I want more of Tad in particular). Recommended. NetGalley

Silver Hair, the Handbook by Lorraine Massey and Michele Bender I've dyed my hair three times, in my twenties, and all three times the new color was just a slightly more vibrant and shiny version of my natural hair color. I had long ago decided to embrace whatever hair color changes came as I got older. Well, now in my mid-fifties, the gray and whites have taken over the front while my slightly ruddy brown curls remain in the back. Lorraine Massey, who taught me so much about how to care for my curls, now has a primer on how to care for your silver or gray or while hair, and embrace it. There are lots of great photos and uplifting stories that will surely inspire some who are loathe to face that most visible sign of aging, seen daily in the mirror. But even those of us comfortable in our skin can use tips on how to care for our changing selves, and Lorraine is the ultimate hair cheerleader. Recommended

Middle Sister's May 2013 Books

May was a good month for books, at least with respect to numbers, because I downloaded several audiobooks to listen to while engaging in an excruciatingly mind-numbing task at work that required absolutely no attention at all to accomplish. Hooray for mixed media!

Grey Expectations by Cleo Simon (2012, No. 4 Dulcie Schwartz series) I love cats, I love gray cats especially (oh, how I still miss you, my sweet George), so when I saw a book that advertised one of the main characters was a big, grey cat owned by a graduate student amateur detective, well, naturally, I had to read it. I even overlooked the little fact that this was a big, grey, dead cat that talks to its owner, thinking that here might be a good way for me to sample the large paranormal mystery genre (extremely popular right now, and growing by leaps and bounds and full of vampires and witches and ghosts and every sort of paranormal activity one can imagine), which I had always secretly thought was stupid and a waste of shelf space and paper. Guess what? I was right. Oh my gosh, how insipid a main character Dulcie is--her friend is asked a few questions by the police and the amateur detective jumps to the conclusion that her friend is being accused of murder--even though there's no dead body. She hems and haws, she's not a good researcher  (based on my 9 years of graduate school which resulted in two graduate degrees), she gets mad when her dead cat talks to her boyfriend and not her, she works herself up into such stupid tizzies over nothing that she can't even walk past the police station for fear that she'll be arrested (because she's convinced that the cops are gunning for her, too). It got so bad, there were such inconsistencies, I started writing them down so I wouldn't throw my Nano out into the desert in sheer frustration. Don't worry, I won't recite them here. Just listen to me when I write: avoid this book. (Audiobook)

Whose Body by Dorothy L. Sayers I had to cleanse my brain from the previous book, and what better way to do so than to listen to a digital version of an older audiobook by one of the masters of mystery, Dorothy Sayers? The differences between Sayers and Simon? Writing ability to start with, ability to create and sustain a mystery and its ambiance, style, and despite being 90 years old (yes, that's right, 90--originally published in 1923), Sayers is timeless and reads just as fresh today as then. Check out this classic by a writer from the Golden Age of Mysteries is you've never met her protagonist, Lord Peter Wimsey. Highly recommended. (Audiobook)

And Be A Villain by Rex Stout I toyed with the idea, late last year, of reading all the Nero Wolfe mysteries in order in 2013. I've read a couple, and enjoyed them tremendously, but ultimately decided that access to some of the older titles might be difficult and thus to not undertake what would have been a very fun reading marathon. And Be a Villain is pretty early in the Wolfe canon (number 13, I think), but Stout had Nero, Archie, and the assorted detectives that swirl around Wolfe's brownstone well characterized by this book. Originally published in 1946, this is another classic that stands the test of time--someone murders a man on the air, during a radio talk show. Everyone on the set is keeping the same secret--why? Except for a few phrases and descriptions, this could have been written within the past few years. Highly recommended. (1996 audiobook, digitally remastered)

Trouble Follows Me by Ross Macdonald I remember shelving these titles from my time at the bookstore, and so when the title was set for re-release, I decided it would be good for me to check out this prolific author; maybe I'd find a new author to enjoy. The book, originally published in 1946, opens with a bang in Honolulu during World War II, has some promising gambits, but generally proceeds to stall and become flat by the end of the book. Too many coincidences are used to move the plot forward, although the journey on the train and the night in Tijuana are described very well and are very evocative. The murderer is very obvious, and this always disappoints me as I try deliberately to not figure out whodunnit. Still, the physical descriptions are good, and if you can overlook some distasteful jargon and stereotypical female characterizations of that era, as well as a nasty and brutal fight at the end, this might be a good summer read for you. (Net Galley ARC)

Beyond the Blue Horizon by Brian Fagan (2012) It was time for some nonfiction, and Fagan is adept at taking a theme and covering its many manifestations around the globe, over thousands of years. This time, Fagan ponders the question: what drove humans to explore the vast oceans of the world? How and why did man leave the safety of coastal fishing to venture out into the vast depths, without compasses, maps, or any certainty of landfall? Fagan is an old world archaeologist, so he spends a lot of time on the Lapita of the southern Pacific, Greek and other Mediterranean cultures, but gives very short shrift to the New World cultures (scant pages on the Maya, and barely paragraphs on the Andean cultures). Fun and fast, and I learned a lot of sailing vocabulary. Recommended. (Kindle)

The Last Days of Richard III and the Fare of His DNA by John Ashdown-Hill An updated second edition of the book that inspired Phillipa Langley to get the money and resources to test Ashdown-Hill's theory of where Richard III was buried--successfully relocated last summer. An easy read, with succinct data presented chronologically from contemporary written sources about what the king was doing in the last few months of his reign. Some familiarity with the Plantagenets, the Tudors, and their history helps. This edition includes a discussion of Ashdown-Hill's efforts to successfully trace the mitochondrial DNA of Richard's sister to the present day. Recommended. (Kindle)

Curly Girl, the Handbook (second edition) by Lorraine Massey and Michele Bender Massey single-handedly revolutionized the way curly hair is taken care of and cut with the first edition, published ten years ago. This edition updates and expands the first, with more curl categories, lots more photographs of gorgeous curls, and her trademark product recipes. Massey takes on some of the information that others have spread through the online curly world (baking soda rinses, final clarifying shampoos, etc.), but her message remains simple--love your curls and take care of them. Highly recommended to other curly tops. And I so want the cut on the model on the cover! (Trade paper)

Lace One-Skein Wonders by Judith Durant Possibly my favorite Story knitting publication reviewed to date! Gorgeous lace projects, the usual outstanding layout with lots of crisp, clean, photographs, written and charted patterns, and even a couple of crocheted and Broomstick lace patterns. As usual, a variety of patterns for every skill level. There are at least 20 patterns in this book I want to make. To be published later this year, so if any of you sisters want to buy this for me for Christmas....