The Turk Who Loved Apples

What happens when a New York Times travel writer, a man who actually depends on traveling for his living, becomes bored with the routine of traveling on someone else's dime?  If you're Matt Gross, author of The Turk Who Loved Apples, you stop writing the paper's "Frugal Traveler" column and start writing its "Getting Lost" column instead.  (Despite Gross's claim that his sense of direction is so good that it is almost impossible for him to get lost in a strange city, his new column was a success.)

 The man is a natural born traveler.  Upon finishing college, when he was just 22 years old, Gross did something that would change the course of his life: he moved to Viet Nam pretty much just to see what would happen.  There he would eventually go to work for one of the country's English language newspapers, a job that brought him the credentials he needed to freelance a few travel and review columns on the side.  That work led to the Times job and Gross has been writing about travel and food ever since.

The Turk Who Loved Apples is all about the evolution of one traveler, a man who traveled so much in just a few years that he quit enjoying it - especially the "frugal" part of the equation because, as he puts it, there are only just so many ways to save money while on the road, and recycling them and trying to make them seem fresh became more of a chore than it was worth. 

Matt Gross

The book begins with Gross's Viet Nam experiences and, with flashbacks now and then to Viet Nam, covers some of his other travel "adventures" as well.  Travelers who prefer to stay off the much beaten tourist paths of the world will find Gross to be a kindred spirit.  As the years went by, the author more and more often decided that the most important thing about traveling is making new friends.  He began to focus more on experiencing new countries and cities the way the locals experience them, hoping to make - and keep - friends from each of the places he visited.  As a self-styled "wanderer" myself when time allows, I was both intrigued and inspired by his experiences in this regard.

I recommend The Turk Who Loved Apples to travel memoir enthusiasts with one minor caveat.  Gross presents a rather cavalier attitude toward women that can be a bit off-putting, particularly as regards his relationship to one Vietnamese prostitute.  The relationship he describes, whether Gross intends it or not, makes the prostitute appear to be a very sympathetic, if not tragic, character while leaving the reader wondering a bit about Gross himself - a case of, in my opinion, too much information.

Bottom Line: Good book for real travelers and armchair travelers alike.

Blood Drama

Blood Drama, the new crime fiction thriller from Christopher Meeks, is Meeks's first venture into genre fiction.  Now, let's hope it is not his last, because this one is great fun.

When Ian Nash, a Southern California graduate student, unexpectedly finds himself callously dropped from his theatre Ph.D. program, he realizes that more than just his future expectations have changed.  Now, because he was fired from his teaching duties at the same time he was booted from the program, Ian is also without a source of income.  And because a man needs money to survive, Ian decides to apply for work in a little bank lobby coffee shop on his way home from the university. 

His day is about to get a whole lot worse.

What begins as just another Los Angeles bank robbery suddenly goes very wrong.  As Ian watches from his assigned spot on the coffee shop floor, shots are fired, people die, and, when the police show up, he is horrified to be chosen as the designated hostage to accompany the robbers to their escape vehicle.  He will be even more horrified when he realizes that one of the robbers is determined to eliminate any chance that Ian will be around long enough to identify the gang to FBI investigators.  If he wants to live, Ian has to find a way to escape – and soon.

Christopher Meeks

Blood Drama is very much a thriller, but it is a thriller with a romantic twist.  Ian Nash, as are several male characters from previous Christopher Meeks novels and stories, is a well-intentioned, but rather naive, bumbler who sometimes overestimates his own abilities.  He combines innocence and recklessness in a way that endears him to the reader as much as it confounds the other characters in the novel.  One can only imagine why he believes himself more capable of finding the bank robbers than the FBI, even to running his own sting, but he does.  And when Ian begins to woo the beautiful Latina FBI agent officially in charge of the investigation, we see that his basic optimism about the future remains intact. 

Ian Nash is not an easily defeated man.  He is a winner in spite of himself, and we love him for that.

(Review Copy provided by Publisher)

Book Trailer of the Week: As Nora Jo Fades Away

I was contacted today about reviewing a book called As Nora Jo Fades Away.  It is Lisa Cerasoli's account of being the fulltime caretaker of her grandmother who suffered from Alzheimer's and was slowly "fading away."  This is not a topic I would have wanted to read about just a few years ago, but because we are watching my mother-in-law go through the same process right now, I find comfort in the experiences of those who have already endured the horror of watching a family member succumb to the disease.

As it turns out, the memoir is also the basis of a documentary film titled "14 Days with Alzheimer's."  This is the trailer to that film:






Here's another look at Nora Jo (I have had this conversation so many times with my mother-in-law that this one is hard for me to watch):


(22nd Book Trailer of the week in a continuing series of unusual and memorable book trailers spotted by Book Chase)

The Highs and Lows of World Book Night 2013

Pre-Set-Up Picture of Mall Common

This year, figuring there was no better place to find a bunch of reluctant readers, I carried my case of books to a local shopping mall where I set up shop.  Within a few minutes, I was ready to go and the first curious shoppers were trying to figure out what the catch was.  This reminder of the cynicism that is so much a part of today's world was the first indication that this was going to be a good bit tougher than last year when I brought my books to an assisted living facility where I was met by a small crowd of eager readers.

Michael Perry's "Population: 485"

Within 45 minutes, though, I had given away about half the books.  I was appalled, however, by the number of people who stopped by just long enough to rather proudly proclaim that they do not read books and have no interest in ever doing so, thank you very much.  When I had heard enough of that, I decided to pack up and go inside the mall.  And there I struck gold when I spotted all those bored husbands sitting on mall benches waiting for their wives to finally claim them so they could go home.  My people.

Bored men with nothing to read who dared not stray from where their wives sat them?  What more could I ask for?  Within an hour I had given away the last 11 books, talked books with some nice guys of all ages, and walked away convinced that each of them was sincerely grateful for the book I left behind.  (I was even referred to as a "lifesaver" by two of the guys.  Now that's appreciation.)

So the highs easily trumped the lows, and I can't wait to learn what World Book Night 2014 will bring.

The Burgess Boys

The Burgess kids lost their father in a freakish accident when Jim was eight and the twins, Bob and Susan, were four.  They were too young to be blamed for what happened, but each of them, in their own way, would be traumatized by the collective guilt associated with that tragic day.  Now, decades later, they are still paying the price.

The boys both practice law in New York City and have left little Shirley Falls, Maine far behind.  Their sister, on the other hand, has never even been to New York City and still lives in Shirley Falls with her troubled teenage son.  The Burgess family, while not quite estranged, is most certainly not a close one.  Zach can barely remember his uncles.  And when Jim and Bob are together, Jim still takes great joy in belittling his brother, something he has done since at least the day their father died – behavior that the good-natured Bob seems hardly to notice.

But suddenly, all the way from Shirley Falls, Susan frantically reaches out to her brothers for support and legal help.  Zach is in trouble, big trouble, and neither the boy nor his mother is emotionally prepared for what they are about to face.  For the first time since their mother died, the Burgess kids are together in their old hometown, and they can barely stand the town – or each other.

Elizabeth Strout

With remarkable insight, Elizabeth Strout, beginning with the trauma they suffered as small children, moves up and down the Burgess family timeline to explain how they became the people they are today.  Bob and Susan, neither of whom can handle stress or confrontation, are the most obviously emotionally stunted of the three, but the outwardly successful Jim is only better at hiding his problems than they are.  Layer by layer, Stroud develops their distinct personalities, and when they are finally forced to confront their past, it is only a question of which of them will crack first.

The Burgess kids did not grow up to become likable adults, and Strout does not pretend that they did, but it is hard not to be sympathetic as one observes their efforts to cope with their lives.  Their father, after all, was only the most obvious victim of the accident that claimed his life – there were three other victims that day.

Stephen King's Carrie - 2013 Version

Carrie is the novel that introduced Stephen King to the world (although I did not really discover him myself until I picked up a paperback copy of The Shining a while later).  Co-incidentally, the 1975 Hollywood version of Carrie is largely responsible for making Sissy Spacek a household name despite the fact that she already had been around for about five years.  Obviously, the bullied teen's story has a firm grip on America's imagination.

Now comes word that a new film version, one much truer to King's novel, will be released in late 2013.  The movie will star Chloe Grace Moretz as Carrie and is directed by Kimberly Pierce.

I admit that the movie looks intriguing based on this one trailer, but I have to wonder whether anyone already familiar with Carrie will really want to sit through a new version, even one produced by today's technology.  Will "familiarity breed contempt" in this case?

What do you think?

Lost in the Stacks

I'm rather honored that Danielle over at A Work in Progress added my bookshelves to her "Lost in the Stacks: Home Edition" feature today.  Danielle's post includes multiple pictures of my books and shelves along with my answers to her questions regarding the shelves and how I handle my book collection.

If you're interested, here is the direct link to A Work in Progress.  I've followed her "Lost in the Stacks" posts for a while now and always find them fun...loving to snoop the book collections of others, as I do.  Too, if you are interested in sharing your own shelves, I imagine that Danielle would like to hear from you.

(Thanks, Danielle, it was fun.)

Life After Life

Although I am one generation away from needing "elder care" for myself, I have spent a whole lot of time with my 91-year-old father in an assisted living facility during the last three years.  Remarkably, he is healthier and happier today than the day he took up residence there - and both of us attribute his improvement more to his daily interaction with the friends he has made there than to the extra care and assistance he receives.  There is just something special about being around people so regularly.

So when I spotted Jill McCorkle's Life After Life I wondered if she had gotten in right.  Would her portrayal of daily life inside an assisted living facility accurately present all the ups and downs of what residents experience as they navigate their "life after life" period or not?  Well, I can now say that not only does McCorkle get it right, she also creates a number of memorable characters along the way.

Life After Life is set in a Fulton, North Carolina "retirement facility" called Pine Haven Estates.  Most, but not all, of its residents are locals who have known each other since childhood.  One of them, in fact, taught third-grade for so many years that she remembers most of Fulton's citizens as they were when they were eight years old.  Sadie, now 85, has come to believe that, in our hearts, we are all still eight years old, and she conducts herself accordingly. 

Sadie's best friend is Rachel, another retired schoolteacher, who has moved from Massachusetts to spend her final years in North Carolina because of mysterious (and well-guarded) reasons of her own.  Then there is Toby, a "youngish" lesbian and former high school English teacher, whose tendency to see the humor of any situation (and she is not afraid to laugh about it) makes her a treat to have around.  Throw in Stanley, who is outrageously pretending to suffer from dementia so that his son will finally move on with his own life, and the social possibilities are endless.

Jill McCorkle

But McCorkle does not stop there.  She includes characters like Joanna, a hospice worker who is a regular visitor to Pine Haven Estates; C.J., a much tattooed and pierced young lady who provides the facility's beauty care; and Abby, the troubled 12-year-old who lives next door and prefers to spend her free time in Pine Haven Estates rather than with her feuding parents.  All of these "outside" characters have lives and problems of their own that they bring with them to Pine Haven, a reminder to the residents that the world they remember is still spinning right outside their front door. 

Life After Life is fun but it comes with the serious message that "life after life" is what we make of it - and that we best be preparing for it a long time before it begins.  In what I think is a rather jarring ending (which is sure to irritate some readers) one character learns about life the hardest way possible.  This one is definitely worth a look.

(Review Copy provided by Publisher)