How about weather?

This is being written in very early spring, so right now we're all very conscious of weather, both good and bad. I just finished a book that was mostly about weather, and it was all good. The book is ISAAC'S STORMby Erik Lar (1999).It tells the story of the hurricane that almost destroyed Galveston, Texas in 1900, and left 8,000 or more people dead. At the same time, it's telling the personal story of the principal weather forecaster for that area, and the mistakes made by the newly-formed U.S. Weather Bureau.It's a good look at how things were more than 100 years ago, and is interesting from an historical point of view, but it is also a well-told tale.

Another Winner

The book I just finished (and truly enjoyed) is entitled " THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, but it isn't about the circus. Written by Richard Dawkins, published in 2009, it can keep you entranced. While I said that it isn't about the circus, maybe it is --- and that circus is evolution and how we all came to be what we are. I'll admit that the book gets a bit heavy in a few places to those of us who are non-scientists, but overall, it is so very readable. I always like Mr. Dawkins works. Yes, he's a non-Christian, but then, so am I.

An Old Favorite

The book I just finished, COME AGAIN NO MORE by Jack Todd (2010) was so enjoyable. One of his previous books, Sun Going Down, was critiqued on the back cover and compared quite favorably to Lonesome Dove, which is an all-time favorite of mine. That, in itself, is a funny thing as I don't like any of the other McMurtry books. I started reading Mr. Todd's book with no expectation of it being anything like Lonesome Dove. But it is! Hooray, Hooray! Now I've got to find Sun Going Down. If you like Lonesome Dove, or if you like McMurtry's books, you'll like this one.

Yeah for you, ladies

What a tremendous task our next writer set out for herself! She wrote a book about a female writer and the characters who line up outside her door every night, waiting for their turn to be written about. One man is so eager to have his story told that he jumps the line and gets into her house to plead with her about telling his story now. That's all fine, except that there is no story to be told until she writes it. The chapters go back and forth between him coming to her house and discussing upcoming possibilities, and the other chapters where he lives out what she has written. All this is told so smoothly that it's almost believable. The name of the book is BROKEN, written in Norwegian by Karin Fossum, translated by Charlotte Barslund (2006, 2008).
This is a very impressive piece of story-telling. We should all do so well.

Biochemist and Doctor???

Here's another one that is somewhat unusual, and also well- written. This one is HEALER by Carol Cassela (2010). It's the story of a small family with problems. The father is a biochemist who developed a new blood test for ovarian cancer, and its wide acceptance made the family rich. The mother is an almost-medical-doctor, who suspended the last tiny bit of her residency to take care of her premature baby, and never went back. The baby is now a healthy fourteen-year-old with more the the usual amount of disdain for her mom. In his enthusiasm for a new drug he has developed, the dad has mortgaged most of the family's possessions to get the money necessary for start-up expenses. Oh, oh.
They've lost their home and have had to move into a run-down house in the country that they had bought as a vacation home and intended to fix up. That's enough to tell you. It's a good book, and if you try it, you'll probably like it.

An Opportunity to Learn

Way back in the Dark Ages when I first wrote on this blog, the first one I tried to bring to your attention was Barbara Kingsolver's Animal.Vegetable,Miracle. In it, she told a fascinating story, but the book was essentially about food.
The one I just finished was about food also, but told in a completely different way. This was The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (2006). What a writer this guy is! This book tells you about growing corn, feed-lots and cattle, growing grasses, and hunting wild pigs and mushrooms, but it does it in such a way that you're glued to every word. Even if the idea doesn't interest you, if you'll take a look at the book, it will probably captivate you -- just as it did me.

A Cut Above

Once in a while, you read a book that even though it's set in the past, is perfectly in tune with present-day happenings. That was the case with one I just finished. The title of this down-to-earth, no-nonsense bit of realism is The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss (2007). I had the opportunity to read this while I was spending two weeks at my daughter's home in Northern New Mexico. My daughter has a contract with the Forest Service to gentle the mustangs that they capture on public lands. Her entire approach to these wild beauties is with positive reinforcement, and sometimes in as little as two or three weeks, the horses she works with are ready to be adopted into a new home and receive further training. This gentle and loving attitude is almost the same as the attitude displayed by the main character in Ms. Gloss's book. The period of time was in the early 1800's, and horse training at that time was more "breaking" than "gentling". The book is very well-written, and is not one of those that romanticize the animals or the people. Give it a try -- It's excellent!