Life during lockdown

Literally every American—everyone on the planet—has been affected by the health emergency caused by the novel coronavirus. Even those that refuse to follow rules and recommendations and instead gather in huge crowds at the beach to, er, “interact” will find that they, too, are affected in ways they might not find so nice. Washington Governor Jay Inslee put it best when he said that ignoring precautions could kill your grandad. Now is the time to think of others first.

Those who remain healthy and employed have a myriad of ways to help their neighbors that aren’t so fortunate. Donate to your local food pantry or animal shelter. Purchase take away food—and generously tip the staff. Purchase gift cards to use later or give to your neighbors who have been laid off. Call a neighbor that lives alone and may be lonely.

But, of course, this is a column about books and reading. So for those that are lucky enough to have leisure time and need to fill it, here are some suggestions.

First, you can read, of course. But it is difficult for even me to read for hours upon hours without a break. When you’re ready for a break from your book, you can organize your bookshelves. If you’re like me, when you’ve finished a new book, you just look for a bit of space on the shelf to squeeze it in. However, if you organize your books, even if only by fiction and non-fiction, you can find titles that you might be looking for later a lot faster.

And while you’re going through your shelves, pull out the titles you are ready to give up. Start a box of books to donate to the library once the emergency is over. Also, pull the books that you haven’t read yet. You may have several (or dozens if you’re like me) that you’ve purchased and not gotten to.

Now is also a great time to create an online catalog of all your books if you don’t already have one. I use LibraryThing, but there are many others, including GoodReads.

It’s also a good time to learn to use a video conferencing app like Google Hangouts or Zoom so that your book club can keep meeting even during isolation. Grab your book, pour a beverage, and cozy up to your laptop or phone to discuss a book with your friends.

Go outside. I prefer to have a physical book in my hands to read. However, I’ve recently tried a few audiobooks, and I must say, being read to is quite enjoyable. An audiobook is a great companion for a vigorous walk or bike ride. The exercise will lift your mood and boost your immune system.

Try something new. If you have a spouse, partner, or roommate, the two of you could choose books for each other. The person I share a house with likes to read westerns, especially books about Texas Rangers. Not really my cup of tea, but I’m willing to try one. Of course, he would have to read “Wuthering Heights.” I’ll let you know how that goes.

Many people who love reading also enjoy writing. Keep a journal of these very weird days. Can you imagine if you had your grandparents’ or great-grandparents’ daily journal from the pandemic of 1918, or from WWI, or WWII? What a treasure that would be. Get the whole family in on it. Keep your journals on a file sharing site like Dropbox or Google docs so that everyone can read each other’s entries. Or start a virtual writers group and read your entries to each other.

Do you have kids at home? Have them read to their grandparents or other relatives via Facetime. It’s great for the kids and the grans will love it.

Even though we’re supposed to be in isolation, we don’t have to feel isolated. Books offer us the entire universe, full of interesting and wonderful characters. Technology offers us the chance to interact without leaving our homes. Instead of focusing on what we’re giving up, like toilet paper and eating in restaurants, focus instead on what we can gain: a sense of shared purpose, consideration of others, and lots of time to catch up on our reading.

True crime, my guilty pleasure

One of my guilty pleasures is reading true crime books. Good true crime books. And there are a lot of bad true crime books out there, so you have to choose carefully.

This guilty pleasure started for me in 1974, when I read Vincent Bugliosi’s Helter Skelter. I was so fascinated by the genre, that I turned to that classic true crime book, In Cold Blood (1966). Although Truman Capote did not invent the genre—many true crime pamphlets and magazines appeared as early as 100 years before Capote’s book—he did popularize the genre and bring it in the mainstream of literature. I’ve read dozens of true crime books since then.

And although Capote has been criticized since the book’s publication for taking liberties with the facts, it still remains one of the most important books in American literature.

Some people in my household do not share my fascination. Some think it’s creepy and weird that I like true crime books, crime fiction, movies and TV shows about crime. But I think it stems from a desire for justice, to see the guilty held to account. For me, that accountability seems to restore some balance to a universe filled with injustice.

And what, exactly makes a true crime book good? First, it should be based on first-hand experience or meticulous research or a combination of both. Bugliosi, the attorney who successfully prosecuted Charles Manson and his followers for the Tate-LaBianca murders in 1969, of course had intimate knowledge of the crime and the trial.

Capote began working on his groundbreaking book before the arrest of killers Hickock and Smith, and worked for six years, finishing after the killers were hanged. He was assisted by his childhood friend, Harper Lee. And although Capote does not footnote his work, the book is based on hundreds of hours of interviews, including extensive interviews with the killers as they awaited their sentences to be carried out.

Another criterion for judging true crime literature is whether it enlightens us somehow. Does it demonstrate a truth about human nature? Does it reveal irony? Does it ask us to question our assumptions, beliefs, or biases? Good true crime books, like all good literature, offers us more than just a voyeuristic peek at another’s tragedy.

And good true crime books respect the victims, the survivors, and those that bring the guilty to justice. Good true crime also holds accountable those involved in the case who do not share that respect: those that are incompetent, overzealous, or corrupt.

Finally, a good true crime book is readable. The prose must be precise and inviting. The dialog should be realistic. The descriptions must be detailed. It must be a rewarding read, even the parts that are heart-wrenching and disturbing.

So, what are my favorites? Probably too many to mention. However, I do want to tell you about some that I particularly liked. First, each of Gary LaVergne’s three books about killers is well worth the read. The Sniper in the Tower (1997), about the Charles Whitman murders, Worse Than Death (2003), about the Dallas nightclub murders, and Bad Boy from Rosebud (1999), about prolific serial killer Kenneth Allen McDuff, who was sent to death row in two different cases two decades apart, all focus on important criminal cases in Texas.

The Devil in the White City (2003) by Erik Larson is a modern masterpiece. Not only does it recount the crimes of one of the nation’s first and most prolific serial killers, it also details the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago to celebrate the 500^th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival in the western hemisphere. This world’s fair introduced people to the many products and inventions that would come to define the 20^th century: Juicy Fruit gum, Shredded Wheat, Quaker Oats, books printed in Braille, the Ferris Wheel, elevators, the electric chair, the moving sidewalk, electric dishwashers, and the Pledge of Allegiance. Westinghouse successfully winning the bid to provide electric light at the fair ended the war between direct and alternating current once and for all. There was even an assassination at the end of the exposition.

Some more recent titles include I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (2019), in which author Michelle McNamara searches for the Golden State Killer. Ironically, McNamara died suddenly at age 46 just two years before the killer was apprehended. In Death in the Air (2017) by Kate Winkler Dawson, London serial killer John Reginald Christie operates hidden by the killer fog of 1952 that resulted in thousands of deaths.

Whether true crime is already a genre you enjoy, or a genre you have yet to explore, you can find dozens of lists of titles in the web, as well as dozens of titles by searching the catalog at the public library.

New year, new books

Recent read

My book club selected “Disappearing Earth” by Julia Phillips recently. We found the title on the New York Times list of best books of 2019. This first novel was nominated for the National Book Award, a well-earned accolade.

The novel begins with the disappearance of two little girls in Petropavlovsk on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. However, the focus is on the people who were directly or indirectly affected by their disappearance. It is a study in loss, regret, and desperation.

The isolated, wild setting creates a lonely, gray mood for the novel similar to that found in Nordic Noir, such as the Wallander books and the Millennium series. Located near the Arctic Circle and dotted with volcanoes, the Kamchatka is both beautiful and terrible. Phillips’s imagery contrasts the natural beauty of the setting with the horror of the crime:

“In the sunset, the pebbles on the shore shifted their color from black and gray to honey. Amber. They were brightening. Soon the stones would glow, and the water in the bay was going to turn pink and orange. Spectacular in the city center, where people feared to have their pretty daughters go.” (31)

One character, whose dog goes missing, crystalizes the theme of loss and responsibility in the realization that “[i]t hurts too much to break your own heart out of stupidity, to leave a door unlocked or a child untended and return to discover that whatever you value most has disappeared. No. You want to be intentional about the destruction. Be a witness. You want to watch how your life will shatter.” (205)

A quick read, “Disappearing Earth” will draw you in and keep you thinking about it long after you’ve finished.

My own weird obsession: Julia Child

I fell in love with French cuisine on a trip to France in 2015. I set out to learn to cook some French dishes, so I naturally turned to “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” by Julia Child, et. al. Last year, my daughter gave me a copy of “Dearie” (2013) by Bob Spitz. It is a huge and comprehensive biography of Julia Child, beginning with the birth of her grandparents, and ending with her death in August 2004, two days before her ninety-second birthday.

Child’s life was about so much more than cooking. She worked for the OSS—the precursor to the CIA—during WWII, where she met her husband Paul. Some have referred to her as a spy or spy-master, but her job was to catalog and dole out secret information to covert agents based on what they needed to know. She referred to herself as a “file clerk.”

I recently read “My Life in France” (2006), a book that Child wanted to write for many years. It wasn’t until at the end of her life that her grandnephew, Alex Prud’homme, finally convinced her to allow him to help her with the project. The result is a beautifully readable and entertaining account of what Child referred to as the best years of her life. I enjoyed reading it tremendously and was quite sad when I finished it. However, I can console myself with “A Covert Affair” by Jennet Conant, and “An Appetite for Life” by Noël Riley Fitch, two more Child biographies that I received this year.

Just finished

I just finished “The Night Tiger” by Yangsze Choo. A book club member selected it because it has “tiger” in the title and we loved “The Tiger’s Wife.” Well, she nailed it. Ji Lin is a dressmaker’s apprentice in colonial Malaya, who comes to possess a mysterious object that is said to bring good luck. Ren is a ten-year-old house boy on a mission to recover the item and return it to its owner, his recently deceased employer. An example of magical realism, this novel has multiple complex plotlines, ghosts, mythical man-eating beasts, and mysterious deaths. I highly recommend this one.

Last decade filled with great reads

We realized at the last meeting that our book club has been reading and meeting together for almost a decade. We began in spring 2011, so we’re beginning our tenth year together. After we discussed this month’s book, “Disappearing Earth” by Julia Phillips, we talked about many of the books we’ve read together and which ones were the best.

There’s not enough room here to list all of the good reads we’ve shared. So I’ll discuss briefly the best of the best.

Two of our early books were “The Tiger’s Wife” by Tea Obreht and “Cutting for Stone” by Abraham Verghese. “The Tiger’s Wife” was kind of a departure for me personally, and also for some in our club. The magical realism of it and Obreht’s second novel, “Inland,” which also made it to the Best of the Best list, is spellbinding. These are masterpieces of literature, AND they have ghosts. What more could a reader ask for? Few of my reading-pals liked “Inland” as much as they liked “The Tiger’s Wife.” However, this is my list, and I loved it.

“Cutting for Stone” presents a sweeping story of two generations sustained by love and tormented by betrayal. It kept me up nights, turning pages. I think the longevity of our book club is due not only to our long-standing friendships, but also the quality of the books that began this endeavor with. We often rate a recently read book to the first few great ones we read. We’re always looking for the next great one.

Another saga is Barbara Kingsolver’s “The Lacuna,” the story of a boy’s difficult and chaotic youth and his life among luminaries such as Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Leon Trotsky. Its critique of McCarthyism and xenophobia is sadly relevant in 2020. This one and “The Poisonwood Bible” are, I think, Kingsolver’s best novels.

We also read several classics, including “Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier. I have read “Rebecca” several times, since it is one of my all-time favorites, but it was fun and rewarding to read it again with friends and talk it over. If you haven’t had the pleasure, “Rebecca” is a modern gothic tale of ghosts, secrets, and love set in wild and beautiful Cornwall.

Among the Pulitzer Prize winners we read is “Less” by Andrew Sean Greer. An unconventional love story, “Less” is hilarious from beginning to end. Arthur Less is a turning-50, failed novelist whose ex is about to marry Arthur’s rival. To avoid attending the wedding, he goes on a world-circling book tour of half-baked literary events. This slap-stick dark comedy rewards with a sweet ending.

Although our list is obviously fiction-heavy, we did read some great non-fiction. “The Boys in the Boat” by Daniel James Brown tells the story of the underdog American crew team at the 1936 Olympics. We read this one just before the 2016 Summer Olympics. The games had just finished as school started, and one of my students asked me what my favorite Olympic team was. Without hesitating, I replied “The 1936 eight-man crew team.” The student was a little taken aback, and responded, “Wow, miss. That’s oddly specific.”

Going over this list, I look forward to another decade of great reads, starting with “The Night Tiger” by Yangsze Choo, a tale of murder, romance, and superstition.

Books for holiday giving

Books are always on my shopping list—and my wish list—this time of year. A gift of a book gives the receiver hours of enjoyment while reading it, and a lifetime of satisfaction remembering or returning to it. And there is a book for everyone.

I recall a student many years ago on our first trip to the library that semester. He claimed that he didn’t like to read. “OK,” I told him. “What do you like?”

“I like music, miss,” he said.                                                                                                                              

“OK,” I said. “Follow me.”

I took him to the stacks and found a copy of The Commitments (1989) by Roddy Doyle. The story is about a group of working class youth whose mission is to bring Soul music to Dublin. An added bonus is that the novel is heavy on realistic dialog with just enough narration to keep the story moving.

The student took the book because he was too polite not to. I could tell he was skeptical.

The following day in class, the student rushed up to me and said “I didn’t know there were books like this!”

Everyone is a reader when they have the right book.

So, here are some recommendations for holiday shopping.

History

I’ve read several books about the people, other than the soldiers on the front lines, that were instrumental in the Allies’ victory in WWII. One of the best of these is Code Girls (2017) by Liza Mundy.

The US Army and Navy operated parallel programs that relied heavily on women recruited from universities and small towns to learn and then use the meticulous skills necessary to break enemy codes. The work of these women and others saved countless lives and shortened the war by as much as two years.

Although Mundy’s book is carefully researched nonfiction, the books is as readable as any novel.

Literary Fiction

Although this title is not new, The Little Friend (2002) by Donna Tartt is a riveting and haunting tale of crime and punishment, innocence and evil. Although Tartt won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for The Goldfinch, I believe The Little Friend is a superior novel.

Twelve-year-old Harriet Dufresnes, whose family was destroyed by the murder of her 9-year-old brother when Harriet was just a baby, sets out to find the killer. She convinces herself that local redneck criminal Danny Ratliff is the killer and begins stalking him. The novel turns into a thriller as Harriet’s pursuit of Ratliff leads her into mortal danger.

Romance

The Giver of Stars (2019) by Jojo Moyes tells the based-on-real-people story of the packhorse librarians in rural, Depression-era Kentucky. The Pack Horse Library Project was a WPA program that served around 100,000 Kentuckians between 1935 and 1943.

The Giver of Stars tells not only the story of the librarians and their efforts to promote literacy in the poorest and most remote areas of the country, it also touches on issues of women’s rights and autonomy, censorship, racism, domestic abuse, and union busting. Oh, and there are some love stories in there, too.

Cookbooks

Cooking can seem like a chore to working people. Many turn to meal prepping on the weekend. Even that seems to me like a lot of planning work.

Cassy Joy Garcia’s newest cookbook Cook Once, Eat All Week (2019) solves these problems. For each week, Garcia provides a shopping list, which includes alternatives for those with food sensitivities, prepping instructions, and recipes.

I had always imagined meal prepping was cooking a bunch of food on Sunday, and then reheating different dishes the rest of the week. Not so with Garcia’s book. Prep day includes things like chopping or roasting vegetables, or searing meats. The work on each meal day is expedited by having the components ready. Another important feature of Garcia’s system is that there is no waste. If you need two chicken breasts for one meal, that recipe is paired with one that calls for the rest of the chicken.

Audiobooks

I recently listened to the e-audio version of Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen (2018) by Sarah Bird.

The title refers to a fictionalized version of an actual person, Cathy Williams, a freed slave who disguised herself as a man and served in the Buffalo Soldiers for two years after the Civil War.

The story is funny, heartbreaking, and inspiring. Narrator Bahni Turpin is brilliant. She brings to life dozens of characters, conveying the tragedy and the comedy of Bird’s story.

Everyone loves being read to, but Turpin’s portrayal of the characters in this book make it a special treat.

Dublin Murder Squad series begins

Although I twice vowed not to read another Tana French novel, I’ve read five of the Dublin Murder Squad series and plan to read the sixth one and her standalone crime novel, The Witch Elm (2018).

I can’t recall how I was introduced to In The Woods (2008), but if it was you that recommended it, and you’re reading this, thank you. Of course, I wasn’t grateful when I first finished the novel, but I am now.

French’s series is unique in that each book is narrated by a different detective. Each one works or has worked on the Murder Squad of the Dublin police, and they are all flawed. Also, in each novel, the detective-narrator has some personal connection to the victim, witness, or crime scene.

The books are full of twists that are impossible to see coming, unless you’re used to French’s unconventional protagonists and plots. There are no happy, satisfying endings. Just realistic ones. Sometimes justice is not done; sometimes the “good guys” do “bad things.” This is how French challenges our notions of right and wrong and human imperfection. And this is why I twice vowed not to read another French novel, but ended up doing so anyway four times.

The tone of her books has been compared to that of Swedish crime novels. Anyone who has read the Millennium series, beginning with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, or any of the Kurt Wallander books will note the similarity. However, French’s characters offer the reader more than excessive coffee drinking and ennui. They offer us a close, sometimes painful, examination of human failing and weakness, even in humans with the noblest intentions.

The television adaptation of the series began Sunday night on Starz and continues for the next seven Sunday nights. The sweeping grey landscapes and mossy, fog-shrouded woods certainly capture the mood of French’s books.

The first episode presents the crime from the first book, In The Woods. However, the crime from the second book, The Likeness, occurs in the second episode, and detectives Maddox and Reilly (Ryan in the book) solve the two crimes simultaneously. The primary complaint of the UK audiences who have already seen the entire season was how the screenwriter has melded the two novels.

Although viewers of any television or movie adaptation who know and love the books are not going to be happy about the changes made by the screenwriter or the director, changing from a print to a visual medium is going to require accommodations.

However, it is difficult to understand what necessitated combining the two plots. Both novels are long enough with enough complexity to fill an entire eight-episode season. Perhaps the screenwriter wanted to reduce the brooding-to-action ratios.

And brooding is the only way to describe Det. Reilly/Ryan. His is the most disturbing plot and the most complex character. His story sets the tone and expectations for the novels that follow. His story deserves a treatment without the distraction of another story interwoven with it.

Another complaint of the UK audiences was about the lack of resolution in the final episode. Some complained that the most intriguing mystery is never solved. In this regard, the television adaptation is true to the novel. But that is what makes French’s books so compelling and irresistible to her readers, even those that vow not to read another of her novels.

Multitude of resources increase reading enjoyment

By now it should be obvious that simply reading books is not enough for me. I have to also talk about books, share books, think about books, and write about books. Fortunately, there are many tools to help me fully realize a bookish life.

Texas Book Festival

The 2019 festival begins Saturday morning at the Capitol. This is a free event open to the public with speakers and activities for all ages. There will be over 300 authors, book signings, readings, presentations, panel discussions, demonstrations, and thousands of books for sale. If you’re a reader, this is the premier event for you. Check out their website to plan your trip.

Web tools and apps

There are at least a dozen websites and apps that allow you to list, categorize, and rate books you own, you’ve read, or you want to read. You can also connect with others who share your interests. Goodreads and LibraryThing are two of the most popular. I use LibraryThing simply because my librarian daughter recommended it to me.

Whenever someone recommends a book to me, I immediately enter it on my wish list on LibraryThing. I don’t have to worry about trying to remember the title or author, which I probably wouldn’t do anyway. When I want to recommend a book to someone, but I can’t remember the author, I simply search my catalog. Sometimes I can’t even remember the title. Fortunately, LibraryThing includes a thumbnail of the cover, so all I have to do is browse for what the book looks like.

Some other options are Shelfari, Booksr, and Libib. You can find many others. Just google “book cataloging.”

Book clubs

The Bastrop Public Library will launch the Director’s Book Club Jan. 16 at 2 p.m. in the Maynard Conference room. January’s title is The Library Book by Susan Orlean. The club is geared for adults, and the public is invited. The club will meet regularly on the third Thursday of the month.

“We’ll be reading a mix of fiction and non-fiction and contemporary and classic titles,” Library Director Becca Sexton said. “When it makes sense, I’ll be tying in books to things happening in our community.”

The Bastrop folks on Nextdoor.com also have a book club that meets on the third Saturday of each month at 1 p.m. at Casa Chapala (upstairs). The book for today’s meeting is She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, the New York Times reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein story. You can join Nextdoor.com to find more information and receive their emails.

“We usually have in attendance from four to nine individuals,” Nextdoor book club member Diana McNabb said. “We enjoy getting together to socialize, talk over chosen reads, and enjoy a meal with one another.”

The American-Statesman hosts an Austin 360 virtual book club. They read a book each month and discuss it via Facebook Live on the last Thursday of the month, which is great if what you’re looking for is to simply watch two people discuss a book. However, their Facebook page is a good place to connect with people who read and to get recommendations for titles.

KUT also has a book club. They focus on Texas and Austin authors and meet at Book People for a live discussion (as well as on Facebook Live) with the author. Not many books clubs get to discuss books with the folks who wrote them.

If none of these suit you, choose a book, invite some friends, and serve some snacks. Now you have a book club.

Retailers

Bargain hunters might be interested in websites like Bookbub, Ereaderiq or Kobo. On Bookbub’s website, you can browse titles that range in price from free to a few dollars. You can also set up your preferences and receive an email each day with the day’s deals. Ereaderiq lets you browse Amazon books by price (including free), genre, or length. Kobo allows users to search for discounted or free e-books and audiobooks.

I check my Bookbub email (most days). Several times I’ve found books that are on my wish list for just $1 to $2. They also send me recommendations based on my preferences. I can also sign up for an alert when a particular title is discounted.

For the ink-and-paper purists, Thriftbooks offers new and used books at deep discounts. You can search their website or browse categories. I’ve purchased several hard to find titles from them.

E-books and e-audiobooks

If you’re not interested in purchasing e-books or e-audiobooks, you can borrow them from the Bastrop Public Library. You just need a library card and internet access. You can read e-books or listen to e-audiobooks on any device and even switch it among devices. Two apps are available, Overdrive and Libby, which are free to download. There are also several websites that offer e-books for free, like SYNC, Project Gutenberg, and OpenLibrary.