The Little Black Fish

#366
Title: The Little Black Fish
Author: Samad Beh-Rang
Illustrator: Arien Walizadeh
Translator: Ruby Emam
Year: 2008
Publisher: AuthorHouse
32 pages

Although the translator says Beh-Rang is from Azerbaijan-Iran, and other sources call him Azerbaijani, this turns out to mean ethnically and linguistically Azerbaijani but as far as country, Iranian. People self-publish for a variety of reasons, and I don't have a problem with that. I wish, though, that they would run the manuscript by a professional proofreader before they published. There are enough problems here to intrude on the storytelling.

The little black fish is held up as a moral and developmental example. I can't say how good an exemplar he is of Azerbaijani-Iranian manhood. The story appears to be a classic. However, I can say that I didn't like the little black fish or admire his behavior. While the illustrations might tempt me to show the book to others, I can't see giving it to a child. These are not my cultural or moral standards, or the ways I want my children to behave.

The Hunger Games

#365
Title: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Year: 2008
Publisher: Scholastic
374 pages

Another terrific young adult F&SF novel from Scholastic. This one, the first in a trilogy, introduces Katniss, a strong adolescent female protagonist living in a what appears to be the Appalachia of a dystopian future. To underscore their ongoing servitude, the Districts must send randomly-chosen tributes each year to battle each other to the death. It's the logical extension of reality television, so when Katniss is sent to the games, she is also groomed to be more attractive to sponsors. Throughout the novel Katniss is pulled into deeper deception and intrigue, though she really just wants to be left alone.

For other young adult fantasy where the protagonist must compete in very serious "games," compare MacHale's The Quillan Games and John Christopher's classic Tripods series, beginning with The White Mountains. Or, really, many episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series.

Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar...: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes

#364
Title: Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar...: Understanding Philosophy through Jokes
Authors: Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein
Year: 2007
Publisher: Abrams Image
208 pages

Entertaining enough, with some good jokes, some of which were good examples of the philosophical school or concept they purported to illustrate, some, not so much. I'm not sure if knowing more philosophy or less would make this a more enjoyable collection, but I found myself getting hung up on jokes that didn't seem to show what they were intended to.

Prehistoric Malta: Tarxien Temples and Saflieni Hypogeum

#363
Title: Prehistoric Malta: Tarxien Temples and Saflieni Hypogeum
Author: Professor Sir Themistocles Zammit
Introduction, illustrator, photographer: Ing. Karl Mayrhofer
Year: 1994 (1929 and 1935 original booklets)
Publisher: Interprint Limited
Country: Malta
96 pages

Apparently a reprint of two earlier pamphlets or monographs. Though I'd have liked a little more background information, this exposition on Malta's archaeology was extremely interesting, enough so that I have added Malta to list of places I'd like to visit. (September, 2013: Did it! Fabulous temples.) The temples are interesting, but the Hal-Seflieni Hypogeum, an extended underground facility, is totally cool.  I would have preferred more information on the uses of the structures and the meanings of the decorative motifs, but these may not have been known at the time of publication.

You can find better photos by searching for the key words in image search (for example, Malta Tarxien Saflieni Hypogeum), including some (or very similar) shots that appear in the book in black and white.

The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Book Four)

#361
Title:  The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Book Four)
Author: Rick Riordan
Year: 2008
Publisher: Miramax/Hyperion
361 pages

This fourth installment of five picks up the pace and tension as the threat of world domination by the Titan Kronos becomes increasingly likely. Meanwhile, because Percy is a young adolescent, his emotional entanglements are powerfully distracting. Lots of fast action, an interesting take on Daedalus, and girl trouble make this an enjoyable, quick read.

There's a nice Percy Jackson wiki at http://percyjackson.wikia.com/wiki/Main_

Page

Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern-Day Jordan

#362
Title: Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern-Day Jordan
Author: Norma Khouri
Year: 2003
Publisher: Atria Books
Country: Jordan
217 pages

Originally billed as a memoir, now pretty conclusively revealed to be fiction. In a way I was glad to learn this, since the story contained puzzling discrepancies (for example, and glaringly, why would the families allow the young women to operate a unisex salon?). In addition, the story was told with such chick-lit bathos that I felt bad because I couldn't muster up sympathy for the women in this dreadful situation. I'm glad it turns out to be fiction, and not a regrettable failure of empathy on my part.

The plot, which can be summarized as "boy meets girl, girl dies" would be tragic if true, and is tragic in the greater sense that women are victims of honor (sic) killings in the world at large. Had this work been represented as fiction, I would comment on how this theme was expressed in the novel. Since it was represented as a memoir, however, I have the same bad feelings about Khouri that I do about James Frey. I think it's disgusting for writers to co-opt the horrific experiences that others have suffered and represent them as their own. or this reason, though I could count this novel for Jordan in my Books of the World Challenge (since Khouri was born in Jordan and lived there for for 2-3 years. However, I'd rather read a book by a writer who hasn't attempted to deceive me.

The Tevye Stories and Others

#360
Title: The Tevye Stories and Others
Author: Sholom Aleichem
Translators: Julius and Frances Butwin
Introduction: Frances Butwin
Year: 1965
Publisher: Pocket Books
Country: Ukraine
252 pages

This collection organizes Tevye the Milkman stories from Aleichem's oeuvre in more-or-less chronological order. They are interspersed with non-Tevye stories to effectively create the sense of the passage of time. Readers who know Tevye only from Fiddler on the Roof will recognize some anecdotes, and Tevye's essential character, while also seeing how Aleichem's material was adapted for stage and what was omitted.

While there is an enduring humor to Tevye's absurdity, and some family and community dysfunction is universal, I'm not sure how funny some of this material is for people who grew up with no Yiddishkeit. So much of what is entertaining about Tevye is his approach to the world, a heavily syncretic blend of Eastern European Jewish culture, Tanakhic and Talmudic misquotes, and self-serving rhetoric. Without some experience sorting out one's Uncle Morty's use and abuse of received wisdom, I don't know how well this would translate culturally. Perhaps it would help to first read Leonard Q. Ross/Leonard Rosten's classic The Education of H*y*m*a*n K*a*p*l*a*n and either Wex's Born to Kvetch or Rosten's The Joys of Yiddish.

Labor of Love: The Story of One Man's Extraordinary Pregnancy

#359
Title: Labor of Love: The Story of One Man's Extraordinary PregnancyAuthor: Thomas Beatie
Year: 2008
Publisher: Seal
335 pages

A provocative autobiography by a transman. The central question Beatie raises is what makes a person a man. This is often a major theme in memoirs by trans people; the twist here is that Beatie carries a child after having transitioned to being male. This gives the question of gender a very interesting spin and a particular urgency: How does the medical establishment respond? What privacy and control do Beatie and his partner relinquish in order to have a child? Should medical forms for pregnancies not assume that the person giving birth is female? How does the reader understand a pregnant man? I was much more taken by this autobiography than I thought I would be. The title and summary concerned me, in that it seemed like a schtick. a way to distinguish his book from those of other trans people. It's a measure of Beatie's ability to describe his experiences and decision-making that by the end I largely admire this narrative.

The Adventures of Tintin in America

#358
Title: The Adventures of Tintin in America
Author: Hergé
Translators: Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner
Year: 1945/1979
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Country: Belgium
64 pages

I had never read a Tintin book before, so I was delighted to learn that Hergé was Belgian and that I could read one for my world books challenge. I enjoyed the illustrations, including some clever incidental material. It was easy enough to figure out relationships and a certain amount of the characters' history, but I imagine that there would be slightly better flow if I had more familiarity with the series. However, even allowing for this, I thought the plot was rather disjointed. There is some racism that would not appear in a contemporary comic, though considering the era, the attitude is more sympathetic than I would imagine a U.S. comic to be.

The Bahama Queen: The Autobiography of Gertrude "Cleo" Lythgoe: Prohibition's Daring Beauty: Including With the Whiskey Smugglers by H. De Winton Wigley

#357
Title: The Bahama Queen: The Autobiography of Gertrude "Cleo" Lythgoe: Prohibition's Daring Beauty: Including With the Whiskey Smugglers by H. De Winton Wigley
Authors: Gertrude "Cleo" Lythgoe and H. De Winton Wigley
Year: 1964/2007 (Lythgoe), 1923/2007 (Wigley)
Publisher: Flat Hammock Press
Country: The Bahamas
240 pages

A fascinating look at liquor-related commerce during Prohibition, told by a female entrepreneur who ran alcohol from the Bahamas to the US. Though the style is clumsy and simply moves from event to event, the story is fascinating. Perhaps equally interesting is the portrait of the Bahamas and the U.S. at this time. This volume includes many photos and Wigley's long article or pamphlet about Lythgoe and others, smugglers and legal transporters to the nautical border alike.

The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Book Three)

#356
Title: The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Book Three)
Author: Rick Riordan
Year: 2007
Publisher: Miramax/Hyperion
312 pages

As the third in the series of five, I'd expect this book to be the emotional hinge. Though there was plenty of interesting action, I didn't find it as compelling as the first two. Instead of marking a turning point in Percy's development, it seemed more like a transitional adventure. Interpersonal dynamics are foreshadowed but not yet fully available to the reader. Fortunately, it picks back up with the fourth book.

Cool Waters: 50 Refreshing, Healthy, Homemade Thirst Quenchers

#355
Title: Cool Waters: 50 Refreshing, Healthy, Homemade Thirst Quenchers
Author: Brian Preston-Campbell
Photographer: Jerry Errico
Year: 2009
Publisher: The Harvard Common Press
96 pages 

A nice collection of recipes for flavored water, both sparkling and still. Its focus is drinks that are not highly sweetened, which is good for people watching both glycemic load and calories. The lightly sweet or unsweetened drinks are easier to pair with a greater variety of food. One or two recipes missed a step or ingredient, but the missing information could be filled in from context. A good gift book.

My Book of Flowers

#354
Title: My Book of Flowers
Authors: Princess Grace of Monaco with Gwen Robyns
Year: 1980
Publisher: Doubleday
Country: Monaco
224 pages 

A commonplace book on the theme of flowers, this oversized volume by Princess Grace is conversational but erudite. She describes her own garden and interests in flower arranging and dried flower compositions (with photos), then moves on to flowers in history, poetry, and the like. Enjoyable for browsing or a straight read-through.

Miriam Gone Home: The Life of Sister Huggin

#353
Title: Miriam Gone Home: The Life of Sister Huggins
Author: Miriam H. Huggins
Year: 2006
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Country: Saint Kitts and Nevis
262 pages 

Saint Kitts and Nevis.

This is a hard book to review. On the one hand, I appreciated the look inside the mind of this very religious author. On the other hand, I didn't like what I saw there. Huggins is judgmental, strict about doctrine (when it suits her to criticize others) and, apparently, constantly besieged by vicious congregants, witchcraft-wielding neighbors, and devils. I have no doubt that this is how she experienced her life as an abused and neglected child on Nevis and later as a lay minister (or minster's wife). I do doubt that I would have interpreted events the same way if I were observing her. By the time she got to her enthusiasm for converting the Jews I had to make myself keep reading, and though I was sorry that she died of cancer, I would have sent her family my condolences from a distance. Her memoir does provide a great deal of indirect information about synchretic Christianity and the difficulty of ministering when other religious beliefs and traditions are covertly practiced or integrated into the community's (and minister's) culture.

I doubt that witchcraft exists, but I am willing to suspend my disbelief because I have no call to argue with the author about the nature of reality. Mostly, though, this memoir strikes me as a life narrative by a depressive, somewhat paranoid, and perhaps abrasive person who somatizes and externalizes her stress in the form of vague physical symptoms that she attributes to maliciousness and the devil. That some of her children also confirm and experience these phenomena convinces me only that there are cultural and perhaps psychological factors at play. In the end, I am glad her faith sustained her, but her story makes me sad.

The White Tiger

#352
Title: The White Tiger
Author: Aravind Adiga
Translator: John Buchanan-Brown
Year: 2008
Publisher: Free Press
304 pages

Read as an audiobook with an excellent reader.
Well-narrated, quick, wry and entertaining, though not without its moral dilemmas, which include self-centeredness, classism and stereotyping perpetuated even by those who see themselves as enlightened or different, disloyalty, murder, and the question of whether living in "the darkness" and a corrupt social surround explain, justify, or let one off the hook for one's actions. I'd have rated it higher if the narrator made a better acknowledgment of the effects of his actions on his family. This seems to be an authorial omission, since the shape of the narrative cries out for it.

Read with Michelle Cliff's No Telephone to Heaven for more on post-colonial iniquity,inequity, and rage.

Daba's Travels from Ouadda to Bangui

#351
Title: Daba's Travels from Ouadda to Bangui
Author: [Makombo] Bamboté
Translator: John Buchanan-Brown
Illustrator: George Ford
Year: 1970
Publisher: Pantheon
Country: Central African Republic
174 pages 

This middle readers novel about a boy in the Central African Republic is a somewhat diluted bildungsroman, most interesting for its descriptions of the boy's daily life. While the village scenes are illuminating, the fluid and dynamic illustrations are its most charming and noteworthy element.

The Magicians

#350
Title: The Magicians
Author: Lev Grossman
Year: 2009
Publisher: William Heinemann
406 pages 

Better as an idea than in the execution. Grossman uses a fantasy frame and tropes to tell a story of youth alienation. Unfortunately, Grossman seems more contemptuous than admiring of the genre. The jokes (many Harry Potter and Narnia-based) quickly become brittle, then stale. It's too bad, because the possibilities are excellent, and Grossman's inclusion of Jewish imagery brings a fresh perspective to the genre (imagine Harry Potter thinking a magical text looks like the Talmud). The story itself is simply not able to deliver on its compelling premise, degenerating into a jumbled, boring blur of drinking and immaturity. The characters remain flat and grow unlikeable over time. Plot points amble and some are ultimately dropped, perhaps out of an authorial ennui that parallels that of his world-weary 20-something characters. The ending is pat, disappointing, and unearned.

The Time Traveler's Wife

#349
Title: The Time Traveler's Wife
Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Year: 2003
Publisher: Harcourt
556 pages

Audiobook here.

As with all time travel narratives, the structure was an important element, here executed well. The resolutions of  plot points were managed relatively tidily. The middle of the book moved slowly, though it could be argued that it was necessary both for establishing a domestic interval and for developing the theme that love doesn't solve all of the problems experienced by Odysseus afloat on the sea of time.

I did not enjoy the audiobook, which I interspersed with the physical book. The Henry reader sounded jaded, bored, and Humbert Humbert-like.

Typhoid Mary

#348
Title: Typhoid Mary
Author: Anthony Bourdain
Year: 2001/2005
Publisher: Bloomsbury
156 pages

Bourdain's breezy essay on Mary Mallon is less factual than speculative, more of a pensée focused on cooks' employment and circumstances than a biography or social  history. Some of his assertions are a stretch, and others are factually incorrect. It could have used a good edit for accurate content and consistent style. For maximum effect, read with Susan Sontag's Illness as Metaphor and Gina Kolata's Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It.

Blue Bay Palace

#347
Title: Blue Bay Palace
Author: Nathacha Appanah
Translator: Alexandra Stanton
Year: 2004/2009
Publisher: Aflame Books
Country: Mauritius
106 pages

What I liked best about this novel were the descriptions of Mauritius and the articulation of the relationships between rich and poor. As a novel, it's not as interesting as it could be because it relies on the "then I went crazy" plot device. The descriptions of the beaches and towns are eloquent, but the emotional content is less well-rendered. As in so many accounts of thwarted love, both actual and fictional, the protagonist can't muster up the wherewithal to kill her estranged beloved, but instead destroys the object of her beloved's affections or marriage. This "kill the other woman" strategy always puzzles me, especially in situations where the other woman had no choice but to marry the man.