After Visiting Friends by Michael Hainey

One morning, when Michael Hainey was six years old, he learned that his father, Robert Hainey, an assistant copy desk chief of the Chicago Sun-Times, sometime during the night had died from a heart attack. For some reason, Michael felt that the story about how his father had died did not add up, and during work on a high school term paper – when he had to visit the main library in downtown Chicago – he looked up his father’s obituaries.
And behold: they did not add up.

Chicago Today claimed that the newspaperman had died “as he walked” in the 3900 block of North Pine Grove after he had “just left the home of a friend.” But in the Chicago Daily News it was reported that Robert Hainey had died “while visiting friends.” Furthermore, Michael learned that his father had not died from a heart attack but from a stroke, and that he had been taken to a hospital on the city’s North Side, “Not exactly the closest hospital for two cops to take a man they find lying on the streets downtown.” The time of death was also curious: 5.07 a.m. Which meant that Michael’s uncle, a newspaperman also, was at the Hainey house less than two hours after his younger brother’s death. And why was it his uncle who broke the news anyway? So what was going on here?

After Visiting Friends is “a son’s story” about the shadow cast by the father’s last night and death. But the book is larger than that. It is an investigation of a family and of times gone by, and it is a report on journalism then and now.
Like so many trades, journalism has its own code of honor, and this code turns out to be a major obstacle when Michael Hainey tries to understand what happened that April night in 1970. Journalists, who claim to constantly strive to reveal the truth, conceal it with the words, I don’t know anything about that night.

But the information is still out there and others want to help, and one of them tells the writer: “you will defeat your enemy with the one weapon that you have inside you that he cannot touch and that he trembles before – truth.”
Does this sound mysterious? If so, it’s not surprising. For After Visiting Friends is – in addition to everything else it is – a real life mystery.”

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Best ‘New to Us’ Books in 2012: Lynn W.’s Picks

Today’s blog talks about five audio books I’ve enjoyed during 2012. I listen to fiction and memoirs, and if read by the author, all the better. Each year, I stumble onto a children’s book title and find juvenile fiction altogether as engaging as adult fiction, so one is included here. — Lynn W.

This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection by Carol Burnett
Carol presents a series of short vignettes from her private and performing life. Some feature her grandmother, Nanny, a real character, who loved show business and the contacts she made through Carol and capitalized on them. There are funny stories, like how her adoration of Jimmy Stewart panned out the first time they met on a set when she got her foot stuck in a pail of whitewash and walked out with it still attached, too tongue-tied to say a word. The author reads this collection, adding to the emotional depth and also the comic moments.

The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels – a Love Story by Ree Drummond
If ever there was a mismatch, it was Ree and Marlboro Man. Ree, a native Oklahoman, went to southern California for college and never looked back towards Tulsa except for holidays. Now in her mid-twenties, home is a pit stop on her way to the big time in Chicago. While there she hits a bar with friends and meets Marlboro Man, a tall, strong, real-life cowboy. Their story, read by the author in her authentic and charming Oklahoma voice, is a true love story. We never learn Marlboro Man’s name, but we sure feel the heat develop between them.

The Forgotten Affairs of Youth by Alexander McCall Smith
This eighth Isabel Dalhousie mystery set in Edinburgh, Scotland pleases the ear with soft Scottish accents and descriptions of the gray city and green countryside. Isabel Dalhousie, a philosopher, is approached by a visiting Australian philosopher seeking her biological father’s identity. This is the “mystery.” Isabel and her fiancé Jamie are planning their wedding, all the while watching their beautiful son grow from day to day. This series is a leisurely walk through Scotland’s capital, meeting along the way fascinating people and places and everyday concerns.

The Night Train by Clyde Edgerton
Two teenage boys in 1960s small town North Carolina form a friendship over their love of jazz, a relationship not exactly accepted in this segregated community. Dwayne absolutely loves James Brown’s Live at the Apollo album, while Larry Lime is a pianist wanting to learn Thelonious Monk’s style from a jazz musician called the Bleeder. Their story and shenanigans will entertain while showing music is truly one of the ways humans unite and move beyond their differences. This audio is well-read, giving voice to accents and origins with accuracy.

Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath
If your parents disappeared one stormy night and your fishing village neighbors were forced to take you in, how would you feel? Especially if almost everyone is sure your parents were drowned at sea and you are absolutely certain they are merely delayed returning? Primrose Squarp tells her own story; her twelve-year-old point of view of friends (does she have any left?) and neighbors (including Miss Perfidy, who is paid by the town to care for Primrose) is fresh and rings true. Over the months, Primrose rediscovers her uncle, goes into foster care, and begins work on a cookbook while she awaits her parents’ return. This is a delightful mood lifter.

Best ‘New to Us’ Books of 2012: Sharon S.’s Picks

I love to read nonfiction as well as fiction, so in presenting my best “new to me” books for 2012, I decided to use the categories of my favorite nonfiction, my favorite “how to” book, my favorite biography, my favorite novel, and my favorite collection of short stories. (You can see the full list of books I have blogged, too.) — Sharon S.

A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman
I found this book to be deeply reassuring! It’s OK to have cluttered desks and crammed closets, say the authors, and in some cases it may even be beneficial (up to a point, of course). Abrahamson and Freedman present many examples of successful scientists, business owners, politicians, homemakers, and people from many other walks of life who spend that time they could have spent organizing being creative and productive instead. Also, staying loose and not locked in to one system allows us the freedom to adapt quickly to changing events.

Barefoot Running Step by Step by Roy Wallack and Ken Bob Saxton
You’ve got to be kidding, I thought when I first picked up this book, but I ended up being a convert. I’m no runner, so I tried barefoot walking instead (which Ken Bob says is just like running except you always have at least one foot on the ground). There’s no doubt in my mind—heel striking is a bad thing for your joints. When you learn how to bend your knees like Ken Bob suggests, your calves act as shock absorbers that preserve your joints. Of course, you can do this even with shoes on, but when your foot is not cushioned with a running shoe, you have a constant reminder not to bang that heel down! Also, it adds a new dimension to the experience to learn to place your feet lightly and actually feel the ground under them.

Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg
Steinberg was tired of being a free-lance writer and wanted a job that had health insurance, so he answered an advertisement for a librarian position at a prison on the outskirts of Boston. He ended up with more than he bargained for. What is or should be the purpose of a library in such a place? In trying to help the prisoners learn and prepare for lives outside of prison, he often runs afoul of the rule-bound guards. On the other hand, in getting too emotionally involved with those he is helping, he finds himself in some difficult moral dilemmas. There is no easy answer to the question of why people end up in prison, nor is there an easy way to help them get out and stay out.

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
This slim novel set on the Nebraska prairie at the beginning of the twentieth century contains some of the most moving scenes I have yet encountered in literature. It is a story about love, friendship, betrayal, and the price of self-knowledge that readers will not easily forget. I am amazed at Cather’s ability to create characters that seem so real to me that I feel like I have actually met them. See my full review.

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Lahiri also creates memorable, realistic characters in these stories, each one a view into the hearts and lives of people of different ages and cultures. A young married couple suffers a devastating loss that rocks their faith in each other. A school-age girl slowly learns to appreciate the fact that everyone does not live the privileged life she does. A young man and an old woman come to know and respect each other through mundane events that turn out to have been not so mundane after all. Each story shows us something unique about human nature, how and why we move toward or away from one another, how we mature and come to understand the meaning of life. See my full review.

Best ‘New to Us’ Books in 2012: Amy W.’s Picks

Look, I have the world’s longest “to read” list and lately it has become very unwieldy. Every time I finally get around to reading one of these older titles I kick myself — what took me so long?! There is something for everyone read by me this year! There is history, inspiration and excitement all at your finger tips. These books don’t really have any of my favorite literary elements but they did knock my socks off! Here are my 5 favorite “new to me” books for 2012. — Amy W.

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
I have always been interested in the Great Depression including the Dust Bowl. Egan, winner the National Book award for this book in 2006, and Pulitzer Prize  winning journalist for the New York Times, elegantly crafts a narrative of the Dust Bowl using the words of those who lived through it. Hard economic times, plowing up the sod and a nation-wide drought created a perfect storm of dust as perseverance gave way to despair.

My Life in France by Julia Child
I listened to this as an audio book and it was delightful! I cannot think of many people who are as beloved – or as full of passion and life – as Julia Child. It was wonderful to hear in her own words about her life as a bored housewife, who moved with her husband to a foreign country where she didn’t know the language,  seized by the art of French cooking to find her true calling.

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
John Irving is an excellent storyteller. His characters are colorful without being garish. His tangents are whimsical and insightful. The title character, Owen, an unusual boy to begin with, hits a baseball during little league that strikes his best friend’s mother dead. This one event greatly impacts the lives of both boys, and incredibly brings them closer together. A Prayer for Owen Meany is destined to be a heartwarming modern classic.

Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth
This is the memoir that spawned the BBC series of the same name (shown on PBS earlier in the year). More than a memoir, Call the Midwife, documents the poverty and challenges of 1950’s East End London and the changes in women’s health through the years. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious, this book is an unforgettable story of compassion.

Fun and Games by Duane Swierczynski
This book takes place in La La Land, the land of perpetual summer: Los Angeles. If you like Tarantino, unstoppable assassins or seedy underground networks, this book is for you. It is excitement ripped from the pages of your favorite tabloid or comic book as told by this talented author.

Best New Books of 2012: Janet L.’s Picks

What do a clerk in a 24-hour bookstore, a snake-handling faith healer, a man walking 500 miles to visit a sick friend, a hiker on the Pacific Crest Trail and Richard Burton have in common? (And it doesn’t involve marrying Elizabeth Taylor.) Rather, they all figure somehow in my five favorite books of 2012. My reading tastes are eclectic, but I read more literary fiction and mysteries than anything else. Language, atmosphere, setting, and believable characters are all important to me.  – Janet L.

A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
Marshall, North Carolina, has a new church, the River Road Church of Christ in Signs Following. It’s led by a charismatic preacher, Carson Chambliss, a man with a talent for snake handling. Stump Hall, a young autistic boy, witnesses something at the church that leads to tragedy. Sheriff Clem Barefield is determined to find out what happened, no matter what the consequences. This is Cash’s debut novel and it’s a beauty; gorgeous writing, believable characters and gothic overtones. Recommended for readers of Ron Rash, John Hart and Tom Franklin.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
Harold Fry is surprised to receive a letter from Queenie Hennessey, who is seriously ill and has written to say goodbye. They were friends once, but parted in strained circumstances. Mild mannered Harold is so shocked by this news he behaves spontaneously and begins a 500 mile journey by foot to say goodbye to Queenie, convinced she will not die as long as he is walking. Recommended for readers of Anne Tyler, Elizabeth Berg and Anna Quindlen.

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
I adored this book. It has a likeable narrator, Clay Jannon, who clerks in a mysterious bookshop run by the fascinating Mr. Penumbra. The theme of Old Knowledge (books) vs. Internet knowledge allows the author to slip in scenes at Google, a museum dedicated to knitting overrun by children, arcane information about fonts, and a computer whiz who made a fortune creating realistic 3-D versions of breasts. This book is fun. It’s the kind of book that made a reader of me, the kind of book that keeps me reading, the kind of book I can’t wait to tell people about. Recommended for readers of Jasper Fforde and Terry Pratchett.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Hunched under a too heavy backpack quickly nicknamed Monster, Cheryl Strayed begins a real life journey along the Pacific Crest Trail that is spiritual as well as physical. Her plans for her hike are soon revealed as inadequate (who knew water weighed so much?) and she must improvise as she goes along—much as we all have to adjust in life when our best laid plans go awry. I found Strayed’s account of her hike riveting, profound, hilarious and suspenseful. Recommended for readers of Jeannette Walls, Jon Krakauer and Dave Eggers.

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
It’s 1962 and Pasquale Tursi, owner of the Hotel Adequate View in Porto Vergogna, Italy, is immediately smitten by Dee Moray, an American starlet who arrives at his hotel fresh from the set of the movie Cleopatra. Their story (with a supporting appearance from Richard Burton) connects to present day Hollywood and the career of Claire, assistant to legendary producer Michael Deane. Walter creates a truly romantic story that underscores his theme of how life and art intersect.

Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen

I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills. The Equator runs across these highlands, a hundred miles to the north, and the farm lay at an altitude of over six thousand feet. In the day-time you felt that you had got high up; near to the sun, but the early mornings and evenings were limpid and restful, and the nights were cold.

With these words Isak Dinesen (the pen name of Baroness Karen Blixen) begins her account of her 17 years in Africa as a coffee farmer, beginning in 1913. For those who have seen the movie, the book will be a surprise. Instead of a straightforward life story told in a linear way, the book consists of vignettes about persons or events. Dinesen’s husband is barely mentioned, and her love affair with Denys Finch-Hatton comes off sounding like a close friendship. What you get instead are stories grouped around certain themes.

For instance, in one early chapter we meet Kamante, a boy with serious ulcers on his leg. Dinesen tries to cure him on her own, but winds up taking him to the local hospital. He stays there for many months until he is healed, and then returns to the farm to become Dinesen’s cook. Another series of stories concerns an accidental shooting on the farm that kills one child and seriously injures another. Dinesen explains that the native African system of justice is not so concerned with meting out punishment, but instead seeks to determine a just recompense for the parents of the dead or injured children. There is also an exciting lion-hunting sequence that I was surprised not to find in the movie. It was so cinematic with Dinesen and Finch-Hatton hunting two lions at night with one gun and a failing lantern.

While Dinesen doesn’t let us see into her most intimate thoughts, she does come across as a strong woman who is ready and able to meet most challenges. She is someone we admire and would like to know. And, more importantly for the reader, she is a good storyteller. In Out of Africa she tells some of her best.

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Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang

This fascinating book tells the true story of Jung Chang, her mother De-hong, and her grandmother Yu-fang.  It spans seven decades beginning in the 1920’s, and tells the story of modern China through one family’s experiences.  Yu-fang was born in 1909 and became a concubine to a famous warlord.  Her feet were bound in the old style when she was two.  She was given to the warlord at age 15, although she did not live with him and he only visited a few times. De-hong was born in 1930 and joined the Communist Party as a young woman.  She lived through the invasions of the Japanese in WWII, marched with Mao on his famous trek, and later became a high ranking Communist Party member, along with her husband.

Jung Chang, the author, grew up during the 1950’s of the Chinese Great Leap Forward, which was an attempt to reorganize China from an agricultural society to an industrialized one.  Most of the policies of that time were terrible failures and led to widespread famine. Life was good for Chung’s family, though, until her father criticized Mao Tse Tung by name. He lost his position and because he was no longer protected, the family became a target during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960’s.  Many other former powerful officials and wealthy people were also targeted. The children of these former officials were pulled out of schools and reassigned to menial jobs.  Jung was assigned various jobs over several years, including working as a doctor to the other farm workers despite having no training.

As a young girl, Chang happily joined in the youth Red Guards like many of her friends. She tried hard to live up to the communist ideals by participating in marches and other youth activities.  But after her parents became outcasts and were tortured, she began to have doubts about the great leader.  Then her own experiences of the incompetent policies of the Cultural Revolution changed her mind forever.   Chang’s book is so interesting because it tells of the history of China in the past century through the story of one family.  My only criticism is that she does not explain fully what her parents did or how much they were complicit in the harsh policies of the regime before they fell out of favor.  But it is understandable for a child to want to see the best of her parents.  Read this book if you are at all curious about recent Chinese history.

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Growing Up Amish : a Memoir by Ira Wagler

The Amish have always fascinated me. I find it amazing and wonderful that a group of people would voluntarily give up cars, televisions, telephones and other “worldly” things so they can focus on their community and their spiritual lives. However, I had never thought about what it would be like to actually be Amish.

Ira Wagler has changed that for me, now that I have read his very honest and moving memoir about being born into a Midwestern community of Amish.  Wagler makes it clear that there are many wonderful things about being part of such a close and supportive community. For example, when his brother Titus was paralyzed as a result of a diving accident in a farm pond, the members of their Aylmer, Ontario, settlement paid every penny of the $80,000 hospital bill.

However, as he grew into a young man, Ira felt confined by all the seemingly arbitrary rules.  His hair had to be an exact length and no longer, with no beard allowed till he married, and even then he was not permitted to grow a mustache. His horse-drawn buggy could have some modern conveniences but others were considered “sinful.” He could not have any “English” (non-Amish) friends but could only associate with them in business and non-personal ways.

Hardest of all for him was the fact that if he ever expressed any doubts or yearnings for anything outside his Amish world, he was met with platitudes like “Just decide to do what is right” or “Just straighten up and settle down.”

Ira left his community several times during his youth, searching for something to assuage his inner restlessness.  However, he kept coming back, even though he knew his inability to make up his mind was torturing both him and his family.

Finally, an Amish friend who was not born into the community but was a later convert helped Ira solve his inner dilemma. He realized that he had been motivated by fear rather than faith.  Now, finally, he began to address God not with formal prayers out of a book, but from the heart.  He realized that he could never “get it right” on his own, never make up for all the hurt he had caused others.  Only God in His redemptive love could do that.

Once Ira began to face the truth rather than running from it, he gradually gained the courage to make the decision that would determine his future. Will he stay and commit to being a member of the Amish for life? Or will he leave and face excommunication?

What I liked about Ira’s story was that we can all relate to it on some level.  At some point in our lives we have to face the truth about ourselves and for better or worse learn how to live that truth. That momentous step, though it can be painful, can also be the opening into empowerment and peace with ourselves.

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Lit by Mary Karr

If there was an award for most meaningful short book title I would nominate Lit, the third installment of Mary Karr’s critically acclaimed autobiography (following The Liar’s Club, which was previously blogged by another reviewer, and Cherry). That small three letter word can be interpreted in several ways; there are at least three ‘lits’ in the life of Mary Karr.

One is literature. Her love of words began in childhood and found expression in her poetry (her latest collection is Sinners Welcome) and prose. The second is her taste for alcohol. Unfortunately, her appetite for liquor becomes an uncontrollable craving to get ‘lit’ as often as possible. As you can imagine, this creates problems, both professional and personal. She discovers a third ‘lit’ when she seeks to control her addiction and she finds faith in a higher power (she has described herself as a “black belt sinner”).

Mary Karr is unflinchingly honest in her portrayal of a talented woman battling to overcome her own self doubts and weaknesses. She writes movingly of her love for her son, her failed marriage, her complicated relationship with her mother and the kindness shown her by others when she reaches out for help. Beautifully written, unsentimental and, in parts, screamingly funny, Lit delivers what great autobiographies always do–a chance to experience the life of another from the inside out.

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The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

I first read The Hiding Place when I was a teenager, and I was immediately caught up in this true story of a quaint, old-fashioned family of watchmakers in Haarlem, Holland, in the 1940s who are drawn into working for the Underground Resistance during the Nazi occupation. The story was so compelling that I don’t believe I looked up once till the book was over and dawn was streaking the sky outside my window. Fortunately, it was the weekend, and the book is only 241 pages long!

Corrie and Betsie are unmarried sisters in their fifties, living with their eighty-year-old father, when tentative knocks began to be heard at their alley door. A Jewish neighbor whose shop has been closed by the Nazis is afraid to go home to his upstairs apartment. A Jewish mother and her newborn baby need a place to stay till she is well enough to travel. Can they help?

Corrie and her family are staunch members of the Dutch Reformed Church and law-abiding citizens, but they can’t turn away the needy from their door. At first they provide a halfway house for Jews and other refugees seeking asylum in the countryside, but eventually their home becomes a “hiding place” for seven Jews who for one reason or another cannot be placed elsewhere.

As their ring of contacts grows ever larger and more complex, the chances that their activities will be discovered becomes ever greater. One night during Passover, their next door neighbor knocks on their side door: “Do you think your Jews could sing a little more softly? We can hear them through the walls . . .”

Your Jews. The family realizes that their secret isn’t really a secret at all, and it is just a matter of time before they are arrested. Despite all their drills and precautions, one night it happens. Corrie, Betsie, and their father are taken into custody, but thanks to a carefully constructed secret room at the top of the stairs, their Jews remain safe.

However, even though they are now at the mercy of their captors, their calling to be a “hiding place” becomes more important than ever. The same love and faith that led Corrie and Betsie to help those in need not only sustains them during the dark years of their imprisonment, but becomes a shining place of hope that shelters those who gather around them. They discover that even the smallest acts of kindness can plant seeds that grow and make a community among those whose pain would otherwise tear them apart.

There are so many wonderful things I could tell you about this book, but I want you to discover them for yourself. However, this story is anything but sugar-coated, I warn you — the graphic details of human cruelty and suffering are painful, but seeing how love triumphs in the midst of darkest evil makes this one of the most inspiring stories I have ever read.

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