March Books

Hi everyone. Happy Sunday. Yesterday afternoon our power came back on-hurrah. Thank you to everyone who inquired about it. And our snow level has shrunk by about 60% already. We are still white, but it's hard to believe we had such a big snowfall just a few days ago.

     Today I have my March books to share. Although March was a good reading month, being away for 10 days meant the amount of reading I did was less than typical for me.  I still managed to get through 6 books, which is a lot considering I felt like I didn't do a whole lot of reading. 

    My first listen for March was this novel published in 1941 by Edna Ferber.  I also read this was a top ten selling novel for that year also.

    I really like Edna Ferber's writing, and even though I did not like the main character in this novel, Ferber writes such a good story that I still very much enjoyed the book.

    This is  the story of Clio Dulaine. She is born out of wedlock to a woman involved with a married man in New Orleans in the late 1800's. After her mother is accused of murdering that man, they flee to Paris which is where Clio grows up. Once Clio's mother dies, Clio and 2 "servants" come back to New Orleans, and that is when Clio meets Clint Maroon.  

   Clint is  a Texan and a gambler. He falls head over heels in love with Clio, but Clio insists she wants to marry a man with a lot of money so she will be secure all for the rest of her life. Clint decides to help her fulfill that dream, and when she meets him in Saratoga that summer,  she goes about getting a rich man to fall in love with her.  

    This book is part romance, part historical novel, but mostly a story about people. Ferber's characters are so well written you probably have met or know people like these characters.  I've been to Saratoga, New York, and I knew it was a summer place of the past, but I didn't know what the Saratoga Trunk referred to. Now I do. 

     My first actual book for March was a book I have from my mother's collection. The Three Daughter's of Madame Liang was first published in 1969. I remember reading it when I was much younger, but I didn't actually remember much about the story.

    Madame Liang left her husband when he took a concubine. He wanted a son, and all the Madame had was 3 daughters. After World War 2 when China was having civil unrest, Mao Zedong's forces drove the foreigners out of the country and Chiang Kai-shek's forces back to Taiwan. At this time  Madame Liang sent her 3 daughters to the United States with some close American friends. 

   This book is set when Madame Liang's daughters have become young women, starting to make their ways in the world. One daughter is a scientist, one daughter is a musician and one is an artist.   Their connection to China is deep, but how they interact with that country varies from sister to sister.  That is also true with their connection to their mother, who never leaves the country. Most of this story is set in China, and Buck does an excellent job of showing the times while telling the story of this family. 

   Pearl S. Buck won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1938. Although American, she spent much of her younger life in China. However she was considered an American Cultural Imperialist after the Chinese revolution and was never allowed to return. I'm not familiar with most of her books, but I believe much of her writing is about China.  This book was an excellent fictional story, with an unexpected ending also. 

      A couple of Aprils ago I read The Golden Thread by Kassia St. Clair. That book was all about the various types of fabrics with historical links and stories. My latest read, The Fabric of Civilization by Virginia Postrel, was another excellent book about textiles. Postrel's take was different from The Golden Thread. She writes more about how fabrics came to be produced and how they influenced history. Together both of these books made an interesting set of reading about textiles.

     I started this book to go along with my February visit to Lowell National Historic Park. At the park  I learned a bit about the mechanization of making cotton fabric in America. The importance of fabric and producing it was really inspiring,  This book filled in a lot of the gaps and questions I had in regards to that visit. Yet it also showed me so much more about how fabric influenced history.  It talks about fabric production using linen, silk, cotton and wool. It speaks a lot about thread, and how important thread is/was to making any type of fabric. There was a section of weaving. Other topics included fabric dyeing, a favorite for me, futuristic textiles, when certain textiles became illegal,  as well as things which seem so unrelated (but are very related) to fabric, like how the Hindu numbers 1-9 and the Arabic number 0 came into use. In many places in the past monetary systems were built around bolts of fabric. Who knew?

     This book wasn't a hard read but it also wasn't a fast read. It was well indexed.  Because it contains so much information, I tended to read some sections more carefully than ones that didn't interest me quite so much, but in every chapter there was something really fascinating and some very surprising tidbits. If you're interested in fabric or anything to do with it, then I highly recommend this book.

      My next listen was this book written and narrated by Martin Short. Jeanie mentioned this book a few months back, and right after she mentioned it, is was an Audible daily deal. I picked up, and I am glad I did. 

      This book does a lot of name dropping,  and  I must admit maybe there was a tad too much of that for me. (But of course, that's why he wrote an autobiography, right?)   Short is a very funny guy. When he goes into a comedy persona, or when he imitates some well know people, this book had me laughing. Out loud and a lot.  All the stops throughout his career goes to show how he progressed in his comedic skills.  Even though as a teenager he was not famous, he performed a lot in his bedroom and the hallway outside of his bedroom. I loved this story.  At that time, Short didn't think he'd become a famous comic when he grew up, (he thought he wanted to be a doctor), but I think hidden deep down there was an inner voice about going into showbiz. All that teenager "play" was really just the warm up for his career. 

      I very much enjoyed this book.  I remember Jeanie writing about how sometimes reading an autobiography means you may not end up liking the person the book was about.  But I will say Martin Short is definitely a likable guy, perhaps even more likable to me than before I read this book.😏 If you like Martin Short, then you definitely need to read this autobiography. And if you want to hear him read it and perform in that reading, then definitely listen to this book.

     I'm mentioning this next book, Mythology by Edith Hamilton, not because I read the entire book last month, but because I did read much of the book. I actually own this book in hardcover  and read it years ago. However with my trip to Greece, I also purchased the Kindle version so I could read up on the mythical stories that I came across in my travels. I didn't want to carry the hardcover with me in my luggage because I had enough other packed items, and Kindles, as  you might know, are perfect for traveling.

     This book was originally published in 1942, so it is a classic on the subject. Hamilton gets to the point with her topic, and this volume is a combination of text book and light reading. And if you like Greek mythology, it's a good source book for classic stories.  Since the Roman's borrowed much of Greek mythology, this book also included Roman names and some Roman comments about the gods and goddesses.

     I'm sure there are more abridged versions of many of these tales also, but I liked how Hamilton set up the book.  First she discusses the difference between Greek and Roman gods. Then she follows with the mythology of the creation of the earth.  She then breaks down the book into relatively short  sections and writes about the whole Mount Olympus of gods. She does not leave out the  titans, muses, and others in Greek mythology. I think the one flaw in this book is probably the title, because this book doesn't really deal with  other culture's mythologies.

     For me, this book was the perfect companion for visiting antiquity sites in Athens and Delphi, as well as a way to refresh my memory of some classic tales.

     My  last  listen for March was this mystery that's been in my Audible account for awhile now. The Tenant is written by Danish author Katrine Engberg, and it is the first in a 3 book series. I've been on a Nordic mystery kick for awhile now, and this book is another good example from that genre.

      A young woman is found dead in her apartment, and strange symbols are carved into her face. This book is a story about the murdered woman, but even more so a story about her landlord Ester. Ester is a retired professor who is now writing a novel. When her tenant's death starts to sound like  her novel, as the reader you're not sure whether to believe Ester is the murderer or not. There's lots of little twists and turns throughout this book. Engberg (the author) keeps you reading to find out more. That includes finding out who the actual murderer is, which was an unexpected twist in itself.

      Although there are a pair of detectives on the case, the author really lets you get to know one, Jeppe Korner.  I liked him as a character, and I am glad there are more of this series yet to read.  I very much enjoyed this mystery, and I think it's the first one I've read ever set in Copenhagen. 

      That's my book list for March. As always, if you have any recommendations I'll add them to my list. And if you managed to read this entire post, thank you.