Prisoners and Villans

" We're all prisoners of birth, deary. Some of us are just lucky and win the uterian lottery." OK, I just made up that quote. The first sentence is sort of from this book, only the person who said it would never have used the word deary. The second sentence comes from Warren Buffet who feels that everyone born in the US has won the uterian lottery. After all, our little zygot selves could have been planted in any womb anywhere else in the world and probably wouldn't have had this opportunity for an easy life.

Let me first of all say that I liked this book, A Prisoner of Birth. It is a take-off on Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo, a book I happen to love. I realized when I started listening to the book that the part of the Count that I like so much is the revenge part. It was a little tough going through the criminal conviction part of the story in the beginning. Archer's chapters are short and it was easy to skip past some of that, even on Audible. The revenge part was good. I skipped over parts of that, too, to find out how it ended, but I went back and listened to it all. Very clever. Not my skipping, but the book was clever.

And that's what the protagonist is, very clever. Even though he was raised in the wrong part of London and was poorly educated, he was always bright. So I will say that the way we are lucky in our births is when we have the ability to overcome a less than desireable start. We're also lucky if we have landed is good circumstances and are able not to mess it up. All these things are possible, no matter where or how you are born.

And then there are those people who are born damaged or who are damaged somewhere along the way. They don't all end up as merciless dictators, but some do. The Greatest Battle is about the German's attempt to capture Moscow in WWII. That's what the book cover says it's about. It's really about two sick, demented men who hold entire countries in their sway, who can affect the course of battle and destroy thousands of people's lives without a thought. Usually you will find that one antagonist is more worthy than the other. Not here. Nagorski does a great job of telling us about these two men, Stalin and Hitler. Ugly, despicable men. And as you are reading, you think about other books you've read; about the conference at Yalta where Stalin manipulated Truman against Churchill.

I guess even psychopaths can be charming at times. Hitler certainly was. He had my good friend Mencken fooled for a very long time. The best thing about the book is that it strips away the charm and tells about the stupidity of these guys. I think my only complaint is that the battle ended abruptly. Karen would say it was because I had fallen asleep while listening after a long day at the Festival of Books. I really think that I was just very comfortable. The battle was ending by that time. Winter had come. OMG, those poor Germans were sent out without anti-freeze, warm clothes or much food. Poor Nazi soldiers. Not an easy concept.

A Festival of Books

Except for Thanksgiving, this is my favorite weekend of the year. The Los Angeles Times Book Prizes and Festival of Books (FOB ) take place on the last weekend in April. I've been going to the FOB since its inception 13 years ago. I've been helping at the Book Prizes for about 10 years. Karen has joined me at both for the past 4 years. This weekend has everything - books, authors, music and family. This year it also had unbearable heat. Okay KJ, let's both say it together, "But it's hooooooooot!" Fortunately, Karen and I mapped out our day so we mitigated the 90 degrees of it all.

We helped at the Book Prizes. This means we go to the hotel that we're staying at, check names off a clipboard while we get authors on board a bus to go to the pre-event dinner. I'm currently reading Faust in Copenhagen, so when I checked off Gino Segre's name, I was all over him about how much I love his book. It was true, which makes it better. He totally brings these great physicists to life. Besides, he's a charming man.

Another charming man was the master of ceremonies at the Awards ceremony, Gay Talese, former New York Times reporter and hero to all young journalists. This is him at the Festival the next day. Remember how hot I said it was. Look at him. Dapper despite it all. He is tall and elegant and moves with a slow grace. Yet, he also looks like he could start tap dancing at any moment. Karen and I met him a couple of years ago just by chance. He sat with us for a while. I'm hooked.

The Awards were great for meeting authors. One of the highlights is the reception after the awards. They serve the most interesting food there. I had none of it this year because the patio was just too packed with people. Horrible. I found the only chair in the room, the one at the table for authors to come by and find out how to get to the shuttle to the hotel. Pretty cool, because I had the answer to that. Karen scored some interesting green stuff from one of the food tables. She is so imperturbable.

The next day we went back to UCLA for the FOB. We saw John's band, Murphy's Flaw, play bluegrass. Karen and I were late because we went to an author's panel on Urban Renewal. It was a cute title for a disparate group of authors who use different cities as characters in their writing. Always enjoyable to listen to what they have to say about their books. I may be interested in getting Scott Simon's new book, Windy City, because of the panel. We got to hear about 3 songs by the Flaw and say hi to Tom and John. It was way too hot to stick around and we had to get up hill to see our next panel, so Karen and I begged our leave. It actually looked like John needed help carrying his banjos, not that that had any influence on our hasty adieu.

Our next panel was a bunch of scientists. Segre was there to talk about the book I already have. The guy who wrote the prize winner, I am a Strange Loop, was there. Not impressive, despite the prize. This is not a book I would look for. Karen had a nice discussion with him on the way over to the FOB that day, so it was like seeing a nice guy who becomes loopy when talking about his book. Dava Sobal was there. She wrote Galileo's Daughter a couple of years ago. I've already read that one. It was interesting, but we had to fly across campus for our last panel, so we left early. I don't fly, so we had to leave really early, after they had all talked a bit about their books.

Our final panel was with Michael Connelly (on the left) interviewing Joseph Wambaugh. Karen and I really like Connelly's books. He is very reserved when you meet him and when he is on a panel. Wambaugh didn't want to be there, but he was because he has a new book to sell. I don't think I want to read it. I really want to read Connelly's next book which is about Harry Bosch meeting the lawyer from The Lincoln Lawyer. Now that should be very good. I was tempted for a second to get Wambaugh's previous book, but it isn't on Audible and I'm not interested enough to spend my "physical reading" (reading real books) time to this trashy stuff. Obviously, I will listen to trash. :)

We had dinner at our hotel, Angeleno, overlooking the westside of LA. It was gorgeous. This restaurant has horrible service and questionable food, but my companion was great so it was a good evening. We won't be able to go to the FOB next year so this was a swan song. Maybe when I move back to Berkeley we can make a girls weekend of it. Maybe.

We Were on the Road to Ooty

I gchatted with my friend KJ from the Orlando Sentinel yesterday. She reminded me that it had been a year since we were together in India. I'm sure the reminder of the anniversary of VA Tech massacre brought this to mind. It hit her hard to be so far away when her relatives who had attended the college were suffering.

I had more fun with KJ. She was such an asset in the classroom (because nobody was answering calls at this point.) I know they must miss her Mac expertise to this day. Besides that, she knew that we were only going to be in India once in our lives and wanted to see as much as possible. We didn't just hang around Bangalore and eat at the Leelah, that's for sure.

A year ago today, we were on the road to Ooty. What an experience! Let me just remind you of the highlights, although anyone can go back to April 21, 2007 to catch the whole story.

What we did:

• Rode the switchbacks and pot-holed one lane road to the cool mountain top of Ooty and beyond. Oh, that road. There is nothing like it here, nothing, because even on our worst little road, you won't confront a bus barreling down the hill at you when you have no place to go.


• Wandering through the tea plantation and having a tour of the processing plant with some guy from another car. Hope he gave us the correct info.


• Riding the train with people snapping my picture every few minutes. More than that, the view from the train was amazing. And having Ramesh find me a seat so I wouldn't have to stand all the way up the mountain. Priceless.


• Seeing lots of animals on the road past Mysore on the way to Ooty.


• And remember our detour? OMG, I didn't think we would ever find our way out of that little village beside the road. And then Ramesh parted the trucks, like Moses and the sea.


• And we got a flat tire on the way back.
  

It was quite an adventure for sure. But then, the whole 11 weeks was. I do miss these guys.

Saints and Sinners

I know its hard to imagine that I do not have a soft heart. It's pretty sceptical usually. So I was pretty surprised when I was watching Saint Ralph and couldn't stop sobbing. It was kind of amazing to me. I just chuckle in movies that are funny and I might have a tear if it's sad. But I was sobbing as this young man was running. I'm so glad Adrian didn't come into the room. The thing is, I really liked this young man. He was goofy, but not too; totally devoted to his mother; horny as hell; willing to believe when it suited his needs. What's not to like?

I've been finishing books in the last week. Comrade J was about a Russian defector set in the last decade. Fairly interesting. Most interesting was how abused the UN plan of regulating Iraqi oil sales to keep Saddam in line. Right. Everyone made money but US. I guess that's because it was our money. Stupid.

I've mentioned The Adventure of English before. I enjoyed this one. It seemed to fit in with all the other books I've been reading. It ends with the US and Britain taking responsibility for English being the language of money and international politics. Some of it made me think about Ramesh and his desire to have his son speak English. India, at one time, was trying to wean itself off English as the language of commerce and government. Hindi became the official language, although not everyone in India speaks that language. The author says that the people of India have a great facility with language. He doesn't say this, but they have to speak a lot of languages. There are too many languages spoken in a even a small space for one language to be enough. I guess if you stay in one village and farm or raise sheep you don't need to know more than one. But all my friends there speak several.

I finally made it to the bookclub. The best part was that the wife of my old boss, Bill, was there. She's Jaine. She mentioned during the discussion that she is reading The History of French. I had just been listening to The Adventure of English on the way over. The information in both those books gave insight into Pillars of Earth. Strange.

It's Puzzling

I've started a new puzzle. Adrian says I'm usually fast at the beginning then slow down. This one is really hard. It seems that everything is the same color. It'll get done, but I have a feeling I won't be fast at the beginning this time.

Remember when I missed the book club because I went to the wrong place? That was a month ago! Amazing. I like book clubs, so I will be going to this month's on Wednesday. Unfortunately the book is The Pillars of Earth, an Oprah Book Club selection. It came out in 1989. I'm not sure when it came out in paperback. That must have been when I bought it and read it. Ken Follett wrote one of my favorite books about 30 years ago - Eye of the Needle. I just loved that book and the movie with James Fox. I don't remember what I thought about this book.

I figured I should read it before the book club, so I got an abridged Audible version. Less money, less time, more enjoyment. OK, here's the thing. Follett should write for soap operas. Lust, greed, rape, murder, and whatever the other major sins are. Anachronistic. Like soap operas, you want to know what happens next or in the end. Abridgement is very good for advancing the plot quickly. I really don't like this kind of book. It's not that I don't like historical fiction because, remember, I read and enjoyed the book about the medieval CSI woman. And, yes, the protagonist in that one had to worry about men attacking her all the time. I think that's just the way it was then, but somehow it didn't seem trite.

I can not wait until I hear what is said in the book club. And I can't wait to hear what book is picked next. It will be my second and last meeting. Maybe I can find something in Arlington. One book club I know I won't belong to is Oprah's.

And Sometimes Why

I haven't seen the parade marching in front of my house yet, but I'm sure it will be there soon. I finally finished Mencken. I bought this book a couple of years ago because it was a 2006 Times Book Award finalist. I decided to read it on my trip to visit some of the other Tribune Business Units, including the Baltimore Sun. (Mencken is closely associated with the Sun newspapers.) That was the week before Thanksgiving, only about 5 months ago. I figured the reason it was taking so long was because it was a, pardon me, bathroom book. So where is your library?

I think the real reason it took so long was because it dwelt too much on Mecken's personal life. I would have liked more in depth on his writing and editing. I looked to see what else the author has written. She is Marion Elizabeth Rodgers. Her only other books have been about Mencken's letters to his wife Sara, written 20 years earlier and a book called The Impossible H. L. Mencken written in 1991. I think this woman is obsessed, and not in a good way. The best things about all this is that I am now hooked on this man. I'm sure that I will be getting a book written by him. He had a wonderful way with words. Would I recommend this book? No. But I would recommend Mencken.

Nor would I recommend And Sometimes Why. It has that irritating Crash mentality. You read about a lot of different people whose lives intersect. She is a good writer in that it is easy to get involved with the people, so I wouldn't consider this a waste of time. But it is way too contrived. Even the title. You must know that the vowels are A,E, I, O, U and sometimes Y. The thought that the letter Y is also a word of such significance does not escape this writer. Reporters are always looking for the basics of Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. Some of those are really easy. But if you are a parent, you know that Why is the hardest thing to answer.

Something tragic happens in this book and the author never says, "But Why?" The search, however, is understood. It's understood from the title and then the vowels are repeated several times - and sometimes Y. And a woman is lying in a hospital bed unable to do anything except recite vowels. OMG, give me a break. And how the people all inter-relate! Argh. Too bad I liked some of the people. They should have found a better book to live in.

Bye, Bill

My last boss at The Times is leaving for good today. Bill was a great boss. He left me alone, listened to what I had to say and told me quietly when I got out of line. Mostly, he was supportive. The remains of our team went to lunch today. That's Bill on the left, then Dianne, me, Idalia and Clif. Dianne, Idalia and Clif have absorbed all of Bill's old job and my old job. Lucky them. I used to love to visit Bill because his office looked on demolition across Broadway. They stopped when everything was out of the space and the ground was clear. I guess he decided to leave because there was nothing interesting to look at. Or it could be that his job was extremely stressful. I vote for the vacant lot.

Connections

I was a little embarassed to mention that I had read this book last week while reading the four others. It was very short. It seems like a lot of people were killed. That is not common for Agatha Christie. This was meant to be a diversion from all that Danish and Saxon blood. Ms. Christie was, fortunately, less bloody in her killings. But really! And to top it off, it was placed in a prim girl's school. The school was only for prim girls. And we all know that prim girls do NOT get involved in murder. Usually.

More reading goes on, of course. I am reading The Adventure of English. It's about how the English language developed over time. I'm only a quarter of the way through it, but the timing was perfect. The author writes about the Britons, Celts, Danes, Jutes and Saxons in this first quarter of the book. He was even kind enough to tell me the names of the battles that the protagonist of the Saxon books fought. Of course, he said the hero was Alfred, but we who have read that series know better. :) So, Alfred's seat of power was in Wessex and how many Americans know exactly where that is? But he was in Winchester and I know where that is, having seen his magnificant catherdral long ago. Yes, I know it's been rebuilt since Alfred, but don't spoil my illusions.

This is the best part about reading a lot of books of various genre and traveling extensively. I've been reading this smash 'em up historical fiction and it relates to a book about language that I'm reading and it all relates to trips to England. Adrian, on the other hand, is a gamer and has related the Saxon books to an on-line game about conquest that he played years ago. He says he was too young to tie our first trip to England to these books. I'm sure everyone is aware of connections and how they help understand a period of time or a principle. I find it fascinating. It's most fun when it pops up unexpectedly, like the Mencken and Charlatan connection although reading two non-fiction books that involved MacArthur helped me understand him better.

Another great connection I made recently were the delicious strawberries, raspberries and blueberries I bought at the local farmer's market with fig balsamic vinegar and whipped cream. That is now connecting with my hips. But it was worth it.

Traveling "Music"

I like to listen to books when I'm in the car. I suppose that's why long trips, or driving into work, never phases me. As long as I can find an outlet from time to time to recharge my Ipod, I'm good to go.

A major consideration when driving north for the wedding was what to listen to. Adrian and I have different tastes. That's a given. But he is more unforgiving in his preferences than I am. My brother, Eric, had recommended a series by Bernard Cornwell. This is the man that wrote the Sharpe's Rifle series. Adrian likes those, so I thought he might like the Saxon Chronicle series.

We listened to The Last Kingdom on the way up, The Pale Horseman on the way down, and I've listened to the last two this week - Lords of the North and Swords Song. I know that seems like a lot in just one week, but all but Lords of the North were abridged. Adrian pointed out that the first one must have been abridged because it was almost done by the time we got to San Francisco. Unabridged books are usually a minimum of 12 hours. That's even longer than our trip up and back.

I've always said that i would never read an unabridged book because, well, they cut stuff out of it. That doesn't sound like a good thing to me. We noticed the exclusions in The Last Kingdom. But it's kind of pulp fiction, so does that really matter? Sometimes we lost the motivation for the character's actions. We'd look at each other and say, "Hunh?" I was excited to read Lords of the North to see if it was better unabridged. The answer is that unabridged is better. Duh. In this case, I abridged the book myself because it is very violent. I'm not sure how many times you can read about hand dripping with blood. Verdict is, abridged is okay in a pinch, but never preferred.

About the books: it was fun to read about the Danes invading England. We know that a dear friend at The Times is Danish, so I kept picturing him slashing through people's chain mail. Not that Per ever would. Adrian and I both missed the maps that surely exist in these books. I think I'll ask Eric to bring a book to Cathie's wedding in May so Adrian and I can look at all those place names. Other than London and Mersey (which I wouldn't have known without that old song about the Ferry 'Cross the Mersey) I was pretty lost. It wasn't fatal, but it would have been more fun to have a map.

I've just ordered a bunch of real paper type books which are finalist for The Times Book Prizes. Karen and I will share those on our trip across the US. We're starting our own private book club to discuss them. Or as I like to call it, Our Private Idaho Bookclub. We looked up that movie on IMDB and decided to just take the name, not the subtext of the movie. Too wierd.

Trina and Mark are Married!

Wow, what a weekend. I didn't take a lot of pictures. There were so many people there that I should have shot. What I got you can see by clicking here: wedding. Yes, I also learned how to link to a website without having the URL hanging out. Big weekend.

Adrian and I drove up on Friday. It was a very easy drive and even the last bit in San Francisco getting to hotel was okay. We got there in time for the rehearsal, but I didn't have to participate. The woman who was reading the poem recovered and did a wonderful job. She had to rehearse. Most of the rest of us stayed upstairs at the bar and drank. The rest of us included Karen (Peter was practicing videographing), Jeff and Sandi, and Bill and Nisi. I haven't seen the last two since Bill's brother Bob's wedding. It was much fun to see them. Bill and Karen exchanged memories of growing up because Karen had brought him a photo album. I love to hear other people's memories of shared events. We all look at things from our own perspective.

I've just written about all our meals before the wedding because that's what I did mostly, eat. But that was boring to me. What I want to write about is how good it was to see everybody. So, let's do it like this, by sibling:

Eric's Family

Eric's son Mark was the groom. Mark was sweet and deliously beside himself. I tried to keep out of his way, because his activities were predetermined and focused on one woman - as it should be. Trina is a very sweet woman and I know that they will be happy together. She looked gorgeous at the wedding. We had chatted about the brides on a TV reality show about buying wedding dresses. It's a big decision because those wedding pictures are with you always. As you see above, she picked the right dress.

Chris was an usher. He is Mark's brother and his signifigant other is in Columbia visiting her mother. I talked with Chris a little, but most fun was dancing with him at the wedding. He was pretty game to dance with his stiff old auntie. I was avoiding a nasty woman and just full enough of champagne to dash over and grab one of the cutest guys in the room to be my dancing partner. My knees hurt all night, but he is worth it.

Tara is Eric's daughter. We we seated together at all events. Hurray! She's a sweetie and a bright new lawyer. We talked about my final move up to Albany in a couple of years. She desperately wants to learn how to cook and I can't wait to cook with her. That's how Adrian and I learned, we cooked with people. Tara's husband Ivan is becoming more a part of the family each time we see him.

Mark's mother is Millicent. She looked absolutely fabulous on both occassions, the dinner and the wedding. Her hair is usually long and flowing. She had it up and it looked great. We spent a lot of time on the staircase, waiting for the reception after the wedding. 90 minute wait with too few chairs. People were surprised that we were so friendly, since she hasn't been part of the family for a long time. I told them that when my mother got someone into the family, she never let go. Man, we almost sound like the mafia.

Eric's wife Cindy brought her two adult girls and a husband to the wedding. Cindy is wonderful. You can imagine how difficult it is to share your husband with an ex in the "parents of the bride" role. Cindy was perfect in this role. Her daughters are great. Carina asked me if I was going to take a picture the was "blog worthy" this time. This is my excuse for not getting a picture of 90% of the other people there. Last time I cut Carina out of the picture with Cael. Now she is here with Cael and Sean. Adrian and I also met Cindy's parents at breakfast the next morning. I got no picture of Kaitlin or the parents. Or Cindy for that matter. Tsk.

Karen's Family

I got lots of pictures of Karen and Peter and their son Kevin. And of course Maggie. They were sitting at my table. But Julie, Adam and the boys were always someplace else. And Maggie has more of my energy level. The boys are constant motion machines, but I think they were pretty good at the wedding because I never heard them once. I wonder how Julie and Adam did that. Kevin's Natalie was all over the place, herding Maggie to rehearsal and wedding. Maggie was the very precise flower girl. She knew her job. She had to get rid of all the flower petals in her basket when she got to the bride and groom. Too cute. I think that's why they have flower girls, cuteness factor. I just stole this picture from Natalie's blog.

Adrian and I drove over to Karen's after having brunch with Cindy's family. I guess Adrian had arranged to have dinner there that night with Kevin and Natalie. Natalie needed a break, so Kevin came over and cooked dinner with Adrian. He is his mother's son and made enough for Kevin to take home and Karen and Peter to eat all week. And the mothers enjoyed watching their boys take charge. Fantastic.

Jeff's Family

No pictures. I'm devastated. We had such a good time with Jeff and Sandi and Bill and Nisi. We all went to lunch on Saturday to celebrate Jeff and Sandi's 39th wedding anniversary. The women had been out shopping and found the perfect dress for Sandi to wear at her daughter, Cathie's, wedding in May. So here's my excuse. I always hated that my mother made us pose for pictures constantly when we were growing up. Now I like looking at those pictures, but it always seemed to break to the flow of things. Even though I have my camera in my purse at all times, I forget to bring it out to snap little memories. Are the pictures in my head better than the ones I can put in my blog? Sometimes. But I sure wish I had thought to capture all those pictures that I missed.

Happy New Life, Mark and Trina!