Fall(ing) Into Books
October 5, 2008

Well, we’re heading into fall and I for one couldn’t be happier. This is my kind of weather. I enjoy leggings and sweaters and wool blankets on the bed and cats on my lap. I also find reading more intensely enjoyable, being able to “snuggle” up to a book without developing an annoying heat rash from the chair. 

What I am reading? Well, a few books. I just started The Brenner Assignment, a new nonfiction story of “the most daring spy mission of World War II.” It came in for review and has captured my attention so thoroughly it was hard to put down even to sleep last night. Military historian Patrick O’Donnell found the story purely by accident. He was browsing the files of an OSS covert mission at the end of the war and came across a report by team leader Howard Chappell. It took him a long time to convince Chappell to talk with him, but the story that is emerging (even from the first few pages) is thrilling. I can already recommend this.

At the same time I am reading a little brain candy, a mystery I picked up at Book Expo America earlier this year, Murder in the Rue de Paradis. It is the eighth in a series featuring Aimée Leduc, a woman who has been compared to Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone. Though I rarely read mysteries I am as captivated by a pretty face as much as anyone, so when I saw the gorgeous B&W cover image (taken by the author but having a decided Brassai-like appearance) and the title with its startling undertone of purple I picked it up immediately. It helps that though I have only been to Paris once, I am fascinated by it and own a number of books—fiction, nonfiction, art and fine art photography—based in, on, or around it. I like the fact that this one moves around various desirable and unsavory neighborhoods. Middle Eastern politics in the form of a nanny cum terrorist have also appeared. So far, about 15 percent of the way in, it’s a delicious distraction.

Originally published in 1978, Travels With Myself and Another by Martha Gellhorn, is a book that’s been on my nightstand for months. Thankfully, it moved into my hands a couple of weeks ago. I say thankfully because this is marvelous reading. I find myself fascinated by this incredible woman who, unfortunately, is often remembered more as Hemingway’s third wife than as the brilliant journalist, war correspondent and author she was. I’m about two-thirds of the way through this travelogue. Martha’s sharp, incisive wit and keen observations are perhaps not “politically correct” (in today’s terms) but they are certainly honest and well written. It is early 1962 and she is in Africa:

I felt more indignant about the work the women do, while the gentlemen attend herds, which isn’t too bad or loll. All the time we were talking, young girls and women passed downhill to a valley in front of his house and climbed laboriously back with large water jars on their heads. Does the female sway-back, which is universal, come from this; the young spine bent by these weights? The result is an ugly body with a deep curve from shoulder to buttocks, and the stomach pushed out. The resultant walk—steady head and shoulders, swinging hips—is fine; but not the deformation of the back. Père Sylvestre said that the men, when choosing a woman, looked at her skin and her jewelry, not at her face and figure, “as with us.” His pity for the women contradicted his saying that the Kirdis were happy. Though the men might well be happy as larks.

On the face of it, the missionaries here are a doomed lot. They have been in Africa for over a hundred years and even if conversion to Christianity is merely a head count I doubt that they are a roaring success. I wouldn’t preach anything to the blacks, not anything at all. If they want our kind of medical care, it should be given to them, but ideally by trained black doctors, though that may disturb the Darwinian balance of their world and their lives. A child is born each year; the hardiest live. The survivors have to be strong enough to endure this appalling climate and land. Much better to teach the women birth control. But I think nothing will be taught or learned for a very long time, and I do not consider this a disaster by any means. Who are we to teach? Leave them alone is my cry; let them find their own answers. We cannot understand them and the answers we have found haven’t been anything to cheer about, for look at us . . . 

Since I finished my advance reading copy of Titanic’s Last Secrets last week I can’t say I am reading it, but I think it’s recent enough that it qualifies for inclusion in this column. Newly released this month I have no doubt that it will attract a lot of readers and perhaps even make the New York Times Bestseller List. This story of uncovering the real reason the Titanic sank so fast was an interesting read. But not in my view a great one. “The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler” reads the top of the cover, and that, I think, is the problem. I loved Shadow Divers. It brought not only the world of deep wreck diving and its extreme dangers alive, but also uncovered and eventually solved a mystery that hadn’t even been known until the discovery of the submarine. Weirdly, this book almost acts as a kind of sequel with only a tenuous connection to its predecessor through the two divers who followed the submarine’s history to its conclusion. In Shadow Divers the two men were rightfully placed in the forefront of that story. But they dominate this narrative as well—and that is a shame because they are the least interesting part of this international historical mystery.

And while I can’t quite classify it as “reading,” I have also been browsing Lasagna: The Art of Layered Cooking. The turn of weather and temperature has again made comfort foods attractive and especially lasagna.

I adore lasagna even though I came to it later in life. We never had it at home while I was growing up; I’m not sure why except that my mom probably didn’t know how to cook it. That might have been a good thing since with this book (published in 2003) I have learned to expand my idea of lasagna beyond the usual. It is hard to read the ingredients and savor the pictures for dishes like Seafood Lasagna Roulades, Robust Tomato and Wild Mushroom Lasagna, Mexican Black Bean Lasagna, or Roasted Portobello and Caramelized Onion Lasagna without wanting to jump and eat! Preferably lasagna. So far I have restrained my nighttime cravings, but this afternoon I am off to the local Italian deli/store to do some shopping. 

And who could blame me? Lasagna, artichokes and Cabernet. Some great reading. A new pile of oversized New Yorker cartoon sweatshirts and t-shirts that serve as nightshirts. A wool blanket on the bed. Pretty gray skies and even some light rain. It’s life at its best.

Book Festivals:
Tennessee, Minnesota, and West Virginia will be celebrating the book this upcoming weekend with their annual festivals. First up, from October 10-12 is the Southern Festival of the Book, which takes place in Nashville. This three-day literary festival gathers together 250 authors covering every genre, and offers panel discussions, readings and book signings, including more than 50 book-related exhibitors, a cooking stage and two performance stages,  and special children’s events ranging from “A 20th Birthday Party for Lars The Little Polar Bear” to “Courageous Characters in Historical Fiction.”

On Saturday, October 11, Minneapolis hosts, for the eighth year, the Twin Cities Book Festival from 10:00-5:00 at Minneapolis Technical & Community College. This festival features a wide range of exhibitors, readings, talks and signings by local and national authors, a “Morning Mixer,” book arts activities (make a miniature book necklace), children’s events including a storytelling circle, a used book sale and literary magazine fair, raffle, and more.

And for two days, October 11-12, at the Charleston Civic Center the West Virginia Book Festival will bring city alive with authors, publishers, book vendors, a Festival Marketplace, a special children’s section with Word Play activities and a Storybook Character Parade, a used book sale, Meet the Author events, workshops and panel discussions.

Of Interest:
For those who live in or near the Los Angeles area, the Beverly Hills Public Library and Community Services Department are presenting The New Short Fiction Series, a live literary “magazine” series. The first one, on Friday, October 10, at 8:00 p.m. will feature Tom Barbash’s Stay Up With Me read by spoken word performance artist Sally Shore and special cast members. Admission is $10. For more information call or visit their site.
  
This Week . . .
This has to be one of the most amazing bookstores I have ever seen. Not personally, alas. This video is about a couple (Lenore, a former college professor, and Lloyd, a farmer) who own a bookstore in a former manure tank on a farm located in central Wisconsin. The video is more than seven minutes long though the real story does not begin until 45 seconds into it. Wait for that time’ it is worth it to see this incredible story of love, support, and literature.

Until next week, read well, read often and read on!

Lauren