"A Nail Through The Heart" by Timothy Hallinan. ***

• Audiobook
• Mystery/suspense
• US author
• Originally published 2007
• Review:  This is a dark and hopeful story of people stuck in and finding ways out of terrible situations, about sex trafficking in Bangkok, and about the power of love.  Poke Raffert is an intriguing protagonist, and I will likely read the next in the series.

"Daniel Defoe: The Short Stories" by Daniel Defoe. **

• Audiobook
• English author, late 1600s, early 1700s
• Short Stories
• "Dickery Cronk": mute philosopher who ends his life when regaining his voice after a fit, life is but lent at first, a wise man lives every day as his last, religious beliefs, dying is an unavoidable appendix to life, list of guidelines to live by.......perhaps Defoe's desire to be heard after his own death, reminded me of Fernando Pessoa's long list of philosophies
• "The Apparition of Mrs. Beal":  spinster, had fits, Mrs. Bargrave (sp?)was her friend, Mrs. Beal visits her before longer journey full of prophetic information, turns out she was dead during the visit
• "The History of the Pirate":  all religion a curb on the wicked, priests as immoral as anyone else, pirate befriended the priest, platform for religious beliefs, all persons equal, pride increases with power, views on monarchy, politics in general
• Review:  Most of the stories in this collection served as platforms for the author's political, religious, and life philosophies.  Not my cup of tea.  I prfer Defoe's more swashbuckling storytelling.  However, if the reader is interested in Defoe, the man, then it may be a good selection.

"Ordinary Thunderstorms" by William Boyd. ****

• Audiobook
• Originally published in 2009
• Scottish author
• Review:  This is a story about falling from grace.  What happens when all money, safety, power are stripped away overnight, by mistake.  How do people survive?  To what lengths will they go?  How does one build a new identity and a new life.  All of these questions are addressed in the midst of a murder/suspense novel.  Well done, William Boyd, well done!

"Robert Louis Stevenson--Appointment on Moloka'i" by Aldyth Morris ***

• Drama
• US author
• Originally published 1969
• First performed in Hawaii in 1977
• I read this in conjunction with the novel, "Moloka'i" by Alan Brennert
• Quotes:
• "I can say this: when I saw how he had lived, what he had done, I never admired my poor race so much, nor strange as it may seem, I never loved life more, and I shall never cease to wonder at the --prodigality-- with which he gave others what I've longed and hoped and fought for all my life--a strong and robust body."
• "When we have failed and another has succeeded; when we sit and grow bulky in our charming mansion while a plain, uncouth peasant steps into the breach and, under the eyes of God, succors the afflicted and in his turn dies upon the field of honor--the battle cannot be retrieved."
• Review:   I read this drama in conjunction with reading "Moloka'i" by Alan Brennert.  I was interested in Stevenson's visit to the famous leper colony and his desire to know more about Father Damien.  I would recommend this drama to a reader interested in a brief, easily red summary of Stevenson's life.  I am not sure I would be interested in a performance, but it was interesting.

"From Africa: New Francophone Stories" edited by Adele King ***

• Short Stories
• Authors from:  Togo, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Guinea, Congo, Rwanda, Djibouti, and Madagascar
• Originally published in 2004
• Vocabulary:
• marcescent:   withering but not falling off, as a part of a plant.
• deliquescent:   to melt away
• Authors praises of the short story form:
• ".....the short story is the literary genre which manages to bind together poetry and prose."
• "...it is autonomous and self-contained."
• "...the story is the form par excellence for the poetic apnea:  holding your breath as long as possible then letting it go, just at the moment you are about to digress, thus suffocating."

• "A Woman and a Half" by Abdourhaman A. Waberi:
• Epigraph:  "Our women are beautiful; we must show them.  Do we veil roses?"....Kateb Yacine
• "For a long time now, men have sealed women's openings: mouth and sex sewn shut.  However, without their mothers, daughters or wives men are dwarf palm trees in a dying oasis; men are clouds of dust while women are the hummus of the earth."....the uncle of the protagonist fleeing the shantytown

• "The Legend of Abla Pokou, Queen of the Baoule People" by Veronique Tadjo
• Queen gives up her child to save her people
• "The belly of the sea is a vast womb."

• "A Fistful of Groundnuts" by Tierno Monenembo:
• Epigraph:  "The child without memory will never have solid crap. - Peuhl proverb
• "Who can really say what can be strong:  Take for example the wrestler and the fart.  One can bring down a man, but the other can put an assembly to flight."
• Survival
• "My Father's Lamp" by Nimrod: 
• "In a certain way, we are mutes condemned to contemplate the twilight, because the one who is moved by lamps and books readily lets his gaze--and sometimes his tears--speak, but he makes no words because, born from books, they come back to him and God, in the thick of this little game, is very jealous."
• "The Spider's Fart" by Kangni Alem:
• Epigraph:  "Pick u a circle, caress it, and it'll become vicious." - Ionexco, "The Bald Sopranos"
• Intense
• "Babyface" by Koffi Kwahule:
• Epigraph:  "If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." --I Corinthians 13:2
• "Everybody says he disappeared, didn't leave a trace; but with each new moon Babyface appears to me on the rump of the dusk's red clouds, smiles at me.  But nobody sees that."
• "The Labors of Ariana" by Caya Makhele:
• Revenge
• "The Ballad of a Shipwreck" by Michele Rakotoson:
• "What is the point of yielding to despair?"
• "Fahvalo" by Jean-Luc Raharimanana:
• "Waiting for being to explode."
• "Our Neighborhood Fool" by Patrice Mganang:
• Faith in what can and cannot happen
• "A Hunting Scene as Observed by a Sentimental Photographer" by Kossi Efoui:
• Heartrending, witness to atrocity
• "Dead Girl Walking" by Benjamin Sehene:
• Nickname for survivors of genocide
• Inability to connect
• "Bessombe:  Between Homeland and Exile" by Nathalie Etoke:
• Exile
• "Offering one's charms to pot-bellied, senile white jerks who are decrepit but loaded with francs, that's just part of daily life in a society with its back to the wall.  What can I say?  One has to survive."
• "At age twenty-five I look to the future with lassitude and wory.  Relegated to the secret dungeons of an evanescent memory, my youthful dreams have become the gaping wounds of a soul bruised by the vicissitudes of life."
• "I had had enough of conjugating the verb 'to suffer':  I have suffered, I am suffering, I will suffer."
• "The Milka Cow" by Bessora:
• allegory

• Review:  While this collection of short stories by contemporary authors is wide ranging in terms of style and also wide ranging  in terms of content, I was generally lukewarm in my response.  The authors hail from multiple Sub Saharan nations in Africa, and the style ranges from lyrical to allegorical to directly sociopolitical.  Certainly key issues are raised such as the immigration experience, the experience of exile, of sexism, of brutality, of cultural clashes within and between nations.  I would say that my favorite story was entitled, "A Woman and a Half", for its plot and it's moral of strength, trust, and wisdom.  It was not an exhilarating read, but not bad at all.

"In Praise of the Stepmother" by Mario Vargas Llosa *****

• Originally published in 1988
• Peruvian author
• Epigraph:  "One must wear one's vices like a mantle with poise.  Like an aureole one is unaware of that one pretends not to perceive.  It is only natures entirely given over to vice whose contours do not grow blurred in the hyaline mire of the atmosphere.  Beauty is a --marvelous-- vice of form.".....Cesar Moro, "Amour a mort"
• Vocabulary:
• hyaline:  glassy or transparent

• Quote:
1. p.51...."There the three of us will be, calm, patient, awaiting the artist of the future, who roused by desire, will imprison us in dreams, and pinning us to the canvas with his brush will believe that he is inventing us."

• Review:   I read this in one sitting.  Llosa offers the reader an erotic, provocative, shocking view of the human spirit.  The narration moves from the tale of a man, his second wife and his son to interpretive narration focused on classic works of art.  His theme takes the reader deep into the instinctive and sensual part of their being and boldly suggests that it is a fine line between what is a human being's dark side and evil.  Where does sensuality become depravity?  The references to and interpretations of the classic paintings speak to the timeless nature of our darker yearnings and the dilemmas they create.  Do not venture into this one unless or until you prepare for an unsettling read.

"The Black Madonna" by Doris Lessing - *****

• Short Story Collection
• Nobel author, born in Iran, then raised in Zimbabwe
• Six stories
• Setting:  Zimbabwe
• "The Black Madonna":  The wisdom and talent of an Italian POW brings about the psychological breakdown of a German officer
• "The Trinket Box":  the death of Aunt Maud brings the relatives to their existential knees
• "The Pig": Dehumanization seems a universal "talent"
• "Traitors": poignant child's view of trying to straddle the divided loyalties to parents and adults in general
• "The Old Chief Mshlanga": the unanswerable questions of race and culture begin to emerge, as does a sense of humanity in a young white girl in Africa
• "A Sunrise on the Veld":  coming of age, its joys and quandries
• "No Witchcraft For Sale":  the vast gap between Whites and natives, efforts to hold on to what belings to the natives thwarts the piwerful Whites
• Review: You know you are in the presence of a great writer when you have to pause frequently to soak in the meaning and savor the way in which it was presented.  The short story collection entitled, "The Black Madonna", is such a collection.  Doris Lessing's writing is direct, unsettling, charming, and profound.  She was born in Iran, raised in Zimbabwe, then moved to her parents' native England.  Each of these stories is a gem, and I love things that sparkle!

"The Long Goodbye" by Raymond Chandler **

• Audiobook
• Part of the Philip Marlowe series
• Originally published in 1953
• Review:   Definitely not my genre.  Oh well......

"The Painted Word" by Tom Wolfe **

•  Audiobook
•  originally published 1975
• Review:  A well-written, witty, and still rather uninteresting essay about Modern Art.

"Moloka'i" by Alan Brennert. ****

• Book Club Selection
• US author
• Originally published 2004
• Setting:  The Hawaiian island of Moloka'i, home to a leper colony, late 1800s,
• Characters:  Rachel (7 year old banished due to leprosy), Henry (her father), Pono (her uncle, also with leprosy), Heleoa (adopted auntie on Moloka'i). Leilani (transvestite who becomes close friend)
• Quotes:
• p.3...."Later, when all she had was memory to sustain her she would come to cherish it; Old Honolulu, as it was then, as it would never be again.".....lovely opening line
• p.60... "sometimes it was called 'Moloka'i of the potent prayers', known for centuries as the home of powerful sorcerers capable of praying men to death, of sending giant fireballs hurtling across the sea, fiery planets of destruction seeking out hapless victims.  Today the island was still an object of fear and fascination, but for very different reasons."
• Historical tidbits:..."Sometimes it was called
• Father Damien and Mother Marianne Cope are both Saints in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church
• When USA decided to become a major naval force, they annexed Hawaii for strategic purposes
• 1865:  Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy,  http://www.nps.gov/kala/historyculture/1865.htm
• John Stevens:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Stevens, http://www.hawaii-nation.org/betrayal.html
• Robert Louis Stevenson did visit, wrote "Appointment on Molokai"
• Hawaii was 2nd sovereign nation to join the United States....Republic of Texas voted to do so, Hawaii was annexed
• Interesting items:
• The metaphor of the matryoshka dolls:  a life within a life
• I liked the phrase, used repeatedly, "story talking"
• Review:  This work of historical fiction was excellent.  The protagonist, whom the reader meets at age 7, is engaging, heartrending, strong, and very human.  The reader learns the history of Hawaii's annexation by the United States, learns about the leper colony on Moloka'i, and about what humans can endure with spirit, dignity, and integrity in tact.  The plot covers Rachel's lifetime as a leper, as a woman, and as a member of a community of people who lived with the horrible stigma of a disease which was not understood.  I was completely drawn into the story and kept shooing people away who attempted to bring me back to the present.  The book seemed easily analogous to the lives of HIV/Aids patients today.  Excellent read!
• 
  

"Farewell My Lovely" by Raymond Chandler ***

• Audiobook
• US author
• #2 in Philip Marlowe series
• Originally published 1940
• Review:  This was my first experience with this genre.  Additionally, it was an audio performance in the style of the old radio shows rather than a straight narration.  I have mixed feelings, but I think that I need to try another.  So I will move on to "The Long Goodbye".  Can't recommend or not recommend at this point.

"Babbitt" by Sinclair Lewis ***

• Originally published in 1922
• US author
• Setting: Fictional city of Zenith
• Quotes:
• p.10..."she had become so dully habituated to married life that in her full matronliness she was as sexless as an anemic nun"
• p.72..."Trouble with most folks is they're so blame material; they don't see the spiritual and mental side of American supremacy........dominating movements like Efficiency, and Rotarianism and Prohibition and Democracy are what compose our deepest and truest wealth.".
•  p.72...."One of Mrs. Babbitt' s  virtues was that, except during dinner parties when she was transformed into a raging hostess, she took care of the house and didn't bother the males by thinking."
• p.109...."For many minutes, for many hours, for a bleak eternity he lay awake, shivering, reduced to primitive terror comprehending that he had won freedom, and wondering what he could with anything so unknown and so embarrassing as freedom."
• Interesting tidbits:
• George Babbitt has a recurring dream in which a fairy child came and recognized the "gallant youth" where others saw George Babbitt .......interesting in that George is able to see the gallant youth in his own son
• Review:  This is the story of a man who does everything he thinks he is supposed to to be successful and yet comes to a point of believing he is an empty soul.  Where to go from there?  You have to read the book!  I will say that the plot drags a bit in the middle, but otherwise moves right along.  Much of the story made me think of the "Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" concept.  A timeless theme!

"Round House" by Louise Erdrich ***

• Audiobook
• US author
• Originally published 2012
• Review:   Although this book starts off in a very intriguing manner, I am sorry to say that this is my least favorite Erdrich novel to date.  The plot seems to diverge in too many directions to keep my attention.  Could be my frame of mind, but nonetheless that is my take on this novel.  It certainly addresses the themes of the co-existence of the Ojibwe and the rest of the population and the complexity of that coexistence.