en-US Mon, 14 Apr 2025 11:13:10 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg PollVote82755522 Mon, 14 Apr 2025 11:13:10 -0700 /poll/show_vote/82755522 <img src=http://clipground.com/images/poll-clipart-6.jpg> Time to vote on the novella for May. Good luck to everyone who nominated a book. This poll will stay open until April 20th. . ]]> Review7454971930 Tue, 01 Apr 2025 17:28:21 -0700 /review/show/7454971930 Ensiform gave 3 stars to I'm Down (Hardcover) by Mishna Wolff
bookshelves: non-fiction, memoir
A memoir of the author's childhood up to about the age of 14. She is the white daughter of European-white parents, but her father apparently wanted to be close to black culture, so lived in a black neighborhood, had black friends, played dominoes, listened to soul music, and had black girlfriends. At school, Wolff is mocked for being white and clueless, but later on she scores highly on some aptitude tests and is moved to a private school with rich, white students, who find her mannerisms a little strange, Through it all, Wolff must deal with her father, who comes across in the memoir as a loving but hard-ass loser who can’t finish projects or hold down a job. When he marries a girl only ten years older than Mishna, the stepmother demands Mishna get a job at the age of 14, despite her maintaining a 4.0 at school and being involved in several extracurriculars.

I picked up this book because I thought it might have something interesting to say about race in America, how Wolff was too white for the black kids and too black for the white kids, but it only very briefly touches on race. Why was her father so interested in a culture that wasn’t his own? What kinds of cultural barriers were erected by her living in the neighborhood? These questions aren't answered or even addressed. Is race a huge factor in her social standing? Not really, she makes friends in both schools with no more trouble than most quiet, introspective kids. It is a funny memoir in parts, but in other parts I had to put it down briefly, the demands her father and stepmother putting on her so hostile as to edge on to emotional abuse. This isn't a book about race or culture; it's the memoir of a girl living in a poor neighborhood, who went to a rich school. It's told in an episodic manner, with the stories not building on each other or leading to any real insights. It certainly must also be at least a little fictionalized, as her lengthy conversations at the ages of 10-14 can’t be all that accurately recorded years later. ]]> Review248921098 Tue, 01 Apr 2025 17:17:54 -0700 /review/show/248921098 Ensiform gave 3 stars to Rocky Marciano (Paperback) by James W. Skehan
bookshelves: non-fiction, athletics
A biography of the undefeated champ, from his somewhat hard childhood and attempts to break into baseball, to his boxing career after the army, to his retirement and the life of Reilly that followed. It’s written in an almost fictionalized style �� quotes from scenes in Rocky’s life come from interviews, doubtless, but as exact quotes they must be taken with a large grain of salt. Skehan doesn’t judge, nor is he critical; he merely reports, without skepticism.

The picture that emerges is an ambiguous one. The Rock was obviously a tightfisted, cheap son of a bitch, sometimes to the point of criminality (cheating pay phones, defrauding an insurance company for ten grand). He had strange ideas about money; not trusting banks, he’d squirrel away large chunks of cash. He had all sorts of business deals, shady and otherwise, that he enacted without so much as a signature or IOU. Many of Rocky’s friends insist he was staunchly loyal, but his long-time trainer Al Columbo’s estrangement, his lifelong argument with another friend over a probably imagined forty bucks, and his failure to help out the boxer he hospitalized all belie this picture. The consensus is that Rocky was pretty much the all-time greatest; since he faced the champions of his time when they were nearing 40, this is disputable, and the book should state that. Certainly, Skehan blatantly glosses over serious flaws in Rocky’s character, such as soliciting prostitutes, leaving his wife and daughter for long stretches, cutting short vacations with them, etc. In all this is a thorough, interesting, easy to read bio, but it could stand to show a few more warts than it does. He was a great champion; we don’t need to think he was a saint, too. ]]> Review7454930353 Tue, 01 Apr 2025 17:10:45 -0700 /review/show/7454930353 Ensiform gave 4 stars to Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality (Hardcover) by Jacob Tomsky
bookshelves: non-fiction, jobs
The author, a veteran of the hotel business, having worked his way up from valet to housekeeping management to front desk by giving service above and beyond, shares his experiences in upscale hotels in New Orleans and New York City. He learns how to placate upset guests, make a special occasion perfect, or serve petty revenge to screamers He also learns to make sure the bellman is taken care of, and increase the flow of the crucial tip pipeline. He dispenses advice for travelers on how to get a good room or an extra perk (most of the advice involves giving the front desk agent money), and recounts what happened when his hotel was bought by a corporation that valued the bottom line over service. There are amusing anecdotes and salacious stories from the industry aplenty, from the bellman who can tell a hundred from a one dollar bill by touch alone, to meeting a shellshocked Brian Wilson to finding a bag of sex toys belonging to a frequent guest. Tomsky is a decent writer with comic timing (the appendices are particularly funny), and manages to come across as both self-deprecating and dignified as he tells his story. ]]> Review293767840 Sat, 29 Mar 2025 14:13:05 -0700 /review/show/293767840 Ensiform gave 4 stars to The Tomb (Repairman Jack, #1) by F. Paul Wilson
bookshelves: fiction
The first novel of Repairman Jack �� a New Yorker who lives outside the system: without taxes, a SSN, or any other traceable ID. Posing as an appliance repairman, he actually does violent revenge work for those who pay him. When the elderly aunts of his estranged girlfriend Gia are kidnapped, she reluctantly comes to him for aid. Jack is then drawn into a crime based on a century-old supernatural curse involving Kali worship, rakoshi, and two proud Indians with magic necklaces.

Part of the book relies on a very wildly improbable coincidence (Jack is hired by the aunts' kidnapper on an unrelated matter the same day he's hired by Gia), though that hardly signifies in a book that deals with demons and magic. And the surprises (such as what the magic necklace's power is) are surprises only to Jack, but that's okay too. Jack is a very likeable driven anti-hero, and Wilson is adept at pulling the reader in with drama and suspense. And even though the horrors Jack faces are real evil, Wilson’s characters are not cardboard; the villain has his own doubts, fears and credible motivations. A terrific page-turner, even at 440 pages. ]]> Review239264672 Sun, 23 Mar 2025 12:54:25 -0700 /review/show/239264672 Ensiform gave 4 stars to The Dragon Wakes: China and the West 1793-1911 (Paperback) by Christopher Hibbert
bookshelves: china, non-fiction
One of the most lively and readable history books I have read to date. Drawing from dozens of first-hand sources, and many unpublished papers, Hibbert details the contact between China and England (other countries' stories are told too, but only in passing). From Lord Macartney's first meeting with emperor Chi-en-lung to open trade between the two countries, from the Opium War to the Boxer rebellion and the rise of Sun Yat-sen, Hibbert's book uses quote after quote to demonstrate the appalling gall and presumption of the plenipotentiaries of both nations. The Chinese, nationalistic and ignorant, were utterly purblind to the actual superiority of English power, while the official English reaction to wars with China was always to conquer more, not to attempt any comity. I had to admire the Chinese for adapting so rapidly, from fighting the English with gingalls to overcoming massive internal resistance and modernizing to meet the challenges of the West. A great book, with many vivid passages and anecdotes. ]]> Review7422957669 Fri, 21 Mar 2025 14:03:42 -0700 /review/show/7422957669 Ensiform gave 4 stars to The Girl on the Train (Hardcover) by Paula Hawkins
bookshelves: fiction, mystery
Rachel Watson, a deeply depressed, alcoholic woman, was left by her husband Tom for another woman, and they now live in the her old house with a new baby. Living in a friend's spare bedroom where the welcome has long since been worn out, she lost her job months ago but rides the same commuter train every day, pretending to work and returning at the end of the day. The train route passes her old house, where she watches Tom and his family whiz by, as well as their neighbors, Megan and Scott, for whom she fantasizes a happy life in her head. She's shocked, therefore, when one day she notices Anna is outside kissing another man. Later, when Megan disappears, Rachel tells the police and Scott about the other man, but she struggles with blackouts and unreliable memories, and knows that she was also stumbling and bleeding in the same area the day Megan vanished. Nevertheless, she embarks on a chaotic, obsessive investigation which unfolds through multiple perspectives �� Rachel, Megan, and Anna take turns narrating �� and a disturbing truth gradually comes to light.

Though not exactly groundbreaking or full of twists, this is a brisk, fun page-turner with plenty of suspense and thrills. Rachel's flawed, broken perspective adds depth to the mystery, making her an intriguing and unpredictable protagonist. It's a somewhat slow-paced burn, with a few red herrings, and some passages drag a bit, as when Rachel returns again and again to the same self-recriminations. But as the pieces come together, the danger increases, and the book is hard to put down. Hawkins also adds a few lesser-explored themes into the traditional thriller: addiction, trauma, gaslighting, and domestic abuse. I also like how it delves into the facade of suburban perfection, revealing the hidden turmoil behind closed doors. Almost every character is morally flawed in some way, which keeps the atmosphere dark and ambiguous. ]]> Review7422886379 Fri, 21 Mar 2025 13:31:27 -0700 /review/show/7422886379 Ensiform gave 4 stars to Francine Poulet Meets the Ghost Raccoon (Hardcover) by Kate DiCamillo
bookshelves: fiction, kidfic
Francine Poulet, the self-aggrandizing but sometimes baffled Animal Control Officer of Mercy Watson: Something Wonky This Way Comes, is hired by a bejeweled, glittering matron to deal with a troublesome ghost that may be a ghost that screams like a banshee. Francine finds the racoon, which does scream, and fails to catch it, indeed ending up in the hospital, where the ghost of her father urges her to try again. However, she is so undone by this setback that she quits, astonishing all who know her (she comes from a proud lineage of Animal Control Officers), and becomes a clerk at Clyde's Bait, Feed, Tackle, and Animal Necessities. Will she ever pull herself together and go after the ghost raccoon again? Will she get a little help from Frank and Stella, the solemn children who live next to the Watsons? Is the raccoon on the Lincolns' house? Will there be acerbic commentary from Eugenia? Well... yes. This engaging early chapter book models confidence and perseverance in young readers, combining lively illustrations on nearly every page with DiCamillo's signature absurdist humor and loopy characters. The sparse text makes it an excellent choice for children who are beginning to explore chapter books. ]]> Review247152003 Fri, 21 Mar 2025 13:21:05 -0700 /review/show/247152003 Ensiform gave 3 stars to Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Paperback) by Harriet Beecher Stowe
bookshelves: fiction
With an Afterword by John William Ward. A once wealthy man is forced to sell his beloved slave, Uncle Tom, to get out of debt. And a female slave escapes with her small child, joining her impetuous, proud husband George in flight. And from there the two plot points continue and diverge in an episodic fashion, and we meet a whole host of characters, including the benevolent, effeminate St. Clare and the brutish Simon Legree.

There are some very stunning passages in the book, some powerful, impassioned arguments. The characters are varied and interesting (cruel whites, cruel blacks, noble whites, noble blacks, capable women, cruel women, incapable women), except perhaps the appallingly mawkish little Eva, a Christ figure (Tom is also a Christ figure, but his behavior seems more likely). But there is also a lot of tiresome preaching, which I suppose is to be expected, as is the dated race theories and chuckleheaded antics of some of the black characters. I also think the story probably got a bit out of Stowe’s hands at 465 pages (!). All in all, though the story is more often than not compelling, it’s a bit too preachy and awkward. One detail �� it's odd that "Uncle Tom" should have come to mean a servile black man, when Tom is a strong-willed, noble man who simply refuses to do evil, even if it means he’s to be tortured to death. He’s servile because he accepts his lot, but he certainly makes his own decisions in life. The Afterword argues that the book should be read nowadays because its central argument is that people cannot be moral in an immoral world; all societies corrupt, and the only noble souls are those removed from society, like Quakers, Christian slaves, and children. ]]> Review7412615795 Mon, 17 Mar 2025 19:27:58 -0700 /review/show/7412615795 Ensiform gave 5 stars to Deaf Sentence (Paperback) by David Lodge
Desmond Bates, a retired professor of linguistics, is going deaf. His relationship with his second wife, Fred, has settled into an easy but sometimes distant companionship, while his father is settling into senility. When Alex, a young attractive graduate student, starts talking to him at a party, he affably nods along with whatever she's saying (he can't hear), only to discover he's agreed to help her with her thesis. When she turns out to be both unreliable and disconcertingly unpredictable, he wants to extricate himself delicately. But other things in his life with more import have a way of putting this comic mishap into perspective.

The last Lodge book I read was Small World back in 2002, and I loved it, so I picked this one up, and don't regret it. It's a bitingly witty comedy of errors, even sprinkled with erudite commentary on linguistics and poetry. The plotline about Alex is only a small part of the story; Bates is intrigued by Alex, but too prim and too timid to take that particular road. Perhaps a younger Lodge might have written a novel about a taboo, instantly regretted fling between professor and student, but this book is not that. Some readers might be disappointed that the novel goes off in other, unexpected directions, but I enjoy Lodge's broad slice-of-academic-life style. There are some very moments of broad humor, almost slapstick, and some gentle, self-effacing insights about the tragicomic nature of impending hearing loss. But it also touches on aging, relationships, family, and death. This is a tough balancing act, but a writer as talented and experienced as Lodge pulls it off with aplomb. ]]>