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I must admit, Kathy, I wasn't as enthusiastic about "Into the Wild" as you are. It's been a (long) while since I read it, but I found McCandless to be more than a little strange, and more than a little self-centered.

I have a great deal of respect for the back country and for people who know how to maneuver in it. It is very, very easy to do one thing wrong and find yourself beyond hope. I remember a story by Edward Abbey describing a hike in which he got himself into just such a circumstance; it was only with a great deal of luck and desperation that he got out of the situation. It's too easy for the best-laid plans to go astray in the back country.

People who go into the back country who are ill-prepared, or who know the dangers but disregard standard safety measures, don't get that same respect from me. (I do remember that he didn't have much of a plan, a map, or much more than rice for food.)

For me it was an interesting book, but I doubt I'll read it again. I found Krakauer's Into Thin Air to be much more rewarding.

Julia, I think I was "captured" by being in Alaska. It was the right moment in time for me to read the book. I can't wait for Martha to weigh in. I'm trying to decide if I want to read "Into Thin Air." Maybe after I read all the things on "my" shelf!!!!

You, Phil, and Martha keep me three shelves to the wind!!!

Kathy

Julia, It dawned on me that you might have been "reviewing" the life of Chris McCandless and not necessarily the book about Chris McCandless. If Krakauer had not written an excellent book, McCandless' death would have been just another post-college kid FU.

Kathy

I think you're right. Krakauer can tell a hell of a story. It's just that in this case I wasn't sure it was a story that needed to be told. McCandless was, pretty much, a post-college kid FU. His story is a sad one but I'm not sure what the telling of it accomplished.

Not that every book has to "accomplish" something - but unless it's pure entertainment -- difficult to assume given this story -- I guess I felt there ought to be some point besides "don't go off into the woods without a clue."

At least with "Into Thin Air" you learn something about what it takes to climb Everest. "Into the Wild" seemed to be mostly what the Catholic Church used to call "prurient interest." When I finished it I felt a little as though I'd had my nose in someone else's business for no real reason.

(I think this book left a worse taste in my mouth than I thought. I wonder if I still have it; maybe I should re-read it and get rid of some of my judgmental attitude, hmmm?)

Damn! That's what I thought we were talking about. Now I have 2 "Into" books to read? I'm so glad I checked in today.

Okay, I finished Stephen King's Rose Madder a few days ago, and I guess I'm still at least a sort-of King fan. Now with Licey's Story, the King I read a few weeks ago, I didn't realize how much I did like about it until I was writing the review. Let's see if the same thing happens with Rose Madder, with which I did frequently have problems. In terms of story, I found the book quite uneven. When Rosie, the protagonist, escapes from and eludes her abusive husband, I was close to can't-put-it-down. When she "enters" a painting she bought for her living room and performs a type of "heroic task," it was okay. It was still pretty good after her husband finds her and she again "enters" the painting to rid herself of her him. But then—once she returns to the real world, the husband dead, she and her boyfriend safe—the book goes on for another fifty plus pages. OMG, the tedium. Maybe my boredom prevented me from understanding some vital aspect of the conclusion, but as I read in ten-page hunks, I felt like I was taking another bottle of beer off the wall. Would it ever end? "Take one down and pass it around, seventy-six bottles of beer on the wall." AARGH!

But there are dog-eared pages. Let's see if King can win me back by details.

1) I have always liked King's ability to reference popular culture and even classic literature. An example of the latter: The woman who heads the "safe house" in which Rosie stays says to her, "It was Providence that brought you here—Providence with a capital P, just like in a Charles Dickens novel." (page 67) So for the rest of Rose Madder, whenever there's a really important Concept, its name is capitalized. Cool.

2) Rosie is thinking about troubles she had when she first arrived in the really big city. "These recollections possessed her mind wholly for a little while, as only our worst recollections can." (page 86) Yeah, Powers-That-Be, why can't the good memories haunt us like that? Or maybe, for people with no self doubts, people like John McCain or George W. Bush, the good memories do. Scary.

3) When Norman, the Abusive Husband, arrives in the big city bus station, he figures out Rosie probably went to the help desk, manned by a quiet, gentle, "Pravda-reading Jewboy." (page 135) In the next paragraph, Norman jots "down Thumperstein's address." Thumperstein. Isn't that great? And only a character as Obnoxious as Norman could come up with it.

4) Rosie thinks about how Norman always refers to prostitutes as gals. "She had never realized until this moment how much she had hated that back-of-the-throat word. Gals. Like a sound you might make when you were trying hard not to vomit." (page 141) I'll never hear or read gal again without thinking of that. Or, at a minimum, clearing my throat.

5) Right before Norman is about to beat Thumperstein to death: "Norman raised one foot and kicked the door shut behind him, feeling as graceful as Gene Kelly in an MGM musical." (page 152) Cool contrast.

6) The first time Rosie enters the picture on her living room wall, an inner voice says, "No one actually walks through pictures." (page 236) Come on, Stephen! I read that and immediately thought, "Mary Poppins!" Where's your fabulous connection to popular culture? My disappointment was lessened but not totally erased when later he refers to the event as being like "Alice going through the looking glass." (page 275) Grumble, grumble.

7) During the first trip into the painting, Rosie "was sprinting, yes, but in slow motion, and now all this seemed like a dream again, because this is the way one always ran in dreams, especially the bad ones where the fiend was always just two steps behind. In nightmares, escape became an underwater ballet." (page 263) Yeah.

8) Foreshadowing. Gotta love it! "Rosie felt a burst a happiness which she would remember later on that long, long day with sickened horror." (page 319) I dare anyone to stop reading after a sentence like that, even if King could have expressed it better.

9) Crazy Norman is kicking in the door to Rosie's room. "Rooming-house doors were not built to withstand insanity." (page 406) Now that, IMHO, is a truism.

I've reached my King conclusion. I'm a fan of his writing and his humor; it's his stories I no longer care for. I think Misery and 'Salem's Lot might go on the unread shelf. I remember liking the stories in both and in Misery, particularly, the humor—lots and lots of humor.

Speaking of humor, in Rose Madder someone (Norman?) is a Paul Sheldon fan. If I remember right, Paul Sheldon is the name of the writer in Misery. OMG! We're back to characters in Ed McBain novels discussing who wrote the script for Hitchcock's The Birds. Or, for a more academic comparison, Perry Miller, a writer on Colonial literature, actually footnoting himself. All of the above amuse me. Because I feel smart when I get the references? Oh, I hope not. I thought I left intellectual snobbery behind when I finished school. Martha, cool it with the stream-of-consciousness babble. Now! Okay. Bye.

Martha, I have too many books on my shelf. How can I add Rose Madder? Your review wants me to put it on "the list."


I have always HATED it when anyone calls women either gals or girls. Now I have a retort. "What a back of the throat word!"


I never waste time on bad memories. I replay the good times over and over as I would a favorite musical recording -- sometimes the memories even have musical accompanyment! Just call me Scarlet!



Could this be a salute to Hitchcock's Psycho?

and finally


My husband has actually footnoted his previous works himself in reports. He has always been quite amused with himself when he does that!

Excuse me, I think I'll try to find a picture I can walk into. I have a few down in my Alabama Football room!

Kathy

I have a book to recommend that my husband and I read several years ago. It gave a very good profile of Senator Joe Biden and with his nomination as VP, the book was called to mind. I've got to see if I can find it to re-read. I haven't filed away my books since I broke my ankle so I'm a little behind.

I recommend this book

Martha loaned me a book to take on the trip to Alaska entitled "Birds of Prey" by J.A. Jance. "BOP" was one of the J.P. Beaumont books. I like Judy Jance and her books especially when she speaks in the voice of Beau Beaumont.

I just finished a book by the same author called "Damage Control." This is one of the Joanna Brady, Sheriff, books. Joanna isn't nearly as interesting as J.P. Beaumont; however no matter the characters, J.A. Jance can spin a good yarn. This book delves into the issues of infidelity and the reasons why people stray.

Joanna has always had a bad relationship with her mother and in this episode of the Brady soap opera, she finds out the reason her mother has always been so cold. One thing that irritates the stew out of me is that whenever the main character speaks of her mother she always uses all three names, Eleanor Latham Winfield. Golly, how long must a daughter know her mother before the mother earns the right to be called just "mom?"

I may be growing up. Reading these mystery "lites" are about to wear me out. It's too bad that I just received the new Kathy Reich's book. I'll break my habit after reading THAT ONE! Just one more mystery. .....just one....I sound as if I'm an addict waiting for my next fix!

Susan Fraser King's Lady Macbeth jumped off the shelf and into my hand the last time I was in Barnes and Noble. I did try to put it back 'cause I'm not really crazy about the trend of books based on non-protagonists from other sources. Wicked? Except for the idea that the Witch of the East had no arms (from The Wizard of Oz, who'd know?) and the encounter between Dorothy and the Wicked Witch of the West, I found the book to be a big bore. Renfield I tried and lasted my fifty pages. But Lady Macbeth? Who wouldn't want to know her side of the story? And that's exactly what Lady Macbeth is. It never crosses paths with Shakespeare's Macbeth; indeed, Lady Macbeth wrote her book to counter those horrible versions everyone believes. And it works. Lady Macbeth describes Lady Macbeth's meeting and marriage to Macbeth—they were in love and happy, Malcolm's attacks that led up to the one-on-one combat between Macbeth and Malcolm, the peaceful years of Macbeth's reign in Scotland, and ultimately his defeat by Duncan, Malcolm's grandson. And, yes, Duncan did attack through a woods so thick that it looked like the very trees were moving.

I was interested in the author's use of language—a lot of words I'd never seen before—but all the ones I've found have been historically correct. Examples:
1) Housecarls—servants or bodyguards in a royal home
2) Wattle—poles and filler used to make walls
3) Mormaer—couldn't find. Anyone know?
4) Catch—I'm assuming from the book's context that an old meaning was to become pregnant but didn't find it elsewhere. And Lady Macbeth knew she hadn't caught when she was "in flowers." Any historical-novel readers find these before?
5) Firth—an inlet of the sea. This one I'd seen before but never checked the meaning. Or maybe I'm just thinking of an actor. Colin Firth?
6) Hauberk—long tunic of chain mail
7) Ell—an English linear measure

Anyway, I liked the slant, and the writing impressed me. Guess I'm glad Lady Macbeth jumped into my hand.