Ms. Kilikevicius includes a calendar action plan that I loved.  It covers November, December and January with week by week tasks.  I read it last week, so I’m just learning about her suggestions for November, but they are so doable I don’t feel weeks behind.  Throughout the action plan and elsewhere in the book, the author reiterates that we don’t have to do everything.  When I read this admonition for the fourth or fifth time, I actually started to believe it and think about paring down to what was essential for this Christmas. 

I especially enjoyed the chapters on celebrating advent before Christmas and then the twelve nights of Christmas after the holiday.  It moves the focus from solely Christmas Day to a meaningful time before the holiday and a reflective time afterward.  The book describes preparing an advent wreath (I have a permanent one that I can bring out every year) and provides suggestions for family time each Sunday before Christmas and then on Christmas Day.  I’m going to try incorporating her thoughts on the twelve nights after Christmas to enhance a reflective time for the family as the hoop-la ends and everything is packed away for another year.

The author discusses various ways to keep focused on the meaning of Christmas rather than the commercialization of Christmas. In the chapter on children Ms. Kilikevicius stresses protecting the spirit of Christmas.  She suggests not taking the kids to stores crammed with eye candy, keeping them away from the television with commercial after commercial telling them what they must have, finding ways for family time, and giving children crafts and cards to make.

For decorating, the book describes an efficient way for hanging lights, decorating the tree, creating gift wrap, etc, all with the thought that some years a sting of lights and a couple of candles in a relaxed home are better than a crazed home with beautiful decorations.  Because always remember, some years you can’t do it all.

Seven year old Truman lives with four elderly cousins due to a custody battle between his parents.  Miss Sook, his cousin in her sixties, is his best friend, “as she was a child herself (and many people thought her less than that . . .), she understood children, and understood me absolutely.  Perhaps it was strange for a young boy to have as his best friend an aging spinster, but neither of us had an ordinary outlook or background, and so it was inevitable, in our separate loneliness, that we should come to share a friendship apart.”

Truman’s enemy was Odd Henderson, a twelve year old boy still in second grade who tortured Truman every day because he was a “sissy.”  For example, Odd tackled Truman and rubbed prickly cockleburs in his scalp. Odd is a member of a proud down and out family.  His mother struggles to care for nine children while his father is in jail.  Miss Sook, a woman too uncomfortable to attend church but who reads her Bible daily, puts “love your enemy” into practice by inviting Odd to Thanksgiving dinner.  Her experience in the Henderson house when she extends the invitation gives the reader an alternative view into Odd’s life.

Truman is sure Odd will not arrive on Thanksgiving Day, but of course Odd does, and he impresses the family gathering with his singing.  Truman is so upset that his day is ruined by Odd’s successful presence that he hides in a closet.  From this vantage point he sees Odd steal Miss Sook’s beloved cameo.  At the moment everyone is seated at the table, Truman announces that “someone here is a thief” and exposes Odd.  While Miss Sook tries to cover for Odd, the Judas admits he stole the cameo.  Truman’s sense of betrayal by Miss Sook and her description of Truman’s actions are unforgettable in the love they have for each other and the  kindness that Miss Sook extends to everyone.

Mr. Capote captures the simplicity of caring for your family and neighbors with such sweetness that I read this story every year, reading it feels like cuddling up with a soft blanket while drinking hot chocolate.  This year I hope to read it to my family as we drive five hours to our holiday destination.

A lot of us passionate readers have a secret dream of one day owning a bookstore. When Meg Ryan welcomes children to her small independent shop in You’ve Got Mail, who doesn’t want to be that character?  To spend your days surrounded by books, to introduce strangers to the books that mean the most to you, to have a reason to order every new book that catches your eye in a review . . .  if you love to read, that’s just pure fantasy.

When I walked into Mystery Books on Broxton Ave in Westwood Village, I knew I had found a really appealing independent bookstore with a clear market niche.  But when I started talking to the assistant manager, Linda Brown, I learned that this wasn’t just any bookstore–this was my dream brought to life.

Just this fall, the Pasich/Woods family, who had been coming to Mystery Books for years (enough time for youngest son Connor to grow from a small child to a teenager) bought Mystery Books from the small group of investors who had previously owned it.  The family isn’t in the book business: they just loved the bookstore and wanted to keep it safely in operation.

You can see why someone would fall in love with this store.  It manages to be pretty big and cozy at the same time.  I’m not much of a reader of mysteries (recently I had a lovely two month relationship with Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell books, but that was more because of the fantasy that Mary gets to sleep with Sherlock Holmes than because she went around solving mysteries) so I wouldn’t have expected to want to linger in the store–but I honestly didn’t want to leave.

Yes, of course, the bookshelves are filled with mysteries, but not just current, American mysteries–they include first editions from here and over seas.  A whole section of the store is dedicated to the British imports that you can’t usually find in America, many of them signed and/or first editions.

Mystery Books stocks a lot of rare finds–including things as wondrous as first edition Agatha Christies and Raymond Chandlers–so if there’s a mystery-phile in your life, I can’t imagine a better place to find an easy birthday or holiday gift.

There’s also an extensive reference section for the budding (or well established) mystery writer, including a lot of books on forensics which might be fun to browse if you’re simply a CSI fanatic.

And their kids’ section is knock-your-socks off great–they won me over when the first very book I saw was a new Orson Scott Card Ender book.  Linda told me that the children’s section does skew a little broader than the adults’, so there’s something there for everyone–and the entire section is liberally sprinkled with young Connor’s book recommendations.   See?  It’s good to own a bookstore.

Their website is fantastic, filled with upcoming author visits and all the newest releases.  Check it out and then drop by the store the next time you’re in Westwood Village.  (Locals should know that it’s just a couple of blocks from Diddy Riese, the best and cheapest ice cream shop in town and on the same block as my favorite parking structure in the Village.)

Mystery Books

1036-c Broxton Avenue

Los Angeles, CA  90024

310 209-0415

Barbara Bilson is a book group moderator for several groups and has taught literature.  I met Barbara in my former life as an attorney.  I loved meeting with her because when we finished discussing business, I could ask her about books.  Now we run into each other at our favorite restaurant and at literary events around town. 

Both have thought about what books were meaningful over the last several years and recommend the following for book group junkies or anyone who loves good literature.

One of Julie’s favorite sayings is “some books are great to read but terrible to discuss, some are not as enjoyable to read but result in a great discussion, and a few are both.”  Over the last ten years, these are some of the “few” that stand out:

• American Pastoral by Philip Roth
• House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
• Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith by Gina Nahai
• Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (Barbara recommended this book also)
• A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee (Barbara recommended this book also)
• Atonement by Ian McEwan (Barbara recommended this book also, and it’s one of my favorites)
• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
• The Solace of Leaving Early by Haven Kimmel
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
• Birds Without Wings by Louis De Bernieres
• The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (Barbara recommended this book also)
• Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
• The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu
• The God of War by Marisa Silver

Barbara listed four books that have illicited the most passionate discussion and that readers have felt enriched by, the first four listed below, and then others that her groups have particularly enjoyed:

• Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth
• A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
• Evidence of Things Unseen by Marianne Wiggins
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• Song of Solomon and Beloved by Toni Morrison
• March by Geraldine Brooks paired with Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• The Master by Colm Toibin paired with Daisy Miller by Henry James
• Everyman  by Philip Roth (which Julie paired with Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich)
• Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
• Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Print the list, head to your nearest independent bookstore and give a gift that provides hours of enjoyment at a reasonable cost.

Peter Matthiessen was nominated, but lost, in 1966 for At Play in the Fields of the Lord.  The literary elite told him not to worry, that he would be back.  Well, finally he made it back and won.  In his acceptance speech for winning with Shadow Country, he noted that all of the other finalist writers were excellent, that they would be back, but he hoped it wouldn’t take 43 years.  The other 2008 nominees in fiction are The Lazarus Project  by Aleksandar Hemon, Telex from Cuba by Rachel Kushner, Home by Marilynne Robinson, and The End by Salvatore Scibona. 

The judges awarded the non-fiction prize to Annette Gordon-Reed for The Hemingses of Monticello:  An American Family  which traces Thomas Jefferson’s black family.  Sometimes timing is everything.  Ms. Gordon-Reed didn’t plan to publish the book during the year the country elected its first black president, but sometimes lightening strikes in a very good way.  The other nominees were Drew Gilpin Faust for This Republic of Suffereing:  Death and the American Civil War, Jane Mayer for The Dark Side:  The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, Jim Sheeler for Final Salute:  A Story of Unfinished Livesand Joan Wickersham for The Suicide Index:  Putting My Father’s Death in Order.

Mark Doty won the poetry award for Fire to Fire:  New and Collected Poems, which includes poems that Mr. Doty selected from previous work that he feels has continuing relevance, along with new poems.  The other finalists for poetry are Frank Bidart for Watching the Spring Festival, Reginald Gibbons for Creatures of a Day, Richard Howard for Without Saying, and Patricia Smith for Blood Dazzler. 

I’m assuming the Young People’s Literature category is a fancy way of saying “YA,” so I’ll be sharing this list with my kids.  The winner is What I Saw and How I Liedby Judy Blundell, a coming of age story about a 15 year old girl growing up in the post WWII era.  The other nominated books were Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson, The Underneath by Kathi Appelt, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart, and The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp.

Listen to the winning authors reading from their works.

Driving along the four lane stretch of Highway 62 in Yucca Valley, most motorists’ goal is to drive through the high desert town as quickly as possible without getting a ticket.  Doing this means you miss the quirky antique stores at the western end and the small house converted into a bookstore called Sagebrush Press Bookstore.

For eighteen years, Dan and Janet Cronkhite operated their business as a combination press and bookstore.  Over time they dropped the press and now are simply a bookstore.  Their love of the printed page is shown in the small house that has been crammed to the ceiling with books.  Yet the owners claim it only contains one-third of their collection.  There is no ambiance here, only books.  Books are everywhere:  on shelves, in boxes, covering the counters.  They are all used, but in good condition, both paperback and hardcover.  They have a large collection of military history and their specialty is books on Western America. 

The Cronkhites attempt to group their books by subject, but mainly the customer relies on the owners’ photographic memory of what books are in the store and where they are located.  Each of them are responsible for managing half of the store.  There aren’t any computers to search for a particular book, but in waiting on my husband and myself and two other customers who entered the store, the owners knew exactly where to go to locate a particular book or whether they had it or not.  There aren’t any chairs to sit on and the house is a claustrophobic maze of books, but the search is worth it.  My husband was thrilled to find the complete collection of Winston Churchill’s books on WWII in original dust jackets for $40.  I bought two small regional flora books that have long been out of print for my collection on California flora, both for less than $30.  We also bought several paperbacks on favorite subjects or by favorite authors for fifty cents to a dollar.

If you must have a cup of coffee to fully enjoy your bookstore visit, I suggest Whitewater Coffee Company, a short drive east of the bookstore on Hwy 62.

Thank you for sharing your find, Sue!!

Sagebrush Press Bookstore

66684 Thwentynine Palms Hwy/Hwy 62

Yucca Valley, CA 92284

Tel:  760.365.5671

e-mail:  Sagebrushbooks@verizon.net

One of the downsides to living in Southern California is the Santa Ana winds.  In a good year, fall consists of 90 degree weather and hot, dry wind that dries up your eyes, your skin and your sense of humor.  In a bad year, well, it’s pretty well known what happens, hundreds of homes burn, thousands of acres, and we all inhale smoke for days.  We’ve lost over 800 homes in the last four days.  I know of families who have lost everything they own this weekend.  Yesterday afternoon the sky was orange in my part of LA, the smoke was so prevalent.  After spending three hours on my church patio yesterday morning, I felt grimy and felt like a weight was sitting on my chest.  Four weeks ago I woke up to a convoy of firetrucks racing up my street, a fire was burning over the ridge, thankfully it was contained and no houses were lost.  This year is a bad year.

In the fall of 1993, I was pregnant with my son and Malibu burned.  I was working

Golf Hazards in Southern California

in Santa Monica, just down the road from the fires, and my mother called me to tell me to wear a scarf around my face if I went out to lunch to protect the baby.  I envisioned walking into a business lunch with my face covered in YSL and decided it was better to eat at my desk.  Well, my baby is 14 now and was taking golf lessons on Saturday in Yorba Linda, in the midst of the Triangle Fire.  Yes, that’s the name of the fire that my son was very, very close to, the same name of the fire that killed so many children and young women in New York.  While he hit ball after ball, stopping to watch the helicopter drop water on the fire starting on the 11th hole then swinging again, I was recollecting the book I talked about on Labor Day.

Kyle wasn’t alone.  My husband was with him (hence the photographs) and he decided they were fine, the golf lesson could continue.  He’s very cautious, I mean really cautious; I call him Mr. Health and Safety or RPP (the reasonably prudent person).  However, I wonder about his choice of timing to be daring.   Finally, at 3PM, when I’m watching flames on TV soar into the sky, I called to insist that now is the time to leave.  I’m the daring one and I wouldn’t stay.  They were on the road, inching along, with no gas in the tank.  I could hear the sirens in the background.  The freeways around them were closed so while they found gas, I charted a route to the closest open freeway.  Good grief.

What’s next on my husband’s reading list?  Triangle by Katherine Weber.  Next time he decides to live on the edge, he can chose to ride a roller coaster with his hands in the air.

Eighteen years ago I visited Seattle for the first time.  It was our first weekend trip away from a job I hated and a city I swore I would never live in (now I realize I’ll live in Los Angeles for the rest of my life, but I did get rid of that job).  The angst I felt over all the changes in my life lifted the moment I walked into The Elliott Bay Book Company.  I found a book during that first visit about living in suburbia; the recommendation card described the tedium of living in tract housing as the constant evenly paced whoosh of a Rainbird sprinkler.  The description struck me, so I bought the book.  It detailed the brain-numbing monotony of suburban life.  Whenever I drive through tract housing I feel that oppression.

Interestingly enough, during my recent trip to Elliot Bay, I bought two more books about home life (really, they have over 150,000 titles, the breadth and depth of the store is amazing, I just seem to have a theme whenever I go there).  When I walked into the store I was a bit overwhelmed by all of the choices.  In front of me as soon as I entered where four 9 foot or taller bookshelves full of staff recommendations.  I wanted all of them.  More recommendations were spread among the various subjects.  An entire bookshelf is dedicated to recommendations for books groups (plus book groups can meet with a staff member to discuss recommendations for their group and tips on how to keep the conversation on topic).  I gave up trying to make a decision and asked the woman at the information desk if there was a unique book she liked.  She had two that she talked about as we walked over to the books (I learned later that employees are trained to walk the customer over to the book they’re asking about chatting with them the entire way, I loved it).  The first was Cost by Roxana Robinson, a story of what all of us give up for family.  I haven’t read it yet, but I’m looking forward to it.  Hmm, is this the appropriate book to be reading around the Christmas tree surrounded by family?  Maybe not. 

Book Review

The second book was The Story of Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer, she said the book did a wonderful job showing that spouses never really know each other.  But the author is young, in his thirties, what, has he been married 15 minutes?  Well, I read this book and the young author has some interesting insights on assumptions in marriage and the problems resulting from a lack of communication.   The basic storyline is how Pearlie’s view of her husband from their childhood and their marriage changes when a person from his war years returns and alters their lives.  What drove me nuts is that Pearlie and Holland, the husband, never discuss the issue, they communicate about this vital topic only through this ghost from his past.  For me, the book becomes a bit of a stretch, but I discuss everything with my husband, he actually might like a little bit of Pearlie in his life.  Pearlie wonders about marriage and the role of a wife through the sentencing of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.  Why didn’t Ethel turn on her husband to be with her kids?  To whom does she have the greatest loyalty?  The question of loyalty comes up in the Rosenberg’s marriage, Pealier and Holland’s marriage and the actions of the boys who did not fight in WWII, either as a result of conscientious objection or fear. Interwoven in the story is a picture of life for a black family at the end of the Korean War and a peek into the culture of a nation awakening to its promise after WWII.

The List of Qualities

Elliott Bay has an amazing amount of features that support its nationwide fame, here’s a bullet point list of what is wonderful:

• A coffee shop serving organic food and coffee that inhabits the entire basement.  Rumor has it that the coffee shop in “Frazier” is based on this one.
• Book clubs every Tuesday night at 6:30:  The Elliot Bay Book Club discussing contemporary fiction on the first Tuesday; The Global Issues and Ethics Book Club discussing modern problems and maybe even solutions on the second Tuesday; Speculation, the SciFi and Fantasy group on the third Tuesday; and, Stages, for readers of new and classic dramas on the fourth Tuesday.  The books for each group on the website, a handy recommendation guide if you love the genre but don’t live close enough to attend.
• Maiden Voyage First Edition Program – the store sends out a hardback first edition of an author’s debut novel.  One past choice was The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize.  Membership is $150 a year.  Hmm, another holiday or birthday gift that would keep on giving all year long.
• Elliott Bay gives back to the Seattle community with Books for Change.  A percentage of sales from chosen books are donated to charity.  When I was there the choice of books related to the organization for that month, but also included several fiction and non-fiction bestsellers such as Master Pip by Lloyd Jones.
• The staff will assist with corporate sales, either arranging for the appropriate book for an entire office or client list or a variety of hand picked books for a particular business.
• Almost nightly author visits from the entire range of authors from the stature of Frank Rich and John Irving to the new unknown author who could be tomorrow’s Phillip Roth.  In fact, right now the opening page for the website is a recollection of the Obama’s visit when he toured the nation for The Audacity of Hope.
• Staged Play Readings occur from May to October (the less rainy months?), each month is a staged reading of a play.
• Last but certainly not least, each quarter Elliot Bay publishes Elliot Bay Booknotes a summary of recommended books of various genres.  Bookmark this page and remember to return to it on each Equinox and Solstice.

A Closing Gift

The entire time I was reading The Story of Marriage, I kept thinking of a poem I heard Mary Oliver read last winter.  I was in Royce Hall with hundreds of other people and you could have heard a pin drop, we all sat mesmerized by the poetry of this tiny woman.  After almost 20 years of marriage, I think this one is the most beautiful love poems:

The Whistler

All of a sudden she began to whistle. By all of a sudden

I mean that for more than thirty years she had not

whistled. It was thrilling. At first I wondered, who was

in the house, what stranger? I was upstairs reading, and

she was downstairs. As from the throat of a wild and

cheerful bird, not caught but visiting, the sounds war-

bled and slid and doubled back and larked and soared.

Finally I said, Is that you? Is that you whistling? Yes, she

said. I used to whistle, a long time ago. Now I see I can

still whistle. And cadence after cadence she strolled

through the house, whistling.

I know her so well, I think. I thought. Elbow and an-

kle. Mood and desire. Anguish and frolic. Anger too.

And the devotions. And for all that, do we even begin

to know each other? Who is this I’ve been living with

for thirty years?

This clear, dark, lovely whistler?

Thank you, Mary Oliver.

Elliott Bay Book Company
101 South Main Street
Seattle, WA 98104
T: 206.624.6600

I went to buy something at the Gap yesterday and while I was paying at the cash register, it suddenly hit me that Christmas songs had been playing over the speakers the entire time I was in the store.  “Christmas songs?” I said to the cashier, “Really?  Already?”  She sighed and said, “It does seem early, doesn’t it?”

Anyway, right or wrong, listening to “Rudolph the Rednosed etc.” made me realize that the gifting holidays are right around the corner, and since we all want to make sure there’s time to order THROUGH OUR LOCAL INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES, we should start thinking about the best gift books out there.    (Actually, doing gift lists for the holidays was Kim’s idea, not mine–but you knew that already, didn’t you?)

So over the next few weeks, expect to find a bunch of blogs from us with suggestions from different kinds of experts for some of the best gifting books out there.  Let us know if you want us to cover a specific area or subject.   And if you want to add to our lists, feel free  to in the comments.

Our first list comes from bookstore owner and friend Katie O’Laughlin, of Village Books in Pacific Palisades.   Because nothing says “gift” quite like a coffee table book (well, you’re not about to buy one of those behemoths for yourself, are you?), I’m going to start with her list of those.

To order any of the following, feel free to contact Village Books (310 454-4063)–they wrap for free and will ship for you–or if you have an indie that’s closer to you, order from them.  (Go pick it up yourself–that gives you a chance to browse the new books and find something fun to read when your relatives are visiting over Thanksgiving and you want to just sneak off somewhere quiet and be alone for a while.  I’m not saying I’D ever do something like that, I’m just saying it’s an option).

Katie’s recommendations for beautiful coffee table books

Animal Life, by Charlotte Uhlenbroek (DK, Oct 2008, $50). The ultimate authority on what makes animals tick, this amazing work explores and explains every aspect of animal behavior in stunning, awe-inspiring action sequences and in-depth prose.

Art: The Definitive Guide, by DK Publishing (DK, Oct 2008, $50). A visual guide to more than 2,500 of the world’s most revered paintings and sculptures. From how to look at works by great masters to explaining key movements, styles and techniques, this is the quintessential guide to the world of art.

The Encyclopedia of Earth: A Complete Visual Guide, by Michael Allaby (UC Press, Sept 2008, $39.95). With thousands of photographs, illustrations, diagrams, and maps and a text written by a team of international experts, this sumptuously illustrated, beautifully written encyclopedia appeals to a wide range of readers. It presents an impressive overview of our globe – beginning with the history of the universe and ending with today’s conservation issues.

Gardens Private & Personal: A Garden Club of America Book, by Nancy D’Oench (HNA, Oct 2008, $50). More than 90 gardens all around the U.S. were photographed especially for this book by Mick Hales, one of the world’s leading garden photographers. Organized according to parts of the garden – entryways, herbaceous borders, water features, hedges, etc. – the pictures are accompanied by insightful commentaries and extended captions, and quotes by the garden owners.

L.A. Modern, by Tim Street-Porter (Rizzoli, Oct 2008, $75). Acclaimed architecture and design photographer Street-Porter captures the best Modernist architecture of Lost Angeles, from the seminal Neutra houses to the idiosynchratic structures by Frank Gehry. With iconic buildings by Craig Ellwood, Pierre Koenig, John Lautner, Charles and Ray Eames, and Oscar Niemeyer, among others.
Louvre: 400 Masterpieces, by Erich Lessing (HNA, Oct 2008, $40). This perfect book for museum lovers, art lovers and Francophiles, showcases a selection of works from the most famous – the “Venus de Milo” and “Mona Lisa”- to lessor known gems. With a foreword by the institutions’s director, the book is organized according to the museum’s eight departments.

Performance: Richard Avedon, by Richard Avedon (Abrams, Oct 2008, $75). More than 200 of the preeminent stars and artists of the performing arts from the second half of the 20th century are portrayed in Performance, many in photographs that have been rarely or never been seen before. The celebrated author and critic John Lahr offers an elegant assessment of Avedon’s achievement. Four talented artists from the performing arts – Mike Nichols, Andre Gregory, Mitsuko Uchida and Twyla Tharp – contribute lively and moving memoirs about their collaborations with Avedon.

Vanity Fair: The Portaits: A Century of Iconic Images, by Graydon Carter (Abrams, Sept 2008, $65). Vanity Fair brings together 300 iconic portraits from Vanity Fair’s 95-year history in a remarkable book that captures the image of modern fame. There’s almost as much celebrity behind the lens as in front of it: Edward Steichen, Herb Ritts, Mario Testino, David LaChapelle and Annie Liebovitz are all included, and the portraits themselves amount to a who’s who of culture and politics.  The New York Times recently reviewed this book.

Yves Saint Laurent: Style, by Pierre Berge (Abrams, Sept 2008, $50). This retrospective book is the first to cover the forty years of Yves Saint Laurent and highlights the inventive character of the designer’s work. Over 160 of his finest designs and accessories, all taken from the Foundation Pierre Berge-Yves Saint-Laurent collection, are presented.

X-Rays: See Through the World Around You, by Nick Veasey (Viking, Oct. 2008, $39.95). Using security scanners and x-ray machines, Veasey creates beautiful, unsettling, inside-out images that reveal the intricacy of everyday objects. Whether the spectacle of an x-rayed Boeing 777, the elaborate geometry of an mp3 player as circuit boards, or the ethereal grace of a daffodil, each page of this book is an absorbing work of art.

HAPPY GIFTING!

As a young mother, I said numerous times “I’m not raising my child to die in a Vietnam style war.  I’ll drug him (or her, because if the draft ever comes back, it will be for everyone) and ship him to Canada.”  After reading “On a Rainy River,” I realized that decision, along with so many others, isn’t mine to make. 

The story is written in the first person and the narrator is a 21 year old who just graduated from college summa cum laude, a member of Phi Betta Kappa, student body president and a full scholarship to Harvard for graduate studies.  His graduation gift from the United States government was a draft notice.  Imagine opening that letter on a normal summer afternoon.  The narrator believed being drafted wouldn’t happen to him, he was too good, he had played the game of life as he was supposed to.  He spent the summer emotionally raging, everything the reader would assume, but so well written by O’Brien that the reader feels it all. 

Finally, he takes off for northern Minnesota to a lodge with one old man on the Rainy River bordering Canada.  He spends six days trying to decide to stay or flee to Canada.  Six sleepless, jittery days.  One spent vomiting in turmoil, all of them constantly “dizzy with sorrow.”  The old man seems to know his struggle, he doesn’t interfere, just supports this young man with his presence.  On the next to last day, the old man takes the boy fishing twenty yards from the Canadian shore.  He breaks down crying.  He can’t leave his family, his community and his country, but not out of loyalty, out fear of embarrassment.

I would go to war–I would kill and maybe die–because I was embarrassed not to.  That was the sad thing.  And so I sat in the bow of the boat and cried. . . I survived, but it’s not a happy ending.  I was a coward.  I went to the war.

As a mother, I want to shield my children from the horror of war, from even the decision to participate in a war.  However, the decision to fight for your country, either as a choice or by a draft, is a choice made by very young people; I would argue by people too young to understand all of the implications.  Nevertheless, it is a choice to be made by the solider.  As citizens, we must honor that decision.

A little warning, once you’ve read “The Things They Carried,” you’ll carry it with you the rest of your life.  This story is not forgotten.  It’s written in a flat journalistic tone and yet the reader is emotionally gutted.  Interwoven throughout the story of a platoon of boys is a list of what the soliders’ carried and its physical weight: 

The things they carried were largely determined by necessity.  Among the necessities or near-necessities were P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches, sewing kits, Military Payment Certificates, C rations, and two or three canteens of water.  Together, these items weighed between 15 to 20 pounds, depending upon a man’s habits or rate of metabolism. 

Mr. O’Brien lists additional items throughout the story depending upon the soldier’s rank, his mission, his superstitions, and his weapons; all kinds of tangible items whose weight seems to sink the soldiers in the swamps they’re walking through.  The lists show the personality of the soldiers. 

Henry Dobbins, who was a big man, carried extra rations; he was especially fond of canned peaches in heavy syrup over pound cake.  Dave Jensen, who practiced field hygiene, carried a toothbrush, dental floss, and several hotel-sized bars of soap he’d stolen on R&R in Sydney, Australia.  Ted Lavendar, who was scared, carried tranquilizers until he was shot in the head outside the villae of Than Khe in mid-April.  By necessity, and because it was SOP, they all carried steel helmets that weighed 5 pounds including the liner and the camouflage cover.  They carried the standard fatigue jackets and trousers.  Very few carried underwear.  On their feet they carried jungle boots–2.1 pounds–and Dave Jensen carried three pairs of socks and a can of Dr. Scholl’s foot powder as a precaution against trench foot.  Until he was shot, Ted Lavendar carried 6 or 7 ounces of premium dope, which for him was a necessity.  Mitchell Sanders, the RTO, carried condoms.  Norman Bowker carried a diary.  Rat Kiley carried comic books.  Kiowa, a devout Baptist, carried an illustrated New Testament that had been presented to him by his father, who taught Sunday school in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  As a hedge against bad times, however, Kiowa also carried his grandmother’s distrust of the white man, his grandfather’s old hunting hatchet.

The point of the story isn’t the heft and struggle to hump these items through the jungle, that’s the easy part, the burden is what they carry for the rest of their lives. 

They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die.  Grief, terror, love, longing–these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight.  They carried shameful memories.  They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained, the instinct to run or freeze or hide, and in many respects this was the heaviest burden of all, for it could never be put down, it required perfect balance and perfect posture. 

Today, I humbly honor the men and women who carry the scars of war with them for the rest of their lives.  The Things They Carried gave me an insight to their experiences, thinking and emotions both during the war and afterward.  Reading it is the least I could do.