Category Archives: Reviews

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About The Sex Life of Trees

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Yes, there is plenty of talk about sex in The Global Forest by Diana Beresford-Kroeger, a book I read recently which is obviously a labour of love and carries a message that needs to be truly heard: the planet vitally needs trees; human beings need trees to survive, animal life needs trees to exist; we must stop killing the trees before it’s too late—and proceeds to tell us why in a series of essays which come straight from the heart.

The Global Forest
by Diana Beresford-Kroeger ★★★½

There is no question that Beresford-Kroeger, a botanist and medical biochemist who is an expert on the medicinal, environmental, and nutritional properties of trees set out with all the right intentions with this series of essays on the many reasons—both known and obscure—as to why trees are essential to the planet and to humanity. With essay titles like A Suit for Sustainability; The Paranormal; The Forest, the Fairy, and the Child; Two-Tier Agriculture; Medicinal Wood, and Green Sex and the Affairs of the Heart (yes, this one graphically depicts the sex life of trees), two things become clear: that this woman is passionate about trees, and that while she makes sound scientific and climactic arguments, her more esoteric ideas can’t be an easy sale for the average reader. Which might explain why this book hasn’t made any best-seller lists, even though it carries an important message. It might have worked better with stronger editing to structure Beresford-Krogerer’s ideas; I found that some notions kept being repeated from one essay to the other, while others were a bit too far-fetched for me, even though I have claimed in the past to be a Forest Fairy myself… But there was interesting information about the habits of the First Nations people, who depended on trees and forests for sustenance and to avoid starvation. I badly wanted to love this book, because I too passionately love trees (my name means “tree” in Hebrew, and I’ve often felt myself to be one too). Also, this book was a gift from a beloved aunt whose opinions matter to me (and who took the time to have the author dedicate it in my name). But really, it left me feeling mostly quite dejected. I can’t fault the author for that, but like most other appeals for conservancy, one can’t help but root for the cause while knowing there are more powerful capitalist interests killing animal and plant life on a daily basis who aren’t going to be stopping anytime soon. This doesn’t keep me from trying to make responsible choices and supporting the good fight,  but sometimes my lack of optimism gets in the way and I feel like my only real contribution is the guilt of the world I carry on my shoulders.

Obviously, I’m not alone in feeling this way. When I posted this review on LibraryThing, a member responded by providing a link to an article in The Guardian about how the pessimism on environmental topics sparked a movement called the Dark Mountain Project which posits that we’ve done too little too late to avert “Ecocide”.

What do you think? Too little too late, or are there still reasons to hope for a positive outcome after more than fifty years of environmental activism?

Photo by Smiler

I Spy a Murder Or Two

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Call for the Dead by John Le Carré ★★★½
This is the first novel in the George Smiley series, which introduces the MI6 intelligence officer. Middle-aged, self-effacing, bespectacled, short and fat, a bad dresser and sometimes described as frog-like, Smiley presents a more realistic character and the opposite to the fantasy that is James Bond. The first chapter gives us Smiley’s professional background and how he came to be involved with intelligence work, but also presents his current personal situation. Smiley is recovering from heartbreak following his separation from his wife Lady Ann Sercombe, a beautiful and promiscuous aristocrat who has left him for a Cuban racecar driver. The presentations over, Smiler is called in by his superior, Maston, who informs him that a Foreign Office civil servant named Samuel Fennan has just committed suicide following a routine security check performed by Smiley and that he, Smiley is accused of inducing the man to kill himself. It appears that Fennan claimed in his suicide note that he felt his reputation was marred and his career at an end. Smiley is distraught, especially since he remembers the interview, which followed an anonymous accusation, being a particularly pleasant one, and that he had all but guaranteed to Fennan that he was in the clear. Continue reading →

A Not So Common Reader

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Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman ★★★★

Author Anne Fadiman has book love well anchored in her genetic pool. A cursory glance at wikipedia tells us she is the daughter of the renowned literary, radio and television personality Clifton Fadiman, who among other things, was in charge of The New Yorker’s book review section between 1933 and 1943, while her mother is author and former World War II correspondent Annalee Jacoby Fadiman. She  also attended Harvard University, graduating in 1975 from Radcliffe College. I would say therefore, that I have one major grudge with this book: that the title “Confession of a Common Reader” is quite misleading, if the word is taken to mean  “ordinary”. But my grudge won’t hold. True to her scholarly and literary background, Fadiman’s title pays homage to Virginia Woolf’s essays written under the title The Common Reader.  A 1925 review of Woolf’s Common Reader in The New York Times stated: “Anything that Virginia Woolf may have to say about letters is of more than ordinary interest, for her peculiar intelligence and informed attitude set her somewhat apart.” and also: “Mrs. Woolf is no common reader, try as she may to be one.” These words could equally be applied to Anne Fadiman. Continue reading →

Steinbeckathon Parts 1 & 2

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Some time last year, after I finished re-reading The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (a five-star read for me which I reviewed right here), I decided it might be time to focus on this author’s work, re-read some favourites and discover many new-to-me titles. I mentioned this idea over on LibraryThing and quite a few people said they’d like to jump in too, and so the Steinbeckathon was born. A few buddies and I came up with a schedule for the year, thirteen novels in twelve months, highly feasible considering some of his works run no more than 100 pages. I’m a little bit late reporting this, since we started in January of course. Our first work was the short novel Cannery Row in January, which we’ve followed up this month with The Wayward Bus (links lead to the discussion threads). Here are my reviews for those first two novels:

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Part 4: Worst Reads of 2011

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Books are like people. Some you take an instant liking to. Some take a while to get to know and warm up to, but are worth the time and effort. Some are kind of annoying, but since they also have great qualities, you’re willing to put up with them. Once in a blue moon, you come across some that you feel were meant to be in your life, if only for a short while. There is the rare, but wonderful occasion when you come across one you want to have in your life forever. Some really repel you, but you’re fascinated by this very repulsion and can’t help yourself from wanting to find out more about them, if only to confirm what you already know: that you really don’t like them. The books I’ve listed here are mostly in the latter category. Continue reading →

Favourite Reads of 2011: Part Two

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Not so very long ago, I didn’t know there was such a thing as “genre fiction”. Truth be told, I’m still not exactly clear on that concept. I’ve always been an equal opportunity reader, so to me, a book is a book is a book. Then I joined LibraryThing where I became obsessed with cataloguing and tagging each book I’ve ever read or owned (or at least the few that remain in my memory) and assigning them to various categories, such as genres. Tagging has become a strange passion of mine—it’s a sort of meditation; I derive great satisfaction from putting things into categories—sort of like that toddler game of trying to fit squares, triangles and circles into the corresponding slots. I’m as systematic as I can be about tags, though I’ve not refined my system to the point where I can find a perfect single tag for any one book; “more is more” has been my system so far. That would be nearly impossible—books are much like the people who write and read them and tend to have utter disregard for categories. Not so in the case of formula books, such as Harlequin romances (which I haven’t read since the age of 14 and don’t intend to read ever again), or the latest paint by number thriller of course, which are of no concern to us here. Some categories, such as “Classics” have nothing to do with genre. There are many opinions on what constitutes a classic. Here again, I’m quite liberal in my tagging, but for our purposes here, I’ve limited the definition to: novels written before the 20th century. Beyond that, all hell breaks loose, and you are just as likely to find the same book fits into ALL the categories—according to my less than perfect tagging system that is. In any case, here are some of my favourite reads beyond contemporary literary fiction, sorted out into categories, for better or for worse. All links lead to my reviews. 

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Coming Up

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I’ve been hard at work putting the finishing touches on Part 2 of my favourite 2011 reads and will try to post it tonight  ASAP. In the meantime, I’ve prepared something which should keep you plenty busy—I’ve linked all the book titles in Part 1 to my reviews. Like I said, that should keep you reading for a little while. :-)

Favourite Reads of 2011: Part One

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It’s been quite a bit of work coming up with this list. For one thing, I had a lot of books to choose from, with a total of 287 books completed in 2011. I have a rating system which did help choose the top of the crop, but as time goes by, some books linger more than others, as they each evolve differently in our minds and in our hearts. For instance, a five-star read (out of five)—a rating only handed out to 15 books completed this year, or a mere 5%—means  the book takes a proud place among my all-time favourites, and that I’m likely to read it again and again. These are books that resonated with me in an exceptional—and very individual way. Then there are the 4.5 star reads, which are no less excellent; these are books I truly loved and may want to revisit again; a four-star read is one I loved, and made for a worthwhile journey, though we’re likely to part as just friends. Of course, none of this is set in stone, but my selections for these upcoming “Best of 2011” lists are all books I can recommend wholeheartedly. Why did’t  I narrow it all down to just ten or twenty books? Because I wanted to share the wealth and because there is no editor forcing me to do so; I don’t have to worry about a punchy magazine cover line—“Smiler Trends the Top Ten”—type thing. So there you have it. All links lead to my reviews. Continue reading →

Chinoiseries

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My mum sent me the above image link today, which I of course hurriedly followed up on. They have a beautiful selection of children’s and young adult illustrated books; their French byline translates to “Illustrated literature for children, or all those who have been children”. This publishing house based in France has a mandate to promote multiculturalism and as such, pairs Chinese texts and stories with French illustrators in the creation of their titles. I was pleased to discover that I had already picked up one of their books, a sublime affair illustrated by Agata Kawa, called Tigre le dévoué (The Devoted Tiger). You’ll find my short review and some image samples below. I’ve now reserved another one of their titles which I found at the library called Yin la jalouse (Jealous Yin), which will be an introduction for me to the work of illustrator Bobi + Bobi; click on the links to have a look at their sites, which are brimming with wonderful examples of their work. Continue reading →

Brodovitch did it first.

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Alexey Brodovitch by Kerry William Purcell ★★★★

Born in Russia in 1898 to an aristocratic and wealthy family, Alexey Brodovitch fled to Paris in 1920 as an exile, where he found himself in a community of russian artists. He was hired as a painter of stage sets for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, which in turn inspired him to work as a commercial artist. In 1930, Brodovitch moved to Philadelphia to take on a teaching position in advertising design at the Philadelphia college of Art. There he started the Design Laboratory, an experimental workshop for some of his more advanced students. Among the photographers who attended his classes were Diane Arbus, Eve Arnold, Richard Avedon, Lisette Model, and Garry Winogrand. Photographer Ralph Steiner who worked for Harper’s Bazaar (which was owned by William Randolph Hearst) introduced him to Carmel Snow, editor-in-chief of the magazine. Snow is credited with saying: “I saw a fresh, new conception of layout technique that struck me like a revelation: pages that “bled” beautifully cropped photographs, typography and design that were bold and arresting. Within ten minutes I had asked Brodovitch to have cocktails with me, and that evening I signed him to a provisional contract as art director.” During his 24-year reign from 1934 to 1958, Brodovitch created a unique look for Bazaar using avant-garde photography, typography and illustration. He was helped by old friends like Man Ray, Jean Cocteau, Raoul Dufy, Marc Chagall and A.M. Cassandre. One of his regular contributors was former student Richard Avedon, who became an iconic photographer in his own right (his obituary in The New York Times following his death in 2004 stated that, “his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America’s image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century.”) Continue reading →