The Reckoning

Jeff Long's The Reckoning was ok. It was a good airplane and traveling book. Since it was an airplane/traveling book, my reading of it also felt a bit disjointed; it was full of stops and starts and interruptions. I will say that I liked The Descent and Year Zero by Long much more. (My husband's traveling book was The Descent and he was really enjoying it.)

From Amazon:

Long (Year Zero, etc.) delivers a suspenseful, tightly written tale of a nightmarish journey into the dark past—and present—of Cambodia's former killing fields. Molly Drake, a would-be photojournalist, accompanies a U.S. Army-led search for the bones of a pilot shot down during the war. She meets Duncan O'Brian, an archeologist at a local dig, and John Kleat, who has come back to the country repeatedly, seeking his brother's remains. When bones unexpectedly turn up, Molly photographs them, breaking her agreement with the army not to take pictures of bodies. The captain in charge dismisses her along with O'Brian and Kleat, and the trio make their way to an ancient, fog-enshrouded Angkor-like city where they have evidence an army patrol went missing years ago. They soon find themselves lost in a labyrinth of ancient stone, in circumstances that quickly grow as dire as those in which the patrol evidently found itself. Long's considerable knowledge of Cambodian folklore and history is put to good use as he superbly depicts the war-scarred country, its people and its beautiful, hazardous landscape—lush, verdant, strewn with land mines, studded by bones. Although the inner lives of the characters are not as detailed as they could have been, the author's use of supernatural elements is subtle and effective, and adds an extra dimension to this solid, coolly told, smoothly paced narrative.

The Circus Fire

The Circus Fire by Stewart O'Nan is an excellent account of the 1944 tragedy.

From Amazon.com:
"As some 9,000 people watched the Wallendas begin their high-wire act on July 6, 1944, a fire started on the sidewall of the big top at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The tent had been waterproofed with a mixture of 6,000 gallons of white gasoline and 18,000 pounds of paraffin; common practice for circuses at the time. In minutes, the entire tent was engulfed in flames. In the rush for the exits, people were trampled and burned--some beyond recognition. In the end, 167 were dead and 487 injured, of whom 140 required hospitalization. The city of Hartford, Connecticut, would never be the same. Stewart O'Nan brings his storytelling ability to the tragedy of The Circus Fire.

Several survivors said the one thing they will never forget about the circus fire as long as they live is the sound of the animals as they burned alive. But there were no animals.

O'Nan interviewed dozens of witnesses and examined police reports, newspaper accounts, and court documents while researching the fire. The result is an engrossing--though agonizingly painful--account of the great fire and its aftermath. He probes the tragedy's enduring mysteries--How did the fire start? Who are the unidentified victims? Who is Little Miss 1565?--and offers up conclusions of his own. He also provides remarkable vignettes of panic, heroism, and grief: Merle Evans and the band playing "The Stars and Stripes Forever," the circus disaster march, over and over; Bill Curlee, standing atop the wild animal chute throwing trapped children to safety; the Cote sisters, who made it home safely then broke down when asked why they were back so early. O'Nan tells their stories with compassion--albeit with a slight tendency toward the macabre.

Moving, saddening, gruesome--yet car-crash compelling--The Circus Fire is a gripping read. Highly recommended. --Sunny Delaney --"

The Circus Fire was first published in June 2000 and the hardcover is 370 pages long. O'Nan has the book arranged by dates so you can follow along chronologically as all the events and aftermath unfolded. It really was as compelling as a fiction book but all the more heart wrenching because it really happened.

"As one witness politically admitted: 'It is fair to say that many people were trampled by those who had the brawn to carry it off.' "

I highly recommend this book.

today

Today we had running through the house:

1 mechanical inspector from about 1:30-4:00

1 pest inspector from 3:00-5:00

1 buyers realtor

5 buyers, parents with 3 little kids and a tape measure

1 realtor, who had people who wanted to see the house even though there was a contract on it

4 people who wanted to see the house even though they knew a contract was pending

And of course 3 of us who were home trying to pack and sort through things.

There could have been a few circus clowns who popped in quickly too.

I'm mentally exhausted from the day

The inspectors here apparently are very, very thorough. We have a few minor issues but nothing big or over maybe $25 tops, unless the mechanical guy didn't tell me everything. He was here long enough to almost be considered a relative.

We started packing and moving out some items we want to get rid of, like this sofa that was upstairs in the library/game room. Can you guess what these two are doing? Faces have been blurred to protect the innocent.

Man and Wife

Tony Parson's Man and Wife is also not recommended reading by me. Same song, different verse, blah, blah, blah...

diary

And now for something exciting and clandestine, I present a picture of an entry in my sister's diary (circa early ' 70's)

Man and Boy

Man and Boy by Tony Parsons was not exactly my cup of tea. It's not that it was a bad book, but I didn't really find myself liking the main character much at all. OK, I thought he was basically a complete jerk but I also knew that he wasn't written to be a complete jerk, so the book left me out of sorts. I can't figure out why people have recommended it so highly. It wasn't a complete waste of time; there were a few touching passages and humorous parts. I fully understand that some people are going to like this much more than I did. This book would be placed in a male-angst confessional novel category, which I now know is not a category I enjoy. Man and Boy was originally published in 1999 and is a short 353 pages long. I currently need some light reading that is inconsequential, so I went ahead and started Parsons' Man and Wife since I have it.