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50. The Tsar of Love and Techno

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆

Recommended by:   Katy Fassett

Author:   Anthony Marra

Genre:  Fiction, Anthology, Foreign

332 pages, published October 6, 2015

Reading Format:  Book

Summary 

This fascinating and very well written collection of stories set in the USSR and modern day Russia contains a cast of remarkable characters whose lives intersect in ways both life-affirming and heartbreaking.   A 1930s Soviet censor painstakingly corrects offending photographs, deep underneath Leningrad, bewitched by the image of a disgraced prima ballerina.  Several women recount their stories and those of their grandmothers, former gulag prisoners, who settled their Siberian mining town. Two pairs of brothers share a fierce, protective love.  Young men across the former USSR face violence at home and in the military. Great sacrifices are made in the name of an oil landscape unremarkable except for the almost incomprehensibly peaceful past it depicts.  With its rich character portraits and a reverberating sense of history, The Tsar of Love and Techno is a captivating book.

 

Quotes

“You remain the hero of your own story even when you become the villain of someone else’s.”

 

“The future is the lie with which we justify the brutality of the present.”

 

“A single whisper can be quite a disturbance when the rest of the audience is silent.”

 

“There are so many paths to contentment if you’re open to self-delusion.”

 

“Endurance, I reminded myself, is the true measure of existence.”

 

“Never forget the first three letters of confidence.”

 

“If there is an operation, and if that operation is successful, she says she will move to Sweden. I fear for her future in a country whose citizenry is forced to assemble its own furniture.”

 

“You remember how Mom had that embroidered pillow?  When she got upset, she’d shout into it and no one would hear her.  That’s Facebook.”

 

“Turning I would to I did is the grammar of growing up.”

 

“The calcium in collarbones I have kissed. The iron in the blood flushing those cheeks. We imprint our intimacies upon atoms born from an explosion so great it still marks the emptiness of space. A shimmer of photons bears the memory across the long dark amnesia. We will be carried too, mysterious particles that we are.”

 

“I guess our lives are all dreams – as real to us as they are meaningless to everyone else.”

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47. How Not to Die

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Michael Greger

Genre:  Health, Nutrition

576 pages, published December 8, 2015

Reading Format:  Book

Summary 

How Not to Die is written by Dr. Michael Greger, the physician behind the extremely popular website NutritionFacts.org, and makes the case that the vast majority of premature deaths can be prevented through simple changes in diet and lifestyle.   Dr. Greger examines the fifteen top causes of premature death in America (heart disease, various cancers, diabetes, Parkinson’s, high blood pressure, etc.) and explains how nutritional and lifestyle interventions can are often superior to pharmaceutical and surgical approaches, allowing us to live healthier lives.  In addition to showing what to eat to help treat the top fifteen causes of death, How Not to Die includes Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen, a checklist of the eleven foods (and one habit) we should consume or do every day:  1) Cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, spring greens, radishes, turnip tops, watercress; 2)

Greens including spring greens, kale, young salad greens, sorrel, spinach, swiss chard; 3) Other vegetables, including asparagus, beetroot, peppers, carrots, corn, courgettes, garlic, mushrooms, okra, onions, pumpkin, sugar snap peas, squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes;

4) Beans, such as black beans, cannellini beans, black-eyed peas, butter beans, soyabeans, baked beans, chickpeas, edamame, peas, kidney beans, lentils, miso, pinto beans, split peas, tofu, hummus; 5) Berries or any small edible fruit, including grapes, raisins, blackberries, cherries, raspberries and strawberries; 6) Other fruit, such as apples, apricots, avocados, bananas, cantaloupe melon, clementines, dates, figs, grapefruit, honeydew melon, kiwi, lemons, limes, lychees, mangos, nectarines, oranges, papaya, passion fruit, peaches, pears, pineapple, plums, pomegranates, prunes, tangerines, and watermelon; 7) Flaxseeds; 8) Nuts or nut butter; 9) Spices, especially turmeric; 10) Whole grains such as buckwheat, rice, and quinoa; 11) Exercise (ideally 90 minutes a day of moderate activity, such as walking); and 12) Water

(five large glasses a day).

 

Quotes

“For disease prevention, berries of all colors have “emerged as champions,” according to the head of the Bioactive Botanical Research Laboratory.  The purported anticancer properties of berry compounds have been attributed to their apparent ability to counteract, reduce, and repair damage resulting from oxidative stress and inflammation.  But it wasn’t known until recently that berries may also boost your levels of natural killer cells.”

 

“The best way to minimize your exposure to industrial toxins may be to eat as low as possible on the food chain, a plant-based diet.”

 

“While the pathology of stroke and Alzheimer’s are different, one key factor unites them: Mounting evidence suggests that a healthy diet may help prevent them both.”

 

“Here’s a statistic you probably haven’t heard:  Higher consumption of vegetables may cut the odds of developing depression by as much as 62 percent.   A review in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience concluded that, in general, eating lots of fruits and veggies may present “a non-invasive, natural, and inexpensive therapeutic means to support a healthy brain.”

 

“Back in 1903, Thomas Edison predicted that the “doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will instruct his patient in the care of [the] human frame in diet and in the cause and prevention of diseases.”

 

“The flaxseeds managed to drop subjects’ systolic and diastolic blood pressure by up to fifteen and seven points, respectively. Compare that result to the effect of powerful antihypertensive drugs, such as calcium-channel blockers (for example, Norvasc, Cardizem, Procardia), which have been found to reduce blood pressure by only eight and three points, respectively, or to ACE inhibitors (such as Vasotec, Lotensin, Zestril, Altace), which drop patients’ blood pressure by only five and two points, respectively.  Ground flaxseeds may work two to three times better than these medicines, and they have only good side effects.  In addition to their anticancer properties, flaxseeds have been demonstrated in clinical studies to help control cholesterol, triglyceride, and blood sugar levels; reduce inflammation, and successfully treat constipation.”

 

“Though the majority of lung cancer is attributed to smoking, approximately a quarter of all cases occur in people who’ve never smoked.  Although some of these cases are due to secondhand smoke, another contributing cause may be another potentially carcinogenic plume: fumes from frying.”

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46. The Taming of the Queen

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆

Recommended by:

Author:   Phillipa Gregory

Genre:  Historical Fiction

425 pages, published February 1, 2008

Reading Format:  Book

Summary 

The Taming of the Queen is the story of Henry VIII’s sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, a thirty-year-old widow who is compelled to give up the love of her life when she is ordered to marry an old, obese, mercurial Henry.  Catherine appreciates the danger she faces.  The previous queen lasted sixteen months and the one before barely half a year.  But Henry adores his new bride and Catherine’s trust in him grows as she unites the royal family, creates a radical study circle at the heart of the court, and rules the kingdom as Regent.  An educated scholar with a mind of her own, Catherine becomes a leader of religious reform and the first woman to publish in English.  Catholic churchmen and rivals for power accuse Catherine of heresy and the king has signed a warrant for her arrest.

 

Quotes

 

“I have learned that the most precious thing is a place where you can be as you are, where someone can see you as your true self.”

 

“But this world is changing. Perhaps by the time you are old enough to marry the world will hear a woman’s voice. Perhaps she will not have to swear to obey in her wedding vows. Perhaps one day a woman will be allowed to both love and think.”

 

“I think my heart has broken, but I have offered the fragments to God.”

 

“If you are a reader, you are already halfway to being a writer,” she says. “For you have a love of words and pleasure from seeing them on a page. And if you are a writer, then you will find that you are driven to write. It is a gift that demands to be shared. You cannot be a silent singer.”

 

“I feel as if I can think only when I see the words flowing from the nib of my quill, that my thoughts make sense only when they are black ink on cream paper. I love the sensation of a thought in my head and the vision of the word on the page.”

 

“To assure someone that if enough nuns sing enough Masses then her dead child will go to heaven is trickery as low as passing a false coin as good. To buy a pardon from the pope, to force the pope to annul a marriage, to make him set aside kinship laws, to watch as he fleeces his cardinals, who charge the bishops, who rent to the priests, who seek their tithes from the poor – all these abuses would have to fall away if we agreed that a soul can come to God without any intervention. The crucifixion is the work of God. The church is the work of man.”

 

“Getting a woman into power is not the point—it’s getting a good woman into power who thinks and cares about what she does.”

 

“I listen with the air of an eager disciple as he propounds things that I have thought ever since I began my studies. Now he is glancing into books that I have read and hidden for my own safety, and he tells me the things that strike him as if they are a great novelty and I should learn them from him. Little Lady Jane Grey knows these opinions, Princess Elizabeth has read them; I taught them both myself. But now I sit beside the king and exclaim when he describes the blindingly obvious, I admire his discovery of the widely known, and I remark on his perception.”

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45. Silver Bay

Rating:  ☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Jojo Moyes

Genre:  Fiction, Romance

392 pages, published February 1, 2008

Reading Format:  Book

Summary 

Silver Bay tells the story of a romance between Liza McCullen, a pleasure boat operator in the fictional town of Silver Bay, Australia, and Mike Dormer, a hot shot developer.  Mike arrives as a guest at Liza’s Aunt’s dilapidated inn to secretly assess the development potential of Silver Bay for his London based Real Estate Development Company and before long he has fallen for Liza.   Conflict ensues when Mike’s plans are revealed.

 

Quotes

“Perhaps we all harbor a perverse need to get close to things that might destroy us.”

 

“There is nothing redemptive about the loss of a child, no lessons of value it can teach you. It is too big, too overwhelming, too black to articulate. It is a bleak, overwhelming physical pain, shocking in its intensity, and every time you think you might have moved forward an inch it swells back, like a tidal wave, to drown you again.”

 

“Hannah ran past, beaming. I remember that feeling–when you’re a kid and it’s your birthday and for one day everyone makes you feel like the most special person in the world.”

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44. The End of the Affair

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆

Recommended by:

Author:   Graham Greene

Genre:  Fiction, Historical Fiction, World War II, Romance

192 pages, published 1951

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary 

Set in London during and just after the Second World War, The End of the Affair examines the obsessions and jealousies within the relationships between three central characters:  writer Maurice Bendrix,  Sarah Miles,  and Sarah’s husband, civil servant Henry Miles.  The narrator of the book is Maurice, a rising writer during World War II in London based on Graham Greene, and focuses on his relationship with Sarah based on Greene’s lover at the time, Catherine Walston, to whom the book is dedicated.   While Maurice and Sarah fall in love rapidly, he soon realizes that the affair will end as quickly as it began as he cannot contain his all consuming jealousy and frustration that Sarah will not divorce Henry, her kind but boring husband. When a bomb blasts Maurice’s flat as he is with Sarah, he is nearly killed.  After this, Sarah breaks off the affair with no apparent explanation.  Maurice is still consumed with jealousy and hires a private detective to discover Sarah’s new lover.  Through her diary, Maurice learns that when Sarah thought Maurice was dead after the bombing, she made a promise to God not to see Maurice again if God allowed him to live again. After her sudden death from a lung infection, several miraculous events occur, bringing meaningfulness to Sarah’s faith.  By the last page of the book, Maurice may have come to believe in a God as well, though not to love Him.

 

Quotes

“It’s a strange thing to discover and to believe that you are loved when you know that there is nothing in you for anybody but a parent or a God to love.”

 

“A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.”

 

“I want men to admire me, but that’s a trick you learn at school–a movement of the eyes, a tone of voice, a touch of the hand on the shoulder or the head. If they think you admire them, they will admire you because of your good taste, and when they admire you, you have an illusion for a moment that there’s something to admire.”

 

“My passion for Sarah had killed simple lust forever. Never again would I be able to enjoy a woman without love.”

 

“I measured love by the extent of my jealousy.”

 

“I became aware that our love was doomed; love had turned into a love affair with a beginning and an end. I could name the very moment when it had begun, and one day I knew I should be able to name the final hour. When she left the house I couldn’t settle to work. I would reconstruct what we had said to each other; I would fan myself into anger or remorse. And all the time I knew I was forcing the pace. I was pushing, pushing the only thing I loved out of my life. As long as I could make believe that love lasted I was happy; I think I was even good to live with, and so love did last. But if love had to die, I wanted it to die quickly. It was as though our love were a small creature caught in a trap and bleeding to death; I had to shut my eyes and wring its neck.”

 

“I hate you, God. I hate you as though you actually exist.”

My Take

The End of the Affair is the first book that I have read by iconic British writer Graham Greene and it did not disappoint.  I especially enjoyed listening to the Audio Book version narrated by Colin Firth (an actor I like quite a bit) who does a great job with the material.  Greene brings to life the misery, insecurity and jealousy that is the ugly underbelly of Maurice’s all consuming, obsessive love for Sarah.  A fascinating, albeit depressing, book that I can unreservedly recommend.

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32. One Plus One

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆

Recommended by:  

Author:  Jojo Moyes 

Genre:  Fiction, Romance

Info:  368 pages, published February 27, 2014

Format:  Audio Book

 

Summary 

One Plus One tells the story of everywoman Jess Thomas, a single-mom raising two kids, tortured goth teen Nicky who is being bullied at school, and his half-sister Tanzie, a math prodigy.  Jess is working as a house cleaner when she meets Ed Nicholls, a technology millionaire, while cleaning his house in an English holiday town.

Their stories intertwine as they and their non-stop farting family dog all pile into Ed’s new Audi for a road trip to get Tanzie to a Maths competition in Aberdeen, Scotland.  While each of them have a compelling tale, they all join together into an heart rending, well told story about family, trust, and love.

 

Quotes

“Because she knew that something happened to you when your mother didn’t hold you close, or tell you all the time that you were the best thing ever, or even notice when you were home: a little part of you sealed over. You didn’t need her. You didn’t need anyone. And without even knowing you were doing it, you waited. You waited for anyone who got close to you to see something they didn’t like in you, something they hadn’t initially seen, and to grow cold and disappear, too, like so much sea mist. Because there had to be something wrong, didn’t there, if even your own mother didn’t really love you?”

“Um, Jess?”  “Not now, Nicky.”  The police car was pulling over, too. Tanzie’s palms had begun to sweat. “It will all be fine.” “I guess this isn’t the time to tell you I brought my stash with me.”

“Jess’s grandmother had often said that the key to a happy life was a short memory.”

“This is the story of a family who didn’t fit in. A little girl who was a bit geeky and liked maths more than makeup. And a boy who liked makeup and didn’t fit into any tribes.”

“The only thing Jess really cared about were those two children and letting them know they were okay. Because even if the whole world was throwing rocks at you, if you had your mother at your back, you’d be okay. Some deep-rooted part of you would know you were loved. That you deserved to be loved.”

“You know, you spend your whole life feeling like you don’t quite fit in anywhere. And then you walk into a room one day, whether it’s at university or an office or some kind of club, and you just go, ‘Ah. There they are.’ And suddenly you feel at home.”

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30. The Rosie Project

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:  Katy Fassett

Author:  Graeme Simsion

Genre:  Fiction, Romance, Humor

Info:  295 pages, published October 1, 2013

Format:  Book

 

Summary 

Don Tillman, professor of genetics in Australia who falls somewhere on the autism spectrum, is a social misanthrope who has never been on a second date.  He decides that there is someone for everyone starts The Wife Project.  In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which he approaches all things, Don sets out to find the perfect partner. She must be both  punctual and logical and cannot be a barmaid, a smoker, a drinker, or late.  Rosie is all of these things, but is also charming, smart and on a quest of her own.  She is looking for her biological father, a search that Don, as a DNA expert might be able to provide some assistance.  Don’s Wife Project takes a back burner to the Father Project and an unlikely relationship blooms, forcing Don to realize that love is not always what looks good on paper.

 

Quotes

“But I’m not good at understanding what other people want.’ ‘Tell me something I don’t know,’ said Rosie for no obvious reason.  I quickly searched my mind for an interesting fact. ‘Ahhh…The testicles of drone bees and wasp spiders explode during sex.”

“How can you tell if someone is a vegan? Just wait ten minutes and they’ll tell you.”

“Why do we focus on certain things at the expense of others? We will risk our lives to save a person from drowning, yet not make a donation that could save dozens of children from starvation.”

“Fault! Asperger’s isn’t a fault. It’s a variant. It’s potentially a major advantage. Asperger’s syndrome is associated with organization, focus, innovative thinking, and rational detachment.”

“I haven’t changed my mind. That’s the point! I want to spend my life with you even though it’s totally irrational. And you have short earlobes. Socially and genetically there’s no reason for me to be attracted to you. The only logical conclusion is that I must be in love with you.”

“Research consistently shows that the risks to health outweigh the benefits of drinking alcohol. My argument is that the benefits to my mental health justify the risks.”

“I asked you here tonight because when you realise you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

“You know what I like about New York?” he said. “There are so many weird people that nobody takes any notice. We all just fit right in.”

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28. Outlander

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆

Recommended by:  Jennifer Laser

Author:  Diana Gabaldon

Genre:  Historical Fiction, Fiction, Romance

Info:  896 pages, published July 26, 2005

Format:  Audio Book

Summary 

In 1945 with World War II over, former combat nurse Claire Randall is reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon in Scotland.  When she walks through a standing stone in an ancient circle, she is transported back to the year 1743 where she is a Sassenach, i.e. an “Outlander” in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans.  Claire uses her wits and medical know-how to survive in a land where the British are the enemies.  She finds herself hopelessly drawn to James Fraser, a heroic and handsome young Scots warrior, who faithfully loves Claire with an intense desire.  Claire is torn between faithfulness to a husband who hasn’t yet been born and longing for the man who embodies masculinity and devotion.

 

Quotes

“I can bear pain myself, he said softly, but I couldna bear yours. That would take more strength than I have.”

“Ye are Blood of my Blood, and Bone of my Bone, I give ye my Body, that we Two might be One. I give ye my Spirit, ’til our Life shall be Done.”

“Ye werena the first lass I kissed,” he said softly. “But I swear you’ll be the last.”

“Oh, aye, Sassenach. I am your master . . . and you’re mine. Seems I canna possess your soul without losing my own.”

“And if your life is a suitable exchange for my honor, why is my honor not a suitable exchange for your life?”

“Where did you learn to kiss like that?” I said, a little breathless. He grinned and pulled me close again. “I said I was a virgin, not a monk,” he said, kissing me again. “If I find I need guidance, I’ll ask.”

“I had one last try.  “Does it bother you that I’m not a virgin?” He hesitated a moment before answering. “Well, no,” he said slowly, “so long as it doesna bother you that I am.” He grinned at my drop-jawed expression, and backed toward the door. “Reckon one of us should know what they’re doing,” he said. The door closed softly behind him; clearly the courtship was over.”

“I was crying for joy, my Sassenach,’ he said softly. He reached out slowly and took my face between his hands. “And thanking God that I have two hands. That I have two hands to hold you with. To serve you with, to love you with. Thanking God that I am a whole man still, because of you.”

“There comes a turning point in intense physical struggle where one abandons oneself to a profligate usage of strength and bodily resource, ignoring the costs until the struggle is over. Women find this point in childbirth; men in battle.”

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25. Confess

Rating:  ☆☆☆

Recommended by:  

Author:   Colleen Hoover

Genre:  Fiction, Suspense, Romance 

Info:  306 pages, published March 10, 2015

Format:  Book

 

Summary 

Since Confess won the Goodreads Choice Award for Romance in 2015, it seemed worth checking out.  It tells the story of twenty one year old Auburn Reed who walks into a Dallas art studio in search of a job and find herself deeply attracted to Owen Gentry, the inscrutable artist who works there and who invites people to leave their anonymous confessions at the gallery.  Auburn takes a risk and starts a relationship with Owen.  Many twists, turns and passionate scenes ensue.

 

Quotes

“Every day I’m grateful that my husband and his brother look exactly alike.  It means there’s less of a chance that my husband will find out that our son isn’t his.”  

“I’m scared I’ll never feel this again with anyone else,” I whisper.  He squeezes my hands. “I’m scared you will.”

“Selflessness. It should be the basis of every relationship. If a person truly cares about you, they’ll get more pleasure from the way they make you feel, rather than the way you make them feel.”

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19. After You

Rating: ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by: 

Author:  JoJo Moyes 

Genre:  Fiction, Romance, Humor

Info:  400 pages, published September 24, 2015

Format:  Audio Book

Summary 

After You is the sequel to the best-selling book Me Before You, a tearjerker that I thoroughly enjoyed.  The sequel catches up with Louisa “Lou” Clark, coping with the aftermath of the death of Will Traynor, the invalid she fell in love with after caring for him during the last six months of his life.  

Lou is working a menial job as an airport barmaid and struggling to live her life without Will.  She ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group and discovers a new love interest in paramedic Sam Fielding, a strong, sensitive almost perfect man.  Along the way she develops a bond with Will’s daughter whom he never knew about.

 

Quotes

“There’s only one response (to losing someone).  You Live.  You throw yourself into everything and try not to think about the bruises.”

“That’s life. We don’t know what will happen. That’s why we have to take our chances when we can.”

“Life is short, right? We both know that. Well, what if you’re my chance? What if you are the thing that’s actually going to make me happiest?”

“You learn to live with it, with them. Because they do stay with you, even if they’re not living, breathing people any more.It’s not the same crushing grief you felt at first, the kind that swamps you, and makes you want to cry in the wrong places, and get irrationally angry with all the idiots who are still alive when the person you love is dead.  It’s just something you learn to accommodate.  Like adapting around a hole. I don’t know. It’s like you become … a doughnut instead of a bun”  

“You don’t have to let that one thing be the thing that defines you.”

“Mum, you’re not going to get divorced, are you?” Her eyes shot open. “Divorced? I’m a good Catholic girl, Louisa. We don’t divorce. We just make our men suffer for all eternity.” She waited just for a moment, and then she started to laugh.”

“None of us move on without a backward look. We move on always carrying with us those we have lost.  What we aim to do in our little group is ensure that carrying them is not a burden, something that feels impossible to bear, a weight keeping us stuck in the same place. We want their presence to feel like a gift.”

“No. Really. I’ve thought about it a lot. You learn to live with it, with them. Because they do stay with you, even if they’re not living, breathing people anymore. It’s not the same crushing grief you felt at first, the kind that swamps you and makes you want to cry in the wrong places and get irrationally angry with all the idiots who are still alive when the person you love is dead. It’s just something you learn to accommodate. Like adapting around a hole. I don’t know. It’s like you become . . . a doughnut instead of a bun.”

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