Matterhorn; Karl Marlantes

 

Title: Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War

Author: Karl Marlantes
Publication Year: 2010
Publisher: Blackstone Audio Books
Edition: Audiobook 

Reader: Bronson Pinchot (excellent)
Source: Library
Date Completed: 1/31/2011
Setting: Vietnam War
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Recommend: Yes 

Ever since I listened to The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, about (5) years ago, I wanted to listen to another audio book about the Vietnam War.  Matterhorn seemed like the perfect choice based on the story and the rave reviews.

The novel is set during the winter monsoon season of 1968-69 on and around a critical fire support base called Matterhorn, which was located near the Laotian boarder. The story's young protagonist, is 2nd Marine Lieutenant, Waino Mellas, the ambitious platoon leader of Bravo Company. Not only is he ambitious, he is smart, Ivy League educated, and thinks also thinks that politics might be in his future. For now, he finds his role as Platoon Leader to be somewhat of a balancing act, between showing some authority and being one of the guys.

The story is not for the squeamish, as early on conditions and situations are explained in vivid detail using words like pus, guts, stories about blood-sucking leeches, dehydration, diarrhea, jungle rot and more. This too, is before the more serious casualties of war take place.  The battle scenes will stay with you as troops are ordered to pump up the body count. Particularly troublesome was the political egotism, with little regard for the men on the battle field. To me, it showed just how inept some of the commanders in charge really were.

Matterhorn was an extremely difficult book for me to review. It was an eye-opener for sure.  It's a novel, yet written in such a way that only someone who experienced the war themselves, could give written such a detailed, realistic account of what the Vietnam War must have been like. The politics, the death scenes, the racial tensions, and even the camaraderie among soldiers. Men who day end and day out were just trying to keep themselves and each other alive one more day.

This was a searing, and unforgettable account of the Vietnam War. There were numerous characters in this story, and I found impossible to keep track of all their names by listening to the audio book. Besides Fitch, Cassidy, Hawke, Blake and Simpson, the rest have disappeared from my mind. I was told that there is some type of chart in the book itself, which is critical in a of this book this size (16 cds or 600 pages).  Bronson Pinchot, the audio book reader was wonderful. If you want to find out what Vietnam must have really been like in the late 1960s, you must read this book. It's long but worth it. 

The author, Karl Marlantes,  is a cum-laude graduate of Yale University and Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, was a Marine in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Navy Cross, the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals for valor, two Purple Hearts, and ten air medals. He has lived and traveled all over the world and now writes full time. He and his wife, Anne, have five children and live on a small lake in Washington state. This novel was (30) years in the making.

Saturday Snapshot - February 5th

Hosted by Alyce@ At Home With Books

Can you pick the real cat?

Meet Lily - Lily is the cat that I would like to clone. This petite, domestic shorthair is almost (8) years old. She has been the perfect cat in every possible way. She is so mellow, not afraid of strangers, a true lap cat, whose favorite things are electric blankets, warm comforters, and lots of pets. She sleeps nestled near me every night (my husband is jealous).  Every morning when I get ready to leave for work, she sits on the counters and squeaks at me, I know she is saying, PLEASE DON'T GO. But, like the faithful companion that she is, I can count on her to be waiting close by for me when I return.  

Our other (3) cats are great too, but each of  them has some minor annoying trait -- not so with Lily. She gets along with all of them - she is truly one of a kind. We got her when she was about 2.5 months old, from the Animal Rescue League -- all of her siblings had already been adopted -- we were meant to be together.

Blogger Comments vs Intense Debate Comments and why I should have gone to work!

I would have saved myself a bit of aggravation over the last (2) days if I was at work, instead of home because of the snow and ice.  Some of you may have notice that on Wednesday, my blogger comment system, changed to Intense Debate . I did this because I thought it would be easier to respond to all of you who take the time to leave me comments.

The good news - the installation process was so simple, and I loved how easy it was to respond to your comments on the (3) posts since it was installed: Wordless Wednesday; Waiting on Wednesday, and my review of The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears.

The bad news - my 18,000++ comments that all of you left me over the last 2.5 years no longer showed up under the posts.....panic set it big time!  After doing a little research, I learned that, I could not have my cake and eat it too, using the Intense Debate Widget installation method.  It wasn't as easy to moderate and respond to my comments from my iPhone either, which is a biggie for me when I am working M-F.

The end result - I ended up uninstalling Intense Debate, and am back to Blogger comments. It was just much more important to me to be able to see your comments on all my past posts. Unfortunately, my Intense debate comments that you left me over the last (2) days ( about 50 of them) were removed when I uninstalled, Intense Debate, but at least my 18,000++ blogger ones on past posts are visible once again...whew.

The Moral of the Story - Sometimes snap decisions just don't turn out the way you hoped the would.

In the future I will try to be better about responding to your comments :(

The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears; Dinaw Mengestu

 

Title: The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
Author: Dinaw Mengestu
Publication Year: 2007
Publisher: Recorded Books
Edition: Audiobook 

Reader: Dion Graham (excellent)
Source: Library
Date Completed: 2/2/2011
Setting:Washington, DC and Ethiopia
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Recommend: Yes 

In The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, Sepha Stephanos, the story's narrator and protagonist, is an Ethiopian Immigrant, who fled his native country seventeen years earlier during the Revolution. After he had witnessed his father being beat to death by soldiers, he came to America seeking a better life. He moved to an African American section of Washington, DC, and initially, worked long hours doing heavy labor as a bellman. Wanting more for himself, he borrowed money to buy a convenience store in a run-down section of DC called Logan Square. His only friends are two other immigrants like himself.  Kenneth is an Engineer, who has seemed to make it in America, and his other friend, Joseph is a waiter at a prestigious dining establishment in DC. The three ex-Pats from Africa meet for drinks and stories once a week.

With his store barely making it, and his days long, he is feeling alone and isolated. Sepha is finding it harder and harder to get up and go to his store each morning, even though it is very close to where he lives. Business is bad, his customers are often prostitutes who come in for a candy bar or a can of soda. To pass the time while working in his store, he spends his time reading the 4-5 books he gets from the library each week.  Soon things in the neighborhood begin to change through  revitalization projects. Next door to his store, Judith McMasterson, a white history professor, buys the 4-story, run down mansion, and begins a restoration project. Judith and her 11-year old biracial daughter, Naomi begin to bring some joy into Sepha's life.  The 3 of them meet for tea and conversation, and, Stepha who has a passion for books begins to share that love of literature with Naomi, by reading his books to her each day after school in his store. Naomi's favorite is The Brother's Karamazov, because she knows that it will take a long time to finish, and she enjoys spending time talking to Sepha.  Naomi becomes a surrogate daughter of sorts to him, and for the first time since he has been in America he gets to feel what having a family might be like. When racial violence strikes the neighborhood,  he risks losing his new found happiness.

The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears is a poignant and haunting debut novel, that tells a story of what it is like to be an immigrant in a strange country. It beautifully portrays the loneliness and isolation, that I am sure many in this situation experience. Sad at times, hopeful at other times, it is a story that was beautifully written and a story that will not be easily forgotten.  As I am sure some of you realize, the title: The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears comes from a passage in Dante’s Inferno, that  Sepha's friend Joseph believes to be “the most perfect lines of poetry ever written”.  

The audio book was narrated by Dion Graham, who did an excellent job. Recommended.

Waiting on Wednesday - The Story of a Beautiful Girl; Rachel Simon

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating! Want to participate? Post your own WOW entry on your blog, and leave your link at Breaking the Spine. Here is another one that I've been curious about:

The Story of a Beautiful Girl; Rachel Simon

(May 4, 2011 - Grand Central Publishing)

It is 1968. Lynnie, a young white woman with a developmental disability, and Homan, an African American deaf man, are locked away in an institution, the School for the Incurable and Feebleminded, and have been left to languish, forgotten. Deeply in love, they escape, and find refuge in the farmhouse of Martha, a retired schoolteacher and widow. But the couple ...  more »is not alone-Lynnie has just given birth to a baby girl. When the authorities catch up to them that same night, Homan escapes into the darkness, and Lynnie is caught. But before she is forced back into the institution, she whispers two words to Martha: "Hide her." And so begins the 40-year epic journey of Lynnie, Homan, Martha, and baby Julia-lives divided by seemingly insurmountable obstacles, yet drawn together by a secret pact and extraordinary love.

Wordless Wednesday

more snow and now ice = (3) day work week

 
this is not a joke!

Silverlicious; Victoria Kann

Title: Silverlicious
Author and Illustrator: Victoria Kann
Publication Year: 2011
Publisher: Harper Collins
Edition: Hardcover
Source: sent by Publisher
Date Completed: 1/30/2011
Setting: n/a
Rating: 5/5 stars
Recommend: Yes

What little girl does not like the colors pink, or purple? In Silverlicious, a little girl named Pickalicious, loses her tooth -- not just any tooth, but her sweet tooth, and Pinkalicious loves sweets.  She decides to leave the tooth fairy a note, along with her tooth, asking her to bring her something sweet to eat until her new sweet tooth grows in. For several nights in a row, she gets a visit while she is asleep, not from the tooth fairy Tootheetina, but from Carlos Cupid, Edgar Easter Bunny and even Elf #351.  Each leave her (3) pieces of candy, none of which tastes sweet to her, and a note explaining that the tooth fairy was called away, to places far away like India to help an elephant with a "tusk ache".

In the end, Pinkalicious learns  where sweetness really comes from, deep inside oneself, and yes, she discovers that she can once again can taste sweets, and that some things are just simply...... "Silverlicious"!

This story is so very cute, the illustrations are so colorful and detailed, and without a doubt, this book will delight the sweet little girl in your life. This is my first children's book by Victoria Kann, but it will not be my last. I'll be off to checkout this author's earlier books in this series: Pickalicious, Purplicious and Goldilcious as well. I can just imagine how adorable the illustrations and stories will be. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.