Book Report

Company of Liars by Karen Maitland – Brilliant historical fiction! The setting is England, 1348 as a plague ravages the land. The main character is a traveling salesman and he is soon joined by 8 others as they try to outrun the plague and just survive. It starts out slow but soon becomes absolutely riveting. There are lies, secrets, murder, and intrigue. Some of the secrets are heavily telegraphed and you see them coming, but I still couldn’t put the book down. Grade: 8

 

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn – The author and her husband have just lost a prolonged court battle over their house, and they are getting evicted. And now they’ve just received his terminal diagnosis, and his days are numbered. So the two decide to set out and walk Wales’ version of the Appalachian Trail (AT).  Quite a set-up for this memoir! The author and her husband are homeless, and he is going to die. I do enjoy reading of people’s treks through places like the AT or the Pacific Crest Trail, and this one was pretty good too, though the authors are constantly hungry, tired, broke, and wet. This is not a feel-good book, LOL! It was engaging though. Grade: 7

 

Simple Living by Frank Levering and Wanda Urbanska -  I got this from a Little Free Library. It’s a memoir by a couple who decides to get out of the rat race, leave LA, and live on his parents’ farm in North Carolina. The book was first published in 1982, so a lot of the ideas presented here are really old hat to me. Nothing surprising or particularly useful. (Get rid of stuff you’re not using. Move to a smaller, cheaper residence. Cook more, use restaurants less). The writing was also a bit cloying and cutesy at times too. On the other hand, maybe I am being a bit harsh. It is nice when someone opens their door and allows you to take a look into their lives, and the ways they are trying to live a bit more gently upon the earth. Grade: 5

 

To Shake the Sleeping Self by Jedidiah Jenkins – Oh wow, this one was awesome! The author decides to ride his bike from Oregon all the way down to Patagonia. What makes a top-notch travel memoir? I don’t know, but this one was never remotely boring. I was enthralled at reading what happens, especially when he gets south of the US border. He rides through small towns, through big towns, through deserts, sometimes using an app that connects him with people who open their homes to travelers. Jenkins gives us just a bit of his background, and it is really interesting too. His parents are Bible-thumpers who, in the 1970s, walked across the US and were featured in National Geographic. Jenkins is gay and his mom doesn’t accept him for that, though they are close in other ways. Loved this book and probably finished it in 2 days. It almost made me want to visit Latin America, as Jenkins points out that the big cities there look like old-world European cities, and you can visit without changing time zones, unlike Europe. (His mom flies down to meet him at one, and they take in an Italian restaurant and an opera).  Grade: 8

 

Camgirl by Isa Mazzei – Another book that I finished off in a couple of days. I always wondered what it’s like for someone who makes their living from webcams. The author tells her story, giving a detailed behind-the-scenes look at how the whole system works. That part I found enthralling. The early part of the book about her childhood was a bit boring to me though. (Very wealthy parents, but one is depressed and the other alcoholic. Mazzei learns at a young age that she can get power over boys by dating them and doing all sorts of manipulation of them. She also finds she doesn’t particularly like sex with either men or women. She tries several different jobs. Then she realizes she may as well make money in the sex industry, and she first works as a sugar baby and then a camgirl). Towards the end of the book, she realizes why she has always behaved in certain ways (preferring cam-ing to a real relationship) and she says farewell to the camgirl world. Grade: 7