Clara's War: One Girl's Story of Survival

By Clara Kramer

A book Jimmy found for me at the library (I should put that in more often, he usually finds a few good books for me every week at the library)

Heartbreaking, beautiful, so sad. A book recalling Clara's experience hiding in Poland during the Nazi occupation based on the diary she kept during that time as a fifteen year old girl. In contrast with Anne Frank's diary,  this story is told by an old woman referencing the diary she kept while in hiding. The weight of the years she had to carry these memories -  these stories, these images of baby limbs, the necessary suppressed grief of so many lost - in her mind force a simple, stark and heart wrenching narrative

"What Dudio hadn't prepared himself for was to witness this child's murder, his sister's son; a child he had held on the day of its birth, his bris and countless other times. The SS soldier swore and cursed as he shot little Moschele. He had enough human feeling to curse his fate that he had to commit such a crime, but not enough to save the innocent child. Who would have known? Dudio and this officer were alone. Nobody would have known.

Great is God and full of power, with wisdom beyond reckoning. God gives courage to the lowly and brings hope to the bereft." Pg. 135

"Mania's [Clara's sister] voice was now in my ear, 'We were never so close before the war.'

My sister, who without a care sped through life on a bicycle with a skipping rope wrapped around her neck, was now cutting my heart open with every word. All the famous and learned rabbis in the history of our town could not stand up to the razor's edge of such words. Truth demands truth, but how could I possibly agree to the idea that we had ever not been close? I knew my sister. From Mania it was a simply a statement of fact. I didn't say anything. Although she wasn't saying there was anything lacking in me, I knew what was lacking in my bookish, shy self. When did my wild little sister become so wise? She then told me, 'You don't like to talk about your feelings.'

Again, I could not find a single word. In every way, especially this last one, she was telling me how much she loved me. We were hiding for our lives, in danger of imminent death from so many different sources you couldn't even thing about it without going crazy or wanting to end your own life, and here she was confiding her secrets.

After a prolonged silence she said, 'I'm glad we didn't go to the nuns.'

I finally had something to say, 'Me too.' I said. Her love simply filled me up Her last words that night were: 'I'll be quiet now. Good night.' She closed her eyes and in a moment I could hear her steady breathing. I was happy too. Such happiness as perhaps I have ever felt. What is this creature that God has made, that even as our families were slaughtered and each moment might be our last, we could still feel such love? Perhaps this was the greatest miracle of all." Pgs. 150 - 151

"My tears were coming now. Julia was questioned. They told her that they had caught a Jewish girl who had claimed to be cleaning house for the Becks. Julia looked right in their faces and called it an outrageous lie. She asked to see her accuser. Beck had a few more things to tell us. He had heard an SS buddy talking in a bar about a girl they had caught who said she was fro Lvov. A maid! Mania had never given us away.

Her last thoughts were to protect us at the cost of her own life. A 13-year old girl, no more than 40 kilos, stood up against the SS an the Gestapo, whose officers and men represented the collected might of the Nazi empire, and they could not break her. In the bright, bright light of such love and courage, how could I not find the will to live?

Dudio had seen the murder and had given Mr Beck a letter with the date, 19 April. Dudio wrote saying tht they had brought her to the old Jewish cemetary, shot her and dumped her body. The cemetery was ow a barren field of unmarked graves.

...I didn't know what they did to her or how much she suffered. But I did know that this had to have happened in front of dozens of people who had come out because of the fire. This had happened in our neighborhood where everybody knew and loved her. The Becks had made a choice to risk their lives to save us, but all Tilzer had to do was look away and my sister would still be alive." Pg 164

I had to look up an antihero, which I thought Mr Beck may fall under but he doesn't. He simply isn't a stereotypical hero. From wiki: "Unlikely heroes are simply characters who may not be conspicuously flawed, but simply ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances." But I read that and know, he was flawed. That is what was so amazing, scary, beautiful, unusual and uncharacteristic about him. He was a man, a person like any of us who had his own family and self preservation to be considered and yet he hid EIGHTEEN JEWS in his home for TWENTY months.

He was a drunk, a wife beater and a cheat.

"They say there are no angles here on earth. But they didn't know Beck. As much as his face could be ravaged by drink and exhaustion, there was a purity and goodness in his eyes. He said, 'I just can't be part of people dying.'

It was a simple declaration. Those words kept us alive. They kept him going when his courage failed and his faith was tested. With the war raging outside and millions compromising everything they believed to stay alive, how many were like Beck? He held our lives in his hands and there was now no one on this earth I would have trusted with them more It was in moments like these that I felt most strongly that we would survive. I had never met anyone like Beck before. My father was a good man. So were all the men in the bunker. But I didn't know if they had what Beck had. I didn't know if Papa would risk my life to save a stranger We had been strangers to Beck and now it felt like we were his family. I had gone through four notebooks and the blue pencil that Beck had given me was down to a nub. Every time he gave me a new notebook, he said the same thing, 'Clarutchka, I hope you say nice things about me.' I prayed that I would live so the world would know his courage and great love."

Her notebooks eventually saved his and Julia's life.

I will always remember Mania. I will always remember Beck. Both will remind me that you do not know something based on their face value. People often surprise you. Sometimes in awful ways, and sometimes in beautiful ways.

Thank you Clara for writing this book, their memories live on inside me.

I would also send this book to my two sisters, but it is simply too sad to think about losing them in this way. I thought of them constantly throughout this book!

Book 42

Days of Fear: A Firsthand Account of Captivity Under the New Taliban

By Daniele Mastrogiacomo

 A harrowing story of an Italian journalists capture by the Taliban and the frightening details of his detention. Written with concise and descriptive language without embellishment, the stark reality of his experience hits the reader hard. Mastrogiacomo speaks honestly about the variety of fear and terror he and the others experienced. He writes about the fight to resist utter hopelessness; struggling to hold on to the belief that even the smallest crumb of hope could keep him going.

Incredible story, told in stark language.  I could not put the book down!

Book 41

A Mountain of Crumbs

By Elena Gorokhova

A wonderful memoir of growing up in the Soviet Union. Gorokhova has a gift of telling a simple story with eye opening clarity and then driving a larger point home when  you least expect it. I enjoyed her writing style and the fascinating other world she grew up in. The book was brought to my attention as a comparison to "Angela's Ashes." While definitely in the same league, this book stands on its own.

"'May your tongues fall off, all of you, godless fooligans!' yelled Baba Manya, hurriedly crossing herself. She meant to say 'hooligans.' - hooligani - but she either couldn't pronounce the h sound or didn't know the right word. That's what they all became, my mother and her three brothers - fooligans, ardent and naive, resolute and reckless, inspired by a new god, a crossbreed of hooligans and fools." Pg 4

"What I do know is that I won't smell tobacco on his hands or feel his stubble or be 'Brother Rabbit' ever again, and that knowledge makes me cry even harder, so hard that my mother breaks out of her watering trance and presses me to her soft breasts ad whispers to Marina, "Vsyo ponimaet," which means I've instantly grown up and now understand everything." Pg 93

"I feel old, as old s Borya. I feel I no longer want to work, at least not in the House of Friendship and Peace. I don't want to wait years for a promotion that will allow me to move chairs and arrange train tickets; I don't want to wait for Tatiana Vasilievna to retire, for Rita to take her place and abuse me the wame way Tatiana Vasilievna abused her. I d on't want to squeeze into a bus twice a day at dusk, at eight in the morning and at six at night, for twenty or thirty years, before I may be allowed to coordinate the entire English-speaking world." Pg 204

"'Apartheid?' Robert squints in confusion. It doesn't matter to my aunt that apartheid is happening on the other side of the world from America. The West is the West, no matter what continent. All capitalist vices here get entangled and rolled together, like mismatched threads of wool, into one hairy ball of international evil." Pg 281

Book 39

Mockingjay

By Suzanne Collins

The third book in a trilogy which began with the book The Hunger Games. This one was as compelling, exciting and heart wrenching as the last two. It is a continued story of Katniss Everdeen in a strange world run by her archenemy President Snow. In this book the revolution has come to fruition and they look to Katniss for inspiration. She struggles with those who love her to find her voice in a highly political and dangerous situation.

This series is incredibly creative and wonderfully told. I loved this book and like all the others only wished it was longer!

"'What about you Katniss? How are you managing?' Her fingertip moves in short, gentle strokes between Buttercup's eyes. 'And don't say you're fine.'
It's true. Whatever the opposite of fine is, that's what I am. So I go ahead and tell her . . . .I've stopped talking because there's really nothing left to say and there's this piercing sort of pain where my heart is. Maybe I'm even having a heart attack, but it doesn't seem worth mentioning.

'Katniss, I don't think President Snow will kill Peeta,' she says. Of course she says this; it's what she thinks will calm me. But her next words come as a surprise. 'If he does, he won't have anyone left you want. He won't have any way to hurt you.'

. . . . . 'So what do you think they will do to him?'

Prim sounds about a thousand years old when she speaks.

'Whatever it takes to break you.'" pg 150 - 151

Book 38

The Art of Racing in the Rain

By Garth Stein

This story is told through the eyes of a dog. That may immediately turn some of you off, it usually turns me off! But it came highly recommended by a friend of mine who has never steered me wrong.

Although necessarily anthropomorphizing an animal by attempting to write down in human language their experience, Garth Stein draws this story in such a way that it transcends that fact. You begin to think of the dog as a real, thinking, sentient being which ends up being properly challenging. The story itself begins to take the drivers seat and suddenly you are inside the character, the dog Enzo, looking at life unfold through his own eyes.

Through this interesting perspective we  learn the art of racing cars in the rain, love and loss. I loved what I learned about race car driving and will never see a race car without thinking about Enzo and his remarkable life.

Book 37

Foxy: My Life in Three Acts

By Pam Grier

Pam Grier writes a very interesting and entertaining autobiography. If you have any interest in the history of cinema or in Blaxploitation specifically it is an important read. Her story has some very unbelievable pieces, but in the end her survival spirit shines through.

Book 36

Mass Blog

 Once again I have been remiss in my blogging. I have the following to report:

 The Man Who Loved Books Too Much

About a (real) book thief!

Book 35

Vermillion Drift

Good honest midwestern mystery. Very enjoyable.

Book 36

Dead in the Family

Another trip down Sookie Stackhouse lane. But I enjoyed it immensely.

Book 37

Water For Elephants

By Sara Gruen

"Age is a terrible thief. Just when you're getting the hang of life, it knocks your legs out from under you and stoops your back. It makes you ache and muddies your head and silently spreads cancer throughout your spouse." Pg 12

"Although there are times I'd give anything to have her back, I'm glad she went first. Losing her was like being cleft down the middle. It was the moment it all ended for me, and I wouldn't have wanted her to go through that. Being the survivor stinks." Pg 13

"Is there no one who hasn't heard the details of my disgrace?" pg 147

"'Marlena! Where's Marlena' I gasp, falling back on the pillow. My brain rolls around in my head. I think it's been shaken loose. It's worse when my eyes are open and so I close them again. With all visual stimulus removed,  the blackness feels larger than my head, as though my cranial cavity has turned inside out.

Walter brings the rag back to my face. He wipes my forehead, cheeks, and chin, leaving my skin damp. The cooling tingle is grounding, helps me concentrate on the outside of my head." Pg 292

"Later that night, Marlena and I sneak into the menagerie and bring Bobo back to our stateroom.
In for a penny, in for a pound." Pg 320

Book 34

The Checklist Manifesto

By Atul Gawande

This was an excellent and inspiring book about the importance of looking at our failures and mistakes and finding ways to improve ourselves with this information. Based on the airline industries use of checklists to ensure safe travel for their passengers, Gawande uses this same methodology in the operating room in hopes of improving outcomes. The study was conducted internationally and the results were very interesting. A great read which pulls together a lot of stories from a variety of industries to essentially challenge us in our own work/world to use a simple, refined tool (checklists) to improve our own outcomes and foster self-improvement.

Book 33

Burned

By Louise Nayer

A memoir of growing up after a tragic fire altered their families lives. Told with great care and honesty, this is an unusual memoir about a unique kind of tragedy and how a family survived it. 

Book 32

Shanghai Girls

By Lisa See

Two sisters growing up in Shanghai are living an exciting, cosmopolitan life as young girls when everything is interrupted by  family misfortune followed immediately by the Japanese attack of China during WWII. Their story unfolds and eventually brings them to Los Angeles, California to the heart of Chinatown. Through this story of their lives surfaces a unique story about sisters and about being Chinese in WWII America.

Note: I don't have page numbers for these quotes because I read it on my iPhone kindle.

"During this time of adversity - as it is for all sisters - our petty jealousies ad the question of which of us is loved more dissolve. We have to rely on each other."

"In Shanghai, life flows like an endlessly serene river for the wealthy, the lucky, the fortunate. For those with bad fates, the smell of desperation is as strong as a rotting corpse."

"Mama used to tell us a story about a cicada sitting high in a tree. It chirps and drinks in dew, oblivious to the praying mantis behind it. The mantis arches up its front leg to stab the cicada, but it doesn't know an oriole perches behind it. The bird stretches out its neck to snap up the mantis for a midday meal, but is unaware of the boy who's come into the garden with a net. Three creatures - he cicada, the mantis, and the oriole - all coveted gains without being aware of the greater and inescapable danger that was coming.

Later that afternoon, the first shots are exchanged between Chinese and Japanese soldiers."

"Maybe we are all like that with our mothers. They seem ordinary until one day they are extraordinary."

"I despair over what is happening to us. I want to be rescued. If not that, then I want to go back to bed, lie under the covers, and sob until I have no tears left. But I am May's older sister. I have to be braver than my emotions. I have to help us fight our bad fates. I take a deep breath and stand. 'Let's go. I'm ready.'"

"Parents die, daughters grow up and marry out, but sisters are for life. She is the only person left in the world who shares my memories of our childhood, our parents, our Shanghai, our struggles, our sorrows, and, yes, even our moments of happiness and triumph. My sister is the one person who truly knows me, as I know her. The last thing May says to me is "When our hair is white, we'll still have our sister love."

I bought two copies and sent them to my sisters!

Book 31

Kinshu: Autumn Brocade

By Teru Miyamoto

This compelling book is a series of letters exchanged between a man and a woman who were once married. After a very brief encounter on a train they are both left with freshly surfaced memories and questions. As the letters begin to go back and forth the story of their broken marriage unfolds and within it ten years of emotions and curiosity surrounding those events. The passage of time has left changes in each of the letter writers reflected by this discussion of the past.  

Witnessing the letter exchange felt almost voyeuristic as you read this intimate exchange. An exchange which is also not a complete picture or story simply because of the nature of letter writing. With no other narrative added except what was written in the letters, I was left with a sense of what remained unsaid within that exchange. A wonderful feeling as you close the book and ruminate on all of the story that you heard and that which you are left to only wonder. I really enjoyed this book.

For reasons I will not get into, half way through the book I purchased one of the very few songs I have bought on iTunes because I just needed to hear it while I was reading the book: Mozarts 39th symphony.

Book 30

Asleep

By Banana Yoshimoto

Each of the three chapters in this book tells the story of a woman and her particular experience with sleep, or a kind of sleep (spiritual or physical). The power of the stories is in Yoshimoto's literary style - surreal and simple. Yoshimoto has a unique way of writing from a very internal location within her characters which enables you to connect with them. This exploration was interesting and thought provoking.

I look forward to reading more of this extremely talented writer and hopefully finding language to explain her unique and compelling writing style.

Book 29

After the Quake

By Harruki Murakami

These stories struggle with life altered after the Kobe earthquake. Each one carries its own message through Murakami's accessible characters and unique allegory. Very good read.

Book 28

Two Addiction Books

The Adderall Diaries

Stephen Elliott

Book 26

Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man

Bill Clegg

Book 27

Shame in the Blood

By Tetsuo Miura

“Whether we seek death or it seeks us, and whenever, wherever, for whatever reason we may die, it seemed to me that death, which arrives and leaves in a fraction of a second, is exactly the same for everyone. No death can ever be beautiful or ugly. One day, death comes and departs again instantly, leaving only a dead body behind. It is so astonishingly cold, surprisingly austere. It offers no room at all for any emotion to slip through. It doesn’t even want to accept sadness immediately.” 138

With the Old Breed

E.B. Sledge

WWII Pacific theater non-fiction from the perspective of one young soldier who beat the odds of survival in a few of the most bloody battles.

"The sun bore down unmercifully, and the heat was exhausting. Smoke and dust from the barrage limited my vision. The ground seemed to sway back and forth under the concussions. I ffelt as though I were floating along in the vortex of some unreal thunderstorm. Japanese bullets snapped and cracked, and tracers went by me on both sides at waist height. This deadly small-arms fire seemed almost insignificant amid the erupting shells. Explosions and the hum and he growl of shell fragments shredded the air. Chunks of blasted coral stung my face and hands while steel fragments spattered down on the hard rock like hail on a city street. Everywhere shells flashed like giant firecrackers.

Through the haze I saw Marines stumble and pitch forward as they got hit. I then looked neither right nor left but just straight to my front. The further we went, the worse it got. The noise and concussion pressed in on my ears like a vise. I gritted my teeth and braced myself in anticipation of the shock of being struck down at any moment. It seemed impossible that any of us could make it across. We passed several craters that offered shelter, but I remembered the order to keep moving. Because of the superb discipline and excellent esprit of the Marines, it had never occurred to us that attack might fail." Pg 79

"In combat, cleanliness for the infantryman was all but impossible. Our filth added to our general misery. Fear and filth went hand in hand. It has always puzzled me that this important factor in our daily lives has received so little attention from historians and often is omitted from otherwise excellent personal memoirs by infantryman. It is, of course, a vile subject, but is was as important to us then as being wet or dry, hot or cold, in the shade or exposed to the blistering sun, hungry, tired or sick." Pg 92

"It was difficult to accept. We come from a nation and a culture that values life and the individual. To find oneself in a situation where your life seems of little value is the ultimate in loneliness. It is a humbling experience. Most of the combat veterans had already grappled with this realization on Guadalcanal or Gloucester, but it struck me out in that swamp." Pg 100

"It is difficult to convey to anyone who has not experienced it the ghastly horror of having your sense of smell saturated constantly with the putrid odor of rotting flesh day to day, night after night. This was something the men of an infantry battalion got a horrifying dose of during a long, protracted battle such as Peleliu. In the tropics the dead became bloated and gave off a terrific stench within a few hours of death." Pg 142

"We didn't talk about such things. They were too horrible and obscene even for hardened veterans. The conditions taxed the toughest I knew almost to the point of screaming. Nor do authors normally write about such vileness; unless they have seen it with their own eyes, it is too preposterous to think that men could actually live and fight for days and nights on end under such terrible conditions and not be driven insane. But I saw much of it there on Okinawa and to me the war was insanity." Pg. 260

"War is brutish, inglorious, and a terrible waste. Combat leaves an indelible mark on those who are forced to endure it. The only redeeming factors were my comrades' incredible bravery and their devotion to each other. Marine Corps training taught us to kill efficiently and to try to survive. But it also taught us loyalty to each other - and love. That esprit de corps sustained us.

Until the millennium arrives and countries cease trying to enslave others, it will be necessary to accept one's responsibilities and to be willing to make sacrifices for one's country - as my comrades did. As the troops used to say, 'If the country is good enough to live in, its good enough to fight for.' With privilege goes responsibility." Pg 315

Book 24

The Devil’s Whisper

By Miyuke Miyabe

Weaving stories that seem disperate from opposite ends of Tokyo and how they converge together, Miyabe writes a great story about four women who commit suicide and the aftermath.  It is a mystery about how to piece together a story when you don’t know what happened but it could save your life. Excellent story, great read and entirely different. 

Book 23

Hardboiled & Hard Luck

By Banana Yoshimoto

Two short stories about two different women. My first book by this author at the recommendation of my cousin. She tells elegant, simple stories that leave you connected to the characters and compelled by them. I still wonder what happened to them after we met them and moved on. 

Banana writes beautifully. I hope to read everything she has written.

Book 22

The Sleeping Drag

By Miyuke Miyabe

I have been reading, I just have not been blogging! 

This book started me on a whole curriculum of Japanese writers. I am finding it difficult to describe the books I am reading. 

This book is a simple story about a man who meets a boy under unfortunate circumstances. Their lives are then connected and their story forms a mystery of sorts being played out in relationships. The unfolding of the connections and struggles within these relationships, including those with paranormal abilities, forms a great story.

Book 21

Point Dume

By Katie Arnoldi

Surf, pot, growing up and the reality of our nation's relationship with Mexico. Well written, unique and raw this book explores these through a simple story about people growing through their past and meeting each other where they are. 

Without digressing into the banal or cliche, she tells the story of a slice of a California beach lost to development, money and fire. Excellent read. Try to do it in one sitting, the book deserves that kind of attention. 

Book 20

Unbound: A True Story of War, Love and Survival

By Dean King

A page turning book about the Long March the Chinese communists took across the country to establish their modern rule in an ancient country. This book focused mostly on the women, thirty of them in particular, who traveled the 4,000 mile trail. It was a brutal walk with every trial greeting them on the road: altitude, disease, pain, sickness, death. 

The women's equality under the communists was striking and often helped spread the communist message throughout the rural regions they encountered, and relied on, throughout this long march. They were nurses, commanders and soldiers. They believed in the equality they were trying to establish and the freedom the communists brought them with careers, the outlawing of foot binding and education.

For their strength, determination and survival skills these women should be recognized as survivors boldly jumping into the dream for a just and equal China. In the end, many of these women and men who survived this brutal march were also persecuted later on in the Cultural Revolution. 

Book 19

Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge

By Gordon Edgar

A dreamy exploration of the magical food we call cheese. Perhaps it is the Dane in me, but I have always said "I have never met a cheese I didn't like." However, this book opened up the vast, wild terrain that is cheese. It has posed a delightful challenge to an already self-proclaimed cheese lover, to take it to the next level. And I am ready and up for the challenge. 

Fortunately, this was not a snobby, "I know so much" foodie book. It wasn't the kind of specialty food book that leaves you at the train station while the author and all the expensive cheese in the world roars by you fast as a speeding bullet. His face laughing at you as he passes, gorging himself on hundred dollar cheese wedges.

No this is a raw, honest, creative and community minded thoughtful book about cheese. He explores his own story of becoming a Cheesemonger right here in San Francisco's wonderful employee-owned co-op called Rainbow Grocery. His story of how punk rock informed his rise in the cheese community. In each chapter, some description of cheese would make my mouth water. 

What I loved about the book was his unabashed explanation of the how, why, who of cheese making. Which brings you to the unsexy underbelly of cheese: mold, bacteria, animal husbandry, local farming (beyond the myth to the reality) and the natural smelly beasts that are behind cheese. I loved this story.

I was personally challenged to just explore and try cheeses. Find a place where the cheesemonger will work with you and let you try a few things before breaking the bank on a wedge of tasty goodness. If I say right now that one of my favorite cheeses is Jarlsberg, I have a long way to go and a lot to explore. But with Gordon as my cheesemonger I feel confident and excited about all the future cheese which will replace that love of Jarlsberg. 

When I say that, its not that it is a snobby thing it is really about the quality of production. If I love a processed cheese like that now,  how much more will I love the real thing! I am including an extensive list of cheese to try for my own record, bear with the indulgence.

If you do try some of these remember that cheese is seasonal so you may have to wait for them.

Black Butte Reserve, Pedrozo Dairy and Cheese Company - Essentially a real aged Gouda. 

Maple Smoked Gouda, Taylor Farms "Look, most smoked Gouda is crap. Those round, sausagey logs you see all over the place? Those are the processed remains of Goudas that didn't work out for whatever reason . . they give smoked cheese a bad name." Pg 43

Hillis Peak, Pholia Farm - Any cheese from this farm is recommended. Pg 59

Ocooch Mountain, Hidden Springs Creamery: "This is one of my favorite cheeses and very few people have heard of it. Ocooch Mountain is a washed-rind, raw milk sheep cheese from Wisconsin. Aged on wooden boards . . .it is nutty, smooth and - if aged long enough - a tad pungent." Pg 60

Hopeful Tomme, Sweet Grass Dairy (grassy and floral, shows off the pasture) Pg 78

Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Uplands Cheese Company - From their website: "producing food slowly, deliberately, ad with pride is a value worth preserving in our hurried, industrialized society." pg 79

Golden Bear Dry Jack, Vella Cheese Company -  Pg 92

Reblochon (can't get this here!)

Serra da Estrela from the Iberian Penninsula (a great cheese gift for someone who has tried all different cheese he says) Pg 102

Blue Stilton, Coston Bassett "Equally classic English cheese as cheddar." Pg 102


Explorateur


Sainte-Maure de Touranie 


Rogue River Blue, Rogue Creamery "Absolutely my favorite American blue cheese" Pg 135


Roquefort "France's first name-controlled cheese; that is, in such a cheese centric culture as France, it was recognized that the name ROquefort was so special that it had to be protected from imitators." Pg 136 Similar cheeses: Ewe's Blue (US), Blue des Basques (France) Best producers of Roquefort: Coulet, Berger, Carles, Papillon (Pg 136)

Montgomery Cheddar (Similar cheese - Keen's Cheddar (UK), Lincolnshire Poacher (UK), Fiscalini Bandage Wrapped Cheddar (US), Flagship Reserve (US), Cabot Clothbound Cheddar made at Jasper Hill Farm (US). Pg 146


Aged Chddar, Widmer's Cheese Cellars (Similar cheese, Grafton Cabbot and Bravo Farms). Pg 146


Franklin's Teleme, Similar to Teleme


Bonne Bouche, Vermont Butter and Cheese Company



Humbolt Fog, Cypress Grove Chevre


Comte (Gruyere de Comte, dimilar to Gruyere)Great cooking cheese! Pg 174

Red Hawk, Cowgirl Creamery

Gran Canaria, Carr Valley Cheese Company


Minuet, Andante Dairly


Monet, Harley Farms (pg 198)


Dante, Wisconsin Sheep Dairly Cooperative


Winnimere, Jasper Hill

What's Left of Us: A Memoir of Addiction

http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Left-Us-Richard-Farrell/dp/080653074X

I am still figuring out my mac so today you get a URL instead of a pretty picture of the book.

A great, compelling story about one man's struggle out of addiction. Very well written, plainly stated and often very funny. If you have any interest in the genre it is a wonderful, sad, inspiring read.

Books Read but Not Blogged

The last book I logged was book 12. I have been reading during this transition (our move to California) but I haven't been blogging them! I will list them here with minimal reviews just to get it caught up.

Book 13: Sharpe's Tiger
http://www.amazon.com/Sharpes-Tiger-Richard-Adventure/dp/0060932309
This is a great series about the Napoleonic wars, the first books start in India. Very well written, great compelling and complicated characters. And excellent battle scenes.

Book 14: Sharpe's Triumph (Book 2 in the series)
http://www.amazon.com/Sharpes-Triumph-Richard-September-Adventure/dp/0060951974

Book 15:  Autobiography of an Execution - David Dow
http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Execution-David-R-Dow/dp/0446562068
An easy read yet difficult to digest book written by a death penalty defense lawyer in Houston, TX. He writes clearly about the complicated process of defending the lives of both the known guilty on death row as well as the suspected innocent. An important book for anyone to read regardless of your stance on the death penalty, it will prove a challenge to both sides of the debate.

Book 16: By Reason of Insanity - Randy Singer
http://www.amazon.com/Reason-Insanity-Shane-Stevens/dp/0786704632
A pretty good murder mystery book involving some interesting characters with a unique story line. Definitely worth the read for an easy summer book.

Books Ready for Garage Sale

These are some of my favorite books that I don't want to forget. They are some of the last remaining books that I own, but I am ready to give them up. I checked them out at the online library and they ARE available. We are having a garage sale and they will all be bought and greatly appreciated. Or at least they will be out of my hair!

 

My Stroke of Insight

By Jill Taylor

This is a life changing book describing the experience of having a stroke and recovering from it through the eyes of a brain scientist. A must read for anyone with a loved one experiencing a stroke or brain injury. But actually excellent for anyone with a brain! It is a book of great insight into what we have between our ears and the incredible nature of what we do without even being aware of it! And even more so, it is about gratitude and the way we are human in this world. Ultimately a spiritual book urging us to live with greater levity and appreciation.


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Soldiers Once

My Brother and the Lost Dreams of America's Veterans

The story is about a sister who had a brother who went to Vietnam. He died an early, unexplained death in his 50's which left his estranged family to try to put the pieces of his life back together. This sounds almost ordinary, but the truth is that one of the great tragedies of Vietnam is all the silent death that occurred years and years after its aftermath. Service men came home and were not able to get the support they needed and have struggled in many ways. Suicide rates are notoriously under reported. Post-traumatic stress disorders were flat out denied until very recently. Many, many men who served our country through a perilous, horrific war came home and to this date are not aware that they are due the benefits they earned through the VA System. These injustices are well documented in this book and deserve recognition. We are already making some of the same mistakes with our new veterans coming home from Afghanistan and Iraq, as citizens of this country we owe it to them to try to grasp their experience and sacrifice. This book offers an excellent introduction into that world.

This is a great introduction to war experience. It cannot supplement the many amazing books that document their own personal and real accounts of this experience. However, it is a great introduction and potentially a book to give family members of service men and women or those people who love them to try to help them understand the on-going suffering they may be going through.

Book 11

Grief

Andrew Holleran

Can we recover from grief? That is the primary exploration in this book through a simple story of one man who lost someone he loved. It gently presses the questions grief pointedly asks in the every day real stuff of life. Like whether to get up in the morning or not. How to physically act among other people when you feel distanced and disassociated. Where do you live? How do you interact with the possessions of your loved one?

What is the meaning of grief? Or where is meaning in grief?

Will we ever emerge on the other side and if we do, does this mean the person we are grieving is now gone from this earth? Are they only alive in us and if so what does that mean when others tell us we will get over it?

I really loved this excellent book. I would recommend it as a gift to someone going through grief along with Joan Didion's Year of Magical Thinking.

"Your grief is the substitute for their presence on earth. Your grief is their presence on earth." Pg 18

"What is better than reading in the same room or house with someone at night? Reading is an activity both communal and separate." Pg 61

"'Which is how people feel when people they love die, ' I said. 'That they are only marking time. That their lives have ended. Like Henry Adams - after his wife killed herself he went on living. He traveled, he moved into the home they had just built, he wrote books. But when someone aske him to speak to a historical society years later, he turned and said, "But didn't you know? I've been dead for fifteen years!"'" Pg 86

"At almost every concert, however, no matter how irritating, there was one piece - sometimes only a passage - that made you feel you'd done the right thing in coming here; that someone else (the composer) had understood, had known, your grief, that life was worth living because of music. At the same time, this music, or piece of music, also made it clear that you were fooling yourself in attempting to go on with your life; that what had happened to the person you loved you would never get over; that you still carried it with you; that it lay beneath all things; and only this music - these few notes - recognized that everything else you had been doing, and would do, to fill up the time was meaningless." Pg 97

Book 10

Harley-Davidson 1930 - 1941

Revolutionary Motorcycles & Those Who Rode Them

This has been an awesome book to read alongside learning to ride my new motorcycle circa 1945. This is a very detailed and thorough account of the early Harley-Davidson years. It is well researched and gets behind the why and how of Harley history.

Apart from my own personal interest in learning about the history of my motorcycle, it was very interesting to learn about the history of motorcycle clubs. They started out as product enthusiasts and in this era that is all they were. They were a useful tool for a dealership to keep their customers informed and hopefully using their services.

Later, these clubs turned more hard core and are what we know as Hell's Angles (and many other bike clubs) today.

Another interesting point was that women have always been a fan of riding Harley-Davidson bikes! That is encouraging as I learn my own bike. This was a great read and very detailed. Much of this history would have been lost without this important book.

Book 9

New Vampire Series (aka guilty pleasure)

By JR Ward

This is the first of a series of seven, I have finished the first three. These vampires could cook the Sookie Stackhouse vampires for a snack, they make Edward look like a human. Very compelling alternative world they live in, interesting enemy and very well written.

This book is not for the weak of heart - if you can't handle Dracula this is not the book for you. If you thought Sookie was racy this will definitely not be your cup of tea. But if you don't mind a band of huge, bad ass vampires with enormous shitkickers protecting humanity from evil - well this might just be the story for you.

Books 6 -8

A Rip in Heaven: A Memoir of Murder and its Aftermath

By Jeanine Cummins

This is a well told story about a girl who loses some dear loved ones in a horrific murder. The tragedy is told out of love for the victims and a desire to advocate for victims rights.

Book 5

Stitches: A Memoir

By David Small

This is an illustrated memoir about the author's life growing up in a very distant, oblivious and abusive family. Without giving his story away, I really enjoyed the experience of reading it through illustration as well as words. There were so many ways that he positioned the drawings as a self-exploration at a given moment in one's childhood that really moved me. It is a pretty horrific story he lived through and it was an amazing way to share it with the world. I really enjoyed this book!

Just study this cover for a moment and you will get a feeling for the way you will experience this book.

Book 4

Crazy For the Storm: A Memoir of Survival

By Norman Ollestad
aka Boy Wonder

I really loved this book. It is a true story about a boy and his father. It is a survival story for sure and full of wild tales of the early years of surfing and skateboarding in Southern California's Topanga Beach. I love the way Ollestad writes and loved the way he told this story. I have never read a memoir where I miss one of the characters at the end of the book, I really missed his Dad when I closed this book. His survival story involves snow and a helicopter and is an amazing "I Shouldn't be Alive" story. Excellent read!

Shiver

By Maggie Stiefyvater

Another young adult fictio involving imaginary creatures. It is a simple story but compelling and well told. I wouldn't say the next Twilight but definitely a strong book in that category. It is very well written and a great easy read. I will definitely read the sequel!

Book 2

Dracula

By Bram Stoker

Excellent classic! I read it after being inspired by his great grandnephews book. For the time period it must of been scandalous. Simply because it was scary and had a little bit of gore (it is a book about a vampire!). The writing is great, excellent story telling.

Book 1