I very much enjoy reading and learning about history through fiction. The few non-fiction history books I’ve read were quite worthy, but I’ll admit, a struggle. I decided to finally read this much-touted historical novel which the publisher kindly sent me two years ago .

The novel revolves around early 20th-century Colorado mine workers and their struggles to unionize.

Hmm, I thought, this could be really interesting part of American history, of which I know nothing about.

The Gilded Mountain is set in a 1907, and opens with the Pelletier family’s treacherous journey from the east to Colorado to join their father who has secured work in a mine.  Sylvie, her mother and two brothers travel through winter storms and rough terrain until they reach Moonstone Colorado, the mining town where they reunite with their father.

Once there Sylvie and her family endure hunger and dismal living conditions in a company-owned shack.  Her father faces the dangerous conditions working in the marble mine and like the other workers, struggle for the paltry wages that are eaten up by rent and sparse food.  Often the workers are not paid at all.  Thus begins the roots of the Colorado mine workers labor movement.

As we follow Sylvie she first gets hired as the personal secretary to the mine owner’s wife and spends a summer observing the gilded life that the other half lives. The next summer, she gets a job with the town newspaper and begins to report and write about the mine labor issues and their attempts to form a mine workers union. She finds herself falling for Jace, the idealistic son of the mine owner, as well as George, a union organizer. Sylvie struggles with what to do with her life and her heart.

Still with me? Well good for you, because even trying to write about this book – I’m bored. And that’s exactly what happened with this novel. Oh readers, I wanted to like it, and the first half of the book was good, absorbing the reader in the grim realities of the Pelletier family trying to just survive just a day, a week — in the mining camp. The author does a nice job of settings – the descriptions of the dazzling white marble being mined by overworked miners, in unsafe conditions, often without pay, really stuck out.

But eventually it dawned on me, I had been putting this book down, and reading it became more and more laborious — I was bored, disinterested and had been forcing myself to keep on reading – but why?

Truth be told, I did not care a wit about any of the one-dimensional characters, I kept expecting more development – more depth to any of them. Sylvie became especially unbearable. But a bright spot before I left the book was Mother Mary Harris Jones — yes that Mother Jones – a force to be reckoned with. She marched and protested for the miners, with great energy and despite her ancient age. Her dialogue was snappy and real, but not enough to keep me reading.

There are racial issues brought up in the story line, even including quotes from one of the black writers of the time, W.E B. DuBois. But while racial conflicts had great consequences during this time – it felt forced into this story line.

Although I would have liked to know how everything ended, I looked at my pile of un-read books and thought this low key boredom is not why I read.

What did I take away from what I did read?

The Gilded Mountain is a stark treatise on the harsh life of miners in early 20th Century and I learned a bit about mining, union organizing and busting, entitled rich and the ways they kept their workers desperately poor.

But none of it had any real soul. I should have read a history book.

N.B. You all know how much I dislike bashing books and their authors and I truly recognize all the pain, work and dedication it takes to write and publish a book. But I have to be honest about my (and only my) assessment. Others obviously disagree — there are many rave reviews for this book — but well – that’s what makes the world go ’round.

There are plenty of other books and stories out in the world — many of them here at Book Barmy headquarters.

I’m off to start something new.

A digital review copy of The Gilded Mountain was kindly provided by ‎Scribner via Netgalley

It has been rainy and windy, my garden daffodils got pelted, and I was gloomy. So, as usual, I turned to my book shelves searching for something springlike.

I found this book, which I read ages ago — it even had my notes written up inside. I decided to revisit The Language of Flowers and ended up re-reading the entire book – ignoring the other stack of books awaiting me.

The novel follows Victoria Jones, a young woman who grew up in foster care system. Emotionally damaged by being abandoned at birth and childhood abuse, she is unable to maintain healthy relationships. She chooses self-destructing behavior and pushes herself away from those who might care.

Her one true connection is to flowers, and as a flower arranger, Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. Each plant and flower holds a meaning and when placed skillfully and precisely in an arrangement, conveys deep meaning. The novel was inspired by a flower dictionary, a type of Victorian-era book which defines what different types of flowers mean (more on that at the end).

Victoria is flawed, insecure and yet strong — an often quite unlikeable. Nevertheless, she stole my heart from the beginning and I grew to empathize and love her more with each page. There were times when I just wanted to yell at her to wake up and get a grip. And, just when I thought she wouldn’t, she did just that. I truly enjoyed following Victoria’s journey. The characters and relationships that surround and shape her are complex and layered. Many of Victoria’s personal choices had me shaking my head, but as I re-read this fine novel, I found I was rooting for her to find her true happiness and contentment.

The flowers and their meanings are not just a gimmick of the novel — they add much depth and feelings to the story.

“I’m talking about the language of flowers. It’s from the Victorian era, like your name. If a man gave a young lady a bouquet of flowers, she would race home and try to decode it like a secret message. Red roses mean love; yellow roses infidelity. So a man would have to choose his flowers carefully.”

The Language of Flowers, offers a story of survival, strength and love, and it made my heart smile.

N.B. As I finished the book, I remembered a book in my gardening section (Yes, no surprise here, I have collections/and sections in my shelves.) someone in a former book group gave me this little gem. I put it next to my stack of books I plan to read – just to dip into – fascinating.

And our author, Ms. Diffenbaugh, has written the introduction to modern and updated take on this Victorian classic – but, I will stick with my cherished version above.

Well, here we are folks, a New Year and almost midway through January (how did that happen?).

It’s been a string of rainy and dull January days. The Christmas decorations are put away, the tree is down, the house is back to everyday, the bills are coming in, and wannabe dictators threaten on the horizon.

But, hey lets cheer up and talk about books, always a good place to go when things seem grim.

I only read one (only one!) Christmas book, I picked up and put down several before settling in on a lovely novel set in an English bookshop, (of course). It’s put away with my notes to tell you about next year.

Santa gave me a lovely book…no, no, truth be told, I bought it for myself. While at favorite independent bookstore, buying a book for a friend, I stumbled across this little gem – and how could I resist?

This is a new addition to the Everyman’s Pocket Classics series. These are beautiful smallish books, bound with cloth in Germany. The dust jackets are, without exception, stunning. The books in this series are always nice to hold in the hand. (Funny how some books aren’t great to hold…)

Everyman’s Library was conceived in 1905 by London publisher Joseph Malaby Dent, whose goal was to create a 1,000-volume library of world literature that was affordable for, and that appealed to, every kind of person, from students to the working classes to the cultural elite.

All the Everyman’s editions come with this circa 1905, somewhat stilted, introduction and a sewn-in ribbon bookmark.

From the inside flap:

An enchanting book about books: a beautiful hardcover Pocket Classics anthology of stories that testify to the irresistible power of the written word.
The characters in the delightful stories collected here range all the way from the ink-stained medieval monks in Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose to the book-besotted denizens of Ali Smith’s Public Library and Other Stories. In these pages readers are invited to enter the interior lives of librarians in Lorrie Moore’s “Community Life” and Elizabeth McCracken’s “Juliet” and are ushered into a host of unusual libraries, including the infinite rooms of Jorge Luis Borges’s “The Library of Babel” and a secret library in Helen Oyeyemi’s “Books and Roses.”

I’ve been happily skipping around reading a story here, a snippet there. So far, a wonderful collection of stories for book lovers, it even includes excerpts from 84 Charing Cross Road.

So, I’m closing the drapes, making a cup of tea I got for Christmas, and enjoying my new book.

So goodbye old year. Hello new year – bring it on!

My favorite 7 (almost 8) year old friend, let me borrow one of his recently acquired books.

One glance at this stunning book and I had to look further. Luckily, my young friend trusts me and let me bring it home to read by myself.

The photos here don’t do it justice. This is a special edition of The Eyes — and it is a most beautiful book.

Let me try and describe it’s beauty. It has a die-cut wood front cover, with a painting showing through. The back cover is also made of wood. There are gleaming gold embossed edges, and double paged-edge-to-edge painted illustrations from 1600’s – 1800’s into which illustrator, Shawn Harris, has cleverly placed our hero, Johannes (more about him later).

This remarkable edition is only available at independent bookstores (yes!) for an amazing $28 cover price (the price of any other, run-of-the-mill hardback).

Mr. Eggers is a literary force here in San Francisco/Bay Area. Not only is he an award winning author, he is also the founder of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing company, co-founder of 826 Valencia, a non-profit youth writing center, and a major force among our literary community — from supporting independent bookstores, to funding new writers.

So, let me tell you about the story — which is just as beautiful as the book’s production value.

Johannes is a free dog, who lives in an urban park by the sea, thinly disguised as our own Golden Gate Park. His job is to be the Eyes—to see everything that happens within the park and report back to the park’s elders, three ancient Bison. His friends—a seagull, a raccoon, a squirrel, and a pelican—work with him as the Assistant Eyes, observing the humans and other animals who share the park and making sure the equilibrium is in balance. 

But changes are afoot. More humans, including Trouble Travelers, arrive in the park. A new building, containing mysterious and hypnotic rectangles, goes up. And then there are the goats—an actual boatload of goats—who appear, along with a shocking revelation that changes Johannes’s view of the world.

It’s a delightful story, with adventure and strong themes of friendship. And I laughed out loud as Johannes directly addresses the reader in a very folksy (and funny) voice throughout the novel. And whether it’s his inability to estimate numbers, or his antipathy towards ducks (don’t trust the ducks!), I was enchanted.

I had a wonderful time with this middle-grade book, and I was happily in the hands of a gifted storyteller. The tale of free dog Johannes is profound, poignant, and very, very clever (what do you have against ducks, Mr. Eggers?). An exhilarating read about friendship, beauty, freedom, and running very, very fast:

“When I run, I pull at the earth and make it turn”

Everyone should read The Eyes & the Impossible – a story that will have readers of all ages seeing the world around them in a wholly new way

My friends copy* was personally autographed by Mr. Eggers at an author event with that same duck warning. You’ll have to read the book to understand the problem with ducks (I’ll never look at ducks again without smiling).

*I’ve blocked his name for obvious reasons

Now I’m on to some Christmas reads — two mine and one from the library – now which one first?

I recently rediscovered this book, which I bought in cold blood and at full price after its release in 2011 when it was said to appeal to fans of 84, Charing Cross Road and Victorian fiction.

Discovered my book mark in the middle of the third chapter and I have no idea why I put it back on my shelf for all these years. I love me an good epistolary novel so re-started it from the beginning.

The book imagines a correspondence between a retired American banker, Larry Dickerson, who inherited more than 200 letters to and from his great-great-great grandfather, a London bookseller, and his correspondents, who included Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, William Makepeace Thackeray, George Eliot and spouse, Thomas Hardy, Willkie Collins, Mrs. Gaskell, Samuel Butler and Charles Darwin, together with all of his great-great-great grandfather’s letters to these authors.

Dickerson hopes to sell these letters for the highest price through Christie’s auction house. An so begins the correspondence with Stephen Nicholls, head of Christie’s manuscript department. Of course, Christie’s is delighted at the prospect of handling an invaluable collection of never-before-seen letters from some of the greatest writers of the Victorian era.

Dickerson is portrayed as a bright, eager and not uneducated man who spent his career in banking and has a passion for baseball, a world far removed from antiquarian books and scholarly learning. While he could simply ship this letter trove to London, brush his hands of it, and eventually get a fat check, he has intellectual curiosity about these authors and their work, researching the letters himself. It’s fascinating to watch Nicholls, with a deep knowledge of books and manuscripts, take this new student under his wing. Dickerson takes on the challenge with wit and gentle jabs to Nicholl’s very British viewpoints:

Dickerson writes, “If you ever feel impatient with me and my ignorance of things in this field, remember that my old man was one of the troops who knocked out Hitler for you.”

Dickerson insists on carefully reading and hand transcribing the letters before sending them to the auction house. As he is drawn deeper into the letters, he begins reading their authors’ books. The ever-patient Nicholls, explains concepts and phrases Dickerson is discovering — everything from the meaning of “et al”, to some of the authors backstories, and themes common to the famous Victorian works.

As months go by, Nicholls worries about Dickerson’s insistence on handling the valuable stash himself, failing to insure them, and reluctance to send even photocopies. Are the letters real? Is Dickerson on the up and up? This reader began to worry too.

The letters between Dickerson’s great-great-great grandfather (Dickerson abbreviates it to gggf) and the great novelists are delightful realistic. Mr. Hall, the author, is a scholar of Victorian literature (especially Anthony Trollope) and only such an expert could have conceived them and so skillfully replicated the style and language of the various authors – not to mention making them sound distinctive and authentic to the period. There are lively discussions about choosing illustrators and using illustrations in their novels (Dickens loved them; Trollope hated them) as well as their reactions to good and bad reviews – just as any writer today. I found myself chuckling at Trollope’s irony and Thomas Hardy’s dry wit.

There is a quick and surprising ending which I won’t reveal the details. Just suffice it to say that everyone benefits from the letters and their eventual sale.

Turns out Correspondence was just my cup of geeky, bookish tea. However, this book won’t likely appeal to most of you – it is very much a bookish-bookerly book. Mr. Hall has peppered the novel with many, many literary references, which had me turning to my bookshelves to pull out my own grandfather’s copies to check the illustrations, quotes, and characters.

I have come away re-energized to try Trollope again (I found him unbearable in my first attempt) and I have vowed to finally read Thackeray’s Vanity Fair.

It’s okay, carry on with choosing another read for yourselves — I understand, but very few understand me…

Kate DiCamillo is a Newbery Medal award winning author, and one of my favorite authors, Ann Patchett raves about her books for children — especially this one. And I needed a present for for our 7 (almost 8) year old friend.

My justifications all in a row, I went to one of my favorite independent bookshops and bought The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane as his Christmas present

Full disclosure, after looking through this beautiful book, I knew I wanted to read it myself. This little guy has loaned me a few of his books before — so he won’t mind.

This tale tells the life story of a vain and prideful china rabbit – the uppity Edward Tulane. Edward’s story begins in the 1930’s when he is given as a birthday present to Abilene; an adoring ten year old girl who loves Edward unconditionally. He has beautifully made outfits, comes to the dinner table with the family, and has a special bed. In short, Edward is adored, but the rabbit’s arrogant disposition prevents him from appreciating or returning this affection.

Edward’s life soon changes when he is lost overboard on a family trip aboard the Queen Mary. From then on, he is acquired and lost by a variety of owners, some of whom treat him with kindness and some who are cruel.

As Edward travels with the various people who own him, including a fishermen and a group of hoboes, he he slowly loses his pride, coming to realize that “if you have no intention of loving or being loved, then the whole journey is pointless.”

Still, his journey leads him on a long series of adventures. Some of his adventures are not so bad, and some are downright horrible. Along the way, he begins to understand the meaning of love and hope. He realizes that love can be different things to different people. And sadly, he finds out that sometimes hope is lost. Edward’s journey teaches him how to love and in the end, he finds his way back to the arms of a little girl who squeezes him tight and also calls him Edward.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is beautifully illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline, just look at these

As I closed the book, I pondered the magic, yet melancholic tone of the story. I thoroughly enjoyed this fairy tale which is written both beautifully and delicately, but it’s also very sad. There’s the death of a young child in the book, another child’s father is an absent drunk and other tragedies unfold during Edward’s journey
I decided this could be difficult for a still-too-young and sensitive reader like my young friend — so, I’ll put it away for next year.