Book Reviews: Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks and an Emmanuelle de Maupassant Short Story

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Here are my reviews as they appear on Goodreads.

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was swept up in this book from the moment I started it. I didn’t know that much about it but a trusted source recommended it. I jumped in with both feet and got lost in it. It’s sensual and romantic, then heartbreakingly depressing as the story moves from a love affair in a French town to the battlefields of World War I. The writing pulls you along and you struggle with the hero every step of the way.

Stephen Wraysford is the hero but he’s a bit of an anti-hero. He’s young and passionate. He’s weird and quiet. He loses his passion throughout the war but works hard to do his job, and job that would be difficult for most people to fathom performing unless they were there themselves. The author writes with such emotion and leads you to believe that he really was there on the battlefields and in the trenches. The dramatic tension is amped up by anyone who knows World War I history. The reader who knows which battles are coming up will be struck with a particular horror, knowing the ending before the characters do.

I had a problem with the end of the book that keeps me from giving it five stars. And I really wanted to give it five stars. Not the ending itself; I’m satisfied with how the plot tied itself up. But the last couple of paragraphs. The point-of-view changed to a character that I don’t feel deserved it.

For me, this was a summer read for lazy afternoons in the hot sun, but it’s definitely worth reading anytime. Love, war, and history, it will appeal to many.

Because Beards by Kacey Shea
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of Emmanuelle de Maupassant's story in this anthology. Ms. de Maupassant story, "Highland Pursuits," is delightful. She injects so much personality into her characters and settings and I love her combination of erotica with playful humor. I love reading how much her characters enjoy each others' company. And the story, of course, has some very steamy, satisfying moments.

I fully plan to buy the book and read the entire anthology when it comes out because it features some of my favorite erotica authors.

View all my reviews

"Sweaty, Gross, and Super Hungry"

That's what I said to Mike one morning when he leaned in for a hug and a kiss before he left for work. I was in the midst of my run streak and had just returned from the great outdoors. It was the peak of Malian summer, sometime in April or May. Every morning I was sweaty, gross, and super hungry. Mike laughed that morning and suggested it as the title of my memoir when I eventually wrote about the run streak.

I started on Thanksgiving last year and ran at least one mile every day for 199 days, ending in mid-June. I ran in Mali -- in Bamako and Segou. I ran in Paris. I ran in Salzburg. I ran on the pedestrian path between the hotels and the airport in Munich. (Or was it Frankfurt? I don't remember now where our twenty-four hour layover was.) I ran in West Palm Beach and South Beach. I ran along Ocean Road in Narragansett. I ran by myself most days but with sometimes with Mike or other friends.

I ran on treadmills sometimes. I'd brought one with us to Mali to get me through running during the worst weather here -- the dust storms of winter followed shortly by the intense heat of summer. The treadmill shorted out the electricity in the entire downstairs of the house every time I plugged it in, and by the time someone was able to fix that problem, I'd already run through the worst weather outdoors. The dust storm days when my lungs hurt after ten minutes outside. Long runs in the May heat that I broke up by running two miles to the gym, running on the treadmill under a full-blast air conditioner, and running two miles home.

I learned that I can run one mile under almost any conditions. Bad weather, minor injuries, mild fevers, after too much cider and chèvre-stuffed galette for lunch at a Breton café in Paris. I learned that eventually one mile wasn't enough unless I was extremely tired or pressed for time and most days I was going out for at least two.

I was always hungry. Even the low-mileage days left me ravenous and I ate like crazy. Yet, I started to fit into clothes that hadn't fit me in a few months (a few years, even, after my winter hibernation in Rhode Island).

Until one injury stopped me. We were back in the U.S. I was eating like crazy because so many foods were available that we don't have in Mali. I was running every day but pain was causing me to slow down and limit myself to less than two miles. I could have run slowly through the injury, limiting myself to one ten-minute mile each day. But I'd planned to run a half marathon with some friends, friends who I hadn't seen since we'd run a half marathon together the previous year. I ended the streak so I could get some real rest. A week later I ran with my friends and came within ten minutes of my half marathon PR, which I was thrilled with considering the horrible two-hour nonstop downpour we ran through combined with still nursing the injury.

I belonged to a handful of run streak groups online. Some people congratulated me on knowing when to end the streak and concentrate on having fun with my friends instead. Others sniffed at my decision, saying they would have chosen to keep the streak alive and forego the half marathon. Whatever. I made the right choice for me at the time. (And the people who supported my decision are people I'm still in touch with regularly even though I'm not streaking any more.)

Even though I kept running regularly, I did not go back to streaking. Yet I was still in the U.S. eating as if I were still streaking and training for a half marathon. By the end of our vacation, some of those favorite clothes no longer fit.

Several months later, some of those clothes still don't fit and I know that all I have to do is commit to running one mile every day again if I want them to. Without even really thinking about it I recently found myself running every day for several days in a row -- a week, maybe 8 or 9 days, I didn't really pay attention. I felt healthy and strong again. I also felt like there's not enough food in Mali to keep me fed through another streak and we don't have plans to get to Europe or the U.S. any time soon.

But aside from the health, strength, and fitting into of favorite clothes, I also found I was extremely productive when I started every morning with a run, regardless of it being ten minutes or ten miles. I wrote my novel during those run streak days along with a number of other projects. (I'm thinking I should try to write off Strava Premium on my taxes because of my productivity during the streak.)

I'm going to take it one day at a time. I ran yesterday. I ran today. I'll probably run tomorrow but I'll make that decision in the morning.

Travel Photo Friday: Salzburg, Austria

From the archives...

In August 2007, Mike and I took a European vacation. He had studied in Salzburg and wanted to show me the region, so we spent a few days there. I loved it and would live there in a heartbeat.

Festung Hohensalzburg (Salzburg Fortress)

Festung Hohensalzburg (Salzburg Fortress)

Salzkammergut tour, Wolfgangsee

Year-round Easter egg store. (There's also a year-round Christmas store.)

Salzburg at night.

From Salzburg we took a bus to Berchtesgaden and admired the view from Eagle's Nest.

We left the region via train through Fuessen, where we saw Schloss Neuschwanstein.

Photo Friday is hosted by http://www.deliciousbaby.com/.

Weekly SD Blog RoundUp!

Here it is! I'm taking my shot at hosting the roundup. It may not be as eloquent as some others, but hopefully I'll get all the information up accurately and efficiently. There's a lot of organization with this, keeping all those tabs and windows open! (And I'm keeping one eye on MLB scores. Red Sox play later tonight; Yankees already have a win.)

And all the while, I'm praying to Ganesh that the internet doesn't cut out and erase the whole post. Without further ado...

It's no April Fool's Day joke, I really did propose international bathrooms as the optional talking point this week. Quite a few of you took me up on that:

Nomads by Nature discussed the baseline we all set for ourselves. Has anyone gone lower than sharing the experience with chickens?

Kelly at Well, That Was Different, offers some valuable tips for using third-world bathrooms, including how to help the kiddos use them.

Among other things, Small Bits comments on how easy it is to clean some of the bathrooms overseas. If I'm ever building my own house, I'd love a completely tiled bathroom with a drain in the floor so you can just hose it down for easy cleaning.

Germophobe Kate from Pulling Up Stakes shares a domestic bathroom adventure.

Liz of Nick and Liz Go Global discusses the facilities in Kabul.

Connie at Whale Ears and Other Wonderings once saw a truck piled high with toilets in Cairo.

Ogles and Observations shares some nice photos from the oldest restaurant in South America. Check out the final photo for the air freshening method used in the men's room.

Shannon at Cyberbones discusses composting toilets, among other things.

Sunny at Fabling looked high and low for a particular photo, but she couldn't find it. In "loo" of that, she did share another amusing anecdote.

Almost forgot Sadie Abroad! Sorry 'bout that.

In other news this week...

Digger from Life After Jerusalem has made the trip to Estonia and back.

Daring Adventure dares to write about the parking problems at FSI.

A new A-100 class started this week and one of the specialist classes had their flag day. Congratulations and good luck to everyone!

Phew!

If I missed anyone who requested to be included, please leave me a comment. I've been piecing this together throughout the day with spotty electricity and a little Muffin who likes to bang on keyboards rather than take naps. It can be distracting.

Daniela at Tuk & Tam is hosting next week with the theme "Best of" at post. Check out the calendar if you're interested in hosting.

Things to do in Garmisch when you're dead

I'm in Garmisch, Germany, for a work conference. It's supposed to be all magical, adorable, and Bavarian, but we're staying in a American hotel, with American food, American faux-German decor, U.S. currency, Americans and their silly English language... it's not really Germany.

So why the giraffe picture? Because I had a 10-hour layover in Nairobi and I busted out of the airport for the afternoon, despite the expense. I went to the Giraffe Centre, where you can hand-feed giraffes and look at warthogs. Then I had a very tasty chicken curry lunch at a nice restaurant. I did a little shopping, spending way too much money on touristy crap.

Then I took the red-eye to Amsterdam, then Munich, and then I took a train to Garmisch. Oh, and guess what? When I got off the plane in Munich, my luggage did not! And it's freezing in Germany, at least compared to Africa. I didn't have a long-sleeved shirt or jacket with me, so froze waiting for my trains. It was raining when I got off the train in Garmisch; the cab driver thought I was crazy. Luckily my bag showed up later that night, actually right before I fell asleep. I was so relieved!

I was enjoying filling up on American food for the first couple days but now I just feel full.

Signing off in a moment. I've been uploading photos. But the battery charger for my computer isn't working and I want to conserve the energy. Pics are here.

Fuessen and Schloss Neuschwanstein

Fuessen is one of the few places where our trip overlapped with Helen's. (See previous posts of Helen's bicycle trip.) We only spent one night there, really just one afternoon when you figure that we spent the whole morning on trains, the night in the hotel room, and left early the next morning. Helen only spent one night there, too. The big difference between our 24 hours in tourist-ville is that Mike and I slogged up to Schloss Neuschwanstein and it appears Helen and crew did not.

We were exhausted by the time we got to Fuessen. But we had specifically requested a night there so we could see the castle and we were going to see the castle, dammit. The bus schedule was confusing and it appeared that busses only leave hourly from town to the castle. (But they leave the castle and go back to town every 15 minutes or so.) So we got a taxi, and the driver's advising us not to eat at any of the sushi restaurants in town made the price worth it. (We were ready for some non-Bavarian cuisine for dinner and he overheard us talking about sushi.) He let us off in a dirty, crowded, touristy ticket booth area. We had pre-purchased tickets so didn't have to stand in that line. We decided to walk the rest of the way up the mountain. We couldn't find the right path. We were getting bickery. Then I looked up and saw the castle peeking out from behind some trees, and all I could say was "Wow." It really is a fairy tale castle.

Schloss Neuschwanstein is the castle that was the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle. I don't know which came first, Disney using the castle's image, or the Disney-fication of the castle grounds. It's all tourists in khaki shorts and fanny packs standing in line, then taking busses up to the castle, then standing in a holding area, then going through turnstyles, then another holding area. And then you get about 20 minutes of a tour you can't hear because so many other tour groups are walking through the castle making noise.

But there's something about an insane king and a beautiful view that made the whole experience very satisfying. (I won't regurgitate the history; it's all here at Wikipedia.)

Helen's postcards from Fuessen:


(Clicking on images will take you to the full sizes on flickr.)

All the photos...

are now up. Here on flickr. Now I feel nearly as sick as Mike did yesterday. Between jetlag and germs, we're both struggling to stay awake until it's dark enough to go to bed.


Overlooking Edinburgh
(Clicking on the photo will take you to flickr.)

Bavaria Photos

I've put up the album for the Bavaria region, which includes Salzburg, Austria, and Berchtesgadin and Fuessen, Germany. We are smiling and laughing so much in going over these photos and remembering the trip. We spent the last week in the UK, and Poland, Austria, and Germany feel like ages ago.

Notice there are lots of photos of me eating. We both actually lost some weight, despite all the cheeses and sausages and desserts.