The Soloist - Steve Lopez

http://www.stevelopezonline.com/ - This is the non-fiction book that the movie starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jamie Foxx is based on. It takes place in Los Angeles, where Steve Lopez, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, seredipitously meets Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless musician. As Lopez listens to Ayers playing his violin on Skid Row, he knows that the man has a tremendous gift and wonders how he ended up on the streets. It turns out (no surprise) that Ayers, a former Julliard star, is also a paranoid schizophrenic. Lopez becomes obsessed with "helping" Ayers - he wants to get him a room at a local half-way house. He wants to help him receive medication or counseling. He wants to get to the root of how such an illness could destroy a person with so much hope and promise. Lopez portrays Ayers's illness honestly, and conveys the frustrations and sadness of befriending a person living with schizophrenia. At the same time, he also portrays Ayers with dignity, as a person who appreciates the beauty in music (to a point of his own obsession) and his need to be respected. Over time, Lopez slowly realizes that he can't "save" Ayers or make him "better." But, he can be part of a trusted support system and he can help others to understand Ayers's condition. To me, one of the most powerful lines in the book is when Lopez realizes that Ayers is not a schizophrenic who plays music, bur rather a musician who happens to be schizophrenic. I think this is the key to understanding mental illness and treating people with mental illness as human beings.

Nothing to be Frightened Of - Julian Barnes

Despite the creepy photograph of himself on this book, according to Julian Barnes, we have nothing to be frightened of. Whether this means we are free from fright, or whether this means we should actually be afraid of nothingness is a concept that Barnes explores thoroughly in his quest to understand his own and society's collective feelings about death. I tagged this book as a memoir even though Barnes claims it is not a memoir, but only because he does speak a great deal about his family and his life and how everything came to shape his thinking about death. Barnes, an athiest turned agnostic, ponders the existence of God and the impact of the concept of God on our thoughts and behavior. Barnes shares the beliefs of other authors, philosophers, composers and theologians in a way that does not seem to have much rhyme or reason. The book is not divided into chapters on different aspects of death, but rather just short sections each about a different event or thought, almost as if Barnes were keeping a diary on his thoughts of death and each section was a different entry. For this reason I found that as I went on if I came across a section about an aspect of death that I did not find particularly interesting, I could just skip it an move on to his next thought. Often when I read books like this (not necesarily about death, but just about anything), I wonder, "what makes this person think the public would care about their thoughts on this topic? Who is Julian Barnes to tell me anything about why and how we should think about this very personal topic?" But of course Barnes isn't telling anyone how to think about anything, he's just ruminating in the hopes of finding some solutions for himself. And obviously, I borrowed the book, so apparently he is someone whose thoughts I care to read. While the topic of death may seem depressing - or one would assume the point of the book would be to be uplifting about life - I didn't find this book to be either of those things. Just a frank, and sometimes humorous, comment on the human condition.

Making the Impossible Possible - Bill Strickland

http://www.bill-strickland.org/ - I received a recommendation for this book a couple years ago after someone read my review of Three Cups of Tea. For some reason, I found the title and the cover of this book off-putting. It made me assume that it would be a self-help book full of instructions on how to lead a better more productive life. But, eventually I brought myself around to it, and I am so glad that I did. Bill Strickland grew up in a lower-class neighborhood outside of Pittsburgh. His childhood had all the markings of the disadvantaged - an often absent and perhaps alcoholic father, little money, and negative influences around each corner. Strickland did, however, have a strong and determined mother, and her influence on her son is obvious throughout this book. In high school, Strickland meets an art teacher who teaches him how to throw clay pots - an artisitic endeavor that absolutely enchants Strickland. A couple years later, at the age of 19, Strickland becomes the teacher - attempting to bring the magic and hope he found through art to other kids in his neighborhood. His attempts are not immediately successful - and he runs into roadblocks left and right - he lacks funding, and he finds it difficult to convince others to support his endeavor - both financially and by coming to his center. But, as the decades go by, Strickland builds a learning center that services both youth and adults - and not just in ceramics, but in kinds of artistic disciplines and job training. He surrounds himself with beauty to teach the people he works with that they deserve to live such a life. While telling his story, Strickland does adopt a lot of self-help language - about never giving up, believing in your dreams, etc. But, while sometimes repetitive, it is not condescending or annoying. Rather, Strickland often speaks in concrete terms. I appreciated how he shared his through process - how he came up with new ideas and how he went about raising money for his projects. He shared the times he failed, and was open about his own bout with alcohol and apparent depression. He gives ample credit to the corporate leaders who support him and admits where he went wrong with certain ideas. Strickland's project is inspiring. It makes me wish there were centers like his in every city - and I was happy to learn at the end of the book that there is a similar one in San Francisco called BAYCAT (www.baycat.org). But, the message of Strickland's book is not to go out and start one of these centers, but rather to find the thing in life that you are passionate about and to pursue it. It's a simple message, but one that we obviously forget as we get older and life seems to get in the way. But, Strickland's words and examples go a long way to showing that this is the only way we can lead a meaningful and productive life, and it's a message I think we could all stand to hear over and over again until we get it right.

The End of Manners - Francesca Marciano

Prior to picking up this book, I read a number of amazing reviews. The book is described as "brilliant" and "courageous and painful, not to be missed." And, of course it has a wonderful cover suggesting that it is full of literary treasures. So, perhaps my expectations were a bit high, but sadly, they definitely were not met. The main character, Maria, is a young photojournalist who after suffering anxiety attacks has taken herself off her fast-track career path. While Maria's reaction to her work is realistic given the subject matter she covers, right off the bat, I felt Marciano did a poor job capturing this and made Maria seem flighty and unprofessional. Maria is then suddenly paired with an aggressive female journalist, Imogen Glass, for an article about women who commit self-immolation in Afghanistan - primarily in response to being married off to much older men. Maria takes part in a militaristic survival retreat, again consistently making her look whiny and pathetic, and she finally flies off to Kabul, where Marciano makes clear over and over again, the women do not appreciate being photographed and that gaining such personal access to them will prove quite difficult. The book is then a series of dangerous encounters, Imogen consitently ignoring cultural mores and offending people in an attempt to get her story. Maria, on the other hand, remaining aware of the difficulties, but standing passively by watching her co-worker blow the assignment. This book dealt with interesting issues - I'm always up for a commentary on the treatment of women in deeply religious cultures and their attempts to exercise their independence. But, I did not understand the point Marciano was trying to make with respect to journalists in foreign countries - whether getting the story at any price is important to educate the rest of the world, and that people who risk their lives to do so should be commended, or whether such an approach is properly viewed as invasive and disrespectful. There is another journalist character in the book - a woman from France who has spent years in the country getting to know the women and developing a relationship with them - she is the one with photographs and real stories. But, her character is not much developed, and there is a question of how much she will eventually do with the years she has spent on a single issue. While The End of Manners raised interesting questions given the chosen subject matter, I did not feel as if there was much to be impressed by in the execution.

The Queen's Fool - Philippa Gregory

Due to the craziness of life, I have fallen behind in updating the blog - something I knew would happen, but have worked hard against. But, the good news is that I am in the middle of some really great books right now - every night before bed it's hard to pick which one I want to continue with, and I worry that I'll just get so engrossed that I'll end up reading much past my bedtime. But, these are good problems to have. Now, back to the books...after reading The Queen's Fool, I have decided that I am going to take a break from Ms. Gregory for awhile. Not that I didn't enjoy the book - this one was quite good, just that there's only so much of Tudor England I can take in a year. This book features Hannah Green, a young girl from Spain with the gift of sight, the ability to tell the future. Somewhat innocent given her youth, she is unable to keep her mouth shut, and in a time where people are eager to ferret out heresy, her talents put both her and her single father at risk. To compound matters, Hannah's family is Jewish, hiding their faith in a Catholic country, ruled by Queen Mary. Hannah is brought to the court as a holy fool and fortells Mary's ascension to the throne, as well as the heartbreak she will suffer at the hands of her Spanish suitor. Hannah also spends a great deal of time with Mary's half-sister Elizabeth, a practicing Protestant and the daughter of Anne Boleyn. Life at the court is full of treachery, and Hannah tries to live between that world and the world of her father and a potential husband. Again, as with all of Gregory's novels, Hannah is stuck in a world that requires her to become a woman, but where she fights to hang on to her independence. I found the story of religious difference in England to be an interesting focus on this book, though at times I felt the discussions among Hannah's family about their Judaism to be a bit forced and awkward. Bringing an outsider to the court, however, provided a welcome perspective - though Hannah's admiration for both Mary and Elizabeth, despite their purely self-centered and spiteful ways was disappointing. Overall, another enjoyable soap opera in novel form.

The Brethren - John Grisham

No vacation is complete without a trashy legal thriller. And no one is better at satisfying this need for me than John Grisham. In The Brethren, Grisham brings together three ex-judges in a federal prison. As they run a mock court to settle the disputes of their fellow inmates, the Brethren are also running a lucrative blackmail scam on the outside, with the help of a deadbeat lawyer. Meanwhile, a Washington insider is committed to electing his chosen boy the next President of the United States. When politics collide with the Brethren, the deals and schemes take twists and turns, and people find themselves running from the very law they thought was supposed to protect them. While not a traditional whoddunit type of mystery, this is still standard Grisham. In the end, there didn't seem to be much justice for the wrong-doers which was a bit unsatisfying, and unlike Hannibal Lecter like villains, the bad guys weren't endearing enough to make me root for their eventual escape and freedom. Nonetheless it was enjoying while it lasted, and it continues to amaze me that no matter how many Grisham books I seem to read, there are always one or two left on the shelves. He's definitely the gift that keeps on giving.

The Crazed - Ha Jin

The Crazed tells the story of Jien Wen, a graduate student in China during the Tienanmen Square uprising. When his soon to be father-in-law, and academic mentor, suffers a debilitating stroke, Jien is tasked as one of his caretakers. Jien spends every afternoon attempting to study for his PhD qualifying exams, but instead finds himself distracted by his old professor's ranting and raving about Mao and the weaknesses of being an academic. At first, Jien dismisses everything as the delusional words of a sick man, but eventually, he begins to believe what is being said, and he begins to question his professional and academic choices, as well as his pending marriage. I found The Crazed to be a frustrating read. Jien seemed so easily influenced by the old man's words. But, at the same time, much of what Jien felt able to choose in terms of his future was dictated by those in political power, who he knew, and how much he was able to bribe or give in exchange. The ideas of meritocracy, freedom, and fairness are non-existent, as Jin sets the story along the backdrop of Tienanmen Square, where everyone is under suspicion for simply trying to assert their rights. Jien is in an eternally frustrating position just by being who he is and living in China at this time. Jin does an amazing job of capturing the frustration of feeling trapped - where the rantings of a madman suddenly seem like the only sane advice around.