The Book Haven

Salida's Independent Bookstore

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Book Review

The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement by David Brooks

David Brooks is an op-ed columnist for The New York Times and a weekly commentator on PBS NewsHour. He says that he has had a particular interest in research about the mind and brain since college. Brooks has undertaken quite an endeavor with his newest book. He shares in his acknowledgements that "It is an attempt to integrate science and psychology with sociology, politics, cultural commentary, and the literature of success."

The author introduces his novel with: "This is the happiest story you've ever read. It's about two people who led wonderfully fulfilling lives. They had engrossing careers, earned the respect of their friends, and made important contributions to their neighborhood, their country, and their world.

And the odd thing was, they weren't born geniuses."

Brooks delivers an enormous amount of scientific information through his fictional characters, Harold and Erica. We follow Harold's life from conception to his death. Erica is there for contrast. Brooks does accomplish making his scientific research palatable through the lives of his characters-----but he is not a story teller. I found I had no empathy for Harold or Erica and I do question the "happiest story" part. Brooks skimmed over this couple's major issues. They had problems which were just ignored although the everyday was fused neatly with science.

It seems that at the core of this book is the premise "that the human mind can take in 11 million pieces of information at any given moment. The most generous estimate is that people can be consciously aware of forty of these." How then are we shaped? Brooks contends that the conscious mind is not at the center of who we are or how we behave or how we are able to acquire the skills needed to thrive. He brings the unconscious front and center.

Brooks also manages to slide in a few personal views that I had to stop and sort out. One example is that through Harold he contends that all men really want is recognition. It is a lovely thought but I believe that our species is a bit messier than that.

Another point I feel needs to be made is that he barely touches on spirituality. It seems somewhat difficult to imagine tapping into the unconscious without any spirituality.

Ultimately, Brooks contends that research suggests that "the unconscious mind does virtually all the work and that conscious will may be an illusion." Holy Toledo.

By Eliza Collins

Kirkus Review Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Set-in-his-ways retired British officer tentatively courts charming local widow of Pakistani descent.

Shortly after being informed that his younger brother Bertie has suddenly passed away from a coronary, Maj. Ernest Pettigrew answers his door to find Mrs. Ali, proprietress of his village food shop. She's on an errand, but when she steps in to help the somewhat older man during a vulnerable moment, something registers; then they bond over a shared love of Kipling and the loss of their beloved spouses. Their friendship grows slowly, with the two well aware of their very different lives.

Though born in England, Mrs. Ali is a member of the Pakistani immigrant community and is being pressured by her surly, religious nephew Abdul Wahid to sign over her business to him. The major belongs to a non-integrated golf club in their village and is girding himself for a messy battle with his sister-in-law Marjorie over a valuable hunting rifle that should rightfully have gone to him after Bertie's death.

Unexpectedly entertaining, with a stiff-upper-lip hero who transcends stereotype, this good-hearted debut doesn't shy away from modern cultural and religious issues, even though they ultimately prove immaterial.

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

"What would you think of a postmistress who chose not to deliver the mail?"

"Don't tell me any more," a woman from the far end of the table cried in delight, shining and laughing between the candles. "I'm hooked already."

This is how Sarah Blake's second novel opens. It is on the first page. After this introduction I naturally settled in for all the drama and mishaps this premise might offer. Being a woman who is fond of a good romance I couldn't help but think of unrequited love.

I now chide myself for such silly notions. This novel is anything but simple. It is a powerful testament to this country's ambivalence concerning WWII. Why did this nation take so long to see what all of Europe and most of the world already knew. The United States was not paying attention to anything beyond its borders.

The heart of this book takes place overseas with the voice of Frankie Bard. She is a reporter who works with the CBS correspondent Edward R. Murrow. This is an era where reporting avails itself to new technology and begins the subtle "nudging" of its listeners to a particular way of thinking. Frankie reports the facts but lets her voice and detail to a story influence the way it is perceived. Her random interviews of people who are finding their way to safety across Europe is especially poignant. Sometimes it was heartbreaking.

Iris James is the postmistress in Franklin, Massachusetts. She is serious about her job and her virginity. There is a boyfriend who is also obsessive about his job. There is a doctor with a young wife there. He goes overseas to help with the cause for his own reasons. Frankie becomes involved with all these characters and finds her way to a beach house in Franklin.

The postmistress and the letters and the stories they hold are the "bookends" of the novel. There are interesting twists and turns but the true story is certainly not one that would delight your dinner guests.

By Eliza Collins

Guest Book Review
An Elevated View - Editor W.C. Jameson

Colorado is called the "Mile-High State," but many of us living here snicker at the supposed grandiosity of a mere fifty-two hundred feet. In ways simple and sublime, life in Colorado calls for an elevated view. In his introduction, editor W.C. Jameson says, "I invited each of the authors to write the essay they always wanted to craft…but were never provided the opportunity until now. I wanted this to be an opportunity for them to express what they wished to share about their art and their life." In reply, he received: an essay regarding the dark and deep ties one author feels to a ghost settlement now nearly impossible to find; a poet telling of life falling apart, then recombining into something undreamt of; how one writer was led to vampires; and how another writer discerned it was more than a particular state or landscape that defined home—it was a specific neighbor. Rather than starting with the anthology's titled essay, in an inspired move, Jameson saves it for last. By coming at the close of the collection, Laurie Wagner Buyer's essay brings the previous writings together, illumining the common threads wafting and warping this tapestry of thirteen writers.

By Eduardo Brummel

Book Review - To A Mountain In Tibet by Colin Thubron

Colin Thubron is a British travel writer and novelist. In 2008, The Times ranked him 45th on their list of the 50 greatest postwar British writers. He is a contributor to the New York Review of Books, The Times, The Times Literary Supplement and the New York Times. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages. Thubron was appointed a CBE in the 2007 New Year Honors. He is a Fellow and, as of 2010, President of the Royal Society of Literature.

"The sun is rising to its zenith. Silver-grey boulders lie tumbled along the track among mattresses of thorns and smoke-blue flowers. The storm clouds that hang on the farther mountains do not move. There is no sound but the scrunch of our boots and the clink of the sherpa's trekking pole. Underfoot the stones glisten with quartz."

The above is the opening paragraph of Thubron's latest book. It reminded me of a line from a movie, "You had me at hello." (Jerry Macguire) I was already hooked and had nestled into the mood of the book. Where is my Sherpa?

This is not only a travel book but a personal and grueling pilgrimage to Mount Kailas, a mystical peak in Tibet close to the borders with Nepal and India. No one has ever climbed it. The author's reasons for attempting this sojourn are complex. He is grieving the loss of the last of his family. He is now the sole survivor. He cannot quite contain his grief. He slips easily into distracted thought. It is personal and I was glued to his side for the journey.

I see what he sees through his beautiful and austere prose. I feel what he feels through his emotional rawness; his mortality. I was also educated and enlightened by his clear and precise observations on Tibet's spiritual and political messiness.

This is a crystal of a book. Sparkling and alive.

By Eliza Collins

Book Review - Deadly Currents by Beth Groundwater

Groundwater (A Real Basket Case, 2007) launches a new, action-packed series featuring white-water guide Mandy Tanner. Mandy, a river ranger at her uncle's white-water rafting business, pulls a man from the river as part of her first day on the job. The man dies, but he did not drown. The victim, Tom King, was a real-estate developer with lots of nasty rivals. He also cheated on his wife and refused to support his son, an avid kayaker. He managed to make many environmentalists very unhappy, too. When Mandy's uncle dies suddenly, she suspects something more than a heart attack and wonders whether the two deaths are related. Her independent investigation leads her through some very rough water. Readers who enjoy fast-moving stories and wilderness environments will keep turning the pages of this promising series debut.