The Madwoman in the Volvo: My Year of Raging Hormones by Sandra Tsing Loh

Reviewed by Laurie

This is a memoir about a woman who recounts her experience through the “change of life.” This book is funny and I caught myself giggling throughout it.  The author’s life is totally chaotic.  She is dealing with preteen daughters; an eighty-nine year old father,  a career,  an affair, and a divorce while her hormones are wreaking havoc with her physical, mental, emotional and spiritual self. Every day perils are amplified a thousand times due to menopause. Her reactions are crazy, and over-the-top.  For example her daughter gets bullied and she goes to the school to confront the ten-year-old and dresses the part with jeans, boots and aviator glasses. This book reads at a frantic pace as you are swept up into the tornado of her life. 

I would recommend this book for both men and women 45 and over.  The men will realize that this is a hormonal phase that should be supported and understood. It will also answer the question of “why is she so moody, crazy, bitchy, lately?” The women will realize that this is a hormonal phase that is like trying to go through a wind tunnel.  It will also answer the question “why do I feel soooooo ___________?”

 At the end of the book the author speaks to what she has learned and provides helpful tips.  I wish I had this book when I was going through it!  In hindsight, now I know why I behaved so erratically and why I wanted to slap everyone in my life upside the head, especially co-workers, bank tellers and mostly my husband.

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

 Reviewed by Laurie

On August 9, 2014 a new Starz Original drama series called “Outlander” was introduced to the Television World. I wasn’t sitting at the TV that night but while visiting family I had a chance to see the first three episodes and I was hooked!  When I found out that it was based on a book, I knew I had to read it.

The story begins when Claire, a nurse in World War II, goes to Scotland for a second honeymoon with her husband.  She goes for a walk and suddenly she is transported back to 1743 Scotland around the time of the Jacobite Uprising for Bonnie Prince Charlie. She doesn’t know how she got there, so she doesn’t know how to get back.  She meets James Fraser who is a brave, hot blooded young Scotsman who falls in love with her. Of course, Claire has a husband back in 1943 but she is still attracted to Jamie and of course she knows a bit about what is going to happen with the rebellion.

The time travel is the only fantasy element of the book, so if you don’t like fantasy don’t let that stop you from reading this book. The rest is filled with the Scottish Highlands, the Gaelic history, and the enchantment that only a descriptive historical romance can bring to your imagination. The book is wonderful, with a strong woman and of course a hot Scotsman in a kilt.  

The story behind the story is almost as good.  In 1988 Diane Gabaldon wanted to write a “practice book” to see if she could write a novel.  The result was Outlander which got her a book deal for two follow up books.  She won the Romance Writers of America’s RITA Award for Best Romance, putting her in the same class as Nora Roberts. Now there are eight books in the series and big thick books they are.   Am I going to read them? Yes, I will be right there in my p.j.s curled up on a comfy chair to see what comes next for Claire, Jamie, Frank, and all the others.

If you want to read the series, this is the order:

1.    Outlander

2.    Dragonfly in Amber

3.    Voyager

4.     The Drums of Autumn

5.    The Fiery Cross

6.     A Breath of Snow and Ashes

7.    An Echo in the Bone

8.    Written in My Own Heart's Blood

 

I do want to mention that there are some sensitive topics in the book, including heterosexual and homosexual rape, domestic violence, and child abuse.  I thought she did a good job of dealing with it in a non-sensational way and it didn’t bother me except that I was a little surprised.  I just didn’t expect some of those topics.

Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins by Michael Quinion

Reviewed by Laurie

I happened upon a show called “American Slang” on the History Channel.  It was so interesting because it explained the origins of words like “saloon,”  “hillbilly,” and “Yankee.” It was so good that I decided to look for a book about word origins at the library and found Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds by Michael Quinion.  He worked on the Oxford English Dictionary so he really knows his stuff and traces the words back to the first times they were used.

Quinion tells you about the history of slang words and phrases but also tells you what isn’t true.  There are a lot of stories that sound good but aren’t factual.  For example, I had heard a story about “Stow High In Transport.”  The story was that animals being shipped would relieve themselves and the results would seep into passengers’ boxes and luggage.  Therefore these fouled items would be chalked “S.H.I.T.” to warn of the excrement  and that was where we got the word.  However, he says this is an urban legend.  He debunks a number of the more fantastical word origins, and his explanation for others is a bit different than I expected.

One of these is the word “Dixie” meaning the South.  Quinion describes several of these, including the one about the money (“dix” is French for “ten” and referred to Louisiana banknotes).  He believes it goes back to the Mason-Dixon Line and therefore refers to the name of the surveyor John Dixon.

I have really enjoyed reading this book.  It’s set up alphabetically by words and phrases so you can pick and choose what you want to know about.  Some of the most interesting ones to me were actually ones I’d never heard of, like “Black Maria.”  That’s the name for a police van to transport prisoners.  Quinon traces it back to a famous black racehorse.  This was back when these police vans were horse drawn and usually black. Now they’re better known as “paddy wagons” but he doesn’t explain that one, darn it.

Needless to say, I could go on and on like this but it would be easier for you to pick it up—once I put it back on the shelf, that is!  Enjoy!

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Reviewed by Laurie

Note:  If you are easily offended, you may want to skip this review.  You would certainly want to skip the book.

Why did I pick this book up?  I was shelving and I saw the title: Confederacy (which make me think Civil War) and then Dunces, which made me laugh.  I can’t help it that I’m a Yankee, according to my very Southern husband.  I couldn’t imagine what this book was about.  The cover blurb says, “The Pulitzer Prize winning novel featuring Ignatius Reilly and his marvelous, madcap adventures in New Orleans.”  Well, New Orleans isn’t the “True South,” it’s in a class of its own.

The reviews all sounded good.  There were quotes from Newsweek, The Washington Post, and the New York Times Book Review all saying that this book is a great comedy. I could use some good laughs, and it would be a change from all my murder mysteries.  Maybe I’ll read it.  I ask Jeanne about it first and she tells me of the strange way the book was published.  It was written in the 1960s and the author committed suicide.  His mother found the manuscript and worked for sixteen years to get it published.  When it finally does come out as a book, it wins the Pulitzer Prize. 

I’m intrigued so I start reading.  Oh, my goodness!  The main character, Ignatius Reilly, is totally obnoxious.  He constantly rambles on about sex, orgies, old sodomites, and other things.  He writes all these things down in Big Chief notebooks. In the preface, Southern writer Walker Percy (who helped to get the book published) says that Ignatius is “"slob extraordinary, a mad Oliver Hardy, a fat Don Quixote, a perverse Thomas Aquinas rolled into one.”  He really is, and more.  The storyline is that he has been living with his mother and doing pretty much nothing but then he has to go out and look for a job.  This is the way he meets all these priceless characters.  I can picture each one, especially Burma Jones,  who has an Afro, wears sunglasses, and has a cloud of cigarette smoke around his head at all times. There’s also Miss Trixie, who is as old as dirt and senile. She’s a secretary at Levy Pants, and Ignatius thinks she is the Medusa of Capitalism. 

Do I like the book?  I’m not sure.  It’s so bizarre and different from what I usually read.  Am I glad I read it?  I think I am.  There’s something about it; it stays with you.  Ignatius is so weird yet I’m envious that he can make the biggest scene in the world and never think of it as his fault.  How freeing is that? My favorite part is the ending, and that’s not because it’s over with.  This is one of the best endings to a book that I’ve ever read.  The author doesn’t leave anything hanging and everything ends in a wonderful place.