The Big Sleep

Author Raymond Chandler’s first Philip Marlowe mystery packs a big punch for hard-boiled detective novel devotees. Set in late 1930’s Los Angeles, Marlowe is hired by General Sternwood, a dying millionaire to find out who is blackmailing his daughter. His investigation leads to a situation that is more than he bargained for when he discovers that the General’s two daughters, leading immoral lives, are involved with pornography and murder. Chandler’s poetically descriptive language and precise depiction of his gritty characters enhances the novel’s ambiance. Philip Marlowe is a noble individual who rises above the fray to bring about justice.

Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives

Here is an unusual topic for fiction. What do you think the afterlife would be like? Author David Eagleman, a neuroscientist and non-fiction writer, presents us with a collection of short stories offering a variety of alternatives. In one afterlife you might relive all of the experiences in your previous life, only grouped together, so that you would sleep for thirty years, stand on line for eighteen months, shower for two hundred days, and more. In another one, you find that after death your role is to populate the dreams of living people; eventually you will return to life and the actors in your dreams will be the dead. In some versions of the afterlife, God is a giantess, or a married couple not always living happily ever after, or a group of Collectors who run scientific experiments using us as the subjects to answer their questions. Heaven might be a comfortable lounge where you get to watch the details in the lives of your descendants. Or it might be a place where everything is immortal, even the things that we create, such as cell phones, knickknacks, old computers, etc. All of these tales and others allow the author to express his ideas of human philosophies, hopes and emotions in a concise volume.

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir

Written by Elizabeth McCracken, this is an exploration of the author’s feelings during a tumultuous time in her life. Recently married, she and her husband Edward, both writers, temporarily move to France on work assignments. Elizabeth discovers she is pregnant and the couple spends the next several months in a blissful state, enjoying both the pleasurable elements of French culture and the exciting promise of future parenthood. Then the unthinkable happens; in her ninth month of pregnancy Elizabeth senses that something is wrong with the baby. She is rushed first to the clinic and then to the hospital where she delivers a stillborn son. Inconsolable in her grief, even though her husband is very supportive, Elizabeth falls into the depths of depression. We are present in all her thoughts and feelings. Not long after this she becomes pregnant again, hoping against hope that she will deliver a healthy baby. Even when Elizabeth does deliver a healthy second son, Gus, she still has a place in her heart for their first child and asserts that this book is a memorial to him.

August is National Immunization Awareness Month

Childhood immunization is a controversial topic; one camp insists that it is responsible for autism and other illnesses and disabilities in children; the other side maintains that vaccination is mandatory in order to prevent epidemics. Here are some recently published books on the topic.

Vaccine Epidemic: How Corporate Greed, Biased Science, and Coercive Government Threaten our Human Rights, our Health, and our Children, edited by Louise Kuo Habakus and Mary Holland, presents a series of articles featuring instances of vaccinations causing illnesses to children, adolescents and adults. They contend that government mandates for vaccination violate individual rights and suggest ways to reform American health policy.

Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All, written by Paul A. Offit, an infectious disease physician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, maintains that the media’s presentation of anecdotal incidence of disease and disabilities caused by vaccinations is playing on parents’ fears. He asserts that epidemic, the end result of not being protected by vaccinations, is far worse, posing a threat to all of society.

The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear, written by Seth Mnookin, also contends that the media, in an effort to being fair to both sides of the argument, has encouraged certain groups to advance a health-scare hoax. He also points to various anti-vaccination outbursts over the years since the smallpox vaccine was developed as the continuation of an anti-scientific sentiment in society.

The Vaccine Answerbook: 200 Essential Answers to Help You Make the Right Decisions for your Child, written by physician Jamie Loehr, provides detailed information about specific vaccines, their side effects, when it is not recommended to administer them, and when to schedule them for your child. He also explores some of the controversies surrounding vaccines and their purported cause of disabilities.

August Birthdays

Martha Stewart – August 3, 1941
Being Martha: The Inside Story of Martha Stewart and her Amazing Life, written by Lloyd Allen, a friend of Martha’s daughter and a former neighbor, paints a flattering picture of her as viewed by her mother, daughter, brother, and others. Less adulatory and more well-balanced is Martha: On Trial, In Jail, and on a Comeback, written by Robert Slater. It is based on a series of in-depth interviews of people who have dealt with Martha. Martha herself is not interviewed. The book mainly focuses on her trial, incarceration and her future projects after release from prison.

Lucille Ball – August 6, 1911
Laughing with Lucy: My Life with America’s Leading Lady of Comedy, written by Madelyn Pugh Davis with Bob Carroll Jr., recounts the stories, both familiar and little-known, of the production of the I Love Lucy show and the other Lucille Ball sitcoms. Davis and Carroll were the show’s co-writers.

Julia Child – August 15, 1912
A Covert Affair: Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS, written by Jennet Conant, tells the story of Julia and Paul’s lives as members of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, long before Julia’s career as a chef took off. Years later, they were involved in another battle when McCarthy-era politics threatened many of their intelligence colleagues including Jane Foster, who actually may have been a Soviet spy.

Shanghai Girls: A Novel

In this compelling novel written by Lisa See, two upper-middle class young women from late 1930’s Shanghai, China endure physical and emotional upheaval before their escape to Los Angeles after being sold by their father as wives to two Chinese men living there. We see the sisters, Pearl and May, developing maturity and strength as they go from a sheltered and carefree existence, to struggle, abuse and escape during the Japanese invasion, to a life of hard work and racial discrimination in Los Angeles. The book covers a twenty-year period during which the sisters strive to adapt to their new home, husbands and extended families, and to survive financially. Along the way, we examine the strengths and weaknesses of the sisters’ relationship with each other, coexisting with their petty jealousies and passionate trust in one another, and keeping their one secret from others for fear of upsetting their new lives in America. We see how the generations of the extended family interrelate. We also get a direct comparison of Chinese and Chinese-American cultures. The book ends without the expected finalization of the story; it is continued in See’s latest work Dreams of Joy.

The Art of Racing in the Rain

This incredible story, written by Garth Stein, will touch your heart and make you want to believe in its legitimacy, even though it’s a work of fiction. Enzo the dog was raised from a puppy by Danny, an aspiring racecar driver whose family eventually expanded to include a wife and daughter. The dog also was a faithful family member, honor bound to protect them all. Remarkably, Enzo is the narrator of the story as he is a self-educated canine. Thanks to instruction from television and other sources, Enzo is capable of higher thinking, although he is unable to speak and has to communicate through gestures and actions.

There are two stories here, one being the tragedy that befalls Danny’s family when his wife dies and her parents try to gain total custody of the daughter, because of their belief that they will be better guardians than Danny who they see as less than stable because of his profession. But Danny is able to succeed in the end, thanks to his racing philosophy and sheer determination. The second story involves Enzo’s desire to become a human in his next life, something he has learned about from an educational television program and that he believes he is ready for. In a book balanced by equal portions of humor and pathos, we speed through Enzo’s short canine life, cheering on this noble creature who in the end receives his just reward.