Teacher Man by Frank McCourt

Written in 2018:

 "If I could travel to my twenty-seventh year, my first teaching year, I'd take me out for a steak, a baked potato, a pint of stout. I'd give myself a good talking to. For Christ's sake, kid, straighten up. Throw back those miserable bony shoulders. Stop mumbling. Speak up. Stop putting yourself down. In that department the world will be happy to oblige. You're starting your teaching career, and it isn't an easy life. I know. I did it. You'd be better off as a cop. At least you'd have a gun or a stick to defend yourself. A teacher has nothing but his mouth. If you don't learn to love it, you'll wriggle in a corner of hell."                   -Frank McCourt, from the memoir

I fell in love with Frank McCourt's writing after I read Angela's Ashes a few months ago. I was lucky enough to listen to a good portion of it narrated by the author, his Irish brogue greatly enhancing the story of his youth in Limerick. It didn't take long for me to find his second memoir, 'Tis in which McCourt describes his return to the U.S. where he was born. I was delighted to find Teacher Man in  both the audio and print versions. Though I enjoyed the first 2 books immensely, this one may be my favorite. Could it be because I taught school 37 years?

As the quote indicates, Frank McCourt began his teaching career at age 27 and for 30 years taught in several New York high schools. Even though I taught elementary school I could totally relate to many of his experiences. Some were laugh-out-loud funny like the sandwich-throwing incident. Many others were quite touching like Kevin's and Serena's stories.

I was impressed by McCourt's teaching strategies---unorthodox, very creative, motivating and relevant to his students' lives. The lesson in which he had students writing excuses for historical figures is a great example. He was the kind of teacher I aspired to be (and hopefully was, at least at times).

On a scale of 1-5, I want to give Teacher Man a 6! I don't often reread books but I can see myself picking any of McCourt's memoirs up again in the future. Since he began his writing career late in life, his body of work is limited. I read Angela and the Baby Jesus, a very short illustrated children's book about his mother as a child "rescuing" the baby Jesus figure from a church nativity. The only other McCourt books are co-written with his brother Malachy like A Couple of Blaguards. I'll find it soon!

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I just reread this memoir and loved it just as much the second time! 

Happy Wife by Meredith Lavender and Kendall Shores

"As Will's twenty-eight-year-old second wife, I'm something between arm candy and dinner theater to most of his friends. A spectacle to be sure. At best, I am a strange interloper, someone new who doesn't know any of their inside jokes. At worst, all the wives jeer at me like I'm the Ghost of Christmas Future, a harbinger of younger second wives to come. Never mind that Will's divorce from his first wife, Constance, is well behind him---a divorce she initiated."            -from the novel

 

I really enjoyed this novel! I am not sure if I would have liked it quite so much if the setting had not been in my own backyard, Winter Park, Florida. Normally, I would not choose a book that sounds like a romance. This one did involve a romance but also a mysterious disappearance that kept me turning pages. I will give it a 5 rating for its entertainment value.

Nora Davies is a newcomer in Winter Park and working two low-level jobs to eke out a living when she meets Will Somerset, a rich, well-respected lawyer who hob nobs with the elite. He is almost 20 years older than she but there is undeniable chemistry between Nora and her "mean, hot lawyer." This is the backstory because...

The real plot is woven when Will disappears after the birthday party Nora has thrown for him. Gone without a trace! While Nora and others try to find clues as to Will's whereabouts there are flashbacks to the beginnings of their romance and marriage.

When Nora feels she is a suspect in Will's disappearance, she is desperate to find who is really responsible.

I mentioned that the novel is set in the city where I live. It was so much fun to be familiar with so many places in the story----Rollins College and Annie Russell Theatre, Park Avenue, the Morse Museum, the Winter Park Chain of Lakes, Fiddlers Green Irish Pub, Hannibal Square, the Farmer's Market and the famous peacocks of Genius Drive. And much more!

Blue Marlin by Lee Smith

 "I saw myself as an island with time stretching out before me and behind me, all around me like a deep lake, mysterious and never-ending, like Lake Nantahala, where I lost my ring, where a person might lose anything. This precarious view made everything that happened to me seem very, very important. I had to see as much as I could see, learn as much as I could learn, feel as much as I could feel. I had to live like crazy all the time, an attitude that would get me into lots of trouble later."    -Jenny, from the novel

Our Page Turners' September selection, Blue Marlin is the story of a feisty 13-year-old girl trying to cope with her father's infidelity and her mother's depression. I found Jenny to be very likeable and believable as a teenager with the usual growing pains with added on family dysfunction. I was cheering her on as I often do with youngsters in fiction, probably a result of having taught those of a similar age.

One of my favorite parts is when the family tries a "geographical cure," a trip from their home in Virginia to Key West. Some Florida landmarks along the way were very familiar to me and I enjoyed visiting Key West again vicariously. The 1959 time setting brought back memories to this baby-boomer with mentions of current events and popular culture of the time, like movies, songs and celebrities.

I also liked the last portion of the novella in which the author tells how her own youth was the inspiration for the story. She calls it "autobiographical fiction, with the emphasis on fiction."

I am rating Blue Marlin a 5. I'd definitely recommend it for middle schoolers and above...and/or former schoolteachers!

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The Page Turners' rating was 4 and the discussion was very interesting. With no men at the meeting, we could all relate to the story in some ways. We had all been 13-year-old girls---long ago! Now I want to see "Operation Petticoat," a movie that was significant to the ending.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien

 "The real point is this: We don't know where to go because we don't know what we are. Do you want to go back to living in a sewer pipe? And eating other people's garbage? Because that's what rats do. But the fact is we aren't rats any more. We're something Dr. Schultz has made. Something new. Dr. Schultz says our intelligence has increased more than one thousand per cent. I suspect he's underestimated; I think we're probably as intelligent as he is---maybe more. We can read, and with a little practice, we'll be able to write, too. I mean to do both. I think we can learn to do anything we want. But where do we do it? Where does a group of civilized rats fit in?"

           -Nicodemus, from the novel

This book is likely recommended for upper elementary students so why would this 70-something woman be reading it? I had discovered it as a 5th grade teacher, and it was a favorite of mine: a delightful fantasy with loveable animal characters. I needed something light and fun and Mrs. Frisby.. filled the bill. A rating of 5.

Mrs. Frisby is a mouse widow and mother of four, one of whom is very ill. She knows a wise mouse, Mr. Ages, who has cures to offer so she goes to seek his help. He gives her medicine for son Timothy but warns he will not completely recover for weeks. Further complicating matters the Frisbys will have to move soon because their home is in a field that will be plowed in early spring. She will need serious help to move the family. 

After Mrs. Frisby rescues Jeremy the crow, he suggests the owl may have a solution to her problem and he flies her there. The owl is familiar with her name, having known of her late husband, Jonathan. The owl simply says, "You must go to the rats."

There is a group of rats who are seen going to and from a huge rosebush by the barn on the property of the Fitzgibbons, where the Frisbys also live. Mrs. F summons her courage and goes there. She eventually meets Nicodemus who tells her the story of the rats' escape from NIMH, National Institute for Mental Health, where they were kept in a lab and given injections for intelligence, strength and longevity. She also finds out how the rats were familiar with her husband.

You will have to discover the details for yourself.

Two Old Men and a Baby by Hendrik Groen

 

"'Evert, Evert, Evert, what have you got us into now?' I knew my pal could sometimes be a bit impulsive, but this was especially ill-thought-out, even for him. A baby as a surprise Santa gift! I was finding it hard to hide my anger and irritation."

    -from the novel

In March I read The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 1/4 Years Old and loved it so much that I read a sequel, On the Bright Side, The New Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen. Both were very entertaining. When I noticed there was another by this Dutch author, I tried to find it in my local library and finally received it as an interlibrary loan. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the other two, but it was a page-turner. I will rate it a 4.

Occurring 9 years before The Secret Diary setting, Hendrik and good buddy, Evert Duiker have a crazy, exciting adventure. The subtitle: Or How Hendrik and Evert Get Themselves into a Jam, hints of such.

Hendrik ducks into a school to use the restroom and finds an unsupervised baby asleep in a carriage. Without thinking he leaves with the carriage and when he comes to his senses, goes to Hendrik for help. See Hendrik's reaction above. Repeatedly they try to return the child to the parents with no success. 

The action alternates between the Princess Margriet School, Hendrik's apartment, the Verbeek home (baby's parents), the police station or town hall and the home of Wil, a deceitful fellow trying to capitalize on the "kidnapping" by asking a ransom with NO child. Add in some incompetent police and a nosy neighbor and you have some amusing incidents.

I should add that the first two Groen books I mentioned were very relatable to me as Hendrik is living in what he refers to as a "care home" and so do I although we call it a continuing care retirement community, CCRC. So many familiar occurrences! Those two novels earned 5 ratings from me.

The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman

"[Antonina's] uncanny ability to calm unruly animals earned her the respect of both the keepers and her husband, who, though he believed science could explain it, found her gift nonetheless strange and mysterious."

Zookeeper and scientist Jan Zabinski said of his wife "She's so sensitive, she's almost able to read their minds...She becomes them...She has a precise and very special gift, a way of observing and understanding animals that's rare, a sixth sense...It's been this way since she was little."     

                                               -describing Antonina Zabinski, The Zookeeper's Wife

While very inspiring in some ways, the book is wearisome in others. After Germany invaded and bombed Warsaw, zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski, with few animals left, began to take in and hide numerous Jewish refugees. Their efforts put them in grave danger if they were caught. Jan was even a member of the Polish resistance, a group who found ways to sabotage the Nazis in many creative ways. Both Jan and Antonina carried cyanide pills in case they were caught.

Although I have done a great deal of reading about the Holocaust and have visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., I learned things I didn't know from this book. I am always shocked by the tragic things that happened but also impressed by the number of people who helped and gave sanctuary to Jews at great risk to themselves and their families.

I prefer nonfictions that read like fiction, that is with dialogue making people seem more real. The best this author could do was to quote diaries, letters and interviews to personalize the characters. There were pages of description and numerous lists of animals, plants and other things, making the book tedious at times. In fact, I found I couldn't wait to finish it. I'll give it a 3 rating even though I was leaning toward a 2. 

Apparently, there is a film adaptation. I need to see it one of these days to compare. I have a feeling it might be more compelling than the book. 

 

Brainiac by Ken Jennings

"For as long as I can remember, I've had the idea that trivia, despite its name, is elegant, complicated, fascinating, worthy of study----that trivia is, in a word, nontrivial."

           -Ken Jennings, from Brainiac

This book is our Page Turners' August selection. I was disappointed I could not get a digital copy from the library. Fortunately, I got a copy in print from our local library. Before I received it, I heard from a few members of our group that they didn't like it much, so my expectations weren't high, but I actually did enjoy the book for the most part. Maybe you have to be a BIG Jeopardy fan to appreciate it---and that, I am, although not as obsessed as Ken and some other brainiacs!

The subtitle of this book gives a down and dirty summary: Adventure in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs. I would say it is mostly a memoir relating the author's incredible success in trivia competitions, most notably on "Jeopardy!" in 2004 (75 games won---6 months---earning $2.5 million---unprecedented!) but with extensive research into trivia history. He also describes some of the current events in trivia culture, including "The World's Largest Trivia Contest" in Steven's Point, Wisconsin, of all places. Jennings' memories of his experiences were my favorite parts of the book, along with the fact that he embeds many trivia questions in each chapter with answers at the end. Fun to see how many answers I knew---and how many more I did not! Much of the history was far less interesting to me. My rating is 4 (more like 3 1/2).

On two pages I found several brief descriptions of trivia that were intriguing:

"Trivia is the marijuana of knowledge."

"[Trivia] ignites our curiosity about things we didn't think we were interested in."

"[Trivia] is bait on the fishing rod of education."

"The right trivia fact at the right time can do more than answer a Daily Double for you. It can change the way you think. It can change your life."