Border Songs

by Jim Lynch
3 Stars
Setting: Washington, Canada
304 pages
Published 2009

Ellie's Review
I enjoyed Border Songs.  The story was interesting about the Border Patrol on the Washington/Canadian border.  The character development of Brandon Vanderkool was intriguing and kept my interest as the socially-inept man new to the Border Patrol has the knack for catching things along his stretch of patrol that are out of the ordinary.  I grew up in Idaho, several hours from the Canadian border, and joined in on jokes about how the border wasn’t really secure.  Post 9/11, I was surprised to be stropped and questioned while trying to enter the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.  This novel probes into how much security we should place on that border to keep drugs, illegal aliens, and terrorists out of our country.  Lynch also explores the marijuana growing industry, which I found interesting since I drive past dispensaries every day in Denver.

Book Summary

Set in the previously sleepy hinterlands straddling Washington state and British Columbia, Border Songs is the story of Brandon Vanderkool, six food eight, frequently tongue-tied, severely dyslexic, and romantically inept.  Passionate about bird-watching, Brandon has a hard time mustering enthusiasm for his new job as a Border Patrol agent guarding thirty miles of largely invisible boundary.  But to everyone's surprise, he excels at catching illegals, and as drug runners, politicians, surveillance cameras, and a potential sweetheart flock to this scrap of land, Brandon is suddenly at the center of something much bigger than himself.

Gunn's Golden Rules

"Life's Little Lessons for Making It Work"
by Tim Gunn
4 Stars
Nonfiction: Memoir/Self Help
258 pages
Published 2010

Ellie's Review

In full disclosure, I love Project Runway and have adored Tim Gunn as the designers’ mentor.  His famous line “Make it work!” is often quoted in my house.  Gunn’s Golden Rules includes his lessons for life (part manners, part inspiration) with plenty of his personal stories that kept me hooked and laughing out loud.  Tim dishes on some PR designers along with some of the divas of fashion (for example, he suggests the devil really does wear Prada).  Some of the personal stories don’t necessarily relate to his rule for the chapter, but I didn’t mind that.  Tim’s advice is wonderful, and I loved that a New Yorker talked about being nicer to others.  All of us have something in life we can complain about, but we need to just “Make it work!” and do the best we can with whatever circumstances surround us. 

I want to be adopted as Tim's niece.  I’m only two degrees away from him, so maybe I’ll be introduced to him one of these days…. 

Book Summary
On the runway of life, Tim Gunn is the perfect life coach.  You've watched him mentor talented designers on the hit television show Project Runway.  Now the inimitable Tim Gunn shares his personal secrets for "making it work" - in your career, relationships, and life.  Filled with delightfully dishy stories of fashion's greatest divas, behind-the-scenes glimpses of Runway's biggest drama queens, and never-before-revealed insights into Tim's private life, Gunn's Golden Rules is like no other how-to book you've ever read.