tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14273039026392984412024-03-19T04:28:22.007-04:00Discriminating ReaderVoracious reader Nancy Posey shares some good book talk and welcomes discussion.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger599125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-39863356516633494692024-03-06T21:41:00.003-05:002024-03-06T21:41:50.075-05:00Urrea's The Hummingbird's Daughter<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp29oQqrXEMn-m3ic8_65WvIawsslaUQaI4Y6BudbgbWMUsDGkaLEOUGJu_qSuWp8TpIbRYKXffCBJXLg1wG24N4sDDdrX6gScXP4mkYafrnGlpofSNn-Lya-Wv0HAOUfFw9zWkKfYDN0DrIo-1Eo2RI5YKeBBLNaRbpKsxPnDKz0enE_vm_yzMpCrKOY7/s938/Screenshot%202024-03-06%20at%208.21.12%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="938" data-original-width="598" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp29oQqrXEMn-m3ic8_65WvIawsslaUQaI4Y6BudbgbWMUsDGkaLEOUGJu_qSuWp8TpIbRYKXffCBJXLg1wG24N4sDDdrX6gScXP4mkYafrnGlpofSNn-Lya-Wv0HAOUfFw9zWkKfYDN0DrIo-1Eo2RI5YKeBBLNaRbpKsxPnDKz0enE_vm_yzMpCrKOY7/s320/Screenshot%202024-03-06%20at%208.21.12%20PM.png" width="204" /></a></div><br /> When I first encountered Luis Alberto Urrea, I read his novel <i>House of Broken Angels</i>, and was particularly fascinated with how well he wrote from women's points of view. The book was a modern family tale complicated in the way families are. I went on this year to read <i>Goodnight Irene, </i> the story influenced by his mother's experience as one of the Red Cross "Donut Dollies" during WWII.<p></p><p>I stumbled across <i>The Hummingbird's Daughter </i>and started listening to the audiobook, unaware when the book was written. Only after I finished did I learn that it had been awarded the <span style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(67, 67, 55); color: #434337; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 15px;">Kiriyama Pacific Rim Prize in 2006--not a new book after all. But this one is another sprawling tale, this time set in Mexico in the late 19th century. Teresita, the main character, was born to a poor 14-year-old Indian girl and abandoned with her abusive aunt before Huila, the local healer--considered by many a witch--takes her in as her apprentice</span></p><p><span style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(67, 67, 55); color: #434337; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 15px;">Eventually, she comes to the attention of </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #434337; font-family: Merriweather, serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(67, 67, 55); font-size: 15px;">Don Tomás Urrea, the wealthy rancher. The relationships between the different social classes is complicated since Urrea, a philanderer, is the apparent father not only of Teresita but other children as well. The book is reminiscent of the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. When she is fatally attacked but returns to life before her burial, the attention draws swarms of pilgrims hoping for healing. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #434337; font-family: Merriweather, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(67, 67, 55); font-size: 15px;">Urrea worked almost twenty years on the novel, based on historical </span><span style="font-size: 15px;">characters to whom he may share kinship. He explains in the afterword that in some areas Teresita is still revered as Saint of Cabora. The writing is particularly strong, with well-drawn, layered characters and details both powerful, painful, and at times, humorous. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #434337; font-family: Merriweather, serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">Before I was halfway through the </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(67, 67, 55); font-size: 15px;">book, I was thinking of friends to whom I needed to recommend it. That's the ultimate reading experience--one I want to share.</span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-79058959802274893082024-02-15T22:33:00.004-05:002024-02-15T22:33:44.709-05:00Catching up on My Tar Heel Writers<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaqNmUKYh5uzf91bWlgDRni59H_QVJ3kbZcfLsW93f_VSvanetDV71uax4DUldmq_Zb5eqIPjknm2-bGzc1MTUd1YzdCTvSos0C_xVPxxNVpFWSzPwmfh6funOiwKTLYdsYzzoIYJjoqbF0oloay_hvPBJQI70N_KzsIzMNvNzpXBUgWQz0sc4adZIE0Gw/s259/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaqNmUKYh5uzf91bWlgDRni59H_QVJ3kbZcfLsW93f_VSvanetDV71uax4DUldmq_Zb5eqIPjknm2-bGzc1MTUd1YzdCTvSos0C_xVPxxNVpFWSzPwmfh6funOiwKTLYdsYzzoIYJjoqbF0oloay_hvPBJQI70N_KzsIzMNvNzpXBUgWQz0sc4adZIE0Gw/w238-h178/images.jpeg" width="238" /></a></div>With the recent news of the passing of Fred Chappell, the former North Carolina poet laureate and a true gentleman, I re-read his lovely book <i>I Am One of You Forever.</i> Chappell wrote poetry as well as fiction and was so generous with his support and encouragement of aspiring writers. This particular book, set on a farm around the time of World War II, is a family story, told with such a gentle hand. <p></p><p>Jess, the protagonist, is ten when the story opens. Central to the story are his parents and Jonathan, an orphaned teenager who comes to work on the family, sharing a room with Jess, before <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrSTCsFDiEhY28ziz2JcszL-nCQ_qyGPW-_bTHsQmoVVQviAEuLebI5oOubrWtDHWulj14TP9XiuAruK3QQrHcG23g3vrne__Eo79shzVmJogoD6y8uJS1CiOsOUTOmZQRQAoiVbidceb8yHHK54bX2D2p31HKGeMzsTWE0wDWjHTST_STAQk2orfjIQHk/s366/Screenshot%202024-02-15%20at%209.06.35%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="366" data-original-width="270" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrSTCsFDiEhY28ziz2JcszL-nCQ_qyGPW-_bTHsQmoVVQviAEuLebI5oOubrWtDHWulj14TP9XiuAruK3QQrHcG23g3vrne__Eo79shzVmJogoD6y8uJS1CiOsOUTOmZQRQAoiVbidceb8yHHK54bX2D2p31HKGeMzsTWE0wDWjHTST_STAQk2orfjIQHk/s320/Screenshot%202024-02-15%20at%209.06.35%20PM.png" width="236" /></a></div> enlisting. A number of family members visit--particularly colorful uncles with quirky appetites and massive beards.<p></p><p>Chappell doesn't adhere to strict chronological order as he arranges his chapters. Rather than setting up some events as flashbacks, he just shares an earlier narrative event as if, perhaps, he had just recalled it. I know so many authors have chosen to write a coming of age story. <i>Jim the Boy</i> by Tony Earley (also a native North Carolinian) is another excellent example. Other successful writers I won't name fall short of the bar Chappell established when they attempt to tell a nostalgic story from a young protagonist's perspective. </p><p>While I was on my North Carolina streak, I also discovered that Lee Smith had a new novel <i>Silver Alert</i>. This story, set in Key West, Florida, focuses first on Herb, aging and unhealthy, but trying to care for his beloved wife Susan at home, even though her dementia makes it a difficult challenge. A manicurist who calls herself Renee comes to the house and has a calming effect on Susan, endearing her to Herb. As his children stage an intervention, insisting Susan belongs in a facility where she can be better cared for, Herb takes Renee on a last adventure in his sports car, and they end up heading toward Disney World. Whether I am listening to an audiobook or reading, I always hear Smith's voice as I read--full of humor but still so tender in her treatment of her characters.</p><p>Last, I had the opportunity to hear North Carolina's Jill McCorkle read from her short story collection <i>Old Crimes </i>at Parnassus Books. Like Smith, McCorkle has such a distinctive writing voice. These stories have some subtle overlapping of characters, while each stands alone. One quirk she noted is the multiple appearances of belts of all kinds in the stories. A teacher myself, I always particularly enjoy McCorkle's stories told from a teacher's perspective. One in particular reminded me of a favorite scene in her novel <i>Life after Life. </i> I may be re-reading that one.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-78874757439714355082024-01-15T17:36:00.002-05:002024-01-15T17:36:44.790-05:00Fiction: Two for 2023<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRawJFxtuPCdsrwxBAZPPAkTZGqnYqA89aDVZ4Vqw5lsSm3LsmDi_P99CbZkp-3Vs2wtxfSaMwlV_evX_YSxRMINg8YkYjnSE2CmbCZb2eiatXQt8QoUqmI1Y3gkFJMgC0OOjsmciNJc3ISNh33oTPcQSayCKfTYfGlRAemfVQbAOqgj7RfcPj7pLp82G1/s906/Screenshot%202024-01-15%20at%201.48.32%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="906" data-original-width="596" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRawJFxtuPCdsrwxBAZPPAkTZGqnYqA89aDVZ4Vqw5lsSm3LsmDi_P99CbZkp-3Vs2wtxfSaMwlV_evX_YSxRMINg8YkYjnSE2CmbCZb2eiatXQt8QoUqmI1Y3gkFJMgC0OOjsmciNJc3ISNh33oTPcQSayCKfTYfGlRAemfVQbAOqgj7RfcPj7pLp82G1/w197-h299/Screenshot%202024-01-15%20at%201.48.32%20PM.png" width="197" /></a></div><br />When I get multiple recommendations from readers I trust for a book by an author whose books I have loved, I go for it. Geraldine Brooks' novel <i>Horse</i> is a case in point. I especially loved <i>People of the Book</i>, with its reverse chronological timeline. This latest novel moves back and forth between the South during the slavery era and current Washington D.C. In present day, the two main characters are Theo, a Nigerian American studying historical equestrian art, and Jess, a scientist at the Smithsonian who becomes aware of the skeleton of an important race horse stored in the institution's attic. <p></p><p>In the back story, Jarrett is an enslaved son of a freed black horse trainer who forms a special bond with a horse he has known from its birth. The narrative delves into the politics of race and horse breeding across centuries. As readers discover in the epilogue, Brooks based the story on fact, particularly the racehorse Lexington, which went on to be one of the nation's most prolific sires.</p><p>I also learned a lot about equestrian artists of the day, preserving for posterity what would eventually be accomplished by photography. Through her characters, Brooks presents the complicated and many layered perspectives on race, slavery, war, and ultimately, human nature.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_rHnsF_RFvj5ve1HDK9e8gElytQaS76hfgsEZGPsANm-k5YU6P6n9HRTION6EJPPuHva7bMeFCQN6uXCempGQsaIsPLg9MuX4mtuTluf7pJEDpSShgMMg8On17KXZzkWBbr5ex4LaGczi_QDvi2Kz3b4zSzabnwNqpmrw-YTPi02yFCMtjftMRVzvTwhk/s628/Screenshot%202024-01-15%20at%204.17.20%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="628" data-original-width="414" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_rHnsF_RFvj5ve1HDK9e8gElytQaS76hfgsEZGPsANm-k5YU6P6n9HRTION6EJPPuHva7bMeFCQN6uXCempGQsaIsPLg9MuX4mtuTluf7pJEDpSShgMMg8On17KXZzkWBbr5ex4LaGczi_QDvi2Kz3b4zSzabnwNqpmrw-YTPi02yFCMtjftMRVzvTwhk/s320/Screenshot%202024-01-15%20at%204.17.20%20PM.png" width="211" /></a></div><p>Another book that surprised me this past year was R. F. Kuang's novel <i>Yellowface. </i>If I were teaching a literature survey course, this novel would give me the ideal example of an unreliable narrator. The story opens with June Hayward, an aspiring writer yet to achieve the success for which she longs. After a dinner with her former classmate, rising star Athena Liu, she is invited to go back to Athena's apartment, where she discovers that her peer is not only achieving fame for her current publication, but she has a completed manuscript in her office. </p><p>Early spoiler alert: When Athena chokes to death in her presence, June can't avoid the temptation to take the manuscript for herself. The drama that develops as she convinces even herself that the edited work is her own is heightened as she is challenged both anonymously on social media and directly, particularly by those who accuse her of appropriating the story of Chinese laborers in World War I. That she allows her editor to convince her to use her first and middle name, Juniper Song, falsely suggested Asian roots, further complicates the plot. As June takes actions that make readers squirm, thinking, "Surely not!" she becomes increasingly delusional and paranoid. Kuang's story may add to the dialogue about who has the right to tell what story, but at its core, the story is a psychological thriller as well.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-70572878232303997162024-01-11T20:07:00.004-05:002024-01-11T20:08:27.361-05:00A Favorite from the End of 2023: Ken Follett's The Armor of Light<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAmQbdVXLR5BnrSXjPXnIBWR6Y8NTcZxd7Yl4S537nhSTzU3ocKcqExm1g3IbSVEpzLOUA6XuoLRAfVJ4L2qc_i9C4Ac7cLXkAdkdcMEph2VvFiQ673Dle6wrWOg5khvXQiAZ48-OGHoYCu640mFop4aJLZ8Bo2wDX8M88eGvmAV81hh-qOwP0X6m0LTwV/s300/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAmQbdVXLR5BnrSXjPXnIBWR6Y8NTcZxd7Yl4S537nhSTzU3ocKcqExm1g3IbSVEpzLOUA6XuoLRAfVJ4L2qc_i9C4Ac7cLXkAdkdcMEph2VvFiQ673Dle6wrWOg5khvXQiAZ48-OGHoYCu640mFop4aJLZ8Bo2wDX8M88eGvmAV81hh-qOwP0X6m0LTwV/s1600/images.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div>My first encounter with the writing of Ken Follett was his first sprawling tale <i>Pillars of the Earth, </i>published in 1989, which I read at least twenty years ago. While some books I read just months ago have escaped my memory, this one remains firmly planted. He begins in Kingsbridge, a fictional English village, during the Middle Ages, introducing Jack the Builder, who aspires to build a great cathedral. <p></p><p>Follett not only brought the actual construction to life, but he created some of the best-drawn memorable characters. His protagonists, even when flawed, are endearing. His villains are despicable, even though he often builds the back story that explains why they act the way they do. The story is steeped in history, presenting the conflict for the British throne, and leads up to the murder of Thomas Becket in Winchester Cathedral.</p><p>More than twenty years passed before Follett published <i>World Without End</i>, the next in the series, followed by <i>Column of Fire</i>. In the meantime, he has written thrillers, as well as another series, the Century Trilogy. <i>The Armor of Light </i>is the fourth in the Pillows of the Earth series picking up in the same area in the late 1700s, focusing on the weaving industry and the impact of the Industrial Revolution, as well as the Napoleonic Wars.</p><p>Again, I learned a lot about a part of history that was less familiar to me, while meeting a cast of characters I loved and hated. Sal Clitheroe, a spinner, loses her husband through an accident for which his employer Will Riddick is responsible. A survivor, she ends up being forced to leave the village with her son Kit, because of Riddick. Amos Barrowfield is a forward-thinking cloth merchant who champions the cause of his spinners. David Shoveller (known as Spade) is a clothier, whose life is intertwined with the characters as well. Alderman Hornbeam is the major antagonist of the novel, with his brand of justice never allowing for even a glimmer of mercy.</p><p>Follett has a knack for developing suspense. Only the most optimistic reader would not anticipate some of the heartbreaking events of the story, but Follett shines a light on some of those who use their intellect to overcome, not only for themselves but others.</p><p>Follett's books are always weighty tomes that would serve well as doorstops, but I never grow tired of them whenever I visit this part of world history.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-15312442835870659212023-12-31T23:03:00.003-05:002023-12-31T23:03:31.853-05:00My 2023 Reading List<p>Now that New Year's Eve has arrived, with only a couple of hours before the ball drops, it's safe for me to post my list of books I read this year. I don't think I'll have time to read one more. I fell a few short of my last year's total (86), but I also completed (and published) my dissertation this month, so I think I'll give myself a pass. </p><p>Compiling the list I am reminded pleasantly of books I loved, and occasionally I have trouble remembering the plots of one or two. Some of the books on the list (especially the poetry) are written by friends. I suspect I may have failed to add a few poetry collections or chapbooks that I read. </p><p>Over the next day or so, I will give some brief reviews of my favorites. I look forward to comparing my lists to those of other readers whose taste I trust. (You know who you are.)</p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">2023 Book List</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">1. Barbara Kingsolver, <i>Demon Copperhead</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">2. Louse Penny, <i>World of Curiosities</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">3. Rick Bragg, <i>The Best Cook in the World<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">4. Kimberly Belle, <i>The Marriage Lie<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">5. Dana Malone and Laura Suzanne, <i>Mother, Grave, Ghost</i> (poetry)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">6. Fredrick Backman, <i>Us Against You</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">7. Shelby Van Pelt, <i>Remarkably Bright Creatures<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">8. Annie Lyons, <i>the Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">9. Fredrik Backman, <i>The Winners<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">10. Patti Callahan, <i>Once upon a Wardrobe<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">11. Stanley Tucci, <i>Taste: My Life through Food</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">12. Matt Haig, <i>How to Stop Time</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">13. Aanchal Malhatra, <i>The Book of Everlasting Things<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">14. Rachel Joyce, <i>Maureen<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">15. Jane G. Garrett, <i>My Fractured Life</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">16. Jennette McCurdy, <i>I’m Glad My Mom Died<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">17. Andrew Sean Greer, <i>Less Is Lost</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">18. Ana Reyes, <i>The House in the Pines<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">19. William Kent Kruger, <i>The Levee<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">20. Ann Napolitano, <i>Hello Beautiful<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">21. Kamila Shamsie, <i>Home Fire</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">22. Jeanette Walls, <i>Hang the Moon<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">23. Donna Tartt, <i>The Secret History<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">24. Kevin Wilson, <i>Now Is Not the Time to Panic</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">25. Wayne Flynt, <i>Afternoons with Harper Lee</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">26. Gin Phillips, <i>Family Law</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">27. K.B. Ballentine, <i>Spirit of Wild</i> (poetry)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">28. Charles Frazier, <i>The Tracker</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">29. Clyde Edgerton<i>, Walking across Egypt</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">30. Tom Hanks, <i>The Making of Another Major Motion Picture</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">31. Luis Alberto Urrea, <i>Goodnight Irene</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">32. Ada Limon, <i>Carrying</i> (poetry)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">33. Elizabeth Letts, <i>Finding Dorothy</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">34. C.S. Lewis, <i>Mere Christianity</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">35. Ian McEwan, <i>Nutshell</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">36. Lynda Rutledge, <i>West with Giraffes<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">37. Elizabeth Berg, <i>Earth’s the Right Place for Love</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">38. Hendrik Gruen, <i>Two Old Men and a Baby<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">39. David Brooks, <i>The Road to Character</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">40. N.T. Wright, <i>After You Believe</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">41. William Martin, <i>The Lincoln Letter<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">42. John McPhee, <i>Tabula Rasa, vol. 1</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">43. Raymond Carver, <i>What We Talk about When We Talk about Love</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">44. Ann Patchett, <i>Tom Lake</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">45. Wiley Cash, <i>When Ghosts Come Home</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">46. Christine Galib, <i>Etched in Stone</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">47. Brendan Slocumb, <i>The Violin Conspiracy</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">48. J. Ryan Stradel, <i>Kitchens of the Great Midwest</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">49. Jessica George, <i>Ma’ame</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">50. Matthew Mumber, <i>Attending</i> (poetry)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">51. Kevin Wilson, <i>Perfect Little World</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">52. Hadley Vlahos, <i>The In-Between</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">53. Harrison Scott Key, <i>How to Stay Married</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">54. Lisa See, <i>Lady Tan’s Circle of Women</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">55. Kevin LeMaster, <i>Mercy</i> (poetry)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">56. Dolly Parton & James Patterson, <i>Run Rose Run</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">57. Lindsay Lynch, <i>Do Tell</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">58. Geraldine Brooks, <i>Horse</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">59. Annabel Smith, <i>Whiskey and Charlie</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">60. Melody Wilson, <i>Spineless: Memoir in Invertebrates</i> (poetry)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">61. Ron Rash, <i>The Caretaker</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">62. Thrity Umrigar, <i>Honor</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">63. Richard Osman, <i>The Last Devil to Die<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">64. Linda Parsons, <i>Valediction </i>(poetry)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">65. J. Ryan Stradel, <i>Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">66. Sheila Johnson, <i>Walk through Fire</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">67. Dolly Parton, <i>Songteller<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">68. Lydia R. Hamessley, <i>Unlikely Angel: The Songs of Dolly Parton<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">69. R.F. Kuang, <i>Yellowface<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">70. Scott Owens, <i>Prepositional</i> (poetry)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">71. Allison Pataki, <i>The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">72. Ammon Shea, <i>Reading the OED</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">73. Ken Follett, <i>The Armor of Light</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">74. Margaret Renkl, <i>The Comfort of Crows</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">75. Sigrid Nunez, <i>The Vulnerables</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">76. Charlie Lovett, <i>The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;">77. F. Lagard Smith, ed. <i>The Chronological Daily Bible</i><o:p></o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-90563973162280090872023-11-22T16:51:00.004-05:002023-11-22T16:52:23.126-05:00Ron Rash: The Caretaker<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglB-2l_ToiQpyHq3JyQMp85grJ5Ow0I2X72L3QpItRLnfcdGpSX9ozFksx2FjrRZMoDFZnHq_e9HtUVASgzMMkxKmcUiGyDCDGh6yS62M2DnCbj1tf1f_PUmJdqH8VE_8klJH2bOgQ1m85Nq6gzoepVMH3SXHx9D4Jb1VPLAh9uIuGC5y-G7TzQAnyFClq/s299/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="299" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglB-2l_ToiQpyHq3JyQMp85grJ5Ow0I2X72L3QpItRLnfcdGpSX9ozFksx2FjrRZMoDFZnHq_e9HtUVASgzMMkxKmcUiGyDCDGh6yS62M2DnCbj1tf1f_PUmJdqH8VE_8klJH2bOgQ1m85Nq6gzoepVMH3SXHx9D4Jb1VPLAh9uIuGC5y-G7TzQAnyFClq/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" width="299" /></a></div><br />As close as I follow book news, I am rarely surprised when one of my favorite writers publishes a new book. I had been disappointed when I checked to see if Ron Rash would be appearing at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville in October and did not see his name. <p></p><p>Then I had a message from a friend and former teaching colleague, telling me to be sure to read his latest novel, <i>The Caretaker.</i> I didn't hesitate. </p><p>I have read everything Rash has written--full-length fiction, short stories, and poetry, since his novel <i>One Foot in Eden </i>won the Novella prize at the Charlotte festival. Though there is often a darkness in his stories, it is never gratuitously so. He also has the power to evoke some of the most memorable images of anyone I have read.</p><p>My students always responded to the stories in his collection <i>Burning Bright</i>. A favorite former student who discovered a love for reading after graduating high school read <i>Saints at the River</i> and <i>The World Made Straight</i>, then contacted me to say thanks for the recommendation.</p><p>This new novel by Rash is set during the Korean conflict, set in part on the battlefield, but primarily in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. Blackburn Gant, the caretaker at the local cemetery, is semi-reclusive after his facial disfigurement, a result of polio, makes his the victim of stares at best and mockery from some of his more cruel peers. </p><p>Initially, Jacob Hampton appears to be the protagonist. He disappoints his parents first by choosing to work in his father's mill rather than attend college. Then, against their wishes, he marries 16-year-old Naomi, who came from Tennessee for work in the Blowing Rock Inn instead of the local girl everyone expected him to marry.</p><p>Rash's artful plot timing keeps suspense throughout the novel. He also keeps his characters' integrity (or the lack thereof) consistent through the story, even when readers might expect a sharp plot twist. As I finished, I felt satisfied that Rash had been true to the people he created.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-47622065898356602392023-08-04T15:04:00.005-04:002023-08-04T15:04:47.046-04:00Ann Patchett's Latest Novel: Tom Lake<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHrlUdZBaWPh75Fh1Gkin7yWLDsVGk4Z5WV5praZ5y8fTtOnUQIPd4rFvZs9sW4d_NbRiIU6m_GVu7cdvGKgYyBgMLjDeW0f5GEd6Q--DjNrBD01PdBVZirm6h8GFtv9EqZI5zKfdWEyPfBWFz8THFC7r-S1x6iLABNIP5HjLlB2fuAjcsajjoaTj8TpHo/s1300/Tom%20Lake%20hires.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="861" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHrlUdZBaWPh75Fh1Gkin7yWLDsVGk4Z5WV5praZ5y8fTtOnUQIPd4rFvZs9sW4d_NbRiIU6m_GVu7cdvGKgYyBgMLjDeW0f5GEd6Q--DjNrBD01PdBVZirm6h8GFtv9EqZI5zKfdWEyPfBWFz8THFC7r-S1x6iLABNIP5HjLlB2fuAjcsajjoaTj8TpHo/s320/Tom%20Lake%20hires.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>I am predicting an uptick in readers of Thornton Wilder's <i>Our Town</i> now that Ann Patchett's new novel is out. The play is central to the novel's plot, first as Laura (who becomes Lara) decides at the last minute to try out of the role of Emily in a local production of the play after seeing the abysmal auditions of the other potential Emilys and then as she goes on to play the role in summer stock theatre in Michigan. <p></p><p>Now in her late fifties, Lara is telling her three daughters, in episodes, about that experience at Tom Lake near the cherry orchards of Michigan. The three grown daughters are waiting out the pandemic at their parents' home, something Lara admits to herself she enjoys. Central to the narrative is one of her co-stars, Peter Duke, with whom she had a summer fling. Duke has gone on to achieve movie star status, leading to curiosity of her girls, particularly Emily, the oldest, who at one point believed he might have been her father.</p><p>The full role of the girls' actual father Joe, who has inherited the Nelson orchards, becomes more apparent as the story unfolds. As one would expect in a story woven around a play, Patchett has assembled a curious cast of characters--Lara's understudy Pallace, a Black dancer to whom Duke's brother "Saint Sebastian" is drawn; Uncle Wallace, a former TV star now playing the Stage Manager; Mr. Ripley, who chanced to discover Lara while watching his niece in the play and brought her to Hollywood for a movie role.</p><p>The three daughters are also distinctly rendered--Emily has been preparing her whole life to take over the family farm along with Benny, literally the boy next door. Maisie has not completed veterinary school, but the neighbors call on her for all their animal emergencies from birth to death. Nell, the youngest, wants to be an actor.</p><p>The impact of story--those we want to hear, those we are expected to tell--is an important part of the novel, including the impact of different perspectives on the interpretation of an event--or of a play. Lara says, "I learned so many things that summer at Tom Lake, and most of those lessons I would have gladly done without." </p><p>Perhaps the most universal lesson, both for the novel and for the play it is wrapped around, is the one Patchett noted at her book launch: Life is so brief, just a piling up a little moments. Before you know it, you're in Act 3.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-41692309693614486102023-07-29T16:56:00.002-04:002023-07-29T17:00:34.240-04:00More Reasons to Love Historical Fiction<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqCyp-G_jJ36ZIW87o6qE6wZtcOqyJPw4GC2hR3B8c_PRkYVODgbQ4pQM97HfoKz_xkBHK2G7EDnuvJryEFQlKYm2xVDJ_3qhaFrbzIgP_IhJ96X_ZTUuKoxtobEprjBi-SohzIhsEX14CoMVzZ9oICx8x6D3QQ7eKHqINPBFPUeCAdxvWFcnRinGnl5zy/s240/Unknown.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="210" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqCyp-G_jJ36ZIW87o6qE6wZtcOqyJPw4GC2hR3B8c_PRkYVODgbQ4pQM97HfoKz_xkBHK2G7EDnuvJryEFQlKYm2xVDJ_3qhaFrbzIgP_IhJ96X_ZTUuKoxtobEprjBi-SohzIhsEX14CoMVzZ9oICx8x6D3QQ7eKHqINPBFPUeCAdxvWFcnRinGnl5zy/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" width="210" /></a></div>My reading this summer has been as eclectic as ever, but I find that when asked to recommend a book to someone, I often turn first to historical fiction. Often I am not sure until I finish and read the author's notes whether the story is based on fact. A good story can stand on its own, after all, but the historical basis gives me a good excuse to do a little digging.<p></p><p>One such novel I particularly enjoyed is Lynda Rutledge's <i>West with Giraffes, </i>a journey tale in the spirit of Towles' <i>The Lincoln Highway</i> or Krueger's <i>This Tender Land</i>--or Twain's <i>Huckleberry Finn.</i> Set during the Dust Bowl, with a frame story in the near future, this is the story of Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Nickels, who as a boy left his Texas home after losing his family, victims of the Dust Bowl. He makes his way to New York to find a cousin about the time a hurricane hits the area. </p><p>At the same time, two giraffes on their way to the San Diego Zoo are caught in the hurricane, which injures the female "Girl." Woody, at not quite sixteen, convinces the zoo employee charged with taking the exotic beasts across the continent in a rickety truck that he is capable of driving them. Rutledge also introduces a female photographer desperate to publish her photos and stories of the trip--one of many items on her bucket list--who follows the truck and strikes up a friendship with Woody.</p><p>In the frame story, Woody at 105 lives in a nursing home where he fantasizes images of the giraffes peering in his window while he works desperately to write his story before his time runs out. </p><p>Even without the historical basis, Rutledge weaves a compelling story. Background details (and photographs) of the giraffes en route, as well as details about the iconic Belle Benchley, the zoo's first female director, accessible online, add to the story's charm.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIHEJ8-UMD0gXsXte__1z4IF-5Ckaum8VKU2_iAYQTUaJDV1ZSww5JONwe-ffQMA95630Qti__7ZHImFmzjVbYspg3cfDKzIRWp5xMsvn9YfDmySOiebxIkma1vbq5eDESHVN1Eo68JyB93BZvW6ddO15Dk4KkKNfDZn-nz1X0UWXP0BojKedZx6hb3BAT/s480/luis-alberto-urrea-good-night-irene-2000x1000-646bc1beeeb81.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="480" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIHEJ8-UMD0gXsXte__1z4IF-5Ckaum8VKU2_iAYQTUaJDV1ZSww5JONwe-ffQMA95630Qti__7ZHImFmzjVbYspg3cfDKzIRWp5xMsvn9YfDmySOiebxIkma1vbq5eDESHVN1Eo68JyB93BZvW6ddO15Dk4KkKNfDZn-nz1X0UWXP0BojKedZx6hb3BAT/s320/luis-alberto-urrea-good-night-irene-2000x1000-646bc1beeeb81.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>When I heard Luis Alberto Urrea had a new book, I was eager to read it, having thoroughly enjoyed his novel <i>The House of Broken Angels.</i> One thing that struck me about the earlier novel was his convincing portrayal of his female characters. <div><br /></div><div>In <i>Good Night, Irene</i>, Urrea draws from his own mother's experience as a "Doughnut Dolly" working for the Red Cross about a Clubmobile during World War II. The title character Irene is a city girl who leaves behind a wealthy but abusive fiancé to join the war effort. She is paired with Dorothy, strong-willed and sharp-witted Midwesterner. </div><div><br /></div><div>Rather than staying back out of harm's way, the women follow the troops through France after D-Day, often witnessing horrific warfare at risk to their own lives. While Urrea includes a cast of characters, these two friends are central to the story, and they are evidence of the author's skill at characterization.</div><div><br /></div><div>Again, the author's notes that follow the narrative explain how much of the story was inspired by Urrea's mother's story, offering a glimpse into one of the rarely highlighted roles in keeping up the spirits of the troops. With Urrea's skill at taking inspiration from his own family experiences, his readers will hope he has a vast well of stories from which to draw for his next novels. <br /><p><br /></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-61506097934135822942023-07-06T21:07:00.001-04:002023-07-06T21:07:34.879-04:00<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsjCriATyonp8l8DJuMQlgM7V7rjp2tEtnt5wHcShMQXexBdYEEkh-Lo6xxqQIcP2qirSDvOCNSaSyMYex3HX9cVdGYrFq6A3gZz0lmuHC4wirY6RjbDdz9W4cU0jEfkDi0MQx-ZJJOCFrmnbnRz-YCdRD_WZi7OGstOYDMnzsmMfCpmCYZ4WN_a6YUk1f/s268/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="188" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsjCriATyonp8l8DJuMQlgM7V7rjp2tEtnt5wHcShMQXexBdYEEkh-Lo6xxqQIcP2qirSDvOCNSaSyMYex3HX9cVdGYrFq6A3gZz0lmuHC4wirY6RjbDdz9W4cU0jEfkDi0MQx-ZJJOCFrmnbnRz-YCdRD_WZi7OGstOYDMnzsmMfCpmCYZ4WN_a6YUk1f/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" width="188" /></a></div><br /> Like most voracious readers, the last thing in the world I need is to add to my "to read" list, but I can't resist someone else's reading suggestions. This week, at the bottom of a list of suggestions of short books, I came across mention Ian McEwan's novel <i>Nutshell. </i>I have no idea how it escaped my attention this long, since it was published in 2016.<p></p><p>The protagonist of the novel is Hamlet--as a fetus--in modern-day London. He is the ultimate insider--pun intended. The action covers two or three days in the last couple of weeks before his mother Trudy is due to deliver. Young--very young--Hamlet, with his ear pressed against the uterine wall, is privy to the conniving of his mother and her lover Claude, whom he realizes is his father's brother.</p><p>His father John is a poet who runs a small publishing house, while his younger brother has more financial success. As the book opens, Trudy has moved her husband out of the house while she is "on a break." </p><p>One could probably read and even appreciate the novel with only passing familiarity with what is arguably Shakespeare's most famous play, but for those who have studied the play or taught the play (dozens of times), the pleasure of recognizing not just lines lifted from the play, but suggestions of themes. Hamlet's world-weariness is, in this case, fed by secondhand exposure to his mother's podcasts. He also experiences secondhand exposure to her increasing alcohol intake as the situation grows more complicated. </p><p>Considering the book was published pre-Covid, some of the references to current issues are fascinating--including conflict between Russia and Ukraine, gender ambiguity, climate issues, and increasing violence. McEwan's unborn protagonist with his astute sense of observation, self-awareness, and impressive vocabulary comes across as far more than a gimmick. </p><p>I am glad I encountered the audiobook first, but I suspect I will need to add a hard copy of the book to my library so I can revisit the story to see how many allusions I missed.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-4768247824076351202023-06-16T22:58:00.001-04:002023-06-16T23:00:59.404-04:00Gin Phillips' Family Law<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipqJqEcUxGsM-24IaQOprwx279vQimsfdgQw__sdfIPicsU8oG0-LsMenEJk9Cu9YBJXMhkIT16YhAUcV-n64KUanCS1vdaQ10B060kM6I45ZRVmB4VK1eajXG9_Eg9gkm5L4j4wFdK3j68AIC4h_tgCvc94eGFHv0GhhVigiKLuWssLLzO-Y_miykaQ/s225/Unknown.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipqJqEcUxGsM-24IaQOprwx279vQimsfdgQw__sdfIPicsU8oG0-LsMenEJk9Cu9YBJXMhkIT16YhAUcV-n64KUanCS1vdaQ10B060kM6I45ZRVmB4VK1eajXG9_Eg9gkm5L4j4wFdK3j68AIC4h_tgCvc94eGFHv0GhhVigiKLuWssLLzO-Y_miykaQ/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" width="225" /></a></div>I've been reading Gin Phillips' books since <i>The Well and the Mine</i>, her debut novel. I'm fascinated that the Alabama author writes such a range of fiction. <i>Come in and Cover Me </i>is centered primarily around an archeological dig, with the protagonist collecting remnants of pottery of a particular indigenous woman. That novel incorporated elements of magical realism and Springsteen lyrics. Phillips' novel <i>Fierce Kingdom </i>places the protagonist and her son at a zoo (I'm assuming the one in Birmingham) with an active shooter on the loose.<p></p><p>Her latest novel <i>Family Law</i> is set in Alabama in the 70s. The primary protagonist Lucia is a successful family lawyer, a role that often puts her in the crosshairs of angry spouses. </p><p>Rachel, a girl whose mother comes to the law office to discuss the possibility of a divorce, finds Lucia's home and the two develop a friendship, putting both of them, as well as Lucia's husband, in danger. </p><p>Once Rachel is introduced, Phillips alternates between her point of view and Lucia's. Rachel's navigation of high school dynamics and life with her distracted mother show a mature but believable self-awareness.</p><p>Phillips develops interesting characters and addresses challenges to a woman who chooses a career path unusual for females at the time in history, but she doesn't make her characters into stereotypes. The nuances in her marriage are well-drawn. Even Lucia's dog has a significant role. </p><p>This book will appeal to readers of Joshilyn Jackson, who also reads the audiobook of <i>Family Law</i>, a bonus, in my opinion.</p><p>I will confess that I was particularly intrigued when one of Rachel's school friends shared a name with one of my former students, a young woman who just happens to be a friend of Gin Phillips. Coincidence? I think not.</p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /> <p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-33040733438865784832023-06-15T22:01:00.002-04:002023-06-15T22:01:56.530-04:00Fear Not! I'm Still Reading<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_XQpX0lgfuXNUBzUqNydilM3bvd7MrrIw1fYgP_589r8mOHJM9gEoLuSGo1e8jHG7bjqQ-cr5CFml1x75-AVA2_KT-13e3swbLcTKymoQUz7e0i8VsEeqPQ-FPuzVrkby6PQIt-MfdeqbpoBB8SGODZZeRzQ4vuHS1Ab6-PRbpQ4JQxQZDZX9_kvSkA/s258/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="196" data-original-width="258" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_XQpX0lgfuXNUBzUqNydilM3bvd7MrrIw1fYgP_589r8mOHJM9gEoLuSGo1e8jHG7bjqQ-cr5CFml1x75-AVA2_KT-13e3swbLcTKymoQUz7e0i8VsEeqPQ-FPuzVrkby6PQIt-MfdeqbpoBB8SGODZZeRzQ4vuHS1Ab6-PRbpQ4JQxQZDZX9_kvSkA/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" width="258" /></a></div><br /> First, let me allay any fears that I have abandoned reading. Not so. I am ashamed that I have fallen so far behind on posting about my reading exploits though. I'm at that stage in my dissertation process that when I write, it's often academic. The end is in sight, though.<p></p><p>I may not be sharing what I am reading, but I never stop reading. I admit I have relied on audiobooks more, taking advantage of time in the car, at the gym, working around the house to listen. My latest such experience gave me a chance to hear audiobook reader extraordinaire Tom Hanks.</p><p>I had already enjoyed his reading his collection of short fiction <i>Uncommon Types</i>, as well as Ann Patchett's <i>The Dutch House. W</i>hile he has other actors reading parts for this newest book, <i>The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece,</i> including his wife Rita Wilson, he does most of the reading, and he does it well.</p><p>We've all heard the old advice, "Write what you know." Hanks certainly followed that rule, pulling together disparate threads to weave the story of <i>Knightshade: The Lathe of Firewall,</i> the movie adaptation of a comic book, looking back at the late 40s childhood of the graphic artist and the uncle for whom he was named but who made himself scarce after returning from the way. In present time, readers meet Bill Johnson, the producer/director of the film, and a delightful cast of characters--literally. </p><p>Some of the best characters in the story are women, particularly Alicia (Al) McTeer, Johnson's assistant director, whom he discovered working at a Garden Suites, and Ynes Gonzales-Cruz, a rideshare driver, who lands a job with the production. Both have found success by being good problem solvers in what might have seemed dead end jobs. Equally well-drawn are the lead actors in the film as well as such minor characters as the makeup artists, spouses, and bit actors.</p><p>While Hanks' strength is his character development, he also has a filmmaker's eye for sensory details. Lone Butte, the North California town where the movie is filmed, becomes so real, I think I could find Clark's Drug Store. He also has a knack for building suspense, but sometimes letting his characters elude disaster without use of <i>deus ex machina. </i></p><p>Most refreshing is the way characters genuinely care for one another. Yes, there are antagonists, but most often, those in power take the high road or give opportunities to people they might have overlooked, This may not be an accounting of "the making of every major motion picture," but I like to think the process could be more like the one in the story.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-53134522512936297922023-02-25T10:43:00.000-05:002023-02-25T10:43:01.587-05:00Home Cooking: Rick Bragg and Stanley Tucci<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyLPmeTQJLLNSpymgWg6mQaAqG9pl9gBjH-zZd38bwQdVhr5Cz4pCRLQWSSZ66R5NxEEO-ds6y1_DaXU7IT1R9EIwfOO51TnPD42095DFTkHQwdSkjL4j8OF0wrD55YwWswXj1rLrBRJWFzMlMMR9ymjh3bUiFOS-JVXJX-tLURrUeO--ml52ziuoY8g/s263/Bragg.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="263" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyLPmeTQJLLNSpymgWg6mQaAqG9pl9gBjH-zZd38bwQdVhr5Cz4pCRLQWSSZ66R5NxEEO-ds6y1_DaXU7IT1R9EIwfOO51TnPD42095DFTkHQwdSkjL4j8OF0wrD55YwWswXj1rLrBRJWFzMlMMR9ymjh3bUiFOS-JVXJX-tLURrUeO--ml52ziuoY8g/s1600/Bragg.jpeg" width="263" /></a></div>I have always loved cookbooks. I even turn first to the recipe section when I read <i>Southern Living</i> or, for that matter, the Costco ad booklet. When food makes an appearance in books I love, all the better. <p></p><p>My teaching friend Valerie on the North Carolina coast organized her summer school English class around food last year, inviting guest readers to share favorite food writing. I joined them by Zoom to read passages from Charles Frazier's <i>Cold Mountain. </i> I believe I chose Inman's cooking a bear cub he had hoped not to kill. I could have chosen the goat woman chapter. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnyxbTis2HlYFQSZacxrE95LEhUGA5xP8T4uD59Qas5-VMA1huj45UwFXHD_ZSfSbt4yPET1AAlDllBswHJ8-kcInY81AsVH59ZbApHXLrJzf9VnTX-AlJZEzeHC9y13AI4mpW7GPFPsti7wBts3mFgNKbG_xTWfo0GftqvgqO0K_hIvSy0RvTGPMfvQ/s278/Tucci.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="181" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnyxbTis2HlYFQSZacxrE95LEhUGA5xP8T4uD59Qas5-VMA1huj45UwFXHD_ZSfSbt4yPET1AAlDllBswHJ8-kcInY81AsVH59ZbApHXLrJzf9VnTX-AlJZEzeHC9y13AI4mpW7GPFPsti7wBts3mFgNKbG_xTWfo0GftqvgqO0K_hIvSy0RvTGPMfvQ/s1600/Tucci.jpeg" width="181" /></a></div> Since that time, I continue to find great food writing I could have selected. A favorite book club nonfiction choice a few years ago was <i>Blood, Bones & Butter </i>by Gabrielle Hamilton. I wanted to visit her New York restaurant.<p></p><p>Two food memoirs crossed my radar this year. I love Rick Bragg's writing, whether he is telling his own family tales or writing about Jerry Lee Lewis. I had his book <i>The Best Cook in the World</i> for awhile--waiting its turn--when my sister started raving about the audiobook. If there is anything that can improve on reading Bragg's writing, it's hearing him read it himself.</p><p>Going back at least three generations, he weaves stories and food throughout, noting that the two are rarely separate. Since his family lived along the Alabama-Georgia border and he is almost my age, the connections were palpable. The food he is describing is the food of my people. In many ways too, his people were much like my own. I might have finished listening sooner if I hadn't kept stopping rewinding and making whoever was around me listen to Bragg's singular delivery of his prose.</p><p>When I mentioned Bragg's book to reading friends, Tucci's food memoir invariably came up. I chose to listen to him read his story as well. The son of an Italian American family rooted in the Calabrian region, he describes in delicious detail the meals he enjoyed as a child (even explaining how the evening's meal ended up in his daily school lunch, which he sometimes exchanged for his classmate's sandwich of marshmallow creme on white bread.) He also describes his own cooking experience and favorite restaurants--so many out of business.</p><p>Tucci peoples his book not only with his parents and grandparents but he also introduces his children. His story includes his first wife's cancer death. He tells how he created a new blended family and moved to England with his second wife. He shares his own cancer ordeal, which threatened his life, his acting career, and his ability to enjoy food.</p><p>I know I'll end up adding a hard copy of Tucci's book to my library, but I'm not sure where it will go on my bookshelves. I may need a new section for food memoirs.</p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-36518591389062334042023-02-16T21:05:00.000-05:002023-02-16T21:05:01.834-05:00Backman's Book Two and Three: Nothing Lost in Translation<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGp6XHD50RY-fUNtZOYRAja9cZbMRybWZBRx0DDm6nDXkNBcDDAHZiN-FVScdezTJ3v1voxJ4EyCZmh6C1M5j-6kLdBY9RVdRkRpsEtKJBq13z2YIjKpp7V7Bx65ArKqetjEoV_7gQ5FxBHBLfUoWAe4xxpzDBpY2ByH0pMnu2K5HGkfXJY2AUQtzX-w/s279/Unknown-5.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="181" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGp6XHD50RY-fUNtZOYRAja9cZbMRybWZBRx0DDm6nDXkNBcDDAHZiN-FVScdezTJ3v1voxJ4EyCZmh6C1M5j-6kLdBY9RVdRkRpsEtKJBq13z2YIjKpp7V7Bx65ArKqetjEoV_7gQ5FxBHBLfUoWAe4xxpzDBpY2ByH0pMnu2K5HGkfXJY2AUQtzX-w/s1600/Unknown-5.jpeg" width="181" /></a></div>I can trace my first Backman novel to <i>A Man Called Ove. </i>One of my favorite public librarians met me when I entered and said, "I've held this one of you." Anyone who has read the novel knows that it takes a while to warm up to Ove. As I read the first chapters, I wondered why she thought of me. Then as I read, I figured it out.<p></p><p><i>Anxious People, </i>a story nothing like <i>Ove,</i> captured me immediately too. Backman caught me by complete surprise in that book, and I couldn't wait to talk to someone else about it: "Did you guess?!"</p><p>I listened to the audiobook of <i>Beartown </i>a while ago, but somehow missed the second in what would become a series, <i>Us Against You</i>, until book three <i>The Winners</i> was added to my book club list for 2023. I knew I needed to read the second book first.</p><p>Even though I cheer for the Nashville Predators, I am by no means a big hockey fan. But reading this book no more requires that I be than reading <i>Tomorrow </i>and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin requires that I know or care much about video gaming.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS2oIwWTGn3NNSSBc5b8NVmtCTSOEbkNCNZ90atVn0MQGk29JE9kVQpJ0AT3d2SsVeUC4XnvPHNRCtKWOfpqdozig8TJdNol3jg76hHYQeVocHW4ZKOrQM17bqQnd6LmbYIFVAOyeB-hLbPWL2yUw26I6kVDiF77rVbAqAi33k0GqJy6Fhpfwc9zcJ-A/s296/Unknown-6.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="170" data-original-width="296" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS2oIwWTGn3NNSSBc5b8NVmtCTSOEbkNCNZ90atVn0MQGk29JE9kVQpJ0AT3d2SsVeUC4XnvPHNRCtKWOfpqdozig8TJdNol3jg76hHYQeVocHW4ZKOrQM17bqQnd6LmbYIFVAOyeB-hLbPWL2yUw26I6kVDiF77rVbAqAi33k0GqJy6Fhpfwc9zcJ-A/s1600/Unknown-6.jpeg" width="296" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Backman knows how to develop characters--complicated, flawed, multi-layered characters. The Andersson family is at the center of much of the narrative, but the threads that connect all the characters, even across the rival towns borders, are so complicated: Ramona at the Bearskin Pub; Teemu and the Pack who control the standing area of the rink, the grocer Tails, Bobo and Amat, Mumble and Alicia, the young prodigy who finds an alternate family in the hockey club.</div><div><br /></div><div>As I barreled my way through these two books, hardly able to slow down, I kept reminding myself that I was reading in translation from Backman's original Swedish. How interesting, then, that I have probably taken more notes of favorite quotes from these books than many others I've read recently. </div><div><br /></div><div>Backman is also the master of the red herring, doling out just enough information to give the reader a smug sense of dramatic irony (or a foreboding sense of what may have just happened) and then spinning the story. The third book <i>The Winners</i> open with this sentence: "Everyone who knew Benjamin Ovich, particularly those of us who knew him well enough to call him Benji, probably knew deep down that he was never the sort of person who would get a happy ending." Then readers have to wait for it. Because we do feel like we know him well enough to call him Benji.</div><div><br /></div><div>Backman balances the foreboding by letting us know a few will make it. Maya will have her music career, for example. Alicia will go on to be a hockey champion.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Us Against You </i>had much to say about masculinity. <i>The Winners</i> examines family relationships, the never-finished job of parenting, the phases of a long marriage, the identify of home, family ties that develop without the biological benefit of blood kin. At one point, the narrator points out that this is "a story about...love that was like organ donation." Maybe that's it: painful, sacrificial, but live-giving.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-63678370450063247842023-01-09T22:12:00.003-05:002023-01-09T22:15:54.234-05:00Back to ThreePines: Louise Penny's A World of Curiosities<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih2DXj14QBFIFjnUSbe-nzhWQ9xBcSp4T1hvwpZJIJPxGSnjQR57z5nGJuuRE5Uyl2AOUWyVZtLHjojBJGxTHscSVXZm6qurAKNeq4aZ_I8WIcOOaJlZWkER11VNKeLRyJtSm4gaVs2bLmWFzdkfEceYzPHns0JYggDZ1lKKfhYx20GTnO_jk9C0IKSw/s277/Unknown.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="182" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih2DXj14QBFIFjnUSbe-nzhWQ9xBcSp4T1hvwpZJIJPxGSnjQR57z5nGJuuRE5Uyl2AOUWyVZtLHjojBJGxTHscSVXZm6qurAKNeq4aZ_I8WIcOOaJlZWkER11VNKeLRyJtSm4gaVs2bLmWFzdkfEceYzPHns0JYggDZ1lKKfhYx20GTnO_jk9C0IKSw/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" width="182" /></a></div>For anyone who knows me as a reader, it should come as no surprise that I've just finished Louise Penny's latest novel in her Three Pines Series featuring Chief Inspector Armande Gamache. The only surprise is that I didn't read the book as soon as it came out in November.<p></p><p>This book moves back and forth between the past when Ganache first met the headstrong Jean Guy Beauvoir while investigating a murder and present day when the son and daughter of the murdered woman arrive in Three Pines.</p><p>I love so many things about Penny's books, particularly the character development, but I also enjoy how she weaves literature, music, and art into the narrative. In this case, a hidden room is discovered above the book store in which they find what at first appears to be a work of art known as "A World of Curiosities" or the <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2018/06/23/a-painting-that-reveals-an-entire-world-while-concealing-an-alchemical-secret/">Pastan Treasure.</a> Closer inspection, though, shows that while at first glimpse the painting resembles the seventeenth century painting, it actually includes myriad details from modern day, from a digital watch to scratches that are found to be made in shorthand. Soon Gamache recognizes them as messages from a serial killer he put behind bars.</p><p>In addition to the beloved recurring characters from the village, Penny also reintroduces <span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Amelia Choquet from a couple of years back, a tattooed and pierced young woman who survived life on the streets and was eventually brought into Quebec law enforcement. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">After spending so much time in the homes in Three Pines, I can recognize the smell of sandalwood, the family pets, and even Rosa, the profane pet duck of the crotchety old poet Ruth. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">When I read Louise Penny's books, I find myself tearing through them, pulled along by the suspense, but </span></span></span><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); font-size: 14px;">then sad when they end, knowing I'll have to wait until November for my next visit.</span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-65835184644413039102023-01-08T21:40:00.000-05:002023-01-08T21:40:07.826-05:00Demon Copperhead: Kingsolver Always Delivers<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinffrlQILHs1oUxlRWlsAd6-wL6bUdwUubv0pCZtrwyWxwy1-teER4apf8M_qRka_CFnipgmeiJg_ubPZNhWyHC5jjrKzaHrLepz8mYnRTGu2bxSywk6hVyrUEGa82Zbpoe8wUzNi42UxlaCnE18g6iwhIvueYrgfqUc8GQUmoj954NtqAOM1NufniAw/s550/Barbara-Kingsolver...png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="550" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinffrlQILHs1oUxlRWlsAd6-wL6bUdwUubv0pCZtrwyWxwy1-teER4apf8M_qRka_CFnipgmeiJg_ubPZNhWyHC5jjrKzaHrLepz8mYnRTGu2bxSywk6hVyrUEGa82Zbpoe8wUzNi42UxlaCnE18g6iwhIvueYrgfqUc8GQUmoj954NtqAOM1NufniAw/w340-h247/Barbara-Kingsolver...png" width="340" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>I know I promised to share highlights of my 2022 reading, but I finished <i>Demon Copperhead</i>, Barbara Kingsolver's latest novel, on New Year's Day, and I am still thinking about it.</p><p>The title (and the author's notes) invite comparison to <i>David Copperfield</i>, but in anything but a derivative way. Set in a poor town in what had been Virginia coal mining country in modern day, the title character is one of the most compelling narrators I've read in awhile. I wouldn't go so far as to call Demon a naive narrator, though his youthful perspective is part of the attraction. I'm tempted to listen to the audiobook to see how that voice translates.</p><p>I've long been a fan of Kingsolver's novels. I've read everything she's written, including her poetry, starting with <i>The Bean Trees.</i> Reading her novels always led me to slow down and pay attention to her writing chops. Unlike some books I read when the author's process gets in the way of the story, Kingsolver's novels make me just a bit envious of how she uses literary elements in a way that seems so effortless and natural.</p><p>The protagonist was born to a teenage mom and named Damon, which naturally was changed to the nickname Demon by the time he got to school (as his best friend was stuck with the nickname Maggot.) In a series of misfortunes, he experiences abuse and neglect by his mother and stepfather, leading to a years or rejection and loss. Demon shows the dark side of foster care abuse and pitfalls of the systems intended to protect children.</p><p>This is also a story of drug and alcohol abuse, which is often so rampant in areas of economic decline. I recently read Margo Price's memoir <i>Maybe We'll Make It</i>, in which she writes candidly of some of the similar patterns of addiction she fell into. </p><p>While <i>Demon Copperhead </i>is a hard read, it is not without hope. A number of caring, though flawed, people offer him surrogate family, encouragement, and opportunity. Two of his teachers, a mixed-race couple with whom he maintains contact, are examples of the power of educators who not only see their students but are willing to be seen as people. And who can't love characters who name their dog Hazel Dickens?</p><p>As I made my list of books I read last year, I was struck again how some slip away right after I read them, and others stick with me. I think I'll be thinking about <i>Demon Copperhead</i> for a long time, and I can't wait to have the opportunity to talk about it with my reading friends.</p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-29765725943255545522023-01-02T11:20:00.004-05:002023-01-02T11:21:40.916-05:00My 2022 Reading List<p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMbAebMxEferekLA40HyY36rCWJ28seQAwfZ62paMsptYIc_LndzcA1DmRxgYBXzfoKRrjYJoyy0sVXDLwQJVqSUyIRzmMPh8049C1Mx_Enr6ugoh8OSEYZtvRd6fNHiTV5gpMulwHWxh8WSL60LKbKjfd9tr7dOOtZxe-ZkYeDw_ljtI-iY2wDhFPtA/s1999/2022%20bookshelf.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1185" data-original-width="1999" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMbAebMxEferekLA40HyY36rCWJ28seQAwfZ62paMsptYIc_LndzcA1DmRxgYBXzfoKRrjYJoyy0sVXDLwQJVqSUyIRzmMPh8049C1Mx_Enr6ugoh8OSEYZtvRd6fNHiTV5gpMulwHWxh8WSL60LKbKjfd9tr7dOOtZxe-ZkYeDw_ljtI-iY2wDhFPtA/s320/2022%20bookshelf.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">When I sat down this week with my wall calendar where I write the authors and titles of the books I read during the year, I found that even with the classes I am taking and teaching, I still managed to read 86 books during 2022. A few on the list are textbooks--at least those that I actually read in their entirety. You'll notice none of my statistics textbooks are listed. That does <i>not</i> mean I didn't spend a lot of time with them. I also focused on poetry one month, which was such a pleasure. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Over the next few days, I will add a few posts focusing on specific books, but for now, here is the exhaustive list. Just going through and writing down the titles was a nice mental journey.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Warren Berger, <i>A More Beautiful Question</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Natalie Haynes, <i>A Thousand Ships</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Hyeonseo Lee, <i>The Girl with Seven Names</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Kirk Wallce Johnson, <i>The Feather Thief</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Jessamine Chan, <i>The School for Good Mothers</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Mary Beth Keane, <i>Ask Again, Yes</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Nick Courtwright, <i>The Forgotten World</i> (poems)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Jane L. Rosen, <i>Nine Women, One Dress<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Matt Haig, <i>Reasons to Stay Alive</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Deb Spera, <i>Call Your Daughters Home</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Sophocles, Antigone<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">S.J. Bennett, <i>The Windsor Knot</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Rothstein and Santana, <i>Make Just One Change</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">David Epstein, <i>Range</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Charmaine Wilkerson, <i>Black Cake</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Jason Mott, <i>Hell of a Book<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Michelle Zauner, <i>Crying in H Mart<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Nita Prose, <i>The Maid</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Elise Hooper, <i>The Other Alcott</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Jennifer Egan, <i>Candy House</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Bruce Neidt, <i>The Bungalow of Colorful Aging </i>(poems)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Rosemary Sullivan, <i>The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Joseph Mills, <i>Bodies in Motion</i> (poems)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Diane Chamberlain, <i>The Stolen Marriage<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Carole King, <i>Natural Woman</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Ted Rose, <i>The End of Average</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Mary Laura Philpott, <i>Bomb Shelter</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">TJ Klune, <i>The House in the Cerulean Sea<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Hernan Diaz, <i>Trust</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Anne Tyler, <i>French Braid</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Lily King, <i>Five Tuesdays in Winter</i> (short stories)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Emily St. John Mandel, <i>Sea of Tranquility<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">William Kent Krueger, <i>This Tender Land<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Ann Patchett, <i>These Precious Days<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Matthew McConaughey, <i>Greenlights</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Emily Henry, <i>Book Lovers<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">A J Jacobs, <i>Puzzler<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Gabrielle Zevin, <i>Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Louise Erdrich, <i>The Sentence</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Elizabeth Stout, <i>Oh William<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Marie Benedick and Victoria C. Murray, <i>The Personal Librarian<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Bonnie Garmus, <i>Lessons in Chemistry</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Danusha Lameris, <i>Bonfire Opera </i>(poems)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Dorianne Laux, <i>Facts about the Moon</i> (poems)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Jeff Hardin, <i>Small Revolutions </i>(poems)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Kathryn Stripling Byer, <i>Descent </i>(poems)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Peng Sheperd, <i>The Cartographers</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Linda Anas Ferguson, <i>Dirt Sandwich</i> (poems)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Yasmin Kloth, <i>Ancestry Unfinished </i>(poems)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Michael McFee, <i>Shinemaster</i> (poems)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Scott Owens, <i>For One Who Knows How to Own the Land</i> (poems)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Tracy K. Smith, <i>Wade in the Water</i> (poems)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Wendy Cope, <i>Two Cures for Love</i> (poems)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Ron Koertge, <i>Geography of the Forehead</i> (poems)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Kate Quinn, <i>Diamond Eye</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Rodney Jones, <i>Elegy for the Southern Drawl</i> (poems)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Michelle Shocklee, <i>Under the Tulip Tree</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Cathy Smith Bowers, <i>The Candle I Hold up to See You</i> (poems)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Margaret Verble, <i>When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Dan and Chip Heath, <i>Switch</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Celeste Ng, <i>Everything I Never Told You</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Silas House, <i>Southernmost</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Susan Rivers, <i>The Second Mrs. Hockaday<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Alex Michaelides, <i>The Silent Patient</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Peter Drucker et al., <i>The Five Most Important Questions</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Richard Osman, <i>The Bullet That Missed</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Liese O’Halloran Schwarz, <i>What Can Be Saved</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Stephen King, <i>Fairy Tale<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Emma Straub, <i>This Time Tomorrow</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Ruta Sepetys, <i>I Will Betray You</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Nelson Demille, <i>The Book Case<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Lois Lowry, <i>The Giver</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Elizabeth Stout, <i>Lucy by the Sea</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Pip Williams, <i>The Dictionary of Lost Words<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Gary Paulsen, <i>Hatchett</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">C. S. Lewis, <i>Mere Christianity<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Nicki Erlick, <i>The Measure</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Stephen Fry, <i>Mythos<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Jennifer Evans, <i>Kitchen Front</i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Margo Price, <i>Maybe We’ll Make It<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Celeste Ng, <i>Our Missing Hearts<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Maggie O’Farrell, <i>The Marriage Portrait<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;">Elizabeth McCracken, <i>The Hero of This Book<o:p></o:p></i></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-82995590020944433292022-12-01T09:27:00.004-05:002022-12-01T09:27:52.699-05:00Pip Williams: The Dictionary of Lost Words<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggBM9qufLKItFeYF6ZxectJJpl8QOr7OUPvcvMhcP-oH24ughGxrf8g9cou0fiK386znGpNDG_usbb1WX61gluaSpfTbWb3ru6DjBHO9Us8asgxytfiH77Rd0oFgOZPg4iXH9FA2s2atJpsfCxrLBevqy8z9PNHc7WZ0JBL-McMfrIOer60_fiHfQzUA/s286/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="176" data-original-width="286" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggBM9qufLKItFeYF6ZxectJJpl8QOr7OUPvcvMhcP-oH24ughGxrf8g9cou0fiK386znGpNDG_usbb1WX61gluaSpfTbWb3ru6DjBHO9Us8asgxytfiH77Rd0oFgOZPg4iXH9FA2s2atJpsfCxrLBevqy8z9PNHc7WZ0JBL-McMfrIOer60_fiHfQzUA/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" width="286" /></a></div><br /> Even though I keep a growing list of book recommendations from fellow readers and from the publications I trust, occasionally I happen upon one with no preconceived notions and it's a treasure. Most recently, I came across Pip Williams' novel <i>The Dictionary of Lost Words.</i> The story is set in Oxford across the time period of the publication of the first Oxford English Dictionary. The protagonist Esme has grown up in the Scriptorium, where her father words editing and compiling words, slowly from A to Z as slips pour in from across the English-speaking world. <p></p><p>Anyone who read <i>The Professor and the Madman</i> already knows a little about the process. Williams' fiction, however, gives an inside look against a backdrop of the women's suffrage movement and World War I. Esme, raised by her father after losing her mother early enough that she never knew Lily, is tolerated as she hides beneath the table as her father works, inspecting the shoes of the meant who work there and gathering slips that fall unnoticed to the floor.</p><p>She begins to stow treasures in the trunk of Lizzie, the "bondmaid" (one of the almost-lost words) who is also her best friend and trusted confidante, despite their social differences. Esme, whom Lizzie calls Essie Mae, recognizes that "women's words" don't find their way into the dictionary, in part because they are not written--at least not in publications that matter. She starts her own collection.</p><p>Williams manages to address gender and class differences without becoming pedantic or preachy. The many secondary characters, including Esme's father and his fellow lexicographers, Edith Thompson (whom Esme calls Dieter), the family friend who writes her father and Esme from Scotland where she works on her own history books while contributing to the dictionary, Tilda, her actress-suffragette friend and her brother Bill who show her another side of the world, and finally, Gareth, the compositor who wins her heart before heading off to the battlefield.</p><p>Williams' novel achieves what historical fiction writers should hope for--a sense of time travel. She brings her readers into a time and place where her fictional characters interact with historical figures (the OED's Murray and Thompson) to shed light on the past.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-14918690619092531622022-11-27T20:47:00.001-05:002022-11-27T20:47:28.076-05:00Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjirBMrYRf30C0-if39tP53iqAd-UT8oz2hVLqfamROVrGWbIKV4SRuPOYtLTVd-uakecXKyYanUAo1vd17CaazXdIQ93GlCPLgx1WkWiMhjLFrJpoRGmosnti1Yr2GZgV4PUpt8K3loOp3nAnsjkVqQ_uxjpPfcVN02eBOHQVUqCQXYzzMIDcqH_Weqg/s225/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjirBMrYRf30C0-if39tP53iqAd-UT8oz2hVLqfamROVrGWbIKV4SRuPOYtLTVd-uakecXKyYanUAo1vd17CaazXdIQ93GlCPLgx1WkWiMhjLFrJpoRGmosnti1Yr2GZgV4PUpt8K3loOp3nAnsjkVqQ_uxjpPfcVN02eBOHQVUqCQXYzzMIDcqH_Weqg/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" width="225" /></a></div><br /> Whenever I finish a book by Kate Atkinson, I realize I need to read <i>all </i>of them. <i>Shrines of Gaiety </i>was no exception. I was first introduced to Atkinson with <i>Life after Life</i> (published the same year as Jill McCorkle's wonderful novel of the same title). In that book, Atkinson was able to pull off her stunning plot twists--or splits--without coming across as gimmicky at all. The sequel <i>Gods in Ruins</i>, with the brother of the protagonist of <i>Life after Life</i> in focus, was just as cleverly plotted but in a fresh way.<p></p><p>I also found <i>Transcription</i> worth reading. I realize that while some books I read don't take root, hers stick with me, even small details. Her latest, <i>Shrines of Gaiety,</i> is set in post-WWI London. It opens with the release of Nellie Coker from prison on liquor license charges, returning like a celebrity to continue running her businesses--bars and restaurants servingas fronts for her other illegal endeavors. No motherly figure, Coker nonetheless has produced a number of offspring--two sons and four daughters--whom she is putting into position to run her shady empire, to mixed results.</p><p>Into her world, Atkinson introduces two runaway girls from York--Freda, an aspiring but mediocre actress, and her best friend Florence, who comes from a better family but lacks street smarts. Atkinson introduces two other important characters--Gwendolyn Kelling, a nurse during the war now working as a librarian, and Frobisher, the London detective to whom she turns to help find Freda, the half-sister of her friend. </p><p>Some have compared Atkinson's development of the novel's setting as Dickensian. She weaves small historical details through the story in an intriguing way. After King Tut's tomb was disturbed, for example, all things Egyptian are the rage, while much of London fears the curse unleashed in the process. She depicts the debauchery of young revelers, regularly throwing costume parties as an excuse to disguise themselves as Pierrot or as adult-sized babies, the disappearance of disposable young women caught up in Nellie's seedy business, and the levels of corruption of law officers.</p><p>What I enjoyed most, though, was Atkinson's ability to write one great sentence after another. She makes me want to underline in my hardcovers or call someone to read aloud. She makes me want to read something else she has written. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-80933543183813336682022-11-04T20:04:00.004-04:002022-11-04T20:09:46.033-04:00Emma Straub: This Time Tomorrow<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP31ZNMiceIwjNgnld0x3ap5BFeo2l9rRpLYlwUc2yjJIs0avME_W-KKxR5pSWmju0F5YkppAkv6ps8R4uF81TTsScwe4NtQi-qZa2g-crJNlsmYwtv82H3Ikmuwel-ukHpZ60t1dvvE6b0tR3b_MUHw_WoYYis8UNYUB18_pRyvJeITE1wwU7xgXduw/s268/Unknown.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="188" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP31ZNMiceIwjNgnld0x3ap5BFeo2l9rRpLYlwUc2yjJIs0avME_W-KKxR5pSWmju0F5YkppAkv6ps8R4uF81TTsScwe4NtQi-qZa2g-crJNlsmYwtv82H3Ikmuwel-ukHpZ60t1dvvE6b0tR3b_MUHw_WoYYis8UNYUB18_pRyvJeITE1wwU7xgXduw/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" width="188" /></a></div>Time travel books and movies fascinate me. They always have. I love the anachronisms--the modern coin in Christopher Reeve's pocket in <i>Somewhere in Time </i>that sends him back, the Exxon map in the Wild West that baffles the locals as much as the rider's motorcycle in a movie from the 70s or 80s whose title I have forgotten. Stephen King's <i>November 22, 1963 </i>made me anxious when knowledge from the present world came into contact or conflict with the past. <p></p><p>Emma Straub's recent novel <i>This Time Tomorrow</i> sets up the best kind of time travel suspense. Her protagonist Alice Stern (an art major like the last novel character I met) is not living the life she anticipated. Just turning forty, she's single, but not eager for her younger boyfriend to pop the question. After her mother left to explore her own new age interests, Alice was raised by her father, famous for writing <i>Time Brothers, </i>a cult favorite time travel novel that went on to inspire a popular TV series. As the novel opens, Alice's father is hospitalized with a less-than-hopeful prognosis. </p><p>She is working at Belvedere, the same exclusive Manhattan prep school she attended in high school and visiting her father in the hospital when she is off work. After a birthday celebration with her long-time best friend Samantha, cut short by an emergency in home with one of Sam's children, Alice stops for drinks--too many drinks--and heads to her childhood home instead of returning to her apartment. </p><p>[Spoiler alert!] When she wakes in her childhood bedroom on her sixteenth birthday, she begins a cycle of return visits. Exploring what her father's friends refer to as the "Baby Hitler" paradox--if you go back in time and kill baby Hitler, how will the future be changed?--Alice finds that small things she does or says in her past have sometimes unanticipated changes in the future.</p><p>For me, the greatest suspense in these novels comes when the characters arrive in a life for which they are unprepared, sometimes with a different family or career, and they have to bluff their way through until putting the pieces together. Most recently, I'd read <i>Oona out of Order</i>, another book with a time-traveling birthday girl, always landing in a different year of her life, sometimes more aware of the future than the immediate past.</p><p>In <i>This Time Tomorrow, </i>Straub maintains the suspense and the threads of the story, creating a portrait of love and friendship. The novel may leave readers wondering what they would change if they had one chance--or many--for a do-over.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-56717776272266758232022-10-22T14:40:00.003-04:002022-10-22T14:41:32.080-04:00Stephen King's Fairy Tale<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4auK6sBdxfKT9NVYGg2LX-VQwGPupA9mHWE82gba1OgPlYwo92mRvV-MgS3xNvLaQe7zHRq_uVSk2XdJejz9c6scjvBfH_6YU7BGGIKICnM36YuR1pVEveGFYnxJZhU2lujDUTqWHLh4xuv3B9I9VuSSxYgZB1I4ZPrpNoQWKk_ppXasSG0Ecwc4DPw/s300/Unknown-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4auK6sBdxfKT9NVYGg2LX-VQwGPupA9mHWE82gba1OgPlYwo92mRvV-MgS3xNvLaQe7zHRq_uVSk2XdJejz9c6scjvBfH_6YU7BGGIKICnM36YuR1pVEveGFYnxJZhU2lujDUTqWHLh4xuv3B9I9VuSSxYgZB1I4ZPrpNoQWKk_ppXasSG0Ecwc4DPw/s1600/Unknown-1.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div>I haven't read all of Stephen King's works, but the more I read, the more I wonder why not. <i>Misery</i> was the first of his novels I read--during my postpartum period after the birth of last born. At the time, it was a nice diversion to what was on television: the Iran Contra hearings.<p></p><p>In recent years, though, I've read <i>Mr. Mercedes</i> and its sequels, <i>November 22, 1963</i>, <i>Billy Summers, </i>and King's <i>On Writing</i>, which I consider a valuable contribution to writing on writing. One perk, too, is that some of my students who would not otherwise consider reading a book about writing <i>will</i> read a book about writing by Stephen King. </p><p>As I read his works, and as I read about his writing from Stephen King fans, I realize that having more of his books under my belt would be rewarding since he has so many subtle self-references throughout. I know <i>Billy Summers</i> was set in part within view of the ruins of the setting of <i>The Shining, </i>and I am told that he weaves references to his previous works throughout <i>November 22, 1963.</i><br /> </p><p>King's novels, always heft, require an investment of time. In print, they are suitable for doorstops. On audio, they are easily twice the length of the average bestseller. I suspect true King fans never complain about the length any more than Harry Potter fans might have wished each successive novel were shorter. No! Give us more.</p><p>King's latest novel <i>Fairy Tale</i> begins as a deceptively realistic coming of age novel, as Charlie Reade, a high school junior has survived his mother's death in a freak accident and his father's alcoholism and return to sobriety. The anomaly in the small town setting is Howard Bowditch's house, the rural Illinois equivalent of Boo Radley's house. Overgrown and unkempt, the house is also guarded by Radar, Bowditch's fearsome German shepherd.</p><p>Charlie's first encounter with Bowditch occurs when he heard the dogs plaintive barks and the softer sound of the old man calling out in pain. Despite his wishes, Charlie is hailed as a local hero for saving the old man, and an odd friendship is born as he takes care of the aging dog while the old man is in the hospital to repair his badly broken leg. </p><p>But Charlie hears a strange sound coming out of the padlocked shed. Yes, this is a Stephen King novel after all.</p><p>Through strange revelations from the old man, Charlie learns of a portal to another world, a fantasy world. As he descends the spiral stairs to a land he learns is called Empis, the story begins to feel more like a Harry Potter story for adults. King creates a believable other world, even as Charlie--Prince Charlie--feels the tension between the two world.</p><p>When all is said and done, however, this is a story of how far boy will go for the love of his dog.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-80124417237984801952022-10-19T20:58:00.004-04:002022-10-19T20:58:32.538-04:00Book a Day Challenge<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Vlo9j-8H48NS1nx4pVhnB5BPMUkpjZNQdKjrnamkJPr73zIBU4ojnPWTpzQNOaR7eGlS2Pl9Kxj6JCryRWZXXBnmUpEgInayuyY7Whn_VSZOgDntZgPM_Sh_QR5MuR01Tyh5XhON3KUUcOk5pKeUQykDEaDLB6sL9aZJ68bHUdKNCKdZhBAkXv63IA/s300/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Vlo9j-8H48NS1nx4pVhnB5BPMUkpjZNQdKjrnamkJPr73zIBU4ojnPWTpzQNOaR7eGlS2Pl9Kxj6JCryRWZXXBnmUpEgInayuyY7Whn_VSZOgDntZgPM_Sh_QR5MuR01Tyh5XhON3KUUcOk5pKeUQykDEaDLB6sL9aZJ68bHUdKNCKdZhBAkXv63IA/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div><br /> Disclaimer: While I refused to sacrifice reading for pleasure when I started my doctoral program, I have let it cut into my book updates here, which shames me. After all, one of the greatest pleasure of reading is sharing and discussing what I read with others. To that end, I plan to post a book note every day until I have posted about all the good books I've read since my last post. The posts will <u>not</u> be in order as I read the books but instead as the push their way to the front of my brain.<p></p><p>One of the books that caught my interest most recently was Margaret Verble's novel <i>When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky. </i>My interest was due impart to the setting of the novel, the early 20th century, when the Nashville Zoo was located in what is now the Green Hills area, near where I teach, in fact.</p><p>Two Feathers is a young Cherokee woman whose job at the Glendale Park Zoo is horse diving. The cast of characters includes Shackleford, whose company runs the zoom and whose family lives in Longview Mansion, right on Caldwell Lane near my campus. Two Feathers' closest friend at the zoo is Crawford, a Black employee who cares for her horse. Verble develops several secondary characters, such as Clive the zookeeper who is still haunted by his WWI experiences, a number of the young women who entertain crowds at the zoo, including two sisters two throw (and sometimes drop) plates. The antagonist Jack is obsessed with Two Feathers, spying on her from a tree near her window and even letting a monkey loose in the girls dormitory to tie him a chance to get into her room.</p><p>An interesting aspect of the novel is the way Verble weaves elements of magical realism into the narrative. Clive sees ghosts of his cousin who served in the war with him, and Little Elk, the spirit of a young Indian whose life was cut short, appears to several characters. The animals themselves are characters with personalities, and Two Feathers feels a particular link to them and empathizes with their suffering.</p><p>The peek into historical Nashville is a perk for those of us who live there. As I head north on Granny White Pike now, I think of the buffalo run that was once there. I'm planning to locate the old bear caves on Scenic Drive and Clive's stone house on Lealand Lane. </p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-21260888666680930112022-07-14T15:12:00.000-04:002022-07-14T15:12:08.136-04:00When the Fiction Reader Encounters Great Nonfiction<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj9k694DcshOVjMbpXpOQ91SacSYKnKCtaqDtInwfRqbskJ3JNzL8Tg-jjWxDpj2gnEqibHiLBUJtdy9o4n0Lj6fXJtvKoSo0zeh9wH708cC2BI_o1FdQWS_8GFiuwalVk6-cUvFvbebR4y_mCXudcRA8VVCoiifmTZ6JthoJP0QaQV_zIUNlC9w1iJA/s1138/these%20precious%20days.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1138" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj9k694DcshOVjMbpXpOQ91SacSYKnKCtaqDtInwfRqbskJ3JNzL8Tg-jjWxDpj2gnEqibHiLBUJtdy9o4n0Lj6fXJtvKoSo0zeh9wH708cC2BI_o1FdQWS_8GFiuwalVk6-cUvFvbebR4y_mCXudcRA8VVCoiifmTZ6JthoJP0QaQV_zIUNlC9w1iJA/s320/these%20precious%20days.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>I may be losing my credibility as a reader who prefers fiction, but I keep finding memoirs and other clever nonfiction books landing on my stack and completely capturing my focus. Of course, I've been an Ann Patchett fan since I read <i>Bel Canto. </i>Since moving to Nashville where I can drop by Parnassus Books, which she co-owns with Karen Hayes, I find more reasons to admire her work and her advocacy for books and for authors. I bought her latest collection of essays <i>These Precious Days</i> (evoking "September Song") as soon as it came out, but for some reason delayed beginning. I know that when it's time, a book finds me. By sharing her own life, she opens up a world to readers. Asked which is my favorite, the answer would change on any given day.<p></p><p>She writes about her "three fathers," her home, books and authors she loves. One particularly tender story is the account of the time Tom Hanks' assistant moved into Patchett's house during COVID while undergoing a cancer trial. I also suspect that I am not the only person who finishes this book with a longer "to read next" list.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGYPE6aJE3AJePga8del1oCLsJ_A2LlCi3WxJO1NrviU3tf2d-PB5avdSSYXJsV3FHGvIliVjTsusUyJ69e4Ks-tQ5m5hjHZqxxwzYN1jQ1My6FQA13BVean93qMiNB5AiUYUrV22uUGZJP6rTPjbdwvk6fQnhykRWKNktTNlpvEH-J3BfD9oP9vclhw/s1192/bob%20shelter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="733" data-original-width="1192" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGYPE6aJE3AJePga8del1oCLsJ_A2LlCi3WxJO1NrviU3tf2d-PB5avdSSYXJsV3FHGvIliVjTsusUyJ69e4Ks-tQ5m5hjHZqxxwzYN1jQ1My6FQA13BVean93qMiNB5AiUYUrV22uUGZJP6rTPjbdwvk6fQnhykRWKNktTNlpvEH-J3BfD9oP9vclhw/s320/bob%20shelter.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>By no coincidence, I read Mary Laura Philpott's latest memoir <i>Bomb Shelter</i>, after hearing her speak at a Parnassus event. Rather than focusing on book sales, she took the time to raise awareness of the good work of Vanderbilt's Monroe Carrell Children's Hospital, where her son was treated after the sudden onset of epileptic seizures.<p></p><p>At the event, I also had the opportunity of meeting Dr. Jay Wellons, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Vanderbilt, whose first book <i>All That Moves Us</i> was released this month and merits a review all its own.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRspus1U73FNSyJX4XbqMLE9EOIsQTBCo4pSfdFyGqys2R6NxdTAhpStIeo_vRBRrDMWdiF8BP9I4hCg3rDEhHeDNeVPyOgQYlSTiak1aN5i4cABp7s6mPdTPha_WWmori-i_JYpgJWmHzZbdUT71myTGUQRlSjc94ODNmyrVEmHrr6iHdJOl5UUfAHA/s1159/puzzler.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1159" data-original-width="768" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRspus1U73FNSyJX4XbqMLE9EOIsQTBCo4pSfdFyGqys2R6NxdTAhpStIeo_vRBRrDMWdiF8BP9I4hCg3rDEhHeDNeVPyOgQYlSTiak1aN5i4cABp7s6mPdTPha_WWmori-i_JYpgJWmHzZbdUT71myTGUQRlSjc94ODNmyrVEmHrr6iHdJOl5UUfAHA/w165-h249/puzzler.jpg" width="165" /></a></div><br />In a completely different vein, I have been recommending A. J. Jacobs' <i>The Puzzler</i> to anyone who, like me is obsessed with puzzles and word play. Jacobs, who may be best known for his earlier work of nonfiction <i>The Year of Living Biblically</i>, goes chapter-by-chapter through all types of puzzles. He starts with crossword puzzles, then discusses the <i>New York Times' </i>Spelling Bee, which has a surprising number of people waking in the wee hours and starting on the newest bee, published daily at 3 am EST. He also discusses the Rubik's cube, jigsaw puzzles, logic problems, and so much more. The writing is clever and the audiobook, which he reads himself, offers a pdf of the puzzles from the book that are difficult to translate into words. (He also includes some special puzzles at the end of each chapter specifically for audiobook listeners.) Since I blame crossword puzzles for slipping to third place in the 6th grade race for class rank and since I must admit that if I get up to use the restroom in the middle of the night, I check the spelling bee, this book spoke my language.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg43qr7Y9W56xW72kqzJUGhoQCKUTABhKcChGHzLqhOPI-DJKo8do8117DZ64eYKGVwpQioIOgwBB8ltKAUne4m0vqURgMbH-C3jhRIcqH_hW61N3dqd5TmFhqlxvsdoydo9BNu9Cqr489Nz2xbPzldJtv1dBa9OlsuCZmwb5aU8e5jJlLWMjzuQNy5bQ/s539/average.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="410" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg43qr7Y9W56xW72kqzJUGhoQCKUTABhKcChGHzLqhOPI-DJKo8do8117DZ64eYKGVwpQioIOgwBB8ltKAUne4m0vqURgMbH-C3jhRIcqH_hW61N3dqd5TmFhqlxvsdoydo9BNu9Cqr489Nz2xbPzldJtv1dBa9OlsuCZmwb5aU8e5jJlLWMjzuQNy5bQ/w188-h248/average.jpg" width="188" /></a></div><i>The End of Average</i> by Todd Rose was recommended by a colleague who is ahead of me in our doctoral studies. For someone who is statistically challenged, this book was a reassuring consideration of how averages can be misused, to the detriment of students, work productivity, and even pilot error. <p></p><div>Rose uses stories that are both interesting and true to draw attention to ways that an obsession with average has its drawbacks. This book served as a perfect companion to my favorite nonfiction book of the year <i>Range</i> by David Epstein. Rose, like Epstein, isn't ready to dismantle academic research, but her encourages readers to consider different perspectives. After all, he points out, <i>no one</i> is average.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-57098599442277839232022-07-14T14:37:00.004-04:002022-07-14T14:38:35.641-04:00Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQUaGvFr9oIhzg1gjzpl_P5uuxUdpO1udxBgCo1SUPTmx3BTfQrVenfqYQfKQS1S09htqdYQx6o7BFi_kzHxzujRndAMN6fxspzQJ4xYiZI_IAdEQ3f4jokF-59GUmm0JHsa4CrPghQQ19k38ESBGarAyMivdW9fg-gaKaUu4_jz7VzRYSZ5YKWVVEGw/s421/sea%20of%20tranquility.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQUaGvFr9oIhzg1gjzpl_P5uuxUdpO1udxBgCo1SUPTmx3BTfQrVenfqYQfKQS1S09htqdYQx6o7BFi_kzHxzujRndAMN6fxspzQJ4xYiZI_IAdEQ3f4jokF-59GUmm0JHsa4CrPghQQ19k38ESBGarAyMivdW9fg-gaKaUu4_jz7VzRYSZ5YKWVVEGw/s320/sea%20of%20tranquility.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>One of the few disadvantages of reading voraciously is analogous to eating a many-course gourmet meal: it's difficult to savor one because of the conflicting details. That's a small lingering regret after finishing Emily St. John Mandel's latest novel <i>Sea of Tranquility. </i>With so many--and such varied--books I have read this summer, I feel the need to sit with this one a little longer.<p></p><p>Like <i>Trust</i> by Hernan Diaz, which I discussed in an earlier post, this novel makes me envious of the writer's sheer ability to weave and order a story like this. With the many characters over centuries, the author plays with historical fiction, time travel, and the impact of technology. From 1912 to the 23rd century, from Europe to the New World to the second colony on the moon, Emily St. John Mandel pulls together a shared paranormal experience, plagues, book tours, and avant-garde film, without dropping a single stitch.</p><p>I confess that although I read (and loved) <i>The Glass Hotel</i>, I completely missed that the character Vincent in <i>Sea of Tranquility </i>was a character in the earlier novel. Perhaps this is good justification for literature tests asking students to remember names, dates, and places. When Jennifer Egan pulled a similar sleight of hand in <i>Candy House </i>and when Stephen King planted little details from <i>The Shining</i> in <i>Billy Summers,</i> (and should I mention David Mitchell's <i>Cloud Atlas</i> and <i>The Bone Clocks</i>?) I was gratified to recognize the connection. Somehow, though, I want to re-read--or at least review--the original novel.</p><p>I've seen people ask on reading sites whether it's important to read <i>The Glass Hotel</i> first; I'd say, no. Honestly, it might be interesting to read it second to see if personal literary time travel works just as well. If only my list of what to read next weren't so long, I might do just that.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-58097021621864774242022-06-15T16:32:00.003-04:002022-06-15T16:32:47.108-04:00My Reading Statistics<p> Okay, so the title is a ruse. I was trying to figure the best way to introduce my constant dilemma this summer, since I am taking Quantitative Research Methods, a six-hour statistics course. I have to decide whether to read for pleasure or to read for homework. I've learned to tackle a statistics assignment and then reward myself by reading something fun. The motivation and the payoff work for me.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEukGX8r8IfqP9H0RRRJfw1X5cJHrKLMrZ4PINkCVPrcP1IQa0ny59HvJEzOx_Vb3HkCEXcH6-DbKfVz1y7IZKwtVJQKpGa2Yb4hMKRR6CUZ3tj8mEz0tJ88rJV0XvKkZJVo6IEFpm0hoxNb9U-8gI8G83nkVIO6nC17Mu4IUAf35DG95RgEaCda7TaA/s279/cerulean%20sea.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="181" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEukGX8r8IfqP9H0RRRJfw1X5cJHrKLMrZ4PINkCVPrcP1IQa0ny59HvJEzOx_Vb3HkCEXcH6-DbKfVz1y7IZKwtVJQKpGa2Yb4hMKRR6CUZ3tj8mEz0tJ88rJV0XvKkZJVo6IEFpm0hoxNb9U-8gI8G83nkVIO6nC17Mu4IUAf35DG95RgEaCda7TaA/s1600/cerulean%20sea.jpeg" width="181" /></a></div>TJ Klune's <i>The House in the Cerulean Sea</i> was a recommendation from a reading friend. The protagonist Linus Baker, an employee of the Department In Charge of Magical Youth,<i> </i>lives an ordinary life--if you can call it that--as a caseworker, inspecting orphanages that provide housing for quite extraordinary children. Then he receives an assignment that takes him to an island by the sea--which he has never seen before. His first glimpse at the children's files is enough to make him faint. While there, he learns to champion others who don't quite fit the norm--from a garden gnome to a phoenix. <div><br /></div><div>When Linus decides to take the children on a field trip to the mainland, where he knows to expect resistance, I was reminded of Pat Conroy, in <i>The Water Is Wide</i>, taking the children he taught to trick or treat and then to visit D.C. I also recalled the second Harry Potter book when Dumbledore explained to Harry that one doesn't have to carry around the weight of the "sins of the father." Klune's tale also shows that how we become family doesn't always follow the expected path.<br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyJciY_EddTsvgnERJKeoRL6_sm8bTwk_qD_5OzwFxH8rSoe9AprGKjrGI7lWCX6lUbrAOI0ydFeMCWCZxI8xxHV2syRf74wm0VC8i_p_2ewVOVYFAyT4wtqTKCGcWOoS1_7zykCD_eBvpEF9OtDvwmTkMlMPFOMCJ2Li-a5g4eP7ICkb4TAD39zEgFQ/s260/five%20tuesdays.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="260" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyJciY_EddTsvgnERJKeoRL6_sm8bTwk_qD_5OzwFxH8rSoe9AprGKjrGI7lWCX6lUbrAOI0ydFeMCWCZxI8xxHV2syRf74wm0VC8i_p_2ewVOVYFAyT4wtqTKCGcWOoS1_7zykCD_eBvpEF9OtDvwmTkMlMPFOMCJ2Li-a5g4eP7ICkb4TAD39zEgFQ/s1600/five%20tuesdays.jpeg" width="260" /></a><span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> Having read <i>Euphoria</i> and <i>Writers & Lovers</i>, I knew I would want to read <i>Five Tuesdays in Winter</i>, Lily King's latest book. This one is a collection of short stories that really deliver. From the first story, I couldn't stop reading. The first story drew me in. The second, the title story, set in a small bookstore, was a particular favorite. Many of the protagonists are young people --or adults reflecting on events that happened when they were younger. Sometimes, the point of view shifts a little--and always in a satisfying way. The writing is clever, and the literary references are never </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>gratuitous. I suspect I will be thinking about some of King's characters for a long time.</div><div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1rssti11T8-FxAcJAJFMZOuGv4_Qk7xICYtVlsMQbAoE--SjhXpNxvro8es0kMQivjfkrjCAy2mke9S5A-G1bJmOISRUYKKUI3UMI1rQd9JoQ8aV-lo8RFDB3uyku1B-VWbh4UpxHYaAcCF45zuGuZ06LUBDcSkQG_MZBwxit7r6JubxsOrNRNPU30Q/s277/trust.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="182" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1rssti11T8-FxAcJAJFMZOuGv4_Qk7xICYtVlsMQbAoE--SjhXpNxvro8es0kMQivjfkrjCAy2mke9S5A-G1bJmOISRUYKKUI3UMI1rQd9JoQ8aV-lo8RFDB3uyku1B-VWbh4UpxHYaAcCF45zuGuZ06LUBDcSkQG_MZBwxit7r6JubxsOrNRNPU30Q/w175-h268/trust.jpeg" width="175" /></a></div>Hernan Diaz's novel <i>Trust</i> is one of those rare reads that had me recommending it to others before I was even finished because I knew I would want to talk about it. Diaz starts with a beautifully written story, but then he shifts to what at first seems a disconnected narrative--until it doesn't. The shift from one perspective to another, from one writing style to another, completes a story, leaving the reader with the challenge of figuring out what is true. </div><div><br /></div><div>The center of the narrative is the stock market crash of 1929 and those who may have manipulated trading. This is the story of a marriage or more than one story of what may be the same marriage. It is also the story of a woman charged with ghost-writing the tale, leading her to search for the full story. </div><div><br /></div><div>The narrative structure feels less like a gimmick and more like a puzzle, as the reader follows the threads toward the truth.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCj-rzYjEFTqp8kLYjjYvvJ5w8Wbnh4SB8JItfWB20pAiXALFIB-n1Pt7qTA-VfW2YYphz0UyRytDaRvPvFatDLbG3LpZqpd3R6aSYj7j9JfcaqLI1kUPY7vH3GxnSI53UNkHlmTIBOxbuO6jlZiu9emxJSnl747CaQ341Ize_SS7rpVzf9iy0G4PJIQ/s276/french%20braid.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="183" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCj-rzYjEFTqp8kLYjjYvvJ5w8Wbnh4SB8JItfWB20pAiXALFIB-n1Pt7qTA-VfW2YYphz0UyRytDaRvPvFatDLbG3LpZqpd3R6aSYj7j9JfcaqLI1kUPY7vH3GxnSI53UNkHlmTIBOxbuO6jlZiu9emxJSnl747CaQ341Ize_SS7rpVzf9iy0G4PJIQ/w172-h259/french%20braid.jpeg" width="172" /></a></div>Anne Tyler's novel <i>French Braid</i> follows three generations (at least) of a Baltimore family. Beginning with an encounter in a train station between Serena and her cousin Nicholas, Tyler tells most of the story as a flashback. She begins in the 1950s with a family trip to a lake cabin, where readers get to know the three children of Robin and Mercy, who will go on to make up the bulk of the story. As I read, I kept wondering about Tyler's title. Although the reference is brief, its significance is a powerful observation of the way our families are always a part of us. </div><div><br /></div><div>The characters that populate the novel are quirky and believable. As Tyler lets them grow older, then old, they become more of themselves. The conflicts of the novel are subtle--sibling rivalry, imperfect marriages, awkward parent-child relationships--and always mitigated by love.</div><div><br /></div><div>I think the likelihood of my continuing to read for pleasure this summer (and all year long) is statistically significant. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><div><br /><p><br /></p></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1427303902639298441.post-7346936407685267932022-05-26T16:46:00.005-04:002022-05-26T16:48:15.965-04:00Nonfiction Choices of the Summer Reading List<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie5RCh1mGEQRObe3IJHpV4eDqY_1G8llQR9ZOvyNSlwK7SR_7cKvM8pi3mBy6DgOK7dvMcRboU-XJGuw1wqj2wB8ehatK8qC1y-c-7bvbEMt_ZNLVmaaBpEu4yn1f3OGCL5jCcoKTpejJlt4UDRCeRGwXNpGpnxXxmo05pa9MZ1XyTX78L5z_k3XHyQQ/s276/anne%20framk.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="183" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie5RCh1mGEQRObe3IJHpV4eDqY_1G8llQR9ZOvyNSlwK7SR_7cKvM8pi3mBy6DgOK7dvMcRboU-XJGuw1wqj2wB8ehatK8qC1y-c-7bvbEMt_ZNLVmaaBpEu4yn1f3OGCL5jCcoKTpejJlt4UDRCeRGwXNpGpnxXxmo05pa9MZ1XyTX78L5z_k3XHyQQ/s1600/anne%20framk.jpeg" width="183" /></a></div>I never deliberately balance my nonfiction reading with fiction, but I find that I work my way through more nonfiction these days than in the past. One book that drew my attention was The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation. I find that the diary itself holds up to re-reading every few years, and I have also read a number of books that fill in some of the blanks about the short life of this child whose writing was evidence of such a bright mind. I even enjoyed the novel <i>The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank</i>, based on the false premise that Peter actually survived the war and lived to adulthood, keeping his past a secret in the U.S. Sullivan goes into some detail about the actual experience in that attic space, but goes further as a modern team followed up leads, using up to date technology, to determine who might have informed the authorities about their hiding place. While the conclusions are not absolute, the author and the team of investigators put forth substantial evidence about the guilty party. They also suggest that Otto Frank and Miep Gies also knew of the identity but ever revealed the information out of an instinct to protect the family of the person responsible.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcLYhF6ViNZsJK0yhfkrBo1ymI2w9_XngPQUpaTaym3jyg0_mV8XPelFTqTa3urA47VXiikjAfNOCpshdW-n1IyQvbACohI-Ns_ZpXJulEvmoGDEyRp86AMTWU4831VLNy7lcGmz3vXDwKhXO_d8x0aTJCBFgk0Wiz9GjFH4s12UuFufhcbNv9EzqsKQ/s232/Natural%20woman.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="217" data-original-width="232" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcLYhF6ViNZsJK0yhfkrBo1ymI2w9_XngPQUpaTaym3jyg0_mV8XPelFTqTa3urA47VXiikjAfNOCpshdW-n1IyQvbACohI-Ns_ZpXJulEvmoGDEyRp86AMTWU4831VLNy7lcGmz3vXDwKhXO_d8x0aTJCBFgk0Wiz9GjFH4s12UuFufhcbNv9EzqsKQ/s1600/Natural%20woman.jpeg" width="232" /></a></div><br /> In a totally different vein, I enjoyed Carole King's memoir <i>A Natural Woman</i>, which follows her life, tracing her success as a songwriter and singer, as well as detailing her personal life. I am always shocked to be reminded just how young she and Gerry Goffin were when they began penning their mega-hits. Rather than a tell-all in which she spills the dirt on others whose paths crossed her, this book is usually generous to other she knew but sometimes painfully honest about her own life choices. Details of her performance as part of James Taylor's band was a stunning reminder of all the talented musical arts who supported one another during their heyday. The book begs for a companion playlist. <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV2kCqm870nvT1uZHalJU62ZZyAIi2IgrRqDRGS5qg0Jv3rsPhBpLNYfP0896grxELjovUkoJePP2fup2sBhc1q__BaeTWtWBqnh87TogKfqzKuR25Qck00r-bO_QjExhJSjOelP87OZ3BkVFH3uaoTgxcAFpzZrnVDDL4l1auPP_5wxHGBhlLzT36Fw/s300/crying%20in%20h%20mart.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV2kCqm870nvT1uZHalJU62ZZyAIi2IgrRqDRGS5qg0Jv3rsPhBpLNYfP0896grxELjovUkoJePP2fup2sBhc1q__BaeTWtWBqnh87TogKfqzKuR25Qck00r-bO_QjExhJSjOelP87OZ3BkVFH3uaoTgxcAFpzZrnVDDL4l1auPP_5wxHGBhlLzT36Fw/s1600/crying%20in%20h%20mart.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div>Michelle Zauner's memoir <i>Crying in H Mart</i>, which began as a <i>New Yorker</i> essay explores the complicated dynamics between mother and daughter, compounded by culture. Zauner, the Korean-American lead singer of the indie rockers, <i>Japanese Breakfast</i>, particularly explores the strong sensory connection between familial ties and food. For book clubs that pair meals with books, this memoir provides a perfect culinary opportunity. After reading Lisa See's <i>Island of the Sea Women </i>and <i>The Girl with Seven Names</i> by Lee Hyena-seo, one fiction and the other non-fiction, I am beginning to crave kimchi.<div><br /></div><div><br /><p><br /></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0