101 Books to Read Before You Die discussion
What are you reading?
A House Among The Trees by Julia Glasshttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The sudden death of an elderly wealthy and famous author/illustrator of children’s books in the middle of the shooting of a film about his life, sets into motion a minor tug of war over his literary and personal legacy. I am sure that many readers will find this to be insightful and erudite. I thought it was tedious and pretentious. It was incredibly over-written, words lined up, pearlescent balls strung together, opalescent teeth, enamelized decay, so many shiny similes like Mylar bubbles atop curling ribbon. Most of this novel was spent on the back stories of the various characters: the deaths of romantic partners to AIDS and parents to cancer, overly hyped childhood traumas, the settling on a particular life path, etc. These threads of past narratives swelled, spread, swallowing up the current events until like some prehistoric nest of killer gnats, it covered and obscured the precipitating tension. If by this point in my review, the reader has absolutely no idea what I am getting at, then I have successfully communicated my frustration with this book.
How The Light Gets In by Louise Pennyhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is my favorite so far in this series; it is the first that had me so engaged that I stayed up way past my bed time to see what would happen. The murder investigation becomes a side story in this volume which focuses on bringing the tension between Gamache and the leadership in the police department to a resolution. Although I enjoyed this book, I am hoping that this plot line has reached its conclusion. I am a reader that likes closure and, for me, this has dragged out long enough.
Finished
by E.M. Forster -- 2 StarsMy Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished
by Holly Madison -- 4 StarsMy Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I've been reading The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah and listening to The Bungalow Mystery by Carolyn Keene (narrated by Laura Linney).
Sourdough by Robin Sloanhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This was a playful smash-up of a techno thriller and the world of the crazy gourmand. It was creative. The writing was well suited to the story line. But, it just was not for me. 2.5 stars
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitzhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This was an old-fashioned who-done-it in the style of Agatha Christie. The story within a story format worked very well.
Just finished this work of Japanese crime fiction:
Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama. Incredible!My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished
by Ernest Cline - 4 Stars.What a fun adventure this book was!
My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Henry and Cato by Iris Murdochhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Henry and Cato are young adult Brits who were once school chums. Both are moving through a crisis of personal meaning. Henry, having spent a lifetime resenting the injustice of being the younger son unable to inherit the estate, suddenly finds himself the heir and promptly moves to rid himself of it all, evicting his mother in the process. Cato, having deeply disappointed his enlightened father by joining a Catholic religious order and being ordained a priest, realizes that he would much rather be a messiah than serve the Messiah. When Cato becomes the victim of a violent crime that touches those around him, these crisis are pushed to a resolution. Murdoch has a knack for writing snappy dialogue. Her characters are chiseled to exacting sharpness. This is my second Murdoch novel and I find her characters rather tiresome with their self-absorbed posture. Characters seem to regard others as means to their own goals or expendable. I had the sense that Murdoch was trying to do more than tell a good story, that she was trying to explore some theme or make some point, but I was somehow missing it. The dialogue between Cato and his friend in the final chapter about the unknowability of God and the opposition between certainty and faith seemed to be hinting at a key to unlock the meaning of this story, but I could not figure out how to use it. This novel is an example of wonderful writing in the hands of a less than wonderful reader.
The Child Finder by Rene Denfeldhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
There was much in this story that was not exactly realistic, details that I questioned. But Denfeld is so outstanding at creating atmosphere and telling a story that draws the reader in that I was glad to suspend all skepticism. This is the story of a woman, held captive by an abuser as a young child, she now investigates missing child cases. Relying solely on tenacity and intuition, she finds missing children at an astounding rate. The disappearance of a little girl three years earlier in the mountains of Oregon brings her to her own home and the ghosts of her past.
The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilsonhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Although I enjoyed this short novel, it did not seem like the type of book that would be awarded a Pulitzer. It certainly illustrates how our taste in literary fiction has changed over the past century. This is the story of a young soldier who returns to his Iowa farming family and the girl he loves. I appreciated how far ahead of its time it seemed to be in describing a family responding to a victim of rape. There was the hint of the morality tale in the portrayal of characters and the novel’s resolution. Hard work and decency are rewarded in the end while cruelty and laziness are punished by forces beyond human justice. I was disappointed that the author did not capture the Scottish dialect. At one point, a younger brother being educated in Chicago criticizes the family for a speech that is neither English nor Scottish. But, the dialogue only contains smatterings of phrases such as “wee one” or “lass”. 3.5 stars
I've been reading Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli and listening to Fool's Assassin by Robin Hobb
Desperation Road by Michael Farris Smithhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The lives of two hurting people converge in small town Mississippi, a young man just released from jail and a young woman drifting and homeless with a young daughter in toe. Although I initially felt sympathy for the characters’ hard luck, this shifted to frustration with their chronic poor choices, anger with their irresponsibility and bafflement over their inability to learn from the past. I don’t think this was the author’s intended reaction from the reader. This plot depended heavily on what felt to me as unlikely coincidences. The writing was engaging. The characters had depth. The dialogue was well done.
A Complicated Kindness by Marian Toewswww.goodreads.com/review/show/2390239621
I don’t usually appreciate a young narrator, but Nomi drew me in immediately with her sarcastic observations and dry wit. Like most teens in the 1970s or 1980s, she rebels against the limitations of her small town, the moral and social restrictions that do not make sense to her and the opinion that most adults are hypocrites. Living in a Mennonite town with her eccentric but kind father after her rebellious older sister and then her free-spirited mother leave town, Nomi is torn by conflicting emotions that she deadens with alcohol, drugs and undifferentiated anger. I am so grateful that Toews kept this novel to under 250 pages; any longer and that anger would have shifted into the realm of the irritating. I thought the attempt at poignancy weakened the ending.
Finished two!
by J.D. Vance - 2 StarsNot as great as I had anticipated- My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
&
by Marissa Meyer - 3.5 StarsReally fun retelling of Cinderella as a cyborg! My Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushnerwww.goodreads.com/review/show/2392296901
I should have loved this book. It was well written; the characters, the story line, the use of language defied mere conventions. Yet, I just could not connect, not with the primary characters, not with the plot, not with the setting. A young motorcycle obsessed woman moves to NYC in the mid-1970s to pursue a career in film. There she gets entangled in a drug and alcohol fueled, sexually promiscuous, shallow world of violence. I never felt like I understood Reno, never cared about her or her situation, never felt the slightest curiosity about what would happen next.
Oneida: From Free Love Utopia to the Well Set Table by Ellen Wayland-Smithhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Most people will recognize “Oneida” as an iconic brand of 20th century silverware. Fewer people will be aware that it began as a 19th century utopian community denouncing monogamy as spiritually limiting and espousing free love. This was an interesting history of the community and its transformation into a successful silver company.
The Third Life of Grange Copeland by Alice Walkerhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Alice Walker explores the connection between brutal, dehumanizing, economically crippling racism and brutal, degrading, crippling domestic violence. The story begins in 1929 rural Georgia with Grange Copeland taking out his degradation on his wife and son. With a dead mother and a disappeared father, that son goes on to repeat the pattern despite his pledge to be different. But when Grange is able to confront his rage and name its source, he is able to return to his home and provide his granddaughter with the love and protection he could not give his son. The son, unable to look into himself, continues to project the self-loathing onto his family. This story was populated with difficult characters to like, in an ugly world, revealing too much horrible truth about the impact of racism in this country which too many do not want to face. Yet, Walker managed to portray the sad humanity in a way that made the reader care and understand even while condemning virtually every moment, every interaction. This would have been a solid 4 star novel had I not been comparing it constantly to “The Color Purple”. Nonetheless, I will round my 3.5 star rating to 4 stars.
An American Marriage by Tayari Joneshttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Roy and Celestial have been married for a year and a half. They met in college, are starting out on promising careers, enjoying their life in the suburbs of Atlanta when Roy is falsely accused and convicted of rape. Can their marriage survive his five years incarceration? The story is told in 3 alternating voices: Roy, Celestial and Andre, the best friend of Celestial since childhood and of Roy since college. With such a high rate of incarceration of men of color in the US, exploring its impact on family dynamics is a timely topic. Jones tries to give the reader a sense of the complex emotions that swirl around the imprisonment of a person. Many readers have pet peeves, literary quirks or short comings that are so irritating that, no matter how much is right with a novel, the reader simply can’t get past that one irritation. This novel tapped into one of those pet peeves for me, the use of multiple voice narration when each voice is indistinguishable. Not only did these three characters sound identical, but they all sounded like a female MFA grad student. Part of the story is told through letters between Celestial and Roy during his years in jail. None of these read like typical letters. Some seemed designed to provide the reader with background information. Others were single sentences which makes no sense given the difficulty Roy had procuring things from the commissary or the delay of mail in and out of the system. I had high hopes for this novel, but ended up being disappointed. 2.5 stars
Midnight At The Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivanhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This was a playful mystery filled with likable characters and featuring fun, far-fetched clues. It put me in mind of a Nancy Drew for grown-ups.
Finished
by Jesmyn Ward -- 4 StarsReally enjoyed this one.
My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
About Grace by Anthony Doerrhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I am not exactly sure why I struggled to get into this novel, but I really did. It was as if I was watching the story through the wrong end of the telescope, or as if there was a dense fog between me and the characters. Or maybe it was a sort of veil that muted their voice, a veil created by the author trying just a bit too hard to write a literary novel rather than to tell a story. The protagonist periodically has a dream that is replicated exactly in reality in subsequent days. When the events are tragic, he seems to have some guilt over not preventing what happened. But, isn’t the future immutable? And what do his dreams say about the nature of time. Of course, these themes are not developed. Rather, it is the nature of family and paternal love that is taken up when he has a recurring dream that his infant daughter will die in his arms as he tries to rescue her from flooding streets. When weather forecasts predict a severe flood in his neighborhood, he becomes erratic in his panic, finally running away from home to a Caribbean Island. Twenty-five years later, he sets out to discover if his daughter and her mother are alive and if it is not too late to reconnect. This novel had abundant opportunity for strong emotions which the author pointed at, but never enabled me to feel. Too many interactions and relationships struck me as incomprehensibly strange, too many sudden shifts and too many convenient coincidences. I am glad I read his Pulitzer Prize winning novel prior to this one because I might have passed on that amazing book had this been my first introduction to Doerr.
The Long Way Home by Louise Pennyhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Not my favorite in this series. The entire story line felt too contrived. Much was repeated from prior installments in the series, yet not having read preceding books, I don’t think this would have made much sense. It felt to me like Penny was straining in this book. Maybe it is time to retire Three Pines.
Finished
by L.M. Montgomery - 5 Stars!!Oh, this book was by far my favorite in the series!
My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakovhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is what happens when a stupid reader encounters a brilliant text. I have heard numerous voices claim that this is a masterpiece. However, I could not make any sense of the strange images and odd story sequences. To say that getting through this was a chore is putting it mildly.
Finished
by Matthew J. Sullivan -- 4 Stars.Not at all what I was expecting, but enjoyed it nonetheless.
My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Illuminations by Mary Sharrattwww.goodreads.com/review/show/2416415043
This is a fictionalized biography of the 12th century mystic, Hildegard von Bingen. Although the author was consistent with the outline of the historical facts, there were some places where I questioned if she got the details of the larger setting correct. For example, she referred to the religious vows of the anchoress as “taking Holy Orders” a term I have only seen used for the ordination of deacons, priests and bishops. The voice of Hildegard never quite felt authentic. In the early years, she neither sounded like an 8 year old nor a 70 year old remembering childhood. The voice and sensibilities of Hildegard could have more easily put her in 1980then in 1140. Older words were thrown in, such as verdantide and merriment, to suggest the ancient setting but we were also given current slang such as “shut his trap” when willing a man to stop speaking. But my greatest annoyance with this book was the author’s repetition of major details. Over and over we were told that the mystic Jutta was the bride of death, not of Christ, that Vulmar was Hildegard’s oldest and most faithful friend, etc. It is clear from early on that Jutta is running to the anchorage to flee the older brother who is molesting her, but the author can’t just point at it, she insists on a thousand hints until she has to say it outright. I want an author who can trust the reader enough not to have to be hit over the head 50 times before they can comprehend what is on the page. 2.5 stars
Finished
by Rene Denfeld-- 4.5 StarsThis one was brutally gorgeous.
My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
You Will Not Have My Hate by Antoine Leirishttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is a very brief reflection on the immediate grief in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on concert goers in Paris. The young wife of Leiris died in that mass shooting leaving him to grieve with his toddler son. Leiris writes like a poet as he tries to capture his profound pain and disorientation. 3.5 stars
October Light by John Gardenerhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I am trying to read through all the winners of the Pulitzer Prize. Despite their literary acclaim, some of these leave me less than wowed. October Light is a story within a story, one of which worked for me and one did not. James and Sally, elderly widowed siblings, have recently moved in together in their childhood farmhouse. An argument over lifestyles, in particular the presence of the television, results in Sally locked in her bedroom and James threatening her with a shotgun. The secondary story is a strange paperback novel which is missing pages about drug smugglers, flying saucers and sex which Sally reads while locked in her room. The story of James and Sally and its impact on the larger community, is well rendered. The enfolded paperback felt like a distraction that would never end. Googling commentary on this book, I learned that the family feud was a microcosm of the Revolutionary War and that the paperback novel and the tension over the television was an exploration of the connection between art and morality. Even knowing to look for these themes, I was unable to tease them out. Sally and James gets 4 stars. The smugglers and flying saucer gets 1 star.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whiteheadhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I feel guilty when I realize that I am shying away from novels of the Holocaust or slavery or other well-mined historical horrors of human cruelty. I don’t want the ugly brutality to touch me, even if for a few hours muted by the virtual presence of a story. Millions of people lived these horrors day after day, year after year with nothing to mute the pain. This is one of those novels that depicts the most awful truth of America’s original sin. Cora runs from a sadistic Georgian plantation via the Underground Railroad which is depicted as an actual subterranean steam engine. Similar to No Exit, this magical element allows Whitehead to focus on the experience of life in each location rather than on the struggle of flight. In each state, Cora experiences a different incarnation of racial hatred and the suppression of blacks in the US. Cora is shockingly worldly and astute by the time she makes her first home off the plantation. But her observations seem to be less about inviting the reader into a particular psyche than about instructing the reader on the many faces of racism. Likewise, each step along Cora’s journey seem to serve as a microcosm of a greater history. Whitehead appears to want the reader to acknowledge that our terrible racial history of injustice was not simply an economic necessity of plantation life. From the violence of the plantation to the judicial execution of the innocent person of color, from erasing their history and identity to denying a future, from medicine to entertainment, from slave catchers motivated by profit to murderous mobs who simply can not endure the thought of sharing the same geography with African Americans, Cora and those she meets along the way learn that white America is to be feared and never trusted (look what they did to the native population). Yet, no matter what they endure, Cora and the others will keep pushing ahead, dying rather than return to what had been. 3.5 stars
Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeneyhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
It’s one more of the now ubiquitous unreliable narrator novels. This time, from the very title, we know that she is unreliable, an admitted liar. Amber wakes up in the hospital having suffered brain trauma in a car crash the previous day. Although she appears to be in a coma to those around her, she is alert, able to hear and feel, recall in detail the events of the prior week, make astute assumptions about everything that is happening. She is not sedated, foggy with pain or groggy from meds. Her observations of her immediate situation is interspersed with recollections of the prior week and with childhood diary entries. No surprise that a novel with such a premise will contain twists. I had a hard time with this book. Since I was told not to trust the narrator or the story she was telling, I found it difficult to invest. Although I anticipated some of the revelations, others were a surprise, and, at least one, I could not reconcile with previous events. The narrator developed a rather winey tone that became rather irritating. And, I was not sure what to make of the ending. 2.5 stars
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingwayhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I hated the undisguised racism. I disliked the characters and the world they inhabit. But the writing is amazing. There is not a single wrong word. 3.5 stars
A River Runs Through It And Other Stories by Norman Macleanhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Who would have thought that a story with so much description of fly fishing could have universal appeal? Lesser writers would have required hundreds of pages and still not been able to capture the tender strength, the beauty and ultimate weakness in quiet, ordinary brotherly love. The title story was so perfect that it left me in a place beyond words. Maclean never got in the way of his story. He simply invited the reader along with the narrator, his brother and brother-in-law one summer and allowed the reader to observe without needing to explain it away. The other stories in this collection are coming of age moments. Although they are good, they pale in comparison to the title story. 4.5 stars
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thienwww.goodreads.com/review/show/2434100581
At times, I found this novel poignant, at times, wistful, at times insightful and at times it dragged. This is the story of 3 generations of a family of gifted and passionate musicians living in mid-century China. Because of their appreciative love of classical Western music, they live under constant suspicion, weathering the storms of the Revolution with the heart of artists. This novel carries the saga through to the Tiananmen Square protests with its radical shift in the social outlook. Woven through this novel with a much finer thread is the account of the daughter of one musician now growing up in Canada, curious to know her father’s story. For me, the more current story was not sufficiently developed to make it significant, only adding length to an already long book. The book is filled with passages that rhapsodize about particular pieces in the Western cannon. For those who know these pieces, I am sure these sections would have had great meaning, but they were lost on me. Many of the characters were portrayed with lovely subtlety. In short, there was far more to like in this book than not.
The Power of Silence by Robert Cardinal Sarahhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Cardinal Sarah, steeped in Carthusian spirituality, challenges the reader to be immersed in silence in order to hear God and grow as a disciple of Christ. His challenge is needed in a world tyrannized by noise. But there were significant times when I was not comfortable with what he was saying. The contents of this book seems to be answers to an interviewer’s questions, but, the reader rarely hears the initial question. It gives the book the feel of randomly generated thoughts on the topic of silence in the spiritual life, often becoming repetitive. Cardinal Sarah draws on a breadth of sources. I wonder if this book would have made a better impression on me if I had used it as material for reflection, reading only a paragraph or two at a time rather than in a more typical fashion of a chapter at a sitting. Despite the ways it failed to fully engage me, I still found much to think about in this book. 3.5 stars
Finished
by Sandhya Menon-- 4 StarsThis book was exactly what I needed-- now I want iced coffee! ;)
My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
101 Books to Read Before You Die
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https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Although this novel only spans a year, this cattle drive from Texas to Montana in the mid-19th century, has the feel of an epic. At over 900 pages, it had to be a well-paced story with sufficiently interesting characters to keep my attention. And, it did keep my attention. But, I was expecting more literary gold since it is the recipient of the Pulitzer. More often than not, the wording felt as if it was written for a young adult reader. There was nothing subtle in the reactions of the characters. Dialogue felt like it was lifted from any Spaghetti Western. The characters easily fell into pre-formed molds: the damsel in distress, the rugged romantic lead, the strong silent type, the young cowhand who grows into his own, the infinitely competent and patient frontier woman, the stupid outlaw, etc. 3.5 stars