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What I'm Reading JULY 2015
I finished Nick Hornby's Funny Girl and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks again, Ellen.
Mary Ellen,That professor either has no sense of humor or a somewhat twisted one. Too funny.
Ellie wrote: "Mary Anne wrote: "I'm reading A God in Ruins. I love the way Kate Atkinson writes. The book was featured on the NPR book club last month. http://www.npr.org/2015/06/16/4146696......"I've just started A God in Ruins. I haven't read the link yet. Are there any spoilers? Atkinson is one of my very favorite writers.
Ann wrote: "I finished Nick Hornby's Funny Girl and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks again, Ellen."
Oh, I'm glad. I am still thinking about it, how it could be so entertaining and so complex at the same time.
Just finished Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine and began The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher.
On, re Anna K. Just read a post on a general board that said, "It's a really good book if you just skip all the philosophy and stuff." Maybe it was the same professor.
Oh, I'm glad. I am still thinking about it, how it could be so entertaining and so complex at the same time.
Just finished Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine and began The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher.
On, re Anna K. Just read a post on a general board that said, "It's a really good book if you just skip all the philosophy and stuff." Maybe it was the same professor.
I've been re-reading White Teeth which, according to what I scrawled inside the front cover, I originally bought and read in August 2001. I had only a vague memory of identifying with Irie, but absolutely no memory of how funny this book is, nor of the high quality of its prose (I think Zadie Smith has a good ear for various Englishes, though that's only part of it), nor for how much patience she seems to have for some very confused characters. Now I'm wondering what other forgotten treasures are sitting on my shelves.
Just finished The Door, an excellent and absorbing read translated from the Hungarian about the relationship between a writer and her housekeeper Emerence. But it is really about so much more, about independence, individuality, truth, what love between human beings amounts to, what life can mean, what other people can mean. It is said to be partially autobiographical and if so it must have been a devastating book to write. Emerence is a character not soon forgotten.
Lyn wrote: "Just finished The Door, an excellent and absorbing read translated from the Hungarian about the relationship between a writer and her housekeeper Emerence. But it is really about so ..."
How very intriguing! You should be in marketing for publishers. Alas, my library doesn't have it. Eventually, perhaps, if they run out of Amish Vampire romances to buy...
How very intriguing! You should be in marketing for publishers. Alas, my library doesn't have it. Eventually, perhaps, if they run out of Amish Vampire romances to buy...
Sherry wrote: "Ellie wrote: "Mary Anne wrote: "I'm reading A God in Ruins. I love the way Kate Atkinson writes. The book was featured on the NPR book club last month. http://www.npr.org/2015/06/16..."Sherry there is a spoiler, but they announce during the interview when it is going to happen, and direct people to pick up the discussion online.
Nicole,I loved WHITE Teeth. I took it on vacation one year and just couldn't put it down.
Lyn, I loved your description of The Door. We will be talking about it for the Reading List in December. I'm hoping you will be there to contribute more.
Er, I'm supposed to be starting the discussion for To Rise Again at a Decent Hour but can't figure out how to start a new thread. Help would be much appreciated!
Kat wrote: "Er, I'm supposed to be starting the discussion for To Rise Again at a Decent Hour but can't figure out how to start a new thread. Help would be much appreciated!"Just emailed you, Kat. If you still need help, I'm sure others here will step up.
Sherry wrote: "Kat wrote: "Er, I'm supposed to be starting the discussion for To Rise Again at a Decent Hour but can't figure out how to start a new thread. Help would be much appreciated!"Just emailed you, Kat..."
Thank you!! The discussion is now open.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – 5***** and a ❤ This is a singularly powerful novel that has touched generations of readers in the 50-something years since it was first published. It is a novel of personal integrity and courage, and shines a light on a particular time and place in America’s history. The characters, even the minor ones, are richly drawn; Lee peoples this small town with a wide range of personalities, strength, weaknesses and ethics. My favorite book of all time. Sissy Spacek capably narrates the audio version.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Ann & Ellen, thanks for giving me a little laugh for the day!
I had started A God in Ruins, but decided I better start reading the book I nominated for August, My Brilliant Friend. It wouldn't do to start the discussion without having finished the book. I know I'll get back to Atkinson's newest, but as I haven't been getting as much reading done in France as I thought I would, I thought I'd better play it safe.
I'm curious about A God in Ruins. I was very disappointed by Life after Life, for which I had high hopes based on previous Atkinson books. Somehow I'm just not able to work up the energy to buy and read the sequel. But I am still curious to know what you think of it.
I loved WHITE TEETH, Nicole. I enjoyed ON BEAUTY, too, but didn't feel it had the same verve. Have you read anything else by Zadie Smith you would recommend?Also, what Atkinson titles did you like? Life After Life was my first, and though I found it gripping, it wasn't quite meaty enough for me. But since I liked the way she wrote I thought I might enjoy other Atkinson titles.
Those are the two ZS I've read, Kat (and I think the same as you do: White Teeth is the better of the two). I did just check out NW from the library yesterday, so if I ever manage to actually read it, I'll let you know. For Kate Atkinson, the ones I really liked the best are Behind the Scenes at the Museum and Emotionally Weird, two of what I think of as her three "quirky" novels. I have the third of these, Human Croquet, also waiting to be read on my shelf. I've read a couple of the mystery ones as well, but I don't like them as much. Also, there's a good short story collection, Not the End of the World.
Life after Life felt like playing a one of the video puzzle games that I like, except instead of escaping the room you have to escape your life. It was too directed or something; not the right task for something like a novel, belonging in another genre, like a puzzle, where you can have a right answer and a wrong answer.
Nicole wrote: "Those are the two ZS I've read, Kat (and I think the same as you do: White Teeth is the better of the two). I did just check out NW from the library yesterday, so if I ever manage to actually read ..."Thanks, Nicole. Interesting analysis of Life After Life! I'll have to think about that.
Zadie Smith - We discussed NW on Constant Reader. I have also read On Beauty. I liked both of these novels, but neither impressed me as much as White Teeth. I did, however, really like her book of essays Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays, although I don't usually read that genre.
Ann, I've seen other good things floating around about the essays as well. I guess it can go on the giant to-read pile... :)I'm wondering also about the Autograph Man; I feel like I bought this book years ago in some kind of post-White Teeth haze, never read it, and then it didn't survive the great purge when I moved overseas. Have other CRers read it? Is it worth tracking down and buying again?
Kate Atkinson - Nicole, I agree that Life After Life had too much of the experimental form for me, although it was still Atkinson, so I enjoyed it. It isn't like her other books, which are pretty straightforward.I have read all of her novels. In addition to those already mentioned, I would recommend the ones featuring detective Jackson Brodie, starting with Case Histories, and including
When Will There Be Good News?, One Good Turn and Started Early, and Took My Dog.
I'm only on page 9, and I've been stunned about half a dozen times. More at 11, as they used to say...
Inés of my Soul by Isabel Allende. Evocative writing. Enlightening historical fiction about the Spanish conquistadors in Chile, told through the memories of Inés Suárez, conquistadors. My favorite passage: "A skinny old woman is pathetic; my ears have become enormous and the least breeze blows me off my feet. Any moment now I will fly away. I must cut this account short, otherwise too many dead will be left in the inkwell. My dead. Nearly all my loved ones are dead. That is the price for living as long as I have. "
Mary wrote: "Inés of my Soul by Isabel Allende. Evocative writing. Enlightening historical fiction about the Spanish conquistadors in Chile, told through the memories of Inés Suárez, conquistadors. My favorite ..."I really liked Inés of My Soul ... Although I thought the ending was rushed. I would have happily read another 300 pages of this woman's story.
Emma: A Modern Retelling by Alexander McCall Smith – 3*** This is book 3 in the Austen Project series, wherein authors take on Jane Austen’s classic novels, reimagining the scenarios in contemporary times. In this outing, Mini Coopers replaces carriages, and cappuccinos take the place of tea, but the characters, relationships and basic scenarios remain the same. I enjoyed this light romantic comedy, but it is not as good as the original. The audio version is capably performed by Susan Lyons. She has good pacing and sufficient skill as a voice artist to differentiate the various characters.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I've just finished Funny Girl by Nick Hornby. It is a lovely, uplifting read. The characters are utterly believable and Sophie/Barbara is a plucky heroine. The book wonderfully captures the spirit of the 1960s and the new opportunities all around. It deals very sensitively with different forms of relationships and the choices you have to make in life. A colourful delight with a bittersweet centre.
I've just read H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald. It contains beautiful prose and is very playful with language. This makes you keep reading on even if you find it hard to believe, as I do, that someone would turn to a hawk to deal with grief. Actually that’s probably also one of the attractions of this book. Though I find her remark towards the end of the book that ‘during her time with Mabel (the goshawk), she has learned how you feel more human once you have known, even in your imagination, what it is like to be not.’ quite unnerving. A gripping book which invokes the alien world of birds of prey to portray the heartbreak following the loss of a parent.
Bernadette,Glad to hear that you also enjoyed Funny Girl. I think it's Hornby's best in a long time.
I have been doing some lighter reading. I like the TV series POLDARK, so I decided to read the first in this long series. Poldark is a more rounded character in the book - not all smoldering eyes lusting after Elizabeth and galloping across the countryside. The author, Winston Graham, is a pretty good story teller, but if you're looking for romance, forget it. He discretely ends the chapter whenever physical contact ensues. Maybe it was the times. The book was written in 1945.
Also, I am doing some volunteer tutoring and my student is reading Mockingjay in The Hunger Games series. I inadvertently signed up for Amazon Unlimited and can read these books for free. I am now on volume one. It's not my cup of tea, but I can see the attraction.
Bernadette wrote: "I've just finished Funny Girl by Nick Hornby. It is a lovely, uplifting read. The characters are utterly believable and Sophie/Barbara is a plucky heroine. The book wonderfully capt..."
What a good description, Bernadette!
What a good description, Bernadette!
Bernadette wrote: "I've just read H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald. It contains beautiful prose and is very playful with language. This makes you keep reading on even if you find it hard to believe, a..."I didn't find it difficult to believe that Helen would turn to the hawk in dealing with her grief. I think people find many ways of managing profound sadness and the hawk was a link to her childhood and to nature.
Just finished The Hundred-Year House Almost threw in the towel on this one in the beginning, which was clumsily written with way too many of what I call "information drops." Explanation of characters and history just plopped in there at our feet--things which could and should have been worked gracefully into the story.But I hung in there and the book improved a lot. Interesting structure. Sort of a mystery as to what went on. Solved in the latter part of the book. Damned if I know what the very last section contributed, though.
Since I have limited bookshelf space, this one's going in the give-away-to-the-library pile.
I'm in the middle of Essays After Eighty, so far not bad but a little ho hum. I used to get a daily email digest called "New discussions from Constant Reader," but have started to miss them and looking back have not gotten one since July 9th. I still get some emails saying someone made a comment in a discussion. When I go to Goodreads, my account says I'm set up to get the daily digests; anyone have a similar experience or know what I might do to get them back?
I just finished Go Set a Watchmanand I loved it...an opinion not shared by many others. I thought it to be a powerful and realistic portrait of the Deep South in the 1950's. I also loved the humorous reflections of Jean Louise as an adolescent and young teen.I am currently reading The Goldfinchby Donna Tartt, another book with mixed reviews. I am a little over half-way through and I find it to be a page-turning fun read.
I'm about 30 pages in on GSAW. So far, it seems a tad amateurish, straining too hard to be clever.
Ruth wrote: "I'm about 30 pages in on GSAW. So far, it seems a tad amateurish, straining too hard to be clever."I think that is one of the reasons I liked it so much. I was concerned current editors would make it something it wasn't. I am from the South and raised by people that were deeply entrenched in the culture of the Deep South. I think that is another reason I responded positively to this book.
Having said that, I totally understand why people have completely different opinions of this novel.
Karen,I thoroughly enjoyed The Goldfinch It was a great read overall, although I got a bit bogged down in the Las Vegas part.
Ann wrote: "Karen,I thoroughly enjoyed The Goldfinch It was a great read overall, although I got a bit bogged down in the Las Vegas part."
I got bogged down in the final section.
A short story by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Rose of Fire. "“Set at the time of the Spanish Inquisition in the fifteenth century, “Rose of Fire” tells the story of the origins of the mysterious labyrinthine library, the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, which lies at the heart of Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s novels The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game, and now The Prisoner of Heaven." An enchanting tale.
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys – 2** Rhys tries to explain the reasons behind the madness which afflicts Bertha/Antoinette, Rochester’s wife in Jane Eyre. I wanted to like this. I had heard much about the novel over the years and more than one friend whose opinion I trust raved about it. But it just didn’t do much for me.
Link to my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I read The Once and Future King by T.H. White. I loved the first third of the novel with Wart growing up - it was truly magical. I didn't enjoy the second third quite as much (sometime it was too preachy) and put the book down for about a month. Then I picked it back up and was so rewarded. I don't like fantasy but I loved this book and am so happy I read it.
Gina wrote: "I read The Once and Future King by T.H. White. I loved the first third of the novel with Wart growing up - it was truly magical. I didn't enjoy the second third qui..."
Didn't you want to have Archimedes in your life? I know that's a ridiculous statement for me to make about a book I've read three times, but the last time I read it, oh, maybe over a year ago, I really, truly felt I needed a companion like him.
I'm editing. I read it as a child and learned magic. I read it at 30 and learned love and perfidy. I read it at 60-sometthing and learned all conflict eventually becomes only the past.
Didn't you want to have Archimedes in your life? I know that's a ridiculous statement for me to make about a book I've read three times, but the last time I read it, oh, maybe over a year ago, I really, truly felt I needed a companion like him.
I'm editing. I read it as a child and learned magic. I read it at 30 and learned love and perfidy. I read it at 60-sometthing and learned all conflict eventually becomes only the past.
As Ellen so aptly observed upon re-reading THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING, "I read it at 60-sometthing and learned all conflict eventually becomes only the past." So true. I first read it 50 years ago and loved it, the first third especially - just wonderful! Definitely worth a re-read.
Katy wrote: "As Ellen so aptly observed upon re-reading THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING, "I read it at 60-sometthing and learned all conflict eventually becomes only the past." So true. I first read it 50 years ago..."After reading H is for Hawk, I've been thinking I should read this again. I believe I read it when I was in my 20s, about 40 years ago. I think it is time for a re-read.
Another tie-in is White's "The Goshawk" (Sorry. Can't link from phone app) anout White trying his hand at falconry. I read it as a companion to Once/Future King. I think it is somewhat like H is for Hawk, which I want to read. With an ancient training book in hand, White holed himself up in a shed with a goshawk and they drove each other crazy. It was a fascinating read.
Has anyone else read How to Be Both by Ali Smith? This is one of those books that I bought on sale at Amazon on the strength of its reviews. There are two parts to the book, one about a Renaissance fresco painter and another about a young British woman who has recently lost her mother and is studying the painter. The reader is meant to choose her own starting point. One review suggested that I start with the more modern story, so after finding the first few pages of the painter's tale extremely obscure, I switched to the young girl's story.This seems to be another book whose unusual structure (the two parts apparently overlap and inform each other) won over many critics. So far, lots of dialog about very abstract things.
It is not grabbing me at all. Should I continue? Is this more an experiment or is there a real story buried here among all the philosophical questions?
Ann-Having dipped my toe recently into the shallow end of experimental fiction, I can tell you this: experiments, by definition, sometimes fail. Of course, you also can find super exciting things this way too. It's a high-risk high-reward type situation, in my opinion.
I haven't read Ali Smith yet, but she is definitely on my list of people to try out.
I read The Grapes of Wrath many years ago when I was younger. I listened to it this time on audio tapes. John Steinbeck wrote such a great and despairing story. Even though the Jode family had no home and was mistreated horribly by the land owners of California during the depression years, you knew the family would stick together and be okay as long as Ma was in charge.
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I am reading Spider Woman's Daughter by Anne Hillerman. And I don't feel guilty..!