What I'm Reading JUNE 2014

[Nicole]

Was it Kat who recommended Alice Thomas Ellis? Whoever it was, thank you, I owe you. I'm in the middle of a second one, The Birds of the Air, which I am liking even more than the first one I read. She has quite sharp edges, Alice Thomas Ellis.

[Geoff]

Nicole wrote: "Ann wrote: "I used to like Anita Brookner. I think she writes well, but after awhile I just felt that all of her books were such downers that I gave up. Shallow of me, I know."

They are kind of d..."

To defend Adichie, it's not like she could invent the details of the Biafran war. She might have tacked some sort of fake happy ending onto that novel, but that would have been an aesthetic cheat.

[Ann D]

Carol,
Glad to hear you are reading THE BURGESS BOYS!

[Cateline]

I'm reading the new Gabaldon of the Outlander series. Written in My Own Heart's Blood, the e-book version.

I discovered this series about 20 years ago, by accident, and have followed it since. It is entirely possible I'm tiring of it. This is the 8th in the series, and I'm about 75% through it. I can't say I'm terribly impressed. Considering readers had a 5 year wait in-between I'd have thought there would be something new. There isn't. Maybe the last 25% will be more satisfying. I hope.

[Ann D]

Needed a break from my usual reading, and returned to Jo Nesbo, This time I'm reading his mystery The Redeemer. I got this as a free ebook from the library. I am not reading these in sequence, but so far that doesn't seem to be critical. Harry Hole is perennially fighting alcoholism and he is unable to form a stable male/female relationship, but he does try.

I like this Norwegian writer.

[Cateline]

Ann wrote: "Needed a break from my usual reading, and returned to Jo Nesbo, This time I'm reading his mystery The Redeemer. I got this as a free ebook from the library. I am not reading these in..."

I've read a few of Nesbo's books, and enjoyed his writing. He can be rather dark though.

[Ann D]

True, Cateline. That's why I read him in small doses. The bad guys are always punished - only Harry Hole doesn't ever seem better off.

[Larry]

Ann wrote: "True, Cateline. That's why I read him in small doses. The bad guys are always punished - only Harry Hole doesn't ever seem better off."

So true. But I keep reading these books also ... and also with considerable time between the books.

[Donna]

I intend to give Jo Nesbo a try one of these days. I can handle the dark bits as long as there are other redeeming qualities. So many folks love his books.

[Cateline]

The Redbreast was the first of Nesbo's that I read. I think I have only read three. But this has reminded me that I have his newest sitting in the stack. Think I will read that now, having just finished Gabaldon's latest mentioned above. Nesbo's The Son.

[Gina]

Just finished The Sum of Our Days Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition by Isabel Allende. I don't usually like memoirs but I enjoyed this book about her and her extended family, her tragedies and triumphs.

[John]

I have never read her fiction, but I'd highly recommend Allende's memoir (later years, with plenty of reference to her past as well): My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile.

[Mary]

Thanks Gina and John. Having recently read my first Allende novel and found it fabulous, I will eagerly add these two memoir books to my TBR list.

[John]

I'd say mine could be seen as a "sequel" to Gina's. I was truly impressed with her story of the relative who prayed for money to keep up his large family, and hit the lottery ... TWICE!

[Marjorie]

I finally found a book I loved after a string of duds.

THE STORIED LIFE OF A. J. FIKRY by Gabrielle Zevin.

The book description is so right in saying this enchanting novel is a love letter to the world of books.

Marge

[Cateline]

This morning I finished The Son by Jo Nesbo. Definitely a 5 star entry. Not as dark as his Harry Hole series, a true detective story. Very twisty. Here is my review. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Ann D]

Cateline,
Glad to see you liked The Son. I'm adding it to my list.

I finished Nesbo's The Redeemer yesterday. I was disappointed. Another needlessly gruesome murder, and a couple of pscychopaths to boot. Of course, if you have a psychopath, you don't need to explain everything he/she does because such a character is not rational in a conventional sense.

Also, it would be nice to see Harry Hole have a little happiness in his personal life. Rakel and her son Oleg didn't really figure in this one. I like the Oleg/Harry interaction most. It makes Harry human.

If Harry can't develop and change more as a person, Nesbo needs to move on. I'm glad he did so in the book you read.

[Cateline]

Ann, It is possible that Nesbo has a new protagonist to take Harry's place...a woman. She isn't the main character in this one, but could carry over into a new book quite easily. So, that will be interesting to see develop. Maybe Nesbo thinks he has fenced Harry into a corner.

[John]

I enjoyed Perfectly Miserable: Guilt, God and Real Estate in a Small Town for its discussion on New England Yankee culture; however, if you're an Alcott fan, you might well enjoy this book as well. Goes without saying that I don't make suggestions here unless I've found the writing quality above-average.

[Kat]

Chiming in a bit late on whether it's shallow to avoid deeply depressing books. I think some people do avoid novels that tell the hard truth just to make things easy on themselves. But there's also a wide range in temperament among readers, and some are so severely impacted by the darker side that it goes beyond what is useful or healthy. Also, we have different limits at different moments in our lives.

[John]

I have two no-go zones that way in terms of books and movies: holocaust and mafia. If either features in the plot, they're automatically disqualified.

[Carol]

Ann , I finished The Burgess Boys, we can email or discuss on a thread here if you want.

I am reading another Wharton, The Custom of the Country, it is even better that The Age of Innocence.

[Cateline]

I've started The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. A great imagining of our planet without humans.

[Sherry, Doyenne]

Carol wrote: "Ann , I finished The Burgess Boys, we can email or discuss on a thread here if you want.

I am reading another Wharton, The Custom of the Country, it is even better th..."

Custom of the Country is one of my very favorite books, Carol.

[Carol]

Cateline wrote: "I've started The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. A great imagining of our planet without humans."

Cateline, I thought that book was excellent. I didn't always agree , but it certainly has some validity. It made me aware of what I do today has long term repercussions for the future, and the people who will live there.

[Cateline]

I'm only a little way in, but the vulnerability of our structuring is fascinating. Just read the bit about the "over-building"of bridges by the earlier architects, wow.

[Ruth]

Carol wrote: "Ann , I finished The Burgess Boys, we can email or discuss on a thread here if you want.

I am reading another Wharton, The Custom of the Country, it is even better th..."

My favorite Wharton. It was an official read a few years back. My nom.

[Nicole]

Kat wrote: "Chiming in a bit late on whether it's shallow to avoid deeply depressing books. I think some people do avoid novels that tell the hard truth just to make things easy on themselves. But there's also..."

For me, also, there's a distance thing that kicks in for me. I think it has to do with the illusion of control, or possibly fiction as a means of engagement. A depressing story about a place I live now, even if I really can't do anything about it, reads a lot differently than a depressing story about a far-away place. Somehow if the problem is close to home, the book about it is comforting or a solace or something. An engagement. Or maybe it's a substitute for real engagement, which would be bad (though it doesn't feel bad when you're reading it, which is maybe the worst part of it).

But reading about terrible, terrible events that take place far away doesn't offer that, it just imports a whole new level of depression into my life, and makes me feel like hopeless and helpless or something. So, while I do think that books are a really important entrée into culture, and allow you to experience something truly foreign, the Biafran story was just way way way over my personal line. Weirdly, though, the events of something like Midnight's Children did not make me feel horrible and depressed, and I can't really figure out the difference. Maybe the Adichie is closer to non-fiction? Or maybe it's that I feel like a tourist in the misery if the book isn't ostentatiously fictionalized in some way?

Ugh. In writing this I seem to have discovered that I like to learn happy things about foreign countries, but am apparently the kind of reader who would rather not hear about genocide. So there you go.

[Kat]

Nicole wrote: "In writing this I seem to have discovered that I like to learn happy things about foreign countries, but am apparently the kind of reader who would rather not hear about genocide. ..."

That puts it in the worst possible way! And though I'm not sure where you live, I'm guessing there is no genocide "close to home", so there really is a difference in scale.

I'm wondering if part of how I feel reading about depressing events has to do with the author's attitude. Some writers when they write about evil seem to suggest there's nothing we can do about it and despair is the appropriate reaction. Others seem to call us to action. Some assert that there is good in the world and life is worth hanging onto in spite of the horrific reality they have just portrayed. For me, I think author attitude is crucial in whether I can stomach a depressing book. Though there are probably books out there I couldn't get through just on a too-much-empathy basis.

What's happening in my own life at the time also makes a difference. At the moment my siblings and I are going through decision making and changes with regard to my mom and her long-time companion, and there's a lot of grief and pain in play. I'm curious about other people, at such times do you go right on reading what you've been reading? Quit reading altogether? Or turn to light reading? I've tried to do the last but just quit the comic baseball novel I was reading after a ballplayer microwaved a cat. Ha ha ha. Now I'm reading a sort of time travel/fairy tale romance written for teens. It's not quite right either. The search for the right light reading goes on...

[Cateline]

Kat, when I'm going through a traumatic/depressing time, I have found it best to go back to books that are what I call "old friends". Only you know what/who they are. But it does help.
Sorry about your mom and partner. That's more than rough.

[Ruth]

Closing this thread now.