What I'm Reading - Nov & Dec 2017

[Sherry, Doyenne]

The politicians who benefit from those donors will need to be voted out of office.

[Ann D]

Absolutely! Doesn't look like that will happen anytime soon.

[Gina]

This book made me feel powerless to change the corruption in our system. That powerless turned into a hard anger against those in power.

[Ann D]

Me too, Gina. But I also thought about the Progressive Movement in American history from 1890-1920 when the corruption was even worse, but many important changes were made when people and leaders mobilized. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progres... There were also positive changes during the New Deal.

Unfortunately, I don't see any signs of strong leadership in the offing. And that was a long, long time ago.

There are different problems now. Lobbyists wield tremendous power and most of the electorate in uninformed. Local newspaper subscriptions are way down, and so many people get their information from unreliable internet sources and biased news reporting that appeal to their anger, hatred of "others" and feelings of victimization.

Maybe things have to get really bad before they get better. If that's the case, I think we are there.

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now. I think that Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right is an important book. It showed me a very important movement of self-interested billionaires who wield great power over our political life. And it's all tax free!!

[Ruth]

Book Concierge wrote: "

All Creatures Great and Small
– James Herriot – 4****
I am definitely *not* an animal person but Herriot’s reminiscences of his early efforts ..."

I loved it when I read it, like you, back in the 70s. I have a feeling it would be a little too feel good for me now.

[Ruth]

Lyn wrote: "I just finished Never Let Me Go by the author of Remains of the Day.

The story had an interesting premise, but I think it would have made a better science fiction short story than a n..."

My feelings too.

[Peggy]

I grew up with James Herriot's books, and can still discuss them at length (both the books and the BBC series). I used to keep the whole series in my nightstand bookshelf, for the nights when I couldn't sleep. I reread them so frequently that I oversaturated myself, and now they don't work any more. I did the same thing with most of Bill Bryson's books.

[PattyMacDotComma]

Great mystery in Far North Queensland, Crimson Lake by Aussie author Candice Fox, who writes a fine story. Her own outrageous story is the stuff of fiction, so I included a link to an interview with her in my review.
4.5★ Link to my review

[Book Concierge]

The Magician’s Assistant – Ann Patchett – 3.5***
What I have come to love about Patchett is the masterful way she draws her characters. The story unfolds in bits and pieces, much as it would in real life. You don’t tell everything at once to someone you’ve just met, and likewise Sabine and Dot each keeps some things to herself. The environment also plays a role; Sabine is a different person in Los Angeles than she is in Nebraska.
LINK to my review

[Sherry, Doyenne]

I just finished a wonderful short book by Weike Wang called Chemistry. It is a unique blend of character and science. I loved it.

[Ann D]

Thanks for the recommendation, Sherry. I read good reviews of that. Now I'll add it to my library hold list.

[Ruth]

Sherry wrote: "I just finished a wonderful short book by Weike Wang called Chemistry. It is a unique blend of character and science. I loved it."

Just sent a free sample to my iPad. I don't like to read whole books on the iPad, but it's a great way to preview them before ordering the real thing.

[Sherry, Doyenne]

Ruth wrote: "Sherry wrote: "I just finished a wonderful short book by Weike Wang called Chemistry. It is a unique blend of character and science. I loved it."

Just sent a free..."

I think you would like this, Ruth.

[Ruth]

Pfui! Skinchy little sample.

[Sherry, Doyenne]

Well, it's a short book, so they probably didn't want a big sample!

[PattyMacDotComma]

Something for everybody, from mysteries to science, fiction to sports. The Best American Series 2017: 16 Short Stories & Essays has two full articles or stories from the volumes they publish of each genre. Great stuff, and still on NetGalley.
5★ Link to my link review

[Ruth]

I used to buy this every year. But have fallen away from the practice.

[PattyMacDotComma]

It's taken me a while to get to Aussie author Sofie Laguna's award-winning The Eye of the Sheep, where a "difficult child" tries to understand how Life works and what the soul is. Superb!
5★ link: Link to my review

[Gina]

Just finished All the King's MenRobert Penn Warren. ATKM was difficult to read - I felt like it had the complexity of a Faulkner. But the story was worth struggling for. From its themes of religion with crooked politicians, back office deals and sinners, I kept looking back to make sure I was still getting all the wonderful language of the book.

[Ruth]

I read that eons ago, Gina, but I remember thinking it was a wonderful book.

[Ann]

PattyMacDotComma wrote: "It's taken me a while to get to Aussie author Sofie Laguna's award-winning The Eye of the Sheep, where a "difficult child" tries to understand how Life works and what..."

Your review is fabulously written Patty, and I am grateful for it. A well-written review allows the reader to discern whether the book is for them or not, even if the reviewer clearly lines up in favor of it. "The Eye of the Sheep" is not one that I will read, only because of the available fiction choices, some of which are more appealing than others. I am keen, however, to watch for others works by Sofie Laguna.

[PattyMacDotComma]

Ann wrote: "PattyMacDotComma wrote: "It's taken me a while to get to Aussie author Sofie Laguna's award-winning The Eye of the Sheep, where a "difficult child" tries to unders..."

Sofie Laguna's got a new one out, The Choke, which is also getting good reviews. I think she'll be around for a while, Ann! And thanks for the compliment. :)

[Book Concierge]

The Lost City of the Monkey God – Douglas Preston – 4****
I was mesmerized by this adventure story, as Preston recounts the expedition’s efforts to find these ruins in the dense jungle, plagued by weather, poisonous snakes, and biting insects. Preston also give equal time to political discourse and environmental impact. And the medical mystery of aftereffects of their time in the jungle was equally fascinating, and horrifying.
LINK to my review

[PattyMacDotComma]

Lorenzo Marone's colourful, politically incorrect, old Italian widower is a bit of a character who keeps trying to resist The Temptation to Be Happy.
4★ Link to my review

[Lyn]

I just read an advance copy of My Absolute Darling. It's absorbing, and devastating.

Now reading Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, which is more matter-of-fact (true story), but is nevertheless about some horrifying corruption, about a conspiracy to murder dozens of the Osage tribe that became rich off oil underneath their reservation land, and how the early FBI cracks the case.

[PattyMacDotComma]

Add me to the long list of fans of Canadian author Louise Penny. I finally started her popular detective series with Still Life. I love Three Pines!
4+★ Link to my review

[Sheila]

Having suffered my way through Andrea Wulf's The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science for my in person book group - in my opinion, far too long, repetitive, with too many too detailed side tracks, see my full review - I need more of a reading challenge, so have sat down with a writer I have been meaning to read for ages, Orhan Pamuk. I started his Snow once but life got in the way and I did not get it finished, so I have picked up My Name is Red, just a few chapters in, so different! Still working it out what is going on, but enjoying it much more :)

[Sherry, Doyenne]

Sheila wrote: "Having suffered my way through Andrea Wulf's The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science for my in person book group ..."

We discussed My Name is Red in 2009, Sheila. Here is the link, if you are interested: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Sheila]

Tx Sherry I had a vague memory of a discussion but wasn’t sure when

[Kat]

I have started The Essex Serpent and am loving it!

[Mary]

Ellis Peters’ THE SANCTUARY SPARROW, #7 in her Cadfael series. A quick and welcome diversion.

[PattyMacDotComma]

Kat wrote: "I have started The Essex Serpent and am loving it!"

That's on my list, too, Kat. Plus, I can see how it would fit a lot of 'beautiful cover' challenges! :)

[PattyMacDotComma]

If we used our brain capacity as well as our ancestors did, the world might be in better shape. Aussie author and scientist Lynne Kelly explains The Memory Code: The Secrets of Stonehenge, Easter Island and Other Ancient Monuments and the memory spaces used since the beginning of time to record oral history. FASCINATING!
5★ Link to my review

[Sara]

PattyMacDotComma wrote: "Add me to the long list of fans of Canadian author Louise Penny. I finally started her popular detective series with Still Life. I love Three Pines!
[bookcover:Still..."

Wow, you have a really wonderful journey ahead! Totally love this series.

[Mary]

Wallace Stegner’s BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN, narrated by Mark Bramhall, has been my exercise companion for the last couple of weeks. I liked some of this book, but on the whole not so much. This tale of a dysfunctional family, some domestic violence, a deeply flawed father, and his younger son’s conflicted relationship with him, his needy relationship with his wife, and his insatiable and often irrational drive to “make it big” was often uncomfortable to listen to. Perhaps I just wasn’t in the mood for a recounting of such a troubled and ultimately very sad story.

[PattyMacDotComma]

Sara wrote: "PattyMacDotComma wrote: "Add me to the long list of fans of Canadian author Louise Penny. I finally started her popular detective series with Still Life. I love Thre...
Wow, you have a really wonderful journey ahead! Totally love this series. "

That's such an encouraging thing to read, Sara!

[Sherry, Doyenne]

I'm just finishing up the audiobook of Bury Your Dead by Penny. It's very good.

[Ann]

Mary wrote: "Wallace Stegner’s BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN, narrated by Mark Bramhall, has been my exercise companion for the last couple of weeks. I liked some of this book, but on the whole not so much. This tale..."

I listened to this as well and really liked it. My thought about this match, the violent husband & 'heart of gold' wife is that it was not an uncommon pairing at that time (early 20th century). If a single man wanted the freedom to drift from place to place, no-strings-attached, he was a called a hobo. He alone lived with the consequences of his choices. A family man, however, driven to be at the front-end of the next-big-thing, who imagines the frontier with its wide-open spaces as the only way to capture the American Dream, forces an unnecessary struggle upon all family members. This man is Stegner's miserable father. When Mother and boys eventually realize that their cycle of picking up and moving is not a romantic adventure, rather an acceptance of more loss: loss of stability, loss of comfort. I felt their dread, no, it was my own dread that I felt. That a writer could evoke this feeling so powerfully, amazes me. Stegner, of course, won the Pulitzer Prize for Angle of Repose in '72. I do believe his upbringing attributed to his great writing.

[Mary]

Thank you, Ann, for your comments on Stegner’s BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN. It’s helpful to have another viewpoint.

[Book Concierge]

The Good Lord Bird – James McBride – 3.5***
McBride looks at John Brown and Harpers Ferry through the lens of a “freed” slave, Henry Shackleford (known as Onion). I’ve seen reviews that compare McBride to Mark Twain, and I guess I see that here – an adventure tale that is about a serious event / issue, but that includes room for humor.
LINK to my review

[Ken]

I'm reading Reader’s Block, a book many Constant Readers might enjoy (if'n you allow for the avant-garde approach).

Instead of paragraphs, it's a 200-page series of facts, tidbits, and trivia about poets, writers, painters, composers, philosophers, etc., that keep clogging up the brain of an old man trying to write a novel.

Great treat, all this trivia. Some facts I already knew, but many I didn't. I shared a couple dozen on my blog (link below). For the (3) constant readers (2 my wife and dog) I have over there!

https://kencraftpoetry.wordpress.com/...

[Ruth]

Hm, this old skeptic would constantly be wondering if all the statements were true, leaving me in serious danger of death by googleization.

[Ken]

He had to write it knowing he'd be checked. And all the ones I knew already are reaffirmed. I traffic in some trivia myself. See "Biography comma Auto."

[Mary Ellen]

I just finished Fludd, a short, early novel by Hilary Mantel. It is no WOLF HALL, that is certain. It is set in a dreary English village in the late 1950s and affords Mantel ample opportunity to take pot shots at a favorite target, the Catholic Church. Many GR reviews are glowing but I found the characters a bit stereotyped and the plot, such as it was, puzzling.

[Book Concierge]

A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles – 5***** and a ❤
Well this book cements Amor Towles in my list of favorite authors. I love the Count and the way he leads his life. His accommodations may be limited, and he may be confined to the hotel, but his life is certainly *not* limited. They may take his possessions, they may restrict his movements, but they cannot make his less a gentleman.
LINK to my review

[Ken]

If you liked A Gentleman in Moscow, you may like News of the World, another tale of an old-school gentleman mentoring a young girl--only in post-Civil War Texas, a much wilder setting.

[PattyMacDotComma]

Ken wrote: "If you liked A Gentleman in Moscow, you may like News of the World, another tale of an old-school gentleman mentoring a young girl--only in post-Civil War Texas, a m..."

I loved both of those books, Ken, but that similarity never even occurred to me. It's an interesting way to look at them as they do become sort of family to each other.

[PattyMacDotComma]

I do enjoy Aussie author Emma Viskic's stubborn, deaf detective. And Fire Came Down is #2 in the Caleb Zelic mystery series.
4★ Link to my review

[[deleted user]]

I just finished Victoria by Daisy Goodwin and really enjoyed it. The story closely parallels the TV series, but it was a good review, for the upcoming Season two episodes.

[PattyMacDotComma]

"Remarkable and fascinating! . . . Frankly, I expected to be disappointed."

PattyMacDotComma, review of Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders on Goodreads.

5★ Link to review
[This is a totally tongue-in-cheek parody of the reference style used to such great effect throughout the book. :)]