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What I'm Reading - May/June 2020
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message 101:
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Lynn
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Jun 11, 2020 10:42AM
I admire your work with this nonprofit, Mary Anne, and think that it's a great idea to increase your board's understanding of these issues. Please share the list with me (I think you already have my email address, but can send it to you again if necessary).
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The Art of Travel – Alain de Botton – 4****
Any travel guide will tell us where we should travel and what we should see when we get there. Alain de Botton tries to tell us WHY we should travel. In various chapters he expounds on what it is that travel offers us. He waxes poetic on the anticipation of arriving at a new location, the marvels of modes of transportation, on “country” vs “city,” on finding beauty – in the familiar as well as the exotic. I think he has opened my eyes and I will feel more open about all experiences henceforth, whether just the comfort of my own bedroom, or the excitement of a location that is completely new to me.
My full review HERE
Greta Thunberg is a young girl who has inspired people all over the world. Mª Isabel Sánchez Vegara has told her story here for children, all of whom should know about her. . . and so should their parents!
Link to my review of 'Greta Thunberg' with illustrations
Slonský's First Murder by Graham Brack is a free short story that's a prequel to his popular series about my favourite clever and amusing Czech detective.
Link to my 'Slonsky' review which includes a link to the story online
Ruth wrote: "Mary Ellen wrote: "In addition my usual string of mysteries (I have started the first in the Phryne Fisher series, which so far is so-so), I am reading [book:Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lus...Ruth, I don't think our local library subscribes to LIBBY. But I'll double-check!
The Mockingbird Next Door – Marja Mills – 3.5***
Chicago Tribune journalist Marja Mills was sent to Monroeville Alabama on an assignment to gather background information for a piece about To Kill a Mockingbird . She met Alice Lee and her younger sister, Nelle Harper Lee, and over years became friends with them. This is her memoir of her time in Monroeville and the lessons she learned from the sisters – about the South, about family, about justice.
My full review HERE
Silver, by Aussie author Chris Hammer, follows investigative journalist Martin Scarsden from Hammer's popular mystery, Scrublands. He's perfectly captured my part of the beautiful NSW North Coast, with drugs, backpackers, developers, politics and murders. A good read.
4★ Link to my review of 'Silver'
Just finished Ross Benjamin's translation of German author Daniel Kehlmann's very short 'haunted house' ghost story You Should Have Left. Their next collaboration Tyll is shortlisted for this year's International Booker. 
The movie is out tomorrow! Can't wait . Thoroughly enjoyed this read, gripped me solid for 2 hours with an unreliable narrator, a writer struggling with his sequel screenplay, marital issues, and unfamiliar rental escape house, demanding child, writer's block and bad dreams.Here's my review
Auntie Mame – Patrick Dennis – 4****
Oh, what an absolute delight! I love Mame … she’s outrageous, convivial, adventurous, kind, a bon vivant, prone to exaggeration, unable to resist, unabashedly lacking in marketable skills, and yet full of confidence. This novel “memoir” is funny and tender, horrifying and enthralling.
My full review HERE
i am currently reading The Girl With A Secret: A Collection Of Riverting Mysteries by Skylar Finn and Privileged Love: A BWWM Romance (Blazin' Love Book 2).
All kids love dinosaurs, but not all dinosaurs love each other! I Will Never Forget You by Tatsuya Miyanishi is a children's picture book about a Tyrannosaurus and a little potential "lunch" who become friends.
My review with pictures
A favourite author is Aussie Sulari Gentill. I love her historical mystery series, and this episode, Gentlemen Formerly Dressed, is a treat! Rowland and his mates are in 1930s London, trying to elude the Nazis. It's a great mix of high and low society, politics, and murder in pre-war England. 
5★ Link to my 'Gentlemen' review
Patty, this series looks good. Once my library is up and running again, I will start this series from the beginning. They seem to only have the physical books, not ebooks.
I want to thank Carol for recommending ABIGAIL by Hungarian writer Magda Szabo, translated by Len Rix. Szabo wrote THE DOOR which we read her on Constant Reader. The publisher is THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS,The setting is a very strict Calvinist girls' school during the Second World War in Hungary. The main character is Gina, a 14 year old girl from Budapest, who is totally out of her element in this rigid religious environment. Gina's mother is dead, her French governess has had to return to her country because of the war, and her father is a general who is very involved with the war. Gina and her father love each other very much, and Gina cannot figure out why her father has left her in this very out of the way place.
With a lot of difficulty, Gina eventually adapts to the other girls and the school. The book has more than one mystery. You may guess one or two of them long before Gina does, but all in all she is a wonderful, spunky heroine who won my heart.
This was a book I could immerse myself in. It's getting harder and harder for me to find those.
Meet Me Halfway: Milwaukee Stories – Jennifer Morales – 4****
An urban neighborhood must find ways to bridge divisions between black and white, gay and straight, old and young. I love short stories and was expecting that format. But this is really a novel told from nine different viewpoints. It’s an engaging and interesting look at an urban struggle that is all too familiar. I look forward to my F2F book club discussion about this very timely novel.
My full review HERE
Sue wrote: "Patty, this series looks good. Once my library is up and running again, I will start this series from the beginning. They seem to only have the physical books, not ebooks."Sue, Sulari Gentill's Rowland Sinclair series is a delight. Great characters and sense of time and place. The real books are worth the wait. There's an early freebie on Amazon for the prequel (which was written much later) The Prodigal Son. Have a look!
I recently read Missing William Tyrrell by Aussie investigative journalist and author Caroline Overington. It's a thorough, sensitive look at the puzzling and ongoing case of three-year-old William's sudden disappearance in 2014.
4★ Link to my William Tyrrell review
What's not to like about a selection of chapters from upcoming books? Publishers Lunch puts out a series of previews which I always look forward to, and Buzz Books 2020: Fall/Winter is as good as ever. Something for everyone, including non-fiction. 
5★ Link to my review of BuzzBooks Fall/Winter 2020 including a link where you can download the BuzzBooks for free.
Patty, thanks for the link. That specific book doesn’t seem to be available on n Amazon U.S. but I do plan to start the series at some point. It gets great reviews, as well as your praise.
Just read Yōko Ogawa' s The Housekeeper and the Professor. Probably not everyone's cup of tea as it is full of maths and baseball, but it is a tender story of affection and friendship well told. My Review
Sheila, I loved that book, in spite of being a life long math phobe. I’ve read it twice now and will very likely read it again. It’s such a wonderfully human novel.
I’m noticing how much of my recent reading has been dictated by the content of local charity shops (like so many other so small towns, we no longer have regular bookstores). It’s not an entirely bad thing though. I’d sooner choose from a shelf than a screen and there’s a higher chance of discovering something unusual or out of print. Thanks to these shops, I’ve recently enjoyed Daphne Du Maurier, Edward St Aubyn, Barbara Kingsolver and John Williams. Now, I’m letting lockdown guide my reading choice. Admittedly, I Amazoned Mary Renault’s Fire From Heaven and Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me, but all else I’ve determined to read from a TBR pile that’s been getting larger for years. Recently dusted off have been Rose Tremain’s evocative and often funny Restoration, Don Mcullin’s memorable account of his years of war photography, Hilary Mantel’s Mirror and the Light and two books by the best and most humane travel writer I’ve come across, Norman Lewis. In both cases I have chosen the books I read but selecting from shops and my TBR list has taken me a little way at least from the tramlines of my usual fare.
Sheila wrote: "Just read Yōko Ogawa' s The Housekeeper and the Professor. Probably not everyone's cup of tea as it is full of maths and baseball, but it is a tender story of affectio..."I also loved it. I think Constant Reader read it together, if I remember correctly.
Gina, I missed out on the CR discussion but had it on my reading list as a result and “rebound” it after noticing she has been shortlisted for this years International Booker
The Women In the Castle – Jessica Shattuck – 3***
Three German widows are brought together shortly after World War II ends. I liked the idea of this novel’s story more than I liked the actual book. There are some interesting and thought-provoking themes presented, but I’m probably just overloaded on WWII. On the whole, I found the novel forgettable.
My full review HERE
I just read the powerful #BLM memoir When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by BLM co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors about her growing up years and the price her family and friends paid - and are still paying - for ‘breathing while Black’. #Juneteenth
4.5★ Link to my Terrorist BLM review
The Pledge by Friedrich Dürrenmatt published by the Vertigo imprint of Pushkin Press. When is a crime novel not a crime novel? How far would you go to keep a promise made? How many rules would you bend or break to do so? This crime novel originally pulished in 1957 breaks the rules too. Tense, obssessive. Made into a star studded movie directed by Sean Penn and starring Jack Nicholson. Definitely worth a read. My Review
Mary Norris’s BETWEEN YOU AND ME: CONFESSIONS OF A COMMA QUEEN. I enjoyed this memoir written by a copy editor at “The New Yorker”. My face-to-face book club selected it to read; otherwise, I would not have been aware of it. It appealed to my tendency to be a bit of a grammar snob, and there were some delightful laugh-out-loud moments.
Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen sounds like something I'd like, Mary. And the good news is that I discovered it's available at my library in Wisconsin!
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek – Kim Michelle Richardson – 4****
I love reading historical fiction, particularly when it focuses on an element of history about which I know little. This covers two such elements: the Pack-Horse Librarians and the “blue people” of Kentucky. Cussy Mary Carter is a marvelous lead characters – kind, compassionate, determined and tenacious. The author’s use of vernacular dialect helped transport me to a different time and place.
My full review HERE
Ross wrote: "I’m noticing how much of my recent reading has been dictated by the content of local charity shops (like so many other so small towns, we no longer have regular bookstores). It’s not an entirely ba..."Hi Ross, I love good travel writers and haven't heard of Norman Lewis. Any recommendations for a good starter book by him? Also, I loved Hillary Mantel's first two books in the Thomas Cromwell series. I am definitely planning to read The Mirror and the Light but I have read disappointing reviews from others. What did you think?
O Pioneers! – Willa Cather – 4****
Cather’s first novel follows one family over decades as they settle the great plains of Nebraska. The heroine is Alexandra Bergson, who takes charge of the family farm after her father dies, and ensures the family’s prosperity despite setbacks. This is a strong woman! Her love of the land is evident, but she is no romantic. The story encompasses tragedy as well as triumph.
My full review HERE
One of my mother’s favorite books. I read it as as a kid and then again in my 30s. Remember liking it.
It remains my favorite of Cather’s books.
The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro – 4****
A proper English butler, known only by his last name: Stevens, reflects on his life’s work. I love the way that Ishiguro reveals Stevens’ character through his musings. As he recalls the glory days of house parties that welcomed influential people to Darlington Hall, Stevens reveals how he allowed his sense of duty and devotion to being butler in a great house to blind himself to what was really happening – both in the world at large and on a more personal level. This slow realization is what makes this book so poignant and thought-provoking.
My full review HERE
Mary Anne wrote: "I say a prayer for her good health every day."Me, too.
Joseph Heller’s CATCH 22. This is another one of those books my husband has recommended to me from time to time over the past 35-40 years. I tried to read it a couple of times but never even came close to finishing it. So.... when I saw it was available as an audio download from LIBBY, I decided now was the time. I recognize it is an iconic work; I acknowledge that there are many people who love it; I agree that it is an important satirical commentary on the futility and insanity of war. I, however, did not enjoy it; I thought it might never end and frequently doubted whether I would be able to persist until I reached that end. Jay O. Sanders’ narration was good.
Mary wrote: "Joseph Heller’s CATCH 22. This is another one of those books my husband has recommended to me from time to time over the past 35-40 years. I tried to read it a couple of times but never even came c..."We read it here a few years ago, Mary, and I actually surprised myself by liking it a lot! I gave it 5 stars. I am going to link to the discussion. In scrolling through it a bit, I noticed that someone was trying to listen to the audiobook production and thought that it was the wrong way to read the book because she kept getting lost.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Mary wrote: "Joseph Heller’s CATCH 22. This is another one of those books my husband has recommended to me from time to time over the past 35-40 years. I tried to read it a couple of times but never even came c..."I’ve mounted an assault on this one twice and never made it very far.
Ruth wrote: "Mary wrote: "Joseph Heller’s CATCH 22. This is another one of those books my husband has recommended to me from time to time over the past 35-40 years. I tried to read it a couple of times but neve..."Me as well, Ruth.
Book Concierge wrote: "The Remains of the Day
– Kazuo Ishiguro – 4****
A proper English butler, known only by his last name: Stevens, reflects on his life’s work. I love the ..."
Having recently reread Never Let Me Go with face to face group, I'm into a re-read Ishiguro phase, starting at the beginning. Having reA Pale View of Hills read , next up is An Artist of the Floating World. I'm interspersing them in after 3-4 other reads. Plan is to lead up to his new novel is due out next year - very exciting
I just opened a new thread for July/August so this thread is locked.
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Constant Reader
Books mentioned in this topic
An Artist of the Floating World (other topics)A Pale View of Hills (other topics)
The Remains of the Day (other topics)
Never Let Me Go (other topics)
The Remains of the Day (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Friedrich Dürrenmatt (other topics)Patrisse Khan-Cullors (other topics)
Yōko Ogawa (other topics)
Yōko Ogawa (other topics)
Publishers Lunch (other topics)
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