What Are You Reading / Reviews - July thru Dec 2021

[Book Concierge]

That Churchill Woman – Stephanie Barron – 3***
A novel of Jennie Jerome, American heiress of the Gilded Age, who married Lord Randolph Churchill and was the mother of Winston Churchill. I find Jennie a fascinating character. Barron does a good job of bringing her to life and giving the reader a “modern” woman who was able to bend the rules of the restrictive society in which she found herself to achieve some measure of personal happiness and fulfillment. The novel has piqued my interest in her, and I’ll seek out a biography of Jennie.
My full review HERE

[James]

Nawal El Saadawi, The Innocence of the Devil [1994, tr. 1994] 284 pages

Written in the same surrealist style as The Fall of the Imam, The Innocence of the Devil is even more confusing. The novel is set in an insane asylum (which, as the introduction by Fedwa Malti-Douglas points out, is also identified with the Garden of Eden). It opens with Ganat, a defiant woman who apparently symbolizes rebellious women in general, being brought into the asylum by the police. She is put into solitary confinement and given electroshock therapy and injections in order to destroy her memory. The other important characters in the asylum include the Head Nurse and the Director, and three inmates, Eblis (the Egyptian spelling of Iblis, the Devil), a man who considers himself God (and may be Ganat's husband Zakaria) and a woman named Nefissa, who partially symbolizes woman as obedient victim of religious patriarchy, though she has her past memories of rebellion as well (and may be the sister of Eblis).

As in other novels by Saadawi, the plot is largely in the form of memories or visions, and we are not always sure which are real memories and which are not; for example, "God" seems to remember having been an important general or other official (in fact he resembles the Imam of the earlier book), but we don't know if he actually was or just imagines he was. We see the interactions of the inmates as children with their parents, grandparents and a male teacher -- they all seem to have been in school together, unless they are simply misidentifying each other with characters in their pasts. Many of the characters in the pasts of the inmates seem to morph into each other or into the Director. A significant theme in all the memories is the religious denigration of women and power relationships between male and female characters. At a symbolic level, Eblis and God may actually be the Devil and the Deity, although at a literal level they are just men. An interesting book, in any case.

[Book Concierge]

A History of Loneliness – John Boyne – 5*****
Against the backdrop of the priest pedophile scandal, Father Odran Yates narrates his life story, from early childhood to his time in seminary to his long career as a priest and the final conflict that forces him to examine his part in the scandal. Boyne’s writing is marvelous. His characters are complex. This is a book I will be thinking about for a long time.
My full review HERE

[James]

Naguib Mahfouz, Fountain and Tomb [1975, tr. 1988] 120 pages [Kindle, Open Library]

Fountain and Tomb, also known as Tales from the Neighborhood, is a novel in 78 stories, set in an alley in Cairo from just before the 1919 revolution through the 1920s. The narrator is a young boy at the beginning, although he is remembering the events at a much later time, perhaps in his late fifties. There is no single plot running through the episodes, but we see the daily life of the alley, the love affairs, marriages and domestic relations, and the changes through time -- the demonstrations against the British and the end of the colonial period which are always in the background, the decadence and demise of the gang system, the increase in education, electrification, and so forth. The stories are mainly realistic, although there are some mysterious happenings and the book begins and ends with talking about the unseen Head Sheik of the Sufi convent, a reminiscence of his more allegorical novels.

[James]

Nawal El-Saadawi, Love in the Kingdom of Oil [1993, tr. 2001] 134 pages [Kindle, Open Library]

Another strange, symbolic feminist novel by Nawal El-Saadawi, Love in the Kingdom of Oil is the story of an archaeological researcher who leaves her husband and job and goes "on leave" to search for ancient goddesses in the "Kingdom of Oil", a land literally flooded by oil.

[Book Concierge]

A Well-Behaved Woman – Therese Anne Fowler – 3.5***
The subtitle is all the synopsis you need: A Novel of the Vanderbilts. I thought Fowler did a great job of bringing this fascinating woman to life. Alva Smith Vanderbilt was no shrinking violet; she was a Steel Magnolia - intelligent, cagey, and fiercely independent. Faced with a betrayal, she moved forward with a scandalous strategy. It was a courageous move, but she was determined. Among the causes she championed was suffrage for all women.
My full review HERE

[Book Concierge]

James wrote: "Naguib Mahfouz,
Fountain and Tomb
[1975, tr. 1988] 120 pages [Kindle, Open Library]

Fountain and Tomb, also known as Tales from the Neighborhood, is a novel in 78 stories, set in an alley in C..."


I enjoyed Midaq Alley when I read it a few years ago. But I haven't - yet - picked up another book by Mahfouz. Thanks for this review.

[James]

Jorge Luis Borges, Fervor de Buenos Aires [1923] 45 pages [in Spanish]
Jorge Luis Borges, Luna de Enfrente [1925] 22 pages [in Spanish]
Jorge Luis Borges, Cuaderno San Martín [1929] 25 pages [in Spanish]

The World Literature group I am in on Goodreads finished up this month the Arabic literature project (although on my personal list I still have two anthologies and the rest of the 1001 Nights, Naguib Mahfouz and Nawal El-Saadawi to work on) and is moving on to Latin America (perhaps I should say Hispanic America since there are no readings from Brazil), beginning with Jorge Luis Borges' Ficciones. Since I use this group as an excuse to read more world literature than is actually part of the group reads, and since I read three collections of Borges' stories about four years ago, including Ficciones, I am going to try to work my way through the Poesía Completa and Cuentos Completos (published in Spanish by Vintage Español) between now and the end of October.

These three short poetry collections are among his earliest writings, published before any of the story collections he is best known for. Fervor de Buenos Aires contains 32 poems, mostly nostalgic and subjective descriptions of Buenos Aires; Luna de Enfrente contains 15, on similar themes; and Cuaderno San Martín contains 10 and is somewhat more diverse (and I think better.) To be honest, though, I was rather disappointed, given that Borges is such an imaginative writer in his short stories and I was expecting something similar in his poetry, which I didn't really find here. He admits in the Prologo to the third book, written in 1969, that the only "autentico" poem in the first two collections was "Llaniza", but I'm not sure what he means by that. In any case, after these three books he turned to writing stories, and his next poetry collection is from thirty years later.

[Melissa]

Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices #2) by Cassandra Clare
5 ★

Malcolm Fade is dead, but there are strange events happening that contradict it. Emma is still trying her best to kill Julian’s feeling for her and doing a miserable job of it. Her and Mark try so hard to act like a couple, but Mark has been in faerie for so long that lying is not easy for him. The relationship seems forced. It was fun to watch though.
Christina continues to have issues with Diego and she is not sure how she feels about Mark. There are definitely some strong feelings between the two, but since Mark is still hung up with Kieran I’m not sure they will ever be able to figure it out.
Kit, Christopher Herondale, is starting to understand his role as a Shadowhunter and I’m so glad that he and Ty have become friends. They seem to complement each other and Kit is helping Ty come out of his shell some. Shadowhunters do not understand what autism is, but Kit does and he has done a great job comforting Ty when he has needed it.
The two faerie courts play a big part in this book. The Seelie Queen wants the Unseelie King gone and hopes the Shadowhunters can get the Clave to end the Cold Peace. I’ve seen stranger things happen, but disaster strikes at the council meeting and all may be lost. There are two special guests at the meeting, but only one gets to speak and she destroys everything. The ending had me enthralled and I was unable to put the book down. There are a few shocking moments that left me unsettled and crying. Although I wanted to move right onto the 3rd book in the trilogy, I decide to wait and let my mind wrap around what I had just witnessed. Cassandra Clare is a talented storyteller who has created characters that will stay with the reader for years to come.

[Melissa]

The Seventh Victim (Texas Rangers #1) by Mary Burton
4 ★

Seven years ago Lara Church was kidnapped and almost killed by the Seattle Strangler. After traveling around and discovering her love of photography, Lara has settled in Austin, Texas. When Texas Ranger James Beck appears on her door step to let her know that similar killings have happened in Texas and that the Strangler may have followed her there, Lara must decide if she will stay and face her fears or continue to run from them.

I found this story to be a bit slow in the beginning, but it picked up a few chapters in. Lara is a very strong woman who is determined to get her life back. She doesn’t remember anything from the attack and really wants to keep it that way. I really did not like Texas Ranger Kames Beck for the first half of the book. He was rude, pushy and mean to Lara. The way he spoke to her was disrespectful. Thankfully he does lighten up.
This is a good story for people who like mystery, but not ones with overly violent crimes. The murders are vicious, but not overly gruesome. I had a feeling that we had already met the bad guy, but I had two suspects in mind the whole time. I was pleasantly surprised that I was right on one. There is a pretty good twist at the end that I didn’t see coming. It was a good twist.
There is also a bit of romance, but it’s at the end of the book. It was one of those “it’s about time” moments.

[Book Concierge]

Moonflower Murders – Anthony Horowitz – 4****
Two books, and three mysteries, in one novel! Susan Ryeland is a retired editor and the secret to solving the “current” crime lies in a book she edited, which features detective Atticus Pünd. I enjoyed the difference in style between the two storylines and was equally immersed in each mystery. I like both Susan and Pünd; both are meticulous, thorough and deliberate in analyzing the evidence they uncover. And I love the way that Horowitz plays with words. I haven’t read book one – Magpie Murders – yet, but I will! And I look forward to future installments.
My full review HERE

[James]

The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (Alf Laylah wa-Laylah) (Richard Burton tr.) v.10 [Kindle, Project Gutenberg] approx. 350 pages

The tenth and last volume of Burton's translation of The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (Alf Laylah wa-Laylah) (although there are six supplemental volumes of related materials I still plan to read, this is the end of the actual Nights), this contains the last story, "Ma'aruf the Cobbler and His Wife Fatimah", and the "Conclusion" to the frame story in which King Shahriyar and his brother King Shah Zaman marry Shahrazad (I follow here Burton's spellings of names; she is better known by the French spelling Scheherazade from Galland) and her sister Dunyazad and give up their project of marrying and killing a new wife each night. These make up about 13% of the volume. Most of the book, however, is taken up by Burton's "Terminal Essay" and a series of bibliographic appendices describing various earlier editions and related books. Having completed the entire translation, I will take the opportunity to give my review of the work (the Nights as such), the expression (Burton's translation), and the manifestation (the Project Gutenberg e-books.)

Although written 125 years ago (1882), Burton's description of the origins of the work seem to accord well with the more summary present-day description on Wikipedia, so it is probably essentially correct. The work is described by two tenth-century Arab writers (tenth-century CE; Burton more often uses the traditional Moslem Anno Hegira dates, ordering time from the Flight of Muhammed from Mecca to Medinah rather than from Jesus' fourth birthday as we do), who say it is a translation of a Persian work called the Hazar Afsanah (Thousand Nights -- Wikipedia spells it differently); Burton in a note gives other examples of Arab writers avoiding round numbers. He relates that an early copy of Firdausi's Shahnameh attributes the original Persian work, now lost, to the legendary prehistoric Queen Humái mentioned in Zoroastrian scriptures (a confirmation of the feminist claim that "Anonymous was a woman"?) He argues, against some earlier scholars, that the Arabic translation dates from the end of the eighth century, which would seem to be confirmed by the twentieth-century discovery of a ninth-century MS containing the title and the first few lines of the frame story.

It is not certain how much of the existing versions was derived from the earlier work, apart from Shahriyar, Shahrazad and the frame story; what is certain is that the stories, while often keeping Persian or far-eastern locations and Persian names, have been adapted to Arab customs and Islamic religion. The oldest surviving manuscript is from the fourteenth-century, a Syrian manuscript which was edited by Mahdi and translated by Haddawy at the end of the last century (and which I read and reviewed earlier this year). They maintain (although not all scholars agree) that this Syrian tradition represents the original and stylisticly homogenous core of the work, and that the more recent Egyptian manuscripts on which the other editions and translations have all been based have combined it with originally independent (and inferior) stories. Other scholars consider that this sort of accretion has always been the essence of the work.

I would certainly have to agree that the earlier stories form a coherent group which interact in the manner required by the frame story, while the later stories are more heterogeneous and the division into nights is fairly arbitrary. The order of the stories seems to go roughly from earliest to latest, as new stories were added to the end, and the latest stories may have been revised if not written as late as the sixteenth century with mentions of coffee (16 times, according to Burton's count) and once of tobacco smoking. The early stories are also the most constant, while the selection of later stories varies from manuscript to manuscript. The Voyages of Sindbad were a late addition, although probably written early as a separate work. Some of the other best-known "Arabian Nights" such as Aladdin and the Lamp and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves were added by Galland from an unknown source and do not seem to be in any Arabic MS of the work (they are not in Burton but may be in the supplements which I haven't read yet). The tales were first translated into a Western language by Antoine Galland (I read and reviewed his version earlier this year as well; it is a classic of French literature as well as a translation.) The tales were ignored by the Arab intellectual elite as merely popular literature until they became known and gained scholarly attention in the West; the earliest printed editions in Arabic, the Bulaq and Calcutta editions, came out after Galland and other early translations in Western languages, and it was not until the twentieth century that they became an important influence on modern Arabic writers.

Burton points out that one of the major accomplishments of the editors who compiled the Nights was the way they mixed various genres to avoid monotony in such a long collection; would that modern anthologists all followed their example. He lists the major genres, and Salma Khadra Jayyusi in the introduction to her anthology of Modern Arabic Fiction, which I am reading currently, ascribes the same genres to classic Arabic literature as a whole. The earliest genre and the one which predominates in the oldest tales is the mythic tale of djinns and magic, which to me and I think to most Western readers of the Nights is the most entertaining; another very old genre is the beast fable which in the West we associate with Aesop, but which is ubiquitous throughout all the inhabited continents from the earliest times to the present. There are one or two tales which could be considered as romances in the mediaeval sense, tales of chivalry with a love element, and there are many love stories as such as well. There are the seemingly realistic anecdotes centered about historical figures, especially associated with Haroun al-Rashid and his court, which Jayyusi calls al-Khabar and attributes to the early Moslem (lifetime of the Prophet and the Umayyad caliphs) rejection of false or fictional stories and which range from the pornographic to the moralistic, and what Burton calls "detective stories" and Jayyusi calls "Assemblies" or al-Maqamat (stories about rogues and human tricksters). There are also stories that are mainly excuses for verse, and didactic tales with very little plot, which have a different, more anthropological kind of interest.

The earliest English translations were rather illiterate second-hand works, translations of Galland's and other French translations; they were followed by the expurgated text of Lane and the unfinished work of Payne which Burton revised in the first volumes of the present work. (Wikipedia talks about "plagiarism", but since Burton uses Payne very openly and with his permission, I don't see the problem. All including Burton were based on the printed Bulaq and Calcutta editions rather than on the original manuscripts and are not in any sense critical editions, despite Burton's extensive notes about the language and customs. Burton translates into a very idiosyncratic and archaizing English, although critics of the work exaggerate the difficulty; it's not that hard to follow. As I noted in my review of Haddawy, this is not Disney, and there is a fair amount of racism and misogyny, especially in the later tales; actually Burton's opinions in the notes are often much more offensive than anything in the text itself. The translation was privately printed and "not published" because of the sexual content; Burton is sometimes accused of having exaggerated this, especially in his notes, but I don't really see that except for one section of the Terminal Essay where he gets carried away with a worldwide history of homosexuality.

I read the stories from about the middle of volume 2 to somewhere in volume 5 in a printed edition, about which there isn't much to say -- it dates from when proofreading was taken for granted. The rest were in free e-books from Project Gutenberg, which seem to be the source for most of the low-cost editions in the Kindle store. Project Gutenberg in general has better proofreading than most free or low-cost e-books, but the volume 2 here was a dismal exception, as I said in the review of that volume. Otherwise, the only problem was that some volumes had random Cyrillic letters in place of accented characters and some omitted these characters altogether.

[James]

Naguib Mahfouz, Arabian Nights and Days [1979, tr. 1995] 227 pages

The next chronologically in my reading of Mahfouz, I held off reading this until I had finished The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (Alf Laylah wa-Laylah). While the translation uses the English title Arabian Nights, the Arabic title is Layali alf Laylah which I assume is Thousand and One Nights or something close to that. I wasn't sure what the relationship to the mediaeval work would be, whether a modern retelling or what, but in fact it uses the characters and events from some of the best-known tales, though not necessarily in the same way as the original, but puts them into a single narrative story. As with other novels of Mahfouz, the plot seems to cycle over and over as one corrupt regime is overthrown by a less corrupt one which then becomes corrupt in turn and is overthrown and so on. The novel begins the last night of the original work with King Shahriyer marrying Scheherazade amidst the celebrations of the populace in a city which resembles the timeless "alleys" of his other allegorical novels. The populace contains many of the characters from the stories and the book proceeds from the merchant who inadvertently insults a djinn to the imposture of Ma'aruf the Cobbler before adding a new ending about the repentance of King Shariyar. The theme of the novel seems to be human free agency and human responsibility despite the interference of the djinni.

[Book Concierge]

An Irish Country Christmas – Patrick Taylor – 3.5*** (rounded up)
Book three in in the charming and popular story of 1960s country GP, Barry Laverty, M.B., his partner / mentor Doctor Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly, and the people of Ballybucklebo. It’s Christmas and love is in the air. I came late to this party, but I’m glad I finally arrived, and now it seems that I may never leave. The books are charming and entertaining and just plain fun to read.
My full review HERE

[Book Concierge]

In the Country We Love – Diane Guerrero – 4****
When Diane Guerrero was fourteen years old she came home from school to find an empty house. Her family had been picked up by ICE and were detained pending deportation. Fortunately for Diane, a family friend agreed to take her in, so that she could remain in school. This is her memoir. The author has an important message to convey about the effects on children of America’s immigration and deportation policies.
My full review HERE

[James]

Jorge Luis Borges, Historia Universal de la Infamia [1935] 81 pages [in Spanish]

Borges' first collection of short stories, this is a re-read for me; I read it for the first time about four years ago, and it apparently didn't make much of an impression on me then -- my review was one sentence, which just indicated the contents. I came back to it as part of a project to read all of Borges' poetry and short stories, and right after reading Arabic fiction and especially the 1001 Nights over the past year, it seemed like a different book altogether (a Borgesian idea after all.) Salma Khadra Jayyusi in the Introduction to a book I am working my way through now (Modern Arabic Fiction: An Anthology) mentions Borges in the following comment: "Jorge Luis Borges, who studied Arabic, was genuinely influenced by the Arab-Islamic heritage. He used the method of khaber and isnad in his own work, basing it on his knowledge of this type of Arab narrative." This is perhaps truer of this book than any other. Like the Arab genre, it consists of historical anecdotes, rewritten in a literary style. Here, stories about famous, or infamous, criminals: the slave-stealer Lazarus Morrell, the imposter Tom Castro, the pirate the widow Ching, the New York gangster Monk Eastman, Billy the Kid, the villain of the 47 Ronins Katsuké no Suké, and a Moslem heretic I had never heard of, Hakim of Merv (apparently a very fictionalized account of the Khorasian rebel al-Muqammi). To this original group of "stories" he added one wholly original story, "El hombre de la Esquina Rosada", about two gunslingers in New Mexico, written in dialect with many words I was unable to find in my dictionary -- it wasn't difficult to follow the basic plot, but I couldn't translate it word for word if I had to, and three very short stories again based on sources including the 1001 Nights.

[Book Concierge]

The Girls – Emma Cline – 2**
I vividly remember the Manson murders of Sharon Tate et al. I followed the news coverage and could not imagine how these people became so enthralled and obedient to the obviously crazy Charles Manson. Cline’s Evie gives me some insight into how that might have happened. But I cannot bring myself to rate the book even with three stars. The subject was so distasteful to me. I cringed at how Evie is drawn in, at how she was abused, at how she “begged” for the abuse because she was so hungry for attention and for what she thought was evidence of love.
My full review HERE

[James]

G.K. Chesterton, The Soul of Wit: G.K. Chesterton on William Shakespeare [2012] 320 pages

This anthology is a collection of excerpts from the books and articles (and one or two unpublished manuscripts) of G.K. Chesterton which are concerned with Shakespeare, selected by the editor, Dale Ahlquist; Ahlquist says in his introduction that Chesterton had been commissioned to write a book on Shakespeare but died before he could begin writing it. I have never read anything else by Chesterton, and all I knew about him was that he was a politically conservative Catholic who wrote rather literate detective stories (not a genre I am particularly interested in) and a book on Thomas Aquinas. Most of these selections are only one or two pages long, and some are only one or two sentences. There is a lot here that struck me as frankly silly or stupid, especially when he discusses social issues, but there are also some very intelligent comments about Shakespeare and the Elizabethan era. The style is often humorous and occasionally facetious.

Perhaps the best selection was the first one, where he argues that English culture is fundamentally classical and south European rather than "Teutonic" as some people apparently claimed; throughout the book there are negative comments about "German professors" (many of the selections were written during or just after the First World War.) The most annoying (apart from his political and religious comments) were his anti-intellectualism (claiming to be "uncultured" and to represent the opinions of the general public against the educated minority) and the way he uses "modern" as the ultimate insult. He considers that Shakespeare was obviously a Catholic, but gives no real arguments for it. There is a whole section of the book arguing with George Bernard Shaw about Shakespeare, and the last section is devoted to refuting the Baconians.

In short, very mixed but a quick read and probably worth the time to read.

[Book Concierge]

All Over But the Shoutin’ – Rick Bragg – 4****
In this memoir, Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Rick Bragg outlines the difficulties of growing up “dirt poor” in Appalachia, with an alcoholic father who could never shake that demon and a mother who willingly sacrificed her own health and well-being for her children’s sake. Bragg left his home, but his home never left him. His story in an honest, gripping, heart-wrenching and inspiring love letter to his mother.
My full review HERE

[Book Concierge]

Lost Children Archive – Valeria Luiselli – 5*****
A cross-country journey from New York to Arizona gives one family – mother, father, 10-year-old boy, five-year-old girl – an opportunity to explore the history of this nation’s native peoples, and to learn about the current fabric of America and the people so desperate to come here. I loved the way this unfolded. Luiselli changes narrators throughout the book, sometimes giving us the mother’s perspective, or the son’s. Both parents work to document things, and this forces the reader to think about how we remember things. I am so looking forward to my F2F book club discussion of this book!
My full review HERE

[Melissa]

Compulsion (Max Revere #2) by Allison Brennan
4 ★

Max Revere investigates the crimes of a serial killer and the possibility that he isn’t working alone.

I have never experienced a character like Max Revere before. I love of good strong female lead, but Max has something different. She is determined, stubborn, confident, and caring. Seeing her almost break in the book was heart wrenching. Psychological trauma is dangerous and it never goes away.
Max’s ex, Marco, and her current flame, Nick Santini, show up for this one and I loved seeing the two of them verbally duck it out. Although Marco is good at his job, he’s also so cocky that it’s almost sickening. Nick is also very good at his job, but his attitude and calm personality is refreshing. He’s a good match for Max and I hope we see more of him.
David, poor David. This was a rough one for him. I think Max will be able to calm his nerves, though. David is very serious about his job and takes it hard when he thinks he has failed Max. The incident in this book was beyond his control and I hope he learns to understand that. Max relieves on him so much.
The case in this book has me hooked from the start. There is obviously something off about Adam Bachman and why no one but Max can see it is beyond me. Her partner theory made perfect sense. I feel like the D.A. just wanted the case closed and move on. It’s so sad when there are still 2 people missing. There are a few twists and a lot of suspense to keep the reader on the edge of their seat.

[Melissa]

Midnight Crossroad (Midnight, Texas #1) by Charlaine Harris
4 ★

Welcome to Midnight, Texas, a sleepy little town in the middle of nowhere with very few residents. Most people don’t stick around, but the ones who do are in for a treat. There are 13 main characters and 1 cat. Manfred Bernardo is the newest addition to the town and he has as many secrets as the rest.
The reader gets a good layout of the town and characters in book 1 of this series. Bobo Winthrop and the disappearance of his girlfriend take the lead in this one. There is also a shocking twist at the end that involves the Lovell’s. I was flabbergasted, but it was a great twist.

[Melissa]

The Inside Story (The Sisters Grimm #8) by Michael Buckley
3 ★

It has been a while since I read book 7 in this series, so I was worried that I wouldn’t remember what was going on. The author does a good job reminding the reader.
Sabrina Grimm, Daphne Grimm, and Puck are chasing Mirror through the Book of Everafter trying to rescue their baby brother. During their travels they meet The Editor and his Revisers. Whenever something is changed in one of the stories, the Editor sends out his Revisers to fix it. They are not pleasant creatures either. They eat everything.
This children’s adventure series is a fun quick read. The way Sabrina and Daphne interacted with the characters in Everafter is often funny and Puck adds an interesting element to the story. The ending doesn’t go quite as planned for the Grimm family, but it should make for a great series finale. I’m looking forward to reading the last book, The Council of Mirrors.

[James]

Naguib Mahfouz, Wedding Song [1981, tr. 1984] 134 pages

A short novel, Wedding Song is at first sight a detective story; it opens with the producer, director, and actors of a theater discussing a new play with the name Wedding Song which they are going to put on. The play is written by Abbas Younis, who has never before written a good play; the characters of this are the very people of the theater itself, and the plot of the play seems to the has-been or rather never-was actor Tariq Ramadan (a personal enemy of the playwright) to be a confession that Abbas has murdered his wife (Tariq's former mistress Tahiya) and his infant child. Abbas, however, has apparently disappeared.

The story is narrated through memories in the first chapter by Ramadan. The novel then turns in successive chapters to Abbas' father Karam (a former prompter in the theater), his mother Halima (a former cashier), and the playwright himself; each chapter tells the same story differently from their perspectives. What emerges from the combination is a sordid tale of poverty and exploitation, with the characters all misjudging each other and themselves by never seriously seeking to understand or sympathize with each other. The book ends, rather than actually concludes, like many of Mahfouz' works in his postmodernist style, with a strange scene not in any way prepared.

[Book Concierge]

Practical Magic – Alice Hoffman – 3***
The Owens women have always been known for their beauty and have always had magical powers. Sally and Gillian, however, want nothing to do with magical powers and definitely do not want magic to dictate their love lives. I had seen the movie years ago and thought little of it, so was hesitant to read this. But it satisfied a challenge and I’m glad I read it. Hoffman is a great storyteller, and like all fairy tales, this one has some important lessons to impart.
My full review HERE

[Book Concierge]

Rainbow Valley – L M Montgomery – 3***
Book seven in the classic series about Anne Shirley and her family. Anne’s six children have discovered their own “magical” place where they can play and indulge their imaginations. When a new family moves into an old mansion nearby, they welcome the Meredith kids into their hideaway. These books are just delightful reads. A nice gentle escape from today’s harsher realities. Like the other books in the series, this one is full of charming characters, believably innocent fun, and a few humorous miscalculations.
My full review HERE

[Book Concierge]

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian – Sherman Alexie – 5*****
This young adult novel tells the story of Junior Spirit, a Spokane Indian living on the reservation with his parents and older sister. I loved this book. I could not help but think of all the kids out there like Junior – kids with limited abilities in one aspect, but extraordinary abilities in other aspects. Kids who just need someone to believe in them, and for an adult to step in to stop the bullying and give them a chance to grow and excel.
My full review HERE

[James]

Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night with Notes Anthropological and Explanatory (Richard Burton ed.) v.1 [Kindle, Project Gutenberg] approx. 350 pages

The first of six supplemental volumes containing material which is not in the Bulaq edition Burton translated in the ten volumes of the Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (which I have just finished reading); some may be included in various MSS of the Nights and some represent the kind of independent story which the Nights were formed from.

According to Burton's Foreword, the first two volumes of the supplement are actually a revision of the three volumes of John Payne's Tales from the Arabic, which contain stories from the printed Breslau edition and the Calcutta edition which are not in the Bulaq edition.

The first tale, "The Sleeper and the Waker", in which a poor man called Abu Hassan is fooled into thinking he is the Caliph (and which may be the source for Shakespeare's Christopher Sly at the beginning of The Taming of the Shrew), is one of the eleven stories added by Galland in his translation to the core stories (the only one for which an Arab source had been found when Burton wrote his notes; I don't know whether others have been found since.) Several of the shorter tales which follow were translated in the continuation of Galland by Dom Chavis and M. Cazotte.

The two longest parts of the book are "The Ten Wazirs, or the History of King Azadbakht and his Son" (derived from the Persian Bakhtyar Nameh and "King Shah Bakht and his Wazir Al-Rahwan", both collections of tales with frame stories obviously derived from Persian originals. Some of the tales in these collections seem to be abridged or truncated versions of tales which were included at greater length in the Bulaq edition; there are obvious non sequiturs and one tale, "The Tale of the Falcon and the Locust", makes no sense whatever.

[Melissa]

City of a Thousand Dolls (Bhinian Empire #1) by Miriam Forster
4 ★

The City of a Thousand Dolls is an estate that takes in orphan girls and trains them to musicians, healers, courtesans and, possibly, assassins. Nisha has lived here since she was left at the gates by her parents. She is now the Matron’s assistant. She is also falling into forbidden love with the city’s courier. When girls start to die in the city, Nisha and her cat friends investigate. Nisha’s nosey investigation may cause her life though.

The concept of this story is unique and heartwarming. The citizens of the Bhinian Empire have a 2 children law and since many want boys the City of a Thousand Dolls was created to keep the unwanted girls from being abandoned and/or killed. Some may not like what the girls are being trained for, but many of the girls are thankful that someone wanted them.
Nisha is different from the other girls. She’s doesn’t know anything about her parents, she has a strange mark on her neck and she has never been placed in one of the houses for training. She also has a unique ability to talk to the spotted cats that live in the city.
This is a pretty good murder mystery with twists and turns at every chapter. Nisha is a strong determined young lady who stands by her friends. The ending was great. Nisha stands up for what is right even if means her death. I was shocked when the killer was revealed. Just as shocked at Nisha.
Book 2 of this series focuses on another girl and I look forward to reading it.

[Book Concierge]

America For Beginners – Leah Franqui – 4****
Pival Sengupta, a recently widowed Kolcatta native, books a trip to America for her first solo venture outside her home city. This went in directions I wasn’t expecting. I had read little about the book in advance, and thought it would a lighthearted, somewhat humorous look at America through the eyes of a total newcomer. But there were many deeper issues here. Characters have to deal with grief, life choices, and relationships; they must deal with their pasts, and move forward with courage. There WERE some humorous scenes, but also tender scenes that brought me to tears. This is Franqui’s debut novel and I look forward to reading more from her in the future.
My full review HERE

[James]

Borges -- two rereads (Ficciones and El Aleph and one new:

Jorge Luis Borges, El Hacedor [1960] 121 pages [Kindle, Open Library, in Spanish]

El Hacedor is a miscellaneous collection of writings by Borges; the first half, roughly, is made up of very short stories, ranging from a paragraph to a page or a page and a half, the second half is poetry. The stories include "Del rigor en la ciencia", the story which was originally the last story in Historia universal de la infamia about the perfect map which was useless because it duplicated what it was a map of, and "Dreamtigers" (the title was in English; I assume, though I am not sure, that this is the book which was translated under that title.) I should note that none of these stories are in the incomplete Vintage Español Cuentos completos, which also lacks the story about al-Mu'tasim from La historia de la eternidad; the companion Poesia completa does include all the poems.

[Book Concierge]

The Brutal Telling – Louise Penny – 3.5***
Book # 5 in Louise Penny’s popular mystery detective series featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache begins when a stranger is found murdered in the village bistro and antiques store. I love this series. I like the way Gamache ferrets out clues and pieces together the puzzle. I love the various inhabitants of the fictitious Three Pines, including Ruth and her duck. I particularly enjoyed the references to literature and art in this episode, especially the paintings of Emily Carr.
My full review HERE

[Book Concierge]

A Cuban Girl’s Guide To Tea and Tomorrow – Laura Taylor Namey – 3***
Okay, I totally picked this up because I needed a pink cover for a challenge. I noticed, too, that this was a pick for “Reese’s YA Book Club” and thought it might have some meat on the bones. Some of this stretched credulity a bit far for me, but on the whole I enjoyed it. I liked that things were not all wrapped up nice and tidy in a pretty bow, albeit there is still a happy (or at least hopeful) ending. A pretty good example of the YA romance genre.
My full review HERE

[James]

Jorge Luis Borges, El otro, el mismo [1964] 104 pages [in Spanish]

A collection of poems written from the thirties to the sixties, uneven but some were quite good. It ranges from sonnets and other rhymed poetry to free verse, and deals with a diverse group of themes, including literature and history, especially of his own ancestors. Some of the poems about death were a bit too mystical for my taste.

Jorge Luis Borges, Para las seis cuerdas [1965] 26 pages [in Spanish]

A series of milongas, which are a kind of short ballad to be sung to a guitar. They were all about people fighting with knives; puñal and cuchillo seem to be almost as much his favorite words as espejo and laberinto.

[Book Concierge]

Pride – Ibi Zoboi – 4****
This YA romance is set in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, and features a Dominican/Haitian family. The Benitez sisters are F I N E and everyone in the neighborhood knows it. Then the wealthy Darcy family moves into the hood, and sparks fly between the handsome brothers and the two oldest Benitez girls. All told, a totally satisfying retelling of the beloved Jane Austen classic, Pride and Prejudice.
My full review HERE

[Book Concierge]

Out Of Africa – Isak Dinesen / Karen Blixen – 5*****
What glorious writing. I first read this in 1998, and re-read it for my book club in 2013. I revisited it again in 2017 and now, here I am again. If you're expecting the movie you'll be greatly disappointed - Denys Finch-Hatton is barely mentioned. No, the great love of her life was Africa itself. While I still love Dineson’s writing, and love the way she puts me right into early 20th century Africa, I am more attuned to social justice these days, and have to cringe a bit at some of the references to the indigenous tribes. The colonialists had such a superior attitude. But this a product of the era and of the social status of the writer, and we must give her her due.
My full review HERE

[Melissa]

Don’t Let Go by Harlan Coben
5 ★

Detective Napoleon “Nap” Dumas has been waiting 15 years for answers to questions he has about his brother’s death. Those answers may be right around the corner now.

This story starts off with a bang and never slows down. The storyline is intriguing and captivating all at the same time. There are twists and turns in every chapter and you just don’t know where they are all going to end up. I found myself wanting to know that truth just as much as Nap and was just as shocked when it all came out.
Nap is a not so straight laced detective who plays by his own rules and does not give a hoot what anyone else thinks about him or his actions. His gut tells him that there is more to his brother’s death than what was told and nothing is going to stop him when he sets out to prove it.
There are a handful of very important characters in this book and each of their stories are told in great detail to help the reader understand the events that happened on the night Nap’s brother died. Every detail throughout this book is well rounded and there are no loose ends. Harlan Coben never disappoints.

[James]

Jorge Luis Borges, Elogio de la sombra [1969] 44 pages [in Spanish]

Another very short book of poetry; uneven but some good poems.

[Book Concierge]

The Body At the Tower – Y S Lee – 3***
Book Two in the YA historical mystery series about “The Agency” – an organization of female detectives in Victorian London – and featuring orphan and former thief, Mary Quinn. I enjoyed this quite a bit. It was somewhat repetitious in places, but Mary is a wonderful heroine – bright, resourceful, compassionate, observant and mentally strong. I like that Lee has made Mary half-Chinese, and that her ethnicity poses additional problems (and opportunities) for her in mid-19th-century England.
My full review HERE

[James]

Claude Lévi-Strauss, Les structures élémentaires de la parenté [1949, rev. 1967] 624 pages [e-book, in French]

(I read it in French, the English translation is The Elementary Structure of Kinship.) I explained in my review of Durkheim's The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life why I am currently reading some of the classic theoretical writings of anthropology or sociology. (Lévi-Strauss refers to his work with both terms, and I think correctly; the difference is less one of what they study than of an invidious distinction between "primitive" and "advanced" or "developed" cultures. I know as a (retired) cataloger that it is impossible to separate the two fields in the Dewey Decimal system, for example, because they deal with the same subjects. To his credit, given when he was writing, whenever Lévi-Strauss uses the term "primitif" or "primitives" for a culture or people, as opposed to a particular trait in the sense of original or prior in time, he almost always puts the word in quotation marks.) After reading a few books, principally by Durkheim and Malinowski, I set the project aside for a while to deal with other reading projects, and am coming back to it now.

Although Lévi-Strauss had already authored (or co-authored with his wife) a study and several articles based on their joint fieldwork, Les structures élémentaires de la parenté was his first major theoretical work and established his reputation among academic anthropologists (his reputation with the general public derived from his later and more popular Tristes tropiques). The book was written in 1948 and published the following year; the edition I read is the revised edition from 1967. The revision consists almost entirely in defending the original work against criticisms. I might add that it took me several hours to find a free (pirated?) copy on the Internet.

He presents the work as an inquiry into the nature and origins of the incest taboo. (Remember that it was written in the heydey of Freudianism.) He begins by saying that it seems in some form or other to be almost the only truly universal trait among all cultures that have been studied, and that in an extended sense it is fundamental to understanding the structures of cultures. (He even goes so far as to agree with Freud that it is the origin of culture.) In the first chapters, he argues against previous explanations, such as the views that it is instinctual or that it was based on biology (recessive genes, etc.) as well as the Freudian explanations He points out in the first place that it was not found among animals and that it could not be an instinct because it requires knowledge of the existence of the relationship. He also points out that inbreeding is not always disadvantageous, or is only a disadvantage for a small number of generations, depending on the frequency and type of recessive genes in the population, and in the long run could even have the opposite effect of removing undesirable recessive traits from the population. He then proposes a social explanation, that the taboo serves to prevent violence between neighboring families over mates and creates alliances between them.

After these preliminaries, he proposes to study the question in the extended form of what he calls "elementary structures of kinship." He defines these as marriage rules based solely on considerations of real or classificatory kinship, as opposed to "complex structures" based on other factors (status, wealth, romantic attraction and free choice, and so forth, as in our own society.) In particular, he poses the question of why, when to a modern Westerner, and in genetic terms, all first cousins are equally closely related, a large majority of "primitive" cultures forbid marriage between parallel cousins as "incest" and allow, prefer or even require marriage between cross cousins, and other cultures also prohibit marriage between patrilateral cross cousins but require it between matrilateral cross cousins and (less often) vice versa. Part One of the book is devoted to what he calls "Exchange restreint", where wives are exchanged between two groups, either directly between families or more formally between two or more classes or moieties (dualism). He considers this exchange as similar to, or in fact part of, a whole complex of gift-exchanges. He emphasizes what he calls "reciprocity" as the basic structure, and shifts between talking about reinforcing solidarity within or between groups and fairly allocating scarce resources (potential wives.) Actually, he seems to identify the two functions. He uses the example of "classic" Australian kinship patterns, and also considers some apparent exceptions such as the Murngin pattern -- this section becomes very technical and detailed, and also at times very polemical with regard to other anthropologists, and I couldn't always follow his arguments.

Perhaps this is the place to note that, to be frank, the book is not at all well-organized. He frequently interrupts his argument to go off on a tangent. At one point, he inserts an entire chapter discussing and rejecting the comparison which was popular at the time of "primitives" with children and neurotics of our own culture. I'm glad he did, because this was one of the most interesting chapters in the book (I recently watched a "TED talk" which presented exactly the same idea as he does here as a brand new thought) -- but it had virtually no connection with the argument it interrupted. Even more problematic is that in the revised edition his replies to criticisms, often quite lengthy, usually come before he reaches the arguments that were being criticized, so it is far from obvious what he is talking about. He also refers frequently to cultures by name, such as "the Murngin system" or "the Katchin system" before he actually discusses them; professional anthropologists -- the intended audience -- would of course have been familiar with them, since they were the subject of controversy at the time, but I again had no idea what he was talking about until he described them in a later chapter.

Part Two is devoted to what he calls "Exchange generalisé", where instead of two (or an even number of) exogamic groups there are three or more groups organized in such a way that men in group A marry women in group B, men in group B marry women in group C, and men in group C marry women in group A (and so on, for whatever number of groups there are) to form a circular exchange which returns to the original state after a certain number of generations. He illustrates this with a number of cultures in Asia and again there are exceptions and a lot of polemics. He then analyzes Chinese customs in a couple of chapters and suggests a widespread original substratum of generalized exchange. Then he moves on to India and connects these cultures with the theorized original culture, and gives a speculative explanation of the origins of the caste system in the effects of "hypergamy" or "anisogamy" (marriage between unequal groups in a hierarchy) followed by endogamy of the top groups. (of course I have insufficient background to even begin to evaluate any of this, but it was very interesting. In the course of these discussions, he touches on marriage between generations such as "avuncular" systems, the transition to modern "complex" structures and many other things. At some point he also introduces what seems like another tangent but is actually one of his fundamental ideas, the distinction between "harmonic" and "dysharmonic" cultures (cultures which are matrilineal and matrilocal or patrilineal and patrilocal are "harmonic", cultures which are matrilineal and patrilocal or patrilineal and matrilocal are "dysharmonic") and argues that "exchange restreint" occures in dysharmonic cultures and "exchange generalisé" in harmonic cultures.

In his "Conclusion" he sums up the developments and links them to the original problem of incest taboos. His theory is that incest taboos whether simple or in the more generalized form of exogamic groups is not a negative prohibition in essence but a positive prescription, not a question of "thou shalt not" but a question of what should happen -- marriage outside the family as a means of forming alliances and solidarity within and between groups, which, together with language, is the source of human culture. He gives an anecdote in which Margaret Mead questioned a native informant about why marriage was forbidden between brother and sister. He seemed at first not to even understand the question or even the possibility, but when she asked what he would say to someone who wanted to marry his own sister, he didn't talk about "immorality" or "taboo" or anything similar; he said, I'd ask him, don't you want brother-in-laws?

Overall, I would say that Lévi-Strauss uses the question of the incest taboo as a hook for what is essentially a theoretical study of elementary structures of kinship, as the title suggests. This is a book written for a particular academic/professional group; for the general reader, the basic ideas are eventually obvious enough but I would pass lightly (I can't bring myself to use the word "skim") over the details and especially the polemics.

[James]

Lord Dunsany, Plays of Gods and Men
[1917] 88 pages

Lord Dunsany (Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany, 1878-1957) was one of the first major writers of adult fantasy, and perhaps the first to establish it as a separate literary genre; he was preceded mainly by William Morris, and influenced subsequently many of the later writers in the genre, most notably H.P. Lovecraft. (I decided to read or re-read some collections of Lovecraft's stories for my Halloween books this year, and naturally I am ending up reading Dunsany as well; perhaps I should have started with Morris, but I didn't want to turn it into a major project.) Before reading his short stories from the library, I decided to start with this collection of plays which I already had. There are four plays in the collection.

The Tents of the Arabs [1910] contrasts a camel-driver who prefers cities to the desert and wants to be a king, and the king of the city who would rather live in the desert. The Laughter of the Gods [1911] also deals with the contrast between a king who wants to live in a small rural city in the jungle and his courtiers (and particularly their wives) who prefer the "big city". A Night at an Inn [1912] is about a group of white thieves and the way they get their comeuppance from the natives they robbed. The Queen's Enemies [1913] is about a queen of ancient Egypt who doesn't want to have enemies, and invites them to a banquet. All four plays are comedies. They were probably intended as closet dramas, although A Night at an Inn at least has been performed.

[James]

Lord Dunsany, The Gods of Pegâna [1905] 60 pages
Lord Dunsany, Time and the Gods [1905] 124 pages
Lord Dunsany, The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories [1908] 90 pages

The first three collections of fantasy stories by Lord Dunsany, these stories constitute a mythology and legendary history of a group of imaginary countries located in the remote past or in a dreamworld, and thus together with William Morris' somewhat earlier writings set the precedent for all the subsequent fantasy worlds which are different from our own and yet not exactly science fiction, from H.P. Lovecraft through Tolkien's Middle Earth and Lewis' Narnia to Terry Pratchett's Discworld, as mutually distinct as all these are, and I recognized many of their ideas in embryo here (particularly the theme of Pratchett's Small Gods, the title of which is obviously derived from the "small gods" on Pegâna, the "Olympus" of these stories.) In calling William Morris and Lord Dunsany the founders of adult fantasy fiction, of course I mean the modern genre; there was certainly a long tradition of fantasy writing in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (I'm also still working my way through the Thousand Nights and a Night, and some of the stories here -- I'm thinking especially of the various destroyed-city stories -- are very reminiscent of tales from that collection, which must have been an influence.)

The Gods of Pegâna [1905], his first fantasy book, is not really a collection of stories so much as a single connected pseudo-nonfiction work describing the "theology" of the Gods. The chapters are not completely consistent -- I think deliberately. He is clearly imitating the Biblical creation stories -- including even the archaic "King James" language -- from Genesis, which are of course hardly consistent either. There are two versions of "creation" here juxtaposed; in one, the original creator God Mana-Yood-Sushai, after creating the small gods and falling asleep, dreams the Worlds into existence, in the other the small gods create the Worlds while he sleeps. The two versions can perhaps be reconciled logically, but they differ entirely in spirit -- just as the first two chapters of Genesis in which humanity is created male and female by the simple word of God in chapter one, and then in a much more primitive version in chapter two Adam is modeled out clay and Eve is carved from his rib. Dunsany is also presenting in all these works the religious and legendary traditions of many different but related "cultures", which differ in the names of the Gods and many details.

The second book, Time and the Gods [1905 according to the title page of the PG edition, 1906 according to Wikipedia] is in my opinion better written, and contains myths and legends treated more as real stories. There are stories here which are skeptical of the existence of the Gods, or consider them in an unfavorable light or emphasize their eventual doom; and throughout the book there runs the thread of personification of Time as the great destroyer, both individually (old age) and of societies. (Again I had to think of the Thousand and One Nights with the frequent concluding formula "till there came to them the Destroyer of delights and the Sunderer of societies", a bit more realistic than "and they lived happily ever after".)

The third book, The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories [1908], is different, more diverse but equally well-written. Some of the stories are of the same type as in the first two collections, i.e. set in a fantasy world, but there are also traditional ghost stories and other fantasies set in our own world.

[James]

Lord Dunsany, A Dreamer's Tales [1910] 107 pages
Lord Dunsany, The Book of Wonder [1912] 62 pages
Lord Dunsany, Fifty-One Tales: The Food of Death [1915] 52 pages

Three more short books by Lord Dunsany. They are similar to the last two, that is a mixture of "capital letter fantasy" set in the dreamworlds and more standard "real world" fantasy stories; I'm having trouble saying anything different about them.

A Dreamer's Tales contains, together with other stories, a fairly long novella, Idle Days on the Yann, which is perhaps the most perfect example of Dunsany's original style; nothing much happens, but the world is fascinating.

The Book of Wonder is a collection of fourteen stories. Fifty-one Tales: the Food of Death is a collection of very short, one or two page stories mainly about death and time.

[Book Concierge]

My Invented Country – Isabel Allende – 3.5***
In this memoir, Allende looks at her own family history as well as the history of her native country, Chile. She explores the social conventions, politics, natural terrain, geographical difficulties and advantages of this unique land. It’s a story full of mythology – from national legends, to her own family’s stories. Here are the roots of her ability to seamlessly weave elements of magical realism into her novels.
My full review HERE

[James]

Book Concierge wrote: "

My Invented Country
– Isabel Allende – 3.5***
In this memoir, Allende looks at her own family history as well as the history of her native country, Chile...."

I'm looking forward to reading this, on my list for December.

[James]

Lord Dunsany, Tales of Wonder [1916] 100 pages

The seventh collection of Lord Dunsany's fiction, unless I have missed some. Apparently a sequel to The Book of Wonder, this is a collection of about twenty stories. With each subsequent collection there seems to be a lower proportion of what Dunsany is most famous for, stories set in a fantasy world, and a higher proportion of tales set in the actual world, "the fields that we know", although still full of magic and "wonder." In this collection, only the seventh story and perhaps one other very short one is of the first type.

[James]

Lord Dunsany, Tales of Three Hemispheres [1919] 69 pages

The last story collection of Lord Dunsany I will be reading this month (I still have two novels and some plays), this contains fifteen tales, including Idle Days on the Yann from A Dreamer's Tales and two sequels to that.

[James]

Lord Dunsany, If: A Play in Four Acts [1921] 124 pages
Lord Dunsany, Plays of Near & Far [1922] 134 pages

Some more plays by Lord Dunsany. If is an enjoyable fantasy comedy about a man who tries to change one little thing about the past, and ends up changing more than he expects to. Plays of Near & Far is a collection of six short plays, also all comedies or satires: The Compromise of the King of the Golden Isles, The Flight of the Queen, Cheezo, A Good Bargain, If Shakespeare Lived Today, and Fame and the Poet.

[Melissa]

The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson
4 ★
The Lutz family spent everything they had to buy the house at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, Long Island, New York. The terror they experienced there had them fleeing the house after just 28 days. I’m actually really surprised they lasted that long. This story had me a bit freaked out walking through my own house in the dark. This book gives the reader a good visual of what happened to the Lutz family, but it also left me with a lot of questions. The book does not talk much about the Defoe family murders in the house and the events throughout the book made me very curious about them. I’m also curious about the house itself. Why was there such an evil presence in the house? I think the house has way more history then was told in the book.


You Love Me (You #3) by Caroline Kepnes
4 ★

Joe Goldberg is done with big cities and done with Love Quinn. They may have a son together, but life sometimes doesn’t go as planned. Joe moves to a quiet little island close to Seattle (well…he may have been forced to move there) and gets a job working at the local library. When he meets the librarian, Mary Kay DiMarco, he makes a promise to himself to be good and win her heart.

Poor Joe. Yes, I said it. He tries so hard to be good and things just continue to go wrong for him. There are a few dead bodies along the way, but they are all unfortunate incidents. Joe’s obsessive nature hasn’t changed, though. He’s still creepy and nosey. Many of the characters from previous book are mentioned and I love how Joe refers to them: RIP Beck, RIP Forty, etc.
I was a bit disappointed in the lack of book referenced in this book. One would think there would be plenty since Joe works at a library, but there were very few. There were more movie and music reference then in the other books.
I like Mary Kay in the beginning, but when her secret comes out, I didn’t like her as much. I also could not stand Melanda, MK’s best friend. I wanted to slap her.
There are some great plot twists in the last few chapters and poor Joe takes a beating, mentally and physically. I honestly felt bad for him.
Joe moves again at the end of this story and I look forward to seeing what happens when a new girl catches his eye.

[Book Concierge]

The Best Of Adam Sharp – Graeme Simsion – 1*
If this is Adam’s best, well…. It’s definitely NOT Simsion’s best. I really enjoyed Simsion’s The Rosie Project, but this did absolutely nothing for me. Neither Adam nor Angelina seemed at all mature enough for a real love relationship. I did enjoy all the music references, though I still wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.
My full review HERE