What Are You Reading / Reviews - January - June 2022

[Book Concierge]

Cold-Hearted Rake – Lisa Kleypas – 3***
Book number one in The Ravenels series. A charmingly wicked bachelor inherits an earldom, and butts heads with the late earl’s beautiful, young and head-strong widow. Sparks fly and passion overcomes sensibility and rules of propriety.
My full review HERE

[James]

Alejo Carpentier, Guerra del tiempo y otros relatos [2001] 214 pages [in Spanish]

This collection of stories, apart from the Prologue and Epilogue by Gonzalo Celerio, is divided into three parts. The first part consists of three early stories, of which the first two were published for the first time in this collection; they were written in France under the influence of André Breton and the surrealist movement. "El estudiante" (1927) is an unfinished fragment, which is the most surrealistic of the three, and is impossible to describe except as a nightmare. "El milagro del ascensor" (1929) is about a monk who works as an elevator boy in a skyscraper, and also resembles a dream or nightmare. The third story, "Historia de lunas", is transitional between surrealism and his later style; it is a fantasy about a paranormal creature called "el escurradizo" -- literally the slippery or elusive one, according to the dictionary -- which is a sort of were-satyr.

The second part consists of the three stories which were originally published as Guerra del tiempo in 1958. All three are concerned with different distortions of normal time. "Viaje a la semilla" is about a life lived backwards in time; "El camino de Santiago" has a time which circles back and meets itself at the same point; "Semejante a la noche" has similar events repeating themselves, and is a reflection on the romantic view of war. All three are excellent stories.

The third part is the "otros relatos", four later stories. "Oficio de Tinieblas" is about a city where suddenly for no apparent reason people become gloomy, and there follow various natural calamities, then again for no reason they suddenly become happy and prosperous again. This was probably my least favorite of the stories. "Los fugitivos" is about a fugitive slave and a runaway dog who become companions; it is told from the consciousness of the dog. "Los advertidos" is a fresh take on the legend of the deluge. "El derecho de asilo" is a story about a politician who finds political asylum in a foreign embassy following a military coup, and is told with much humor.

All these stories are told in Carpentier's usual style, with complex sentences and unusual vocabulary. I was beginning to get paranoid about my ability to read Spanish, because I have to look up so many words and so many of them aren't even in my dictionary, but according to Celerio's Epilogue Carpentier's use of rare and obsolete words make his writing difficult even for Latin American readers. He is worth the effort.

[Book Concierge]

Lunch At the Piccadilly – Clyde Edgerton – 3***
The jacket blurb promised a funny romp with elderly ladies who steal a car and go on an adventure. The book however, is not nearly so fun … and funny … as the jacket blurb. Yes, there are some humorous escapades, but much more is devoted to Lil’s nephew Carl, a quiet, unassuming bachelor who can’t seem to find his way to a happy and fulfilled life. The episode with the stolen car (brief though it is) was quite funny, but the ending is rather poignant.
My full review HERE


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The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern – Lilian Jackson Braun – 3***
Book two in the “Cat Who” cozy mystery series, starring journalist James Qwilleran and his Siamese Koko. I like this series, set in an unnamed northern-midwest city. I like the way Qwill ferrets out information, and how he’s beginning to notice that his cat is quite astute. The plot is full of twists and turns, as well as a colorful assortment of characters, good and bad. Photographer Odd Bunsen is an able sidekick.
My full review HERE

[Melissa]

Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert
4 ★

When a strange girl in the middle of the road causes Ivy to have a minor accident, it sets off a series of events that makes Ivy’s summer a dangerous one. Ivy’s mom is also acting weird, weirder than normal, and as the summer lingers on the past and the present collide.

This story is told from two points of view: The Suburbs, right now… Ivy’s story and The City, back then… her mom’s story. The style is one that I enjoy and the pieces of the puzzle slowly come together very smoothly this way. When questions arise from one story, they are often answered in the next chapter from the other story. The author did a great job balancing the two sides and keeping everything in a continuous timeline.
The story does not really have any surprises, but there is a nice creepy factor. The shadows and descriptions of the old library are done with the finesse of the dark side and the supernatural. The reader just knows from the start that there are going to be some dark scenes.
The storyline is a bit different than most books about witches. These girls/women have taught themselves and they aren’t very strong when they practice alone. Ivy’s mom and her best friend more or less stumble upon it when they meet another practitioner and they soon come to realize that magic isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. They learn the hard way and that makes the story so much more realistic. This is a very real look at the coming of age of two generations.

(Thanks to the author/publisher for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.)

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The Witnesses by James Patterson
3 ★

This is a nice quick BookShots read that is fast paced and full of surprises. The Sanderson family is in hiding and they all think it’s because of something they each did individually. None of them know the true reason. The elderly ex-cop neighbor is a very nosey and very suspicious. His wife wants nothing to do with his theories and the exchanges the two have adds a bit of humor to the story.
The story comes to an explosive conclusion and the family moves on under witness protection. The only issue I had with the story is that it leaves the reader wondering exactly what the family saw and why they were in hiding. It never explains that to the reader. There are scenes that give the reader some idea of what happened, but no real answer.

[James]

Alejo Carpentier, Concierto Barroco [1974] 130 pages [in Spanish]

In this 1974 novella, Carpentier combines his two roles of author and musicologist. The book begins with a description of the mansion of a wealthy Mexican of Indian descent, called el Amo (the Master), in Veracruz, and his preparations for a voyage. In the next chapter he is in Cuba and acquires a Black servant, Felipe, whose ironic comments provide much of the comedy in the book. The two then voyage to Europe, and ultimately end up in Venice, where the Indian inadvertantly gives Antonio Vivaldi the idea for his opera Moctezuma, a description of which is the central part of the book. A quarter of this 130 page book is taken up with the Prologue by Gonzalo Celorio, and there is an appendix with a facsimile of the first pages of the opera; the book is also printed in large print, so it is really quite short, but there is a lot going on in it -- reflections on the nature of fantasy and its relation to history and so forth. It also has many comic anachronisms; my favorite scene was when Vivaldi, Domenico Scarlatti and Handel are having a picnic in a cemetery and begin a discussion of the works of Igor Stravinsky. Vivaldi says Stravinsky was "a good musician but rather old-fashioned." The writing style is also deliberately baroque; Carpentier was part of a group of Cuban writers who are described as "neo-baroque".

[James]

The Chautauquan: The Magazine of Systematic Reading (Sept. 1909) 162 pages
The Chautauquan: The Magazine of Systematic Reading (Oct. 1909) 142 pages
The Chautauquan: The Magazine of Systematic Reading (Dec. 1909) 162 pages

My sister-in-law and my niece run an antique shop, Suzanna's Antiques, in Rolesville, NC. This past January I went out to visit my brother and found these three issues of The Chautauquan at their shop. I hadn't known anything about Chautauqua except vaguely that it was (and still is) a school in western New York State, but looking it up on Wikipedia and on its own website, I found that it began in 1874 as a summer camp for training Sunday School teachers, and became a movement for promoting adult education from a non-denominational Christian perspective, particularly among rural housewives. The magazine, published between 1880 and 1914, was actually the organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, which was part of the overall Chautauqua movement and functioned as a kind of free correspondence school. September began a new "school year", and in 1909-1910 the focus was on antiquity, which was what drew my attention (together with the subtitle; I'm a real fan of systematic reading, as anyone who reads my reviews will realize) when I saw these in the shop.

Each issue begins with a selection of article/editorials on domestic and world politics, which in retrospect are so wrong in their predictions they are rather funny. They seem to be from the perspective of the "Progressive" Republicans -- for those who are not from the U.S. or are too young to recall, the Republicans from the Civil War and Reconstruction to about the 1912 election represented themselves as the "liberal" party, and the Democrats were the "conservatives"; this changed about this time, except with regards to white supremacy where the Democrats were the racist party down to about 1960 (and the Dixiecrats like Joe Biden -- does that name ring any bells? -- were the leaders of the anti-desegregation forces until well into the 1970's.)

There are three books which are serialized (since I am lacking November, I read chapters 1, 2, and 4.) These are the "required reading" for the course. The first book was George Willis Cooke, Woman in the Progress of Civilization; chapter one was on the matrilineal/matrilocal "totemist" societies (somewhat obsolete anthropology and very oversimplified even for the time), the second on the rise of patriarchy, particularly among the Greeks, the missing 3rd was on Rome, and the fourth was on (rich) women in the Middle Ages (a very contradictory account, which ignored the majority of the population). The second book was James Henry Breasted, A Reading Journey Through Egypt; having read his important and scholarly History of Egypt, also published in 1909, I was disappointed that this was just a superficial travelogue which referred to the ancient monuments geographically rather than chronologically. The third was Frederick Lewis Pilcher, Historic Types of Architecture; chapters 1 and 2 were on Egypt, the missing chapter 3 was on Mesopotamia, and chapter 4 was on Persia. I actually learned a bit from this one.

There are also miscellaneous articles and selections from ancient works, which gave the magazine a sort of Readers' Digest feeling, and at the end there were study questions and exam questions on all the books. Also, as in any magazine this old, the ads were a real "hoot".

[James]

Kevin Jackson and Jonathan Stamp, Building the Great Pyramid [2003] 191 pages

This is a popular book about the pyramid of Khufu, its construction and subsequent history, with a sketch of the development of Egyptology and a bit too much about the crank theories. It is very highly illustrated with simple text; it was designed to accompany a BBC television program on pyramids. The authors are a freelance writer and the producer of the show, neither of whom are professional Egyptologists. It lists a handful of books for further reading, but has no real bibliography or footnotes; as Wikipedia would say, Needs sources.

[Book Concierge]

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets Of the Universe – Benjamin Alire Sáenz – 4****
This is a coming-of-age story featuring two Mexican-American teens trying to figure out their place in the world. I enjoyed this book and felt connected to these boys and their struggles. I’m way past that stage of life, but I remember the pain of not feeling like I fit in, the joy of finally having a good friend, the fumblings and push/pull of early romantic encounters. And I loved Ari and Dante, their reliance on one another and their growing relationship.
My full review HERE

[James]

Alejo Carpentier, El recurso del método [1974] 289 pages [in Spanish] [1974]

A satirical novel about an unnamed dictator of a fictional Latin American country, with traits taken from Porfirio Diaz, Gerardo Machado, Anastasio Somoza, Rafael Trujillo, and various others of their ilk. The book is written from the consciousness of the dictator, referred to as "El Primer Magistrado", "El Presidente" or "El Mandatorio", mostly in "free indirect discourse" although it occasionally drops into first person or even stream-of consciousness, and occasionally it seems that someone else takes up the narration in the first person for a paragraph or two, signaled only by the fact that the dictator is referred to as another person, e.g. "he said to me". Despite this, it is actually the simplest book by Carpentier I have read in terms of style.

The novel begins with the dictator on a prolonged visit to Paris, in about 1909, where he prefers living to his palace in "Nueva Córdoba", the capital of his own country. He is recalled home by the uprising of a general, which he suppresses with the aid of a loyal colonel whom he promotes to general. At the same time, he represses the more democratic opposition in the capital, especially the university students, in a massacre which is photographed and publicized throughout the world. Somewhat later on, he again visits Paris and the previously loyal general from the previous war in turn begins an uprising which he also suppresses. The story outlines the history of his country, which is typical of all the countries of Latin America, through World War I and the prosperity that results during the war, the recession and virtual bankruptcy of the country after the Peace, the revolutionary movements of the 1920's, another massacre in the capital, his abandonment by his gringo masters and overthrow, and his final exile back in Paris sometime in the 1920's.

Apart from the dictator, the main characters are his "zamba" servant and sometime mistress La Mayorala Elmira; his daughter Ofelia, a self-centered "princess" who is superficially enthusiastic for everything "modern" and avant-garde, and who reminded me of Mouche from Los pasos perdidos; his personal secretary Doctor Peralta; his ambassador to France, Chulo Mendoza; and his main opponent, the revolutionary known only as "El Estudiante", the Student. His sons are mentioned but play no essential role in the novel.

The satire is very subtle; most of the time, the novel just seems like a more-or-less realistic description of how a dictator of that time and place would actually think and behave, but from time to time things are exaggerated to make symbolic points, as in the finding of the mummies in the cave or the building of the new Capitol. The protagonist thinks of himself as a very cultured person, and throughout the book there are literary and cultural allusions -- many of them incorrect, which was rather disconcerting until I realized it was deliberate on the part of Carpentier. There is no "maravillosa".

The prologue by Ambrosio Fornet points out that there were three major novels published in 1974-1975 on the same theme, this book, Roa Bastos' Yo el Supremo, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez' El otoño del patriarca (the next book on my reading list), which caused critics to make a distinction between "novels about dictators" like these three and "novels about dictatorships" such as El Señor Presidente (on my list for late April or May) by Miguel de Asturias -- incidentally one of Carpentier's best friends in their student days in Paris.

[Book Concierge]

Lizzie & Dante – Mary Bly – 3***
This romance features a tragically ill heroine who is a Shakespeare scholar vacationing on the island of Elba, an understanding handsome Italian chef and his precocious 12-year-old daughter, plus a supporting cast of movie stars, gay friends, and no-nonsense acquaintances. There are some twists and turns, because the path to happiness is never a straight one, and I thought the author was trying a bit too hard to force the reader to tears, but I still enjoyed the book. And I LOVED all the food references.
My full review HERE

[James]

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, El otoño del patriarca [1975] 301 pages [in Spanish, Kindle, Open Library]

Like the last book I read, Alejo Carpentier's El recurso del método, published the previous year, El otoño del patriarca is a satirical novel about an unnamed dictator of a fictional Latin American country. Also like that book, but even more so, it is written in a difficult experimental style; if Carpentier's narrative has no divisions into paragraphs, this book isn't even divided into real sentences, but continuous prose held together with commas goes on for pages before ending with an arbitrary period and beginning again. The novel opens with the presidential palace being broken into by carrion-eating birds and the finding of the corpse of "the general", who has apparently ruled the country for over a hundred years, covered with parasites "from the depths of the sea", amid a deserted and ruined mansion full of wandering cows and domestic fowl (there is an element of "magical realism" similar to his previous novel Cien años de soledad). The stream-of-consciousness of one of the discovers of the corpse merges into an impersonal narrative in the same style (can you have stream-of-consciousness of an impersonal narrator?) which merges into the stream-of-consciousness of the general (and later other characters) in a series of flashbacks in no apparent chronological order (although ultimately the narrative moves forward to the present in a back-and-forth way.) Perhaps the best way to describe it is as a kind of free association. Each chapter begins with the finding of the corpse and moves back along a different path.

Leaving aside the style, the content is also similar in its more objective side: revolts of generals, massacres, growing debts, control by the European powers and ultimately the United States. There is more exaggeration, and the examples of his policies are unreal and "magical", as when he sells the sea to the yankees and they actually suck up all the water and leave a huge dry plain (obviously a reference to the actual sale of rights of exploitation of territorial waters, taken literally.) This novel, however, puts much more emphasis on the subjective side. As the title indicates, it is about the "autumn" of the dictator; his absolute power has become more symbolic than real, as his ministers increasingly deceive him about reality, and at the end he is deaf, visually impaired, and probably senile. We find out very early in the narration that he has already died once before; his body was found in the same position, clothed the same way, etc. This is explained as being the death of his "double", but perhaps it also indicates, together with the impossible length of his rule, that the dictator as such, if not the individual, is immortal; and throughout the novel, he is described as immortal, as having godlike powers over both the human and natural world, and so forth. (Possibly in addition to the political satire there is a metaphysical suggestion that he IS God, who is no longer able to rule the world.) Gradually, the question arises whether he has ever actually been the absolute ruler that he and everyone else considered him, whether the real power wasn't always somewhere hidden and beyond his control -- as of course it is.

[James]

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, La increíble y triste historia de la cándida Eréndira y de su abuela desalmada [betw. 1961-1972, bk. pub. 1972] 156 pages [in Spanish, Kindle, Open Library]

The book I am reviewing contained the title novella, La increíble y triste historia de la cándida Eréndira y de su abuela desalmada (1972), about a teenage girl forced into prostitution by her grandmother, and six shorter stories, all but one written between Cien años de soledad (1967) and El otoño del patriarca (1975). In style, they resemble those novels, with improbable, magical realist plots and in one case the same lack of sentence division as the later novel. In content, however, they seem to have much less point, although probably with enough ingenuity one could find allegorical meanings.

The stories included were "Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes" (1968), which is just what it says, a story about a very old man with enormous wings who is knocked down to Earth by a storm and found by a poor couple outside their hut; "El mar del tiempo perdido" (1961), about a village by the shore of a strange, malevolent sea, which has something surprising underneath; "El ahogado más hermoso del mundo" (1968), about a drowned man who is washed up on shore and all the women fall in love with him; "Muerte constante más allá del amor" (1970), a more realistic story about a dying senator who becomes infatuated with the daughter of a criminal; "El último viaje del buque fantasma" (1968) about a boy who sees a ghost ship; and "Blacamán el bueno, vendedor me milagros" (1968), about a pair of con artists -- or maybe not. I had already read four of the six stories in translation a decade ago.

To be honest, after reading the two novels mentioned above, I was rather disappointed in the shorter fiction here; probably not his best work, although granted that is a subjective opinion.

[Melissa]

A is for Alibi (Kinsey Millhouse #1) by Sue Grafton
4 ★

Kinsey Millhone is a former cop who is now a private investigator. Kinsey has been approached by Nikki Fife who is out on parole after being convicted of killing her husband. Nikki asks Kinsey to find the person who really killed her husband. The case is now 8 years old and Kinsey has her work cut out for her.

Sue Grafton is a new author for me, so I did not know how she wrote. This book is well written and the chapters have intervals that make it easy to find a stopping spot. The chapters are not very long either. The flow from chapter to chapter is continuous and leaves no open spaces with unanswered questions.
Kinsey Millhone is a great character. She has issues, but that makes her feel more like a human being than a character in a book. She is very smart and is able to piece together information to see the bigger picture. She is very set in her ways and has no issue with telling others how she feels.
Kinsey’s investigation takes many turns throughout the book and it was fun trying to put everything together with her. There are some surprises and the ending is intense. There is a large cast of characters as well, but not so many that the reader loses track of the main investigation. I look forward to reading Kinsey’s next adventure.

[James]

Gabriel García Márquez, Crónica de una muerte anunciada [1981] 141 pages [in Spanish, Kindle, Open Library]

The narrator, who is ostensibly the author himself, returns to his native town to try to make sense of his memories of an "honor" killing which occurred many years before. The novel was inspired by an actual murder and has the form of a mystery novel; although we know from the beginning who killed Santiago Naser, the question is rather how it happened when everyone in the town knew that the killers were waiting for him except him. The novel is told from the perspectives of many different people (including relatives of García Márquez) who all give differing versions of the events. Nearly everyone has an excuse why they didn't warn him. While the style is difficult and experimental, it seems almost traditional compared to his previous novels and stories; there is almost no magical realism, apart from the many strange coincidences which keep him from being saved. We never learn the most important fact. The novel is among other things an ironic critique of the traditional macho code of behavior.

[Book Concierge]

Say Nothing – Patrick Radden Keefe – 4****
I confess that while I had heard of “The Troubles” I had never really studied the causes of the conflict in Northern Ireland, nor did I closely follow the politics at play. I’m so glad that my F2F book club chose this book, because I learned about not only the conflict portrayed, but perhaps a little about how a young person becomes radicalized and how festering dissatisfaction can turn from angry rhetoric to acts of terrorism. Keefe is an accomplished investigative journalist, and he certainly did his homework here.
My full review HERE

[James]

Abdulrazak Gurnah, Memory of Departure [1987] 159 pages [Kindle, Open Library]

After reading two of Gurnah's most recent novels, I went back to what I believe is his first. Memory of Departure is set in Tanzania in the first years after Independence. The book opens on the eve of Independence, on the protagonist's fifteenth birthday, the age of majority in that culture. Nothing really happens in the first chapter but we get his memories of his childhood and learn about his family and the impoverished conditions they live in. The novel then moves forward three years, to his graduation from high school. He takes the final examination, but the government does not release the scores, fearing that those who have done well will leave the country and remain abroad. After much trouble, he manages to get a passport and travel to his rich uncle's home in Nairobi, hoping that his uncle will give him the inheritance he has withheld from his siter, the protagonist's mother. (We learn for the first time that the protagonist's name is Hasan Omar.) The remainder of the novel is about his vacation in Nairobi, his return to the coast, and his ultimate departure. While not as good as the two later books I read, Memory of Departure is very good for a first book.

[James]

Naguib Mahfouz, The Final Hour [1982, tr. 2010] 169 pages

The Final Hour is a novel about three generations of a family in Helwan, near Cairo. The grandfather, Hamid Burhan, is the official head of the family until his death, but the real head is his wife, Saniya al-Mahdi. They have three children, Kawthar, Muhammad, and Muniya, and eventually five grandchildren, who become adults near the end of the book. The novel opens near the present time of the book, about the mid-1970s, with Saniya looking at a family portrait taken in 1934. We immediately learn about the house in which she is living with the older daughter, and which serves as a focus of the book and of Saniya's thoughts, as well as a flashback to her wedding and basic descriptions of the husband and three children. The novel then proceeds more or less chronologically, with various episodes and much dialogue, to the present.

The book is very historical and political, covering most of the major events in the country's life. Hamid, a lifelong supporter of the Wafd (the liberal pro-independence party), recalls the one political act of his life in the demonstrations against British colonialism. Saniya and Kawthar, and Muniya's son Ali, are relatively apolitical, or at least skeptical of all the tendencies; Kawthar's son Rashad could be called a moderate, probably not much different from his grandfather; Muhammad (and ultimately his son Shafiq) support the Muslim Brotherhood, Muniya and her son Amin support the Nasserite revolution, and Muhammad's daughter Siham becomes a communist. One can imagine the arguments which make up most of the text. This is not to say that we don't get personal events and conflicts as well, many of which illustrate the development of social mores, especially in the treatment of the women characters. The basic idea of the book, presenting all the tendencies of Egyptian politics through a family history, of course immediately suggests Mahfouz' great realist novel published in the 1950's as The Cairo Trilogy but set after the period of that novel. The style however is much different, less detailed and more schematic; if we divide the number of pages by the years covered, the trilogy comes to an average of sixty pages per year and this short book to about four pages per year. Perhaps a closer analogy is to Miramar but with younger characters.

As with all his writings, Mahfouz is a great writer and a perceptive critic of historical events, although it is not always obvious what his own opinions are.

[Book Concierge]

This I Know – Eldonna Edwards – 3***
I picked this up while trolling my public library’s shelves. I was a bit skeptical, but saw an author blurb from Lesley Kagen, so thought I give this a go. I was quickly immersed in the story and eager to see how things would work out for the eleven-year-old heroine. The setting is a small town in Michigan in the late 1960s. Grace is a typical pre-teen in many respects, but she has a special gift she calls “the Knowing” of which her preacher father does not approve. There is a mystery involving a child predator, which subplot comes and goes, and was really unnecessary IMHO. Still, a satisfying, enjoyable read.
My full review HERE

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A Madness of Sunshine – Nalini Singh – 3***
Nalini Singh is known for her romantic fantasy books, but this is her debut adult detective mystery. The setting is a remote town on the West Coast of New Zealand, populated primarily by indigenous Maori. I really liked this mystery thriller, with several layers of intrigue. Detective Will Gallagher is a great character, with flaws and some darkness in his past … he is, after all, a big-city Detective now assigned to a small town in the middle of nowhere. The twists and turns kept me guessing, and I didn’t see the ending coming. I hope Singh will write another mystery featuring Will.
My full review HERE

[James]

Mahmoud Darwish, Journal of an Ordinary Grief [1973, tr. 2010] 177 pages

This book contains "Journal of an Ordinary Grief" and eight other "essays". I put "essays" in quotation marks because they are written in a poetic style, full of images and imaginary dialogues, similar to his poetry. Taken together, they cover the history of Palestine, and Darwish's own life, from the Nakba to the time the book was published. The book is a powerful description of the Palestinian reality within Israel after 1948, and would probably be a good introduction to his work, making clearer some of the allusions and images in his actual poetry.

[Book Concierge]

The Warmth of Other Suns – Isabel Wilkerson – 4****
Subtitle: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. I had heard of Wilkerson’s masterful social history, but had just never gotten around to reading it … until now. One thing I really appreciate about this work is how Wilkerson focuses on three individuals to illustrate the scope of the Great Migration. It was informative and interesting, and I definitely learned some things I had not known before.
My full review HERE

[Book Concierge]

Precious And Grace – Alexander McCall Smith – 3***
Book # 17 in the hugely popular “No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” series, has Mma Precious Ramotswe and her “co-director” Mma Grace Makutsi at loggerheads once again over updating office practices vs relying on tried and true methods. I love this series. I enjoy spending time with these people, though I rather missed Mr J L B Matekoni who barely appears in this episode. Mma Ramotswe can always be relied upon to consider carefully the underlying motives and various options for dealing with any problem. While Mma Makutsi is frequently the one to rush forward, perhaps jumping to the wrong conclusion, or arriving at the right answer but for the wrong reason!
My full review HERE

[James]

Boubacar Boris Diop, Kaveena [2006] 300 pages [in French, Kindle]

Boubacar Boris Diop is a Senegalese author who won this year's Neustadt Prize. Kaveena is one of his most recent novels, and the first I have read by him; like all but one (or perhaps now two) it is written in French. (I believe there is an English translation available.)

Like Carpentier's El recurso del método and Garcia Marquez's El otoño del patriarca, both of which I read last month, this is a novel about a dictator of a fictional (but typical) country, in this case in Africa rather than Latin America. Also like the latter novel it begins with the narrator finding a cadaver, which he soon reveals is that of N'Zo Nikiema, the recently deposed president, and the book is largely the history of the dictator's life; and just as in that book we ultimately learn that the dictator was never really in control of the country, so here we learn that Nikiema has never been the real power, but a puppet of the man who ultimately deposes him (for a new and even more docile puppet), the French capitalist Pierre Cardenas. The narrator is obviously from the first few pages an ex-policeman, and in fact he soon reveals that he is the former head of Nikiema's secret police, Colonel Asante Kroma. Himself fearing Cardenas, he decides to utilize Nikiema's hideout and spend his time in hiding studying the letters and documents of Nikiema to try to understand his former boss better. Excerpts from these letters and documents supplement the first person narrative by Kroma.

The main thread of the novel is the relationship between Nikiema and Cardenas, which goes back before Cardenas puts Nikiema in power at the time of independence from France. Throughout the book, however, there are references to a major scandal, the rape and ritual murder of a six-year-old girl named Kaveena. At first it seems the book may be a mystery novel about the case, but very early on we learn that Kroma knows who is responsible, and that in fact it was Pierre Cardenas himself. The case of Kaveena does influence the ending of the novel, which I won't reveal. The novel is an interesting psychological study of Nikiema, Cardenas, Kroma himself, and one or two other characters, but the real point is undoubtedly to illustrate the dynamics of Africa after independence and its continuing dependence on the former colonial powers.

[James]

Jean Bottero, ed., Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia [1992, tr. 2001] 277 pages [Kindle, Open Library]

This is a collection of fifteen articles about ancient Mesopotamia which were originally published in the French popular history magazine L'Histoire, probably during the 1980's. Nine are written by Jean Bottero, who also edited the collection, three by George Roux, two by Bertrand Lafont and one by André Finet. The title is totally inaccurate, as only four or five articles could be considered as being about everyday life.

The first article by Roux deals with the theories about the origins of the Sumerians, whose language seems to be unrelated to any other known language living or extinct, whether they came from Anatolia or from Bahrain or elsewhere in the Gulf or from somewhere in Central Asia, whether by land or by sea, or even from somewhere now under the water of the Gulf (which was much lower at an earlier date, although perhaps too much earlier). His own opinion is that they arrived in the late Paleolithic or early Neolithic and the migrations of that early date are impossible to determine. The second article, also by Roux, deals with the enigma of the so-called "Royal Cemetery" at Ur, which has evidence of mass suicides to accompany the main burial; he explains there is actually no evidence that any kings were buried there, and the few graves which can be tenuously attributed to individuals (by the presence of cylinder seals, which may or may not belong to the main burial) are mostly to persons called nin, which can mean either "queen" or "priestess". He reviews all the theories and concludes that there is no real evidence for any of them.

Then there are the articles that could actually be considered as about daily life: one by Bottero on cuisine (although it is obviously about the cuisine of the ruling elite, not the everyday food of the majority of the population), one on banquets (ditto), one on wine by Finet, one on "Love and Sex" and one on the legal position of women in Mesopotamian society (probably better under the Sumerians than the later Semites, but not great in either case) both by Bottero.

There is then an article by Lafont on the Palace Women at Mari, one by Roux on the legend of Queen Semiramis (his opinion is that it originated in Persia and conflates the two historical queens Sammuramat and Naqia/Zakutu and the goddess Inanna), two more by Bottero on "Magic and Medicine" and "The Birth of Astrology", and one by Lafont on trials by ordeal.

The last three articles, all by Bottero, are on the myth of the Flood (the Book of Atrahasis), the Epic of Gilgamesh, and "How Sin was Born", the last a rather annoying article by Bottero which quickly moves from Mesopotamia to "Israel" and interprets Hebrew religion through the rise of modern Judaism on the basis of the Old Testament used totally uncritically (the religion was imposed as a whole entity by a historical individual named Moses, the Hebrew tribes were united from the beginning by the exclusive worship of Yahweh, there was a united monarchy under Saul, David and Solomon (all just taken for granted), and above all the Hebrew concept of "sin" was radically different from that of the other Semitic cultures, etc.) To be honest, all of Bottero's articles were somewhat annoying in their overgeneralizations and personal opinions presented as fact; the articles by the other contributors were better, especially those by George Roux.

[Book Concierge]

Stones For Ibarra – Harriet Doerr – 3.5***
An American couple arrive in the remote mountain village of Ibarra, Mexico to reopen the copper mine his grandfather abandoned some fifty years previously. Clash of cultures. Very atmospheric. I loved the depictions of festivals and traditions. Several subplots involve the residents of the town, their lives, loves, disappointments and joys.
My full review HERE

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Out Stealing Horses – Per Petterson – 3.5***
Petterson has crafted an atmospheric, character-driven story of one man’s looking back on his coming-of-age summer when he was almost 15 and living with his father in a remote cabin on a river in eastern Norway, just on the border with Sweden. The story moves back and forth between the present day and the summer of 1948. As Trond matures he comes to realize that adventure isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be, and there can be a very real human toll to giving in to desire and youthful exuberance.
My full review HERE

[James]

Timothy Ferris, Coming of Age in the Milky Way [1988] 495 pages

A popular history of astronomy, and particularly cosmology, with some physics and a little geology and biology, this is apparently considered a classic of popular science writing, although I'm not quite sure why. It's a low-level popularization (not intended as derogatory; I mean it's a simple account with no mathematics, intended for readers with no previous knowledge) and while there were as always a few anecdotes I didn't know, I'm now a bit beyond that level.

It wasn't a bad book by any means, but just not in the league of Weinberg's The First Three Minutes or the books by Marcia Bartusiak, Kip Thorne, Brian Greene, Lee Smolin and others I have read in the last three or four years on similar themes. It's also of course after 35 years a bit dated when it gets to the "present" (dark matter is barely mentioned, as it is still a new idea; dark energy and the accelerated expansion weren't known yet; string theory was just getting started, there were no exoplanets known, and so forth-- it's amazing how much more is known after three and half decades), although as history its fine, just not very detailed. There is a very long bibliography, which makes it disappointing that not much has made it into the text.

[Book Concierge]

Rachel To the Rescue – Elinor Lipman – 3.5**** (rounded up)
Rachel Klein, unceremoniously fired from her job in the White House Office of Records Management (WHORM), as a result of a drunken tweet voicing her frustrations, gets hit by a speeding SUV on her way out of the Executive Office Building. Turns out the driver is a “close friend of the President” … let the fun begin! A delightfully fast read, a joy of a rom-com.
My full review HERE

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Stowaway – Karen Hesse – 4****
In the summer of 1768 Captain James Cook set sail on H.M.S. Endeavor for a major expedition to explore the possibility of a new continent. One of the people aboard was Nicholas Young, age 11. Hesse uses the imagined journal kept by Nick to tell the story of this voyage. It's a great adventure, and a believable coming-of-age story. Nick is bright, enthusiastic, hard-working and observant.
My full review HERE

[Book Concierge]

The Wedding Date – Jasmine Guillory – 3.5***
What a fun, fast romantic read. I loved that Alexa and Drew are professionals with time-consuming careers. Their path to Happily Ever After is complicated by their geographic distance, their own personal issues, and a few missteps common to many new relationships. But they approach all these obstacles as adults, which I found very refreshing!
My full review HERE

[Melissa]

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
4 ★

Elena Richardson lives the perfect life in Shaker Heights with her husband and children. All of this changes when Mia Warren and her daughter, Pearl, move to town.

This was an incredibly intense book with some interesting controversial situations. Elena and Mia are two very different women and there was no doubt that they would butt heads. I was not a fan of Elena. She was too orderly and by the book. She didn’t know how to truly interact with her children. There was a Stepford Wives feel to Elena’s life.
Mia’s past is sad, but it made her who she is and I couldn’t help but admire her. I did feel like she should have backed off a bit with Elena, but that just isn’t who Mia is. Also, Mia’s art is very interesting and something I would like to see myself. The descriptions were very intriguing.
I look forward to watching the TV show and seeing how the two measure up.


Too Far Gone (Lucy Kincaid #14) by Allison Brennan
4 ★

I don’t know about you, but when a book starts off with a hostage situation I know it’s bound to be a good book. Lucy has just finished her Hostage Rescue training and is immediately thrown into one. I think it was good for her to see her experienced coworker have a bad outcome. They don’t always end as you would hope.
The case itself is quite interesting. There were many possibilities and the facts didn’t quite add up at times. I was as eager as Lucy was to figure out what was going on with the hostage taker.
There are always multiple story lines in Allison Brennan’s books. The other one is centered around Sean and his son, Jesse. Carson Blade is back to his old tricks and wants Sean to pay for turning Jesse against him. The plan he has come up with is poorly put together and Sean figures things out pretty quickly. There is a sad outcome to the whole situation and Sean and Jesse’s life may get a bit more complicated. I am looking forward to see what happens and have my fingers crossed for Sean and Lucy.

[James]

Gabriel García Márquez, El amor en los tiempos del cólera [1985] 461 pages [in Spanish]

Although not really a mystery writer, Gabriel García Márquez tends to begin his novels and stories with the discovery of a corpse. This novel begins with Dr. Juvenal Urbino called to sign the death certificate of a photographer (and personal friend) Jeremiah de Saint-Amour, who has just committed suicide. There is a little information about Jeremiah, and his origins are presented as something mysterious, which we expect may be the subject of the book. However, this is just one of García Márquez' frequent misdirections; Jeremiah completely drops out of the novel after a few pages. The remainder of the first chapter is about the life of Dr. Urbino, who dies accidentally that same afternoon, and his wife Fermina Daza. Again we think the novel may be about Dr. Urbino, and again this is largely another misdirection, though he does continue to play a secondary role. It is only in the last few pages of the chapter, 71 pages into the book, that we meet the real protagonist, Florentino Ariz, identified as the president of the Compañía Fluvial del Caribe, which controls most of the riverboats on the Rio Magdalena.

The next chapter goes back some fifty years--actually fifty years, nine months and four days, as we are told later. The novel is full of such seemingly precise indications of time durations, but there are no indications of absolute dates to anchor them. All we really know is that the events of the second chapter take place some few years before 1900, so the present of the novel would probably fall in the 1940s. There are no references to world events, although a Columbian reader might be able to date some of the local events, or perhaps the two cholera epidemics which are in the background but play no real role -- the title may be another misdirection. The whole of the novel, with the exception of a few voyages, takes place in the city of Barranquilla at the mouth of the Magdalena, although I don't recall that it is ever actually named. In this second chapter, Florentino, a young (twenty-two)and not especially wealthy assistant in the telegraph office, delivers a telegram to Lorenzo Daza and notices his beautiful daughter Fermina (eighteen). He immediately falls in love with her and begins trying to contact her in secret. Initially reluctant, she eventually agrees to a clandestine correspondence; the pair never actually speak together for more than a minute or two. Nevertheless her father discovers the correspondence and completely disapproves, since he wants her to marry someone rich and important. He sends her on a voyage to visit relatives in the country, hoping she will forget Florentino, but the two remain in contact thanks to a network of telegraph operators. They consider themselves to be engaged.

On her return, Florentino manages to see her for a few minutes in the market, and she suddenly decides to break off with him; we realize that for her their relation had been largely an adventure and an act of rebellion against her father. She later gives in to her father's ideas and marries the prominent doctor and civic figure Dr. Urbino, against the wishes of his snobbish family, and their relationship after returning from a Paris honeymoon is at first very shaky; their marriage was less one of love than of social convention. She assumes that Florentino must resent her and puts him out of her mind.

Florentino, on the other hand, remains in love with her to the point of obsession. He tries unsuccessfully to forget her, and attempts to replace her with other women, becoming a Don Juan: the narrative tells us that he has 622 love affairs in the fifty years, many of which are described in the novel in some detail. The book alternates between the stories of Florentino and Fermina, but without actually counting pages I had the impression that the sections about Florentino are very much dominant; even the sections about Fermina are often from his perspective. Despite his many loves, he never overcomes his one real passion for Fermina; his formula is "unfaithful but not disloyal". He never gives up hope, and dedicates himself to becoming successful so that he can marry her when her husband dies, which he simply assumes will occur before he or Fermina dies. In fact he rises through the ranks of the CFC to become not only the president but the acknowledged heir to the owner, his cousin Leon XII.

The novel is essentially a study of love in all its many forms and stages, from adolescent infatuation to conjugal life (and adultery) to the many lonely older and younger widows, from intense passion to purely sexual relationships to simple friendship, and in all socio-economic classes. The style is in many ways very unlike García Márquez' earlier novels; apart from one or two appearances of ghosts, which may be imaginary in any case, there is nothing suggestive of "magical realism", and apart from the scrambled chronology there is nothing at all modernist. The book is actually written in a Romantic/realist style which reminded me more of Balzac than of his earlier books. Nevertheless, it does have some of his earlier themes, in particular the idea of "solitude". In passing we learn about the ecological destruction of the Magdalena basin, which becomes a kind of symbol of the deterioration of old age.

[Book Concierge]

Save Me the Plums – Ruth Reichl – 4****
Subtitle: My Gourmet Memoir. Reichl has written before about her time as a food critic and about her mother, here she tackles the years she spent as editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine. I love her writing. It is nothing short of delicious. She is open, honest and insightful. She writes about not just what happened but how she felt about what was happening. And, as usual, she really excels when writing about food. I may have gained 10 pounds just reading it!
My full review HERE

[Book Concierge]

Once Upon a Time in Rio – Francisco Azevedo – 4****
This is a delightful multi-generational saga of love, adventure, joy, disappointment, fear, prosperity and all those ingredients that make up the delicious dish we know as family. It begins when Jose Custodio and Maria Romana marry in Lisbon in 1908 and follows the Custodios, their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren through the decades and into the 21st century. It reminded me at times of the Spanish telenovelas my grandmother loved to listen to on the radio. Weddings, births, funerals, fights and making up. Such drama! Such love! I was engaged and interested from beginning to end.
My full review HERE

[James]

Abdulrazak Gurnah, Pilgrims Way [1988] 270 pages [Kindle]

An early novel by Gurnah, Pilgrims Way, like his later book The Last Gift, is about a man from Zanzibar living in England with a hidden tragic past in his home country. Daud came as a student, but was unsuccessful and now is working as an orderly in a hospital; as he describes it, as a cleaner. The writing at the beginning seems a bit awkward, but is better after the first chapter. The novel opens with him in a pub thinking about the racist ways he has been treated since his arrival, and this is a major theme throughout the book; the tone is a bit angrier than in the later novel, but the most extreme expressions are on the part of his friend Karta who despises everything about England and the English. After a while the plot becomes mostly about Daud's relationship with his English girlfriend Catherine, a nurse at the hospital where he works.

[Book Concierge]

Writers & Lovers – Lily King – 3.5*** rounded up
Casey Peabody is a struggling writer, reeling over the sudden death of her mother some six month before the novel begins, burdened by crushing student debt and maxed-out credit cards, and recently having broken up with her boyfriend; she is adrift and somewhat depressed. I really liked this book. I loved how Casey looked at the people and events in her life, and that, despite all her difficulties, she has a strong sense of her own self, and stands up for herself against bullying co-workers. The supporting cast, was just that, supporting. And I was happy to cheer for her at the end.
My full review HERE

[James]

Nawal el-Saadawi, Zeina [2009, tr. 2011] 251 pages [Kindle, Open Library]

As far as I can tell, this was the last novel written by Nawal el-Saadawi; in any case it is the last I will be reading unless some of the earlier ones I skipped become available in Open Library or elsewhere. The novel opens with a brief description of a nine-year-old girl, Zeina bint Zeinat, by a younger girl in her class, Mageeda Zakariah al-Khartiti. Zeina is an orphan who grew up on the streets of Cairo before being taken in by a poor serving woman, Zeinat, who works for Mageeda's parents; Mageeda is from a wealthy academic family. The novel then turns to a description of Mageeda and her family, and quickly focuses on her mother, Bodour. After a while (there is no division into chapters) we realize that, although from time to time there are episodes from the lives of Zeina and Mageeda, and various minor characters, this is essentially a novel about Bodour.

Like all of her novels, this is a strongly feminist work about the treatment of women in Egypt, in this case in the period from the collapse of Nasserism to the present day, in which Islamic fundamentalism has increased in influence along with unregulated capitalism and American domination. El-Saadawi is definitely emphasizing the negative aspects of Egyptian society to make her points, but there is no reason to suppose the portrayal is not basically accurate. The novel is less experimental than many of her earlier books, although the style is generally similar. Having read her earlier novels, I found it somewhat disconcerting that many of the most important episodes seem to be taken very directly from her earlier work. I suppose that there is a tendency in a last novel to try to synthesize a lifetime of work -- as for instance Shakespeare does in Cymbeline; there is also much discussion of writing as such, both of which aspects reminded me of Adorno's concept of "late style". By any standards, an excellent novel.

[James]

Gabriel García Márquez, El general en su laberinto [1989] 286 pages

El general en su laberinto was chosen by "The World's Literature" group on Goodreads as the reading for Ecuador. I'm not sure why, because it is by a Colombian author and apart from a few mentions of the past (mainly Venezuela and Peru) it takes place entirely in Colombia. It is a historical novel (no "magical realism") about the last months of the life of el Libertador, Simon Bolívar, after he is removed from power in the spring of 1830. He leaves Bogotá with a small group of followers on May 8, goes by horseback to the Rio Magdalena and travels up the river, intending to leave for Europe from Cartagena. He is very ill and by midway through the book it is obvious that he is dying, as we already know from history. This is actually the least well-documented time of his adult life, so García Márquez is free to imagine events as he wishes. The various memories and people he meets along the way provide the opportunity to give a sketch of his life and a discussion of the motives and principles of his political activity.

The view García Márquez gives is a tragic one; after liberating all of Spanish America from Spain, and trying to found a powerful independent and united country, he sees it dismembered by sectionalist separatists and torn apart by civil wars. He struggles against this until eventually his enemies drive him out of power. I admit I know very little about the early history of South America and the wars for independence; all I know about people like Santander, Paez, Urdaneta, and for the most part Bolívar himself, is what I learned from this book itself. So as far as the novel is concerned, I had to "suspend disbelief" and assume that García Márquez gets it right.

Two things however are certainly true: first, that Bolívar was correct, that the only way South America could have been truly independent was for it to have remained united; and secondly, that there was essentially no chance of that happening. If we compare the situation to our own war of independence, the differences are obvious: the thirteen colonies were colonized by England, a country which had already had its social revolution under Cromwell and was a bourgeois state, with strong representative institutions, and which implanted those institutions in North America; the colonial population was entirely English (the Indians lived separately and could be ignored) and apart from the slaves and slaveowners in the South was composed mainly of small independent farmers and merchants, with a similar culture and society all down the coastline, and a tradition of commerce and cooperation among the colonies. The Continental Congress existed from the beginning, based on the legislatures of the colonies, and the generals from Washington on down were appointed by and under the control of the Congress. The Spanish colonies on the other hand were founded by a still largely mediaeval, feudalist Spain, which implanted those institutions; the colonies were ruled directly by Spanish viceroys, supported by a small layer of criollos who ruled in feudal fashion over a large disenfranchised population of indios and mestizos. The various parts of the empire had no tradition of cooperation; their relations were with Spain rather than each other. The generals were independent powers, who founded the congresses under their control rather than the other way around; and at best the representative institutions represented a small layer of the population. This is the background of the novel; it tells us for example that the criollo elites opposed integration in a single country because it would threaten the local power of the feudal families.

Bolívar himself belonged to that criollo elite; and despite his liberal views, and his commitment to the integration of the colonies in a single state, he was fighting for the independence of the criollos and not the people. The novel shows this in his execution of General Piar, who tried to organize the black, indian and mixed soldiers against the elite. He says that the colonies are not mature enough for federalism, and at one point in the novel that they are living their middle ages; in a sense his task was less that of a Washington than of a Henry VIII, trying to forge a central state out of feudal elites. But he also recognized that the time for kings had passed, and opposed the monarchism of General Paez. The third possible model was Napoleon, that is a centralism based on a common military power, and this may have been what he was trying to accomplish; but unlike Napoleon he did not have a unified army or a loyal staff of generals; some of course supported him but others were his most determined opponents. If North American unity was threatened at times by the differences between the Northern capitalists and the Southern slaveowners, until a (single) civil war ended them, South American unity began to disintegrate even while they were still fighting Spain; the coup d'état of Urdaneta is described as the first coup in Latin American history, and the first civil war, and the subsequent history of the continent down to the date the novel was written has been a history of continuous coups and civil wars.

The novel however focuses mostly on Bolívar as a person, his tragedy as a heroic but defeated figure struggling with his own physical degeneration as well as his political despair. The book ends with his death at Santa Marta in December of 1830. It is well-written and definitely a novel worth reading.

[Melissa]

Storm Warning (Lucy Kincaid #14.5) by Allison Brennan
4 ★

Nate and Lucy are tasked with transporting 2 inmates during a hurricane and end up in the middle of a far worse storm.

This was a nice quick short novella that shows how great a team Nate and Lucy make. They trust and care very much for each other. They are quite the team.
The reader also gets to find out what happened with Jesse after his mother’s death. It was a nice addition to the story.


Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
4 ★

Sorcerers, grimoires that whisper and have the potential to turn bad and a plot to destroy it all… what more could a reader want? This was a fun YA fantasy that keeps the reader mesmerized.
Elisabeth Scrivener has grown up in one of the Great Libraries and dreams of being a warden one day. When her library is attacked by a turned grimoire, she is accused of releasing it and is sent to capital to face trail. Sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn is tasked with making sure she gets there. The Thorn last name has a bad reputation and Nathaniel tries very hard throughout the book to make it better. Nathaniel is a great character that I absolutely feel for. He tries to push Elisabeth away and fails every time. His demonic servant, Silas, was my favorite character in the book. He has a very dangerous side, but he also cares for Nathaniel, which is not normal for a demon.
The layout of the libraries comes into play and there are a few great scenes where Elisabeth travels into a book. Although I was a bit bored in the beginning, the story picks up and readers will find themselves pulled into the mystery, friendships and adventure. I look forward to reading more by Margaret Rogerson.

[James]

Abdulrazak Gurnah, Paradise [1994] 247 pages

A classic coming-of-age story set in East Africa against the background of European penetration, Paradise tells the story of Yusuf, from the age of twelve when he is taken by the seyyid (master), "Uncle" Aziz, a merchant, as a rehani or hostage for his father's debts, until the age of seventeen. He works in the merchant's store, and later participates in a catastrophic trading voyage to the interior. At the beginning, the Europeans (Germans) are a far off, somewhat legendary threat; by the end, they are firmly in control of the country, but preparing for a war with the English. Definitely an interesting read.

[Book Concierge]

Malice In the Highlands – Graham Thomas – 3***
This is a police-procedural mystery with a likeable lead character. There are plenty of suspects, and a mishmash of clues and subplots to keep things interesting. I did not solve the case ahead of Powell and was happy to be surprised by how things turned out. A thoroughly satisfying mystery, and I would read more of this series.
My full review HERE

[James]

Karen Rhea Nemet-Nejat, Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia [1998] 346 pages

Karen Rhea Nemet-Nejat's Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia is a volume in the Daily Life series. It covers nearly every aspect of Sumerian, Akkadian and Assyrian culture to a reasonable nonspecialist depth (like the Everyday Life book I read last month, it doesn't seem to be entirely about what I would call daily life, but perhaps what both books intended by the title was that it was not a chronological history of kings and wars, which is summarized in a few pages at the beginning.) There are chapters on writing, education and literature, on private life, marriage and the family, on medicine and astrology, on religion, on government, law and warfare, on crafts and trade and so forth. The book is illustrated with many black and white illustrations. I learned some very interesting things I didn't already know from the book.

There were problems with it however. Although it is grammatical and has very few typos -- no longer things I take for granted -- the writing is at times very awkward. There are apparent mistakes and contradictions; some may be just due to the awkwardness of the writing, but others left me very confused. She says for example that Sennecherib enlarged the city of Nineveh to "more than 700" hectares, making it the largest city that ever existed in ancient Mesopotamia. Two paragraphs later, she tells us that Babylon was approximately 1000 hectares. Three pages later, she says that Sennecherib enlarged Nineveh from 72 to 400 hectares. So was it 400 or more than 700? and how is either one more than the 1000 she attributes to Babylon? There are too many things like this for me to trust her apparent exactness. She also presents everything she says as certain and factual, when I know from other books (and as a matter of general principle) that much about the period is uncertain or disputed among scholars. For example, she says that "early man" believed in impersonal numina, which were living beings (a confusion of pre-animism and animism) but in Sumer in the fourth millennium they began identifying them as personal gods. This is only one among many speculative hypotheses about the origin of religion, which there is no evidence for, and if it happened that way it was obviously long before the fourth millennium (some of the Sumerian temples existed continuously from the sixth or seventh millennium and there is no reason to believe they weren't dedicated to the same gods from the beginning.) There is no indication anywhere in the book that anything is controversial.

I admit that the further I read the more frustrated I got. This is a book that would be most useful as a supplement to other books, and maybe mostly to younger readers, but for someone who is only planning to read one or two books on the subject I would still recommend the slightly older books by Oppenheim and Roux that I read last year.

[Book Concierge]

Send For Me – Lauren Fox – 3***
This is an historical fiction work set both in 1930s Germany and in contemporary Wisconsin, that tells the one family’s story. There were parts of the novel I really liked, when I was completely engaged and caught up in the story. But there were other parts that just fell flat for me. I think this is my fault; I am just so over the dual timeline in historical fiction.
My full review HERE

[James]

John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids [1951] 191 pages

This 1951 science-fiction classic was one of the earliest (and one of the best) examples of the subgenre of post-apocalyptic fiction (apart from Mary Shelley and H.G. Wells, obviously). Set in the near-future (the first actual satellite was launched in 1957, and the setting of the book is a decade or so later) the technology is basically 1950's. There are three disasters: the triffids are a species of intelligent carnivorous and mobile plants, supposedly created artificially in Russia (the Wikipedia article on the novel says that one version -- not the one I read -- actually mentions Lysenko), which spread widely but are kept under control until the second disaster, a shower of bright green "meteors" which cause most of the world to go blind (an explanation for this is proposed near the end of the book); the third disaster is a plague of an unknown disease. The substance of the book is the reactions of different groups to the disasters. There are more ideas than in the formula zombie novels of the recent period; this was written when science fiction was actually about ideas.

[James]

Claude Levi-Strauss, Anthropologie structurale [1957] 454 pages [in French, Kindle, Open Library]

Anthropologie structurale is not a treatise but a collection of seventeen articles, originally published in the decade following World War II, organized into five sections. Many of the articles are translated from English, as he was teaching in the United States during part of this period. He has updated them all, at least with notes, mainly responding to criticisms.

The first article, "Introduction: Histoire et ethnologie" and the four articles grouped under the heading "Langage et parenté", together with the three articles in the last section, "Problèmes de méthode et d'enseignement", attempt to define the subject of anthropology and in particular the concept of (unconscious) "structure" which underlies his project of "structural anthropology". These are the most important articles for understanding his method and theories, and how they were influenced by the rise of structural linguistics. The other sections are on "Organisation sociale", three rather technical articles mainly concerned with kinship structures, which elaborate on and modify somewhat the ideas presented in Structures élémentaires de la parenté, the first of his books which I read last year; "Magie et religion", four articles trying to find underlying structures of myths and rituals; and "Art", two articles on specific styles/themes in "primitive" art.

This book is important for understanding the aims and methods of the structuralist school in anthropology. I was interested to read in his reply to criticisms by Maxime Rodinson that he considered his theoretical work to be within the Marxist tradition. These articles are all much better than Tristes tropiques which I was not impressed by.

[James]

Honoré de Balzac, La recherche de l'absolu [1834] 324 pages [in French]

Written in Balzac's more Romantic style, and placed (after some vacillation) in the section of Etudes philosophiques, this novel deals with the character of the genius who in pursuit of knowledge neglects family and social bonds and devotes all his time and resources to his intellectual quest, to the extent of complete financial ruin.

Balthazar Claes is described as a "chemist" who is devoted to science above all else; actually he is more of an alchemist, pursuing a mystical "absolute" which will give him power to transmute elements; in a scene that seemed more like comic relief than a serious part of the novel, he actually produces a diamond . . . by accident. The particular quest, however, is really not the important point; it might just as well have been religious, artistic, literary or any other pursuit which becomes so much of an obsession that it takes over the life of the genius. Compare the artist in Maugham's The Moon and Sixpence; both novels are essentially exaggerated caricatures.

The other side of the novel is the genius' wife and daughter, Josephine and Marguerite, who are described as "angelic", and sacrifice everything for the sake of their husband and father, until they have to rebel in order to save the younger children from ruin. Part of the tragedy is that Josephine cannot understand or share her husband's research, and his growing alienation from her is partly because his "work" is completely separate from their relationship. While it is true that she makes an effort to learn chemistry to share in that part of his life, when he actually tries to explain what he is searching for, she reacts in horror and begins talking about God and Satan. I was reminded of Travelling to Infinity, the book Stephen Hawking's ex-wife wrote about their relationship; like Josephine, she was religious and had no sympathy for what he was devoting his life to, explaining the origin of the Universe without divine creation. Unlike Josephine, she didn't make the effort to learn anything about physics.

To be honest, I think the novel was too exaggerated to be convincing; not one of Balzac's best.

[Melissa]

A Curse of Rookians by Octavia Stone
4 ★

Nor, a nomad who talks to animals, is in search of the bird shifters known as Rookians. They have been rumored to grant wishes and Nor wants them to heal her dying mother. Along the way she saves the life of Kord, a water conjurer, who has been captured by the Koda for the alchemists who hunger for his ancient magic. They end up helping each other as Kord searches for an ancient city and Nor struggles between a normal life and one as a Rookian.

Nor is a great character who thinks of others before herself. Her mother is her world and she will do anything for her. The world building and character building throughout the book is amazing and each character is so different and unique. The author has created an amazing fantasy world.
It was not hard for me to fall in love with Nor, Kord, her mother or the Rookians. Even though the Rookians have a bad reputation, they are a family who watches out for each other. They are tricksters though and Nor falls into their game. I felt bad for her to a point, but she knew what she was getting herself into.
In all, this was a fabulous fantasy adventure full of friendship and love.
(Thanks to the author for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.)

[Melissa]

Her Majesty’s Royal Coven (Her Majesty’s Royal Coven #1) by Juno Dawson
5 ★

After 4 friends, Helena, Leonie, Niamh and Elle, took the oath to join Her Majesty’s Royal Coven they all went their separate ways. Helena is the current High Priestess of HMRC, Elle has started her own inclusive and intersectional coven with her wife, Elle is a housewife and Niamh is a vet. When a young warlock that the Oracles have prophesized will raise the Leviathan, the 4 friends come back together to keep him from threatening HRMC.

This was a new author for me and I was not disappointed. The story flowed well and it was exciting. There are discussions about trans rights in the book with both sides being addressed and the author did an excellent job addressing it without staying one sided.
All four of these girls are vastly different, but they were able to work together throughout the book. Each individual talent was unique in its own right and appreciated by the others. Each of them had their own personal problems that they were able to talk about without judgment or questions.
The story was, for me, unique and intriguing. It had a good balance between happy and sad parts and all of the characters were great (yep, even the bad guys). It also had surprises left and right. I read the book in 2 days because it was so hard to put down. There was always a “what now” or “why” moment that had me moving onto the next chapter. Some of the sadder parts made me have to take a break and the ending had me sitting with my mouth open going “you can’t end it like that!”. I cannot wait for book 2. I highly recommend this book to all who enjoy adult fantasy.

(Thanks to the author for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.)

[Melissa]

Wicked Game (Wicked #1) by Lisa Jackson
4 ★

Jessie Brentwood disappeared from her high school and all her friends just thought that she had run away, as she had done before. When her bones of found on school grounds 20 years later, they realize that Jessie’s ramblings about someone being after her may have been true.

This story is told from multiple perspectives, from Jessie’s friends to the detective to the killer. It makes for a very interesting ride.
Every person in this book has a secret that eventually comes out. The dialogue from the killer gives the reader some idea that none of Jessie’s friends killed her, but there are other issues among the group that line up with the main story.
The story kept me intrigued, but it was the ending that had me hooked. I really had a hard time putting it down. There is a very climactic scene that had me all nervous and flustered. There are also some sad parts throughout.
I look forward to reading the next book in this series.

[Book Concierge]

L.A. Weather – María Amparo Escandón – 3.5*** Rounded up
This is a funny, engaging, endearing novel that looks at a year in the life of one affluent Mexican-American family. It starts with a near tragedy and the characters (and reader) hardly have time to recover from that event when yet another crisis looms, and before long everyone in the family is spinning and bouncing from issue to issue, like balls in an out-of-balance pinball machine. The winds, drought and fires add more tension to the family’s internal strife, and ultimately help them focus on the things they CAN change, rather that what they have no control over. They still make bad decisions, and there is no HEA ending, but I was completely invested in these characters by the end, and I want more!
My full review HERE

[Book Concierge]

The Power Of One – Bryce Courtenay – 4****
A challenge to travel the world combined with a challenge to read a book that “made-me-cry” brought this one to my attention, and am I ever glad it did! I’m not the writer Courtenay is, so can’t really do justice to the plot of this coming-of-age story. But the writing grabbed me from page one and I was sorry to see it end. I was cheering for Peekay throughout. And while I’m no fan of boxing, I even enjoyed the lessons on strategy and technique.
My full review HERE

[James]

May 18

Jean Piaget, The Language and Thought of the Child [1923, tr. 1926] 251 pages

The Language and Thought of the Child is a translation of Piaget's first important work from 1923, which was the first of a two-part study of "child logic" (I'm now following up with the second part), based on investigations Piaget and his fellow-teachers carried out at the Institut Jean-Jaques Rousseau, a teacher-training institute in Geneva with an attached school (the "Maison des Petits") for children under nine years of age. The school was international and the students came from various parts of Europe and had somewhat different upbringings, although I'm not sure how diverse they actually were. Piaget himself admits that his studies were based on a very small number of children and would need to be tested against a larger sample before arriving at any certain conclusions; he is merely trying to arrive at some hypotheses for further research.

The book investigates the thought of the child as expressed in language. It begins in the first study/chapter by classifying the actual functional uses of language on the basis of the spontaneous speech of two six-year-old boys, Pie and Lev. He classifies the functions as Repetition or "Echolalia" (i.e. repeating sounds and words, the way a baby does when learning language -- only 1-3% by the age of the two boys), Monologue (talking to oneself, without addressing it to others), and Collective Monologue (a child talking about himself and what he is doing, ostensibly addressed to others but not really expecting anyone to be listening or to respond), the three types which Piaget refers to collectively as "ego-centric" uses of language; and Adaptive Information which is addressed to specific others, either not about themselves or in collaboration, and intended to be understood and provoke a response, that is actually communication, which he refers to as "socialized" use of language. He calculates a measure he calls the Coefficient of Ego-centricity, which is the ratio of the sentences of the first three types to the total number of sentences; the coefficients for the two boys are .43 and .47, or in other words almost half their speech is not really communication. He also points out that nearly all the Adapted Information consists of purely factual statements. His hypothesis based on this study is that language begins entirely at the ego-centric stage and only begins to become socialized gradually between about the ages of four through six, becoming predominantly socialized during the seventh year. He also suggests that ego-centric language represents a stage of ego-centric thought in which the child reasons to himself without communicating his thought to others, and in a non-discursive or "syncretistic" way based on entire gestalts and dreamlike symbolism rather than analysis of particular details. (He also refers to this as "autistic" thought, which is confusing since it has nothing to do with the modern use of the word "autistic".)

The second study/chapter was carried out in one classroom recording the speech of children from about 3 1/2 to seven; it checked the classifications from the first chapter, and went a bit beyond. In this study, which deals with spontaneous conversations rather than individual sentences, he ignores the first two types and begins with Collective Monologues, which he calls Stage I; he then divides the Adapted Information into Stage II, non-abstract discussions and primitive arguments (itself subdivided into IIA and IIB first type and IIA and IIB second type) and Stage III with abstract discussions and genuine arguments. Study/chapter three studies conversations among children between six and eight from the opposite viewpoint not of expression but of understanding; it is based on experiments with having children explain stories and mechanical devices to each other and then having the recipients in turn explain them to the experimenter. Chapter/study four was another experiment about understanding of proverbs. These three chapters give rise to more detailed hypotheses about ego-centric thought; among the observations is that children before seven have no concept of chance but assume that everything can be explained (in a kind of animist fashion where everything is explained by motives and purposes), and that adults know everything and can explain everything.

One point which Piaget makes in these discussions is that children talking to each other almost never ask questions beginning with "Why?". At first sight, this seems to be very odd, because we all know that children of that age drive people crazy with their constant Why this and Why that, but apparently they only ask Why questions of adults or much older children, never of each other. The last and longest chapter studies one boy, Del, over a few months from six and a half to just over seven years old and records and classifies all the Why questions he asked one teacher (over 1500 questions). Piaget shows that at the beginning the assumption was that everything could be explained in what he calls Precausality, that is an undifferentiated mode of explanation starting from animist psychological explanations with explanations of causality and justification not clearly divided out, while by the end Precausality has largely disappeared and causal and justificatory explanations are clearly separated. He has also begun to be skeptical of grown-up omniscience. One of the most interesting things in the book was when the investigator asked the just-over-seven-year-old Del the same questions Del himself had asked six months earlier (Del didn't know they were his questions) and he thought they were silly and didn't understand some of them, but those he answered he answered just the way an adult would.

The over-all conclusion is that after slow and gradual progress from four through six, the ego-centric child-logic is rapidly replaced by adult logic between the ages of seven and eight. Of course, as Piaget recognizes, the interest is in the stages and their explanations and relative order, and not in the ages which are only statistical averages based on a small sample with much individual variability (for example Lev, who is examined at six and again at seven, was apparently six months to a year ahead of the average.) A very interesting book; many of the same subjects touched upon here are dealt with at length in his later books (to judge by the titles), and I'm left wondering how much of this has stood the test of time after about a hundred years.

[Melissa]

Witches of East End (The Beauchamp Family #1) by Melissa de la Cruz
5 ★

Joanna Beauchamp and her daughters, Freya and Ingrid, have been banned from using magic for centuries. They have settled in the small town North Hampton, NY and enjoy the jobs they have. When Freya meets her soon to be brother-in-law she starts having feelings for him and wonders if she is making a mistake. To keep her mind business she starts making love potions at the bar she works at. Meanwhile, Ingrid starts making talismans for the towns’ people. When dark forces threaten the town, the 3 witches decide to work together to destroy it.

This is one of the few times where I watched the TV show before reading the book. I enjoyed the TV show and highly enjoyed the book. The Beauchamp girls were prosecuted during the 1690 witch trials and have been good at not using their magic. It did not surprise me that when they admit to being witches they are prosecuted the same way now. People do not like what they cannot understand.
This was a quick read for me as the storyline held my attention. Each chapter is told by a different member of the Beauchamp family and there are quite a few twists. Freya and Ingrid are very different people and it was interesting to see how they each handled their problems.
Joanna seemed very bored to me. Also very heart broken over the loss of her husband and son.
The ending is fast paced and the epilogue throws out a cliff hanger that had me ordering book 2.