What Are You Reading / Reviews - July thru December 2022

[Melissa]

The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red by Joyce Reardon/Ridley Pearson
5 ★

When Ellen married industrialist John Rimbauer she started a diary to keep track of all her activities throughout her honeymoon and life. Along with her handmaid, Sukeena, Ellen’s diary became her best friend and she tells it all the secrets behind the doors of her mansion, Rose Red. Those secrets include many horrific and unexplained tragedies and disappearances.

This book had a great creep factor to it. I think it was the way Ellen described things that had me looking over my shoulder a few times because I thought I heard someone/thing. Ellen’s slow descent into paranoia and madness is heartbreaking. I also got very agitated with how John treated her right from the start. He was demanding and controlling. He also had a roaming eye for younger women. I often had to remind myself of the time period this book takes place in because I could not understand why she stayed with him. I understand that the house had something to do with it, but she could have left him sooner. He treated her so badly.
Overall it was a good quick read with some interesting and some creepy moments.

[James]

Pablo Neruda, Canto General [1950] 532 pages [Kindle] [in Spanish]

Canto General is considered Neruda's opus magnum, as much for its content as for its length. It is divided into fifteen sections or "cantos". The first canto is basically geographical, describing the land, the flora and fauna of Central and South America; the second canto, "Las Alturas de Machu Pichu", based on a visit by Neruda to the ruins, is the best known, often being published as a separate book, and serves as a kind of introduction to the work. The next two cantos, "Los Conquistadores" and "Los Liberadores" are essentially a history of Latin America during and after the conquest, although by no means "narrative" poetry. The rest of the cantos mix descriptions of the land with current politics, especially focusing on opposition to the Chilean dictatorship of the time the book was written (the seventh canto is called "Canto General de Chile"; originally the whole book was to have been about Chile only, but Neruda realized that it would make more sense in a continent-wide context).

The ninth canto is the real heart of the book, the best and worst poetry. The best, because it dramatically expresses the struggle of the workers and peasants for a better life and the confidence in their ultimate victory; the worst, because of one jarring factor: the adulation of Josef Stalin. Neruda, from the time of the Spanish Civil War, until his death probably though not certainly at the hands of the Pinochet dictatorship, was a member of the Communist Party; like most of the left of his time (apart from the small number of Trotskyists, too divided and mostly too sectarian to be a real pole of attraction), he found it impossible to separate the achievements of the Soviet Union from the person of Stalin and the misleadership of the Soviet Communist Party. He viewed the USSR not as it was in reality, but as he thought -- as he wanted to believe -- it was, as it should have been. This is not something which can be separated from his work as some sort of anomaly; the confidence he shows in the ultimate victory of the working class was bound up with his belief that there was one country, or rather one part of the world (he is writing here immediately after the victory of the Chinese Revolution, when Mao was still closely aligned with the Soviet Union), where the working class was in power. Today, with the benefit of hindsight, after the fall of the Soviet Union and so many partial victories ending in defeats (often in part due to the betrayals of those very followers of Stalin) when no one in the West except a few Enver-Hoxha-quoting sectarians any longer believes in the myth of Stalin, we can form a more realistic estimate; this is a good thing certainly, but also makes it more difficult to have the kind of confidence Neruda expresses here. We know that the way forward is more difficult and more complex, and the outcome less certain. Nevertheless, for those who still believe in the possibility of victory, these poems are very inspiring.

[Book Concierge]

Her Royal Spyness – Rhys Bowen – 3***
Book #1 in the “Her Royal Spyness” mystery series introduces us to Lady Victoria Georgina Charlotte Eugenie, daughter to the Duke of Glen Garry and Rannoch, and thirty-fourth in line to the throne, and commonly known as Georgie. There’s little actual spying involved, rather it’s a typical cozy mystery in which Georgie tries to clear her name, and her brother’s, after a body is found in her bathtub! There’s a host of upper-class friends / family to round out the cast, and, best of all, her maternal grandfather, a retired cop. A fun, fast, read.
LINK to my full review

[Book Concierge]

Lightning Men – Thomas Mullen – 3.5***
Book two in the Darktown series continues the story of a newly integrated Atlanta police force in the 1950s. There’s a lot going on here from the basic police procedural involving the crimes the officers are trying to solve, to the racism on the force, to the ugly and dangerous tactics of the Klan, to some personal marital issues, to political corruption. It certainly captured my attention. Mullen crafts a tight thriller, with complex characters, and a couple of stunning scenes. Still, I felt a little lost regarding the relationships between the characters because I hadn’t read the first book in the series first.
LINK to my full review

[James]

Boubacar Boris Diop, La nuit de l'Imoko: Récits [2013] 131 pages [Kindle] [in French]

La nuit de l'Imoko is a collection of seven short stories written in French between 1998 and 2012, all set in present-day Sénégal. They are in a less experimental style than most of Diop's novels.

"La petite vieille" is about a rather simple man from a village who has the misfortune to incur the hostility of the mistress of a high official; I have read too many novels and stories, as well as non-fiction works, which center around interrogation and prison brutalities to respond to them with any kind of original feeling.

Myriem is about a woman who tries to help the street children of her city and ends up being framed up as a trafficker; the theme is that the government becomes so embroiled in popular fictions that it is unable to acknowledge the truth which is apparent to everyone involved.

"Retour à Ndar-Géej" has no real plot; the narrator and his wife return to his native city of Saint Louis to find it very changed, and the story simply uses his recollections and meditations to provide a history of the development of the city in the years after Independence.

"Me Wade ou l'art de bâcler son Destin . . ." is about the results of an election and would probably make more sense to someone who is familiar with the recent history of the country.

"Comme une ombre" is the internal monologue of a street sweeper. "Diallo" is the internal monologue of a night watchman who has just killed his boss, trying to understand his own motivations.

The title story, which is the longest of the seven, is about the visit of a governmental official to a local ceremony and what results from it. Most of the stories are about human dignity in some way or another.

[Book Concierge]

Pied Piper –Nevil Shute – 4****
An elderly British man, John Howard, goes on holiday to France in April 1940, and must cut his visit short when Germany begins the invasion. He agrees to take two British children back to England with him, expecting a 2-day journey, but … This is a road trip and a suspense thriller with an undercurrent of family relationships and love. On the way he will encounter other refugee children, and of course, he takes them with him as well. Mr Howard is a marvelous character. Courage does not always involve fighting the enemy. Mr Howard and Nicole display the kind of quiet courage that comes from a deep conviction that what they are doing is correct, and a strong faith that somehow, they will prevail.
LINK to my full review

[James]

Abdulrazak Gurnah, Gravel Heart [2017] 269 pages [Kindle, Open Library]

2021 Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah's ninth novel, from 2017; he has written one more since (Afterlives), which I may read later on, but for now I am moving on to the 2022 winner, Annie Ernaux. This was a good, well-written novel, one of his best, but does follow what I have come to see as Gurnah's formula, the boy from a dysfunctional family who grows up in Zanzibar, emigrates in his late teens or early twenties to London, struggles to make good despite poverty and racism, and ultimately has a revelation about his family.

[Melissa]

Cyclone (Linear Tactical #1) by Janie Crouch
4 ★

Zac Mackay and Dr. Anne Griffin have a turbulent past. He was married to her best friend who died 6 years ago and the events of one night 2 weeks after the tragedy ended any friendship they may have had. Now Anne is back in Oak Creek and when she comes face to face with Zac in the ER she is terrified that he’ll repeat the angry words from the past and make her runaway again.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I enjoy a good romantic suspense, but I have a tendency to select books by their covers and this was not one I would have chosen for myself. I would like to give a big shout out to the Tall, Dark & Deadly Goodreads group for choosing this author for our Deadly Author of the Month challenge and introducing me to her.
Zac Mackay and his buddies at Linear Tactical are an amazing group of men who are there to help when needed. Their friendship is unbeatable and like family. Since they are all ex-military, that’s not surprising. Anne on the other hand is shy and, when not working, quite the introvert. She has mastered the stutter she had when she was younger, but her social anxiety brings it back sometimes. The chemistry between Zac and Anne is undeniable and it’s a relief when they both figure it out.
The suspense part comes from the guy attacking women in the counties surrounding Oak Creek. Linear Tactical is asked to look into the attacks, but it becomes personal when Anne is attacked. The attack is brutal and I admire Anne for how hard she fought back. She’s a lot stronger than she thinks she is, but she soon figures that out herself. The way the whole town comes together at the end to help Anne out is amazing and heartwarming.
The events for book 2 in this series start out in this book and it definitely has me hooked. I’m looking forward to continuing the series.

[James]

Oct. 25

Annie Ernaux, Les armoires vides [1973] 181 pages [Kindle, Open Library] [in French]

The first novel by this year's Nobel Prize winner in literature, Les armoires vides is a first-person story of a girl growing up in a family which owns a small café and grocery store who is embarrassed by her family's lack of culture and education and tries to escape by becoming a university student. The novel begins and ends with her having an abortion, and the rest of the narrative is her reflections on how she ended up in that situation. The psychology of the protagonist seems very realistic and the style is interesting, although the use of different sorts of slang made it somewhat difficult to read; I will be reading more of Ernaux's books over the next few months.

[Book Concierge]

Poirot Investigates – Agatha Christie – 3***
This was the first collection of short stories featuring the little Belgian and his “little grey cells” that Christie compiled. I love Poirot and I really appreciate the friendship and banter between him and Captain Hastings. The short stories do little to give the reader many of the clues which Poirot spends time thinking about, and rely heavily on his explanations to Hastings at the end of each episode outlining his “methodical thinking.” Even so, he is still among my favorite detectives, and I enjoyed these stories very much.
LINK to my full review

[Book Concierge]

The Masterpiece – Fiona Davis – 3***
In this work of historical fiction, Davis turns her attention to another New York City landmark: Grand Central Terminal. I really wish Davis had focused more on the building’s historic past, the many reasons it achieved landmark status, and the fight to save it -or- on the feminist issue of unrecognized artists (or other contributors) due to gender bias. Trying to do both resulted in a work that didn’t fully explore either theme. It was a pretty fast read, and I kept turning pages, but I was left with a “Is that all?” feeling.
LINK to my full review

[Book Concierge]

The Kindest Lie – Nancy Johnson – 3***
There’s a good premise here and some interesting family dynamics. Johnson captured my attention early and kept me turning pages. I wanted to know what would happen to these people and how their stories would play out, but I thought Johnson relied too much on the secrets and failed to make sense of the present. Ruth is supposed to be this brilliant scientist and yet she behaves just as impulsively as Midnight, the young white boy she befriends. This is Johnson’s debut novel, and I think a little more work (and editing) might have made this a very memorable work.
LINK to my full review

[James]

Keay Davidson, Carl Sagan: A Life [1999] 540 pages

After recently reading Carl Sagan's Cosmos and the second Cosmos by his widow Ann Druyon, I decided to read the two biographies of Sagan which I had in my garage, this one by science journalist Keay Davidson and the one by scientist William Poundstone. Both are from 1999, two years after Sagan's death. This one I read first.

Sagan's life was very interesting; he was a pioneer of planetary science and heavily involved in the unmanned space probes to the planets, author of a science fiction novel which became a successful film (Contact) and an activist against nuclear weapons, but more importantly he was a popularizer of science to the general population via a number of books and the Cosmos television series.

Davidson gives a good account of all these facets, although I would have preferred more detail about his scientific work, but concentrates a bit too much on his supposed personal failings, his "arrogance" and his two divorces. The book is obviously well researched but somewhat repetitious.

[Book Concierge]

Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury – 5*****
Bradbury was a master of suspense and sci-fi. Here he turns his imagination loose on every child’s dream – and nightmare. Who doesn’t love to be scared on a carnival ride? Like the best roller coaster, Bradbury S-L-O-W-L-Y drew me up the incline of suspense, dropped me into terror, and then evened out to let me catch my breath, only to realize there was another, steeper, incline ahead. When, finally, the ride was over I was giddy with relief … and wanted to “go again!”
LINK to my full review

[Melissa]

The Exorcist (The Exorcist #1) by William Peter Blatty
4 ★

I usually try to watch this cult classic during the Halloween season, but this year I decided to read it. It’s amazing how much you miss when you watch the movie. The characters thoughts and feeling are so much more alive in the book. Father Damien Karras is so much more in the book than he was in the movie.
The author does an amazing job describing every detail of Regan’s ordeal and transformation. There are some very explicit scenes and a lot of crass and obscene language throughout the book.
Overall I was pleasantly surprised how well the movie followed the book and enjoyed the story.



A Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses #4) by Sarah J. Maas
5 ★

Finally, Nesta and Cassian get their story. I have been waiting for this since they first met and saw the connection they had. Nesta has been struggling to get over the war and her fathers’ death, but the family finally puts their foot down and stops her destructive behavior. Putting her and Cassian together in the same house and having him train her to keep her mind occupied was genius and dangerous. They constantly push each other’s buttons and when Nesta finally acknowledges to herself that she has feeling for Cassian and they get together, the energy is quite powerful. With some of the scene throughout the book (many actually), I’m not really sure I would consider this a YA book. They are quite descriptive.
I loved that Nesta made friends in this book. True friends that know the worse side of her and still love her. Friends who stand by her and with her during that events at the end of the book. Friends that she can truly count on. I loved the slumber party and seeing Nesta finally relax and enjoy life.
There is a war brewing somewhere in the background of this story. The reader gets to join in in the search for the Dread Trove and the interesting things happening around Nesta’s powers, but the true war never happens. I am eagerly awaiting the next book in this series. There are so many questions and deceptions that one does not know what is going to happen next.

[James]

Ambrose Bierce, The Moonlit Road and Other Ghost and Horror Stories [1998] 91 pages

Last year for Halloween I read five anthologies of horror/fantasy stories by H.P. Lovecraft, but this year I was too far behind on other projects to read more than this one short collection by Ambrose Bierce. The book contains twelve stories, selected by the modern Dover editor from the Collected Works. The stories themselves were written around the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. I have to admit that I read so many books, both fiction and nonfiction, about the horrors of our dystopian real world, especially in third-world dictatorships, that paranormal or supernatural horror (which I don't have any belief in) generally doesn't seem all that scary to me. However, Bierce is obviously a master of the genre, and all these stories are well-crafted, several with plot twists I didn't expect.


John Wyndham, Chocky [1968] 191 pages

My last reading in Wyndham for the time being, as my science fiction reading goes on to other authors. This is Wyndham in a much milder mood than anything else I have read by him, with no civilization-destroying catastrophes. The plot begins with a couple of ordinary parents, David and Mary Gore, suspecting their son Matthew is inventing an imaginary friend, Chocky, an extraterrestrial. It soon becomes apparent to the reader, and eventually the parents, that there is more going on here. The alien in this case is not evil but well-intentioned although a bit clumsy. The basic idea, as with many of Wyndham's novels, has been used often since, including one Star Trek episode. Not as significant as other novels by Wyndham, but an enjoyable quick read to finish out the month.

[Book Concierge]

The Last Thing He Told Me – Laura Dave – 3.5***
A book-club friend once said that she dislikes thrillers because she dislikes being manipulated. I am beginning to feel that way about thrillers, too. However … This is a fast-paced, intriguing book. There are several twists and turns that kept me turning pages long after I should have stopped to do other necessary things. Yes, there were some things that bothered me. A few threads that were left hanging. A few inconsistencies that an editor should have caught. As thrillers go, this is pretty good.
LINK to my full review

[Book Concierge]

Mansfield Park – Jane Austen – 4****
Ah, but I love spending time with Austen. Fanny is perhaps the ideal heroine, and reportedly Austen’s own favorite among her heroines. She is intelligent and thoughtful, pretty and graceful, keeps her own counsel, is modest and principled, and still has a loving heart. There is a certain predictable pattern to Austen’s novels, and this one is no exception. Our heroine will remain true to herself, and love will triumph.
LINK to my full review

[Mrs]

Just finished all the Vera Stanhope books by Ann Cleeves. Super, all of them. I have done more reading than posting in the past few years, but have found many good titles when I do find time to read posts.

[Melissa]

The Law (The Dresden Files #17.2) by Jim Butcher
4 ★

It was a delight, but also a bit sad to go back to Harry Dresden’s world. After the last battle and all the devastation and death, Harry is still trying to recover. As certain names pop up and memories come back, I found that I was also still shocked by the events of the last book. This story helped a bit. Harry is able to focus on something else and feel needed again. Although the story doesn’t have our usual round of characters, we do get to see a few of them.
Marcone is back and still has it out for Harry, but, of course, the feeling is mutual. The humorous banter between the two is still there and it was nice to see that Harry’s humor is still intact, if a bit more sarcastic. As expected, Bob is also back and now has access to the internet. This is an interesting development that actually comes in handy.
The case Harry takes in this book and a feel good case that is more about helping a good person than about magic and monsters. Now, don’t get me wrong, Marcone is involved, so there are monsters. Harry wheels and deals for this young lady and, with a bit of magic….read and find out what happens.
I’m really looking forward to Jim Butcher continuing this series. I have been lost without Harry Dresden.


Stars of Fortune (The Guardians Trilogy #1) by Nora Roberts
5 ★

Many moons ago 3 stars were born from magic by goddesses for the new princess. They were then cursed by an evil one and when they fell from the sky, the other goddesses hid them. Now, Sasha Riggs must find them and return them to the sky with the help of 5 others that she has never met.

This story has everything in it: magic, romance, dreams, battles, and adventure. Also, great characters and surprises. When the chosen 6 come together you would think that different personalities would clash, but they don’t. They all have their secrets, but since they are all looking for the same thing, they mesh in a very realistic familiar way. They do butt heads at times, but they are able to work things out as a team.
The legend behind the stars and the curse on them reminded me a bit of Sleeping Beauty. This villain is way more scary and violent though. The battles are intense and exciting. The creatures sent to destroy the 6 are vile.
Every member of the 6 has a secret and some were a shock. I guessed one before it was revealed. The author did an amazing job with describing the island of Corfu. It sounds beautiful.
I enjoyed this story immensely and moved right on to book 2 when I finished. It’s a quick read that keeps the readers attention.

[Book Concierge]

Life Among the Savages – Shirley Jackson – 3***
This collection of essays / vignettes is about Jackson and her family’s 1953 move to a small town in Vermont, where she and her husband settled into a large house and proceeded to fill it with children and books, a dog, two cats, and “literally thousands of socks.” I’ve read two of Jackson’s classic “horror” tales previously, so, I knew she was a talented writer. But I had no idea she had such a wicked sense of humor!
LINK to my full review

[Book Concierge]

The Thirteen Problems – Agatha Christie – 3***
This is a collection of short stories. The Tuesday Murder Club is a group of friends, including Miss Jane Marple, who regularly meet and take turns relating an interesting murder case they are aware of, but without revealing the culprit. The club members try to guess who committed the crime. Of course, Miss Marple is always right.
LINK to my full review

[James]

Augusto Roa Bastos, Yo, el Supremo [1974] 612 pages [Kindle, Open Library] [in Spanish]

Yo, el Supremo is undoubtedly one of the most difficult novels I have ever read; it took me almost three weeks to finish (although I did read other things at the same time.) It is essentially about the Paraguayan founding father and "Perpetual Dictator" Dr. José Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia, who ruled from 1816 to his death in 1840, although it is anything but a straightforward historical novel.

According to this review in the London Times -- https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v09/n... -- Carlos Fuentes and Mario Vargas Llosa in 1967 challenged a number of Latin American authors to write a "dictator" novella; the proposed anthology never came about, but three of the authors went on to write rather long novels on the subject, which are often considered a sort of trilogy. This book was one of them; the other two, which I read last March, were Alejo Carpentier's El recurso del método and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's El otoño del patriarca. Vargas Llosa himself contributed a long novel to the genre in 1969, Conversacion en la Catedral, which I read several years ago and was sure would be the most difficult book I would ever read in Spanish. Not so. If Vargas Llosa's novel is sometimes referred to as "the Latin American Ulysses, Yo, el Supremo could well be called the Latin American Finnegan's Wake. What follows are my first impressions of the novel. [Rather long, see my review.]

[Melissa]

Past Purgatory (Bishop Security #4) by Debbie Baldwin
5 ★

If you read the last book you'll remember that former CIA officer Finn McIntyre ran off after his best friends at Bishop Security gave up on him for his ruthless and heartless behavior and his girlfriend, Charlotte Devlin—Twitch to her friends, broke up with him. Well, Finn has found a place to hide and work on himself, Purgatory, West Virginia. It is a small town that the maps have forgotten where everyone know everyone. The townspeople are accepting and an older resident gives Finn a place to stay and along the way some great advise. His only responsibility is to fix up the place and help out her sister. It's a great setting for Finn. He has much to work on in his life and the tranquility of the small town is ideal.
Meanwhile Twitch is dealing with an unexpected pregnancy and the possibility that she is being followed. There have been 2 murders in 2 other states that may be connected and the guys at Bishop Security soon find out that it's not just a feeling she is having. She may have a connection to the other 2 murders and may be next.
There is so much going on throughout this book and it becomes extremely interesting. There is also someone after Finn and Twitch's stalker leads this guy right to Finn. I loved how Finn's buddies continue to care about him and don't think twice about helping him out even after all he has done. This is true friendship.
The story includes a young boy that Finn takes in and a wolf with attitude. There are a few pretty awesome surprises throughout the book and a few scenes that get the reader excited for the next book in the series. This is a great series that touches on true friendship, past hardships, and life changes. Also, the humor will make you laugh out loud.

[Melissa]

Bay of Sighs (The Guardians Trilogy #2) by Nora Roberts
5★

With the fire star found and safely hidden away, the chosen six head to Capri, Italy in search of the water star. Nerezza is close behind them with a new weapon to use against them.

Book 1 centered on Bran and Sasha, book 2 centers on Annika and Sawyer, which is no big surprise. The group is looking for the water star and Annika is a mermaid, from the sea. There are obvious feelings between her and Sawyer and I can understand why Sawyer is standoffish, but he should have been open with Annika and explained why he was acting that way. She only has 2 months remaining on land, possibly less, and Sawyer doesn’t want to lose his heart. I actually felt pretty bad for him.
I absolutely love Annika. She is so fresh and innocent. The way she phrases things cracks me up. It’s great how the others correct her, but not in a patronizing way. They also, occasionally, use her wording for things. The friendships in this series are great.
Nerezza really outdid herself in this book. The creature she creates is truly deadly and could possibly end the six. Her mistake was her choice of humans. He may have come across as a bully and someone to fear as a human, but when he gives himself over to Nerezza he loses his ability to think for himself and becomes a bit of a liability to her. We’ll see how he holds up in the next book.
We all know that the six are descendants of the three goddesses who created the stars, but there is quite a surprise on how they are all connected toward the end of the book. It’s a pretty cool connection.

[Book Concierge]

Evan Help Us – Rhys Bowen – 3***
Book two in the Constable Evans series has Evan looking into two seemingly unrelated deaths. I like Constable Evans, but this one dragged a little. Still I enjoy spending time with the colorful residents of Llanfair.
LINK to my full review

[James]

Waltharius: lateinisches Gedicht des zehnten Jahrhunderts [ca. 920?; edd. J.V. Scheffel and A. Holder, Latin text with paraphrase and commentary in German, 1874] 180 pages [Kindle, Open Library]

Waltharius manu fortis is a mediaeval Latin epic of 1456 lines, or about 50 pages of a modern printed book. The date and author are apparently controversial. The first two modern editions (the book was rediscovered in the late eighteenth century), the first by Fischer and Molter and the second by Jacob Grimm, describe it in the title as a sixth-century poem; this 1874 edition by Joseph Victor Scheffel and Alfred Holder, which I think was the fourth (I chose it because it was the one that was free on Open Library), calls it a poem of the tenth century. The monk from St. Gall whom modern scholars call Ekkehard IV states in his history of that monastery that it was written by his predecessor, whom modern scholars call Ekkehard I; on the other hand several manuscripts have a dedication by a Geraldus to Bishop Erchambald. The editors of this edition explain that it was written by the young student Ekkehard as a homework assignment and corrected by his teacher, Geraldus, who then sent it on to Bishop Erchambald, and that it was further worked over later by Ekkehard IV. A selection from the epic was included in Harrington's Medieval Latin (1925) as a tenth-century work by Ekkehard; in the second edition, revised by Joseph Pucci (1997) the same excerpt is described as a ninth-century work by an "unknown" Gerald. The two internet resources I consulted gave no indication that there was any controversy: Wikipedia calls it simply a tenth-century poem by Ekkehard, and Britannica Online simply says, a poem by Gerald.

Whenever and by whomever it was written, it is an interesting poem. I read it because of its historical importance as a forerunner of the later vernacular mediaeval epics and as a specimen of the Latin writing of the period (and to be honest because I wanted to get some more practice in mediaeval Latin before attempting the plays of Hrotsvita) but I was surprised to find that it was actually a good story. Unlike many works of mediaeval fiction it was well constructed, varying the pace without ever bogging down and building to a climax, after which it has the sense to stop, with only one stanza about the hero's return home and marriage, which many works (not just mediaeval) would have described at boring length. Although obviously modelled on the Aeneid, it reminded me much more of the Iliad (of course unknown at that time and place).

The poem is set in the fifth century, at the time of Attila the Hun's first invasion of the West. The kings he comes in contact with, either defeated or afraid to resist, make peace and send hostages: King Gibicho of the Franks, whose son Guntharius (Gunthar) is still a baby, sends a teenage relative named Hagan; the king of Aquitania sends his teenage son Waltharius; and the king of Burgundia sends his daughter, Hiltgunt. Waltharius and Hiltgunt have been betrothed since birth. The three are well-treated and brought up in the Hunnish court; the two boys by their strength and skill become leaders of the Hunnish army, and Hiltgunt is entrusted with the supervision of the Hunnish treasury. As they reach their twenties, they decide they want to escape and return home. Hagan leaves first, then a couple weeks later Waltharius flees with Hiltgunt, taking with them a large part of the plunder Attila has taken from the three kings. When the arrival of the couple is announced at the Frankish court at Worms, now the court of King Gunthar after the death of his father Gibicho, Hagan rejoices, but the immature and spoiled Gunthar immediately decides to attack them and steal the treasure, with the excuse that some of it was taken as tribute from his father. He selects twelve champions from his army to accompany him, including the unwilling Hagan.

Meanwhile, the fleeing couple has taken shelter in a cave high in the Vosges forest. King Gunthar and his knights arrive, and he sends a message to Waltharius, arrogantly demanding that he give over the treasure to save his life. He offers to give a part to King Gunthar as a gift for passing through Frankish territory, but Gunthar demands it all; Waltharius refuses. Hagan, with his loyalties divided between his friend Waltharius and his duty to King Gunthar, withdraws like Achilles and refuses to take part on either side. The other eleven champions attack Waltharius in a series of single combats and he defeats them all. One of the successes of the poet is the way that he manages to make all eleven combats sufficiently different to maintain the interest of the reader. One of the eleven champions is the favorite nephew of Hagan; Waltharius tries to dissuade him from fighting but he insists and Waltharius has no choice but to kill him. This decides Hagan to enter the contest on the part of Gunthar (cf. Patrocles and Achilles). Gunthar and Hagan leave the battlesite, but return the next day to follow Waltharius and Hiltgund. When the couple realize they are being followed, Waltharius approaches the other two and there is a final hand-to-hand combat among the three which leads to the resolution of the poem.

The Scheffel and Holder edition is bilingual, like a Loeb or Teubner Classics edition, with the Latin and German on facing pages (which doesn't really work in e-book format.) Unfortunately the German is not a real translation, but more of a loose paraphrase with much left out, so it isn't much help in reading the Latin. Fortunately, the Latin is fairly simple for poetry, with a reasonably straightforward word order influenced by German. (The editors speculate that the Latin poem is based on a lost German original.) Most of the words I didn't know were in my small Latin-English dictionary, although it sometimes took some searching given the mediaeval spellings, and I had to search for a few rare words on the Internet. The text and translation take up about 100 pages, and then there are about 80 pages of explanatory material divided into five chapters. The first chapter describes the poem and puts it into the context of the literature of the period; the second chapter discusses the date and authorship questions and gives mini-biographies of Ekkehard I, Gerald (not unknown after all), Bishop Erchambald, and Ekkehard IV; the third chapter discusses and classifies the manuscripts; the fourth chapter tries to identify the particular site in the Vosges where the poem is set; and the last chapter is the text and translation of the two small existing fragments of the Old English poem Waldhere, which is apparently a version of the same story.

[Book Concierge]

The View From Penthouse B – Elinor Lipman – 3.5*** rounded up
Two sisters and a handsome, cupcake-baking young man share a Greenwich Village apartment and support one another’s efforts to get back into life. What a charming comedy of manners, reminiscent of Jane Austen, but updated to the 21st century. The scenarios and the characters are believable and relatable. Their dialogue sparkles. I love how they support and encourage one another through thick and thin, and many complications relationship wise. Just delightful fun.
LINK to my full review

[James]

William Poundstone, Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos [1999] 473 pages

The other 1999 biography of Carl Sagan on my list (last month I read the one by Keay Davidson), science writer William Poundstone's book has less speculative psychologizing about Sagan's personality, less detail on his divorces and other personal affairs, and more detail on his scientific work. I won't say this is totally a better book, but it is more what I am looking for in the biography of a scientist (or anyone else who has actually done something besides being famous.)

[Melissa]

Island of Glass (The Guardians Trilogy #3) by Nora Roberts
5 ★

The six guardians of the stars head to Ireland in search of the Star of Ice. This book was my favorite of the three. Ireland and Scotland have always been my dream vacation spots, so books that are set there make me smile. Also, the story focuses on Doyle and Riley, the wildest two of the group.
Doyle’s immortal warrior heart and Riley’s curious wolf side make the feelings they have for each other very intense. They are both very cautious with their hearts and very stubborn. The readers, and the other guardians, are very aware of the attraction between the two, but it takes them awhile to figure it out. It’s a pretty interesting ride. The interactions between the two are funny and eventful. The romantic scenes are also very intense, which is very different than the other couples.
Nerezza is even more fierce and determined in this book. Her pet, Malmon, has transformed even more and he is out to get Riley. She gets hurt pretty bad during one attack and, even though the reader knows she’ll live, it was still worrisome. Seeing how Doyle handled the situation just proved to the reader that he loved her.
I was a bit disappointed in Doyle at one point, though. As the group was talking about where the star may be located I immediately knew where they needed to look and yet Doyle seemed oblivious. He grew up on the land that Bran now owns and knows all the nooks and crannies. It does finally dawn on him, but it took way to long.
The Island of Glass is found and the description of it is just breathtaking. The finally battle is over very quickly though and the end of Nerezza is not surprising. The reader knew in book 2 who would end her.
There is still more story for these 6 guardians, but we, unfortunately, will not see it. The Guardians Trilogy was a fun, intense, heartfelt trilogy and the 6 guardians will stay in my mind.

[Book Concierge]

A Cowboy For Christmas – Lori Wilde – 2.5**
Okay, it’s an Avon Romance and I was expecting something predictable and heart-warming, not great literature. This had a lovely premise: a struggling, young widow with a toddler, meets her late husband’s estranged brother and the sparks fly. But there’s a very weak subplot involving Lissy’s mother-in-law; this tortured character just tortured me every time she appeared on the page, and the book lost a ½ star as a result. That’s not to say that I won’t get back on the horse and try another of Wilde’s cowboy romances in the future.
LINK to my full review

[James]

The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (Alf Laylah wa-Laylah) (Richard Burton tr.) Suppl. v.4 [1888] ca. 360 pages [Kindle, Project Gutenberg]

The fourth supplemental volume to Burton's translation, this contains the additional stories from the Montague manuscript. These are fairly typical stories, many are just variants of stories in the more "canonical" versions. A book essentially for those with completeness demons.

[James]

Boubacar Boris Diop, Doomi Golo: The Hidden Notebooks [2003, Eng. tr. 2016] 271 pages [Kindle]

Boubacar Boris Diop's Doomi Golo is a complex novel with a complicated history. It was written and first published in 2003, in the Wolof language of Senegal; the author made a translation, or perhaps more accurately, an adaptation, in French, called Les petits de la guenon, published in 2009. This book is the English translation of that French version, with a long and very interesting introduction by the translators. Written after his realistic novel Murambi, le livre des ossements about the Rwandan genocide, and before his somewhat realistic novel Kaveena, this one returns to his earlier experimental style, telling the story out of order and with much that could be described as "magical realism". As with all his novels, it is a very political book, concerned with the relationship of Black Africans to the legacy of colonialism.

Ostensibly the book consists of six notebooks (and a seventh, more secret one which is never revealed to the reader) written by the elderly Nguirane Faye and buried to be found by his grandson Badou, who has emigrated to an unknown foreign country and disappeared, if he should return to his native neighborhood of Niarele in Dakar (Niarele is fictional but according to the translators is based on the actual Dakar neighborhood of the Medina.) Selections from the various notebooks alternate through the book. The first notebook (called The Tale of the Ashes) seems to give a fairly straightforward account of events in the life of Nguirane from the funeral of Badou's father Assane Tall, a soccer-player and star of the Senegalese National Team who emigrated to Marseilles to play for a French team and died there in poverty. The body was accompanied by Assane's widow, Yacine Ndiaye, from Marseille and their twin children Mbissane and Mbissine, who take up residence in Nguirane's home. Acting French, which is to say arrogant and aloof, they are unpopular with the people of the neighborhood, with the surprising apparent exception of Assane's first wife, Badou's mother Bigué Samb.

The other notebooks are stranger. Notebook 4 is an avowedly fictional story (Ninki-Nanka, A Fiction) of a fictional country which is obviously a caricature of Senegal; there is a civil war going on between the President, Dibi-Dibi, and various unclear opponents. Dibi-Dibi is a caricature of President Daour Diagne of the "real" notebooks, who is in turn obviously based on the historical President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal. The translators' introduction refers to Jean Baudrillard's claim that the copy of a copy is hyper-real. Atou Seck, the protagonist of this story-within-a-story, is captured and tied up by a monkey and her two children, who act like human beings and spend their time watching television. This "magical realist" story turns out to foreshadow similar but even more "unreal" events in the "real" notebooks. The title of the novel, Doomi Golo, is Wolof for "the monkey's children"; the monkeys throughout the book are obviously allegories of the Senegalese who "ape" their foreign masters.

In Part Two of the novel, the notebooks are continued by Ali Kaboye, a "vagrant lunatic", treated realistically at first but who later seems to become a fantastic figure like the cavalier of Boris Diop's earlier novel Le Cavalier et son ombre who has lived many lives and can see and hear everything which happens anywhere in the world. Here the magical realist features begin to predominate over the realist aspects. It would be impossible and probably a mistake to try to make a consistent sense out of the various stories of the notebooks. As in the earlier novels, there are many allusions to real and legendary figures in African history, from Anta Cheik Diop, Patrice Lumumba and Amilcar Cabral to Thomas Sankara.

[Book Concierge]

How To Walk Away – Katherine Center – 3.5***
There are many kinds of “happily ever after…” I’d read one book by Center previously and I wasn’t all that impressed. So, I wasn’t expecting much more than a contemporary romance with possibly “relevant issues” for today’s woman thrown in. I was pleasantly surprised that my expectations were exceeded. Margaret’s journey is what kept me interested. She has many downs, and a few ups, but ultimately, she takes charge of her life in a way that is totally believable and had me cheering her on.
LINK to my full review

[Melissa]

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Thanksgiving by Janet Evanovich
3 ★

It all started with a roaming rabbit. When Megan Murphy finds a rabbit chewing on her skirt she returns it to its owner and Dr. Patrick Hunter changes her life.

This was a nice quick romantic, funny read for the holiday season. This is a story of love at first sight and it moves along pretty quickly, a bit too quickly for me. Megan and Patrick end up caring for a baby together during Thanksgiving and with both families showing up it turns into an engagement party. Things go south when the baby’s mom returns and what Megan does to Patrick is cruel and deceitful. He gets her back though and it’s hilarious. Megan is a smart girl who makes stupid decisions and mistakes. Patrick is a good guy who takes all she does with a smile and knows that in the end he’ll have his girl. The story does end pretty abruptly though with an unsurprising happy ending.

[Book Concierge]

A Royal Pain – Rhys Bowen – 3***
Book two in Her Royal Spyness cozy mystery series, has Lady Georgiana Rannoch (Georgie to her friends) hosting a Bavarian princess as part of Her Majesty’s plan to get the Prince of Wales interested in a more suitable partner than that awful American woman. I like Georgie as a character, and love her grandfather, as well as her best friend, Belinda. But the plot here didn’t really capture my attention. Still, it did give an added dimension to Darcy O’Mara. He may be more than just an unreliable rogue…
LINK to my full review

[Book Concierge]

The Christmas Bookshop – Jenny Colgan – 3***
This was a delightful rom-com. The city of Edinburgh is described as a virtual living Christmas card during this season, with fairy lights and snow and decorations, and all the shopkeepers on the street hosting parties. Our down-on-her-luck heroine will meet two promising romantic leads: a famous bestselling author and a bedraggled college professor. Of course, there’s a hugely successful attorney sister Carmen feels inferior to, and the additional drama of the “mean-girl” nanny. But never fear, this holiday romance will deliver on the promise of an HEA ending.
LINK to my full review

[Book Concierge]

Things My Son Needs To Know About the World – Fredrik Backman – 3***
In this collection of essays, Backman speaks directly to his infant / toddler son about life and being a man. He covers such subjects as bullies, getting your child to eat, being careful, the importance of best friends, and love. It’s tender and funny and entertaining.
LINK to my full review

[Melissa]

Going Rogue: Rise and Shine Twenty-Nine (Stephanie Plum #29) by Janet Evanovich
4 ★

A coin is missing, the man who left it as collateral for his bail is dead and Connie is missing. All this is connected and Stephanie Plum goes out on her own, with help from a few friends of course, to find the coin and Connie.

Predictable, but fun and entertaining as all of the Stephanie Plum books are. I think Stephanie is getting better at her job, actually. She does some pretty good detective work in this book and asks for help when needed. She isn’t getting any better at keeping cars, though.
Grandma Mazur is making more of an appearance in these books and attempting to help Stephanie. She’s able to gather a lot of information at funerals and through gossip. Lula is the same old loyal sidekick she always has been.
My favorite part of this book is crazy Bella Morelli, Joe’s grandmother. She missed her court date and Stephanie has to bring her in as a FTA. This is where the chaos starts. Bella is hilarious and likes to keep everyone on their toes. She spends a lot of time with Stephanie and helps her out on the case. Bella may have started to like Stephanie a bit…maybe.
Some who read this series may wonder when Joe and Stephanie will marry or when Ranger will decide to step up and take her away from Joe. I don’t. I like the two relationships just the way they are.
Packed with bombing, kidnappings and cos play nerds; this was a nice addition to the series.

[Book Concierge]

Get a Life, Chloe Brown – Talia Hilbert – 3***
I was drawn to the book because of the promise of a heroine who faces some significant challenges. I did get that, and some other serious issues, along with the typical rom-com tropes, but the book fell flat for me. I really liked Chloe and totally understood both her insecurities and her desire to break out and DO things. I also liked Red, the super of her apartment building with tattoos, a leather jacket and a motorbike, who promises to help her with her list. The chemistry between the two seemed genuine and I liked their banter. But the graphic sex scenes which just turned me off. I’m still willing to try another book by Hibbert, but I’m in no hurry to do so.
LINK to my full review

[James]

Eduardo Lalo, Simone [2019] 190 pages [Kindle] [in Spanish]

This short novel set in San Juan was the Puerto Rican choice for the World Literature group I'm in on Goodreads, which is finishing up a year devoted to Hispanic American writers. It begins with the first-person narrator, a depressed schoolteacher and sometime author, writing short unconnected fragments in a notebook about his daily life in the city, his observations about the things he sees and hears around him. About a fifth of the way through the novel, he begins getting strange messages, in his school mailbox, e-mail, stuck under his windshield and so forth, which are or seem to be quotations from books, and strike him as being mysteriously connected to his thoughts and situations. Some appear to be signed by someone named Simone. One message refers to Walter Benjamin (again, Walter Benjamin!): "Walther Benjamin says that in our time the only word really endowed with sense — critical sense as well — would be a collage of quotations, fragments, echoes of other works" (my translation), which is a kind of key to the style of the novel (and even more so, to the last book we read for the group, Yo, el Supremo).

Simone is unapologetically an intellectual book, dealing with ideas and literature (although it has a great parody of the pseudo-intellectual academic elite at a literary conference, with the obligatory and generally irrelevant quotations from Lacan and Derrida — two names which will usually cause me to drop a book very quickly.) While it covers several themes, including the condition of Puerto Rico in general, the problems of the small Chinese community of San Juan, and the psychology of relationships, it always returns to literature, and the last few pages (the book is not divided into chapters), where the reader would expect the climax of the action, are given over to a dialogue which amounts to a literary manifesto of a sort.

[James]

Stephen Colbert, I Am America (and So Can You!) [2007] 230 pages

Unpacking my Christmas decorations and found this book which my brother gave me for Christmas a few years back. Stephen Colbert is a comedian who had (and may still have for all I know) a television parody-news show called The Colbert Report. Probably I would have appreciated this book a bit more if I had ever seen the show, but I have never owned or wanted a television set. The basic idea of the book is similar to Archie Bunker, in that Colbert pretends to be a conservative and makes such extreme and absurd statements that it parodies conservative opinions; I believe he was especially parodying Glen Beck and Bill O'Reilly who had the kind of right-wing personal political shows that The Colbert Report pretended to be. The problem with that is that as American politics has become more polarized the statements of a Colbert (or an Archie Bunker) are too close to what the right actually says to be exaggerated or funny; for example he pontificates that we should build a wall on the Texas border to keep out Mexicans -- nine years later Trump was elected promising to do just that in reality. (Of course the contemporary "woke" liberals go beyond Archie Bunker's Meathead as well. All our politicians are basically parodies of themselves today.) On the other hand, the satire was also more good-natured than we would find today, when political differences are not considered as honest disagreements and tolerated, but as "conspiracies" and "lies". So while the book was somewhat humorous in places, it didn't really have me laughing out loud.

[James]

Prosper Mérimée, Mateo Falcone [1829] 14 pages [Kindle Unlimited] [in French]
Prosper Mérimée, Vision de Charles XI [1829] 6 pages [Kindle Unlimited] [in French]
Prosper Mérimée, L'Enlevement de la redoute [1829] 4 pages [Kindle Unlimited] [in French]
Prosper Mérimée, Tamango [1829] 16 pages [Kindle Unlimited] [in French]

As I approach the end of my seven-year Balzac reading project, I decided to take up Mérimée's nouvelles — hopefully a much shorter project, like maybe a month. Wikipedia claims that Mérimée invented the form of the novella, but I'm not sure how they define the term; certain there were stories called "nouvelles" at least from the Renaissance on, and these stories don't seem long enough to qualify as "novellas" in any case, at least as the word is used in English (maybe Carmen or Colomba would qualify.) He is certainly one of the first completely Romantic story writers — Stendhal and Balzac are more transitional or "hybrid" in their styles.

Mateo Falcone was his first nouvelle. It is set in Corsica and based on the Corsican code of honor. Vision of Charles XI is a short ghost story; L'Enlevement de la redoute is a war story. Tamango is a story about a slave-ship rebellion, which is referenced in Diop's Le temps de Tamango, one of the reasons I decided to take up Mérimée before going on to Victor Hugo, which may be another long project.

[Melissa]

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone (Ernest Cunningham #1) by Benjamin Stevenson
5 ★

I don’t even know where to start with this review. This book was amazing. The author sets everything up right from the start with rules about murder mysteries. It’s quite humorous. Throughout the book he reminds you of the rules, reminds you that he is following them and also when he isn’t, but mostly he is. The book is broken up into sections titled with the appropriate family member, because remember…everyone in his family has killed someone; My brother, My stepsister, My wife, My father, My mother, My sister-in-law, My uncle, My stepfather, My aunt, Me.
Readers know when they have a good book in their hands and when a book leaves you sitting with your mouth wide open thinking “I did NOT see that coming”, it’s a great book. I tried to pay very close attention to every detail of this story and yet, I failed to see half of it. This writer is good. Thankfully the author does state “remember when…” just before he reveals something. That was usually the head slap moment for me.
This story has everything: murder, mystery, suspense, humor, backstabbing, a mountain resort, a major snow storm, and great characters. I highly recommend this book to everyone, but especially the murder mystery fans. You will not be disappointed. I just found out that this is going to be book 1 in a series and I look forward to book 2.

[Book Concierge]

Eight Perfect Hours – Lia Louis – 3***
Sam and Noelle meet when both are stranded in their cars during a blizzard. When the weather clears they part, strangers still and not expecting to see one another again. But you wouldn’t have a romance if they didn’t keep bumping into one another. It’s a fairly predictable story line and a fast read. NOT a holiday book, though, despite the cover’s promise. There are some serious issues these characters must deal with on the road to HEA.
LINK to my full review

[Book Concierge]

The Five Wounds – Kirstin Valdez Quade – 4.5****
What Quade’s characters share is that desire to “be someone else” and/or somewhere else, but no real means of achieving that. They dream, but are somehow powerless to change their circumstances, falling back on old patterns of behavior, afraid to let go of their past to head into the future. Despite how they infuriated me, and how often I wanted to just shake some sense into them, I wound up really loving these characters.
LINK to my full review

[Book Concierge]

How To Raise an Elephant – Alexander McCall Smith – 3***
Book # 21 in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series set in Botswana and featuring Mma Precious Ramotswe and the other employees (partners?) of the agency, as well as friends and relatives. As is typical for this series, the mysteries are not murders, but a cousin who has some financial difficulties, or a woman with a straying husband, and also figuring out why the suspension in Mma Ramotswe’s beloved little white van seems to have gone bad … not to mention the peculiar smell coming from the back of the van.
LINK to my full review

[Book Concierge]

All I Want For Christmas Is a Cowboy – Jessica Clare – 3***
Young woman with a stressful job decides to go to her family’s cabin in Wyoming over Christmas for some alone time. Misses the turn in a blizzard, crashes her car and is rescued by a handsome cowboy. It's a predictable, fast holiday cowboy romance. And I did so like looking at the cover!
LINK to my full review

[Melissa]

Just Like Heaven by Marc Levy
4 ★

This is one the few times where I have seen the movie numerous times before I read the book. So, the question a lot of people ask at this point is: “Was the book or movie better?”. To be honest, they were both good.
The main story line is the same in both. The main character has an accident that leaves her in a coma and her spirit is able to travel back to her apartment. There she meets the guy who is renting it and a romance blooms. The differences include the female leads name (not sure why that was changed for the movie), the accident that she was injured in, she does not have a sister in the book, and her reaction to him being in her apartment. There is also a pretty big change in the “kidnapping” situation. There are more differences, but these are the big ones I observed. They changed quite a bit now that I think about it, but if you have seen the movie, don’t let this discourage you from reading the book. It was delightful.
The main character, Lauren, is very accepting of her situation and the fact that she may die. She also takes to Arthur very quickly because he can actually see her. The scenes where they are out on the town and no one can see her are humorous and sweet. The ending is bittersweet and it I look forward reading book 2.

[James]

Fodé Sarr, Histoire, fiction et mémoire dans l'oeuvre de Boubacar Boris Diop [PhD. diss., Univ. of Montreal, 2010] 335 pages [in French] [+ 12 journal articles, 190 pages]

Having over the past year read six novels, a play and a story collection by Boubacar Boris Diop, this year's Neustadt Prize winner, I decided to read a bit of criticism of his work. I found twelve articles and this doctoral dissertation on the Internet. As one would expect from a dissertation, it was a very academic treatment with a lot of literary theory, although thankfully no quotations from Lacan or Derrida and most of it seemed relevant.

The first chapter was mainly theory and gave definitions of history, memory and fiction and how they differ; the thesis of the book is that Diop's writing is based on combining these three genres in new ways. It also places him in the context of other francophone African authors and the debates about négritude, which was very interesting.

The rest of the book is about specific movels. The second chapter was about Murambi, le livre des ossements and described how he tried to overcome the difficulty of writing fiction about genocide (which some philosophers and critics have claimed in relation to the Holocaust is impossible) by the plurality and uncertainty of the narrative voices. The third chapter dealt with Le cavalier et son ombre largely in terms of the relationship between orality and writing, also a major concern in contemporary African literary criticism. The fourth chapter compares Le temps de Tamango and Kaveena and shows how the style in both books helps to elucidate the reality of French neocolonialism in its former African possessions. It also deals with the intertextual relation of Le temps de Tamango and Mérimée's Tamango, which I read before reading the chapter. This was in some respects the most interesting chapter in the book. The last chapter compares the use of memory and history in Les traces de la meute (the one novel I haven't read) and Les tambours de la mémoire. The book ends with a short "General conclusion" which basically just summarized the book.

My major criticism of the book is that it is extremely repetitious; if all the unnecessary repetitions were removed, it would be too short to be a dissertation. I did get a better appreciation of Diop's work, less of the individual novels than of how all his writing is connected in terms of both style and content.

[For the articles see my challenge thread.]