Thursday, February 29, 2024

February 2024

Lots of bodies in my February fiction reading--I lost count. 
Everything this month was from public libraries.  No Gutenberg, no online reading to speak of, and I didn't get to the two ARC on my nightstand. Maybe next month....

Fiction:

The Storm We Made by Chan, Vanessa
Life of a family in Japanese occupied Malaysia. A decent read.

The The Excitements by Wray, C.J. 
A fun romp to Paris with two ninety year old sisters and their nephew.

Dead in Long Beach, California by Blackburn, Venita 
A woman finds her brother dead by suicide in his apartment and she does some strange things.

The Framed Women of Ardemore House by Schillace, Brandy
An enjoyable village mystery. I think it's going to be a series. If so, I will read the next one.

Who to Believe by Hill, Edwin
Several murders, several suspects, several narrators....  Once I got into it I liked it.

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Hallett, Janice 
Murders, more murders, and a very convuluted conspiracy. Also, a very good read

The Adversary by Crummey, Michael
I didn't like it as much as others by Crummey, but it is very good.

Interesting Facts about Space by Austin, Emily
The blurb calls this "...fast-paced, hilarious, and ultimately hopeful...." Uh, the first and last might be true--it was nicely paced and ended on an optimistic note. However, "hilarious" just doesn't fit. This is not laugh-a-minute funny. There are some amusing monents and it's not too dark and dreary but there is a lot of unhappiness.

The Swallows of Kabul by Khadra, Yasmina ; translated from the French by Cullen, John
Good but a difficult read.

The Ghosts of Rose Hill by Romero, R.M.
Y.A.  A nice coming of age story. With ghosts.

The Phoenix Crown by Quinn, Kate and Chang, Janie
An earthquake (1906), a couple of murders, a grand ball, an abduction, a rescue, and more.... How did they manage to make it all so boring?

Fourteen Days edited by Atwood, Margaret
A collaborative novel where the tennants of a rundown NYC apartment bulding gather on the roof each evening for fourteen days of the early Covid lockdown. Each has a story to tell. I enjoyed it.
Contributors: Charlie Jane Anders, Margaret Atwood, Joseph Cassara, Jennine Capó Crucet, Angie Cruz, Pat Cummings, Sylvia Day, Emma Donoghue, Dave Eggers, Diana Gabaldon, Tess Gerritsen, John Grisham, Maria Hinojosa, Mira Jacob, Erica Jong, CJ Lyons, Celeste Ng, Tommy Orange, Mary Pope Osborne, Douglas Preston, Alice Randall, Ishmael Reed, Roxana Robinson, Nelly Rosario, James Shapiro, Hampton Sides, R.L. Stine, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Monique Truong, Scott Turow, Luis Alberto Urrea, Rachel Vail, Weike Wang, Caroline Randall Williams, De’Shawn Charles Winslow, and Meg Wolitzer.

Nonfiction:

Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks by Wilkinson, Crystal
I really enjoyed this memoir. 

Hollywood: The Oral History by Basinger, Jeanine and Wassan, Sam
Many, many clips from a series of interviews with representatives of all facets of production (producers, executives, directors, actors, set and costume designers, cinematographers, editors, etc.) for the American Film Institute. Nicely arranged in a thematic/chronological order. Interesting but they soft pedal a lot of stuff and I think they (the interviewees) make it look better than it was.

Inside Qatar: Hidden Stories from One of the Richest Nations on Earth by McManus, John 
The writing annoyed me, I'm not sure why, but the book is informative.

Islands of Abandonment by Flyn, Cal 
Lots of lovely descriptions, lots of viewing with alarm, lots of sad stories, and a bit of optimism. An ok read.
 
Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Kolker, Robert
I don't know what to say about this other than it was confusing to have the experience of one family mixed in with a summary of research into the causes of schizophrenia. 

Thursday, February 01, 2024

January 2024

Lots of good stuff this month plus a couple of not-so-good ones.  Fun with The Raven .

Gustave Doré (Illustrator)

Fiction:

The Fury by Michaelides, Alex
Twists and turns among seven people on a Greek island. A most inreliable narrator. A great read.

Vengeance Is Mine by NDiaye, Marie; translated from the French by Stump, Jordan 
Vague, meandering...just what's really going on here?

The Ascent by Hertmans, Stefan; translated from the Dutch by McKay, David
Based on a true storyof a Flemish Nazie collaborator and his family.

The Wide World: A Novel by Lemaitre, Pierre; translated from the French by Wynne, Frank
I liked this Fremch family saga set in post-war Paris, Beirut, and Saigon.

The Book of Fire by Lefteri, Christy 
Aftermath of a wild fire in Greece; it's effect on a marriage and family. A good read.

California Bear by Swierczynski, Duane
Assorted characters (The Killer, The Bear, The Girl Detective, a geneologist, an excop, and more...) unite (more or Less) to solve a couple of cold cases. There are many mishaps due to alchol and/or incompetance and some successes due to accident and/or solid reasoning. A fun read.

Call and Response: Stories by Moeng, Gothataone 
A nice debut collection of stories about women and families in Botswana.
Contents: Botalaote -- A good girl -- Small wonders -- Bodies -- Homing -- When Mrs. Kennekae dreamt of snakes -- Early life and education -- The first virginity of Gigi Kaisara.

Holiday Country by Atrek, İnci 
A Turkish/American young woman  spend each summer on the Aegean coast of  Türkiye with her Turkish mother and grandmother. But now she is nineteen, a college student in California, and she knows this may be the last year she can have a long vacation. A nice coming of age story with family secrets being reavealed. 

Half a Cup of Sand and Sky by Bjursten, Nadine
Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the country's politics afterward. Protaganist is a young university student in 1977, she marries a somewhat older man they have two children. while struggling to come to terms with the new regime.  A lot about  nuclear arms and disarmament so that part was new to me.
A review copy from publisher via LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.

Horse by Brooks, Geraldine
Not a good book. All that complicated stuff about horse skeletons and horse paintings and the simplistic treatment of racism in the USA just didn't fit together. 

The Wildest Sun by Lemmie, Asha 
Seventeen year old French girl runs off to New York to try to connect with Hemingway because she thinks he's her father. An easy book to set aside. Also easy to skim. Language that didn't fit the times. Meh.

Nonfiction:

Unique Eats and Eateries of Connecticut by Urban, Mike 
Over 80 restaurants are covered and, judging from his descriptions of the ten I've eaten in, this is an excellent selection. 

Cinematic Places (Inspired Traveller's Guides, 7) by Baxter, Sarah; illustrated by Grimes, Amy
Short essays with synopses of movie and suggestions on how to visit the selected locales. Fun to read whether you've seen the movie and/or visited the place. Nice, moody illustrations. 

A White House Diary by Johnson, Lady Bird 
I admit to not reading all 858 pages. I jumped around and read the parts that most interested me or that I didn't know much about. Lady Bird is thorough making this a great historical resource.

Following Caesar: From Rome to Constantinople, the Pathways That Planted the Seeds of Empire by Keahey, John
So,so travelogue. Not sorry I read it but....it's kinda shallow.


Gutenberg:
William Ladd Taylor (Illustrator)
Not that I haven't read this poem before (aloud, in class, in the seventh and/or eight grade). This time I was "reading" for the illustrations (and, incidently, the introductory essays).
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe (Author), Gustave Doré (Illustrator), With Comment BY Edmund C. Stedman (Published by Harper Bros. 1884)
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, illustrator William Ladd Taylor (Published by Dutton, 1884)
The Raven, and The Philosophy of Composition by Edgar Allan Poe, illustrated by Will Jenkins, Galen J. Perrett. (Quarto Photogravure Edition, published by Paul Elder, 1907)
Will Jenkins (Illustrator)
Le Corbeau = The Raven by Poe, Edgar Allan; in English and with a French translation by Mallarmé, Stéphane; illustrated by Manet, Édouard. (Published by Richard Lesclide, Paris, 1875)

Édouard Manet (Illustrator)

Other Online Reading:
Cookie Jar by By Stephen King: Illustrations by Pat Perry

Also, the Cat by Rachel Swirsky; illustrated by Rovina Cai

River Runner by Sam Learner
I played with this for a while. You drop a raindrop anywhere in the world and this tracks it to the sea, Or not. One of my raindrops ended up in Tulare Lake.

The Appian Way: From Its Foundation to the Middle Ages edited by Ivana della Portella, photography by Franco Mammana; Authors: Ivana Della Portella, Giuseppina Pisani Sartorio, and Francesca Ventre.
Translator: Stephen Sartarelli
Much more detailed and, to me, far more satisfactory, the the Keahey book (listed above under nonfiction).