August 2024

August was off to a mixed start. It started with a fine romp with The Wedding People  which was a holdover from July. Then I picked up a bunch of holds and some were real bummers. This led  to a lot of skimming and skipping and DNFs until, finally, on August 11th I picked up Fire Exit and read it in one sitting. Excellent! Some other good stuff followed. 

The month is ending with me about one third through Elif Shafek's There Are Rivers in the Sky which I am enjoying. 

Fiction:

The Wedding People : a novel by Espach, Alison

Lots of fun and some romance, growing up, etc. during an especially lavish wedding week in Newport, RI.

The World After Alice by Green, Lauren Aliza

Another wedding; This one is in Maine and not quite as lavish as Newport. And it wasn't nearly as much fun. A disfunctional family function. 

Liquid, Fragile, Perishable by Kuebler, Carolyn 

A year in the life of a Vermont village. A very good debut novel.

Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight by Onda, Riku; translated from the Japanese by Watts, Alison

Billed as a thriller but this more of a psychological game between roommates (brother and sister) who deal with a past event while breaking up house to move off in separate directions. Good Read; good cover.

Silken Gazelles by Alharthi, Jokha; translated from the Arabic by Booth, Marilyn

Childhood friendship and loss as two Omani women go their separate ways. A very good read.

The Keeper of Lost Things by Hogan, Ruth 

A bit on the sentimental side but it was a pleasant read with some fun characters. 

Fire Exit by Talty, Morgan 

What is family? How do we self identify? Should family secrets be revealed? In this fine novel set in Maine on and near the Penobscot Indian Island Reservation a man struggles with his own identity and that of his daughter. 

Our Narrow Hiding Places by Jansma, Kristopher

Locale shifts between New Jersey in 2017 and Den Haag during WW2. It deals with the Dutch Famine of 1944-45 and the transgenerational physical and mental effects of starvation.

The Illegal Gardener  (Greek Village/Greek Island #1) by Alexi, Sara 

A British ex-pat buys a house in a mainland Greek village. It's rundown and the garden is a mess. She hires a Punjabi day worker to help her clear things up. They bond (not romantically) and she ends helping him earn enough to return to his homeland. A bit too simplistic: not sure if I want to read more in this series.

The Unmaking of June Farrow: A Novel by Young, Adrienne 

Confusing time travel which I skimmed a bit just to see how it turned out. Set in North Caroline Blue Ridge area.

James by Everett, Percival 

Why do prize winning books so often disappoint me?

Beep by Roorbach, Bill

Beep is a monkey secretly transported from Costa Rica to Manhattan by an eleven year old girl. He has adventures, he leads a rebellion, maybe even saves the world (sort of). Sounds promising but it wasn't very good.

The Thirteenth Husband by Macallister, Greer 

So many facts were changed to fit the narrative that this biofic of Amy Crocker was a whole lot more fic than bio. Ugh!

Catalina by Villavicencio, Karla Cornejo

Coming of age DACA, Harvard. Meh 

Nonfiction: 

Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius by Courogen, Carrie  

More pop analysis (both psycho and social) than I wanted to read.

Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell by Montgomery, Sy; illustrated by Patterson, Matt

The parts about turtle rescue, rehab and release were very interesting and engaging. The attempts to tie it all to "mending the world" were a bit of a stretch. 

Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation by Miles, Tiya 

This seems like an attempt to get more milage out of an acedemic thesis by publishing it as a book. Not worth the time it took to read it.

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Hessler, Peter 

Whew! After three disappointing nonfiction reads I finally read one I enjoyed. The two years are 1996-97 and the place is a teacher's college in Fuling in Sichuan province. 

The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church by McCammon, Sarah 

Another winner in the nonfiction categpry.