Hi. I hope all is well and you’re not living under a heat dome presently, or hopefully it will leave soon. Try to stay cool and hang in there. I think we’ve had the opposite here lately with rainy weather and a few mornings with frost advisories. Strange how it can be so different. The dogs sure like the cooler temps. Willow, our young girl is on the left, and Stella, our senior girl is on the right. They like sitting out on the grass when the weather is nice. And I think when summer temps return this weekend, they will be ready to go to the river for a swim. They’re avid swimmers.
In book news, I see that author V.V. Ganeshananthan’s second novel Brotherless Night, about a family fractured by the Sri Lankan civil war, has won this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction. Wow was it a surprise or no? I think those who read it said it was a frontrunner all along. But this author is new to me, so I will put her book on my library list. The novel also won the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction in May, so the author has taken both awards recently, woohoo. Apparently she is an American author born to Sri Lankan immigrants who teaches at the MFA program at the University of Minnesota. Congrats to her on the two wins.
And now I will leave you with a few reviews of what I finished lately. All three are from my summer reading list.
River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure / Morrow / 352 pages / 2024
(4.4 stars) This doesn’t read like a debut novel. Wow Aube Rey Lescure pretty much hits it out of the park on her first go-around. The novel was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction for good reason. Set in Shanghai, it peers into the life of a Chinese-American family and alternates perspectives between mixed race 14-year-old Alva and rich landlord Lu Fang, 58, who becomes her stepfather after marrying her white American mother Sloan.
At first sulky Alva (who dreams of coming to America) wants to change from her public school to the Shanghai American School and schemes to get her new stepfather, whom she doesn’t think much of, to pay for it. He sympathizes a bit since he once wanted to study at a university abroad but got waylaid during the Cultural Revolution and ended up as a lowly shipping clerk.
As their timelines go along, Alva finds herself losing control with drinking and rebelling teen behavior among the lives of the rich expats at her new school circa 2008, while Lu Fang’s life goes back in time to when he first met Alva’s mother (Sloan) and they started an affair when he had a Chinese wife and child on the way. Years later he pushes his son to get strong grades to go to university in the States.
Then something happens, and Lu Fang comes to reconnect with Sloan over many years. Each person in the family is going through stuff and trying to reinvent themselves in Shanghai. Teenage Alva and Lu Fang who are far apart at the beginning come to understand more about each other over time and get closer. This is a perceptive story of a family caught between cultures that captured me with its characters’ stories and its Shanghai setting along the way.
Apparently the author grew up in Northern China and Shanghai and graduated from Yale in 2015. This is her debut!
The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring / Europa / 250 pages / 2023
(4.2 stars) I really enjoyed this novel, which I listened to on audio, about a handful of inhabitants in a small town in Northern Maine. Its various characters are all equally enticing and I found the storytelling rather seamless. It felt like these people were just out your doorstep with their connections and problems and all felt quite real, along with their dialogue among one another.
There’s Rose, who has bruises from her fiance Tommy; clinic doctor Richard Haskell who treats people in town and is married to librarian Trudy; even though Trudy’s more interested in her best friend Bev Theroux, married to Bill. Their son Nate, a cop, is married to Bridget who’s struggling unbeknownst to anyone with postpartum depression after having baby Sophie; and teenager Greg, who’s sort of rotund and pals around with classmates Angela and Henry but struggles with low self-esteem.
The chapters switch around among these characters, all of whom are interesting, likable, and easy to follow. I especially was drawn to Nate, the cop, who gets most of the attention when he endures heartbreak midway into the novel. The story about these characters went down as easy as ice cream on a summer day and I eagerly wanted more. Which is good because Bowring’s sequel Where the Forest Meets the River will be coming out in September. I’ll be waiting.
The book’s storytelling among a group in a small northern town reminded me a bit of Canadian author Mary Lawson’s novels. If you like her, you’ll probably like this one too.
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler / Beacon Press / 288 pages / 1979
(4 stars) This — my first Octavia Butler novel read for my book club — is a pretty intense time travel story that transports the black protagonist Dana Franklin, age 26, from her home in California in 1976 to a plantation in Easton, Maryland circa 1815. At the time she’s married to her white husband Kevin, who like her is also a writer. She can’t seem to stop her time travel, which at first is just for short periods of time to apparently protect the white plantation owner’s son Rufus (for reasons she comes to learn), but as it goes on Dana becomes entangled to the lives on the plantation for longer periods.
And it’s a brutal place. Slaves she comes to know are whipped, raped, and their children sold at whim. Dana herself a free woman is subjected to a gruesome beating when she’s caught teaching a young slave to read. Her husband too gets caught in the loop of time travel there that separates them for five years. On and on the brutality goes as Dana tries to gauge the evil plantation owner and reason with his erratic son Rufus, whom she tries to make a pact with that they can help each other, but little good that does since he’s too unreliable and cruel.
Along the way Butler’s novel shows and teaches about slavery and its legacy … of what it was like and what happened on plantations. She puts you right at the scene and writes it like a novel resembling a first-person slave narrative. It’s a violent, savage, and dehumanizing undergoing. Dana has trouble getting back to her real home in 1976, but she comes to figure out how to manipulate the time travel. The ending, which takes a good while getting to, comes crashing down like I knew it had too. I thought this was less sci-fi and more slave narrative with a little time travel thrown in. It’s still a rattling look at nineteenth-century plantation life these many years later from when the author wrote it in 1979.
I listened to the audio book of it read by actress Kim Staunton who does a superb job getting through some disturbing and harrowing scenes. Apparently there was a TV series of the novel that ran for one season on FX and Hulu in late 2022 before being canceled.
That’s all for now. What about you — have you read these and what did you think?
Kindred is one that I want to read for sure. I’ve heard really good things about it. I didn’t know there was a TV show! It sucks that it got canceled before I even knew it existed. 🙂
Hi AJ, Yeah I didn’t know either about the Kindred TV series and it’s too bad it’s gone. But the novel’s subject matter is pretty rough so maybe it was too grim. See what you think of the book. Enjoy your week.
Nice picture of Willow and Stella; they are adorable. Stella looks regal in it. 🙂 I’m under the heat dome. The next three days are expected to be brutal. I just hope we don’t lose power. Most of the U.S. map looks deep red to purple.
Great reviews! Thank goodness Kindred was on the short side because it sounds grim and heartbreaking. There’s a good deal of that in ‘James’, so you’ll encounter it again. Among the three I think I would choose River East… and Kindred to read.
Hi Carmen, Oh no, sorry you are under the heat dome. It’s awful. Hopefully you have some air con or fans in your place. But it is worrisome about the power, ugh. I really hope it doesn’t go out. Drink plenty of ice water.
Thanks for your kind comments about the dogs! We’re sort of crazy about these girls, lol. Stella is regal ha — she runs the house.
I guess I will need a break about slavery for awhile … Kindred had so much … so I’ll wait to read James later. I was surprised a bit about River East being quite good, as well as the Dalton book. I just got a library copy of Clear which is very short so that might be next. I could use a light summer happy read sometime. I hope your books are going well.
Clear is most definitely not a happy read, but it’s atmospheric and well written; I think you’ll like it. James has the advantage of using dark humor to attenuate the horrors, but they are present nonetheless. It’s not just bad stuff though, there’s plenty of adventure and conflict among the characters that drive the narrative forward without overwhelming the reader with grimness and heartbreak.
Thanks for these thoughts on Clear & James. Very good to know, good points. I will persevere on both. Glad you have read these. I’m sort of looking for a warm evening to read on the back deck … but it’s been chilly here for a couple weeks which is odd since it’s blazing hot everywhere else. Stay hydrated.
Nice picture of Willow and Stella and I can see they really get along together. I am not a science fiction reader but Kindred sounds more like well written and researched historical fiction about a terrible time in our history and so I must put Octavia Butler on my TBR list. River East River West also worth checking out particularly because it’s a debut and the start of a great new writer.
Hi Kathy, thanks, the dogs always like getting compliments, lol. Willow really looks up to Stella, but Stella just pretends to tolerate Willow … when I think deep down she’s glad she’s around. hmm.
I’m glad to finally have sampled Butler’s writing after hearing about her for a long while. And River East surprised me since it was a debut and pretty strong. Both are worth checking out. Hope your summer reading is going well. Enjoy your week.
I’ve always meant to read Kindred but maybe it is too brutal for me. When my book group read The Underground Railroad I only made it through one chapter. Suitable for Juneteenth, however! We have the day off from work (good) but it is going to be 100 degrees (bad), plus I need to scrub the house (bad) because my sister and niece are coming to visit (good). So instead, I am reading my second book by Susan Hill this week!
Hi Constance, yeah 100 degrees is bad, yikes. So early in the summer too.
I agree that Kindred might be too brutal for you and me. I think I also started the Underground Railroad at one point but didn’t get far. Sometime I’ll try it again. I am supposed to also read Percival Everett’s novel James on my summer list … but I need a break for awhile from the topic of slavery. I need something light & snappy so I picked up Ann Leary’s audio of her essays I’ve Tried Being Nice … which seems to have some humor to it, yay. I hope you enjoy the Susan Hill book … sometimes you just need to procrastinate chores in order to read, lol. Enjoy your visit with the sib & niece. & Stay out of the heat.
I’ve only read The Road to Dalton and while emotionally charged at times, such a good book. I am looking forward to the followup book.
Love Stella and Willow and happy they are enjoying some cooler temps. It’s been in the high 90’s here for weeks and will sadly continue until about September. Loki isn’t much for the heat, and it is dangerous for pets and people, so we are out in the mornings then in for reading/sleeping/puzzles 🙂
Hi Tina, glad you like the dog pic! I thought you might … being a good dog owner with Loki. It seems a good idea to be out early in the day then come in when the heat hits. It must be tough for Loki. Our dogs aren’t good in the heat either.
I enjoyed the storytelling in The Road to Dalton — the author seemed to have a good ear for characters’ talk and it was enjoyable. I wonder what will happen in the sequel … hmm. Maybe Nate gets a new girlfriend like Rose? And Greg gets more self esteem and dates Angela? Lol guesses.
Add a Loki photo in your next post? We haven’t Loki in awhile. Have a good week.
Your dogs look so sweet. Love that picture. Hope they get to do some fun swimming. Heat – well, it’s summer in Texas. What would one expect? Ha! It’s actually a bit cooler today because there’s a tropical thing in the gulf and the weather people are trying to predict how far north it will go when it tracks west. Keeps getting further and further south into mid-Mexico. We will see some showers today, but nothing like they were predicting a few days ago. Just hope some of that moisture heads west across the state and helps with drought conditions. Have a good weekend!
Hi Kay thanks. The dogs love compliments and people and attention, lol. I’m sure they’ll be swimming soon.
That’s good you have some cooler weather & rain! Always helpful to the plants. It would helpful if New Mexico could get some relief. The fires there are crazy.
Enjoy your week & reading.
Here in southeast Texas we pretty much live under a permanent heat dome and yet recently it has actually been quite pleasant. Go figure. Somehow I don’t think that will last.
I’ve read a couple of Butler books (actually three now that I recall) and she was an incredibly talented writer. “Kindred,” though, just sounds too intense for my psyche at the moment, so I’ll give it a miss for now. Maybe at some point in the future…
Hi Dorothy, I’m glad you are having a momentary relief from the dire heat. Isn’t it nice when that happens.
And this Octavia Butler novel is pretty grim though I liked the protagonist Dana and her life in 1976. Dana made it worthwhile but it is a hard journey. She tries to make things better on the plantation but it is an uphill battle. It’s likely my book club will not be too happy with the story. Hmm.
Have a great week.
River East, River West escaped my notice when it came out, but I’m adding it to my list now. Sounds like a really strong debut! The Road to Dalton was among my favorites last year, so I’m already looking forward to Bowring’s follow up.
We’re avoiding the heat dome along the CT coast so far, thanks to unusually cool water in the Long Island sound. The breeze off the water is keep our temps in the low 80s, but you don’t have to move too far inland to get hit with 90+ degrees. Tomorrow we’re heading to Pittsburgh where it’s expected to be in the mid-90’s through the weekend. Ugh!
Great photo of the pups… they both look very happy!
Hi JoAnn, thanks the dogs are doing well … though Stella is getting old (almost 12) and she has arthritis in her paws. But we spoil her and give her lots of attention. I think they’re happy … especially when eating & swimming. lol.
River East surprised me that it seemed so accomplished for a debut author. And I added Road to Dalton b/c of you review & others. It was very enjoyable.
Sorry to hear about the heat that you’re headed towards in Pittsburgh, ugh! You need to return to the CT coast pronto. But enjoy the weekend nonetheless & stay near the A/C.
Our weather in the last two months has been cooler than normal, it seems to me. We often have overcast throughout May and June, and that has happened lately. Our hotter weather sometimes waits until September.
I plan to try to read Kindred next summer. I will go into it optimistically, although I think it will be very challenging for me. I will definitely give it 50 pages.
Hi Tracy … it seems So. Calif was cooler than normal too in April when we were there. I’ll be going back in August to visit my Dad. Flying into Palm Springs, ha now that’s hot. Hope your clouds and June gloom dissipate.
I think the first 50 pages of Kindred were all right and more tame … and then later it ramps up. I was reminded slightly of Roots because both came out in the 1970s. I think it’s challenging subject matter but is doable to get through mostly because the protagonist Dana is from present times and she has some logic about her that you want to see through.
Enjoy your reading. & have a nice weekend.
I’m with your dogs…I like the cooler temps, too. We dropped down into the 70s earlier this week, but are looking at 100 on Saturday. But so many others have it so much worse I can’t really complain. And both The Road to Dalton and River East, River West sound like books I would really enjoy. Great reviews! 😀
Hi Lark, wow you’re already forecasted for 100. Yikes. You’re near SLC right? We drove thru there on our road trip to Calif. Nice valley. I think we might hit 80 on Sunday which is a lot different than what it’s been. The dogs will take a swim, lol. And thanks the books were quite good. Have a great weekend.
I am in Salt Lake, and the hot temps are coming our way early this summer. They’re saying we’ll be between 98-100 for the next six days, and then we’ll ‘drop’ back down to 94. I’m not looking forward to it. At least it’s still somewhat cool in the mornings. So that helps a little.
Hey Lark: Salt Lake is nice … and with the pretty mountains right there too … but it’s tough if you’ll have those high temps for almost a week, yikes, so early in the season too. Start the fans or A/C and keep out of the heat! Hope it cools off for you.
Hey there, I’ve been trying to reply to your comments by email but the email I have for you must not be correct now. They are all bouncing. Send me your current email if you can, bookishchatter@gmail.com
Hi Ti, sorry you’ve had trouble reaching me by email. I just sent you one, so hopefully you’ll have it. Thanks. I always appreciate your comments. Cheers.
Aww, those pups look pretty content! Our Annie-dog loved to hang out on the cool lawn when we lived in Nebraska. No heat dome here in Oregon! We’ve had lovely weather, but today is overcast and 55. As long as it doesn’t rain over the next 10 days (we have family coming on Saturday for a week), I’ll be happy.
You’ve piqued my interest in River East, River West. Sounds educational and entertaining. Impressive that it’s a debut!
Glad you enjoyed The Road to Dalton. I’m looking forward to the sequel. Since it’s coming out this year, maybe I’ll remember enough from TRtD and not need to read it again. I hadn’t thought about the comparison to Mary Lawson’s novels, but I agree. I also thought it was a bit like Olive Kitteridge’s world.
You enjoyed Kindred a bit more than I did, I think. It had been hyped for so long by several of my friends, so I was really expecting something astonishing. Perhaps along the lines of The Sparrow (Mary Doria Russell). It was good, but not great. From my blog post: The early chapters were pretty intense, but as the story progressed, the pace began to drag. I grew impatient with the strange relationship between Dana and Rufus and would have liked to read more about Dana’s time back in her present day world.
Hope you continue to have mild temps and no fires! Take care.
Hi Lesley, you raise good points about Kindred. It was quite hyped and I’m not sure it lived up to that either. I liked the protagonist Dana & her perspective, but the plantation she’s caught up in is very bleak. And I was a bit confounded by her continuing hope that Rufus will make decisions in her favor … which he never seems to do. Their relations were a bit odd and dominated the story. I guess she kept some faith in him since he was her descendant … and was waiting for his baby, her direct descendant, to be born before giving him the slip. Hmm. I agree more of her life story in the present 1976 would have been a relief.
I hope the weather holds for you while your relatives are in town. Fingers crossed. We’ve had very cool weather for a few weeks … but this weekend could hit 80 — so the sun is coming! Things are very green right now. I hope July & August will stay beautiful. Enjoy your days & company!
Ohhh…How can I respond to bookish news, when I became mesmerized by your absolutely beautiful dogs? I ask you, how? Your girls are yellow labs? OH–So precious!
Ken and I owned a yellow lab and then we’ve had 4 Goldens in a row. But they are the same–these retrievers! Such wonderful companions! Oh!
I grew up with yellow Labs, owned one of my own and showed it at dog shows as a young teen, but after our first yellow Lab as a couple, whom we adored, we got started on Goldens. Well, they won us over because with our busy work lives, they proved a bit more obedient and easier to train, and every bit as affectionate as Labs!
Gosh! I was going to comment on your reading, but there goes! I will come back and do that! The very best to you and your dogs!
Hi Judith, thanks for your message & glad you like our girls! So pleased to hear you are a retriever person. We are yellow Lab people, though I had a German shepherd once who was wonderful too. Stella is turning 12 soon in July, we got her in 2012 and she is our leader and a very smart girl. Willow, who’s 3 and more a red Lab, we got fairly recently when she was 1. Both dogs are total loves. They are with us all the time. They’re big on snow & swimming & come with us cross-country skiing … or used to before Stella became elderly.
You sound like you have had many lovely dogs. Goldens have a lot of fur to deal with but our Labs shed a ton so I deal with that too. Do you still have a dog? They are great companions. I hope your heat dome leaves asap. Cheers.
It has been pleasant in my part of the world, although my husband would argue it’s too hot for him. I will have to check out V.V. Ganeshananthan’s book. It sounds really good. I agree with your that Kindred wasn’t really a science fiction novel, despite the time travel piece. It was such a poignant read. I haven’t read the other books you featured but I will have to look for them. River East, River West particularly appeals to me.
Hi LF, I’m on the library list for Brotherless Night. The author’s last name is a long one … I probably will never get the spelling right. I had to recover a bit after Kindred with a happier lighter book (Ann Leary’s book of essays). And River East, River West took me awhile to read as it felt a bit of a slow burn family & coming of age kind of story. But it piqued my curiosity.
Hope you’re having a great weekend … with some good books too.
I thought Kindred did a remarkable job of portraying the experience of an enslaved woman in pre-civil-war America using the consciousness and attitudes of a 20th century woman. This exceptional combination provides really interesting insights into the meaning of being enslaved. A very unusual way to leverage the trope of time travel.
Good luck with the end of the heat dome. We all need it.
best, mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Hi Mae, I’m glad you shared those thoughts about Kindred. I like how you put that. It is interesting what Dana in 1976 brings to what she sees happening at the plantation. I’m still thinking about it quite a bit.
Luckily we haven’t been in the heat dome … so it’s nice for a change.
Have a great week.
I do love Octavia Butler’s work — it’s so heavy sometimes, but really thoughtful and fascinating. I think Fledgeling was the one I liked best, though it was also pretty disturbing.
Hi Nicky, thanks for letting me know about that … I’ve had to find something a bit happier to read after Kindred. I will likely read Butler again but it’ll be awhile. Her books seem quite intense topic-wise. But she raises a lot of good issues.
Enjoy your week.
It’s hot here, with no end in sight. We’re mostly just staying inside, but I have managed a few early morning works, including at sunrise on the solstice.
Hi Joy, sorry to hear about all the heat. Ugh. That’s tough. I hope a rain shower will come your way to cool things off! May your week get better ….
Sounds like some good books.
Thanks Mark: yeah all were pretty good. Hope all is well with you. Happy reading!
Yes, we’re under a heat dome punctured by rain inbetween to cool things down. It will be a little less hot this coming week but still sweltering. Have a cool week.
Hi Harvee, sorry to hear you’re under the heat dome. It would be great if it would move on. I hope it goes away soon. Stay cool … and happy reading.
I’ve read and enjoyed The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, but I haven’t read Kindred yet. Thank you for sharing your thoughts about this novel. It sounds like a book I should read.
I’m always impressed when an author writes her first book before she is forty and it turns out to be a sensation. I can see that you liked River East, River West very much.
Hi Deb, this was my first Octavia Butler read … and it was quite grim. The only way I managed was Dana the protagonist in 1976 is pretty interesting and what she brings to visiting such a bad plantation. I have not heard of the one you read. Her books are worth exploring further, although some are not easy.
And yes I was quite impressed with River East, River West. It’s sort of a coming-of age – clash of cultures story. And it seemed pretty accomplished for a debut.
Hope your week ahead is good. Enjoy your reads.
You’ve read a good series of books lately! I’ve only read one Butler–the graphic novel of Parable of the Sower. It was good, but I haven’t read anything else by her.
Hi Helen, I didn’t realize Parable of the Sower was a graphic novel. Good to know. This was my first Octavia Butler book and it was quite grim. But I will try another one of hers another time. She had an interesting career and seemed a pioneer of sorts in sci-fi. Have a great week.
I enjoyed The Road to Dalton, Kindred is still on my TBR.
It’s winter here so it’s cold (by Australian standards), I hope you and the dogs enjoy the sunshine.
Wishing you a lovely reading week
Hi Shelleyrae, thanks, the dogs are loving the sunshine. It’s hard to imagine winter again after we just came thru it. I hope it’s not too bad there now.
Glad you liked The Road to Dalton too. The storytelling in it seemed so nice to follow. Looking forward to her new one in Sept. Kindred was a bit rough but see what you think sometime. Have a great week too.
I read Kindred a few years ago and was glad I did. It was brutal, but in a way that make reading it worthwhile. And I always love a little time travel.
Hi Stacy, thanks for your thoughts on Kindred. It wasn’t easy for me, but I liked Dana’s first person narration in it which made it worthwhile … as well as the time travel from 1976. Quite a juxtaposition. It is pretty brutal and I need a happy read now. Enjoy your week.
Hi Susan,
I’m a little late coming by–
I’ll BET your beloved dogs are EAGER swimmers. We’ve owned retrievers–Labs first and then Goldens for decades, and the Labs take all for being the mostest ULTRA-enthusiastic about swimming and retrieving in water. Have fun!
I’m very interested in your take on The Road to Dalton. I am going to search for it immediately, because it sounds like one I’d very much like.
The Carol Shields Prize–I didn’t realize that it could be awarded to non-Canadian women authors. Will keep that winner on my list. BTW, How I loved Carol Shields’s novels! They spoke to me.
Love your blog,
Judith
………..
Hi Judith — thanks, so glad you like my blog, very kind. And us retriever / book people need to stick together 🙂 The dogs rule, lol.
I hope you like The Road to Dalton — pretty seamless storytelling and set in northern Maine too.
I think the Carol Shields Prize includes U.S. & Canada authors … though when I think of Carol Shields I think of Canada … but I think she might have lived for a time in the U.S. too. But check me on that. I miss Carol Shields. I loved The Stone Diaries. But I should read more of her. She was the real deal.
I hope you leave that heat dome behind. Enjoy your days.
Glad you enjoyed Kindred more than I did. I found the time travel aspect a bit repetitive, whereas the dynamics between the characters were fascinating. River East River West sounds like a good read. Impressive so international the Women’s Prize shortlist was this year.
We did have a few days with relatively warm weather here in the UK, but I’m afraid it’s over already. I need to book a holiday, it seems, to get some nice weather. 🙂
Hi Stargazer, good hearing from you. Sorry to hear about your weather there. Wimbledon is about to start so that doesn’t bode well. We had a deluge of rain the other night and more thunderstorms to come. Hmm.
I’m still wondering about what I thought of Kindred a bit — on the one hand I was interested in Dana, the protagonist, but perhaps could’ve used more in the present. It was dark and the relations with Rufus were so up & down. I tired of him and the plantation, which was a horrible place. So I had qualms about it.
The Women’s shortlist was so good and I’m curious now about Brotherless Night. I liked River East. & want to read more of the list. Enjoy your weekend.
Gorgeous picture! I haven’t done a lot of exploring or going places this summer. The hot weather is so oppressing at times. I’m looking forward to fall, lol. I hope you have a great July.
My Sunday Post
Thanks Jenni. I’m sort of a homebody these days too. We are in the thick of summer heat now. Tomorrow could hit 95F which is hot for here. I just try to get out either early in the day or later in the evening. Good luck with your summer and Happy July.