The Cue Card

Blowin’ in the Wind

Posted on January 25, 2025 by Susan

Hi. Was it a rough week or what? We need to pace ourselves with the crazy current honcho. Even for those avoiding the news, it’s not going to be easy with this wayward circus and trying to hold on. But I hope those in the South who got some snow enjoyed a moment of wonderment with those rare flakes. We’ve had a mild windy winter here without much snowpack so people are worried about drought. It’s supposed to be in the 50s a bit next week, which is a rare thing for this time of year. So it seems the Canadian winter here has flown south. Too bad for the skiing.

Meanwhile the nominations for the Academy Awards came out last week with the French musical Emilia Pérez getting 13 nominations, which is a record for a non-English language film, followed by The Brutalist and Wicked picking up 10 nominations each, and A Complete Unknown and Conclave with eight nominations, and Anora, a romantic-comedy drama, received six nominations.

I was surprised but pleased to see that the sort of unknown actress Monica Barbaro who plays Joan Baez in the Bob Dylan movie received a Best Supporting Actress nomination (wow), and that the foreign film I’m Still Here, which I’m hoping to see whenever its available, received Best Actress and Best Picture nominations. We have a lot left to watch but should see some more films before the March 2 award ceremony, which apparently is still proceeding after the extensive fire damage around L.A. County. I’m still big on A Complete Unknown, which features some classic songs and was very enjoyable to watch.

In TV series right now we’ve been watching Bad Sisters Season 2 and trying out Severance Season 1, which has a pretty kind of crazy sci-fi plot about some office workers who are being manipulated by their company like guinea pigs. Both shows (on AppleTV+) are sort of dark and satirical but a bit fun in that way. Speaking of which, one of the better series we watched last fall was Ripley (on Netflix) based on the Patricia Highsmith novel The Talented Mr. Ripley. It was done once as a film in 1999 so I wasn’t really expecting much, but the TV series with Andrew Scott as Tom Ripley is done really well and is creepy. It has an excellent cat-and-mouse crime plot and was shot in black-and-white on location in Italy with some wonderful shots. Thanks to Lesley at the blog Coastal Horizons who talked it up in September. It’s a bit of an intriguing watch.

And now I’ll leave you with a review of what I finished lately.

The Leavers by Lisa Ko / Algonquin / 2017 / 352 pages

3.75 stars. This novel is still very relevant and I remember when it came out it was much talked about, so I’m glad I finally read it. It’s about an undocumented Chinese worker Polly who gives birth to a son Deming in NYC and tries to make their lives work as a single parent, though she is repaying debts to a loan shark. She switches jobs from a seamstress in a factory to a nail salon technician while she and Deming live with her boyfriend Leon and his sister and her son in the Bronx.

Polly’s looking to go to Florida for a waitress job which she thinks will be better for them, but then one day when Deming is 11, Polly doesn’t come home and no one can find her. Deming, who’s close to his mother, is left with a hole in his heart, thinking she’s moved without him. Eventually when she doesn’t return, he’s given to white foster parents in Upstate NY, who raise him and later want him to complete college. But Deming, who develops a gambling problem, can’t give it his full attention. He has a talent for music and playing the guitar, which is his calling but he’s also sort of aimless. He still thinks about his biological mother — and one day when his childhood friend gives him info about her, he tries finding out where she is.

In alternating chapters, Polly tells her story … and soon things begin to be revealed about what happened and why she left. Meanwhile Deming’s life has been one in limbo — neither fully one culture or another — his identity is convoluted and he hopes in finding his birth mother, he might find himself too. Polly and Deming are characters with problems who might irk you with some of their decisions, but the novel also seems to realistically raise questions about undocumented immigrants and the kids who become disconnected from them, and gives them more nuance and understanding than what we perceive in current events. It’s a pretty potent issue right now and it hit home quite movingly.

That’s all for now. What about you — have you seen any of these movies or shows, or read this novel — and if so what did you think?

Posted in Books, Movies | 44 Comments

Back on the Range

Posted on January 18, 2025 by Susan

Hi all. My husband and I arrived back home in Canada this week after our long road trip from California. We stopped in Idaho on the way home to visit and ski/snowshoe with my sister and brother-in-law, which was fun. You might recall their dog Sadie is the younger half-sister of our dog Stella, so it’s nice to see them all together. The girls had a good time. Now I’m quickly trying to adapt to the colder temperatures as this weekend is in the single digits here, argh. It feels a bit wild to be back and I’m still adjusting, unpacking, and wondering a bit where we are after our long while in California.

Meanwhile over the past months we’ve been taking in some movies that could be up for Oscar nominations, which apparently will be announced on Jan. 23, if they decide to have the Academy Awards amid the fires and destruction. So here below are the movies we’ve seen. I tried to place them in order of the ones that I liked best. (I’ll leave out TV series for now but might talk about them next time.)

*A Complete Unknown (5 stars! We loved this Bob Dylan bio film.)
*The Outrun (4 stars. Contemplative, a Scottish girl battles sobriety)
*The Return (4 stars, Homer’s Odyssey, both tough and compelling)
*Conclave (3.8 stars, weaved with intrigue inside the Vatican)
*Small Things Like These (3.4 stars, tale about the deeds of an Irish town’s convent)
*A Different Man (3.3 stars, a bit weird a story about a man with a disfigured face)
*Marie (movie) (3.3 stars, opera singer Marie Callas’s sad last week)
*Blitz (3.3 stars, the WWII bombing of London, full on)
*Juror #2 (3.3 stars, something felt a bit contrived but still worth a watch)
*Lee (3.3 biopic of WWII photographer Lee Miller played by Kate Winslet)

And here are other films we haven’t watch but might be on our list.

*A Real Pain
*The Brutalist
*Janet Planet
*His Three Daughters
*Nightbitch
*The Room Next Door
*September 5
*I’m Still Here (foreign, Brazil)
*All We Imagine as Light (foreign, India)
*Emilia Perez (foreign, musical, Mexico)
*Nickel Boys
*The Substance
*Wicked (musical)

What about you — have you seen any of these and what did you think? Admittedly I was sort of rooting for Timothee Chalamet to win Best Actor at the Golden Globes for his performance as Bob Dylan, but the field was pretty loaded and Adrien Brody won instead for The Brutalist. But it amazed me that Chalamet sang all the songs so convincingly in A Complete Unknown as well as the other actors in the film. Somewhere I read he had prepared for the role for like seven years, wow. Usually we are quite skeptical of biographical movies, so I didn’t expect much, but we both thought this one was fantastic.

And now I’ll leave you with a couple of reviews of books I finished lately.

Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Cespedes / Astra House / 288 pages /translated by Ann Goldstein 2023 / originally published 1952

Thanks to Kathy at the blog Reading Matters for her favorable review of this novel last June, which I hadn’t know about before. The book reminded me quite a bit of the atmosphere of Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend set in postwar Italy with its poverty and repression. Set in Rome, the novel’s protagonist is a 43-year-old Italian woman who buys and hides a notebook diary from her family of two teenage kids and her husband. As she begins to secretly write in it, she begins to observe things she hadn’t previously noticed … particularly how her long servitude to her family has squashed her own self.

This is a domestic story of a family that seems to be a bit on the brink … each member with stuff going on: the banker husband dreams of another career as a screenwriter; the daughter Mirella, a law student, falls for an older man; the idle son Riccardo gets a girl into a situation; and the mother (Valeria), a secretary, begins to have feelings for her boss.

The mother, who narrates the story, is a bit of a complex character — both sympathetic but also worth strangling at times too. Around and around she goes with her thoughts and indecision whether to do this or that. As she manages the notebook in secret, she begins to transform and fight a bit for her own space and self, becoming a bit meaner, while still trying to hold the family’s outward respectability together. She harangues her daughter about her relationship with a man at work, while she is thinking of a dalliance with her boss. You have to stay tuned to the end to see if the mother succeeds in gaining a bit of independence and what will happen.

At the beginning I thought the book, which I listened to as an audio narrated by Cassandra Campbell, was nonfiction — it sounded so factual, but then as it went along I realized it was a novel. Apparently the author, who wrote about women’s subjugation and was imprisoned for her anti-fascist activities in 1935, was an influence on Elena Ferrante. Forbidden Notebook captured me especially in the later stages when it begins a bit to unravel. And that ending … felt like the air being siphoned out of a room.

The Stalin Affair: The Impossible Alliance That Won the War by Giles Milton / Holt / 336 pages / 2024

This history kept us tuned in on the long road trip home as we listened to it as an audio, which was narrated by its British author. The book highlights the relations among the Big Three: Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt, which played out like a roller coaster of ups and downs and decided the world’s fate during WWII. Early in the war, Stalin was aligned with Hitler (as Germany and Russia invaded Poland) and probably would’ve remained so, except the Fuhrer decided to betray their alliance and invade the Soviet Union in June 1941. This upended things and soon Britain and the U.S. were supporting Russia with aid and supplies to wage war against the Nazis.

Churchill first met with Stalin in August 1942 but told him there’d be no allied invasion of Europe that year much to Stalin’s disapproval. Churchill and Stalin had very chilly relations at first, which later thawed and warmed but also at times seemed to hang precariously in the balance. Then Roosevelt met together with them at the Tehran Conference in Nov. 1943, where both Roosevelt and Churchill seemed to vie for Stalin’s favor, especially as Russia was turning the tide against Germany on the Eastern front. So much depended on the Big Three’s uneasy alliance to defeat Nazi Germany and their interpersonal relations seemed to play a large part of this, but unfortunately it didn’t last once the peace was signed in 1945 … as broken promises, hidden motives, and suspicions broke them apart.

Much of the book focuses on the various leaders’ meetings and conferences with the British Ambassador Archie Clark Kerr and American Ambassador Averell Harriman playing a large role in keeping the leaders and alliance on track time and again. Harriman, Roosevelt’s man in Moscow, thought Stalin was inscrutable and contradictory, but in some ways the most effective of the war leaders, while at the same time he was a murderous tyrant. And during the early part of the war when Harriman was in London, the book details Harriman’s secret affair with Churchill’s daughter-in-law Pamela, who was 28 years his junior and good friends with his own daughter Kathleen! (Neither Churchill or Kathleen led on whether they knew of this.)

Kathleen Harriman plays a pretty big part in the book as she accompanied her father to London during the Blitz and to living in Moscow and various meetings and conferences he had with Churchill and Stalin. Apparently it makes use of new papers and letters of Kathleen’s, which were given to the Library of Congress in 2022 and 2024 by her son. So with these additional documents and insights, fans of Erik Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile, might want to check it out.

In various ways, the book is a bit of a juicy tale full of intrigue, war, booze, affairs, and big personalities that held things together when the world’s fate hung in the balance. Along with such great reads as The Daughters of Yalta by Catherine Grace Katz, which I reviewed in 2022, and The Churchill Sisters by Rachel Trethewey, which I read in 2023, it provided a glimpse into the dangerous days during WWII and the interpersonal relations among various key players.

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read any of these books mentioned, or seen these movies, and if so, what did you think?

Posted in Books, Movies | 48 Comments

Early Days of the Year

Posted on January 10, 2025 by Susan

Hi all. We are so saddened and sorry to see all the tragedy unfolding this past week in L.A. County, which is horrific and mind-blowing. Truly epic and awful. My brother evacuated from Pasadena on Tuesday night and thankfully he and his place are okay but so many others just a couple miles away are not. The wind that hit on Tuesday night was scary – hurricane-force winds and there was no way to control or do anything but run for your lives if you were in the line of fire. So much devastation has been left and I fear the number of dead will rise. I don’t know how it all started if it was from power lines, or a spark, or arson, but tragically it all got out of hand very quickly.

We have been staying in Orange County about an hour south of what’s going on in L.A. and were alarmed by the high winds. You can see the smoke from the L.A. fires in this sunset picture (above) I took last night. Let’s just hope the winds will stop so the firefighters can get this under control. It’s been a daunting event and I’m thinking of all those affected. I hope that Jinjer at the blog The Intrepid Angeleno is all right and others who blog from Southern California are too. It’s like a war zone around the L.A. area. For some much-needed levity, I will add this photo of the dogs, which my husband took around Christmas, to keep hope alive.

Now today we are headed back home on our long road trip north — sort of with a heavy heart — but thankful for the holiday times we’ve had here and seeing my dad and brother, who are both okay. I hope you all are well and I will leave you with a couple reviews of books that I finished at the end of 2024.

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice / ECW / 224 pages / 2018

3.6 stars. When power and communication go out in an indigenous community in northern Ontario, the band’s council tries to figure out what is happening and how to provide heat and food during the long harsh winter for as long as they can. The story follows Evan Whitesky and his family who does his best to help others in the community, which finds out there’s been a collapse in the cities down south.

Then a white straggler arrives from the south who they don’t know whether to trust and supplies start to run low. You have to wait till the end to see how the reckoning plays out. But the perspective of such a power communication outage on an indigenous community — that seems a bit better adapted to band together and survive off the land — makes the story a bit more interesting, and you root for Evan and his wife Nicole and their small hamlet to get by.

I sort of promised myself post-election that I wouldn’t read apocalyptic societal collapse kinds of novels, but I had been curious about this Canadian novel beforehand and it pulled me in. It’s a bit of a quietly told story full of a cold, snowed in landscape, which looms large in it. The ending is a bit open and not fully drawn, so it was a ripe for a sequel, which came out this past October. I will get to it.

Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham / 688 pages / 1915

4+ stars. I read the first 50 percent of this novel as an ebook in October and set it down then picked it up again and read the last 50 percent in December. This classic is a coming-of-age kind of tale about British protagonist Philip Carey and his early life history that seemed a bit like David Copperfield in how he faces many ups and downs from adolescence to adulthood and different places, people, and adversities. Philip is certainly tested along the way.

He’s an orphan (after his parent die early) with a clubfoot who’s raised by his loveless uncle, the Vicar, and aunt. He is very self-conscious about his clubfoot and walking with a limp and it seems to affect much of his life. Philip sets off to find his calling in life which takes many stops and starts along the way from trying for the priesthood, then as an accountant, then as an artist in Paris, then back to England and training to be a doctor and then running out of money and working in a shop and becoming a clothes designer for a while.

And there’s also pale-faced Mildred, you won’t forget her. The saga of Philip meeting Mildred, a waitress at a cafe, and falling for her goes on endlessly. Mildred takes advantage of poor Philip and his cash a number of times but still he’s obsessed with his love for her. (But she not so much.) Oh the sorry choices he makes. He can’t seem to shake his life of her, but eventually things happen to propel him. It seems Philip has to hit rock bottom to eventually be able to rise again.

It’s a long tale that felt like quicksand at some points and I was swimming around in it for a long while. Still I needed to see it through — and to know what becomes of Philip and his journey to solvency and hopeful redemption. Along the way, Philip’s thoughts about the human condition from religion to work, art, and love make it a worthwhile exploration, which you go through with him. Though a bit exhausted by the novel, I was elated to have finished, and the ending seems a bit happy in outlook.

At the end Philip is only 30 years old — what a long journey to that point. You sort of wonder if a sequel was ever considered, but I guess not. Apparently the tale is autobiographical to the author Somerset Maugham’s life — who was raised by his uncle and aunt and trained later as a doctor. He had a stammer instead of a clubfoot that surely affected his life.

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read these and if so, what did you think? Stay well everyone!

Posted in Books | 48 Comments

Stats and Favorites of 2024

Posted on January 3, 2025 by Susan

Hi all. Happy New Year. It seems crazy to be into 2025. It has a futuristic ring to it, eh? I finished out 2024 with three novels that I’ll review next time, but they included Somerset Maugham’s epic classic Of Human Bondage from 1915, which I had started in October as part of Ti’s read-along at Book Chatter. I read half of the book then, which is give-or-take 684 pages, then set it down and picked it up again in December and read the rest of it. Ha, that’s one way to do a big read. More on that novel next post, but now it’s time to wrap up my thoughts about my 2024 reading. Perhaps this comic strip by Mark Parisi says something about it — I had to laugh when I saw it. Did you ever finish all your summer reads?

I completed 61 books this year, which is more or less my usual. I’m a pretty ponderous reader, often I read or listen to parts of books twice before moving on — I like getting the full scoop out of it. I’ll finish a book and then check out the beginning again and sometimes keep going, lol. And often I take a bit of a breather between books, so I’m not the quickest. The good news is according to the stats my female to male author ratio was more equally distributed this year as was my print reads to audio listens, though my number of diversity reads and my nonfiction needs work. Still I enjoyed so many good books.

I had a very hard time picking my 12 Top favorites of the year. I decided they had to be both appealing and strongly written and put together. I still think my Honorable Mentions could be on the list too. This year debut novels were particular strong and three made my list. So without out further adieu below is my list of favorite fiction (in no particular order) and nonfiction (of which I only read 9, so they all made the list, lol.) Let me know what you think.

Stats: 61 books completed & reviewed
Fiction — 52
Nonfiction — 9
Female authors — 33
Male authors — 28
White authors — 49
Non-White authors — 12
Print books — 30
Audiobooks — 31
American authors — 37
British authors — 5
Canadian authors — 4
Irish authors — 4
Welsh authors — 1
 French authors — 1
Australian authors — 1
Israeli authors — 1
Chinese authors — 1
Korean authors — 1
Japanese authors — 1
Malaysian authors — 1
India authors — 1
Norwegian authors — 1

Favorite Novels:

(1) Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout (2024) – Strout delivers again with her charm of characters in Cosby, Maine. Writer Lucy Barton meets Olive Kitteridge, and Bob Burgess figures prominently.
(2) James by Percival Everett (2024) – One of the most talked about novels of the year and the National Book Award winner lives up to the hype. My first Everett novel but surely not my last.
(3) Prophet Song by Paul Lynch (2023) – A chilling dystopian tale that won the Booker Prize in 2023 and swept me away on audio.
(4) Western Lane by Chetna Maroo (2023) – A debut novel about a young squash player and her internal family drama that caught me up in its telling.
(5) In Memoriam by Alice Winn (2024) – An epic World War I tale that put me on the battlefield and included a captivating love story.
(6) My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (2012) – I was pleased to get to this modern classic about two childhood friends in 1950s Italy in a read-along discussion with Tina at Turn the Page.
(7) Long Island by Colm Toibin (2024) – The sequel to Brooklyn proved maybe Tony wasn’t the lifelong partner for Eilis. Perhaps more sequels will follow.
(8) The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng (2023) – An atmospheric tale in which author Somerset Maugham comes to visit a couple in Penang, Malaysia and a murder trial unfolds kept me intrigued.
(9) River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure (2024) – A debut coming-of-age tale set in Shanghai, China that had me rooting for mixed-race teenage Alva.
(10) Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips (2023) – A well told story (winner of this year’s Pulitzer Prize) that’s dark in its Civil War horrors and light with the refuge of an asylum that helps a girl and her mute mother.
(11) Pearly Everlasting by Tammy Armstrong (2024) – A new favorite Canadian author casts a spell with her lyrical writing about a girl growing up in a New Brunswick logging camp with a bear cub.
(12) Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash (2023) – An enjoyable read about two families that mix when a girl is sent abroad to the U.S. during the bombing of London in WWII.

Honorable Mention Novels

* The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring (2023) – a wonderful debut
* The Coast Road by Alan Murrin (2024) – another great debut
Absolution by Alice McDermott (2023) – a masterful writer
The Guest by Emma Cline (2023) – love her gritty tales

Favorite Nonfiction

(1) Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage (1959) – This amazing survival tale never seems to lessen for me.
(2) Running With Sherman by Christopher McDougall (2019) – A wonderful account of an abused donkey that gets a second chance at life.
(3) I’ve Tried Being Nice (Essays) by Ann Leary (2024) – Much of this is funny and endearing about the author’s family life, her sobriety, and life as writer. The audio is entertainingly read by the author.
(4) Late Migrations by Margaret Renkl (2019) – A good intro into the beginnings of the author’s family life and awakenings of her joy of nature.
(5) The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides (2024) – A pretty extensive account of Captain Cook’s last fateful voyage that kept me tuned in to figuring out what led to his demise.
(6) The Last Days of Hitler by Hugh Trevor-Roper (1947) – A chilling look at the Fuhrer and his evil regime and the final days in a Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.
(7) My Friend Anne Frank by Hannah Pick-Goslar (2023) – A moving memoir of a classmate and friend of Anne’s in Amsterdam whose path crosses again with her later while at Bergen-Belsen. A glimpse into their friendship and story.
(8) Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie (2024) – An inspiring and heroic look at the author’s life and thoughts after he was almost killed in 2022.
(9) Sonny Boy by Al Pacino (2024) – The lowdown from Al about his life and iconic theater and movie roles with a glimpse into his personal relationships.

Debut Novels

In Memoriam by Alice Winn (2024)
River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure (2024)
The Coast Road by Alan Murrin (2024)
Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Ash-Spence (2023)
Western Lane by Chetna Maroo (2023)
Women’s Hotel by Daniel Lavery (2024)

Classics:

Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham (1915)
Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster (1912)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (1876)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1885)

Apocalyptic tales:

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice (2018)
I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger (2024)
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch (2023)

Translated Lit:

Brightly Shining by Ingvild H. Rishoi (2024)
Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerin Perrin (2021)
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (2012)
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa (2023)

Biographies & Memoirs:

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie (2024)
Sonny Boy by Al Pacino (2024)

Historical Fiction:

The Jackal’s Mistress by Chris Bohjalian (2025)
The Women by Kristen Hannah (2024)
A Hundred Flowers by Gail Tsukiyama (2012)
The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng (2023)
James by Percival Everett (2024)
Women’s Hotel by Daniel M. Lavery (2024)
Clear by Carys Davies (2024)
The General and Julia by Jon Clinch (2024)
Absolution by Alice McDermott (2023)
Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips (2023)
In Memoriam by Alice Winn (2024)

Coming of Age tales:

Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham (1915)
Pearly Everlasting by Tammy Armstrong (2024)
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (2012)
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa (2023)
City of Night Birds by Juhea Kim (2024)
True Grit by Charles Portis (1968)
The Guest by Emma Cline (2023)
River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure (2024)

Favorite Audios:

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout narrated by Kimberly Farr
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch narrated by Gerry O’Brien
The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring narrated by Patrica Shade
True Grit by Charles Portis narrated by Donna Tartt
The Women by Kristen Hannah narrated by Julia Whalen
Long Island by Colm Toibin narrated by Jessie Buckley

Crime /Mystery /or Intrigue

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (2024)
Twist by Colum McCann (2025)
Entitlement by Rumaan Alam (2024)
The Lost Americans by Christopher Bollen (2023)
Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty (2021)

Domestic family /or partner stories

Western Lane by Chetna Maroo (2023)
Going Home by Tom Lamont (2024)
Sandwich by Catherine Newman (2024)
Sweet Vidalia by Lisa Sandlin (2024)
A Great Country by Shilpi Somaya Gowda (2024)
Long Island by Colm Toibin
Leaving by Roxana Robinson (2024)
The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring
Welcome Home, Stranger by Kate Christensen (2023)
The Caretaker by Ron Rash (2023)
You Are Here by David Nicholls (2024)
How to Read a Book by Monica Wood (2024)
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters (2023)
Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash (2023)

Time Travel / or Magical elements

Kindred by Octavia Butler (1979)
King Nyx by Kirsten Bakis (2024)
Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino (2024)

Short Stories

Table for Two by Amor Towles (2024)

That’s all for now. What about you — what did you think about any of these?
 

Posted in Books | 46 Comments

January Preview

Posted on December 28, 2024 by Susan

Hi all. I hope everyone is well and that you received some books over the holiday. I was lucky to have a great haul of gifts that were books, yay. You might be surprised to know that all of these on the left are nonfiction. I’m mainly a fiction reader, but I sort of like to pick those out myself and I like getting nonfiction in hardcover print. Some of these are recent books and others came out years ago. What do you think — have you read any of these? I can’t wait to dig in. As you can see, I’m posting my monthly preview and First Book of the Year a bit early since I have a spare moment now rather than later. And as usual, there’s much to discuss in upcoming releases.

So here I am gearing up for my first book of 2025, lol. I don’t usually like putting odd pictures of myself on here but perhaps once in a blue moon is okay. The book is the nonfiction memoir by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin titled: An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s. I’ve heard many favorable things about this book, so I’m excited.

It delves into her marriage and political events of the day back in the 1960s — when she and her husband-to-be both worked for President Lyndon Johnson. Years ago, I liked Goodwin’s 1997 memoir Wait Till Next Year about her childhood in New York in the 1950s and her love of the Brooklyn Dodgers, so I’m keen for the new one. What’s your first book?

Now let’s talk about what’s coming out in January. One of my goals in 2025 is to read more translated lit, so that’s one reason I’m interested to read Korean author Han Kang’s new novel We Do Not Part (due out Jan. 21). Another reason is that the author recently won the Nobel Prize for Literature and I haven’t read her yet.

According to Publishers Weekly her new novel is the story of a writer who discovers how her friend’s family was impacted by the 1948–1949 Jeju Massacre. Kirkus calls it a “mysterious novel about history and friendship that offers no easy answers.” Hmm. I think the author’s known for a couple strange novels so I’ll be ready for anything.

Next up is the debut novel by Aria Aber titled Good Girl (due out Jan. 14) that Kirkus says follows an “aspiring photographer who’s bent on concealing her Afghan heritage and becomes embroiled in the Berlin techno scene and a fraught relationship with an older man.” PW calls it a “stunning coming-of-age story that’s set amid Berlin’s underground art and music scene.”

Apparently the theme of what it means to be a ‘good girl’ is explored along with themes about identity and desire. I’m not sure if it’ll be for me, but I generally enjoy good debuts and new voices so I hope to check it out.

Then there’s German author Bernhard Schlink’s translated novel The Granddaughter (due out Jan. 7) about the story of a German bookseller’s attempt to connect with his radicalized granddaughter and try to steer her away from such thinking. PW says “Schlink offers an unflinching look at the neo-Nazi movement and the compromises people make out of love,” and calls it a “powerful story of loss and the desire to move forward.”

I haven’t read Schlink since his 1995 novel The Reader, which was one of my very first reviews on the blog in 2009 and the book was made into a movie with Kate Winslet. That one I recall was a pretty unsettling story and I wonder if this one will have some of the same elements, hmm.

I’m also keeping in mind Adam Haslett’s novel Mothers and Sons (due out Jan. 7), which has received strong reviews and according to Kirkus is about an immigration lawyer and his estranged religious mother who work to finally face their pasts. It’s said to be a family-in crisis kind of story that involves a harrowing event that happened in their family long ago.

We’ll see if I can handle this one. I think I tried his 2016 novel Imagine Me Gone a couple years ago and didn’t finish it but perhaps I should give him a second chance. Ann Patchett among others have raved about his writing.

In screen releases in January, I mentioned many of the big movies last month so I won’t repeat those, but I inadvertently missed mentioning Nickel Boys (I didn’t even hear about the movie until recently) based on the novel by Colson Whitehead. I read the novel back in 2019 and found it a chilling and powerful tale, which follows the friendship between two young African-American men who navigate the trials of a harrowing reform school together in Florida. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2020 and was based on a real school for boys that operated in Florida from 1900 till 2011. The movie’s artistic rendering of the novel and visual style is said to be unique, so I hope to see it, though it could take some courage too.

Also the Brazilian film I’m Still Here (out Jan. 17) looks powerful about a mother and activist who’s coping with the forced disappearance of her husband, a dissident politician, during the military dictatorship in Brazil in 1971.

The screenplay is mostly in Portuguese with English subtitles, which I don’t do too well with, but the film seems like it will get a Best International Film Oscar nomination and has already made a big splash in Brazil, so I think it’ll be worth seeing. It’s based on the 2015 memoir by Marcelo Rubens Paiva about his experiences of losing his father to the Brazilian military and also becoming paralyzed at age 20 from a diving accident.

In TV shows, the British crime drama Vera — based on the books by Ann Cleeves featuring Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope — will start its fourteenth and final season on Jan. 2 on Britbox, though it’ll just be two last episodes.

I admit I haven’t seen the show after all these years and don’t get Britbox, but it looks entertaining with Brenda Blethyn in the title role. Apparently she’s been playing Vera from 2011 to 2025, wow. I think it’s also available on PBS. The series looks gorgeous with its cinematography and is filmed on location in North East England. I think you can stream all the seasons if you want.

And for fans of the sci-fi show Severance, Season 2 will begin Jan. 17 on AppleTV+. It’s been three years since the end of Season 1 so people have been waiting for a while. I haven’t seen the show but apparently it’s received much critical acclaim.

It seems hard to explain the premise but basically it’s about a team of office workers whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives … but then after a mysterious colleague appears outside of work, they begin a journey to discover the truth about their jobs. Has anyone watched this? Do I need to get an implanted chip? Lol.

Also Season 6 of the series C.B. Strike starts Jan. 23 on HBO Max. It’s the adaptation of JK Rowling’s sixth crime novel The Ink Black Heart and stars Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger as Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott.

Has anyone been following the series? I think I tried to watch an earlier season and might have fallen asleep more than once, so that doesn’t bode well. I have read one of the Rowling Galbraith books, so I know the characters. But let me know if I should try to pick up the show again. The actors seem to have a pretty good connection in the roles of Strike and Robin.

And lastly in music, there’s upcoming albums by Ringo Star, David Gray, the Weather Station, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and the duo Penny & Sparrow among others. I’ll pick British singer-songwriter David Gray’s new one Dear Life (due out Jan. 17) as my choice this month, and you can hear his song Plus & Minus off it here, which is a bit of a duet with a British singer named Talia Rae.

That’s all for now. What about you which releases are you looking forward to this month? Wishing everyone a very safe and Happy New Year.

Posted in Top Picks | 50 Comments

Silver Bells

Posted on December 23, 2024 by Susan

Hi all, I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah or holiday and end of year to all. It’s been a good year of reading, and I’m thankful to the blogging community and those who stopped by here during the year. You make it fun and worthwhile to discuss books, reading, and all things to watch and listen to. I love the tips I get about what to pick up or take in and to hear about all what you’re reading and doing. Many of you have become such good buddies and regulars here and I thank you for your visits and kind words.

On Christmas, we will have a small group of four coming together (along with two lively Labradors) to enjoy the holiday with. See the tree we’ve managed to put up on the fly, though we’re still working on the lights’ missing plug. It’s been nice to be in California this holiday season to visit some with my brother and Dad and be with my adorable husband and also to enjoy things near the beach.

We have thawed out since coming south and plan to return back north in mid-January. In a week or so, I’ll be posting my January Preview and later my Book Favorites of 2024 list, so stay tuned. Until then wishing you all a very happy and peaceful holiday. And may you receive several new books to read. Cheers! —Susan from the Cue Card

Posted in Books | 32 Comments

Holiday Cheer

Posted on December 17, 2024 by Susan

Hi all, I hope you are well. We are staying near the beach and there have been some gorgeous sunsets. We have been enjoying family get-togethers with my Dad and brother (and hopefully soon with my niece and nephew-in-law too). We’ve done a bit of shopping, bike riding, reading, football watching, and of course dog walks. We still have to put up the tree! That’s what happens when you travel you do things on the fly. But we are gearing for the holiday and plan to see the boat parade here this week, which is always fun and colorful, and maybe take in a movie. I hope you are able to enjoy the holidays with friends and family.

Have you decided what your first book of 2025 will be? Okay, let’s hear what it is. I haven’t decided mine yet, but I plan to over the weekend. I think first reads of the year should be a bit special, so I will look for something. Isn’t it fun that soon we will have a clean slate and new year for reading. Perhaps many of us will have new reading challenges, or changes to our reading that we want to try. I sort of want to boost my nonfiction next year but don’t I always say that? And I’d like to have a few books always going at once instead of just one print and one audio at a time. I need to open it up a bit more. But first, I want to finish at least two more books by the end of the year and then turn my thoughts to next year. How about you?

And now I’ll leave you with a review of what I finished lately.

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie / Random House / 224 pages / 2024

Much of this memoir seems brave. Not only for Rushdie’s stands past and current against terror and fatwas, but also for the health recovery he details and his openness on talking about things that are personal, the changes he faces, and his thoughts going forward. It’s a memoir that’s a bit here and there and I preferred some parts more than others, but still it gave an encompassing picture of the tumultuous life-altering event he and his family endured due to the brutal assassination attempt on his life in 2022 when he was horrifically stabbed at a public event numerous times.

The chapters on all his health recovery and rehab post-attack are daunting and tense, but I preferred the other chapters more about his thoughts about the world, where his life and work are, and how his loving family and wife poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths came to be his stalwarts. His personal life after several marriages seems to have settled with Eliza who appears to be his rock since their marriage in 2021. And he molds much of the memoir into a story about love conquering evil, which is pleasing. The book’s other part is his trying to understand what happened and why.

One segment goes into an imaginary interview Rushdie has with his assailant, which I thought was worth while … as well as his thoughts about religion. It seems frustrating trying to reason with people who don’t have much reason behind their acts to others, or who do things for incredibly absurd or incorrect assumptions. Rushdie has long been a beacon of freedom of thought, expression, and religion and that still burns brightly here.

I listened to the audio version read by the author, which was insightful to hear him read it.

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read this one and what did you think? Have a great week.

Posted in Books | 32 Comments

Along the Route

Posted on December 8, 2024 by Susan

Hi all. We made it to California on our road trip and are enjoying some warmer temps. On the way south, we stopped at a donkey sanctuary in southern Utah. The owners were kind to meet with us and let us know about their interesting and adorable animals. They have about nine, and this one at left is named Homer. (He must like the Greeks.)

We are still considering whether we might get a couple donkeys in the future. Only trouble is most donkeys don’t like dogs so we would need to keep our Labradors away from them, so they don’t get trampled. Also our northern winters might be a bit harsh for donkeys, so we need to do more research and ask some neighbors who have them about how they manage. Getting donkeys remains a bit uncertain but Homer sure was cute.

Meanwhile in book news my Q & A with Irish author Colum McCann was recently published in Publishers Weekly here. I think they make you register to see the link, argh. Anyways we chatted about McCann’s new novel Twist coming in March … which is about a journalist who goes to cover the story of a crew on a cable repair ship off the coast of Africa. It’s a bit of a mysterious tale and illuminates how much of our internet communications runs in wires at the bottom of the oceans that are somewhat vulnerable to breakages. I don’t want to say too much about the story, but McCann, a National Book Award winner, is always one to watch. Look for the novel coming in March.

And now I’ll leave you with a few short reviews of what I finished lately.

Pearly Everlasting by Tammy Armstrong / Harper / 352 pages / 2024

4.5 stars. I pretty much loved this novel about a girl (Pearly) who grows up in a lumber camp in the woods of New Brunswick during the Depression-era … with her poor family and a small abandoned black bear that they take in as a cub. Pearly and Bruno (the bear) are raised together and the family is close as they endure the rigors of the camp and a new logging boss who is cruel and arrives during Pearly’s teenage years. Then something happens to Bruno and Pearly must journey away from the camp and all she’s known to find him. It turns out to be quite an adventurous trek and she winds up in a town that she must navigate.

Pearly Everlasting is a bit of a tomboy and a strong female protagonist who can hold her own. I hadn’t known of writer Tammy Armstrong before, but she’s an award-winning poet who casts a spell with her lyrical prose writing and her descriptions of the woods and the girl’s life. Apparently Armstrong grew up in New Brunswick and now lives in Nova Scotia. She’s a new favorite Canadian author to me and I will watch for whatever she puts out next.

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout / Random House / 327 pgs / 2024

4.5 stars. This is the fifth book in Strout’s series that feature the same cast of her beloved characters and are mostly set in the small town of Cosby, Maine. This one, which I listened to on audio by the superb Kimberly Farr, grew on me as it went along and I especially liked the novel’s second half that features lawyer Bob Burgess taking on a case of a hapless man who is charged with the death of his elderly mother.

Much has been made in the novel of Strout’s major characters: writer Lucy Barton meeting Olive Kitteridge, now 90, at her senior community. Olive tells Lucy some interesting stories she thinks Lucy might be able to use as a writer. And those were fine, and Olive’s directness still makes me laugh, but it’s Bob Burgess who really steals the show in this novel. Bob undergoes a bit of a crisis when he begins to have feelings for Lucy Barton, despite his marriage to Margaret, the pastor. You have to see what happens at the end with that and his law case. Bob’s a caring and generous soul and the journey with him is something to eagerly take in.

Throughout there’s many details and sentiments in these characters’ lives that Strout seamlessly weaves in and out that makes her storytelling one of the best in the business. We know Olive, Lucy, the Burgess brothers, wives: Margaret, and ex-Pam, and some of the kids quite well now that they all feel very real. By the end, Strout cuts to the heart of the matter moving us with her poignant characters and their lives. Her storytelling of the town and its denizens still casts a touching spell.

Sonny Boy: A Memoir by Al Pacino / Penguin / 384 pages / 2024

4 stars. We listened to the audio of this on our road trip south, read by the author in his raspy voice. It’s quite an epic telling of his poor childhood in the South Bronx of N.Y., his group of friends there, and how he got into acting in theater and later movies. It touches briefly on some of his personal relationships with Jill Clayburgh and Diane Keaton for example, but it doesn’t go into too many others.

What I liked hearing about were his roles in films such as The Godfather (trilogy), Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Scarface, Glengarry Glen Ross, and many other great films. And I guess I didn’t realize how much he was into theater, which seems his first true passion, and Shakespeare. He goes into his theater world quite a bit and the plays he did. It also touches on how he had to sober up and quit alcohol, or else he wouldn’t have lasted.

Towards the end, Pacino sort of meanders on and off with various topics, the people he grew up who died from drugs, and it could’ve been edited shorter. It seems he wasn’t good with money and he went broke at certain points. Some of his willingness to keep acting at times was for money as well as what he knew how to do. Acting runs strong in his DNA, which is quite apparent throughout this. I hardly ever check out actor memoirs, but this was a good exception, and it made me like him a bit more.

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read these and if so, what did you think? Happy holiday season to you.

Posted in Books | 34 Comments

December Preview

Posted on November 29, 2024 by Susan

Hi all. Ho ho ho — we’re almost into December. Crazy right? The year is almost done. Just a few days ago, Flag the deer and his pal showed up to eat at our bird feeder. Usually we take the feeders down at night so they’re not emptied, but these deer came early to get a snack. The birds and deer are hungry these days with the snow on the ground, and it’s only 10F /-12C outside. Brrr.

This coming week, we’ll start our long road trip south to Southern California with our two dogs in the back. We have a couple audios lined up … since my husband prefers nonfiction we have Al Pacino’s new memoir Sonny Boy and a history titled The Stalin Affair: The Impossible Alliance That Won the War by Giles Milton. So we’ll see how these turn out as we travel over hill and dale.

Meanwhile I’m sure some are starting to make their favorite books of the year lists. Usually I put my list out in early January because there’s still some last minute reading to do! But I like seeing everyone’s lists. And now let’s chat about what’s releasing in December.

In books, British author William Boyd has a new novel titled Gabriel’s Moon (due out Dec. 3), which sounds good, about an acclaimed travel writer in 1960 who gets caught up doing spy errands for MI-6. He’s a reluctant spy and has a full life going at the same time. I haven’t read Boyd since his 2006 novel Restless, so I’d like to test out his writing again.

Else-wise, I’m a bit on the fence about a few other novels due out. There’s Amanda Lee Koe’s folk-tale-y novel Sister Snake (due out Dec. 3) about two estranged sisters, one in New York the other in Singapore, who happen to have been born as snakes in 815 China. They share their secret and attempt a reconciliation after one is attacked in Central Park. Hmm sisters as snakes?

Or there’s Weike Wang’s novel Rental House (out Dec. 3) about an interracial couple who face pressure from their parents and in-laws on vacations to Cape Cod and the Catskills. As they share rental houses with their families, racial, cultural, and class tensions come to the surface. Uh-oh sounds like trouble. I wasn’t a big fan of Weike’s 2022 novel Joan Is Okay so I hesitate a bit with this, but authors probably should have at least two chances, right?

Or there’s Lily Tuck’s short novel The Rest Is Memory (due out Dec. 10) about the real-life story of a resilient Polish Catholic girl who’s sent to Auschwitz that looks quite powerful, though I don’t think I could stomach it right now … but I put it out there for others.

On the screen in December, so many releases will descend on us in addition to all the fun holiday cheer to watch. Currently I’m taking a break from watching any dystopian and society collapse kinds of things, but I will just mention the 6-episode miniseries based on the 1949 pandemic novel Earth Abides by George R. Stewart, which starts Dec. 1 on MGM+.

Both Lark at Lark Writes and Kathy at Reading Matters had good things to say about the gripping novel, which they presciently reviewed before the recent pandemic. I think I need to read the classic tale instead of watching the series … but sometime when things are rosier.

Next up, Keira Knightley, Ben Whishaw, and Sarah Lancashire star in the British 6-episode spy-thriller series Black Doves (starting Dec. 5 on Netflix). It looks like an action-packed kind of thing set at Christmas in London. It might be sort of crazy judging from the trailer but due to the cast and setting I will at least check it out.

Also a quick mention about the series Dexter: Original Sin (starting Dec. 15 on Paramount+ & Showtime) for Jinjer at The Intrepid Angeleno who was a fan of the crime/drama show when it aired from 2006-2013. It is back now as a prequel, which they were recently filming on Jinjer’s street (see link above)! I didn’t see the original — perhaps the plot about a vigilante serial killer was too dark for me.

But I’m also curious to see the big upcoming movies, which include The Return (due out Dec. 6, rated R) starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche in a retelling of Homer’s Odyssey. Fiennes was recently the pope in the movie Conclave, as well as Macbeth in a film, now he’s Odysseus, so he’s filling some big shoes these days. I was surprised to learn he hadn’t won an Oscar over the years.

The Return is an epic tale that was filmed on location in Greece, so there’s plenty of sights to see while witnessing those harsh days surrounding the time of the Trojan War.

Meanwhile Amy Adams is back in the black comedy Nightbitch (out Dec. 6, rated R), which should be good fun about a woman who decides to be a stay-at-home mom only to find that domesticity drives her a bit wild, lol. It’s based on the 2021 novel by Rachel Yoder, which was really well done and a five-star read for me.

The movie looks a bit darkly humorous and gets the point across, though I’m not sure it will compare to the book, which seemed to have some depth to it along with the humor. Still the movie is its own thing and I will see it sometime. I’ve been patiently waiting for Yoder’s next book.

Also the Maria Callas movie starring Angelina Jolie, which I mentioned last month, will be available on Netflix starting Dec. 11. It follows the opera singer’s life during her last years while she was living in Paris, which in real life sounded quite sad. I’m not sure how much it gets into that.

And there’s a new Count of Monte Cristo movie (out Dec. 20) with French actor Pierre Niney as Edmund. I kid you not. That classic tale has been done five times before as a film and once as a TV series. What more can they squeeze out of it? I sort of prefer the old Richard Chamberlain movie version, circa 1975, lol.

But let’s move on. Timothee Chalamet, who’s been Willy Wonka and Paul in Dune, will now be transported to being a young Bob Dylan in the biopic A Complete Unknown (due out Dec. 25, rated R) back when Bob was with Joan Baez and switching to an electric guitar was a big deal for the folk singer and his fans.

That’ll be all right, but I probably won’t see the Nicole Kidman movie Babygirl (out Dec. 25, rated R) about a female CEO who starts a torrid affair with her young intern. It seems too 50 Shades of Gray-ish to me, though it might get her an Oscar nomination apparently.

But I’m curious to see the epic historical drama The Brutalist (out Dec. 20), starring Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones, about a Hungarian-Jewish architect who survives the Holocaust and emigrates to the United States, where he struggles to achieve the American Dream … until meeting a wealthy client.

It sounds really good, but it’s 3 hours, 35 minutes long, and I thought Oppenheimer was long at 3 hours. So I think watching it at home maybe over two nights will probably be best in order to take breaks. The movie was filmed in Budapest and Tuscany, and Brody once won an Oscar you might recall for his portrayal in the 2002 war drama The Pianist.

Finally I’ll mention the movie The Room Next Door (out Dec. 20) starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore as friends who get back in touch just as one is deciding whether to pursue assisted suicide since she is terminally ill. It seems a sad film to open around the holidays, but it has its wider release in January. With these two actresses surrounding such an important topic, the movie will likely be well worth exploring. It’s set in New York City and is based on the Sigrid Nunez novel What Are You Going Through.

And lastly for music in December, I like to listen to holiday tunes primarily during the month, but there’s also singer-songwriter Angel Olsen’s new album titled Cosmic Waves Vol. 1 as well as Lucinda Williams’ new album covering the Beatles Abbey Road (both are out Dec. 6). Lucinda is a hero of mine.

That’s all for now. What about you — which releases are you looking forward to this month? Enjoy this busy holiday season.

Posted in Top Picks | 48 Comments

A Snowball Fest

Posted on November 22, 2024 by Susan

Hi all. Time has flown by this month. You might already be gearing up for Thanksgiving. It’s that time of year. Gobble, gobble. Winter hit us full on this past week! We were lulled into thinking fall would continue on, but no! All of sudden it was snow, snow, snow!

I can’t complain too much because the drought wasn’t good for a while. So it’s better to snow. And it’ll be good for the ski areas. We might have a foot of snow on the ground by Sunday, lol. I keep filling all the bird feeders around the house. The birds are very hungry these days and are emptying the feeders so quickly. Meanwhile I hope those who live along the northern West Coast weren’t too hard hit by the “cyclone bomb,” which brought a lot of rain and wind this past week. It was crazy in some areas apparently.

In book news this week, Percival Everett’s novel James, a retelling of Huck Finn, won the National Book Award for fiction. Yay. I think it was quite deserving of a big award. While the Booker Prize chose Samantha Harvey’s novel Orbital recently, James took the NBA, which was hosted by comedian Kate McKinnon. Her speech was pretty amusing and can be heard here if you’re in need of some levity.

Also this past week author Anne Michaels won Canada’s Giller Prize for her novel Held, a multigenerational tale that looks at war and trauma and spans more than a century. While I have read James, I have not read Held yet. So I will give it a go sometime.

Also in book news, we had good news this week that the city’s library system here was coming back online after being down for a month. Around Oct. 18, they shut it down due to an apparent cyberattack. You couldn’t put books on hold, or return books. The whole library system was virtually shut down. And it went on for four weeks. Gosh we all learned how much we value the library after that. It is finally back open again and our flow of incoming and outgoing books can be restored, hooray. Both dogs are happy that their mother is happy about this, and Willow, at right, is celebrating her fourth birthday today. 🙂 But Stella doesn’t want her to get all the attention.

Also in good news, I had the great fortune to see Bruce Springsteen in concert last Saturday night. I’ve been a big fan of his ever since I was a teenager when I saw him in concert in 1981 at the L.A. Forum. News of the show came up quite suddenly. I found out about it late, the morning of the concert, but I knew I had to go. I worried it might be the last time I saw Bruce perform, so I went all out to see the Boss: driving an hour, parking in craziness, trying to get a ticket at the box office! Which I did somehow, someway.

And of course, I wasn’t disappointed. Bruce gave a 110 percent and rocked so many of his great songs throughout his career for nearly three hours. He and the E Street band brought the house down! I was moved beyond belief. He gave an amazing show! I never sat down. I know I won’t soon forget it. It was like a healing balm after the election. And at 75, Bruce is still more energetic than most of us combined. You might recall I wrote about the last time I saw him in 2012 here. But it seemed even more poignant this time. For his song setlist of the show you can look here. And yes, he did sing “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” which is sort of silly and fun, even though I’m not even thinking about Christmas yet.

Lastly, I don’t have a book review to feature this week as life was busy. But I’ve been reading the novel Pearly Everlasting by the Canadian author Tammy Armstrong lately, and it seems good so far. I’ve also been working on a project for Publishers Weekly, which asked me to do an author Q&A. I can talk about it more next week once it’s published. But I was a bit nervous since I had to come up with questions about a new novel by a previous National Book Award-winning author and talk with the author on Zoom about it. I’m sort of an introvert so things like that don’t come too easily. Luckily the chat went well and I just need to pare the interview down now.

That’s all for this week. What about you — have you read anything good lately? Happy Thanksgiving to those in the States.