December Preview

Posted on December 4, 2019 by Susan

Happy December. We have made it to the last month of the year. I hope everyone has a very happy holiday season. At left is my little Charlie Brown Christmas tree from the front yard. It has grown quite a bit since we moved here, but it still reminds me of the tree from the Peanuts holiday special. 

I’m sure it will get very busy soon, so before that happens I will put out my last Preview post of 2019. These preview posts help me organize as to what’s coming out each month and keep me more on the ball as to what to read, see, and listen to, or at least that’s the hope. I try to make them entertaining and worthwhile and get your thoughts about upcoming new releases as well. 

And now, let’s turn our attention to what’s coming out this month. December is usually a time we don’t see a whole lot of notable new reads, and yet there are a few this time I’m curious about. Of course, Buddy Levy’s nonfiction book “Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition” probably has to top my list this month since I’m a bit of a nut about polar exploration kinds of books. You name it: Ernest Shackleton, Captain Scott, Sir John Franklin … their expeditions were Oh so doomed, but Oh so riveting too.

And now for Greely’s Expedition (1881-1884), which was seeking to establish Arctic research stations and the farthest northern latitude, but instead faced a harrowing journey of retreat after the group’s supply ships failed to meet up with its 25 men as they waited two years. Ugh, they ended up eating the soles of their shoes to survive and unfortunately perhaps some members of their own group. It could make a perfect wintertime read right?

Next up is Irish author Niall Williams’s new novel “This Is Happiness,” which spins the tale of one spring season in 1958 in the small rural community of Faha, where young Dubliner Noel Crowe, 17, has already departed the seminary and retreated to the home of his grandparents. It seems he is narrating the story of his life then — its lessons and his loves new and old— from decades much later. His interactions are set against a portrait of small village life where the arrival of electricity is just coming to the community.

It seems to be a story steeped a bit in nostalgia and the joys of reminiscing, which is not unlike the themes of Ann Patchett’s new novel “The Dutch House,” which I’m nearing the end of. So perhaps I’ll need some time in between these two. 

Another December release getting quite a bit of buzz is Kiley Reid’s debut novel “Such a Fun Age” about the relationship between a privileged white mom and her black babysitter, which becomes strained by “race related complications.” It seems their lives come to intersect in a “wholly surprising way, raising difficult questions about morality, forgiveness, race, class, and parenthood,” says Amazon’s reviewer Sarah Gelman.

I guess I will refrain from finding out too much more about it than that so as not to ruin it for me, but it does sound to be a story that explores the stickiness of transactional relationships in a perceptive way, so count me in.

As for movies in December, ’tis the big season. There’s a smorgasbord of notable choices: including the “Richard Jewell” story, the fall of Fox News’s Roger Ailes in “Bombshell,” and the upcoming World War I epic “1917,” which all look quite excellent. Charlize Theron’s transformation into one-time Fox news anchor Megyn Kelly in “Bombshell” should be quite a doozy.

Then there’s a death penalty drama called “Clemency” starring Alfre Woodard that’s getting considerable buzz, though whether audiences can stomach a bleak death penalty-themed movie at Christmas remains to be seen — while all out war in “1917” is usually another story. There’s also the movie adaptation of “Just Mercy,” which is coming out on the big screen based on the bestselling memoir by Bryan Stevenson about a civil rights defense attorney who fights to free a condemned death row prisoner. Hmm. Death row stories appear to big this holiday season. 

But perhaps not as big as Greta Gerwig’s remake of Louisa Alcott’s  1868-69 classic “Little Women” about four sisters coming of age in the U.S. in the aftermath of the Civil War. It’s been on the big screen two other times in 1949 and more recently in 1994. Do you remember Winona Ryder as Jo March and a young Christian Bale as Laurie? And Claire Danes and Kirsten Dunst as sister Marches? Oh those were the days. But what makes this new one any better? It’s getting significant advance hype and was done by the director and writer of the 2017 movie “Lady Bird.” So here we go again with the March girls. 

As for new albums in December there’s new ones by the young talented British singer Harry Styles and country singer Blake Shelton, but I think I’ll stick to holiday tunes this month to get me into the spirit. Sarah McLachlan’s 2006 album “Wintersong” is one of my favorites, along with the soundtrack to the 2003 movie “Love Actually.”  Do you have any holiday favorites?

That’s all for now. What about you — which new releases this month are you most looking forward to?  

Posted in Top Picks | 14 Comments

Out and About

Posted on November 26, 2019 by Susan

Greetings. I want to wish everyone in the U.S. a very Happy Thanksgiving holiday ahead. It’s hard to believe it’s already upon us. Last week I was away visiting my parents in Southern California (see the photos attached) so I’ve  been off the blog for awhile and since then a lot in book news has happened. Particularly you probably heard that author Susan Choi won the National Book Award for fiction for her novel “Trust Exercise,” which I read back in April and found ambitious and a bit challenging.

Now I’m curious about Sarah M. Broom’s memoir “The Yellow House,” which won the National Book Award for nonfiction. It’s said to be about her New Orleans home and how her family scattered after Hurricane Katrina. It sounds good and I’m looking to get my hands on it. Also I was a bit surprised to see that Ian Williams beat out various authors including Michael Crummey to win Canada’s Giller Prize for his debut novel “Reproduction.” Set over three decades, it’s about a family living in an economically mixed and diverse Toronto neighborhood. I don’t know much more about it than that, but I plan to check it out in the future. 

Meanwhile a few publications I follow have already put out their 10 Best Books of 2019 lists, which are pretty interesting. Here they are below: 

The New York Times
The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
Amazon Books

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of overlap among their fiction picks, but two of these publications share the pick of “The Topeka School,” two others share “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” and two share “The Nickel Boys,” so there you have it. Did you get to any of these? I was impressed with “The Nickel Boys,” which I read in August, but I likely won’t put my list of favorite books of 2019 out until early January. There’s still plenty of reading left to do. Meanwhile I’ll leave you with a few reviews of what I finished lately. 

I liked the setting of Leigh Bardugo’s first adult novel “Ninth House,” which has to do with Yale’s secret societies and their hidden rituals and elite members in the city of New Haven. And the protagonist, too, Alex Stern is quite cool. She’s gone from a druggy teenage past that left her the sole survivor at a multiple homicide scene in L.A. to being offered a full ride at Yale U from a benefactor who knows of her ability to see ghosts and wants her to monitor the activities of Yale’s secret societies. So when a town girl involved with the societies is killed, Alex becomes determined to find her killer, even if it means dodging attempts on her life and making bargains with spirits. 

So far, so good. I was able to hang with it — even though I’m not typically a reader of fantasy novels. As with many such books, there’s a lot of setup and explanation to get the plot to where it’s going and fill you in on what the heck is going on amid its societies and rituals. It can be a bit involved — all the explanation and setup — but the beginning also kept me interested. I  liked Stern’s secret society mentor Darlington who seems to be a neat character but he mysteriously disappears … which is a bit too bad for the story. Towards the end, all becomes sort of crazy and I had to roll my eyes a few times throughout. Certainly, “Ninth House,” which is the first in a series, will keep you on your toes with its various twists and secret magic to get to the bottom of its murder mystery — check it out if you’re up for a gritty, lively fantasy. (There is some violence & a bit of strong language involved.)

“My Twenty-Five Years in Provence: Reflections on Then and Now” is a charming slim travelogue-kind-of book — the final volume by Englishman Peter Mayle who died in Jan. 2018 — of his recollections and anecdotes about his life in Provence, France, where he moved to upon retirement in the late 1980s. In it, he writes about how he came to live there (so much more sun!); the wines and food; the seasons, weather and tourists; how he learned the language; what the locals are like; how fast they drive; buying real estate there; the melons and asparagus; dogs; his time on the set with director Ridley Scott while making his book “A Good Year” into a film; and his receiving France’s Legion of Honor. 

I found Mayle to be a pretty endearing guide throughout and listening to it as an audiobook read by John Lee was enjoyable. It reminded me of the time I briefly spent in Provence on my honeymoon visiting the area (hooray). I don’t think I ever read Mayle’s 1989 bestseller “A Year in Provence” (my husband did), but I’d like to someday in the future. Apparently Mayle never liked the TV series that was based on his book — he thought the actor who played him always seemed to be in a bad mood whereas he said he was delighted by his new life in France.

It is quite sad Peter Mayle has now passed away. My only qualm with his last book was that it seemed a bit redundant in places, such as about the seasons and weather, and it skips around quite a bit, but certainly it is a celebration of the Luberon area of France, which made me want to jump on a plane and just go. 

I can now check John Knowles’s 1959 classic “A Separate Peace” off my list. I know it has often been required reading for students in junior high or high school, but somehow I missed it and was always curious. It’s set at a boys boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II and is said to be a “parable of the dark side of adolescence.” The two prep school boys Gene (the studious one) and Phineas (the athlete) become close friends, though Gene feels jealous and competitive with Finny, which in time leads to a misfortunate accident, or is it? 

The atmosphere of the New Hampshire prep school during the summer of 1942 with the war going on interested me. It wasn’t the heroic tale you often hear about of the Greatest Generation with boys going off to fight valiantly in WWII, but it is more grim and felt like impending doom. Themes of male bonding and coming of age permeate the story, and the accident with Finny leaves Gene, who narrates it, with feelings of guilt and sorrow. It’s hard to totally like Gene because of his early behavior, but it seems he comes around and learns a painful lesson in the end.

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

Posted in Books | 14 Comments

A Flurry of Reviews

Posted on November 7, 2019 by Susan

Greetings. I hope everyone is enjoying their fall … or early winter as some might have it. We received several inches of snow on Tuesday, which made walking our Labrador (my trusty book assistant) very pretty and serene on Wednesday. We had the trails by the river all to ourselves and the sun was out and the snow bright and fluffy. Little ice crystals latched onto the tree limbs and fell from the air at times in the nippy 15F degree weather.

It’s often that winter days have the prettiest walks, but you just have to dress right for them. I usually walk Stella an hour each morning, year-around — no temperature is too cold for her — and I try my best to accommodate, which is pretty good for a California-raised girl based in Canada. And now I’ll leave you with reviews of several books I recently completed. 

The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir by Samantha Power (2019) / via hardback print copy, 552 pages

I’m a bit of a sucker for books by staffers from the former Obama administration and Samantha Power’s new memoir was almost as good for me as Michelle Obama’s book earlier in the year. Power as you might recall was the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations during President Obama’s second term and also won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for her nonfiction book: “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide.” Other than that, I knew practically nothing about her before reading this memoir. 

Background: The book picks up with the author’s youth in Ireland and how her parents divorced and her mother (a medical doctor) moved with Samantha and her brother to the United States when she was 9, first to Pittsburgh a few years then to Atlanta. Her parent’s divorce and her father’s subsequent decline hit Samantha hard, but she excelled at sports and school and eventually got into Yale, where she became interested in journalism and foreign affairs.

She was so taken with both that she moved to Bosnia during the war there and became a freelance reporter for various publications, while becoming hooked with wanting to do more for human rights. She went on to get a law degree at Harvard and the rest is sort of history. She wrote her book about the Rwandan genocide and later met Obama in 2005 and started working for him while he was in the Senate, then during his presidential campaign, and on his National Security Council, and finally at the U.N. 

My Thoughts: What made this an interesting read was the behind-the-scenes views of her personal and work lives … about how this Irish immigrant girl from a broken family rose to become such a voice and activist on human rights and the U.S.’s top U.N. Ambassador as well as one of Obama’s key advisors. She seems to be quite candid about her fears, struggles, and thoughts along the way — and I felt it wasn’t just PR fluff about her life and work in the administration but that she reveals much more, which made it enticing.

The memoir’s first half (of her early days & personal life of her family, school, ambitions, friends, and meeting her husband etc.) seemed to read quickly, and the last half delves into chapters of crises she faced in her government roles (such as on Libya, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and Ebola) that weighed it down a bit more, but was quite informational. I felt a kinship with her on policy and ideology so that made it appealing.

All in all, I found the author to be thoughtful, humane, modest, candid, and caring throughout the book. Though it was long, I made it through and found it quite a worthy read. In it, she makes a strong case that an individual can make a difference … in the face of overwhelming odds and obstacles. It’s quite evident in reading her book: just how hard and many hours a day she worked on behalf of humanity and democracy — and for that, I wish Samantha Power was still at the U.N. 

The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall (2019) / via audiobook read by Kathy Keane

This is a bit of a heartwarming story about two married couples (Charles & Lily, and James & Nan) whose men come to co-pastor at the same church in NYC starting in 1963 for a couple decades. Their wives differ, Nan is religious and from a wealthy family, while Lily is orphaned at a young age and is not religious. The story grapples over the two couples faith, as well as the afflictions that are not trivial that hit their families over the years. (I will refrain from telling you what they are.) 

It starts a bit slow in Part 1 then moves a bit better in Parts 2 and 3 as things in their families come to pass. Quite a bit of the story had a 1950s and early ’60s feel to me and I wondered at times if in general it was a bit too wholesome and a tad saccharine. Still listening to it as an audiobook — the narration of their lives felt quite soothing. I can’t even explain it. These people did seem real to me and I felt like I came to know them — so I was a bit sad by the end to see them go. 

The story does switch between the four main characters at times quickly (a small criticism), and there is quite a bit about faith and God in it, but you don’t really have to be religious to partake or like the novel. There are some thoughtful passages just about human existence and struggle and despair in it. Ultimately it’s about family, friends, and communities and how people come together and help each other out in their daily lives over many decades, so I liked its overall theme.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959) / via e-book 

I was looking for a spooky story to read right before Halloween …. and this slim novel fit the bill quite well. When paranormal scholar Dr. Montague invites some guest researchers to stay at the presumed haunted mansion Hill House — he doesn’t know who he will get … but a shy, lonely girl named Eleanore Vance, who’s done nothing but care for her disabled mother for many years, and Theodora, a bohemian girl, answer his call … along with Luke, who one day hopes to inherit the mansion from his family. Eleanore is the main character and you root for her despite her being sort of out of it from being a recluse most of her life. 

All is quiet for awhile until a few nights in when disturbances inside Hill House start to take place and the four are frightened to their core. It’s a short novel that has plenty of atmosphere and eeriness and I didn’t exactly know what would happen — it kept me off-balance — though I knew wherever it was going likely wouldn’t be good. Hill House had me in its clutches, fearing its many nooks and corridors, and I probably won’t forget poor Eleanore Vance anytime soon. Ps. I have not seen the Netflix TV series that is loosely based on this novel, have you?

The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill (2017) / via audiobook read by Julia Whelan

This is the second novel I’ve read by Canadian author Heather O’Neill and one that Judy over at Keeping the Wisdom wrote about quite favorably just last month, so I had to investigate. It was also named one of the best novels of 2017 by Kirkus Reviews among a few other places.

It turns out the novel is an epic and lengthy love story about two talented orphans (Rose & Pierrot) who share their 1920s youths in Montreal together and become musical performers, then get separated for many years during the Great Depression … and what happens to their lives after they reconnect.

It’s a pretty gritty, grim tale as Rose and Pierrot’s impoverished orphan lives make them vulnerable to the bleak underworld of 1930s Montreal. Along the way, they endure a slew of harsh things to survive such as abuse, prostitution, addiction, and crime. The story is sexually explicit in places so readers should be forewarned. Yet the characters have a dignity and soul about them that makes you keep on following attentively. There is also some lively storytelling along the way about their love for one another and living on extreme edges …. I’ll call it a tale of Dr. Zhivago for destitute orphans who become mixed up in underworld life. 

I ended up liking Pierrot but Rose becomes pretty hardened and transformed by her circumstances. You root for them …. but sometimes you can never fully leave what shapes your life behind. It’s tragic and sad in that way.

That’s all for now. What about you have you read any of these books or authors?  And if so, what did you think? 

Posted in Books | 23 Comments

November Preview

Posted on October 31, 2019 by Susan

Happy Halloween everyone. I hope you enjoy the festivities. Tomorrow November will be upon us. We have two reading months left in 2019, so I hope you are nearing your year-end goals. I’m a bit behind but it is okay: we will see where I come out at the end of December. There’s still plenty of good reading left to do.

Though November is usually not one of my favorite months as the weather here often turns dismal quickly, but come mid-month we’re traveling to see my folks in Southern California so that should be nice — as long as we stay clear of the wildfires. My thoughts go out to those who have lost homes or been displaced there due to the terrible fires. My sister’s place in Northern Cal was without power for three days (as a prevention due to the high winds), but it’s back on now and the winds seem to be dissipating, knock on wood.

Meanwhile I’ve been checking to see what’s coming out in November and there seems to be some notable novels due out even this late in the season. For one, I’ve got my eye on Erin Morgenstern’s latest one “The Starless Sea,” which is a follow-up to her very successful 2011 novel “The Night Circus.” Her new one is said to be an epic fantasy novel about a graduate student who stumbles upon a peculiar book at the college library that contains a story of his childhood in it, which sets him on a journey to find answers … that in turn becomes something much bigger.

Granted, I’m not usually a fantasy reader but I need to check out what all the fuss is about with Erin Morgenstern’s books. I should go back and read “The Night Circus” first, though the two stories are not linked. “The Starless Sea” is said to be a sprawling, 512-page saga, so for those interested in it, you should get started pronto. 

Next is a tie between Margaret Wilkerson Sexton’s second novel “The Revisioners” and Bernardine Evaristo’s novel “Girl, Woman, Other,” which recently co-won the Booker Prize and is now becoming available in North America. “The Revisioners” appears to be a story about a New Orleans family’s ascent from slavery to freedom, which alternates chapters between two women, one a mixed-race single mom struggling to raise her teenage son in 2017, and the other her great-great-grandmother, a former slave who runs the family farm in 1924.

While the other novel, “Girl Woman, Other,” is said to depict a range of experiences of 12 black British women over time amid interconnected chapters. I’m usually not good with novels that focus on a dozen characters, but I think I’d like to try both books as the authors’ voices seem fresh and talented. 

I also like the looks of Allen Eskens’s new crime novel “Nothing More Dangerous” for a change of pace. Since I enjoyed Eskens’s debut 2014 novel “The Life We Bury,” I’m hoping this one will be good too. It centers on the friendship of a 15-year-old white boy named Boady and a black boy  named Thomas who moves in with his family next door. Eventually they stumble across a body and start playing detectives.

The story is said to be a coming-of-age crime novel sort of in the same vein as William Kent Krueger’s “Ordinary Grace” and Larry Watson’s “Montana 1948,” so if you liked those, you might try this one as well. 

Lastly in new book releases, I’ll pick Canadian author Michael Crummey’s new novel “The Innocents,” which has already been out in Canada but is just now becoming available in the U.S.  I liked Crummey’s 2014 novel “Sweetland,” which was excellent, so I’m hoping for good things about this one as well.

The story is set in 1800s Newfoundland about a young brother and sister who find themselves orphaned and alone and struggling to survive amid their rugged coastal surroundings and their own “strange physical awakenings.” I think someone joked its plot sounded like the movie “The Blue Lagoon” set in old-time Newfoundland. Ha, not to worry, I’m sure Michael Crummey’s version is much better. Apparently the idea for the novel came from an article Crummey found in the archives about young siblings alone on the coast. I’ve heard the story is sort of grim so beware if that is not your cup of tea. 

As for movies in November, there’s a nice crop of notable flicks on the horizon. ’Tis the season after all for possible Oscar movie releases. Speaking of which, my husband and I really enjoyed the October movie “Judy” and think Renee Zellweger did a marvelous job as Judy Garland — she deserves a Best Actress nomination for sure and likely the award itself. See it if you get a chance. 

For this month, I notice two novels have been adapted to the big screen: Stephen King’s sequel to “The Shining” — “Doctor Sleep” with Ewan McGregor — and Jonathan Lethem’s award-winning novel “Motherless Brooklyn” with Edward Norton.

I read and liked “Motherless Brooklyn” back when the novel came out in 1999 — about a lonely detective with Tourette’s Syndrome who tries to solve the murder of his only friend — but it’s been a long time now in which I’ve forgotten some of it, and unfortunately the movie has only gotten so-so reviews. I will probably wait for it to come out on TV.

Instead Martin Scorsese’s new mob film “The Irishman” —about a hitman with possible ties to the slaying of union leader Jimmy Hoffa — is getting strong praise so I will probably see it, though I’m not usually a big mob movie watcher, despite being well familiar with “Goodfellas.”

I like historical kinds of flicks so the biopic movie of abolitionist Harriet Tubman called “Harriet” looks worth seeing, with Cynthia Erivo as Harriet. And my husband will likely have us go to “Ford v. Ferrari” — about when the automaker challenged the Italians at the 1966 race at Le Mans. Hmm … it stars Matt Damon and Christian Bale, so they should keep me well entertained. But I’m not sure I’ll go see Tom Hanks as Mister Rogers in the movie “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” just because I wasn’t big into the TV show as a kid. Were you? Something about Fred Rogers’s manner and his sweater threw me. I was more a “Captain Kangaroo” watcher — truth be told. 

I’ll also likely skip the battle of “Midway” movie since it looks pretty filled with CGI effects and story-fluff nonsense. I’ll stick with historical documentaries of the battle, along with the 1976 original “Midway” movie starring Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda among others.

Instead the Noah Baumbach Netflix film “Marriage Story,” starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver, is getting a lot of positive buzz so I hope to see that one. I’ve enjoyed several of Baumbach’s movies over the years, including “While We Were Young,” “Greenberg,” “Margot at the Wedding,” and “The Squid and the Whale.” What’s not to like? Baumbach does the family break-up story better than most and throws in some amusing humor to boot. We’ll see how his new one fares.

As for albums in November, there’s new ones by Michael Kiwanuka (delayed from last month), Hootie & the Blowfish, Miranda Lambert, Lady Antebellum, and my pick for the month Coldplay. Coldplay returns with its eighth studio album called “Everyday Life,” which is the band’s first since 2015. The new one will be a double album with the first half titled Sunrise and the other Sunset. Hmm, so far I’ve heard only two tracks released off it: “Orphans” and “Arabesque,” but it seems upbeat. I’ll need more time to assess once it come out on Nov. 22.

That’s all for now. What about you — which new releases this month are you most looking forward to?    

Posted in Top Picks | 22 Comments

Book Festival Recap

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Susan

Oh October has been busy and flown by. Luckily as a remedy to all the jarring political news going on these days … I’ve been attending our city’s annual book festival over the past week called The Imaginarium (put on by Wordfest), and I’ve enjoyed seeing and hearing from so many authors. It turns out in seven days, I’ve been to 10 separate author panel events (some at our Central Library pictured here) and listened to 25 authors. Some panels have been about fiction and dystopia, others about memoir, and still others about history, essays and criticism. Sitting in on these has been quite inspiring and creative to hear, and I guess I feel that supporting the annual festival is important.

Perhaps one of the more lively panels I went to was one called Not So Quiet Resistance, which featured books not uncommon to the #MeToo era. Such authors on hand were Mona Awad with her novel “Bunny,”  Leni Zumas with “Red Clocks,” Joanne Ramos with “The Farm,” and E. Jean Carroll with her memoir “What Do We Need Men For?: A Modest Proposal.” They all appeared quite sharp and read interesting passages from their books, which I still hope to get to. Two of the novels — “The Farm” and “Red Clocks” — are reproductive/surrogacy, dystopian-type novels made all the more chilling for their not too far-off realness. And Mona Awad’s novel “Bunny” definitely sounds strange — a grad school novel about a clique of rich girls, known as the Bunnies, who lure in an outsider named Samantha with deadly consequences. It seems both sinister and darkly funny. The author says she reeled off the novel’s first draft in three months time (so you can write one too!). I guess I’ve read a couple bloggers say they didn’t make it through “Bunny” … but I like that it’s depicted as “Mean Girls” meets “Heathers” — or something like that, which seems like a decadently crazy combination.  

As for author E. Jean Carroll, a longtime advice columnist at Elle, she was also featured at an event with Emily Nussbaum, the Pulitzer Prize-winning TV critic at the New Yorker. I didn’t know much about Nussbaum or Carroll beforehand — though Carroll’s rape accusation against Donald Trump is certainly one I had heard. She’s a hoot in public and quite a feminist cheerleader for the #MeToo movement. The interview and discussion with E. Jean Carroll and Emily Nussbaum (pictured here) on everything from their books, to TV shows, and current life made for quite the entertaining evening … funny, raucous, and thought-provoking too.

Next at the festival, I was also pleased to sit in on a workshop with grammar guru Mary Norris, who was a copy editor and proofreader at the New Yorker for several decades. As a former copy editor myself, I sort of liken Norris to a hero and enjoyed her first memoir called “Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen,” which came out in 2016 and was a funny ode to the correct way of punctuating and writing. She has a new one out now called “Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen” about her passion of all things Greek. What was cool in the workshop was that she had printed out worksheets for our gathering to go over of published news articles that had errors in them that we had to find and correct. Ohh it was good fun and took me back to the days of yore. It’s always good to refresh one’s understandings of grammar rules and usage … especially when I often find mistakes creeping into my own writing. Who doesn’t?

Lastly it was great to hear from a combination of big well-known authors — such as Emma Donoghue, known for her book “Room” among others, Michael Crummey for “Sweetland” among others, and Stephen Chbosky, who wrote “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” — with lesser-known or debut authors. I must say those big three were very well spoken. I really liked “Sweetland,” so Crummey, who I’ve heard interviewed in person before, is always a treat. He’s got a new one out — “The Innocents” — which I plan to get to soon. And Stephen Chbosky, pictured with me here, couldn’t have been nicer at his event. His new novel “Imaginary Friend” seems very long but worth checking out. Stephen’s been in the film industry as a screenwriter and producer for a long time — he recently adapted the screenplay for the movie “Wonder” and said he wrote his new novel over a period of 10 years. You might recall he also wrote and adapted his bestselling first novel “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” to the big screen, which was excellent in both forms. 

That’s all for now. Though I didn’t even talk about Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo both winning the Booker Prize recently, or Polish author Olga Tokarczuk and Austrian author Peter Handke winning Nobel Prizes for Literature for their works. Have you read them? Atwood’s books are familiar to me, but I’d like to explore the others’ books too, so I’ll toss them onto my ever-growing TBR heap. In signing off, I’d like to just list the authors with their latest books who I saw at various events at the book festival. Many are Canadian with a sprinkling of other nationalities. Have you read or met them? And if so, what did you think? 

Anar Ali (Canadian) / “Night of Power” (novel)
E. Jean Carroll (American) / “What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal” / (memoir)
Lynn Coady (Canadian) /“Watching You Without Me” (novel)
Michael Crummey (Canadian) /“The Innocents” (novel)
Emma Donoghue (Irish-Canadian)/ “Akin” (novel)
Dave Hill (American) / “Parking the Moose” (nonfiction, humor)
Nazanine Hozar (Iranian-Canadian)/“Aria” (novel)
Anosh Irani  (Indo-Canadian) /“Translated from the Gibberish: Seven Stories & One Half Truth”
Amy Jones (Canadian) / “Every Little Piece of Me” / (novel)
Naomi K. Lewis (Canadian) / “Tiny Lights for Travellers” / (memoir)
Ami McKay (Canadian) / “Daughter of Family G” / (memoir)
Susin Nielsen (Canadian) / “No Fixed Address” / YA & children’s author
Mary Norris (American) / “Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen”  (memoir/nonfiction)
Emily Nussbaum (American) / “I Like to Watch : Arguing My Way Through the Television Revolution” / (nonfiction, criticism) 
Sara Peters (Canadian) / “I Become a Delight to My Enemies”  
Ruby Porter (New Zealand author) / “Attraction” (novel) 
Anakana Schofield (Irish-Canadian) / “Bina” / (novel) 
Tom Lanoye (Belgian) / “Slaves to Fortune” / “Speechless” (novels)
Joanne Ramos (Filipino-American)/ “The Farm” (novel) 
Mona Awad (Canadian) / “Bunny” (novel) 
Jesse Thistle (Métis-Cree, Canadian) / “From the Ashes” / (memoir) 
Ayelet Tsabari (Israeli-Canadian) /“The Art of Leaving” / (memoir) 
Leni Zumas (American) / “Red Clocks” (novel) 
Linden MacIntyre (Canadian) / “The Wake: The Deadly Legacy of a New Foundland Tsunami” / (memoir) 
Stephen Chbosky (American ) / “Imaginary Friend” (novel) 

Posted in Books | 16 Comments

Raking in the Reviews

Posted on October 12, 2019 by Susan

Greetings, I hope everyone is enjoying the fall colors these days.  So far we’ve had two snowstorms here, and still the leaves seem to be in fine form and haven’t come down fully yet. It’s pretty out now … just in time for Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday, which is a holiday that always surprises me when it comes so early, but who doesn’t want a three-day weekend?

Meanwhile I’m trying to heal from eye surgery and I’ve been told not to do much for an entire week … including not reading or perusing much “screen time” or playing tennis or showering instead of bathing, or going to the gym or bicycling etc. Though yesterday I had the ingenious idea of using a swim mask in the shower so I could wash my hair. This worked, even though it scared my dog a bit. Still you got to do, what you got to do. Admittedly I’ve been cheating a bit on the reading and “screen time” though I’m trying to listen to more audiobooks. For now, I’ll leave you with some reviews of what I finished lately. 

Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner / via audiobook read by Allyson Ryan 

Synopsis:  This debut novel follows the travails of 41-year-old, 5-foot-5 New York physician Toby Fleishman, who appears to be reveling in his new found dating freedom after splitting from his career-driven wife Rachel of 14 years for often being angry and paying little attention to their preteen kids. “But then, just as Toby is juggling his new girlfriends, dying patients, and unhappy children, Rachel disappears, leaving Toby to cope with logistics more complicated than he anticipated.” — Publishers Weekly 

My Thoughts:  Ha, I found this novel in the nick of time. Who knew it’d give me more faith in what’s been out this year. Going into it, I knew nothing about “Fleishman” though I heard the title batted around some. The novel, which is broken into three parts, is particularly funny and irreverent in Part 1, which details Toby’s new lease on freedom after his divorce from his wife. He can’t believe his luck and his dating apps that women are really into him at this stage in life, but lo’ and behold they are: who would’ve guessed Toby Fleishman!  (Beware dear reader: the novel is pretty explicit with the sexual musings of horny Toby, which usually would be totally yikes, but Part 1 is pretty spoof-filled so it’s pretty easy laughing off ole Toby Fleishman.) He becomes more filled in and better as the story goes along so give it more of a chance, if you’re annoyed at first. It becomes more than what you might initially think.  

In Part 2, the novel goes back in time to Toby and his wife Rachel’s first days, and those of their marriage, their kids, and what went wrong; while Part 3 gives more of Rachel’s side of things — as well as Libby’s — who is a college friend of Toby’s who tells most of the story. These parts become more serious in tone, and explore details of marriage, career ambition, and what women face … that have insightful introspective touches to them. 

It’s a novel that reminded me a little bit of a funny version of Lauren Groff’s “Fates and Furies” or a funny, Jewish version of “Fates and Furies.” It’s different than that, but explores similar themes. And I probably liked it better. For whatever reason, I was picturing Toby throughout the book as Philip Seymour Hoffman, who seemed to perfectly fit my image of Toby, but sadly he won’t be able to play him if there’s ever a film version. I warmed to Toby’s character, though not much to his wife Rachel’s, despite her rough familial beginnings.  

Still I was quite impressed with Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s debut. Apparently she wrote the book in six months time, all the while being a journalist and contributor to GQ magazine and The New York Times, where’s she’s now a staff writer. You can tell from “Fleishman,” she’s a fan of the works of Philip Roth, John Updike, and Saul Bellow – if you know or like those. I hope to read more from her in the future. She definitely had me laughing during the novel’s first half, and pondering during its second half. 

Inland by Tea Obreht / via e-book on a plane  

Synopsis:  The novel features two alternating storylines that converge a bit at the very end — the first is of a frontierswoman named Nora and her family living in Arizona Territory in 1893 and the other is of a former outlaw named Lurie, who becomes part of the U.S. Army’s Camel Corps on a trek through Texas and the American West.

My Thoughts: I was quite taken by Tea Obreht’s first novel “The Tiger’s Wife” in 2011, so I really wanted to like this one as well, but I didn’t fully warm up to the story until the second half when it finally started to move for me. The protagonist of Nora is a pretty tough lady, who’s waiting for her husband to return from a far-off errand of acquiring water for the household. She’s trying to manage the bone-dry property and family of boys, while still holding conversations with the one young daughter she lost years ago. Meanwhile Lurie, the former outlaw, who is being chased by a sheriff, joins up with an Army regiment of Camel Corps in Texas, which apparently once truly existed in the West as a means to transport gear over the dry, rough terrain. Lurie becomes attached to his camel Burke, and the two share in a variety of adventures on a trek though the West, culminating eventually in crossing paths with Nora.  

The idea of the Camel Corps and the frontierswoman in Arizona Territory sparked my imagination, and there are some keen descriptions in the story of the landscape and characters that captured me, but you also have to wade through quite a bit. It’s not exactly a page-turner, but I did want to see how it would end. So while “Inland” was quite a bit more work than I thought it would be, there are some rewards if you see it through to the end. Though perhaps I was expecting a bit more from the story … or I found it a bit slow in parts. Admittedly I don’t read a lot of western novels, but if you liked Paulette Jiles’s 2016 novel “News of the World,” which I did, than you might try this one as well. 

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes / via audiobook read by Julia Whelan 

Synopsis:  A widow (Evvie) in a seaside town in Maine ends up renting part of her house to a former Yankee pitcher (Dean) who’s recently retired after losing his game … and the two try to start over after life throws them some surprises. 

My Thoughts: This was a light, entertaining romantic-comedy-type of novel. I listened to it as an audiobook and picked it up because I liked the idea of a professional baseball pitcher moving in next door. Why doesn’t that happen to me?  I also like sports novels in general, but I don’t think this was exactly that. 

Some of the humor early on in the story was enjoyable, though as it went on I sort of wondered … how believable the story and characters were — would they really appeal to one another? I also felt it was more chick lit / romance than I typically read. Still I liked Dean, but I wasn’t sure about Evvie. I wanted Dean to get over his “yips” about pitching and get back to the MLB pronto, but you have to stay tuned to see what happens. For light summer fare, “Evvie Drake” was enjoyable enough to see it through, but I think I wanted to like it more. I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads, though others seemed to mark it higher. 

Southern Lady Code: Essays by Helen Ellis / via audiobook read by the author 

Synopsis:  A short collection of essays from a sassy Southern girl raised in Alabama and based in New York City. 

My Thoughts:  I actually listened to this book twice since it’s short, light, and funny in various places. (I deserve this after reading the long “Goldfinch” and dry “Inland” recently.) I would recommend it if you need a laugh, or a pick-me upper. Some of the chapters are better than others (some perhaps are too over-the-top) but overall I enjoyed this Southern author’s particular craziness on her takes on such things as manners, clothes, cooking, thank-you notes, going on flights, having, mammograms, and battling Twitter spam/pornography, etc. 

A couple of my favorite chapters were “Straighten Up and Fly Right” and  “An Emily Post for the Apocalypse” though there are others like “Dumb Boobs,” “Tonight Were Gonna Party Like It’s 1979” and  “Young Ladies, Listen to Me” that were pretty priceless too. This collection is not exactly rocket science, but it’s just good fun. I haven’t read Helen Ellis before, but I’m glad I didn’t pass this one by. It’s a good palette cleanser — and one I need to give to my sister for the laughs and for the hell of it. 

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

Posted in Books | 21 Comments

October Preview

Posted on October 3, 2019 by Susan

Well we got dumped on with snow — about 10 inches — last weekend.  I knew the beginning of fall was too good to last, but the good news is: the skies look clear now for the foreseeable future and the warmer temps should melt the early snow away. October looks to be a busy month — I’m having minor eye surgery on Monday, which should slow me up for about a week, and then mid-month our city’s annual book festival starts here and I have tickets to many author events. 

Already, I’ve seen Margaret Atwood speak about life in general and read from her new sequel novel “The Testaments,” which I have a copy of but haven’t started yet. In public, Atwood was impressive and sharp as ever. She might be turning 80 next month but still doesn’t miss a beat talking about politics, public policy, and totalitarian regimes. She said she started writing “The Handmaid’s Tale” when she was in West Berlin in the 1980s and that she was influenced by what was going on in the world, particularly in the States, toward women and reproductive rights. She had read and liked such dystopian fiction as Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” … and basically the rest is history. So I plan to get to “The Testaments,” but I’m saving it for just the right time. 

Meanwhile, I’ve been looking through what’s coming out this month and I’m still a bit all over the place on what to pick up. There’s new fiction by such well-known authors as: Zadie Smith, Jojo Moyes, Rene Denfeld, Jami Attenberg and Jeanette Winterson among others … and for nonfiction there’s books by: Bill Bryson, former national security advisor Susan Rice, Elton John, and even Carly Simon, who’s written a book about her friendship with Jackie O called “Touched by the Sun.” Hmm who would have guessed it. I’m looking at these and a few others that I’ve picked out below. 

First off, I hope to get to Elizabeth Strout’s new novel “Olive, Again,” which is a sequel to her 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Olive Kitteridge,” which was everywhere on the planet for many years. Who can forget the blunt and grouchy Olive, a retired math teacher, whose everyday life in the small, (fictional) coastal town of Crosby, Maine filled the pages of 13 interrelated stories? Not me, I read it and got into Olive’s world … though I didn’t follow it up by seeing the four-part TV miniseries starring Frances McDormand as Olive. Did you? The novel was a pre-blog read for me, and now the new book, like the first one, unfolds through 13 new linked stories with Olive, which focus on ordinary moments in ordinary lives. The stories form a cohesive novel — as Publishers Weekly says — “that captures, with humor, compassion, and embarrassing detail, aging, loss, loneliness, and love.” So yep, count me in. 

Next up, I’ve been waffling between Deborah Levy’s new novel “The Man Who Saw Everything” and Ben Lerner’s new one called “The Topeka School.” Both look a bit out there. The first half of Levy’s novel takes place in 1988 about a young male historian who gets hit by a car and recovers in East Berlin, where he falls in love, and the second half jumps to 2016, where the same protagonist has some of the same events happen to him again, upending everything expected up to that point. Hmm.

Whereas Lerner’s autobiographical novel follows the story of Adam, a teenage debate champion, as well as his parents, who are psychologists grappling with the best way to raise their son while struggling with their own issues. It sounds conventional, but it isn’t. After all it’s by author Ben Lerner whose novels often read like scattered episodes (more than tight plots) that go off on an array of tangents, which was similar to his last novel “10:04” that I listened to on audio. Still he is clever and humorous at times,  and is often considered “one of the best writers of his generation.” But is he? I will try out his new one to see. 

Next up is Irish author Edna O’Brien’s latest novel “Girl” about the harrowing story of one girl’s torment as she is abducted along with other Nigerian schoolgirls by the jihadist group Boko Haram. Yikes, I wonder if I can stomach this story about one’s victim’s brutal survival and her faith in redemption.

If so, it’ll be my first by O’Brien who many say is “one of the greatest Irish writers of the 20th century.” She’s written many books over her lifetime, some of which were banned in her native Ireland when they appeared in the early 1960s. She’s now 88 years old — so I think starting somewhere with her literary canon is better than none at all. So perhaps I will begin here with this book and move backwards in time. I’m curious too about her 2012 memoir “Country Girl,” which tells of her beginnings and life as a writer.

Last up in books is either Steph Cha’s crime novel “Your House Will Pay” about two Los Angeles families that are forced to face down their history of loss and rage while navigating the tumult of a city on the brink of more violence. The author says it’s a contemporary story with deep roots in the black/Korean tensions of Los Angeles in the early 1990s. It’s gotten some high marks from various reviews and on Goodreads so I’m looking at that — as well as H.W. Brands’s history of the American West called “Dreams of El Dorado.” This is a nonfiction book and I’m starting to get into the genre as we get closer to “nonfiction November” and the end of the year. This book seems to be a sweeping history of the settling of the American West by a highly esteemed historian … which captures “from Texas to California, from beaver pelts to buffalo robes, from the hoofbeats of horses to the steam blasts of the first transcontinental trains,” according to Hampton Sides. So if you like the West, “Dreams of El Dorado” might be just the right read to refresh yourself with its history. 

As for movies in October,  I don’t see much that I want to see.  My husband might want to see “Joker” but it doesn’t look that appealing to me. Is it just another look at a deranged Joker character that Heath Ledger played in “The Dark Knight” — this time with Joaquin Phoenix?  Washington Post critic Ann Hornaday says it’s “more than just another comic book origin story, becoming a gritty urban allegory about the pent-up rage of aggrieved young men that can easily ignite into a destructive, nihilistic movement.” Hmm. Whatever it is, I’m in no real rush to see it. The movie looks quite freaky. What do you think?

Other than that comedian Eddie Murphy is back to play the real-life comedian Rudy Ray Moore in “Dolemite Is My Name,” which might have some laughs in it. I don’t recall the comic Moore but apparently in the 1970s, he had an alter ego he played named Dolemite that was quite a phenomenon.

But perhaps the most divisive movie out this month is “Jojo Rabbit,” a comic spoof about a Hitler youth who finds out his mother (played by Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a Jewish girl in their home. It’s a bit rare for World War II satires about Hitler and the Nazis to come out so this made quite a commotion when it premiered last month at the Toronto Film Festival. Many loved it for making Nazis look like goofballs, but other critics, said Ann Hornaday, thought it crossed a line in its “sendup of anti-Semitic tropes at their most ludicrously deranged.”

So see it at your own risk depending on your sensibilities. 

As for album releases in October, there’s new ones by Wilco, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Grace Potter, Michael Kiwanuka, Trigger Hippy, and Allison Moorer that all seem worth checking out. It was hard to pick a winner but I’ll choose a new album called “Carrying On” by the Canadian folk/roots duo Kacy & Clayton. I hadn’t known about them before, but it’s their fifth album, and so far, I’m liking their song “The Forty-Ninth Parallel,” which you can check out here.  

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

Posted in Top Picks | 18 Comments

Jumping Into Fall

Posted on September 19, 2019 by Susan

Well this Monday is the first official day of fall, and already it’s been darker in the mornings and getting darker earlier in the evenings, yikes. The temps too are getting a bit crisper … at least here in North Country. As long as an early fall doesn’t actually mean an early winter, I’m okay about it. It makes for good reading weather, right? And goodness knows, there’s so many notable book releases out this season. I have various stacks around that need attention. I guess I can blame “The Goldfinch” for making me get behind. 

But I’m happy to say: this past week I reached my goal of finishing Donna Tartt’s epic 2013 novel, which I started in August, and then I just saw the movie of it, which unfortunately most critics panned. Ugh, but wait! For those who liked the book, the movie is indeed worthwhile. There are some beautifully shot scenes, and the music and acting in it are pretty good too. The 2.5 hour movie actually follows the novel fairly closely, except for the sequence of a couple events — the past and present jumping a bit differently a few times back and forth. Yet still the book’s themes are present and the feelings are there. I enjoyed the movie quite a bit though it’s not without flaws, nor does it fully match the novel — though not many movie adaptations can really do that. Still people in my row at the theater who had not read the book actually said they liked it and said they weren’t confused by its jumping timeline. So for them, it translated to the screen. While others might think it would’ve worked better as a TV miniseries, which perhaps could’ve given its themes more depth and focus.

For sure there is a lot stuffed into the nearly 800-page novel — which goes from New York to Vegas back to New York and then on to Amsterdam — and I likely avoided it when it came out because of its length. It’s true I was six years late to its release, but I came to love “The Goldfinch” just the same. I loved it for its story — about a boy named Theo who becomes orphaned after a terrible attack at a NYC museum and whose fate becomes tied up with a Dutch master’s painting — all the while he is grieving the loss of his mother and must find his way in the world. I loved all the various characters who Theo meets along the way: his adoptive family the Barbours — both the parents and kids — especially the brainy nerdy Andy he’s friends with; and Hobie — the antique restorer he comes to work for; and his wild Ukrainian friend Boris whom he meets in Las Vegas; and his love for Pippa, the girl at the museum who experienced much of what he did on that fateful day. As for Theo’s Dad and his girlfriend who move him out to Vegas, most times I wanted to strangle them for their gambling, druggy ways and how they treated the young, impressionable Theo. 

With the various characters and superb storytelling, “The Goldfinch” felt like a modern-day Dickens novel to me and I was in no rush to get through it. I marked the passages I liked, and I unsuspectedly fell into the story little by little: hook, line and sinker. Every time I started to feel one part was going on too long then something would happen and things would change and propel me along. There were some twists along the way — a character would get bumped off or Theo’s life would take an unfortunate turn (not unlike Oliver Twist) — that surprised me and I thought ‘uh-oh, here we go.’ 

Certainly there’s a lot of drugs, pills, and drinking in the story. Boris has a crazy influence on Theo and all the imbibing and addictions might grow a bit tiresome to readers. It all feels so unhealthy — get me a bottle of water! But Theo is certainly no saint in the story, he puts himself in trouble numerous times — when he sells fake antiques as real for one — that you sort of want to shake him, yet still you go on pulling for him. And while some readers have said they never thought the book’s debauchery in Vegas would ever end, I got more antsy at the long ending in Amsterdam (after the action scene & resolution) — where it starts philosophizing about truth & untruth and death & art, when I just wanted the story to play out … or at least something more from Pippa. 

Still I think it’s the longest novel I’ve ever read that I didn’t get bored with and that I really liked — its themes about art and love and grief captured me and I was dazzled by it in many ways. In interviews, Donna Tartt has said she tries to make her novels read with “density and speed” and indeed “The Goldfinch” is filled with lots of detail and information but still flows along fairly steadily and easily. The pages turn. Of course, some edits would’ve been all right in spots, but I made it to the other end just the same. It’s my tome read of the year! — and makes for an excellent paperweight as well.

Next up, I finished the audiobook of Ling Ma’s 2018 debut novel “Severance.” I was in the mood for good dystopian lit and this fit the bill perfectly. The story is narrated by Candace Chen — a twenty-something woman who works at a Manhattan specialty book publisher coordinating the production of Bibles from China when an epidemic called Shen Fever hits, which renders its victims zombie-like, repeating old routines — like setting the table over and over again — until their bodies fall apart. 

Candace’s life leading up to the Shen Fever epidemic — her past with her immigrant parents and then her boyfriend in New York — alternates chapters with her present when she’s with a group of survivors led by a power-crazy leader heading for a Facility in Pennsylvania. Uh-oh, you’ll want to stay tuned to see what happened to her life in New York, and whether she sticks with her rescuers during the apocalypse. 

There are some graphic descriptions of raids the survivors go on — and interesting critiques to the story about capitalism and working life — regarding her sacrificing parents, and her writer boyfriend who doesn’t want to work dead-end jobs, to Candace who carries on with her corporate job despite everyone else eventually leaving or becoming “fevered.” She’s devoted to routines not unlike those who become inflicted.    

Candace turns out to be quite the nuanced protagonist — blunt but also somewhat humorous at times whose real pursuit is photography, which she puts on her blog NY Ghost that documents the early stages of the epidemic. Because of her, the story held my interest from beginning to end, though perhaps I wanted a little more from the very ending, which is left a bit open-ended. Despite that, I’ll be curious to see what author Ling Ma, who teaches at the University of Chicago, writes next. For now, it seems like she’ll be touring with the book at some festivals this fall. 

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

Posted in Books, Movies | 14 Comments

Golden Days

Posted on September 11, 2019 by Susan

Greetings, I hope your September is going well, particularly your reading as there are many notable books out this fall. Just this week the whole hoopla over the arrival of Margaret Atwood’s sequel novel — “The Testaments” — seems to have reached a fevered pitch, with some likening it to the excitement over the arrival of Harper Lee’s 2015 novel “Go Set a Watchman.” I kid you not. Though over-hype can often leave readers feeling disappointed once they get to the book. Will that be the case with Atwood’s novel, or not?

I guess according to one who’s read it, Ron Charles of the Washington Post says that readers looking for a complementary classic of dystopian lit to “The Handmaid’s Tale” may be disappointed … since he says the new one is not nearly as devastating a satire on par with The HT. Instead with this one Atwood is “more focused on creating a brisk thriller than she is on exploring the perversity of systemic repression.” Hmm, still he gives “The Testaments” 4 stars on Goodreads and recently it’s been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. So the question remains: will I wait for my library hold (#261 on the wait list of 70 copies) or just get a copy? I guess I’m not in a great rush, but I hope to get to it fairly soon. Hmm. So while I ponder that, I’ll leave you with a few reviews of what I finished lately. 

Wow Helen Phillips’s novel “The Need” is a wild, weird story though much of the writing is quite good, even darkly funny. The protagonist Molly seems to be having a postpartum episode, struggling as a mother of two, with children under age 5. The husband is far away on a trip and she is left with the kids for a week, taking care of them, plus doing her job as a paleobotanist at a Pit, where she’s found some weird artifacts that include a Bible, a coke bottle, and a toy soldier with a tail that don’t make sense being where they are. 

Good grief, Molly’s sleep-deprived and anxious about her children and protesters at the Pit. Then an intruder (wearing a deer mask) invades her home, or he seems to. Some of this book …. is like whaaa just happened? It feels like psychoses. It’s surreal and plays with your mind. It also makes you feel like what being a young mother is all about — being barfed on and lactating constantly, being at the behest of your children at all hours of the day and night. Oh early motherhood in fiction never felt so hands on. If you’re looking for a straight up thriller, this is not it. This is something else, speculative and Odd (with a capital O) but eerily thought-provoking too.

I read this on a plane and had to look around and make sure no one was wearing a deer mask anywhere near me. It’s a bit creepy like that.  

Synopsis: Karen Dukess’s debut novel “The Last Book Party” is set in the publishing world of 1980’s New York and is a coming-of-age story about a young woman (Eve Rosen) who has literary aspirations and leaves her job as a low level assistant at a publishing house to become a research assistant during the summer to a famed older New Yorker writer living on Cape Cod with his wife.

I think I was lured to this one by the cover and the book publishing aspect of the story. Apparently the author, who began her career in 1980’s NYC and summered at Truro, Cape Cod, like her protagonist, started the book as a memoir but then turned it into a novel, which sort of seemed like that. I found it okay as a light, summer audiobook listen — mainly for the girl’s aspirations as a writer and the publishing scene then, but there are some flaky relationships in the story — and one in particular that she gets involved in over the summer that didn’t pass the eww factor. Towards the end, things come to a head and various secrets are revealed involving the girl and others at a costume book party, making it a bit crazy and sending her reeling — her rosy view of the publishing world being altered by her experiences in its circles. 

I guess as a light audiobook story I was okay (3 stars) with “The Last Book Party” more than others have been. I agree it isn’t exactly strong or moving. It shines a light on the book industry and a world of privilege that might entice some but turn off others. It surely isn’t a book set in the MeToo era, so beware. 

Last but not least, I finally got to Amor Towles’s praised debut novel “Rules of Civility” that came out in 2011. Gosh who knew I’d be reading so many New York novels this year. Am I drawn to them, or what’s my deal? It doesn’t seem on purpose.

As most know by now, “Rules of Civility” follows the story of three friends (Katey, Eve, and a gentleman they meet at a jazz bar named Tinker Grey) at the end of the Great Depression in NYC. Katey tells the story in first person of her life and adventures in the Big City during 1938, where at first she’s a secretary and then a publisher’s assistant.

There’s a terrible car wreck that changes the lives of these friends. And you’re not sure if one of them will ultimately wind up with Tinker or if they will remain friends — so you press on to find out how their lives will play out. Much of the novel reads like a love letter to Manhattan in that day and age: amid the jazz clubs, the drinks, the possibilities, the excitement, the parties and wealth — where else would you rather be? I liked Katey who seemed smart and witty and there’s some wonderful sentences in this book, although the author likely goes on a bit much at times, when enough is plenty. Still it’s a good story and it even reminded me slightly of Betty Smith’s 1943 classic “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” — maybe just because of the feel of it and the timeframe and setting. 

So that’s all for now. But I did want to mention that “The Goldfinch” movie is coming out this weekend and unfortunately a couple of reviews I’ve read have already panned it. Ugh!  And here I’m nearing the end of the 784-page novel, which I’ve liked a great deal, and now I hear the movie is a “lifeless adaptation of Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.” Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post says the 2.5 hour-long movie is “overstuffed, overlong and utterly uninvolving.” Yikes, you can’t do this to me. Not now! How could the filmmakers blow it? I will have to see it anyway, so I might as well get the darn popcorn to help it move along. 

What about you — have you read these novels mentioned, and if so, what did you think?  

Posted in Books, Movies | 18 Comments

September Preview

Posted on August 31, 2019 by Susan

Greetings, it’s been a while. I was away a bit in August and now I’ve returned; see Stella in the woods at left. The tennis tournament in Toronto was fun and went fairly well — I made it to the quarterfinals in the main draw then the semis in the consoles — not bad for an old girl.

It’s hard now to believe it’s Labor Day weekend. Sadly summer has flown by quickly but it’s not over just yet. I suspect too we might have some Indian summer days ahead this fall. We deserve it, our summer here in general has been wetter and cooler than usual, which I know seems odd in this day and age, but at least we haven’t been socked in with smoke from wildfires. Still our tomato plants are confused and have stayed green this season. So come on September, it’s up to you to yield a bumper crop. 

September is my favorite month especially since: it’s my bday month, it’s usually pretty outside and because of all the new releases. I didn’t exactly have a great reading month in August due to preoccupied days, but I hope to remedy that this month. I’m still working my way through Donna Tartt’s lengthy novel “The Goldfinch,” in which I’m meandering through Theo’s days in Las Vegas. Ha, people warned me about this period in the novel — that it would never end — but I think I’m almost through it and I haven’t flipped out just yet. Meanwhile I’m mixing in other reads, notably Tea Obreht’s new novel “Inland,” which is shaping up to be quite a Western. More on that later. 

And now let’s look at what’s coming out in September. Undoubtedly there’s many big-named authors with novels due out, including: Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Ann Patchett, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Stephen King, Alice Hoffman, Emma Donoghue, Tracy Chevalier, and Jacqueline Woodson among others. Whoosh, it’s an all-star cast and I don’t intend to stray far from these for my picks.

Only one is from someone new — it’s Lara Prescott’s debut novel “The Secrets We Kept” — which looks to be quite the true life-inspired story — about two secretaries-turned spies whose CIA mission it is to smuggle “Doctor Zhivago” out of the USSR so that Boris Pasternak’s novel could be published around the world (which it was in 1957).

Hmm it sounds interesting, and combines Pasternak’s personal story with the tale of the two women who risked their lives to get his novel out of the country. And who can forget the movie “Doctor Zhivago”? It’s a wonderful classic too, so count me in for this tale behind the novel.

Next up, I’m excited about Margaret Atwood’s novel “The Testaments,” which as you know, is the long-awaited sequel to her 1985 classic “The Handmaid’s Tale.” I last read The HT in 2017 — back when I didn’t know Atwood was going to be writing a sequel — and I saw Season 1 of the TV series, so my mind is fresh about the grim story of Offred’s circumstances.

The sequel picks up Offred’s story 15 years later with the “explosive testaments” of three female narrators from Gilead. I know some people are apprehensive that Atwood made a sequel and think she should have left The HT alone, but it seems during these crazy political times the pros outweigh the cons and the time is apt for such a treatise. 

I need to jump on reading “The Testaments” when it comes out Sept. 10 as I’m hearing Atwood talk and read from the book on Sept. 29. The cool thing is the book has been under a strict worldwide embargo so there have been no advance copies, no real Goodreads ratings, no leaks as far as I know. It’s all been tight-lipped and secretive about what’s in it …. and yet the book has already made the Booker Prize longlist.  So go figure, some people must have read it.  

There’s also nonfiction writer Ta-Nehisi Coates’s first foray into fiction — “The Water Dancer” coming out, which is sure to get a lot of attention. Coates’s 2015 bestseller “Between the World and Me,” which I listened to the author read on audio, was definitely a strong, good cup of coffee, so I’m curious if this one will be similarly powerful.

It’s said to be a slavery narrative about a protagonist with a magical gift who gets involved with helping to liberate others on the Underground railroad. Apparently, like Colson Whitehead’s 2016 book, it takes an imaginative spin on the Underground’s history and would be interesting for me to read and compare together, since I need to get to both.

Then there’s Ann Patchett’s latest “The Dutch House” — about a 1920s mansion outside of Philadelphia and the lives of the broken family that occupies it. Set over five decades the story traces three generations of a family and explores the “bonds between two siblings, the house of their childhood, and a past that will not let them go.”

Hmm, I haven’t read Patchett since her 2011 novel “State of Wonder” which seems different than her recent fiction that deals more with family connections. I enjoyed “State of Wonder” set in the Amazon but maybe I need to try out her sprawling family novels like this one. What say you? Which is your favorite Patchett book?

Last in book picks this month is a tie between Salman Rushdie’s new novel “Quichotte” — a satire that is said to skewer Trump’s America good— and Jacqueline Woodson’s novel “Red at the Bone” — about an unexpected teenage pregnancy that “pulls together two families from different social classes, and exposes their private hopes, disappointments, and longings.” I have not read much from either of these prized authors but I hope to remedy that in the future.

I wonder though if Rushdie’s novel about a modern-day Don Quixote will be too over-the-top crazy in its quest and road trip across America or just right. Heaven knows, I’m all for lampooning the current era, I just don’t know if it’ll be too farcical and jumpy a storyline to see the trees through the forest so to speak. But I guess I’ll have to read it to find out. The Woodson book is more serious in nature — though I’m curious to check it out since I hear the author writes about young people so well. Both books look quite good.

As for movies in September, it’s about time for “The Goldfinch.” Will I finish the novel before its arrival on Sept. 13? Who knows, but I’m enjoying its story so far about a boy whose mother is taken from him and a painting that seems to hold his fate. The cast looks pretty alluring, with among others: Nicole Kidman starring as Mrs. Barbour, Ansel Elgort as the boy Theo Decker, and Jeffrey Wright as Hobie. Hopefully it’ll be the movie adaptation of the year, but we will have to wait and see about that.

Whatever it is, the movie’s appearance surely gives me incentive to finish the big book before I see it. I wouldn’t want the storyline given away by the movie … no, no, no, no.  

There’s also another mysterious space/sci-fi movie called “Ad Astra” that looks to be a bit spooky. Brad Pitt stars as an astronaut who goes into space in search of his lost father, whose experiment threatens the solar system. Uh-oh I hate when that happens.

Count me in as I usually see the space flicks. Whether it’s Clooney in space, or Matt Damon up there, or Ryan Gosling taking the first step, or Tom Hanks commanding the module — I will see it.  Now it’s Brad Pitt’s turn — it was bound to happen. I don’t think he’s been in an earlier space movie, not to my immediate knowledge. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Lastly in movies this month is a tie between a documentary about singer Linda Ronstadt called “The Sound of My Voice,” which looks quite good especially since Linda was huge in Southern Cal during my youth in the 1970s — and the biographical movie “Judy” about Judy Garland starring Renee Zellweger in the lead role.

Wow Renee has come back out of nowhere it seems and is putting herself on the line with this one. In addition to the movie, she’s set to release her first solo album covering songs by Judy Garland. That seems to take guts, does it not? Liza Minnelli though seems none too pleased by the movie, saying on Facebook that she did “not approve nor sanction it in any way.” Too bad. I’ll likely see it anyways.  

As for albums in September, there’s many to check out including those by The Lumineers, Liam Gallagher, Brittany Howard, Keane, the Zac Brown Band …. and even Chrissie Hynde has an album of jazz covers due out. It’s a bit hard to believe and much softer than her rock days. These all seem worth checking out, but I’ll pick the new country music group: The Highwomen’s self-titled debut album as my choice this month. Wow they are a star-studded lineup of singers and have a pretty cool version of Fleetwood Mac’s song “The Chain” as well as their own song “Redesigning Women,” which are fun to hear. See for yourself. 

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

Posted in Top Picks | 22 Comments