The Cue Card

Hi all, I hope you are well. It’s a bit crazy how much things can change in a week right? If you saw last week’s picture of the yard and this week’s, you might notice that the white stuff is back. I think we have about three to five inches of snow now with more to come through Sunday. It’s okay, we can always use the snowpack in the mountains. I’m not sure if this is winter’s last stand or not. Often we get one more storm in April, but it’s usually just light spring flakes. 

No big news in the reading department. I returned most of my “library loot” back to the library sadly … since our trip is coming up. I still have Ron Rash’s novel The Caretaker and Rita Bullwinkel’s novel Headshot as well as an Irish novel I’m reading for PW. So those will keep me busy till we leave along with the audio of Donna Tartt reading Charles’s Portis’s 1968 novel True Grit in her Mississippi accent. Tartt did this narration back in 2006, but heck it’s one of the few things we have of the elusive slow-working author, so I’ll give it a whirl. You might recall it was 2013 when her last novel The Goldfinch was published and usually it takes her about ten years between books. So where is the next? LoL. No word so far. 

And now for my survey question of the week, I’ll pose the blogging question: do you have a set day of the week that you post on, or does it vary? Do you plan ahead with blog posts on timing and content, or is it more spontaneous and sporadic? I will say I try to post once a week, but it can vary on what day. I’d like it to be — perhaps every Friday but then things come up and the plan goes sideways. I often have things in mind for content a bit ahead of time but nothing is really engraved in stone. What about for you?

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

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain / 1884 

I revisited this classic on audio in all its vernacular language since I wanted to get a handle on it before reading Percival Everett’s new novel James, which reimagines the novel from enslaved Jim’s perspective. 

You might recall the story about Huck Finn is a first-person narrative told by him around age 13 during the 1830s and ’40s in a small town in Missouri along the Mississippi River. It’s a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in which Tom and Huck end up getting a good sum of money and that follows Huck into this story. Huck’s alcoholic, abusive father “Pap” tries to get the money and locks him in a cabin. In time, Huck fakes his own death and escapes running away to Jackson Island, where he reunites with his guardian’s slave, Jim, who has run away after hearing he was about to be sold. 

Huck and Jim find a raft and decide to go downriver on a journey that turns out to include various close calls with thieves, slave catchers, natural dangers, and con men. They often find themselves in dicey situations, which has Huck coming up with schemes, plots, and getaways. Even friend Tom Sawyer gets involved towards the end when Jim is captured and they try to get him back. 

Often referred to as the “greatest American novel,” The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been one of most banned books of all time. I’m against banning any books or changing any words of classics, but I admit I struggled with its vernacular and things. I didn’t struggle with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but this novel with its elements about race and racism is more complex. 

In the novel, Twain is satirizing some of the society of the day — and people’s racist beliefs. During the journey, Huck learns much and becomes closer to Jim as it goes along. He sees his humanity and saves Jim at various times. But the language — 219 uses of the N-word — and the stereotypes are tough to navigate. The story also prattles on in places, particularly the section involving the con men — the King and the Duke. Their long section drove me pretty crazy, and in various parts the story has a lot of shenanigans afoot, which tried my patience.

My favorite part is just they’re floating downriver on the raft … while escaping bad guys and injustices. This I could completely understand. So all in all, it was mixed for me. I still admire the talents and gumption of Twain for his day … and think Percival Everett’s tale might be a worthwhile look too.

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read Twain’s books and what did you think?

Hi all. Does it feel like spring where you are? It probably is. It’s even feeling a bit like spring up here. Most of the snow has melted away once again, and we are enjoying balmy temps. We might even go for a bike ride this weekend, which is a bit unheard of here in March. And the month is flying by, isn’t it?

We are gearing up for our road trip to California in April, just about two weeks away. It’s hard to believe. I’m getting together a few audiobooks for the trip, which include mostly historical nonfiction ones for my husband. Sorry to say, I will be leaving fiction behind for a while on the journey, then fling open my beach bag of novels once we get there, lol. Is it almost time for the beach?

Good news is I saw a pileated woodpecker this past Wednesday when the dogs and I were at a wooded park near the river. They are fun to see, but we don’t get to see them often. Their red heads make them easy to spot. I didn’t take this particular photo as I couldn’t get a good shot of him bobbing around, but I recorded the bird’s sound, which my Merlin Bird app recognized as the pileated woodpecker. Apparently the bird is the largest woodpecker species in North America and likes to eat carpenter ants, among other things. Its strong bill can chip large holes into trees searching for insects. Do you have these birds where you are?

And now you can see my “library loot” for this week. I still have several remainders from the weeks prior. Ann Napolitano’s novel Hello Beautiful just came in for me. I need to jump on it quickly since it’s long, but I think I’m going to start Ron Rash’s novel The Caretaker next. It looks like a quick, good read set in a small Appalachian town during the Korean War years. I read the author’s 2008 novel Serena, which was turned into a movie with Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, but I think the new one looks a bit better.

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

Absolution by Alice McDermott / FSG / 336 pages / 2023

4.4 stars. This is a story about a woman named Tricia looking back on her life and her friendship with a woman, Charlene, whom she meets in Saigon in 1963. Tricia is corresponding decades later with the woman’s daughter Rainey and telling her things that happened there.

In the ’60s, Tricia and Charlene are “helpmeets” to their husbands’ careers in Vietnam early in the war, giving parties and supporting them. Newly arrived and married Tricia, 23, meets Charlene at a garden party when her baby throws up on Tricia’s dress. From this incident, Charlene comes up with a plan to sell Barbie dolls to help fundraise for toys and things for children in the local hospitals.

Soon Tricia is part of Charlene’s “cabal” to try to do good around Saigon, helping with the Barbie sales and traveling to a leper colony to measure the people for new clothes there. It turns out Charlene, a mother of three, is a “dynamo” of altruistic schemes, trading on the black market, pushing people around, hanging at the country club, popping pills, and doing what needs to be done for her causes. Meanwhile Tricia and her husband are trying to start a family, but she’s having trouble with miscarriages. These worlds collide sometime down the line.

This might not sound like much, but in Alice McDermott’s hands with all the things at play she turns it into gold. A lot of things going on mix: with the Vietnam backdrop, early feminism, faith, war, morality, friendship, children. The novel’s structure too is pretty cool as it looks back and is also in the present. There’s a nostalgia looking back and a naivete of one’s life at age 23 amidst a war zone.

I think Alice McDermott said she was wondering about the wives in Graham Greene’s 1955 novel The Quiet American — what their lives were like — and came up with this novel. The time and place came alive for me with these characters in the 1960s. I have not read McDermott before, but I picked up her novel Charming Billy once when it came out in 1997. I’d like to read more of her books, which mostly have Irish Catholic characters and themes from McDermott’s background.

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read any of these authors and what did you think? Have a great weekend.

Hi. How is everyone doing? We are having mild weather here this week, and it feels a bit like spring but that could change next week. Still March is just around the corner, yay. Are you ready for spring?

It turns out my husband and I are planning a road trip at the beginning of April to visit my parents and stay in Southern California for a few weeks. We have never driven there from Canada and plan to bring our dogs and take four or five days, stopping for sights and walks along the route. It’s going to be a humdinger of a trip, lol. Have you ever taken a long road trip and where did you go?

Meanwhile, I saw a neat article in The Washington Post today about the return of an author who wrote a peculiar and captivating tale in 1997 called Lives of the Monster Dogs, which was sort of a cult hit back then about a colony of talking canines trying to find their place in the world. Now after 27 years, the author Kirsten Bakis has finally written her second novel called King Nyx (due out Feb. 27). It’s not about the Monster Dogs this time but is a feminist gothic tale set in 1918 about a paranormal researcher. I’ll have to add it to my list as I’m glad the author is back.

It reminds me though — back in the 1990s, I wasn’t reading a lot of novels because I was working full-time in D.C., doing grad school, playing tennis, and having a social life too, lol, but Lives of the Monster Dogs was sent to me by my Canadian boyfriend at the time — now my husband — and I read and loved it. The particulars of it are now murky, so a reread is soon in order. I still have my original copy, pictured above, despite two moves and twenty-five years later. Ha, funny how things go. Have you read it?

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

Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spenser-Ash / Celadon Books /368 pgs /2023

4.5 stars. I really enjoyed this debut novel about 11-year-old girl Beatrix who is sent by her parents to live with a volunteer family in America after the Germans begin bombing London in 1940. The parents are conflicted about sending their daughter but feel it would be safer. Meanwhile the Gregorys, who live in Boston and have two boys (ages 9 and 13), welcome Beatrix into their family and really take a shine to her, especially when they get to their summer place on an island in Maine. 

As the years go by during the war, “Bea” comes to feel more at home with this family than with her own parents and their spare life in London. The novel alternates short chapters among the various characters including: Bea, her parents in London, the parents in America, and their sons William and Gerald, which gives a variety of interesting perspectives. 

I found it really drew me into their world and I especially liked the first half of the book when Bea and the boys are teens and the Gregorys are loving their summers in Maine on the island: swimming, boating, and hiking in the woods. It felt so carefree and fun before America joined the war and they become more involved. The two boys become quite close to Bea.

But then when the war ends and Bea has to leave to return to her parents, things become harder for them all. Their ties with one another become less as the years go by and the kids start careers but is still formative to them all. Years later, they become in touch again after a loss … with visits in America and the UK and their ties develop anew.

I found this poignant story well written and well done and I got caught up in their lives which felt quite real. I didn’t realize there was a program during WWII where parents sent their kids abroad for safety reasons. I’ve read other novels where parents in London sent their kids to the country in the UK during the Blitz, but this abroad premise opened another facet to that circumstance. I found it an accomplished debut and a touching family story.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain / 270 pages / 1876 

What can you say about Tom Sawyer? He’s mischievous and imaginative — a cunning orphan boy (around age 12) who often gets himself into trouble and then by some miracle comes out on top looking good. He’s a regular brighter Dennis the Menace of the 1840s … in small-town Missouri along the Mississippi River. I thought the tale of his adventures, which I listened to on audio, was fun and I laughed at times as Tom goes about his ways, turning boring days into adventures. 

He makes white washing the fence look enjoyable, falls for classmate Becky Thatcher, and runs away and plays pirates with his buddy the vagrant Huckleberry Finn and Joe Harper to a nearby island. But later when they’re missing for days and the town thinks they’re dead, they come out awashed with love when they reappear at their own funeral. 

Tom and Huck also come up against Injun Joe and witness the crime he committed in the graveyard, with Tom later testifying in court. Later they go in search of buried treasure … and Tom and Becky get lost in a cave for a few days. It’s scary then and Tom cuts it a bit close in that misadventure with Becky falling weak.

On the whole, the tale is good fun and draws interest for being written in 1876 … of how town life and boys were back then, often like boys are now. Twain was already well on his way with this his first solo novel. His writing and language are often a marvel.

I revisited this classic tale because author Percival Everett is coming out with the novel James in March with reimagines Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s perspective, which I hope to get to as well as the original.

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

Hi all. I hope everyone is well and getting through the storms of February. The photos in the aftermath of California’s epic rainstorm do not look good. I hope it dries out soon. We plan to visit my parents and brother there in April. Meanwhile things are fine here. We received several inches of snow over the weekend and it’s nice and white out again. But we’ve had some heavy fog advisories too, which make driving a bit dicey, especially since there are a lot of deer about, which could dart out of the mist at any minute. Speaking of deer, my husband took this photo when he was out walking the dogs in the evening down the street. I couldn’t believe how many there were! No wonder our bird feeders need to be put away at night, otherwise they’d be emptied. So far, this has been working. 

And do you remember when I was working on my bookcases in the office here? Well here’s how it turned out. There’s actually another smaller bookcase on the opposite wall too. But things seem pared down, right? I got rid of six boxes of books when we moved. And I bought the desk from Pottery Barn, but when it was delivered it turned out to be yellow-ish white, which didn’t go with anything, so then I had it painted to match, argh. Nothing’s easy right? But I’m pleased how it turned out and that I have a window to look out. The natural light makes it nice in there. 

In bookish news, I’d like to continue on with the reading survey we’ve been having. In earlier posts, I asked about when you DNF a book, and if you read multiple books at a time. And now I wonder where you get the majority of your books from (is it from the library, your own stacks, a store, or where?) and also what book format is your most preferred (is it hardback print, e-book, audio, or paperback?). I guess I get most of my reads from the library, and I probably read print hardbacks mostly (with some too on an e-reader) along with listening to downloadable audiobooks from the Libby app, Hoopla, and Audible. What about you?  

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

In Memoriam by Alice Winn / Knopf / 382 pages / 2023 

4.5 stars. This novel will likely give you a heavy book hangover after you finish, meaning these characters and their intense World War I experiences last on considerably after the last pages, though it took me a while to get invested in the story at first, probably not till page 100 did things turn more interesting for me. 

The beginning starts at a British boarding school in 1914 where a group of guys are goofing around together, pulling pranks, fighting, and reading the school’s In Memoriam column to see who’s died or been wounded in the war. They talk of signing up and being heroic in battle. Two smart and sensitive ones in particular, Sidney Ellwood, 17, a Jewish poet, and Henry Gaunt, 18, half-German, stand out and seem caught up on one another without letting the other know, though in time they get close. 

Various boys in their clique seem gay at the school or have gay experiences and you might wonder a bit after awhile if this story is going to be for you. But then when Henry Gaunt skips out and enlists in the war things turn dicey at the front where he’s a captain. And Ellwood follows him by enlisting. They hear of classmates getting killed and see horrific things while in the trenches near Ypres, Belgium, including the Germans use of poisonous gas and friends getting blown apart. It’s while they’re on a mission to breach the enemy’s line that their fates become changed. What happens after includes a couple plot twists as the war goes along that kept me rapidly turning the pages. 

It’s an epic WWI story that puts you right there in the grime, amid the trench fears, wounds, camps, and the aftermath’s shell shock, and propels you to know what’ll happen to the characters: the men — Ellwood and Gaunt — and their prep school classmates. The love between Ellwood and Gaunt brings the experience upfront and closer, and the men feel quite real and brought to life as it goes on. 

Debut author Alice Winn seemingly comes out of nowhere to blow the lid off of this one. Her style was a bit different to me in that the novel includes pages and pages linked by dialogue. In fact, so much of the story and setting she’s able to get across by dialogue alone. There’s not a lot of exposition writing here, which is surprising in a novel that seems to get across much of the atmosphere of the Great War and its battles. Kudos to Winn for this epic tale that left me wondering long after it was over.

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino / FSG / 336 pages / 2024 

4 stars. I liked some of the light humor and touching emotions in this coming-of-age novel about a girl born in 1977 who grows up in Philadelphia with a single mom and is really an alien from a faraway planet, which is known at the begining. For the most part, Adina looks and seems human, but she’s a bit of an outcast and every once in awhile she’s faxing her “superiors” in outer space to report back on human behavior, which surprises her in some regards. She also has a bit of an obsession with astronomer Carl Sagan, who was a believer in extraterrestrial life. 

The narrative follows Adina’s youth in the 1980s and ’90s as she navigates her life with her mom, her school years, and the popular mean cliques, while befriending a neighbor in her grade — Toni and her brother Dominic. 

The three of them eventually wind up in NYC with Adina getting a little dog named Butternut and where Toni works in publishing and persuades Adina to share her writings with the world. The story has some amusing and charming parts as well as some sad ups and downs as Adina grieves over a couple losses and goes through an uneasy breakup. Her Philly Italian mom, who seems opposite of Adina, remains a constant in her life. 

I listened to this as an audiobook narrated well by Andi Arndt, and I enjoyed the story’s premise, its cultural spotlights, as well as Adina’s sensitive sensibilities. My only slight qualm was I would’ve liked to have seen Adina a bit more different than her human counterparts. She’s just a bit nerdy and a loner, but her extraterrestrial being doesn’t stand out all that much. Though towards the end, she begins to wonder about going “home,” or whether to stay on Earth, which lend things some apprehension as the story goes on. This was my first Bertino novel and I think I’d read her again in the future.

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

Hi. I hope everyone is doing well. We had a bit of snow here on Monday, but the freeze has left and now very mild weather is ahead. We went from -40 to +40 degrees in a couple weeks time, which is quite a change and means more outdoors time for me and the dogs, yay. The sky in the photo might look like there’s a fire, but it’s only the sunset and the prospects of warm weather ahead. We’ve started taking the bird feeders around the house down at night because deer have been eating them dry. If you can believe it, papa deer is able to stand on his hind legs, balance, and eat from the bird tray in the photo. The deer are also able to empty the other feeders. Squirrels are less of a problem here, but we are on the lookout.

Not much else is new, but we had a couple notable anniversaries this week. First my husband and I passed our one year anniversary since we moved out of the city for the countryside, which has been fantastic. We love it so much more here. We still have more upgrades to do, but we’ll do them over time as we can. Also today marks eight weeks since my knee replacement surgery and I’m doing well. I go to physical therapy once a week and practice the exercises daily as well as I can pedal an indoor bike. So little by little, I’m returning to normal activities, but just not tennis playing yet, which is okay.

Last week I posed the question about when is it time to DNF a book and you all had great answers about your own rules of thumb for it. So I will pose another book-ish question, which is: Are you a “monogamous reader” — reading a book at a time — or do you prefer to have multiple books going at once? And how many do you usually read at a time? I admit I have generally been a monogamous reader all my life. Once I’m hooked in a book, I like to focus on that one till it’s done. Though I usually have one print read going and one audiobook going at a time. Just recently, along with a fiction read, I’m able to have a nonfiction read going on the side. So perhaps I’m trying to leave monogamous reading behind. What about you?

And now I’ll leave you with a couple reviews about what I finished lately.

Western Lane by Chetna Maroo / Farrar Straus & Giroux / 160 pages / 2023

4.2 stars. I found the writing outstanding in this debut novel set outside London about a British-Indian father and his daughters Gopi, 11, Khush, 13, and Mona, 15, who have just lost their mother as it opens. To occupy them, their father gets them training in squash playing at their nearby rec center Western Lane, though Gopi who narrates the story is the only one who really excels. Her father puts her through a rigorous squash regimen and she begins playing with 13-year-old Ged, whom she begins to like.

However, it’s all very restricted and repressed as the girls, whose Gujarati relatives are lurking and have let the father know they are willing to take and raise a daughter since his wife’s death, live under a tight decorum of rules. But it all begins to weigh on Gopi, her sisters, and the father, and fractures in their family begin to emerge. Towards the end, Gopi trains for a squash tournament that could bring them back together.

Western Lane is a moving coming-of-age story of Gopi’s reckoning and an internal family drama. As an avid tennis player I loved how it brought the sport of squash into Gopi’s drama over the loss of her mother, like a metaphor of her life then. When you’re on the court, “you are alone. That’s how it’s supposed to be. You are supposed to find your own way out,” says Gopi. This novel is a winner and I will watch for whatever Chetna Maroo writes next. This was my first audiobook of the year narrated expertly by British actress Maya Saroya.

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters / Harper / 320 pages / 2023

3.75 stars. The story follows the lives of two siblings from Nova Scotia whose indigenous family comes to Maine each berry season to work and pick in the fields. It’s not really a mystery early in the story that as a young child, age 4, the girl goes missing and is raised elsewhere, not fully comprehending her origins. No one knows what happened to her, but her brother, two years older, lives with the loss and guilt over last seeing her. The story, which alternates chapters between Norma and Joe, explores how their lives play out over a few decades in different places and under different circumstances.

The story felt sincere, heartfelt, and agonizing over how the indigenous family is not whole afterwards and how it suffers from various tragedies over the years as well as how the two main characters’ lives face hardships. There’s quite a bit of sadness and longing to it, and the debut author does well to make the two character’s different lives and places feel authentic (it’s quite a visual telling), though there was still just a touch to me that felt a bit contrived and melodramatic. The story’s also sort of predictable. Still it’s an interesting portrayal of their lives, what happened to them in different families, and it kept me turning the pages.

The novel was a pick by my book club, which will be discussing it in February. It seems to include many issues in it about ethnicity, race, and how and where a person is raised, so I think it’ll make for a good discussion.

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