What are you reading the week of January 4, 2020?

2020? We were supposed to be living in underwater cities by now. Where's my SeaLab?

I'm a third of the way through The Paranoid Style in American Politics. It's a disheartening look at how we got here. Hofstadter didn't live to see the present, but he would have said, "I told you so."

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

Aunt Dimity and the Heart of Gold by Nancy Atherton

(Aunt Dimity series/paranormal cozy/Christmas happenings & mystery in an English village)

>1 fredbacon: As long as it's not flying cars. What a crap idea that one is...carnage on the roads already, now they think shrapnel from above is a good idea?

Having a tough time getting a book to stick, but have read a few short stories.

This morning I started reading Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin. So far I like it. My book club meets next Saturday to discuss.

Still not reading The Bard's Blade, Fire & Blood, Blood of Elves, and Deeper Than the Darkness.

I finished up another round of my "between books" . . .

* “from Notes on PiL’s Metal Box, 1980” from Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs
* Excerpt from Strikes Have Followed Me All My Life by Emma Mashinini from The Norton Book of Women's Lives edited by Phyllis Rose
* “Homer and Humbug, an Academic Discussion” from Laugh with Leacock by Stephen Leacock
* “Charity/Caridad” from It's All In the Frijoles: 100 Famous Latinos Share Real-Life Stories, Time-Tested Dichos, Favorite Folktales, and Inspiring Words of Wisdom by Yolanda Nava – Finished!
* “The Race Track: Mud Runner” by Audax Minor from the December 2, 1967, issue of The New Yorker Magazine

As noted, this marked the completion of It's All in the Frijoles. Author/editor Yolanda Nava has put together an array of short oral histories from Latin American artists and community leaders, plus folk tales, poems and dichos (proverbs). These entries are arranged in chapters by the various graces, Respect, Loyalty, Charity, etc., all meant to illustrate the ways in which these qualities are an integral part Latin American culture as a whole. Some of the chapters work better and/or are more interesting than others. Among the most interesting entries are examples of pre-Columbian Mexican and South American folk tales. I wouldn't want to have to sit down and read this book straight through, but reading it a chapter at a time over a year or so as I did helped my enjoyment factor.

I've now begun The Rescue by Joseph Conrad. This is a continuation of my longstanding tradition of beginning each calendar year with a reading (or most cases, re-reading) of a Conrad novel. In this way, I'm going through all of his novels in chronological order.

Just finished an interesting sci fi novel, Halfway Human by Carolyn Gilman. :)

Have started The Hidden Life of Trees Peter Wohileben, for book club this month.

Also reading The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter Theodora Goss.

Fascinated by every page of my Secret Santa book. Two Years in the Forbidden City is full of the quotidian details of Dowager Empress Cixi's court. Princess Der Ling describes official and private ceremonies, becomes the #1 lady-in-waiting and functions as translator when foreign officials visit, we sit at the table for sumptuous feasts served "Manchu style' -- that is individual bowls and dishes, as opposed to "Chinese style," which has diners all helping themselves from a communal dish. Eunuchs abound and so do gossip and lies that are intended to discredit Der who is the daughter of a diplomat and spent her youth receiving a Western education, including three languages and "modern" ideas.

Talk about first-hand living history!

Finished reading an Early Reviewer selection, Tiny Love. Pretty good.

Next up to read is A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum.

I finished the book 70% Acrylic 30% Wool. Spectacular and novel writing does not make the topic of grief, depression, and pain easy to take. It's a first novel by an Italian author which won a Capiello prize.

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

The Winter Palace: A Novel of Catherine the Great by Eva Stachniak

(1700s/Varvara, a palace maid during Catherine the Great's rise/Canadian author)

>11 Molly3028:

If you enjoy the novel and want to know more about Catherine the Great, I suggest Massie's biography, Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman. She comes to life in this work because Massie focuses on the evolving person from youth to old age more than the political aspects of her reign. As a result, he creates a memorable portrait of a strong woman whose strength was constantly tested in all her relationships but who managed to be loved by the Russian people in spite of not being native-born to the country she adopted, ruled, and loved in return.

Finished reading the very good debut novel, A Woman Is No Man.

Next up to read is Chaos and Night by Henry De Montherlant.

I’m (re)reading Dick Francis’s Bolt for a group read that ended last month. Hope there’s a 10 day grace period!

I'm finishing up Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty. Very relaxing book, just what I needed!

My fiction read this week that I'm laughing all the way through is The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson. Great way to start a new year and decade. A crazier band of nutniks I haven't read about since A Confederacy of Dunces, but they're all in a single family of four in this novel.

Finished Xenocide today; quite interesting how Card pulled everything together in the last few pages of this one.

Now continuing with Pilgrimage 4, which, with any luck, I will finish this month and be able to put to bed the whole thing!

>12 Limelite:

I enjoy the cultural info this type of tale relates.
Thanks for the tip on the NF book.

I tried listening to Trust Exercise, but stopped after an hour. Just not my cup of tea.

Moving on to Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo.

Grace Takes Off – Julie Hyzy
2.5**

Book four in the Manor House Mystery series has Grace and her boss and benefactor, Bennett Marshfield, traveling to Italy to visit one of Bennett’s long-term friends, the fabulously wealthy Nico Pezati. They’re puzzled by an apparent forgery among Nico’s art collection but have no time to investigate as they’re flying home the next morning. But their troubles increase on the plane; by the time they land there are two bodies on board and Grace is convinced that Bennett is a target. But WHO is trying to kill him, and WHY?

I like this series but am getting tired of Grace’s inability to keep her nose out of things that don’t concern her. I perplexed that with all her “experience” solving cases that she can’t identify the culprit earlier. (I knew the villain the moment said person appeared on the page.) And more importantly, I’m tired of her very poor choices when it comes to the men in her life.

Frances (Grace’s irascible assistant) and Ronny Tooney (wannabe private investigator) both have roles to play, though I’d like to see them more involved. Ditto Scott and Bruce, Grace’s roommates. As for Hilary … I could do without her; she’s a ridiculous caricature of a money-grubbing airhead.

I read cozy mysteries because they are fast and enjoyable. They’re my reading snack food.

Little Beach Street Bakery – Jenny Colgan
Digital audiobook read by Veida Dehmlow.
3***

From the book jacket: A quiet seaside resort. An abandoned shop. A small flat. This is what awaits Polly Waterford when she arrives at the Cornish coast, fleeing a ruined relationship. To keep her mind off her troubles, Polly throws herself into her favorite hobby: making bread. But her relaxing weekend diversion quickly develops into a passion. …Soon, Polly is working her magic with nuts and seeds, chocolate and sugar, and the local honey – courtesy of a handsome beekeeper.

My reactions
This is a lovely chick-lit romance novel. Things don’t do smoothly for our heroine, but love will win in the end. It was a fast and enjoyable read full of colorful characters – from the cranky landlady, Mrs Manse, to the fishermen who befriend and help her, to that handsome beekeeper, and her flirtatious, over-the-top best friend, Kerensa. Oh, and Neil, the puffin is a star!

The setting is the town of Mount Polbearne – a tidal island that is cut off from the mainland during high tide, when the causeway is underwater. This village and the surrounding landscape are practically a character in the book, Colgan’s writing is that atmospheric. I could smell the salty air, hear the roar of an angry sea during a storm, and feel the warmth of sun on my skin during a sunny spring day, full of the buzzing of bees.

The situations are somewhat over the top (the Star-Wars themed wedding is a hoot), and, as is expected in this genre, rely on some outlandish coincidences, but it’s all fun.

This is the first in a series of stories that follow Polly and her bakery. I read them in reverse order (because I didn’t’ realize they were a series at first). Best to read them in order as the relationships develop over the course of the series. I do have a bone to pick re the US paperback edition cover; Polly bakes BREAD, not cupcakes and sweets. At least the cover of the audio book gets it right.

Veida Dehmlov does a respectable job of voicing the audio, though her American accents are dreadful! Still, she sets a good pace. And I really did like the way she portrayed Polly.

The House Next Door – Anne Rivers Siddons
4****

This work of Southern gothic / horror fiction is a little slow to start but once it gets going it's riveting!

Colquitt and Walter Kennedy live in a lovely home in a friendly Atlanta suburb. They and their neighbors visit one another regularly, enjoy cocktails after work, play tennis on weekends, and attend parties at various homes. The Kennedys are pleased to live next door to a vacant lot whose narrowness and ravined terrain have always ensured it stays vacant, an oasis of natural beauty in their neighborhood. Until a young couple hires a hot-shot architect who designs a spectacular house that seems to just grow out of the land. The house is still under construction when odd things start to happen. Not just odd, but downright malevolent and horrific.

I stayed up way too late a couple of nights "waiting for that other shoe to drop." It left me on edge and vaguely anxious; spooked by noises in the night (or in the daytime). Reminds me of the hoopla around book:The Amityville Horror|325534 - a book I read when it first came out in the late '70s. A perfect Halloween read!

Modern Love; Things My Son Needs To Know About The World; James Martin,SJ, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek and The Water Dancer

A Murder Is Announced by Agatha Christie
4/5 stars
A classic mystery- well done!

Around the World In 80 Days – Jules Verne
Digital audiobook performed by Frederick Davidson
4****

One of the books in Verne’s series of “Extraordinary Voyages” begins when Phileas Fogg accepts a wager at his gentleman’s club. He’s certain that he will be able to circumnavigate the world in eighty days. Taking a significant amount of cash and his trusty servant Passepartout, and chased by Detective Fix who is certain Fogg is a bank robber, they set out on a grand adventure.

I’d seen more than one movie adaptation but had never read the book until now. What a delight! (Although, of course, there are some racial stereotypes that grate on the modern reader’s sensibilities.)

I marveled at how cool and collected – almost uninterested – Fogg remained throughout. He is never upset or even particularly inconvenienced. He moves with the certainty that he is correct in assuming that he can achieve this great task. Passepartout on the other hand is in a dither frequently, and he is a wonderful foil for Fogg … and for Detective Fix.

Great fun!

One quibble re cover art. SO many covers (as well as the movies) show the iconic hot-air balloon … which is NEVER used in the book!

Frederick Davidson does a marvelous job narrating the audiobook. He sets a good pace and I loved the way he interpreted the characters. I was happy also to have a text copy available, which included a handful of full-color illustrations, as well as a small drawing of the mode of travel for each of the chapters.

I have just finished reading the novel His Dark Materials: The Subtle Knife by author Philip Pullman.

.

Enjoying this OverDrive audiobook ~

Private Justice (Newpointe 911, Book 1) by Terri Blackstock

(Christian suspense)

I finished Under a Wing: A Memoir. This is a memoir, not so much of the author's life but of the author's impressions, understandings, and experiences living with her two famous parents as well as some other family members. It did give a vivid portrait of those presented.

I finished The Rescue by Joseph Conrad. The protagonist of The Rescue is Tom Lingard, who also appears in Conrad's first two novels, Almayer's Folly and An Outcast of the Islands, although the events here predate those two stories in Lingard's life. Lingard is the owner and captain of the brig, The Lightning. He plies his trade, such as it is, among the islands and mists of the Malayan archipelago, where he has gained outsized status as a man of power and prestige, while at the same time almost entirely, by design, cut off from English civilization. In flashback we see the story of Lingard's life being saved by a young prince, Hassim and learn that Lingard has in turn saved Hassim's life, helping him escape from, basically, a coup. Lingard has sworn to help his friend gain back his rule, and as the action opens here has been planning and plotting this action for two years. He is gathered his forces and is almost ready to put the plan into action, when unexpected events, as events usually will, intercede. The novel revolves around Lingard's attempts to overcome a succession of potentially fatal roadblocks thrown in his way.

This is not Conrad at his height or at his most skillful. But I still found it to be very good storytelling, and since I love Conrad's voice, I enjoyed this novel very much indeed. And, happily, at the points where I thought Conrad might be about to fall into cliches of plot, he twists himself out of those traps deftly.

Yesterday and this morning I went through another round of my "between books" . . .

* “from All My Friends are Hermits” from Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs
* Excerpt from Memories of a Catholic Childhood by Mary McCarthy from The Norton Book of Women's Lives edited by Phyllis Rose
* “’We Have with Us To-Night’” from Laugh with Leacock by Stephen Leacock
* “Weekend Confrontation with the Soc. Rels.” a short story by Barbara Vroom from the December 2, 1967, issue of The New Yorker Magazine

Today I'm starting Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, so I shouldn't be the only reader in America who hasn't read this book, yet. My wife read it and was very moved, so I'm looking forward to this very much.

I started to read Edgar Allen Poe!
TBH, as a non-native speaker, 19th century English is really hard to understand. I see familiar vocabularies which i learnt from studying for the GRE and have forgotten the day after I took the test, LOL.
But the stories, the poems and the way he describe every scene and object in his stories is absolute phenomenon.

The new thread is up over here.

>31 Hanxi_Xiao:

Welcome to Library Thing! I'm speculating from your name that you're a native Chinese-speaker. Modern Chinese authors' works have been a special interest of mine for the last two years. Of course, I can only read them in translation.

Do you include contemporary Chinese novels in your library? If you've read some in Chinese, I'd be interested to hear what you think of the English translations of the books in the event you have compared any.

For Christmas, I got Can Xue's novel, Frontier, which I haven't started yet; I'm busy reading the early 20th C. memoir by Princess Der Ling, Two Years in the Forbidden City in which she remembers the daily life of Dowager Queen Cixi's Manchu court. Wish I knew and could supply you with the titles in Chinese.

Look forward to hearing more about what you're reading. Poe is a universal favorite in high school English lit courses because his poems are so rhythmic and his subjects eerie and bizarre. His short fiction is also "Gothic."