March, 2021 Readings: "March is the month of expectation, the things we do not know..." (Emily Dickenson)

Gonna binge on some science fiction this month, methinks.

Charlie Jane Anders, Alastair Reynolds, Kameron Hurley.

You?

THE LIGHT BRIGADE by Kameron Hurley.

Military science fiction is NOT my thing, but this novel is told with some real panache, bringing to mind Haldeman's FOREVER WAR.

The narrative is a bit complicated--like Vonnegut's "Billy Pilgrim" the central character has come unstuck in time--but the end result is a fast-paced, gripping storyline (marred slightly by an upbeat ending).

Recommended.

I had to abandon Moby Dick in the climactic moment for a couple of weeks but am finally done.
Just started Is This Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld. I thought this would be him philosophizing about comedy or maybe a sort of memoir, but it's really more like a personal anthology of his material. Some very good stuff here but I also was left feeling that this was a lost opportunity.

A Bookshop In Berlin– Françoise Frenkel
Digital audiobook narrated by Jilly Bond
4****

Subtitle: The Rediscovered Memoir of One Woman’s Harrowing Escape From the Nazis
In 1921 Frankel – a Jewish woman from Poland – opened La Maison du Livre, Berlin’s first French bookshop. It was popular with artists and diplomats, celebrities and poets. But by 1935 the city was in the grip of the Nazis – first came bureaucratic hurdles, then police inspections and book confiscations. In November 1938 came Kristallnacht, when hundreds of Jewish shops and businesses were destroyed. Frankel fled to Paris. But she was hardly safe for long.

Originally titled No Place To Lay One’s Head this has been re-issued with the popular “bookshop” title – certainly a marketing strategy. There’s virtually nothing in the memoir about the bookshop, and little about Berlin.

This is not to say that Frankel’s memoir isn’t worth reading. I was engaged, interested and riveted by her tale. The many near misses and constant uncertainty would break many. I marveled at her tenacity, determination and sheer will to survive.

Jilly Bond does an excellent job of narrating the audiobook. She sets a good pace and has very clear diction. I don’t speak French, so am not certain, but her French pronunciation sounds authentic to me.

The text version includes numerous notes at the end, including copies of correspondence and a review of Frankel’s original memoir. I was surprised to learn from these appendices that she was married; her husband is never mentioned in the book.

Watching the adaptation of A Dance to the Music of Time on Acorn TV. Made me want to re-read the series so I've started on A Question of Upbringing.

Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout
4****

This is really a collection of short stories about the people who live in a small coastal Maine town. Virtually all the stories mention Olive Kitteridge, and we learn a little tidbit about her in each one. Olive is a hard woman to know and even harder to like. She is quick to judge, slow to forgive. She is not really in touch with her emotions at all (but then, most everyone is town has the same flaw). You really have all the elements of life in this little town – weddings, babies, death, divorce, affairs, surly children, inattentive spouses, the vulnerable, the lonely. In some of the stories the characters wake up to their dysfunction and take action to change, but we never really learn the result.

Update Oct 2020: After my F2F book club chose to discuss the sequel, Olive, Again, I decided to revisit the original. I’m glad I re-read it. For this experience I chose to read slowly, one story (chapter) every few days. I found myself thinking over some of the things I now know about Olive from reading the sequel and can clearly see her growth as a character. I’m more sympathetic to her, even though she is still hard to like. There are times when her experience as a teacher over many years shines through in the way she notices small clues to other people’s distress. Olive doesn’t always say or do the right thing – heck, she rarely says or does the right thing – but she takes note and in her own way she tries to let others know that they are not alone.

THE CITY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT by Charlie Jane Anders.

I get the LeGuin comparisons, all right?, but this book left me utterly cold. I didn't find the writing that great or the characters' travails all that interesting.

Got scads of great reviews and glowing blurbs but I'd give this one a rating of 2 1/2 stars out of five.

Most of that because of the world-building.

Not my kinda book or author.

>7 CliffBurns: The characters were awful, self-absorbed in the extreme. Not a patch on Le Guin.

Glad somebody else was less than taken with the book.

Anders might be one of those "young, cool authors" that pop up every so often, grab a lot of acclaim, the right agents, some plum assignments...but let's see where she is in ten years.

>7 CliffBurns: >8 justifiedsinner: I heard it described as like YA.

>10 iansales: It has some of that feel but that may be due to the immaturity of characterization.

The Dutch House – Ann Patchett
Digital audiobook performed by Tom Hanks.
4****

Patchett uses the youngest member of the Conroy family, Danny, to tell this decades-long story of the family’s fortunes. Dad, Cyril, builds a real-estate empire in the years following WW 2, and presents his wife with a surprise – a palatial mansion the family knows as the Dutch House. But his wife is not pleased and eventually she leaves the family. Danny and his older sister Maeve cling to one another, especially after their father remarries.

I love Patchett’s writing. I love the way she reveals her characters in what they say and do. We see Danny grow from a young child to a middle-aged man with children of his own. And we watch Maeve take on the mantle of responsibility for her younger brother, encouraging and pushing him to succeed, to prove that they can thrive without the legacy they expected. We watch as their relationship stalls and eventually grows. And we watch as the next generation of Conroys begin to repeat some of those same patterns.

Tom Hanks does a marvelous job of performing the audiobook. He was completely believable as Danny – whether as an eight-year-old or a middle-aged father. Bravo!

THE DETECTIVE AND THE DEVIL by Lloyd Shepherd.

A combination of two of my favorite genres, historical fiction and crime/mystery.

A series of murders in 1815 London seem to be centered around shenanigans within the British East India Company.

A good diversion but nothing unique or surprising. I found out too late this is part of a series but it stood on its own pretty well.

The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling
Digital audiobook performed by Ralph Cosham
3.5***

Of course I was familiar with Mowgli, Shere Khan, and Baloo, but I had never read the stories that make up this classic of children’s literature.

This edition had Mowgli’s tale, but also included three bonus stories: Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (the mongoose who battles the cobras), Toomai (who watches the elephants dance), and Kotick (the white seal who leads his herd to a safe haven). They are marvelous adventure stories with a few life lessons included. The exotic nature of the setting appeals to the imagination as well.

I remember a children’s book I had as a child that had a one of the Jungle Book stories in it. I loved when my Daddy would read it because he of the voices he used for the different animals. Well, sorry, Daddy, but Ralph Cosham does an even better job when performing the audio. His underlying sibilant hiss for the cobras was just chilling. And his deeply sinister voice for Shere Khan would make anyone afraid. It was an absolute delight to listen to him read this classic.

I've started In Search of Lost Time, planning to spread it across four years among other reads.

#15--Wishing you well with that. Takes a dedicated reader to take on that beast. Are you using the Moncrieff translation?

BLACK SUN RISING, a novella by Barry Gifford.

The Seminole Indians are trying to carve out a free territory for themselves in northern Mexico but the government in Mexico City is treacherous and they are bedeviled by Apaches, as well as white slavers and trigger-happy Texans.

An early effort by Gifford; reads more like a movie treatment, which I believe was the intention.

A quick afternoon read.

I've just started on a biography of the Italian Futurist revolutionary Gabriele d'Annunzio, The Pike. D'Annunzio was highly notorious in his day, a proto-fascist leader who was also regarded as perhaps the best living Italian poet and playwright by many people, not all of them d'Annunzio. He considered Mussolini to be a "vulgar imitator" of himself.

#18 I have that one in my History section, stuck there too long--be sure to let us know what you think.

Fascinating character.

Finished LAST ORGY OF THE DIVINE HERMIT by the inimitable Mark Leyner.

This is the goddamnedest book I've read in ages. Maybe since Nicholson Baker's THE MEZZANINE. Absolutely impossible to summarize, a unique reading experience.

Crazy and funny and surreal and courageous.

Still scratching my head over it, as you can likely tell.

Man I haven't read Mark Leyner in ages. Will look that one up.

The guy has the best titles ever. THE SUGAR FROSTED NUTSACK is a personal fave.

Chris Harding Thornton's PICKARD COUNTY ATLAS.

A crime novel set in rural Nebraska. An okay diversion but the problem is there's really nothing new here, familiar territory covered by better writers (like Larry Watson).

I like tales that aren't (at least) twice-told. This one, unfortunately, falls into that trap.

>22 CliffBurns:
Hehehe, love that title

THE TRAVELLER AND OTHER STORIES by Stuart Neville.

Neville is most famous for his crime novels (like THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST), set in Ireland or within the Irish expat community.

I'll have to give one of his novels a go because his short fiction didn't impress me. Formulaic, despite a smattering of horror/suspense tropes.

A mixed bag, not enough real gems to make it memorable.

White Fragility – Robin DiAngelo
Book on CD read by Amy Landon
3***

Subtitle: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism

I’m not sure what to think about this book. I am a person of color. And this book is written by a white woman, trying to explain why it is so difficult for white people to have meaningful conversations – and, more importantly, change behaviors – about racism.

I agree with some of her perspectives and applaud her efforts at calling out racism in a tactful manner that is more likely to engender conversation and less likely to result in aggressive push-back. Not that her tactic always works.

I think I’ll wait to write more until after my F2F book club meeting in November. It should be interesting … I am one of two POC in the group, and I think the other will not be available for the meeting.

I listened to the audio because it was the version that arrived first and I needed to get this read for the book club meeting. (At this writing, though I requested the book in JULY, I am still # 21 on the hold list. Anyway … Amy Landon’s delivery was slow and deliberate, needed for the listener to absorb some of the information. Still, I think this is a book best read in text format.

>18 RobertDay: did you finish this? If so, what was your ultimate evaluation? d’Annunzio is a fascinating character, and largely unknown now in the anglosphere it seems.

Factoid: Giovanni Mardersteig, who is in the running for being the greatest fine press printer of the 20th century, probably got the biggest boost to his career by getting the government contract/grant for printing the complete works of d’Annunzio.

>27 abysswalker: Oh yes. A very impressive book about a character who should be a warning to us. I described him as the "Godfather" of Italian fascism, though there is no doubt that he was a highly accomplished artist, intellectually. If only he had used his powers for good rather than evil. My review:

https://www.librarything.com/work/13447393/reviews/142080562

Insightful review, Robert. Gonna pull that one off the pile one of these days.