What are you reading the week of January 14, 2022?

I had a really busy week so that I didn't have much time for reading. I did manage to read Maigret Sets a Trap by Georges Simenon. It was another good entry in the series, this time focusing on the hunt for a serial killer.

I didn't make much progress in Putin's People, but I'm hoping to spend more time with it this week.

So, I'm about 3/5s of the way through Djinn City. From there the likely sequence is Against the Grain, Fatal Colours, and Sea of Tranquility.

I should finish up The Invasion of the Body Snatchers today. I’m a big fan of the 50s movie (and the Sutherland remake from the 70s is pretty good, too) but I’d never read the book before.

I listened to The House in the Cerulean Sea this week. I listened to it in October, and it was so lovely and so beautifully read that I thought it might cure a case of the winter blues. It did.

I'm now reading The Queen by Andrew Morton, and enjoying it very much. I do like royal biographies. I can't find a touchstone for the book.

Currently reading:
SF/F
The Trouble With Peace by Joe Abercrombie
Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees
Other
Trigonometry for Dummies by Mary Jane Sterling
A Keeper by Graham Norton

The Big Door Prize – M.O. Walsh
3***

From the book jacket: What would you do if you knew your life’s potential? That’s the question facing the residents of Deerfield, Louisiana, when the DNAMIX machine appears in their local grocery store. Its promise is amazing: with just a quick swab of your cheek and two dollars, the device claims to use the science of DNA to tell you your life’s destiny. With enough credibility to make the townspeople curious, the machine soon has the teachers, nurses, and shopkeepers of Deerfield abruptly changing course to pursue their new destinies – including Douglas Hubbard and his wife, Cherilyn, who both believed they were perfectly happy until they realized they could dream for more…

My reactions:
My F2F book club chose this book for discussion; I doubt I would have picked it up otherwise. I knew nothing going into it and expected a charming, quirky character-driven ensemble of small-town Southern America. I got some of that, certainly, but so much more.

There are some pretty heavy issues here, including unrealized dreams, peer pressure, drug abuse, grief, suicidal ideation, and domestic terrorism. The characters weren’t all fully realized, with some being little more than stereotypical sketches.

I came to really like some of these characters; Douglas, Cherilyn, Father Pete, and Principal Pat stand out. My heart broke for Trina and Jacob who cannot see a way to process their trauma and grief, and like too many teenagers, struggle alone.

There are scenes that are introspective and give the reader some insight into what these characters are thinking (whether or not they’ve used the DNAMIX machine to reveal their potential). Other scenes are light-hearted and break the tension. And there are very dramatic scenes that made me afraid to look, and more afraid to look away. There were enough plot points left hanging that several in my book club suspect a sequel in the works.

I'm currently reading Two Years Before the Mast for the Classics CAT Challenge, The Warrior Queens by Antonia Fraser, and Bringing Columbia Home by Michael Leinbach. I have a feeling I'll finish the last one first, even as gut-wrenching as it is.

DNF for Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees.

Started this audio via hoopla ~

Just the Nicest Couple: A Novel
by Mary Kubica

Stay Where You Are, Then Leave – John Boyne
Book on CD read by Euan Morton
3.5***

The Great War (WWI) began on Alfie Summerfield’s 5th birthday, with the result that few people attended his birthday party. That was okay … more cake for Alfie! At least his Dad, Georgie, was home from his job driving the milk delivery cart. But within a few weeks, Alfie’s father joined the fight, and although everyone said “It will be over by Christmas” they didn’t specify WHICH Christmas. Now, four years later, nine-year-old Alfie is doing all he can to help his Mum survive until his father can get home.

This is a book suitable for middle-school children, but deals with some serious issues, including poverty among the families of fighting men, conscientious objectors and “shell shock” (now called PTSD).

Alfie is a marvelous character. He’s curious, intelligent, a hard worker, resourceful and tenacious. Of course, although he’s been forced to take on more responsibility due to the war effort, he is only a child, and he doesn’t fully understand all that is happening. The fact that his mother tries to shield him from adult troubles leads him to draw his own conclusions, and, ultimately, to take action to fix the problem as he sees it.

Euan Morton does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. He gives us a believably young Alfie, and I loved the voices he used for Grannie Summerfield and Joe Patience.

I'm reading Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I finished Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather. I also finished Marriage Shock: The Transformation of Women into Wives by Dalma Heyn. I had to give up on Reading in the Dark by Seamus Deane; it was not what I thought it was and was not for me. I only made it to page 33.

I am currently reading Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come: One Introvert’s Year of Saying Yes by Jessica Pan.

From the library: The Last Crown by Elzbieta Cherezinska, translated by Maya Zakrzewska-Pim
The concluding and #2 novel in the "Bold" duet

Very close to finishing Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman very long and for me not her best.

I finished Amalgamemnon. What a wild ride. Beginning with a history/literature professor finding herself redundant, all boundaries disappear and her life, imaginings, the radio, mythology and male/female relationships all swirl together. It's presented with wit, fabricated language, puns, and absurd incongruities. It's not always understandable but hardly matters.

Finished A Keeper by Graham Norton. Very pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed the story.

Added A Fugue in Time by Rumer Godden to my rotation. Not strictly SF or F, but it does seem to tell a story in fluid time. Seems promising.

Badlands
C.J. Box
4/5 stars
Cassie Dewell, investigator is on the job again as the new deputy sheriff in Grimstad, North Dakota. The story surrounds a twelve-year-old named Kyle who is the slow kid and has no friends. One day while riding his bike on newspaper route, he sees a car crash and finds a package on the ground which he takes with him. Unfortunately, the package is filled with drugs and his life is going to be a lot different now and more dangerous as the owners of the package try to find it. I enjoyed this! Cassie Dewell Series - Book #2

This House Is Haunted – John Boyne
3***

It is 1867 and Eliza Caine, whose father has just died and left her virtually penniless, responds to an advertisement for a governess position at Gaudlin Hall in Norfolk, England. When she finally arrives, after a frightening incident in the thick fog, she’s greeted by the two children for whom she’ll care, Isabella and Eustace. But there is no adult present, and the children offer no explanation. Later that night in her room a second terrifying incident occurs and Eliza begins to question whether she should have taken this assignment.

In this work, Boyne focuses his considerable talent on writing a classic gothic ghost story. The writing style is reminiscent of Dickens and Bronte; I definitely pick up echoes of Jane Eyre. The reader learns pretty quickly that there is something not right in this house, but Boyne takes his time building suspense before letting us know definitively what is going on. I felt Eliza’s frustration when no one in town would tell her the full truth, cheered her on as she stiffened her spine and decided to take matters into her own hands, and I applauded her dedication to the children when she refused to leave them alone despite any danger to herself.

The big climax is somewhat overdramatic, though typical of the genre. But the ending is downright chilling.

The Exiles – Christina Baker Kline
Digital audiobook performed by Caroline Lee
3.5***

Historical fiction that looks at the issues of “transport” wherein women convicted of crimes were sent to Australia territories to “work off” their sentences. Kline also deals with the issues surrounding colonialist’s treatment of the indigenous population, with the story of Mathinna, the orphaned daughter of an Aboriginal chief, who is taken in by the new governor of Van Diemen’s Land (now known as Tasmania).

Evangeline, a governess in a “respected household”, is arrested on a trumped-up charge when her pregnancy is discovered. Hazel, a skilled midwife and herbalist who has had to live by her wits from a young age, is arrested for stealing a silver spoon. Hazel is canny and a seasoned survivor, while Evangeline is naïve despite her education, and unprepared for motherhood. On the journey aboard a former slave ship the unlikely pair form a friendship.

Meantime, Mathinna is being educated to be shown off to the governor’s associates as a “triumph” of Western education and values. She is little more than a living doll to the governor’s wife. But she never loses sight of her origins.

Eventually these two storylines intersect. The treatment these women endured was brutal and dehumanizing, but Kline’s characters band together to support one another and triumph. I was interested from beginning to end and learned a bit more about this episode in history.

Caroline Lee does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. There are a lot of characters to handle, and she was up to the task.

The new thread is up over here.