May 2018: What we're reading and discussing

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May 2018: What we're reading and discussing

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1BookConcierge
mei 8, 2018, 7:58 am

No new thread yet for this month, so I'll start us off ...

2BookConcierge
mei 8, 2018, 7:58 am

A Thread Of Grace – Mary Doria Russell
Audiobook performed by Cassandra Campbell
5*****

Russell’s third novel leaves space and the future, and instead looks back on WW2 and the Italian citizens who saved the lives of thousands of Jews; not only their neighbors but refugees coming from other countries. It opens in September 1943, with fourteen-year-old Claudette Blum and her father. They’ve already fled Belgium and are in Paris, when they need to move once again. This time they will cross the Alps on foot, led by an Italian soldier. Eventually they are taken in by a farm family and come to know the villagers in the area. As the war progresses over the next few years we meet a large cast of characters that includes a German doctor who regrets his past, an Italian rabbi and his family, a priest, a British paratrooper, and a charismatic Italian resistance leader.

What a story! Based on true incidents, Russell’s tale draws the reader into the lives of these many people. She gives us examples of true courage, from the fighters actively engaged in battle, to the grandmothers who carried messages or the Catholic nuns who sheltered Jewish children in large orphanages. I fell in love with these characters. Russell doesn’t sugarcoat the sacrifices and dangers they faced, nor does she make them saints.

They squabble, succumb to temptations, and waver in their determination. They are also courageous and fiercely resistant to the evils of the Nazis. Out manned and out gunned by the Germans, this “army” of citizens nevertheless shows discipline and ingenuity when fighting. Their huge advantage is their intimate knowledge of the terrain and their fierce loyalty to one another.

This is a war story, so I knew there would be death and destruction. Even though I expected this, some of these scenes brought me to tears. Russell tempers the sadness and horror with moments of great tenderness and even humor.

I was lucky that I chose to listen to this audiobook while on a long road trip. I finished the 17-hours of listening in two day’s driving. Cassandra Campbell does a superb job performing the audiobook. She is a gifted voice artist and really brought the story and these characters to life.

3BookConcierge
Bewerkt: mei 29, 2018, 8:14 pm

Can't win 'em all ...

Every Breath You Take – Judith McNaught
Digital audio read by Laura Dean
2**

Excerpted from the book jacket: Kate Donovan never dreamed that a chance romantic encounter on a tropical island paradise would involve her in a high-society murder case. But after she tangles with the darkly charismatic Mitchell Wyatt, Kate finds herself a player in a lethal game of guilt and deception.

My reactions
Okay, I knew it was a romance novel going into it. Still the writing was just dreadful – full of stereotypical characters, romance tropes and clichés. I kept laughing out loud as I listened because it was so bad. However … it’s somewhat better than the publisher’s blurb on the book jacket (though that’s not saying much).

That being said, it was hugely entertaining. It was a fast read (or listen) and I enjoyed it. I can certainly see why McNaught is a best-selling author.

The audio book is read by Laura Dean, and she does a fine job. Too bad she doesn’t have better material to work with.

4BookConcierge
mei 10, 2018, 10:43 pm

Rainwater – Sandra Brown
Book on CD performed by Victor Slezak
3***

In 1934 in central Texas, Ella Barron runs a boardinghouse. She’s a particular woman in the way the cleans and runs her home. She respects the privacy of her tenants and expects the same in return. She is devoted to her only son, 10-year-old Solly, who does not speak and is prone to “fits” or tantrums. Doctor Kincaid introduces her to David Rainwater, the doctor’s distant cousin, who is seeking a quiet, peaceful place for a few months.

This is an interesting look at small town prejudice and bullying in tough times. The Depression hit everyone hard. Some wealthy individuals weathered it with little disturbance; a few greedy people saw a way to profit from the distress of others. Many lost their homes / farms / jobs, and lived in shanty towns, staving off hunger by the generosity of others and their own hard work.

Everyone in the boardinghouse is intrigued and charmed by Mr Rainwater, who has fine manners and a pleasant, calm disposition. Only Ella knows the truth, for Dr Kincaid has confided that Rainwater is dying. New to town, he still manages to have a great influence, leading by example in the face of bigotry, bullying and a corrupt sheriff. He also finds ways to penetrate Solly’s isolation, identifying the routines that capture the boy’s attention and help to calm him. Ella and Rainwater are drawn to one another, despite her instincts to remain aloof and apart from her tenant.

Brown is best known as a romance writer, and there is some romance here. But it is more of an historical fiction work than a traditional romance, despite the sexual tension between the two main characters. Brown does a credible job of exploring some important issues, though she does tend to rely on some of the romance tropes and stereotypical characters. She also does a fine job of describing the landscape of central Texas during the Depression. I could almost feel the gritty dust in the air and was reminded of visiting my grandparents and having the chore of “watering the street” to keep the dust down on hot summer afternoons.

Victor Slezak does a fine job performing the audio. His voice tends towards the bass register, so he’s great when voicing any of the male characters, but he manages a credible voice for the many women in the novel as well. At first, I thought his pace was too slow, but I quickly came to think it was perfect for this work.

5anna_in_pdx
mei 11, 2018, 1:16 pm

I just finished a book by a friend of mine. It's a Regency/Victorian romance historical fiction novel about two gay men. It is really well-written and the plot is incredibly good. I can't say enough good things about it. Restraint by Anne Hawley. (no touchstone, here is an Amazon link) I will do a review when I have time.
https://www.amazon.com/Restraint-Anne-Hawley/dp/0692911863

6BookConcierge
mei 15, 2018, 8:04 am

The Rooster Bar – John Grisham
Audiobook read by Ari Fliakos
3***

Three third-year law students are stunned when their friend and fellow student commits suicide. They hadn’t known he was bi-polar, and they are simply unable to return to classes once they look into his paranoid conspiracy theory of “Satan” and how the billionaire has preyed on the hopes of marginal students by founding multiple for-profit law schools whose graduates can’t pass the bar or get a decent job. Drowning in debt, they decide to drop out of law school and find another way to make some money.

Grisham knows how to write a thrilling adventure tale. Here he imagines three students on a mission to turn the system on its head. Who needs a license? They figure that they can perform at least as well as the sleaziest courthouse- or police-station trolling attorney, picking up poor and uneducated clients for quick plea deals. Learning on the fly they make mistakes, but they also begin making some money. And then they turn their attention to the billionaire who started it all …

The three main characters – Mark, Todd and Zola – are reasonably bright, motivated, and quick on their feet. I found their friendship and loyalty to one another and to the memory of Gordy touching and genuine. Grisham also peoples the book with a variety of colorful minor characters, from a black teen with a speeding ticket, to a high-powered attorney specializing in medical malpractice, to the owner of a number of bars in the DC area, and a highly-sexed cute-as-a-button prosecuting attorney bored with her assignment in traffic court.

I did think that Grisham wrote himself into a hole and was struggling to get out. There’s a significant side plot focusing on one student’s parents – illegal immigrants who fled Senegal decades ago (Zola was born in the USA). For most of the book I thought this was a distraction, though their situation becomes a key to the final resolution. Kind of a cheap trick, in my opinion.

Ari Fliakos does a fine job performing the audio version of this book. I did sometimes get confused between Todd and Mark, since Fliakos doesn’t give them much difference in tone or inflection. Since they have many conversations together it’s somewhat important to know which of them is speaking which lines of dialogue. Still, overall, I thought he did a great job. He kept the pace at a steady speed and the action moving forward.

7BookConcierge
mei 15, 2018, 8:08 am

The Good Nurse – Charles Graeber
Digital audiobook read by Will Collyer
3***

Subtitle: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder

Charles Cullen was a registered nurse who worked in a number of New Jersey hospitals. He always volunteered to care for the sickest patients and was a seemingly dedicated nurse. But people began to notice that wherever Charlie worked, the death rates skyrocketed. When he was finally arrested, he was quickly dubbed “The Angel of Death.”

Graeber conducted many interviews, including with Cullen and with the friend and colleague who eventually cooperated with police to capture him. It’s a fascinating story and points out flaws in the administration of drugs in hospitals … at least in the early 2000s. My own experiences in more recent years shows a vigilance that was not apparent in Graeber’s account.

I really applaud the efforts of nurse Amy Loughren. It was she who put the pieces together and who took the time to study records of drug use in the hospital to discover the patterns that pointed to Cullen’s guilt. Her courage and tenacity as a police confidential informant was instrumental in Cullen’s conviction.

I’ve always been interested in medicine, and I love the true crime genre, though I don’t read much of it these days. This didn’t quite capture my attention the way other true crime works have done. It was interesting and Graeber clearly did his homework, but it wasn’t very compelling.

Will Collyer did a fine job reading the audio book. He has good pacing and clear diction.

8BookConcierge
Bewerkt: mei 16, 2018, 9:14 am

Origin – Dan Brown
Book on CD performed by Paul Michael
3***

Brown certainly knows how to craft a page-turning thriller. Sentences are short. Characters are circumspect. Action moves from scene to scene. Red herrings abound. All this keeps the reader in suspense and turning pages, guessing right up to the reveal.

But …

I’m tired of Robert Langdon (or Dan Brown) lecturing about “symbology.” And I’m tired of religion, and the Catholic church, in particular, being portrayed as the bad guy. In this episode, I’m also somewhat stunned at the way Spain and the royal family are portrayed. I know this is fiction, but I’m still uncomfortable with some of the depictions.

This one also went rather far afield, plot wise. It was almost as if Brown wrote himself into a corner and couldn’t easily work his way out. I was disappointed in the reveal and was left feeling cheated.

Paul Michael did a fine job narrating the book, however. I loved his voice for Winston, and he does a credible job of voicing Ambra as well.

9inaudible
mei 21, 2018, 6:30 pm

Reading Milton with friends. What a pleasure it is to read verse by such a master.

10anna_in_pdx
mei 21, 2018, 7:42 pm

Paradise Lost? I read that with a book group on LT several years ago, it was a great experience.

11iansales
mei 26, 2018, 5:14 am

Been working my way thrugh the Clarke Award shortlist. Not impressed. Gather the Daughters reads like a creative writing programme submission, the plot twist is obvious about a quarter of the way in, and there is zero commentary on the offensive behaviour it documents. Sea of Rust reads like it was written in the 1980s, by someone who knows bugger-all about computers but is desperate to show off what little they do know. It also rip-offs Mad Max. Currently reading Spaceman of Bohemia and if there's one thing I hate its books about space exploration which get everything laughably wrong - a comet that takes 18 months to reach Earth from the edge of the Milky Way? That's 30,000 light years!

12CliffBurns
mei 26, 2018, 10:20 am

Isn't Kalfar's book something of a satire, Ian? Does that give it some license with science fact?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/24/books/review/spaceman-of-bohemia-jaroslav-kal...

13iansales
mei 27, 2018, 5:12 am

If you're satirising the science, yes. Tho it's not reading like a satire so far.

14Sandydog1
mei 27, 2018, 9:24 am

Finished Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. Nasty, deeply misogynistic, depressing (it's DFW), and at times, spiritual and beautifully written.

15BookConcierge
mei 27, 2018, 10:45 am

Smilla’s Sense of Snow – Peter Høeg
2.5**

From the book jacket Smilla Qaavigaaq Jaspersen is part Inuit, but she lives in Copenhagen. She is thirty-seven, single, childless, moody, and she refuses to fit in. Smilla’s six-year-old Inuit neighbor, Isaiah, manages only with a stubbornness that matches her own to befriend her. When Isaiah falls off a roof and is killed, Smilla doesn’t believe it’s an accident. She has seen his tracks in the snow, and she knows about snow. She decides to investigate and discovers that even the police don’t want her to get involved.

My reactions
I really wanted to like this. It’s been on my tbr for ages and it fits a genre I usually enjoy: Psychological thriller / mystery with a strong female lead. And Smilla is definitely a strong female heroine. She’s a keen observer, tenacious, self-reliant, and intelligent. She’s also moody and distrustful, keeping herself somewhat closed off from those around her. And perhaps it’s that quality that made the book less appealing to me. I could never get to really know Smilla or care about her.

Høeg does have a way with words, however. His writing is very atmospheric; I could practically feel the cold, smell the briny sea air, or taste the food. A couple of examples:
“His pants have frozen into an armor of ice.”
“Toward the spot where the current has hollowed out the ice so it’s as thin as a membrane, a fetal membrane. Underneath, the sea is dark and salty like blood.”
“With whipped cream so fresh and soft and yellowish white, as if they had a cow standing in back of the bakery.”


And I think this passage perfectly describes Smilla and her philosophy:
“Whining is a virus, a lethal, infectious, epidemic disease.”

There are sections of the book that were mesmerizing, but many sections that just bored me to tears. And then it just ….. ends. With no real resolution. Even after finishing it I’m not sure I understand what happened. On the whole it was a chore to read, and it took me three weeks to finish it.

16BookConcierge
mei 27, 2018, 10:54 am

A Spool of Blue Thread – Anne Tyler
Audiobook performed by Kimberly Farr
3.5***

A family saga covering three generations of Whitshanks and the familial home that anchors their story. The novel is divided into four parts, beginning in 1994, then moving back to 1959 in part two, farther back to 1931 in part three, and ending with part four set in 2012.

Tyler shines when writing about everyday life and the small dramas that make up American families. I find these characters so believable and relatable, even when their circumstances are very different from anything I’ve experienced personally. The universal elements include sibling rivalries, parents vs children, young love, long-term partnerships, the compromises we all make in those relationships which are the most long-standing in our lives, and the many ways we love one another.

Kimberly Farr is fast becoming a favorite narrator for me. She does a marvelous job narrating the audio book. She has great pacing and gave each character a sufficiently unique voice that I was never confused about who was speaking.

17mejix
Bewerkt: mei 30, 2018, 12:08 am

Currently reading S.P.Q.R.: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard. She clearly is an authority on the subject, I'm just not entirely convinced about the way the book is written. The jury is still out though.

I'm also nibbling on Las Fuerzas Extranas by Leopoldo Lugones, an Argentine author I've heard mentioned over the years by, among others, Borges. This is a 1906 collection of science fiction short stories. They are not particularly entertaining or have much of a plot. A few of them are just expositions of pseudo scientific theories that culminate on a tragic/fantastic event. They are truly bizarre.

18iansales
mei 30, 2018, 1:42 am

Here's what I think of the Clarke Award shortlisted books: https://iansales.com/2018/05/29/reading-diary-2018-clarke-award-special/

19Cecrow
mei 30, 2018, 7:29 am

I usually don't bother mentioning; but currently three things on the go:

Islandia turned up in the papers of Austin Tappan Wright after he died in the 1930s in a car accident. His family beat it into shape with the help of an editor and it's become something of a cult classic. I was able to find a copy in a used bookstore last year. It definitely establishes an intriguing sense of place. Beyond that, its slow pace still has my jury out, a third of the way through.

The Power and the Glory is Graham Greene shedding light on the oppression of the Catholic Church in a small south Mexican state, early in the last century. I thought this was a completely invented scenario but nope, based on fact. Who says fiction can't teach you anything.

A Sicilian Romance is least impressive of the three, gothic claptrap that's overfull of melodrama and unlikely plot twists. Finishing for the sake of finishing.

20pinhut
jun 2, 2018, 12:37 am

Not seeing much evidence of snobbery. Current reading: two books on China by Colin Thubron, Behind the Wall and Shadow of the Silk Road, so-so for quality. Collected stories of Katharine Anne Porter, storytelling of exceptional quality. Evelyn Waugh, The Loved One, short, funny novel that revolves around a Hollywood funeral home.

21Tess_W
jun 2, 2018, 5:14 pm

Just finished a tome of 976 pages The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George. Very impressed with how accurate the history is. It took me months to read because no knowing of Egyptian history I had to research and substantiate the claims the book made. Of course, the dialogues between Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and Octavian were where the "fiction" came into play.

22Tess_W
jun 2, 2018, 9:18 pm

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. Madame Bovary was a slog and a bore. It is the ageless, timeless story of a woman who is seeking fulfillment in "love." She has romanticized love and will never be happy. Emma tries multiple affairs and spending large amounts of money to make her happy, but no cigar. This was scandalous when it came out in 1856 but would be mild today. Since the story line was blase I looked for great prose; but found little. 384 pages 2 1/2 stars On the 1001 BYMRBYD

23anna_in_pdx
jun 3, 2018, 12:02 pm

>22 Tess_W: I read Mme B in my early teens and hated it. I was wondering if I should reread as an adult. Based on this review the problem was her, not me!

24Tess_W
jun 3, 2018, 12:09 pm

>23 anna_in_pdx: In all reality, I should've also stated that Emma's husband was a bore and very dismissive of her.

25cindydavid4
Bewerkt: jun 4, 2018, 10:07 am

>23 anna_in_pdx: One of Woody Allens early stories
The Kugelmass Episode was about a lovelorn professor who is transported by a magician into the book Madam Bovery. He then falls in love with Emma. The story is hysterically funny and I couldn't imagine reading the book without that playing loops in my head.

26Cecrow
jun 4, 2018, 7:29 am

>20 pinhut:, KAP is fantastic.

>22 Tess_W:, Bovary is also fantastic, I'm only sorry I can't read it in the original French given the degree of care he took over every word and sentence. But even in English I thought it came across well.

27pinhut
Bewerkt: jun 4, 2018, 8:20 am

>22 Tess_W: Flaubert is a master. I suggest you look harder for his greatness, or try another of his works, such as Bouvard et Pécuchet.

28justifiedsinner
jun 4, 2018, 10:07 am

>27 pinhut: >22 Tess_W: Salammbo is fun but The Temptation of Saint Anthony is a masterpiece.

29BookConcierge
jun 5, 2018, 10:36 am

Little Fires Everywhere – Christine Ng
Book on CD performed by Jennifer Lim
4****

From the book jacket: In Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned – from the layout of the winding roads to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules. Enter Mia Warren – an artist and single mother – who arrives with her teenage daughter, Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. When a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town, Mia and Elena are on opposing sides.

My reactions
I cannot help but wonder what Ng has against determined mothers. In her debut work, the mother was single-minded in orchestrating a successful future for her daughter, and completely blind to the realities of her children’s actual hopes, dreams, and fears. Now, Ng gives us, in Elena Richardson, a woman virtually obsessed with getting her own way, and (again) blind to the realities of her own family members’ hopes, dreams, and fears. At least she contrasts this profile with Mia Warren – equally talented and devoted to her family, although frustratingly private, yet keenly observant and aware of what is happening and much more willing to listen.

I was struck by how the Richardson kids had a mother who believed she was giving her kids everything, but in fact they knew little about how to deal with life. While Mia, unable to give her child much in the way of material goods, had given her the tools for living – self-reliance, observation, determination. Pearl could put a bed together, Moody and his siblings couldn’t identify a Philips screwdriver from a wrench.

I also noticed how the class differences between these women was reinforced by the names Ng used for them. “Mrs Richardson” or “Mrs McCullough” as contrasted with Mia or Bebe.

Jennifer Lim does a fine job narrating the audiobook. She has good pacing and enough skill as a voice artist to give the many female characters sufficiently unique voices. The way she performed Mrs Richardson rationalizing her behavior, or Izzy’s confusion, frustration and anger really brought these characters to life for me.

30BookConcierge
jun 5, 2018, 10:08 pm

The Beauty of Humanity Movement– Camilla Gibb
4****

The novel focuses on a group of residents of Hanoi. Hung is an elderly pho merchant, moving his portable kitchen cart from location to location, but maintaining a loyal following. Tu is a young tour guide leading tourists, including American Vietnam Vets, through the city. He and his father, Binh, try to watch out for the old man. Maggie is Vietnamese by birth but raised in America. She has come to Hanoi as an art curator for a major luxury hotel; but her real purpose is to seek out clues as to what happened to her father, a dissident artist who survived a re-education camp in the 1950s.

I have to thank my F2F book club buddy for recommending this book, as I had totally missed it when it was first published. Told from multiple points of view, and moving back and forth in time, it requires some attention by the reader. I found it very atmospheric. I’ve been to Vietnam and her descriptions of the sights of Hanoi – the markets, the new construction, the lake, the restaurants and art galleries – were exactly what I remember. Gibb also perfectly captured the noise and bustle, the traffic (crossing the street!!!), the torrential rains, and the smell of pho.

My heart broke for Hung and Lan, the woman who lived in the shack next to his. I was equally touched by the heartache that Maggie faced, not knowing what happened to her father.

31iansales
jun 6, 2018, 1:42 am

We've moved to a new thread for June: http://www.librarything.com/topic/292202

32cindydavid4
jun 6, 2018, 12:27 pm

>31 iansales: So glad you read that - I included that book in our Reading through Time Southeast Asia post. Loved that book. I read another of hers, sweetness in the belly that has similar themes of identity, loss, searching...