What are you reading the week of Autust 1, 2020?

Since it hasn't been started yet, I thought I might as well go ahead and do it. Hope I'm not overstepping.

Still reading Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 164, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction May/June 2019, Seven Blades in Black, Ruin, and Thin Air.

Fifth Season

>2 cindydavid4: Ooooh, I really enjoyed that whole trilogy! Hope it's a good one for you.

I'm reading Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout, The Writer's Library by Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager (e-book ARC - comes out in September) and Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir.

Just finished Still the Best Hope by Dennis Prager. Now reading the 19th century Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville.

I finished the historical novel about the American West, In the Distance by Hernan Diaz. I thought it was very good, though I did have some issues with it. You can find my review on my 50-Book Challenge thread.

I added my 1909 edition of the Harvard Library volume Nine Greek Dramas to my reading rotation. I have so far read and enjoyed "Agamemnon" and "The Libation Bearers," the first two plays in "The House of Atreus" trilogy by Aeschylus. I'm looking forward to gradually reading through the remaining seven plays over the next few months.

And now another book from the "They Can't All Be Classics" Department, as I've started Naked She Died, the second book in an obscure mystery series starring Sergeant Giff Speer by a writer named Don Tracy. My copy is a first edition pulp paperback published in 1962.

I'm reading The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman along with my sister. I love Practical Magic, and it's been an excellent prequel so far.

Housebroken: Admissions of an Untidy Life
Laurie Notaro
Laurie Notaro is an unconventional wife, mother and writer. She writes about her everyday experiences from trying on Spanx, snooping in her husband’s journal and her love of Twinkies to name a few, with no shame and makes you laugh and smile a lot. I would read more of her books!

finished The Cutting Edge by Deaver. On to latest by Lars Kepler.

Finished up the early review of Bell Hammers, which was not at all what I expected, but not a bad book.

Picked up Laurie Notaro's The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death for a middle-of-the-night insomnia cure. I see Julie Lill, above, just read Notaro's Housebroken, which I enjoyed. (That was the reason I got "Idiot Girl".) Perhaps it was just that I was grumpy and sleepless, but the first couple of pieces in this one are coming off more whiny than funny.

I had hoped for a bit of comic relief before plunging into my F2F group read for August, which is Mighty Justice.

And I know I'm probably going to get clobbered for this, but ... memoirs about the civil rights movement seem to be particularly trendy in this summer of BLM. I don't object to reading about the topic, it just seems our Fearless Leader has jumped on the Black history bandwagon with both feet. This is (I think) the third monthly selection in a row that examines it. This club has, for all the years I've been in it, included varied and far-reaching titles -- fiction and non-fiction, serious and comic, but our new leader seems to be determined to provide us with ***serious*** and ***uplifting*** material. I'd like a little variety mixed in with my uplifting, if you don't mind....

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Pride, Prejudice And Other Flavors – Sonali Dev
Book on CD performed by Soneela Nankani.
2.5**

This retelling reverses the roles of Elizabeth and Darcy. Set in modern-day San Francisco it features Trisha Raje, daughter of a very wealthy immigrant Indian family, with royal connections back in India. She’s an incredibly brilliant “genius neurosurgeon” with a tendency towards quick judgement and, according to her siblings, absolutely NO emotional insight. (She’s clearly the Fitzwilliam Darcy character). Darcy James Caine, known as DJ, is a transplanted Brit of Indian and Rwandan heritage. (He’s the Elizabeth Bennet character.) He’s a brilliant chef and slated to cater the Raje family’s fundraiser for their brilliant scion’s announced run for Governor. He’s also the brother of brilliant artist, Emma, who has a brain tumor that only brilliant neurosurgeon Trisha Raje can possibly remove.

Did I mention that these characters are all brilliant? I just wanted to be sure, because the author manages to mention this in every single chapter! Good thing she does, because most of the time Trisha, in particular, doesn’t act brilliant at all. She’s a complete mess. I worked with surgeons, including some extraordinarily talented and innovated ones – several of the best were women. Not a single one of these women behaved even remotely like Trisha does. I rolled my eyes so often I made myself dizzy.

I did like DJ, although his secrets and guilt were a bit much. But his genuine goodness and steady support of his sister and his friends were admirable qualities. And his way with food! Oh. My. Stars. I was practically salivating whenever the book focused on DJ’s skills as a chef. (And there’s a recipe at the end that I’d like to try.)

In general, though, I think the author was trying too hard to match P&P. There’s even a Wickham character – Julia Wickham. Perhaps if she had just focused on the Bollywood-movie style romance without trying to force the elements of Austen’s classic into her story this might have worked better.

Soneela Nankani did a fine job with less than stellar material. She had a lot of characters to interpret and she was up to the task … even when sisters where talking I was never confused.

Enjoying ~
The Dilemma by B A Paris
(OverDrive audiobook)

Work Song– Ivan Doig
4****

Morrie Morgan has arrived in Butte, Montana just after the end of World War I. Morrie is “an itinerant teacher, walking encyclopedia, and inveterate charmer” who’s been attracted by news of “the richest hill on earth” and a need to get as far from Chicago as possible. While he lands a position at the local library, he’s also soon immersed in the miners’ struggles to form a union and fight for better working conditions and fair wages.

What a charming and engaging story! Per the book jacket, Morgan first appeared in Doig’s The Whistling Season; I have not read that earlier work and didn’t feel I was missing any information to understand Morrie and follow this story.

The pace is somewhat slow. As events unfold we learn about the residents of Butte – Sandison (former cattle baron, and still an acknowledged “big man” in town), Grace (Morrie’s young, pretty, widowed landlady), Griff & Hoop (two old miners who share the boarding house with Morrie), Barbara aka Rabrab (Morrie’s former student, now teaching 6th grade), Jared (a young union organizer, and engaged to Rabrab), and Russian Famine (a waif of a boy who needs guidance). The town, itself, is practically a character with its small café, prolonged Irish wakes, boisterous bar, festival celebration, and church gatherings.

I liked Morrie’s slow, deliberate way of judging the situation. The bookworm in me loved all his literary references, and his ability to cite an appropriate passage, seemingly plucked out of thin air. Make no mistake, he’s no milquetoast librarian; Morrie can (and does) take care of himself, though he’s decidedly uncomfortable with firearms.

Grace is a marvelous strong woman. Principled, kind, compassionate, feisty, courageous and conflicted. Doig’s skill at character building shows in the way her actions reveal her inner struggles.

I need to go back and read The Whistling Season … heck, I need to read ALL of Ivan Doig’s works.

Crush the King by Jennifer Estep
Finale and #3 installment in the Crown of Shards series trilogy.

The author says on her blog a new trilogy focusing Crown Princess Gemma, introduced in Protect the Prince, is slated for release in summer 2021.

Just finished payment in blood by Elizabeth George.
mystery in the Inspector Linley series.

Starting where the world ends, Geraldine McCaughrean.
hiistorical adventure fiction set in Scotland.

The Silence: An Anti-Novel and Absolutely the Very Last Protocol by Jens Bjorneboe, paper
Creation by Gore Vidal, audio
This Could Have Become Ramayan Chamar's Tale: Two Anti-Novels by Subimal Misra, paper
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander, audio

I finished Naked She Died by Don Tracy. Published in 1962, this is a fun pulp mystery, the second in Tracy's series featuring undercover MP Giff Speer. Next up will be Sudden Death, a 2017 novel by Mexican author Alvaro Enrigue.

>15 nrmay: Love the Lynley series - hoping she writes another!

An Acceptable Time
By Madeleine L’Engle
4/5 star
In the fifth book of the series, the focus is on Polly O’Keefe, granddaughter of Alex and Kate Murray. Polly is spending the summer with her grandparents. Her friend, Zachary, who is ill comes to visit. When an unusual occurrence happens, Polly and Zach are transported from their time to another time in the same location. The grandparents are upset and don’t want them to take off to see if it happens again. However Zach has heard of the mystical healing of the people who live in that time period and wants to return and they end up there not knowing if they can get back. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and this was probably the best of the five I read. She has written more but I think I’m ready for a break from this series for the time being.

Masked Prey
by John Sandford
(OverDrive audiobook)

Hi everyone, in the last week I read The Pull of the Stars by one of my favourite writers, Emma Donoghue. It takes place in Dublin in a fever maternity ward in 1918 at the height of the great flu. Very timely and great historical fiction.

also read the Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, a great read, and A Double Life by Flynn Berry, riveting

Barb

Just finished The Note, by Angela Hunt. So-so sentimental tale of second chances, redemption, and family.

Still slogging through Mighty Justice, which -- to be honest -- is dreadfully dull. There is no question that Ms. Roundtree was witness to and/or participated in many landmark events in the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s. But ... being that person in that time does not guarantee a readable memoir. She writes like a lawyer. Not surprising, but not particularly interesting, either.

So am taking a side trip through Waterlily by Ella Cara Deloria, which so far is also less than memorable. Again, a potentially fascinating story -- this one about the life of a Dakota Sioux woman at the time when white settlers were first impacting the traditional Sioux ways -- but one spoiled by less-than-stellar skill at story-telling.

This may drive me to a literary Twinkie simply for relief. Will have to see what's in the TBR stack.

I finished the LTER book, Bread and Salt. This collection of short stories are well written glimpses into lives. In many cases the characters are dealing with loss by connecting with strangers while traveling. The revelations are subtle and true to life.

After a couple of false starts with audiobooks this week ( A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court & The Book Of Longings ), I am hoping that the third time is the charm and have started listening to The First Mrs. Rothschild by Sara Aharoni.

I have officially bailed out of Mighty Justice. I think that's only the fourth time in 10 years I have abandoned a group read. (Its sisters in shame were I Am Malala, Odd John, and The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.) While I have no qualms about dumping a book that doesn't grab me after about a hundred pages, I do try very hard to read the group selections, since one reason I belong to a F2F club is to get out of my reading comfort zone. But there is a limit.

Am now concentrating on Waterlily. The writing itself is pretty pedestrian, but the view of everyday life in the Teton Sioux culture is interesting.

I just started More Than This by Patrick Ness and am loving it.

New topic for the week posted here.