What are you reading the week of September 24, 2022?

I'm about two thirds of the way through The Gates of Europe. Just too many things going on this week to spend much time reading. I'm ready for things to slow down this winter.

I am still working my way thru The Woody Creek series by Australian author
Joy Dettman I have just read a shock ending in book 4 of the series. There are 7 in all. Can't wait for the next, book 5. All of these books average 500 pages!!

That where I have been these past weeks.

Finished Among Others. Wondering how much longer I'm going to persevere with Bombing the People. Red Wings in the Winter War and Fears of Setting Sun will round out the week.

Finished Into the Narrowdark by Tad Williams. Excellent read. Added Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia to my rotation.

I'm still reading Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer. I won't be ready in time for book club this morning, but there won't be any spoilers for a book of essays. I'm still enjoying it, just a slow read.

I'm about a quarter of the way through Homecomings, the seventh book in C.P. Snow's Strangers and Brothers series. I enjoy Snow's clear, understated writing and very acute observations about human nature.

It seemed like a good time to pull out some older mysteries and thrillers and see what I think 20 years later. It has been a joy to reacquaint myself with P.D. James. I just finished Cover Her Face the first with her detective, Adam Dalgliesh. What a pleasure to read such a well written mystery novel.

I picked up The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James at the library and it's holding my interest so far although not quite like P.D. James.

Started on Those People by Louise Candlish seems promising.

I've finished two books by Susan Hill this week: The Various Haunts of Men and The Pure in Heart.

Am about halfway through the audiobook of The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.

What I will read next is uncertain.

My beloved dog, Dante, passed away this morning after a nine month long battle with cancer. He will be deeply missed.

>10 fredbacon: I’m so sorry for your loss, Fred. Such a beautiful boy. My heart hurts for you.

Cancer sucks.

>10 fredbacon: What a beautiful dog - sorry for your loss!

>10 fredbacon: Sorry to learn about Dante, Fred. It's a tough loss, I know.

>10 fredbacon: What a beautiful dog. So sorry...

>10 fredbacon: I am so sorry for your loss.

Fredbacon I’m so sorry for your loss.

>10 fredbacon: Dante was a beautiful boy.

Thank you all. It has been a very tough month for the two of us. It's one reason why I haven't been reading too much lately. He needed so much attention. But now he will no longer be in pain.

>10 fredbacon: >18 fredbacon: Sending lots of love. I hope your memories bring you comfort.

>18 fredbacon: It's always a bad day when your dog goes down, even if it's time.

Heart of a Dog
Mikhail Bulgakov
4/5 stars
This is the strange tale of a dog, Sharik, in Moscow in whom a scientist transplants a man's glands into the mongrel. Sharik, the dog, turns into a man who then wreaks mayhem in the scientist's life. This satirical novel written in 1968 exposes the flaws in "creating a new Soviet man". Short but very enjoyable. I would read more of this author. Satire

The Pianist – Wladyslaw Szpilman
4****

The subtitle is all the synopsis anyone needs: The Extraordinary True Story of One man’s Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945.

Szpilman was a pianist who performed on Polish radio. He was, in fact, playing Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp Minor, live on the radio on Sept 23, 1939, when shells exploded outside the station. It was the last live music broadcast from Warsaw that day; a German bomb hit the station, and Polish radio went off the air. Ultimately, the Nazi’s plan for extermination of the Jews would take all of his family, but Szpilman would manage – by luck, courage, tenacity, and the kindness of others – to stay hidden and survive. The most unlikely person to help him was a German officer who came across him in the ruins of a building scrounging for food.

He wrote his story shortly after the war was over, but it was suppressed for decades, finally being published in 1999, and even then, not in Poland. The edition I had included entries from the diary of Captain Wilm Hosenfeld, the German officer who saved Szpilman towards the end of the war.

Szpilman’s story is told in a very straightforward manner. He recounts the ever-increasing restrictions imposed by the government on Jews, the forbearance and belief that “this is bound to pass” among his family and others in the community, the terror and horror of witnessing (or being subject to) random acts of violence and death. And yet, there is a certain cool detachment. Almost as if he were witnessing someone else’s story rather than reliving those experiences himself. In the forward, his son Andrzej supposes that his father wrote the memoir “… for himself rather than humanity in general. It enabled him to work through his shattering wartime experiences and free his mind and emotions to continue with his life.”

I found it engaging and gripping. Even though I knew he survived, I simply could not stop reading.

The extraordinary memoir was adapted to film in 2002, starring Adrien Brody (who won the Oscar for his performance) and directed by Roman Polanski (Oscar for Best Director).

>22 BookConcierge: I didn't realize this was a book. I remember the film and enjoyed it.

I finished Fellowship in Learning: Kalamazoo College, 1833-2008. A very good book outlining the history of the small liberal arts college, Kalamazoo College, addressing it's history in terms of administration, faculty, student life, fund raising with plenty of pictures. Since I, mother, aunts and uncles attended Kalamazoo College for 23 of those years, I very much enjoyed the book.

I am sorry to hear of you loss. Take care.

Started A Terrible Beauty by Tasha Alexander

The Queen: An elegant new biography of Her Majesty Elizabeth II by Matthew Dennison

I've just finished Homecomings by C.P. Snow, the seventh book in Snow's Strangers and Brothers series that takes a reader through several layers of middle- and upper-class English society from the 1920s through the 1950s. All of the novels feature a man named Lewis Eliot, who over the series fights his way from a lower middle-class upbringing into the halls of administrative power, first in industry and then, during World War 2, in British Civil Service. Eliot has a job that is stressful with responsibility, but he is still attending to more powerful men. From his spot near but not at the top, Eliot is able to make sharply drawn observations about the nature of the bureaucracy--and the qualities of the people--both above and below him on the organization chart. At the same time, Eliot's private life, as his wife, Sheila's depression worsens. The book is filled with small but powerful observations about the nature of love and responsibility, and the handicaps inherent in a life pointed too much inward. This is not just a flaw of Sheila's as Eliot describes things for us, but also of Eliot himself. There is a varied and entertaining cast of characters attendant, as well, and Snow is adept at describing their personalities and actions, for good or ill. My longer review can be found on my 50-Book Challenge thread.

Next up for me will be the history Ar'n't I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South by Deborah Gray White

Ask Again, Yes – Mary Beth Keane
Digital audiobook performed by Molly Pope.
5*****

This is the kind of character-driven literary fiction that I absolutely love. Keane focuses this decades-long story on two families living in a suburb of New York City. Francis Gleason and Brian Stanhope are two rookie cops on the NYPD when they meet. They settle with their wives and young children in homes across the street from one another. But Brian’s wife Anne is unstable, and Francis’s wife Lena cannot understand why her offers of friendship are turned away. When their children become friends (and more than friends as they enter their teenage years), the stage is set for strife and heartache.

There is so much going on here. Family expectations. Alcoholism. Denial. Mental Illness. Betrayal. Forgiveness. Love.

By the end of the novel I felt that I really knew these people. I cheered for them. Was dismayed by them. Worried about them. Forgave them.

Molly Pope does a stupendous job of performing the audiobook. I particularly liked how she interpreted Anna Stanhope and Kate Gleeson, though she was equally effective in voicing the male characters.

Strong Boy: The Life and Times of John L. Sullivan, America's First Sports Hero
Christopher Klein
4/5 stars
Klein does a wonderful job describing the colorful life of John L. Sullivan, pugilist and sports icon who was born in 1858 as he follows the ups and downs of his life and career till his death in 1918. Despite the lack of TV and radio, Sullivan’s popularity was one of the highest in the US and he was considered the US’s first sports hero. Highly recommended!

The Night Watchman– Louise Erdrich
Audiobook performed by the author
4****

Winner of the Pulitzer prize. Erdrich was inspired by the true story of her grandfather, who successfully fought against a US Senator intent on “eliminating” various Indian tribes.

The setting for the novel is 1953, on the Turtle Mountain reservation in North Dakota. Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at the jewel bearing factory, where many of the women of the Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa are employed. The jewel bearings are used by the Defense Department, and in the manufacture of certain watches. He’s also the tribal elder and very concerned about a proposed bill in Congress to abrogate nation-to-nation treaties, which calls for the termination of five tribes, including his. Thomas is a thinker, deliberate and willing to entertain different ideas, but always following his own conscience. His appearance before Congress was masterful.

His niece, Patrice “Pixie” Paranteau is one of the women working at the plant, earning barely enough to support her, her mother and younger brother. She must deal with a number of family issues as well. Her sister left for Minneapolis some time before and has now disappeared, while their alcoholic father occasionally makes an appearance causing havoc for the family.

Erdrich uses these two parallel and interconnecting story lines to highlight the life, struggles and triumphs of the Native Americans during this era. Many of their problems stemmed for institutional racism: the efforts of the U.S. government to strip the land from the indigenous peoples, to eradicate their culture by forcing children to attend boarding schools where they were forbidden from using their native languages and frequently mistreated, and the government’s continued paternalistic attitudes that viewed the Native Americans as unintelligent savages, not worthy of help or assistance.

I loved these characters, and the many supporting characters in the book. Patrice, in particular, spoke to me. She’s intelligent, straightforward, and principled. She thinks quickly, averting trouble or getting out of sticky situations on her own. She’s cautious about romantic entanglements, as well.

Erdrich weaves in elements of Native mythology and folklore, employing magical realism in some scenes.

The audiobook is read by the author, and I cannot imagine anyone doing a better job. She really brings these characters to life. Brava.

The new thread is up over here.