Travels With Charley

Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck (1962) 275 pages

Reading this book was an experience similar to opening a time capsule from around the time I was born. John Steinbeck was 58 when he decided in 1960 that he needed to travel across the U.S. to take the pulse of America. He'd grown up in the Monterey, California area, and lived in many other places, but had been in New York for many years. It was time to take a trip. He ordered a truck and had it outfitted as a camper (which wasn't common at that time) and took off with his dog, Charley, for three months. He headed up north into Maine, then drove across the northern States and then south along the West Coast and back home through the South. He loaded his camper with whiskey and other libations, along with about 4 times more stuff than he needed, per his estimate. When he found someone to talk to, which he often did, he'd invite them into his camper home and serve up some coffee or whiskey (or both) and try to get them to talk. He says that no one recognized him as the author he was.

Topics that interested him were the Presidential race of 1960 (although he had trouble trying to get anyone to talk about politics with him), as well as race relations in the South. A number of the topics he mused about were everyday sorts of topics, like mobile homes, people's roots, giant redwood trees, and local accents. He speaks most to Charley, a large "blue" poodle who was starting to get a bit elderly, but who was a great companion for the trip. I was riveted by this thoughtful book, and now I need to read (and in a few cases, re-read) Steinbeck's novels.

The Guncle

 The Guncle by Steven Rowley, 326 pages.

I was introduced to this book by Kara, whose review you can read here.  After his long-term best friend and sister-in-law dies after a long battle with illness Patrick O'Hara is devastated. The last thing he wants is to take in his niece and nephew for the summer while their father is in rehab. But, short of other choices, he does it nonetheless, taking the kids into his large, empty home in Palm Springs. They spend the summer bonding and learning to handle all of their grief, as Patrick tries to move on from both this death and the death of his partner years ago.

This is a good book, although I had a hard time getting into it. Objectively it's perfectly fine, and I'm sure many people would quite like it, but I personally found myself sort of bored. It is very sweet.

Sword of Destiny

 Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski (1992) 375 pages

 Part of the Witcher series, this book exists as a prequel to the main story line. Geralt of Rivia, a Witcher, who is a mutant who fights monsters for hire, is traveling the countryside. Sword of Destiny consists of short stories detailing the monster hunting and the people or various creatures he meets along the way.We get an introduction to the main characters who make an appearance in the following novels. I think my favorite character in the series so far is Roach, Geralt's trusty mare.

Nothing But the Truth

Nothing But the Truth by Holy James (2022) 294 pages

We meet Lucy Green just before her thirtieth birthday. She's hoping to land a new client for her publicity agency, while vying for a promotion, and also hoping her boyfriend of two years will propose. Instead, her boyfriend stands her up at a bar the evening before her birthday, which leads to Lucy talking to Adam, the bartender. He fixes her a special birthday drink before she leaves. The next morning, she finds that she cannot tell a lie, which leads to panic. Her job depends on her massaging the truth in order to work with her bosses and to save the careers of her clients. Not to mention getting along with her mother.

Was the drink magical? Maybe?? Most of the book flies past in the course of this one day – her birthday – and shows what happens when Lucy tells only the truth. This includes allowing her body to show its own truths by not subjecting herself to uncomfortable clothes and too much makeup in order to fit some ideal of how a person in her position should look (despite the social discomfort it causes).

I had to bat away my disbelief a few times, but once I decided to accept a bit of magic, I found the story to be a fast, fun trip.

The Golden Egg

The Golden Egg by Donna Leon  276 pp.

This is the 22nd book in the Commissario Guido Brunetti series. An apparently deaf and mentally disabled man in Brunetti's own neighborhood of Venice dies from an apparent accidental overdose. Both Guido and and his wife Paola knew him only as the man who did menial work at the local dry cleaners. After the rudimentary investigation into the death, questions arise after the autopsy. Although there is no official investigation into the accidental death, Brunetti discovers that there are no records of the man having ever existed. This prompts his own inquiries into the unusual and awful circumstances of the man's birth, life, and death. Meanwhile Brunetti's unpleasant boss, Vice-Questore Patta, orders him to take care of the matter of illegal land use by a relative of the Mayor. This is handled quickly leaving Brunetti to solve a couple internal problems within the Questura (police headquarters). Patta wants to move his favorite minion, Lt. Scarpa into the office of Signorina Elettra Zorzi, his secretary and displace her to another location in the building, much to her dislike. And there's the matter of Commissario Claudia Grifoni who is finding it difficult to settle into her position as a female officer and a Neopolitan transplanted to Venice. Signorina Elettra is not fond of Grifoni and Brunetti wants them to have a better working relationship. Of course, Brunetti manages to wrap it all up in under 300 pages. 

Unbreakable

 Unbreakable by Mira Grant, 114 pages.

Magical Protectors have been protecting Earth from the forces of the Outside for as long as humanity has existed. Teams across the world are prepared to fight to the death to serve that purpose, but none of them expected they would all die at once. After one horrible night all but two are dead, and for those two life is forever changed. After the massacre the governments of the world decide that no more children should be allowed to die for the sake of others, and the world does it's best to pretend that they were never heroes. Piper and Yuina were members of Unbreakable Starlight, and now they haven't spoken in years. Piper has become an alcoholic shut-in, unwilling to deal with the pain of losing all of her friends and even more unwilling to play the role of repentant magical girl for the United States government. Yuina is playing exactly that role, helping to sell the narrative that they were all misled children so that she is still allowed to talk about it at all. But they never really understood what happened that night so many years ago, and time is running out to figure it out. 

This is a super cool novella! It was fast paced and exciting while still having a pretty solid emotional core. Mira Grant is one of Seanan McGuire's pen names, and I definitely recognize her style in this. The handling of heavy emotions that come after a classic childhood adventure remind me quite a lot of her Wayward Children books, and this novella lives up to the expectation that creates. 

Also: I would definitely recommend this book to fans of the show Puella Magi Madoka Magica in particular, it feels like one of it's major inspirations.

Ms. Demeanor

 

Ms. Demeanor by Elinor Lipman (2023) 288 pages

Jane Morgan was a relatively new resident of her apartment building when she and a junior attorney from her firm decided one moonlit night to have sex on the rooftop of her building. A binoculars-wearing video-taping neighbor from a different building filmed them and called the police. The result: Jane's license to practice law is suspended and she is on home confinement for six months.

Jane's twin sister, a dermatologist, sends groceries. Jane loves to cook, and gets a couple of very old, late 1800s-era cookbooks that she is trying out. Her sister wants her to make cooking videos for TikTok. Meanwhile, the doorman to her building indicates that there is another person in the building who also has an ankle-monitor, as Jane does. Thus starts an interesting relationship – even though Perry is somewhat reserved, he and Jane find a kinship of sorts. He misses good meals and wants to pay her to cook for him a few nights per week.

Meanwhile, Jane learns that the woman who called the police on her has died, and there is a weird story behind her life and her death.

Elinor Lipman never disappoints me. Her characters are quirky and fun, in an understated way.

Charlotte Illes Is Not a Detective

Charlotte Illes Is Not a Detective by Katie Siegel (2023) 367 pages

Charlotte Illes was renowned as a child for the mysteries that she solved. As a teenager, she chose to leave behind her detective career and try something else. However, that "something else" didn't really thrill her, and at the beginning of this story, she's 25, out of work, living with her mother, and trying to find suitable women to date. Her success in the dating world is stymied by Google: each potential date she meets just wants to talk about her fame as a child detective, which she finds extremely off-putting.

Her brother and her best friend try to get her interested in detective work again since she was so good at it, and after resisting the impulse, Charlotte finally starts to look into a case for them: her brother's girlfriend works for a company that has some of its employees trying to join a union. One of the people has just disappeared. Not long ago, another was found dead. Charlotte works in conjunction with her brother's girlfriend, along with Charlotte's own childhood friends who had helped her solve mysteries years ago.

The camaraderie and banter of Charlotte and her friends is entertaining, as is watching Charlotte get back into her detective work – she's a bit rusty at it since it's been a while. She makes a few really cringey mistakes, but once she gets past them, it's smooth sailing. Or is it?!

The Fourth Bear

The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde, 378 pages

In the second (and sadly last) of Fforde's Nursery Crime books, Inspector Jack Spratt and his colleague Mary Mary are riding high off the success of their Humpty Dumpty murder investigation (detailed in The Big Over Easy) when a reporter who was investigating an exploded championship cucumber goes missing. Since that reporter is named Goldilocks and was last seen at the forest home of a bear family, the case falls squarely within the purview of the Nursery Crime Division, and Jack and Mary are on the case. Throw in a misguided theme park based on the Battle of the Somme, a powerful multinational company that has its fingers in EVERYTHING, Punch & Judy living next door, and a self-healing automobile, and you've got a classic Fforde story.

Like with The Big Over Easy, this is a gajillionth-time reread, and I still love it. I'd forgotten how meta this book gets — Mary and Jack make lots of references to plot devices and the author, all of which go over the heads of the other characters — but it makes perfect sense if you've read Fforde's Thursday Next series. This is just  smart, silly fun in book form, and it's perfect for breaks from The Tale of Genji.

Kingdom of Ash

 Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas (2018) 980 pages

The 7th and final book in the Throne of Glass series, this book wraps everything up quite nicely. 

Aelin, Firebringer, Queen of Terrasen, has been captured by Maeve, Queen of the Fae. She is trapped in an iron box which stifles her immense magic and firepower. The rest of her generals and cadre are scattered about the world, attempting to assemble in order to track her down and save her and Terrasen. Erawan, the demon threatens all life and in order to stop him, Aelin or King Dorian must forge a magical lock in which to trap Erawan, and so he cannot bring his demon brothers through the portals and cause more destruction. 

Luckily Aelin's mate, her commanders and most trusted friends track her down and help her escape. Dorian brings down Morath, Erawan's lair. The Wyrdkeys are captured and the lock is able to be forged. But all of this still comes at a cost, Dorian or Aelin must sacrifice themselves for the lock. 

This book is full of battle scenes, magic, heartache, but also glorious victory, love, rekindling of friendships and new forged empires. I'm personally glad to be done with the series. I enjoyed it, but think the first 3-4 were superb. The last several books were just kind of...so-so. But overall!!!! A fantastic fantasy world. I'm glad I read them all.

On the Curry Trail

 On the Curry Trail: Chasing the Flavor That Seduced the World by Raghavan Iyer, 208 pages.

As a cookbook I found this book to be very alright. The recipes tend to be very involved and use some specialized equipment (I think there's maybe three recipes in the whole book that don't call for a spice grinder), and I had only middling luck making them. However, it is fascinating as a culinary history book. Iyer goes continent by continent tracking the history of how curry got to many countries and how it adapted to local tastes. I was surprised to learn that, despite Japan's fairly long trade history with India and current love of curry, the dish wasn't actually popular in Japan until the English brought it over. Iyer also includes a number of helpful general prep tips and ingredient advice. This is a fun book to flip through, and it's graphic design is very enticing to do just that.

Sea Prayer

 Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini, 48 pages.

This short book is essentially an illustrated poem by the author of The Kite Runner. The book is from the perspective of a father telling his son about their home in Syria, which they have to flee on a refugee ship. The art is achingly beautiful, and the book is very sad. It is an extremely fast read and I would definitely recommend more people read it.

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop

 

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa  149 pp.

This is a sweet, small book translated from Japanese by Eric Ozawa. It's about two of my favorite things to read, Asian culture and bookstores. The protagonist, Takako has an unfortunate romance and while she is recovering from it and the loss of her job, she goes to work in her uncle's used bookshop (formerly her grandfather's shop). Her uncle has been running it alone since his wife left him. Soon Takako moves on to a new job when things take an interesting twist. Actually two twists. The characters are gentle people going about their quiet lives without much turmoil. In spite of the tranquility of the tale, there is just enough movement to carry the story along. 

Invisible Cities

 Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, 165 pages.

This book is difficult to describe. The frame device is famous explorer Marco Polo describing the cities he has seen to Kublai Khan. The actual book is mostly dozens of vignettes no more than a few pages long about the fantastical cities that he has seen. But really it is a meditation on the possible ways that cities could be, and what that means on a human scale. The book is extremely philosophically compelling, and once I managed to stop taking it so literally I thoroughly enjoyed it. My ebook copy is very full of bookmarks. The short chapters (and short overall page count) make it very easy to casually pick up this book. A great book to read at a leisurely pace, I thoroughly recommend it.

Advika and the Hollywood Wives

 Advika and the Hollywood Wives by Kirthana Ramisetti, 384 pages.

Advika is 26 and bartending in Hollywood as her dreams of being screenwriter flounders. Then one of the Oscar winners at the Governor's Ball flirts with her and she ends up in a whirlwind romance (and soon after, elopement) with a man 40 years her senior. Soon cracks begin to show in the surface of the happy couple veneer, but Advika doesn't really begin to ask questions until her husband's first ex-wife dies and leaves a million dollars and a mysterious film reel to "Julian's latest child bride." Then the questions, and a reconstruction of Julian's three former marriages, get to pressing not to ask.

The premise to this book sounded super interesting! It seemed like a fun mystery and the cover is really cool. Unfortunately it fell very flat for me. The book is written like a thriller, but there's just not enough actual danger to justify the tone. There are also several plot holes and characters that are hard to buy. To top it all off it's one of those books where the ending is so bad it retroactively makes the rest of the book worse. Overall, very disappointing.

Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light

 Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years by Joy Harjo, 160 pages.

Despite hearing a lot about Joy Harjo, I had never actually read any of her poems. This collection was on the new shelf, and I was very interested in the title, plus the collection filled a prompt on a book challenge I'm working on, so I decided to give it a try. 

The concept for this collection was extremely interesting. It takes one poem for each year of her writing career and arranges them in order, which allows the reader to see how she developed as a poet really dynamically. As with any collection I liked some better than others, but there were some really exceptional poems in this collection. I read all of the notes on the poems at the end, but I would recommend not doing that and instead reading them as you go, the context is definitely helpful for many of the poems in this collection.

My Lobotomy: A Memoir

 

My Lobotomy: A Memoir by Howard Dully (2007) 288 Pages

This memoir goes recounts the tragic tale of Howard Dully, one of the youngest people ever to receive a trans-orbital lobotomy. Dully, now a special education bus driver, husband, recounts his childhood and what may have led his stepmother to bring him to several psychiatrists at the age of 12, and their fateful meeting with Dr. Freeman who performed the lobotomy. Freeman is one of the foremost doctors in the country to have performed thousands of lobotomies, some inside a makeshift van for "mobile" procedures. Many patients were not able to consent to this procedure. It must be stated that Howard, a fairly normal child was never properly listened to, and had multiple step siblings, and lost his mother when he was very young, which may explain his acting out. However, the ways in which he acted out were quite normal for boys his age. It was stated in this memoir that the stepmother went from doctor's office to doctor's office looking for someone to agree with her. She treated Howard differently than the other children, and called him names, such as stupid, dimwit, and would often confine him to his room or punish him with beatings. One account mentioned that the psychiatrist told her that the problem wasn't Howard, but herself which she of course had a huge problem with. So, the lobotomy didn't fix him, it made his problems much worse and led him into countless inpatient psychiatric care units, rehabs, jail and turning to alcohol. Howard didn't begin to piece together his past until his 40s, and was able to acquire documents from archives which recounted his lobotomy. He went on a search to track down this information in order to help himself and others heal from this type of (now) inhumane procedure. Luckily, he now lives a stable life with his wife and kids, but the road to get there was quite tumultuous.

I don't know why I read this other than pure curiosity, and pulled it off the shelving cart. Its absolutely terrible what countless people with mental health issues went through during these years. The experimentation on human beings in the name of science has always been disgusting.

Hestia Strikes a Match

Hestia Strikes a Match by Christine Grillo (2023) 386 pages

With the second American Civil War as a backdrop to the story, we meet Hestia (named after a Greek goddess by her classics-educated parents). She is 42. The year is 2023 and the setting is Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States of America. The New Confederated States of America is comprised of 12 States which have seceded from the U.S. Rather than the Civil War being a military operation, more often it is a series of terrorist attacks of movie theaters and grocery stores, along with sabotage of water, sewer and power systems. The U.S. residents live with nightly curfews and U.N. Peacekeepers watching over them.

Hestia's husband, a Unionist like herself, has abandoned her to join a paramilitary group to fight against the confederates. He's been gone a while, and Hestia is finally thinking about trying to get a divorce.

Oddly, against the uncertainty of everyday life, Hestia's life is somewhat ordinary. She's a writer who works in a retirement community, where she is tasked with growing the community's online presence. She finds friends there, including her boss and her office mate, and with one of the residents in particular, a thrice-widowed woman named Mildred, who is a bit of a wild child. Mildred is always trying to get the details about the men that Hestia is dating or considering dating. Mildred is part of a group of residents that Hestia meets with regularly, to write out memories and opinions in answer to historical questions. As a bonus, we see the questions and their answers to the questions interspersed throughout the book.

Perhaps this book's storyline sounds depressing, but I thought it worked, and includes fine character-development and a slew of great details regarding war, dating, and life in general.

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto  338 pp. 

Kara already blogged about this book and pretty much says it all. I don't have much to add other than I enjoyed the busybody Vera Wong and the way she copes with her failing teahouse, the dead body in the teahouse, the police, and the other characters/suspects, although I don't know why she wasn't arrested. The descriptions of the meals Vera makes had me drooling. Can you bribe police officers with food (aside from donuts)? I agree that there should be at least one sequel starring Vera. This is a fun book.

The Big Over Easy

The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde, 383 pages

Head of the Nursery Crime Division of the Reading police force, Detective Inspector Jack Spratt is chronically overworked and underfunded, living in the shadow of the golden boy detective Friedland Chymes and — with cases like charging the three little pigs with premeditated murder for boiling the big bad wolf alive — serving as the laughingstock around town. But then two things happen: he gets a new assistant in inspector Mary Mary (who is from Basingstoke, which is nothing to be ashamed of) and notorious ladies man Humpty Dumpty is murdered. Suddenly, Jack has a high profile case on his hands, and the future of the NCD rests on his ability to solve it, and quickly.

Much like Fforde's excellent Thursday Next series, this is an old favorite of mine. I picked it up this time because, well, The Tale of Genji is just too darn heavy (in both the literary and physical sense) to read at bedtime. I still love this book, and every time I read it, I pick up another clever reference or literary joke. If you haven't read anything by Fforde, this is a good gateway drug.

Happy-Go-Lucky

Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris, 259 pages

In this 2022 collection of essays, Sedaris covers a wide variety of topics, including his father's death, the destruction of his beach home (The Sea Section) during a hurricane, his experience with orthodontia, and, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic. As always, these essays are filled with Sedaris' trademark dry, dark humor, and as always, made me laugh way more than these topics otherwise would. I listened to the audiobook, which is read by the author and features some live recordings, making it particularly wonderful. Another solid offering from one of my humor staples.

The Poet X

 

The Poet X: A Novel by Elizabeth Acevedo  361 pp.

This is one of those books I planned to read back when it first came out. But I didn't get around to it, until it became one of the selections for the Great Stories Club Grant. Now I'm sorry I waited so long. The novel is written as a series of poems written by the main character, Xiamara called Mara, a teen from the Dominican Republic living in New York. Her mother, who once planned to be a nun, is extremely strict with Mara bordering on abuse. Mara is a teen with typical teen wants and needs who is being stifled at home. She faces her first "forbidden" love, wants to be a part of a school poetry club, and participate in an upcoming poetry slam but all of that goes against her mother's permissions. The emotions expressed in the poetry ring true as Mara learns to express herself, not just on the page, but to her family and the world. Heart-wrenching at times and gloriously composed, this is the winner of the National Book Award, the Pura Belpré Award, and the Michael Printz Award.

The Maidens

 

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides (2021) 337 Pages

The mysterious ritualistic murder of a college woman piques the interest of Greek widow Mariana. Her surrogate daughter, who is actually her niece was good friends with the woman who died. Mariana travels to Cambridge to make sure her niece is okay, and begins take an interest in the mysterious death. As more murders of the same style begin to pile up, Mariana becomes more embroiled in finding out who is committing them. Her focal point is on Edward Fosca, an American professor at the University who specializes in Greek Tragedy. Mariana thinks he is the murderer because the women who are being murdered are in his special study group- The Maidens. Mariana keeps finding postcards of either ancient Greek or baroque style paintings with ancient Greek passages written on the back. Throughout her findings, she is running from her own tragic story, the sudden loss of her husband, who turns out to not be the man she thought he was. 

Overall I enjoyed this story, with the psychoanalysis expertise throughout in addition to the Greek classics, such as the story of Demeter and Persephone. Solid 3 out of 5 stars.

The Family Remains

The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell (2022) 371 pages

Human bones are found in a bag in the Thames River, and are eventually linked to the deaths of three people in a mansion in Chelsea thirty years ago. Meanwhile, a woman‒Lucy‒is reunited with Libby, a daughter she had in her teens, while she and her two younger children are living with Henry, her very odd brother. When Lucy and Henry were young, they lived in that mansion in Chelsea, and fled, and are now using different names. Meanwhile, Libby's boyfriend is a journalist who has tracked down Phineas, the man who is Libby's father, and Henry (who sometimes calls himself Phineas) is obsessed with wanting to see him again. In yet another related side story, a woman named Rachel falls for a man named Michael, who had been married to Lucy at one time.

The setting moves between England and Chicago and France. The time shifts between 2017 and 2019. The well-drawn characters include the very odd, the very sweet, the very bad, a young computer sleuth, a motorcycle tour guide, and more. The detective on the case is Samuel Owusu, and he tallies up all the lies that keep coming. But what has really happened? I found this a compelling read, with lots of surprises.

Georgie, All Along

Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn (2023) 331 pages

Georgie Mulcahy loses her job as a personal assistant to a famed screenwriter and director in the movie industry when her boss decides to dial it back and live a quieter life. Georgie moves back temporarily to her parents' home in small town Virginia, where her best friend Bel has moved with her husband as they await the birth of their first child. Georgie's parents are out of town, so Georgie will stay at their rather disorganized home and take care of their plants until their return. But her parents forgot that they had already found someone to watch the house before they knew Georgie was coming, so when Levi shows up, it makes for an awkward situation.

Levi is a gruff guy, a few years older than Georgie, a well-known troublemaker in the town in his teen years, who is estranged from his family. It's clear that Georgie and Levi are attracted to each other, but their attempts to communicate are often misunderstood, usually due to Levi's tumultuous past. It seems that they might eventually get together, but there is a lot to work through. Meanwhile, Georgie is still trying to find herself, and is using a "friend fic" book that she and Bel had written together just before they started high school, as a template for how to go back and redo the past.

After a bit of a slow intro, I found this to be a fast book filled with relationship nuances, while some of the characters attempt to answer the question of how to fill the blank spaces inside ourselves.

Don't Believe It

 Don't Believe It by Charlie Donlea (2018) 342 Pages

A thrilling Who Dunnit. I don't usually like true crime-esque works, but I had a hard time putting this one down. It was written thoughtfully. 

Grace Sebold has been convicted of killing her boyfriend in St. Lucia among many of their close friends from high school. Julian, the deceased was about to propose. 10 years go by and Grace remains in prison in another country. Her last ditch effort to claim innocence is a documentarian who has had experience in 3 previous exonnerations. Sidney Ryan, the documentary filmmaker takes her case. Throughout the story, she uncovers gross negligence in the St Lucian police force who most likely wanted a nice and tidy conviction and trial to save the tourism sector of the island. But that's not all Sidney uncovers. If it wasn't Grace who killed Julian, who did? Her jealous best friend who is supposedly in love with her? Another jealous brief lover, who was getting married at the same St Lucian vacation? Or was it Grace's disabled brother who has a deep attachment to her? The documentary turns out to be the most-watched true crime show in the world. Sidney's unfortunate demise for attempting to uncover the truth is a testament to "no good deed goes unpunished".

June totals, at long last

Yeah, they're a bit late, but here are the reading stats from June:

Byron: 2 books/649 pages

Jan: 4 books/994 pages

Kara: 7 books/2592 pages

Karen: 12 books/3102 pages

Kathleen: 5 books/1870 pages

Regan: 10 books/3349 pages

Total: 40 books, 12,556 pages

Lolly Willowes

Lolly Willowes, or, The Loving Huntsman by Sylvia Townsend Warner  222 pp.

Set in the early twentieth century in England, spinster Laura Willowes, nicknamed Lolly within her close and controlling family, is taken into her brother's household after the death of her beloved father. Lolly lives a quiet, genteel existence assisting her sister-in-law with the children and household tasks. Once the children are grown, she realizes the need to get away from her stifling family and moves off to a tiny village of Great Mop where she rents rooms from a widow and begins a life of rambling the countryside and doing as she pleases. She eventually decides she is a witch and embarks on a supernatural journey with other townsfolk. When her nephew Titus comes to stay and she is once again stifled by family, she uses witchcraft to send him on his way. This somewhat odd little book is considered to be an early feminist classic and its author is known for her feminist writing.

The Devil's Advocate

The Devil's Advocate by Morris L. West (1959) 351 pages

Blaise Meredith is an English priest based in Rome, who has been diagnosed with cancer. In the limited time he has left, he is given the task to investigate a request to declare a man named Giacomo Nerone to be a saint. Nerone's past has many gaps in it, which makes it harder to investigate, and some of the activities that are not in question include the fact that he lived with a woman he didn't marry and they had a child together before Nerone was killed by Communist partisans.

Blaise Meredith, a somber man, accepts the task to be the Devil's Advocate, which involves digging through the evidence and subjecting it to the severest scrutiny. We learn that there is also a Postulator who builds the case for sainthood. Meredith travels to the poor town in southern Italy where Nerone lived the last year or so of his life, and he meets with the local priest (who has his own ethical lapses), the local doctor (who is a Jew who has never been fully accepted by the community), a rich Countess (who seems quite unhappy), as well as with the woman who had a child (who is now an adolescent) with Nerone. Time is ticking away: Meredith's symptoms worsen, but he experiences some of the greatest friendship in his life during this process.

I found this to be a compelling drama with many distinct personalities and intrigues, along with narrations of how the Fascists, as well as bands of Communists, affected the lives of these very poor people during the war.

What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage (1997) 244 pages

Ava is HIV positive and isn't sure what to do with her life now. She closes her salon in Atlanta and returns to her childhood home in Idlewild, a small town in Michigan where her older sister still lives, with the intent to stay for a couple of months before moving to the West Coast. Idlewild is no longer an idyllic resort community. The young people haven't jobs or education and crime is increasing, along with the pregnancy rate. Ava's sister Joyce is newly widowed and is finding new purpose in trying to bring resources to young women. Her dead husband's best friend Eddie is an amazing resource, as well. When Joyce is finally about to get a grant to accelerate her work, the pastor's wife throws a wrench into the works. Ava gets pulled into her sister's interests and ‒ well, read it and you'll be pulled into the action as well! It was my second time reading this novel, and it was every bit as good as I'd remembered.

Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal & Sovereignty in Native America

 

 Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal & Sovereignty in Native America by Gregory D. Smithers (2022) 332 Pages

I read this book for a paper in my Cultural Anthropology class. Having anthropological historical and modern accounts of two-spirit people is incredibly important as there are very few that exist. The accounts span multiple cultures and tribes, throughout the southwestern and northern areas of the present-day US. The historical accounts that do mention two-spirit people are mostly from the white settler-colonial point of view, which mostly reflects ethnocentric biases and does not reflect the true lives of these people. Native Americans have always struggled with anthropologists and ethnographers in this way, and this book goes to the source and talks with those who are two-spirit and how they exist in modern society today, and historically. This book recounts historical archaeological evidence, oral storytelling traditions, art and written accounts. This reclamation of the two-spirit identity gives a voice to those Natives who have been silenced by the colonizers.

The Priory of the Orange Tree

 

 The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (2019) 804 Pages

I won't review this as most people are probably still reading for the book challenge! 😊

I will say I loved this book and couldn't stop reading. An excellent fantasy story, I always love reading about dragons!

Once There Were Wolves

 

 Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy (2021) 258 Pages

Inti Flynn, doctor in conservation specializing in wolves and rewilding, arrives with a pack of wolves to reintroduce them to the Highlands of Scotland. With her is her identical twin sister, who is mute having been through some traumatic incident. We don't learn what happened until later, as most of the story is intertwined with these events. The small town is up in arms, literally, about the new neighbors, the wolves. Many are terrified their livestock will be attacked. Inti is frustrated with the community, she knows the wolves will keep clear of humans and tries to explain if the wolves are reintroduced, the Highlands ecosystem will once again thrive. Inti becomes involved with the local police chief. A local man, Stuart is known for beating his wife, but nobody does anything about it. Inti cannot handle the complacency and fights with Stuart, when Duncan, the police chief also gets involved. That night Inti is taking a walk in the woods and discovers Stuart's body, gutted. She makes a decision that will change the course of the next 8 or 9 months. 

I enjoyed this book as it wasn't entirely about trauma and healing, but those themes were tied in nicely with the storyline.

Tale of Genji: A Reader's Guide

Tale of Genji: A Reader's Guide by William J. Puette 199 pp.

Since I've been reading the eleventy-billion pages of The Tale of Genji as part of the Summer Big Book Challenge, I found this relatively short guide on Kindle to append the sometimes confusing novel. It does give explanations of some of the content that is unusual to Western readers. It includes a chapter by chapter summary of the story, a list of the characters and their connections, maps of the story's locations, and the emperor's palace. Unfortunately this guide is written specifically for two other translations of "Genji", by Arthur Waley and Edward G. Seidensticker so not all the interpretations match up with the Dennis Washburn translation we are using. However, I did find it helpful and will refer to it as I complete the novel. Too bad I didn't find it sooner.

Planet of the Apes Omnibus

Planet of the Apes Omnibus by Daryl Gregory with art by Carlos Magno (2019) 512 pages

I love this franchise. I read this on Hoopla. The movies all seem to take place in America. The story in this graphic novel series has an international scope. It takes place after Caesar leads the apes to form their own civilization, but before the events of the first movie with Charlton Heston. I enjoyed the art work and the steampunk touches in the design here. At the center are two women, an ape and a human, who were raised as sisters. Their grandfather was an idealist ape who led a small city where apes and humans were treated as equals. Now the sisters are grown and leading their respective groups as ongoing fighting continues. Alaya is the Voice of the council of the Apes. Mayor Sullivan leads the humans in their segregated part of the city. The characters and shifting power dynamics kept me engaged through the five different adventures. The fifth part of the series has a new artist take over who simplified the characters a bit, which I did not enjoy. However, the growth of the characters by writer Gregory was still entertaining.
 

Tegan & Sara: Junior High

Tegan & Sara: Junior High by Tegan & Sara Quin, art by Tillie Walden, 298 pages

Canadian indie rock duo Tegan & Sara is one of my favorite bands, and when I heard they were teaming up with the amazing artist Tillie Walden for this middle school graphic memoir, I knew I'd have to check it out. (After all, I loved their adult non-graphic memoir, High School.) 

This one presents the trials and tribulations of being a girl in seventh grade, switching to a new school, finding new friends, puberty, and all the good and bad stuff that comes with it — as well as managing all of that with a twin sister. While the Quins went through this back in the early 1990s, I appreciate that they reset their junior high years in the 2020s, as that will certainly help the kids who read this connect with it (cell phones and Taylor Swift and Netflix certainly have more impact with today's kids than corded wall phones and Nirvana and VCRs). 

I really dug this book, and appreciated the clever color-coding way that Walden distinguished between the twins in her artwork — Tegan is blue, Sara is red, and most pages that take place outside of their bedrooms are a wash of pale purple. There's another book on the horizon (focusing on eighth grade), and you can bet I'll pick up that one too.

Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone

Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson  372 pp.

Yes, the family featured in this book have killed someone either intentionally or unintentionally. The one son who hadn't when the story starts manages to before the end. They all meet for a family reunion at a ski lodge which immediately gets deluged with massive, non-stop snowstorms. A dead body found outside in the snow brings up the possibility of a recent serial killer being in the locale. The story is very convoluted but highly entertaining. The family is highly dysfunctional but takes care of its own. I actually figured out who the killer was only to discover the killer was not who they said were. Kidnapping, robbery, blackmail, substance abuse, murder, suicide, you name it and it's probably in this story. It's odd to say this is a fun book but it is.

The Birth of Loud

The Birth of Loud: Leo Fender, Les Paul, and the Guitar-Pioneering Rivalry that Shaped Rock n' Roll, by Ian S. Port, 340 pages

This is a fantastic read for music lovers, guitar players, and pop-culture historians alike, documenting the early lives and creative lightning bolts that brought us the beginning of the modern guitar era. In the 1930s and 40s, after archtop guitars had been electrified with pick-ups and became regular fixtures on big band stages, it became clear that the electrified, hollowbody archtop could only be turned up so loud before the guitar would begin to produce the awful, overloaded signal known as feedback. Western swing guitarists especially, who wanted to compete more with the other instruments on stage, would typically try to crank up the volume on the amplifier to get a louder, more distorted sound, but it always ended in ear-crushing noise. Leo Fender, not a musician but more of a self-described engineer and tinkerer, began to workshop an idea for a solid body guitar. At roughly the same time, Les Paul, a top-jazz and swing player at the time, was also having a similar epiphany. He began workshopping his own ideas, hoping that a more solid-body style guitar would end the feedback problem. Fender's guitar designs would revolutionize the instrument landscape in the mid-1950s, while Paul got a sweet deal with Gibson guitars, sponsoring their newest solid body guitar that bore his name (the Gibson Les Paul) that would eventually become an iconic piece of equipment for 60s and 70s hard rock bands like Led Zeppelin and Cream. This book reads easy and action packed, with short chapters and guitar inventions that quickly became canon for any aspiring player. As much as these two did for guitars in this era, country-picker Merle Travis might be most responsible for the solid body design. He sketched his idea on a bar napkin and gave it to his friend Paul Bigsby, another musician and inventor, who essentially created one of the first solid-body designs. The same design that Leo Fender would shamelessly steal from. With Fender's designs sweeping the country, they stole the market share out from under Gibson and helped influence the golden age of guitars. 

The Number Ones

The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits that Reveal the History of Pop Music by Tom Breihan, 342 pages

This reads like a book of non-fiction short stories. Like a VH1 Behind The Music episode for the literary crowd. Each chapter focuses on a seminal single from the Billboard Hot 100, which began in 1958 and still continues today. Every single is an outlier; a song that came from nowhere to dominate the charts and influence the culture. Breihan, senior editor at the music blog Stereogum, dives briefly into the backstory of hit songs like Chubby Checker's The Twist, Prince's When Doves Cry--all the way up to Korean pop phenomenon BTS and their hit "Dynamite." As with most behind-the-scenes stories, there are so many interesting anecdotes and trivia-like bits of information that really help inform the popularity of a song. Some notable surprises for me included Vanilla Ice inadvertently funding the label Death Row Records, Brian Wilson spending $13,000 to record "Good Vibrations," (at the time the most expensive single ever made), and the  runaway success of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" finally forcing MTV to play more African-American music. You can follow along with Breihan as he continues to blog about every #1 Billboard hit in history, but this book is a really fun dive into some songs we all know and love.