Viewfinder

Viewfinder: A Memoir of Seeing and Being Seen by Jon M. Chu (2024) 304 pages

I've seen the movies Crazy Rich Asians and In the Heights that were directed by Jon M. Chu. And I'm very excited for the musical film of Wicked, the first part of which will be released this year with the second part next year. Jon is now in his 40s and the memoir covers his life so far with clear introspective eyes. He grew up in Silicon Valley with his parents running a local Chinese restaurant. He got into being an entertainer and maker of videos in his teen years. He studied film at USC. He talks a lot about his heroes Spielberg and Steve Jobs and the relationship between tech in Silicon Valley with Hollywood's long history. Straight out of college he has a lot of potential, but his film career seems to stall. He ends up making several sequels and a couple music documentary projects. It is through exploring his parents' story of coming to America that he decides he should be more selective in the stories he brings to movie screens. He offers tips and lessons for others considering a career in filmmaking. Despite the rise of Netflix disrupting Hollywood and the pandemic he finds beauty and hope to continue forward.
 

Funeral of Figaro

 

Funeral of Figaro by Ellis Peters  192 pp.

Ellis Peters, the pseudonym of British author Edith Mary Pargeter, is best known for her series of mysteries featuring the medieval monk Brother Cadfael. This mystery is not part of that series. Instead it features an opera company homed in the Leander Theatre. Because of the death of the previous bass-baritone a replacement was hired for the roll of Figaro, one known to the European opera world. But Marc Chartrier has a problematic history involving his actions during WWII. Those actions affected multiple members of the cast in different ways. When Chartrier is stabbed with a rapier in a hidden part of the scenery during a performance the culprit has to be narrowed from several cast members. In fact, the number of suspects increases rapidly as the police investigate. In the end the police name the killer, one who may or may not have been the true murderer. I'm not sure I'm happy with the way this one ended.

African Trilogy

 

Big Book Challenge: The African Trilogy by Chinua Achebe 562 pp.

Things Fall Apart: This book takes place in the late 1800s in the southeastern region of what is now Nigeria. The main character, Okonkwo, is a powerful leader of his Igbo clan. He worked hard to create a new life after having a weak and lazy father who left him no inheritance. After the death of a young man by Okonkwo's hand, things begin to go wrong. The arrival of Christian missionaries to the area creates further conflict as the missionaries lure the people away from their traditional beliefs. As problems among the people escalate Okonkwo realizes that the society he once knew was lost. He commits suicide which is against the indigenous beliefs, leaving the white Christians to deal with his body. The parting shot by the colonizers was the comment that this story will make a nice paragraph in the book he is writing about area.

Arrow of God: This novel takes place in colonial Nigeria in the 1920s. It concerns Ezeulu, the chief priest of the god Ulu who is worshipped by several Igbo villages. Ezeulu comes in conflict with the white, Christian colonizers who want him to abandon his beliefs and lead the villagers toward believing in Christianity. After being imprisoned by the colonizers for failure to cooperate, Ezeulu returns home to wait for guidance from Ulu. Following the death of his son, the people begin to turn away from Ezeulu because he will not allow the yam harvest because he has received the message from Ulu. The missionary steps in and urges the people to have their harvest and dedicate it to the Christian god. It's a further progression in the move to control by the white missionaries. This book struck a nerve in me because of the attitude that non-Christian beliefs should be wiped out. But I think this was the best one of the three.

No Longer at Ease: This installment centers on Obi Okonkwo, grandson of the protagonist in the first book and takes place in the late 1950s prior to Nigerian independence. It begins with Obi standing trial for bribery and then flashes back to the events leading up to the trial. Obi was sent to England to attend college with a grant from the local Union of villagers who have settled in the city of Lagos. When Obi returns he has a job with the agency that gives scholarships for study in England to the local young people. He soon learns that his salary isn't quite enough to live in the style expected of him while paying back his college loan, paying rent, and car expenses. However, he refuses bribes he is offered by those wanting scholarships. Obi begins a romance with a young woman named Clara who is considered an outcast by the Igbo and wants to marry her. However, the objections of his parents conflicts with his plans. Things get worse when Clara gets pregnant and Obi must find the money for an abortion. Clara leaves him afterward. When Obi's mother dies he choses to use the money he would need for travel to the funeral to help fund the funeral expenses and doesn't attend. At this point he decides that the only way for him to make it in the city is to become one of the officials who accepts bribes. He gets caught which results in him being tried.

End of Active Service

 

End of Active Service by Matt Young (2024) 292pp

A war novel -- by definition a dark one.  After a few pages I thought – this is a variation on War: As Soldiers Really Live It by Sebastian Junger who was embedded with a military outfit in Afghanistan, but this book is a love story, not creative non-fiction. Young’s view on modern warfare, is captured by the paragraph, “The draft was gone a long time and we were all there by choice – officers wanted to build clout to get into politics; enlisted dirtbags told everyone they wanted money for school but mostly just wanted to get paid to do some goddamned violence.” A cynical (and accurate) tone that differentiates novels set in earlier wars, before PTSD was a diagnosis and after the draft. Brief summary: Lance Corporal Pusey, freshly back in Indiana after two tours as a Marine in Iraq, finds love and happiness. To get to love and happiness the reader must navigate the flashback horrors of Marine life. To get to love and happiness one must feel the horror of the dumpster fire that is the American Midwest for those not in the top echelon; broken marriages, drugs, alcohol abuse, and general dystopia. Young is an excellent writer.  At first, I thought, uh-oh, this guy is an Iowa Writers’ Workshop grad (the book bogs down a bit with a repetitive literary tropes), but he writes calmly without forced drama about life in a combat zone and I quickly sank into the “suck” with his protagonist as his corps comrades struggle in situations that would be comical back in “world”, but are too often tragic when played out wearing olive drab and toting a machine gun. Navigating civilian life as a 20-something after years of stress is not easy for Pusey but he slowly rebounds -- simply (not so simple) getting through the day. Eventually he finds a path through the domestic maelstrom, falls/fails in love, becomes a father and the novel ends – with some love and a modicum of happiness.

Batman: The Dark Knight Detective, Vols. 1-8

 

Batman: The Dark Knight Detective, Vol. 7 by Louise Simonson, Kelley Puckett, Peter Milligan, Alan Grant, et al. (1991) 282 pages

I read eight volumes of this comics series that ran from the 1980s to the early '90s, but I'll just recommend one. I enjoyed the first story, "The Third Man," with two "armchair detective" older ladies getting involved in one of Batman's cases. Then there is a good three-parter. Video game monsters are coming to life in the real world and Robin/Tim Drake's knowledge of these games comes in handy. Even Gordon gets addicted to video games. Batman's research finds a kid in Arkham with the ability to project "video hallucinations," but is he really responsible. This is followed by a curious two-parter with a flashforward story featuring Ra's Al Ghul and Talia. Batman is unable to walk after a fall, Alfred is in an exoskeleton, and Robin/Tim is older. Through desperation Batman makes himself a cybernetic suit, and eventually returns to Ra's mountain lair. Next, the military wants Batman's help with a monster who has the ability to telekinetically set off explosions. In a bit of social commentary, it turns out the person is a black woman that the military has been experimenting on. The head officer is trying to use fear to set Batman and the woman against each other, but they both approach each other with an open mind and catch the officer in lies. Then there is another three-part adventure. An explosives expert is demolishing certain buildings around Gotham. Batman learns some Gotham history. The guy blowing up buildings is a fan of the architect who built Gotham's original skyscrapers and thinks the old architecture "keeps the demons at bay." In part three, Batman sets a trap. Finally, in "The Library of Souls" we get a mystery where Batman gets help from a librarian. They figure out that a recent pattern of dead bodies is based on the Dewey Decimal system and, so, the killer is also a librarian. I thought the writing was particularly good in each of these and the art by various artists helps tell the story well.

Earthly Remains

Earthly Remains by Donna Leon 308 pp. 

Commissario Guido Brunetti returns in the 26th book in the series. During an interview of suspect, Brunetti does something completely out of character causing a medical incident. As a result Brunetti and the doctor decide he needs at least a two week break from his job. Through his wife's connections, Brunetti goes to stay in a small villa on an island at the outskirts of Venice. There he partakes of the three "Rs," Relaxation, Reading, and Rowing. The rowing leads to a developing friendship with Davide Casati, a man who knew and rowed with Brunetti's late father. The two become companions who enjoy their time paddling on the Laguna and visiting Casati's beehives scattered on small islands. Casati is concerned because his bees are dying and is trying to find the cause. One night Casati goes out alone in his small boat and is lost in a storm. Brunetti joins the search for the boat, hoping that Casati managed to make it to shore. Brunetti launches his own, unofficial investigation into his new friend's past in spite of his orders to be relaxing. Once again corruption is at the heart of story.

A Short History of Nearly Everything

 

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson 544 pp.

Bill Bryson takes on the history of our world from before the beginning. The focus begins with the creation of the universe and the various theories leading to and about the Big Bang. The story then moves on to the solar system, the Earth's changing geology, plate tectonics, volcanos, etc.. Finally Bryson moves on to the evolution of the first creatures and eventually Homo sapiens. Interspersed in these scientific theories are the stories of the scientists who spent hundreds of years trying to explain it all and the conflicts and arguments over who was correct. I found the science in this book fascinating because of the bits I didn't know and anecdotes about the personalities of those who did the research. But I admit that, had I not listened to the unabridged audiobook version, I probably never would have finished it.  

Mirrored Heavens

 

Mirrored Heavens (Between Earth & Sky #3) by Rebecca Roanhorse (2024) 597 pages

There are reviews of the first and second part of this trilogy on this blog. After the middle part of the trilogy took the main characters to different parts of the world of the Meridian, it was great that this book has them all converging in the same climactic battle. This series is consistently full of intrigue as leaders and gods vie for power, characters try to understand cryptic prophesies, and they discover hidden magic within. Serapio, the Crow God Reborn, and Xiala are such captivating main characters. Balam is a great tormented villain hungry for power. Naranpa, Iktan, and Okoa are the major supporting characters, who are fully brought to life. I enjoyed that the world building is bigger than the city of Tova, which was the focus of the first book. I love that the characters continue to be three-dimensional with faults and heroic aspects. There is a lot of action, exploration of gruesome darkness, and also love stories. 

The Queen of Poisons

The Queen of Poisons by Robert Thorogood, 261 pages

When the  mayor of a small English town is murdered during a planning council meeting, the suspect pool is somewhere between tiny and nonexistent — after all, there were only four other people in the room when he died and the man was universally beloved. But the Marlow Murder Club — crossword creator Judith, quirky dog-sitter Suzie, and vicar's wife Becks — are determined to figure out who poisoned the poor man's coffee and why in the world they did it.

This is the third book in this popular series, and even though I haven't read the first two, I had no trouble falling in with this winning trio of amateur detectives and their sneaky sleuthing. The characters are delightful, and the mystery kept me guessing until the very end. I will definitely be checking out the first two books in this series, as well as any others that come after.

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride

 The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi, 289 pages.

A man who has spent his life studying fairy tales, and also believing in them, marries a wealthy but strange heiress, and together the two live on the boundary between fantasy and reality. The one promise she extracts from him is that he never look into her past, or it will destroy their marriage. But when they have to go back to her childhood home to tend to her dying aunt it becomes harder and harder not to pry, as the house holds secrets it desperately wants to be known. Meanwhile, decades in the past, two little girls sharing the same soul descend down an ever darker path. 

This novel had an extremely gothic feel. The prose was lush, and the general atmosphere is of a slowly strangling dread. It was compelling and terrible to see how things inevitably fell apart. I would strongly recommend this to fans of dark fairy tales, modern gothic books, and people who enjoyed Starling House by Alix E Harrow. 

The Tree Collectors

 The Tree Collectors: Tales of Arboreal Obsession by Amy Stewart, 336 pages.

This collection follows fifty individuals who are, in some way or another, obsessed with trees. Some of them are obsessed with having a wide and diverse collection, others with a single species of tree. Amy Stewart breaks this collection down into approximate categories of collecting motivations, although as she notes people's reasons for collecting trees are nearly as diverse as the collectors themselves. This book is beautifully illustrated, and presents an engrossing global record of collectors.

When I first picked this up I was expecting more of a historical record of naturalists, but this is instead (mostly) a collection of people the author actually managed to interview, with a few historical naturalists thrown in. I also really wasn't expecting how lovely and plentiful the illustrations are. This is a book of bite-sized little vignettes that nevertheless managed to pull me in entirely and create just a touch of arboreal obsession in me as well. I would definitely recommend this as a casual read and a peak into a world most people are completely unaware of. 

The Unwedding

The Unwedding by Ally Condie (2024)

Ellery is alone at an exclusive, isolated California resort where she would have been spending her 20th wedding anniversary with her husband who is now her ex. Her best friend is unavailable this weekend, so Ellery chose to go alone rather than let the nonrefundable reservations be used by her ex and his new girlfriend. Ellery finds herself missing her children and grieving the loss of her marriage, exacerbated by the fact that a wedding will be taking place while she is there.

Ellery goes for an early morning swim and discovers the body of the groom in the pool. Meanwhile, it's been raining a lot and mudslides have made the resort inaccessible to the police. And the electric generators are struggling. Cellphones are not getting any signals. And then someone else is found dead.

Ellery teams up with a couple of others to try to figure out who the murderer could be. But because she and the others stuck at the resort don't know if they can trust anyone, it makes for a tricky situation. Fast read.

No Longer at Ease

No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe, 194 pages

No Longer at Ease is the third book chronologically in The African Trilogy, though it was the second one written. Set during the final days of British colonial rule of Nigeria, the book follows Obi Okonkwo, grandson of the protagonist of Things Fall Apart, as he returns to Nigeria after four years studying in England. It's an awkward reintroduction, as Obi fumbles his way through conflicting cultures and finds a job working in the colonial government civil service. As he settles into the job and tries to figure out his relationship with his fiancée, Obi's experiences are both specific to the era and place, and universal (who among us didn't deal with money woes in their 20s?). It's a fascinating read, and an excellent end to our 2024 Big Book Challenge.

Romantic Comedy

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld (2023) 305 pages

It's no accident that the backdrop of this book reminds one of Saturday Night Live. In her acknowledgement section, Sittenfeld lists the most humongous list of materials related to the long-running show, which she drew upon to get the full flavor of The Night Owls (TNO). Sally is a writer for TNO, and although she reminds me a bit of Liz Lemon from Thirty Rock, Sally's character is deeper, with a better story line.

Sally had married young, but her husband was done with the marriage when she got her job at TNO. He'd never expected her to be successful in her attempts to get onboard. Since then, Sally has had only one relationship that she wished would have gone further, but ultimately, she's grateful for her career at TNO over these past 10 years, and for the close friends she has made at the show.

It's April 2018. A good-looking and talented musical guest, Noah Brewster, is also the host of the upcoming show. Sally works with him on the sketches, and she's not sure if he's feeling the sparks that she is, but she decides that if the feeling is real, that it won't last. She's just not as desirable as other women Noah has reportedly dated. Good-looking women will pair up with ordinary men, but the reverse just doesn't happen.

Sittenfeld leans into this concept and takes it two years into the future, during the Covid lockdown. Sally gets an email from Noah and starts corresponding with him. Their interactions are mostly fun, but also reveal their inner feelings. Could their relationship work in the real world, or is heartbreak inevitable?

The Jazzmen

 The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America by Larry Tye, 393 pages

You could probably get more out of an official bio of any one of these jazz greats, but the author does a brilliant job of tying everyone's careers and history together in a way that shows each bandleader coming into their own and carving out an indelible space in the jazz age. Each of the three are treated to an in-depth examination of their early lives, the hardships they endured and the excitement they brought to their individual styles. Basie was the country's foremost dance enthusiast, while Ellington brought a sense of refinement and sophistication to a much maligned genre, composing over 100 original works. And Armstrong was the man with the golden trumpet whose chops rivaled Gabriel at the gates--he would eventually become a symbol for American greatness. But with his daily marijuana habit, it's no wonder the man was always smiling.  

Love and Hot Chicken

Love and Hot Chicken by Mary Liza Hartong, 260 pages

PJ Spoon is midway through her PhD at Vanderbilt when the death of her father brings her back to her podunk hometown, Pennywhistle, Tennessee. Rather than deal with grief or talk to her mother about anything, PJ gets a job as a fry cook at the local hot chicken joint, the Chickie Shak. But before long, all of the female employees of the southern chain (plus two in New Jersey) are forced into a pageant to find Miss Chickie Shak, and PJ finds herself competing against her coworkers — cutie pie Boof and cranky Linda — and ignoring calls from her PhD advisor.

This is a quirky book, full of folksy Southernisms ("cuter than a piglet in jorts" is uttered at one point), to the point that the caricature of the South almost overwhelms the plot (which is plenty stereotypical South, in and of itself). Looking at the characters and their arcs, they're a bit flat, even with the meaty backstory that PJ has behind her. But if you're in the mood for laughing your way through something that doesn't really have a lot of substance, go ahead and pick this one up. Just make sure you're fully armed with your rhinestone gun and Velveeta when you start reading. 

Open Up and Bleed

 Iggy Pop: Open Up and Bleed, by Paul Trynka pg. 371

Our first book in the Rhythm n Books book club was a David Bowie book, so it seemed only fitting to end our summer reading list with a bio about Bowie's estranged friend and sometime collaborater, the Godfather of Punk himself, Iggy Pop (aka Jim Osterberg). 

This was a pretty good deep dive into Iggy's entire life, starting out in his childhood in Detroit, Michigan where he was voted most likely to succeed in school--yes, Iggy Pop was a pretty straight-laced young person before he heard the call of rock n' roll music. As his first offical group, The Stooges, started picking-up steam, Iggy realized he could really wow audiences with his high energy, violent and weird performances. They got people talking and that got the word around about how they were a great group to see, eventually garnering the attention of the starman himself, Bowie, who took Iggy under his wing and tried to help him create a long lasting music career, which in some very real ways, he did. But the addition of drugs into his life made him more erratic and brazen, which over time only fueled the very legend he was trying to construct. The book even delves into his 80's period, when he was trying to clean-up his act. Incredible that as strung out and awful as Iggy could be, girlfriends, friends, radio execs, kept giving him chance after chance to succeed. In the 2000's with song royalties finally coming in, his band reformed, a growing back catalog, and a new generation of listeners, punk enthusiasts finally gave Iggy Pop his due as the Godfather of punk. Adults only. 

Iron Kissed

 Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs  287 pp.

Mercy Thompson is an auto mechanic specializing in VWs. She is also a shapeshifter who can change into a coyote at will. She also has two love interests from a pack of werewolves and has to choose between them before they choose for her. To complicate her life even more, her fae mentor has been charged with a murder he didn't commit and Mercy is trying to find the true killer and stirs up another creature who tries to kill her and injures a number of the werewolves. Then their are the angry fae who want her stopped. Mercy suffers a lot of physical and mental trauma in this book but her love life seems to be resolved. I mistakenly thought this was the first book in the series when it is actually the third so I need to go back and begin the series to see what I missed. 

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (2022) 401 pages

I listened to the audiobook on Libby narrated by Jennifer Kim with a short section narrated by Julian Cihi. The title comes from a speech in Shakespeare's Macbeth. A couple of my co-workers have also read and reviewed this novel here on the blog. I really enjoyed this story of two friends, their love of video games, and their careers as game designers. The characters of Sam and Sadie are just a bit older than I am growing up in the '80s and '90s. I remember learning computer skills in elementary school, in part, by playing Oregon Trail. Sadie also shares a love of Magic Eye images, those repetitive patterns that you stare beyond to bring out a hidden 3D object. Their lives and the other people in their lives are so richly drawn and realistic. I found exploring the process of video game design fascinating. The ups and downs of building and marketing their games, as well as family and romantic relationships kept me engaged.

 

The Briar Club

The Briar Club by Kate Quinn, 423 pages

It's Thanksgiving, 1954, and there's a dead body in a women's boardinghouse in Washington, D.C. The police are there, all of the women who live there are in shock, and nobody (including the detectives) seem to know what to do. That's the opening scene for a novel that spends most of the rest of the book revealing the inner lives of the many women who live in the house, from the elderly Hungarian immigrant to the HUAC secretary to the young mother whose husband is stuck in Japan during the Korean War. It's a lovely book, beautifully told, and I'll happily recommend it to all!

Into the Twilight, Endlessly Grousing

 

Into the Twilight, Endlessly Grousing by Patrick F. McManus 225 pp.

I've read a number of Patrick McManus books over the years and found them all entertaining. McManus is a long time writer for Outdoor Life Magazine and his stories have frequently been compared to Mark Twain in humor. This collection didn't seem quite as good as some of the others. However, it does have episodes that include some of the "usual suspects" like Retch Sweeney and Rancid Crabtree. There are frequent outdoor mishaps recalled from childhood and adulthood along with unsuccessful fishing trips. If you're looking for a light, amusing read, that doesn't require a lot of brain power, this is the book for you.

NOTE: The grousing in the title can and does mean complaining and/or hunting the elusive grouse. 

Scattershot

Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton & Me by Bernie Taupin (2023)  400 pages

Bernie Taupin grew up in a rural area in northern England, but found his way to London where he met Reg Dwight (later known as Elton John) at age 17. Eventually, after their music takes off, they live in Los Angeles, but also spend time in New York City, Paris, and the Caribbean. I love the way Taupin describes the cities in the 1970s and indicates how so much has changed ‒ he remembers the restaurants and bars and music venues, along with the people who owned them, who played music there, and those who frequented them. 

His knowledge of music keeps one Googling the names of old time musicians from the blues, country western, and pop, and the songs that they wrote and/or sang. Taupin shows reverence for those whose music helped define the various genres, and he is thrilled when he has a chance to meet some of those great old musicians. Taupin is also a voracious reader and collector of books, and describes a chance meeting with one of his most-beloved authors. He is also floored by Frank Sinatra when he meets him, finding himself unexpectedly in awe of the man.

So many names, people ‒ besides Elton John ‒ that Taupin counted as his close friends: Alice Cooper, Rod Stewart, Robin Williams, John Lennon, to name a few. So many stories about the songs that he and Elton wrote. There are also a few digs at musicians that Taupin didn't like, but it's rare.

Drugs and alcohol are prevalent throughout, and Taupin touches on how he and Elton (and others) were affected by their use of these substances. 

Taupin's experiences put him into contact with countless musicians, actors, authors, and artists. This book would be even better with an index. However, an index for the density of people and places mentioned would probably double the length the book!

Full Speed to a Crash Landing

Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis, 181 pages

Ada Lamarr was in the middle of scavenging metal from the crash of a giant spaceship when the airlock of her small ship blew up and left her with swiftly dwindling oxygen and the hopes that a nearby ship would respond to her increasingly urgent distress call. When a ship finally does grab her at nearly the last second, Ada learns that they're here to rescue a couple of irreplaceable items from the same wreckage. But while Ada's more than happy to help rescue the items from the volatile planet, she also has ulterior motives, ones that she must conceal from the sexy mission commander of the rescue ship.

This novella is a fun space heist, with excellent characters, fun twists, and a solid enough background that it's not confusing, though without weighing down the plot. It also ends on a cliffhanger, so the second book in this trilogy better get published soon. Cuz you know I'm going to read the heck out of it!

Goliath

Goliath by Tochi Onyebuchi, 327 pages

It's just 30-40 years in the future, and after centuries of ecological, economical, and racial disparity in policies and action, the rich white folks of the U.S. have left behind the dregs of the country to live in a space station colony. This book, however, is mainly about those who are left — mainly poor people of color, struggling every day with toxic air and depleting resources. Yes, there are a few people returning from the space colony as journalists and first-wave gentrifiers, but the bulk of this book is about the everyday people who are struggling to survive in New Haven, Connecticut.

This was not an easy book to read on many levels — there's not much of a storyline, and it's hard to tell who's speaking and when each passage is taking place, while the struggles of the left-behind people juxtaposed with the cringey journalists and Earth returnees make the events of the books uncomfortable. But I'm pretty sure this book isn't supposed to be an easy read. It's meant to be read and ruminated on and discussed, and I came out of our Orcs & Aliens discussion last night with a much greater appreciation for the book than I had going into the chat. Read this if you're ready for some deep introspection about race, class, and political and ecological policies in the U.S.

An Unfinished Love Story

 

An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin 480 pp.

This book was fascinating to me since, while I remembered the major events of the 1960s, I was a child during that time (the assassination of JFK happened when I was in kindergarten). I have read other books by Doris Kearns Goodwin but was not familiar with her husband, Richard Goodwin, a man who was so instrumental in the world of Democratic politics in the 1960s. When her husband reached his 80s the two of them began go through his stored files of his work and memorabilia of his days in Washington as a  clerk for Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. Then as counsel for the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce where he investigated the television quiz show scandals of the 1950s. (Goodwin was portrayed by actor Rob Morrow in the 1994 film "Quiz Show.") After that he became one of the speechwriters and advisors for Senator John Kennedy during his campaign for the Presidency. Kennedy appointed him Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs where he tried to discourage Kennedy from ordering the Bay of Pigs operation. Goodwin aided the First Lady in many tasks most notably in the relocating of Egyptian temples that would have been flooded by the Aswan Dam project. He was also instrumental in the planning of the dinner for Nobel Prize winners (Dinner in Camelot) and finally arranging for the eternal flame Jackie Kennedy requested for her husband's grave. Following Kennedy's death Goodwin became Secretary General of the Peace Corp until he accepted a job with President Lyndon Johnson where he was credited with writing some of LBJ's most important and effective speeches before resigning because of differences over the Vietnam War. After some work in academia, Goodwin, ever against the war in Vietnam, joined Eugene McCarthy's campaign for President leaving when his friend Bobby Kennedy decided to run after LBJ announced he would not seek re-election. Upon Kennedy's assassination in Los Angeles, Goodwin went back to the McCarthy campaign. Following those years he taught and wrote, producing articles, books, and a play. He married Doris Kearns, who had worked with LBJ on his memoir, in 1975 and they were married until his death in 2018. I learned so much from this book. I never knew that LBJ pushed the Fair Housing Bill through Congress on the heels of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination or how much friction existed between LBJ and Bobby Kennedy. And I didn't know anything about the man, Richard (Dick) Goodwin. I listened to the audiobook, read by the author.

The Ministry of Time

 

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, 352 pages

If Candace Bushnell wrote a romance book about time travel, it would look something like this. I don't say this often, but I really hated this book. I won't spoil any endings here, but I found the writing lazy, the plot disjointed and ludicrous--it's generally just overmarketed as some kind of unique time travel/spy novel when it's really nothing of the sort--it's just a relationship book. Nothing happens for about 200 pages and then all of a sudden you realize you're in some kind of romance novel that still takes forever to wrap up. And then, after all that time, there's a threshold the author crosses and everything happens all at once in about the last third of the book--all the plot and characters and exposition go tumbling downhill to it's inevitable and boring conclusion.

The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love

The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love by India Holton, 361 pages

Beth is a young but distinguished ornithologist, splitting her time between teaching at Oxford and tracking down dangerous and rare magical birds. She's about to grab just such a specimen when the dashing (and annoying) Devon Lockley literally swoops in and nabs the bird right from under her fingers. But when a competition to become Birder of the Year (and gain tenure) through capturing a particularly elusive bird is announced, Beth and Lockley find themselves forming the most unlikely of teams... and discover that they don't dislike each other as much as they thought.

This book is just as silly as that previous paragraph implies, and while it's not going to win any awards, it was a fun way to spend an afternoon. I actually think this would be better served as a campy B movie, perfect for a rainy afternoon — it just has that vibe — though I'm not sure the Victorian era in which it's set would translate well to film. Oh well, just read it and giggle.

Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd by Mark Blake 418 pp.

This book was a slow starter, slow enough that I almost gave up on it. Part of that was due to the audiobook narrator sounding like a BBC new presenter - dry and factual. That being said, this is a very detailed explanation of the creation, dissention, and reformation of the super group that is Pink Floyd. Formed by a bunch of Cambridge lads, the band went through various incarnations before they created the phenomenon that is "Dark Side of the Moon." Along the way there was a lot of drug abuse, the mental decline of Syd Barrett, and the legal fights between Roger Waters and David Gilmour. In spite of Waters trying to block them every step of the way, the Gilmour-led Pink Floyd went on to produce some great albums and massive tours. This is a fairly balanced account of the band but does make Roger Waters out to be a jerk, which may or may not actually be the truth.

Here We Go Again

Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun, 356 pages

When they were kids, Logan and Rosemary were inseparable best friends, despite their polar-opposite personalities. But at 14, something happened that drove them apart and turned them into nemeses. Now, the two women are in their 30s and both teaching English at their small-town high school, still holding a grudge that's nearly 20 years old. The only thing that could possibly bring them together is Joe, their high school English teacher and mentor who is dying of cancer. So when Joe requests that Logan and Rosemary take him on a cross-country road trip to Maine so he can die in a place he once loved, they grudgingly agree, half-convinced that they'll kill each other somewhere along the way.

This romance novel has way too many tropes for it to work — enemies-to-lovers, second-chance romance, "but there was only one bed," straight-laced/chaotic pairing...and those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head — yet somehow Cochrun is able to tie them all together beautifully in a hilarious, touching novel featuring characters with very real flaws and fears. I laughed, I cried, I loved it. I think it's her best yet, and that's saying something.

The Witchstone

The Witchstone by Harry H. Neff, 462 pages

For four centuries, the Drakefords have been caught under a horrific curse that slowly turns them into monsters. They've given up hope of ever breaking the curse when lazy demon Laszlo, their curse's official Keeper, pops up at their remote home with a plan to break the curse in six short days. Of course he has ulterior motives (he's a demon after all), but Maggie Drakeford — a teenager who is just starting to show signs of the curse-caused transformation — is willing to do whatever she can to save her already-monstrous father, herself, and her younger brother, Lump (actually George, but hey, it's what he calls himself). A whirlwind trip around the world in search of magical items guarded by horrid creatures ensues, as does an unlikely friendship between Laszlo and Maggie.

I loved this book, which somehow has both Percy Jackson and The Guncle vibes (but also with demons). The characters are fantastic, particularly Laszlo's shark-headed buddy Clarence and the aforementioned Lump, and the twists kept me guessing until the very end. (Also, a shoutout to that fantastic cover!) Highly recommended to fans of urban fantasy, lazy antiheros, and bumpkins with gumption. 

July totals

After attempting to read outside
for 10 minutes, this was all that was
left of an unnamed UCPL staffer.

Byron: 1 book, 475 pages

Jan: 6 books, 2126 pages

John: 3 books, 957 pages

Kara: 10 books, 3459 pages

Karen: 7 books, 2356 pages

Kevin: 1 book, 460 pages

Regan: 10 books, 2554 pages

Total: 38 books, 12,387 pages