Most Talkative

Most Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture by Andy Cohen, 273 pages

When reality TV producer Andy Cohen graduated from Clayton High School, his classmates dubbed him "Most Talkative." This celebrity-soaked memoir proves that, even though he graduated more than 30 years ago, he still OWNS that title, covering everything from his youthful obsession with soap operas (and really, all things TV-related) to his coming-out story to his early career as a CBS This Morning producer to his creation of The Real Housewives reality TV franchise. He covers everything with plenty of self-deprecating humor and 20/20 hindsight. While I'm not a fan of soap operas or CBS This Morning or The Real Housewives (never seen an episode, nor do I really care to), I am a closet fan of celebrity gossip, so I loved listening to this audiobook, which was read by Cohen himself — a decision that added a level of effervescent comedy that made all the difference.

Pachinko

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee  490 pp.

This novel was a finalist for the National Book Award. It is the saga of four generations of Koreans, most of whom never lived in Korea. Beginning during the occupation/colonization of Korea by Japan the story runs through World War II to the 1970s. The family faces illness, imprisonment, the horrors of war, poverty, and starvation while holding onto the importance of family, and their hard work ethic. Sunja, the daughter of a crippled fisherman and a boardinghouse owner, gets pregnant by a charming businessman who turns out to have a wife and children in Japan. A tubercular missionary at the boarding house marries her and takes her to Japan where he has a job in a church. Because Koreans are looked down upon by the Japanese they live in the Korean ghetto with his brother and sister-in-law. Life gets harder and harder but Sunja's former lover steps in to help, secretly at first. The story continues as her children grow, become adults, and have their own challenges to face living as a minority in a country that does not want them there. There aren't that many books in English that portray the struggle of Koreans in Japanese society and this one covers a many of the challenges Koreans faced there. And, like the game of Pachinko, success / winning is controlled in part by the machine settings but partly by chance.

Pale Rider: the Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World

Pale Rider: the Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World / Laura Spinney, 332 p.

Spinney's central question is why, when the flu pandemic killed such an enormous number of people - at least 50 million - it has never captured the limelight like the century's world wars, whose total deaths numbered 18 million and 60 million.  So much is packed in a realtively brief text: a history of human pandemics, theories about what caused the Spanish flu to explode, scientists' attempts to contain it, and the tremendous impact a country's infrastructure, both from a political and a public health standpoint, had on the course of disease in that locale.  Impressive for the attention drawn to the flu's ravages in non-European areas, this is a terrific read, intelligent but pitched for the general reader.

Going into town

Going into town: a love letter to New York / Roz Chast, 169 pgs.

Charming and also helpful, Chast tells us the important stuff about New York.  After growing up in Brooklyn, Chast became a suburban commuter to the city.  Although in love with New York, she decided the larger space that she could afford in the 'burbs made sense.  Then ready to send her oldest off to college, she realized her kids had a totally different idea of the city than she has.  She started writing a little guide that grew into this book.  Here are the important facts, not tourist attractions. A tutorial on finding your way around, and appreciate the sights and "feel" of the city.  Chast's drawings are so marvelous, you don't have to be interested in NYC to appreciate this book but if you read it, you might become interested.

Life in code

Life in code: a personal history of technology / Ellen Ullman, 306 pgs.

Kind of a memoir, this series of essays by a woman who worked as a software engineer/programmer, is a thoughtful look at her experiences in the tech business, in life with meditations on society. Ullman has a way with words, I found myself re-reading many passages because of what I was learning and how well she was communicating.  Nothing here comes across as nerdy, in fact, the opposite seems more likely.  And, although she talks some about the dominance of white and Asian guys in tech, this isn't a mediation on inclusion or the struggles of a woman in a male dominated arena.  Ullman doesn't have time for small topics, here she seems to be explaining bigger things and doing it well.

Fire in the Hole

Fire in the Hole by Elmore Leonard, 240 pages

In this collection of nine short stories, Leonard offers up a handful of versions of classic Western tropes — the shootout, the sheriff, the cattle rustler, the cowboy — though not always in a Western setting. The sheriff's role is often played by U.S. marshals (Leonard's well-known characters Raylan Givens and Karen Sisco), there are plenty of tough women to be found, and every last story features whiskey and guns. My favorite is "When the Women Come Out to Dance," a story of Mrs. Mahmood and her maid, Lourdes, who have a peculiar relationship that takes an unexpected twist. I'd never read Leonard's work before, and this collection was a great introduction to his style and his characters.

A Likely Story

A Likely Story by Jenn McKinlay (2015), 292 pages

I've just completed four of the books in Jenn McKinlay's A Library Lover's Mystery series. They're set in fictional Briar Creek, Connecticut, a small coastal town with hundreds of tiny islands within close range. Lindsey Norris is the town's young new library director, whose curiosity gets her into the middle of mysteries that arise, all while handling a difficult circulation staffer, Ms. Cole (also known as "The Lemon" because of her sour disposition), as well as Beth, an enthusiastic children's librarian who is into extreme costuming for story time. Lindsey also heads a weekly book group of supportive, chatty women who gather at the library to eat, work on crafts, and discuss books. (Each of this series' books has a recipe at the back for something the book group ate at their meeting.) A boat captain, Michael "Sully" Sullivan, has captivated Lindsey's heart, yet they don't quite get together, keeping us wondering if it will ever work out.

In A Likely Story, Sully transports Lindsey to an island to deliver library books to some shut-ins. When they are not met at the dock as usual, they work their way into the huge old house, avoiding humongous piles of debris as well as booby traps, both inside and outside the house--the two old brothers who live at the house are extreme hoarders. Lindsey and Sully discover one of the old men is dead in his wheel chair, obviously having been shot. The other brother is missing. Is the missing brother a murderer or on the run for his life? Meanwhile, a rich woman has been buying up some of the islands, and some antique collectors who own a shop in Chicago show up, hoping to buy some of the old brothers' collectibles. Lindsey's research into the town's history helps provide clues to the current mystery, but also causes some dangerous consequences.

All Grown Up

All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg, 197 pages

Andrea is a New York woman, living the single life and avoiding the marriage-kids-divorce track that everyone else seems to be taking. Christa did a great job of describing this book here, so I won't add much to her description. But I will say that the structure of the book — which starts every chapter at a different period in Andrea's life, and focusing on a different person she knows — lends to the sense that Andrea is simply marking time as everyone around her evolves. It's only in the later chapters that Andrea's own evolution reveals itself. I'm not a huge fan of the book (I much prefer Attenberg's Saint Mazie), but I did enjoy it and the structure.

The Sky is Yours

The Sky is Yours by Chandler Klang Smith, 457 pages

For 50 years, the once-thrivng metropolis of Empire Island has been at the mercy of two dragons that constantly circle the skies above the island, lighting fires throughout the city whenever the mood strikes them. These dragons — one yellow, one green — never land, never eat, never sleep, and never communicate in any way with the people who live below them. While the threat of dragon-fire has led many to flee the city, there are some who remain. Among those: spoiled billionaire playboy teenager Duncan Ripple V; his arranged-marriage fiancee Baroness Swan Lenore Dahlberg; and hard-hearted drug kingpin Eisenhower Sharkey. There's also Abby, a girl who was raised alone on a neighboring garbage dump island and taught to fear all technology. These four people live isolated from one another, and from the city at large, yet circumstances force their stories to intertwine.

Along with these fantastically-named and well-rounded characters, Smith has created a nuanced world that almost becomes a character of its own. The plot, too, was excellently created, shining just a bit of light on the path forward without giving up the coming twists and turns, but with plenty of wry humor that sneaks up on the reader. I loved it!

Claudius the God

Claudius the God: And His Wife Messalina by Robert Graves  544 pp.

This is the continuation of the fictionalized history begun in I, Claudius which ended with the death of the Roman Emperor Caligula. This part begins with the battles in the Roman senate over whether or not the lame and "mentally deficient" Claudius should, in fact, become the emperor. The rest of the story covers his thirteen year reign including the political intrigues, treachery and backstabbing that was common in that era. After the horrific reign of Caligula with its violence and excesses, Claudius' time in power seems quite calm and reasonable. Messalina, the favorite of Claudius' four wives, embraces the power of being the emperor's wife. Behind his back, she carries out her own intrigues and affairs. His love for her led him to overlook what is happening when it came to her activities. While Claudius sincerely tried to improve things for his Roman subjects, including the ones in conquered lands, there was still plenty of violence, retaliatory murders, and execution but not close to the scale of Caligula's time. This book was a bit of a slog to get through. It gets bogged down in the military operations in Britain. Now I need to re-watch the PBS series from the 1970s.