The poison tree, by Henry I. Schvey

Professor Schvey has been in the Performing Arts Department of Washington University for many years and has led book discussions at our library on occasion.  This coming-of-age memoir reveals that despite his wealthy and privileged background (his father was a major figure at Merrill Lynch), his early life was one of abuse and neglect.  Only after his father’s death does it seem he is able to revisit his youth and perhaps come to terms with the history that still haunts him.  Although his parents’ marriage brought together two important New York Jewish families, his mother and father were otherwise ill-matched.  His father was disciplined and orderly; his mother, particularly after the couple separated when Henry was about twelve, became even more slovenly, alcoholic, and a borderline hoarder.  His childhood, and that of his six-years-younger brother, was filled with screaming and visits from the police for domestic disturbance.  When young Henry failed to live up to his father’s expectations, emotional and physical cruelty swiftly followed.  Despite this, and one suspects by dint of conscious effort, Prof. Schvey has enjoyed a long and happy marriage and raised successful children.  212 pp.

A Fatal Grace, by Louise Penny

Book two of the Chief Inspector Gamache novels (and I’m comforted by the fact that there are nine more left at this writing) is again set in the obscure little village of Three Pines in Quebec, not far from Montreal.  Like an unhappy version of Brigadoon, it seems to only surface in time for another murder, this one of the odious CC de Poitiers.  She has recently self-published Be Calm, a book outlining her weird philosophy for life – one of her gurus is “Ramen Das.”  And soon she will leave it, but not before buying the ill-fated old Hadley mansion, scene of so much mayhem in the first volume of the series, and moving her hen-pecked husband Richard and doleful obese teenaged daughter Crie into it.  How on earth did she manage to get electrocuted while watching the annual post-Christmas curling match on a frozen lake outside the village? Many of the same characters reappear and are becoming old friends to the reader.  I look forward to the next inevitable and odd death in this quiet town.  313 pp.

Nutshell: a novel / Ian McEwan, 197 pp.

Trudy and her lover Claude set out to murder Trudy's husband John, who also happens to be Claude's brother.  Their plot is hatched from  Trudy and John's marital home, a run-down but high-value London townhouse which is actually filled with decaying trash, in case we need another pointer to Hamlet's rotten state of Denmark.

The twist is that the story is narrated not by Trudy and John's adult son Hamlet but by their unnamed fetus.  As I read Nutshell, I kept thinking that I should have been annoyed by this novel-as-conceit, but in fact I loved it.  McEwan is confident and skilled, but he also keeps in mind the fact that he's writing for an audience.  He strikes a bargain with his readers:  he'll write the novel he wants to write, but he promises to keep his readers engrossed, amused, surprised, and entertained.

1776 / David McCullough, 386 pp.

A military history of the pivotal year that included the siege of Boston and ended with the American victory at Trenton.  The audiobook, available on Hoopla, was read by the author in his terrific McCullough voice.  Perhaps not a great audio choice for me; I really needed to look at the maps.

Sapiens: a Brief History of Humankind / Yuval Noah Harari, 443 pp.

A look at the arc of human development with a point of view that weaves biology, anthropology, history, and, in truth, other disciplines I probably can't even name. Effectively, Harari shows us our species as if he were a far-wiser life form from another galaxy, and after reading this, I will never think of human life in quite the same way.  Harari divides human history into revolutions: the cognitive, which saw great leaps forward in behavior and our spread across the planet; the agricultural, the scientific, the industrial, the information, and the biotechnological.  We've all heard these categories before, but it's Harari's analysis of the how and why of each of these stages that make this such a fresh and exciting read.  He is an original thinker and a first-rate writer; if you appreciated Guns, Germs and Steel you need to read Sapiens.

Thanks to my friend John for nagging me to read this!

Atlas Obscura: an Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders / Joshua Foer, 470 pp.

I loved this book, a compendium of the weird-but-fascinating (and occasionally beautiful) from around the globe.  Organized by continent, most sites are accessible, and contact information is given for those planning to visit.  In Romania, there is a Merry Cemetery, full of colorfully decorated crosses and limericks about the deceased, at the intersection of routes 19 and 183.  Ilha de Queimada Grande, an island off Sao Paulo, is covered in lancehead viper snakes and forbidden to visitors; contact the Brazilian Navy for more details.  If snakes aren't your thing, try the Hotel Sidi Driss in Tunisia.  Star Wars: a New Hope was filmed there, and for $20 a night you can pretend to be young Luke.  A helpful US map indicates the 35 lake monsters to be found throughout the 50 states.

Weird is good.  Read this book!

The Throwback Special

The Throwback Special by Chris Bachelder, 213 pages

Every year, 22 men gather at a sub-par hotel and take part in a meticulously planned pageant of mass bromance: the re-creation of a five-second football play from 1985 that ended the career of Redskins quarterback Joe Theissman. The Throwback Special, which takes its name from the aforementioned play, is told largely through the internal monologues of the participants of this tradition, floating and flowing between men seemingly at random. No bones about it: this style is somewhat off-putting in the beginning of the book, when readers are trying to keep all the different re-enactors (can't really call them players) straight. But then you realize that you don't really have to remember who is who. The book is really more about the relationships between the men than anything else, and while those relationships make no sense to me (why the heck can't they just say what they think???), it is an interesting, and often chuckle-worthy, book. Just don't expect any answers when you read it.

Grief is the thing with feathers

Grief is the thing with feathers / Max Porter, 114 pgs.

A woman dies unexpectedly and leaves her family in a painful grief that seems impossible to bear.  Her two young sons and husband are having a hard time and not seeing a way out.  Enter the crow who shows up because he is interested in grief.  He becomes part therapist, part carer and helps them heal.  I know this sounds like a crazy description but somehow, when you read the book, it all seems very reasonable.  The book alternates between the crow, the dad, and the boys as narrators.  Over time, things get better and the crow moves on.  I can't possibly be doing this book justice but it is short so if any part appeals to you, give it a try.

My Name is Lucy Barton

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout, 193 pages

This is not an easy book to describe. It bounces around in time, with the titular character reflecting on a weeks-long stint in the hospital, her relationship with her parents, her career as an author, her childhood, and other things in life. Yes, that's a horrible description of what is a truly interesting book. Strout created a fully real person in Lucy, in part because of her meandering thoughts. It's well worth reading.

The Once and Future King

The Once and Future King by T.H. White  814 pp.

I read most of this classic book of the life of King Arthur many years ago but for some reason never finished it. This time I listened to the audiobook version which included "The Book of Merlyn", the fifth book that wasn't included in the original publication. The five parts of the book vary in ratio of humor to seriousness with "The Sword in the Stone" being laugh-out-loud funny. The later sections get progressively darker as the King Arthur story progresses but there is still some satirical humor throughout the story. I was struck by how many times this story of the Middle Ages paralleled politics of the present day. "The Book of Merlyn" is all political commentary in the form of discussions between Merlyn, Arthur, Archimedes the owl, and other animals. The aging Arthur once again experience life in the form of different animals as he did when a child under Merlyn's tutelage but his focus is on the animals' societies.  Film and stage depictions of Lancelot always portray him as handsome but this version of the story has an ugly, but charismatic Lancelot that wins the heart of Guinevere. The book makes the movie portrayals seem very shallow. The audiobook is perfectly read by Neville Jason who perfectly embodies the characters with different voices. The smarmy voice he used for the evil Mordred is perfect.