Socked In

Hi All. I hope everyone is well. Here we need to stay indoors this afternoon as the air quality is hazardous from all the wildfire smoke coming to us from north in the province. The trouble is the southern wind that had been pushing the smoke away from us changed direction overnight and now has pushed all the smoke into our area and beyond. It’s very grey and the visibility is low. Whoa it looks like the apocalypse outside. It’s best to stay inside and avoid the smoke and any possible zombies.

Early over the weekend it was still clear out and we took the dogs to the Bow River, where they swam like there was no tomorrow. They love swimming; unfortunately I didn’t get a good shot of it. We also put in our inaugural vegetable garden at our new home, which was fun. We planted a wide range of things including: radishes, carrots, onions, potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, peas, green beans, and corn. We plan to put in some zucchini as well. Do you plant any veggies in the summer and what do you like best? Do they grow well where you are?

And now I’ll leave you with reviews of what I finished lately.

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai / Viking /448 pages /2023

Synopsis: This novel is about a film professor and podcaster named Bodie Kane who gets swept up in a murder case decades later that happened when she was at boarding school in New Hampshire. She had been a senior there when her roommate Thalia Keith was murdered, which she hasn’t been able to entirely put behind her. Years later when Bodie’s asked to teach a course at the school, she begins to analyze whether the man arrested for the crime was wrongly convicted and whether other suspects were overlooked.

My Thoughts: Much of the novel I liked, especially Bodie’s younger years at the high school, along with the writing, but then other times the minutiae of going over and over, analyzing the crime and all the suspects a hundred times over sort of exhausted me. Sure it was a horrific crime and an injustice that a more thorough investigation wasn’t done when it happened, and as a young teenager I’m sure it haunted so many students at the prep school forever, but man, it really turns the case inside out till I was blue. It’s a slow-burn and then some.

Granted, the author brings up many issues in the story along the way: including sexism, racism, sexual abuse, harassment violence, bullying, and adolescence that make the re-examination of the case quite worthwhile. There’s a lot to digest. And the victim Thalia seemed a promiscuous girl, which opened up the possibilities of various motives and suspects. Several people could’ve done it, which Bodie finds out in due time.

Mostly I think I liked the novel for its look back on adolescence and the school and Bodie’s time there — how she viewed things then versus what she thinks about it now, her friends there, and how Bodie was a bit of an outlier back in high school and what she was going through with her family then and now. Those personal parts interested me. Also the fact that the author made Bodie and the characters feel very real throughout the journey. So perhaps the novel was a bit of a mixed bag, but still it was worth 4 stars.

I listened to the audio read by Julia Whelan, who I thought did a terrific job.

Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You: A Memoir by Lucinda Williams /Crown / 272 pages / 2023

I have long been a fan of Lucinda Williams’s songs and music, which I first started listening to around 1992 when I was living in Seattle and her album Sweet Old World came out. I was wowed by her poetic lyrics and raw folk-country-rock sound. Her next four albums: Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (1998), Essence (2001), World Without Tears (2003) and West (2007) were especially stunning. So I jumped on her book when I heard that it was out.

I listened to Lucinda’s memoir read by the author for the audio. In it, she’s raw, she’s real, and she lays it on the line. She tells of her background, her family, where she came from (Louisiana, and Arkansas mostly), and how she got into music. She includes many great stories of her life and how she stuck to her guns about her songs and direction when the record companies didn’t know how to place her music. She was told for many years she was too rock for country and too country for rock, and she struggled at first to get a record deal.

Luckily she kept at it. She tells of playing guitar and singing from age 12 to 70. She’s an American treasure and I was thankful just to hear a bit about how she accomplished what she did and what she’s like offstage … and how she wrote the wonderful lyrics and tunes. This book is quite insightful about her life … foremost about her parents who had their problems (her mom had mental illness and her Dad moved the family around a lot for work) … and all the men she had relationships with. Holy smokes there’s a lot! She’s quite candid and just a couple times I thought maybe it was a wee bit oversharing about her sex life. But still I was glad to know where her songs came from, many were based on real relationships or people she knew.

My only qualm with the memoir is that it stops abruptly around 2007 around the time of The West album and her marriage to Tom Overby in 2009. The memoir is a bit too short. She does talk about her parents passing away around 2014 and 2015, which had a huge sad impact on her. But I wanted to know more from her recent years (she had a stroke in 2020, which she doesn’t really talk about). So perhaps that is the sign of a good memoir, hoping that she’ll write another and add the remaining years.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho / HarperOne / 208 pages / 1993 translated

This was Book One for quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ book club, so I was curious to check it out. Not that Aaron is one I really follow, but he just talked it up quite a bit. I had missed the novel or fable when the translated edition first came out in 1993. So this runaway bestseller has now been out 30 years.

And yes it’s a fable-like story about a shepherd boy (Santiago) in Spain who sells his sheep to undertake a self-discovery journey to find a treasure, which he dreams about being among the Pyramids of Egypt. He goes through various stages on the journey, following omens and trying to realize his “Personal Legend.” Along the way, he meets an old king, a crystal merchant, an Englishman, and finally an alchemist who help him and he learns from on his way. He also falls for a girl named Fatima who will wait for him while he searches for the treasure.

The fable is endearing in certain aspects of a young person being on a quest and trying to find one’s destiny and journeying around through the Sahara Desert. Though at times it was a bit like reading pop-philosophy or psychology, and I wasn’t too sure if it went deeper than: following or listening to one’s own heart, which always seems wise to pursue. I liked some of the images in the book: the places and people, the desert and sheep, though a few parts dragged: some of the pseudo-philosophy parts perhaps. But luckily it was a relatively short read and I bid adieu to Santiago the wandering shepherd who seemed to find his happiness.

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read these and if so, what did you think?

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30 Responses to Socked In

  1. I haven’t read any of these books though I’ve been hearing good things about the first one.

    I am just about to finish The Great Reclamation by Rachel Heng, which I am quite enjoying.

    • Susan says:

      Hi Helen, I’m glad to hear you are liking the novel by Rachel Heng. I had that novel on my TBR list and previewed it back in March, so I’m thrilled to hear it’s good. I will look for your review. Have a great week.

  2. Lesley says:

    Sigh. I’m feeling disappointed about the smoky conditions (and concerned for those affected by the fires!), and have my fingers crossed that things will improve in the next three weeks.

    Your vegetable garden sounds ambitious! I think the most anyone can grow in our neighborhood is cherry tomatoes, if they’re lucky. Too much shade, cool temps, and salty air. However, we have bumper crops of moss and lichen! 🙂

    I agree that Julia Whelan did a great job with I Have Some Questions for You, but I didn’t care for the book quite as much as you. It’s certainly a slow burn, and I thought the “big reveal” was anticlimactic (so much so that I just now had to look at Goodreads’ questions for the book and confirm “whodunnit”).

    Lucinda Williams memoir sounds a bit like Brandi Carlile’s, but I suppose many singer/songwriters have similar beginnings to their careers.

    I tried The Alchemist many years ago, but couldn’t get interested. You’ve convinced me that I didn’t miss much.

    I’m about to finish Susan Hill’s The Pure in Heart (second in the Simon Serrailler series), and plan to start No Two Persons (Erica Bauermeister). I feel like I’m in an audiobook slump, having started and stopped three books this week.

    • Susan says:

      Hi Lesley, yes please send rain from the Cove to here! If we get some strong rain over the next few weeks, that would help big. Usually in June we get rain but this spring seems dry. Right now there’s 91 fires in the north and 28 out of control, Yikes. I will cross fingers for your trip.
      We will see about the veggie garden – so far in the city we only had success with cherry tomatoes. But now? We are want to be farmers, LoL.
      The Makkai novel seemed not like a thriller or crime suspense — it was a bit better as a coming to terms story & looking back at one’s adolescence. But it sure was obsessed with the crime part. It went overboard. & could’ve been cut.
      I’d like to read the Brandi Carlile memoir sometime. I also have Shawn Colvin’s! They do seem a bit similar in parts.
      Good luck with finding good audios. Sometimes they are hit and miss. Cheers.

  3. Kathy Vullis says:

    Hi Susan, I hope the air quality gets better by you so that you can go outdoors. I wish you all the best with your vegetable garden and vegetables taste so much better when they are freshly grown. I can’t grow things where I am but there is always the farmer’s market.

    Lucinda Williams’ memoir is getting great reviews and I am so glad you liked her book. I must put it on my list. And that’s a good question can a person share too much in a memoir. I suppose the real problem for me is what they share about others. I am thinking of David Sedaris. He writes essays that are about himself and his family. I heard he was very good and so I tried him out with an essay he wrote about his sister’s suicide. I am sorry I read it and fortunately I never bought a book by him and never will.

    • Susan says:

      Thanks Kathy, good points too. There must be a fine line about writing about others in real life. Lucinda is pretty straightforward & doesn’t slam anyone in her book. She seems pretty fair. Just a couple of times felt a little too personal.?
      I am not a Sedaris reader — so didn’t know that about his sister. I know he’s a very popular humorist. But I’m sure his sister’s life is very personal info. I’d be a bit uncomfortable too.
      We will see how the veggie garden goes. In the city, we grew cherry tomatoes but now we have space to grow more. We will see. Hope you have a great week.

  4. Lark says:

    Smoky air is the worst! I hate how the smell seems to get every where. I’ve been working on my garden. So far I’ve planted lettuce, zucchini, chard, winter squash, and onions. Fingers crossed it grows well this year. I wish you success with your vegetable garden! And I hope all that smoke in the air by you clears soon. 😀

    • Susan says:

      Thanks Lark. Yeah smoky air is the worst. So stifling, it’s hard to do anything. I really hope this is not for the entire summer. I can’t imagine — 4 months of this. I’m pleased to hear you are a veggie gardener too! We might have to put deer netting up — but lately haven’t seen any in the yard. Keep us posted on your garden. Sounds like a good variety of things.

  5. I read “The Alchemist” a few years ago. I was not impressed.

    Stay safe.

    • Susan says:

      Thanks Dorothy. The air is bad but we’re hoping it improves. And I saw your review of The Alchemist … on Goodreads. Ha. It made me laugh — not good. But it sure is a hyped book — so I had to read it. Enjoy your week!

  6. Oh, dear… I hope you aren’t dealing with smoke for too much longer!

    I enjoyed I Have Some Questions for You, too. It took a little longer to get into than I might have liked, but I admire her ability to write something so completely different from her last novel. I loved The Great Believers!

    • Susan says:

      Thanks JoAnn. We are hoping for rain on Monday that helps the smoke situation.
      I agree there were parts of Makkai’s novel to admire. And she made it feel very real and I’m still thinking about it for weeks after. It definitely was different than the Great Believers, though both are tinged with sadness.
      Have a safe nice trip to CT.

  7. JaneGS says:

    The fires up your way really sound horrific. Stay safe—hope they get under control soon and the air clears. Such a challenging start to summer when everyone just wants to be outdoors. I’ve always gardened in the summer—my mom always had a big veg garden every year and my husband and I have always planted a garden. We grow everything we need for tomato sauce and salsa plus some extras I crave in the summer. Typically we plant Roma tomatoes plus a beefsteak and cherry, Anaheim and jalapeño peppers, garlic, red and white onions, garlic, carrots, peas, beets, a variety of greens (lettuce, spinach, arugula). We’ve tried potatoes a few times, but our soil is just too clayey. Have fun and enjoy the fruits (or is that the veg) of your labors.

    I am eager to read I Have Some Questions for You, but thanks for the warning about the repetition. I will remember that when I find myself wanting to skim.

    I love Lucina Williams’s song Sweet Old World, mainly because EmmyLou included it on her Wrecking Ball album.

    I tried reading a Paulo Coelho book a few years but just couldn’t. Just not the kind of thing what works for me.

    Happy reading and stay healthy!

    • Susan says:

      Thanks Jane. It’s great you’ve grown all that in your garden. You have a green thumb. We’ve planted tomatoes each year in the city but now in the country we have a lot more room to try other things. It’s a fun experiment. Keep us posted on how yours is doing.
      Emmylou’s Wrecking Ball album is so good! Perhaps my favorite of hers — or the one I’m most familiar with. Gosh I used to play that album a lot.
      So far we have 93 fires in the province, and 26 out of control. Yikes. Hoping for rain on Monday. Are you back from traveling? Happy May.

  8. Carmen says:

    I recently bought I Have Some Questions for You and was planning to read it after I finish A Line in the Sand, but perhaps I’ll reconsider. I read The Alchemist when it came out in the 1990s and I was besotted. I read over and over again over the years with the same result. When I was blogging I read for the last time to have a record and that’s when I could not find reasons to justify how much I had loved it back when. I guess I read it first when I was the target audience. I read three or four more books by Coelho and they basically have the same themes. My favorite though is The Fifth Mountain, I recommend it. I’m almost done with The Covenant of Water; so far it’s 4*. It ebbs and flows but it’s mostly good.

    • Susan says:

      Oh good Carmen, thanks for the info on The Fifth Mountain and Covenant of Water. It amazing you’re almost done since it’s so long. Have you started A Line in the Sand? I’ll wait to hear what you think. I’m not sure if Coelho is for me but I’d try another of his books. But I’m glad I read The Alchemist to see what it was about. I’m early into the e-book of Demon Copperhead, liking it now.
      I would say the Makkai novel is worth checking out and reading. But just some parts go round & round … with the suspects etc.
      Hope you have a nice weekend in Conn. Happy reading.

      • Carmen says:

        I haven’t started A Line …, hopefully I’ll start on Sunday, if I finish The Covenant by tomorrow. I’ve spent 18 days on Verghese’s, which is a record of speed and length in a long time. The Alchemist is Coelho’s most famous work but The Fifth Mountain is (I think) his most underrated. It’s my favorite, that and T.A. are the ones I strongly recommend amongst the ones I have read. I’ll keep Makkai in mind but I don’t want to slow down with a book that takes its sweet time to get to the end; I don’t want to mess up my mojo. 🙂 Good luck with Demon Copperhead; depending on your recommendation I‘ll try to accommodate it towards the end of the year, God willing.

        • Susan says:

          Yeah Carmen, I’d say keep your reading mojo going and postpone the Makkai novel for a good while. You seem to be on a roll. I’m so impressed by how you’ve gotten thru the Covenant. I have one more week to read Copperhead for my book group and I’m afraid I’m not going to make it. Only 150 of 550. Argh. We’ll see. I look forward to your thoughts on Verghese’s once you finish. Cheers.

  9. I’ve been in similar situation before and so can empathize, Susan. The smell even got into the house despite the closed windows and doors. I hope the fires are under control soon and put out.

    I am glad the dogs had such a fun time at the river. 🙂 I hope your vegetable garden does well! I haven’t tried to grow vegetables. I can barely keep plants alive. Mouse and I are taking care of my mom’s plants while she’s out of town–she’s very trusting!

    I really liked The Alchemist when I read it about 17 years ago. It’s not one I see myself ever trying to read again. I am not sure I would find it as meaningful now as I did then.

    • Susan says:

      Hi LF: I know what you mean about books read long ago probably being different if you read them again now. Sometimes they hold up and other times they don’t. Maybe The Alchemist would’ve meant more to me back in 1993.
      The smoke has gone temporarily away today … so we are loving seeing the blue of the sky for once. We should see rain this week! I hope it douses it.
      Good luck with the plants. We have much to do in the yard, but we are liking it. keep you posted on the veggies. Enjoy your Sunday.

  10. Judith says:

    Hi Susan,
    I have been so concerned about your wildfires, which I’ve been attuned to from the news.
    I hope that rain comes your way soon and everything settles down.
    I’m looking forward to The Twenty Books of Summer, but because I’ve gone back to my genealogy practice this year, I’ve been swamped, and just hope against hope I’ll have some blessed time to read. I wish the same for you–that despite all the things you’re involved with settling down in your new place, that you’ll still have time for books.
    Best wishes to you!

    • Susan says:

      Hi Judith thanks, great to hear from you! I had wondered how you are. I didn’t realize you do genealogy. Is it for your own family or clients? I hope you have time to read too. My reading has been slow due to house & yard work (moving slowly thru Demon Copperhead now) … but we are really liking the new place! We have been here 4 months now but still much needs doing. The smoke is hindering some yard work and there’s still no rain in the forecast. But we forge on. The Twenty Books of Summer is always fun. Maybe I’ll do 10 Books, LoL. I look forward to seeing your list. Hope you keep posting when time allows. Enjoy your spring & summer!

  11. Ti Reed says:

    The Makkai book sounds like something I could pick up.

    I’ve been in a weird reading place. Not a bad place just a slow, contemplative place. I am reading The Double Life of Benson Yu and it’s quite good. I decided to read some classics over the summer so I am selecting those now. One, for sure, will be The Castle by Kafka. It is Murakami’s fave book. I’m curious.

    Air quality here has not been great and it rained on me today and I had no jacked. 100 degrees yesterday and today rain even though it wasn’t in the forecast.

    • Susan says:

      Hi Ti, you might like the Makkai book — it’s contemplative. That’s interesting that you will fit in some classics this summer. I wonder if I’ve heard of The Castle …
      It’s weird that there’s been rain there. My brother in Pasadena said he was at a concert at the Rose Bowl and it was postponed due to lightning. Odd eh? Hope the air quality improves. Luckily a southern wind has pushed away the smoke for now so it’s nice to breathe again. Enjoy your week.

  12. stargazer says:

    Sorry to hear, you still struggle with wildfires. It really was from one extreme to another. I Have Some Questions for You sounds interesting. I definitely like slow burns, but only if I am interested in the characters. In my favourite crime novels, I tend to forget about the crime, because I am so invested in the characters and their lives.
    I’ve heard mixed views on The Alchymist, with some loving it and some hating it. Whereas I love philosophy, I am not sure about pop philosophy… ;-). Hope the wildfires and the smoke will soon be gone.

    • Susan says:

      Hi Stargazer, perhaps you would like the Makkai novel — it is the ultimate slow burn crime story. This woman is pretty obsessed to find answers about a murder from her high school years. It’s pretty decent about the characters.
      Perhaps you should see if you like The Alchemist. You would let me know if it’s just me and not the book. See what you think – it’s fairly short.
      Luckily a southern wind has blown the wildfire smoke back north. We’re down to 67 fires (in the north) instead of 95 from weeks ago! Send rain if you have it. Enjoy your week.

  13. I hope you’re safe from the fires! We’re getting smoke from the Canadian fires way down in Colorado. Working outdoors has been brutal this week. I can’t imagine how bad it is for you.

    • Susan says:

      Sorry AJ — about our smoke! Last week was brutal here with hazardous air. This week has been helped by a wind that has blown it back north. We are safe as the closest fires are about three hours north of us and many more beyond that. But we’ve never had a spring like this. It’s been dry & smoky – at one point there were like 95 fires in the north of Alberta. We could use more rain to put more of the fires out. I hope it clears where you are!

  14. I’m sad to hear about the fires near you, and I hope that rains sufficient to douse them quickly will fall soon.

    The Alchemist is on many people’s favorite books list, and that is what motivated me to read it. I was very disappointed with it, but I thought I might have enjoyed it more if I had read it when I was younger.

    Our garden is the best garden we’ve had, and I’ve been doing a vegetable garden for thirty-five or more years. We have so much kale and so many cherry tomatoes that we have had to give lots away. We’ve also been very successful with cucumbers and green peppers.

    • Susan says:

      Thanks Deb, we’ve gotten the fires down to 50 in the north of the province. And the air has cleared a bit here in the south. Still a bit on alert.
      Great to hear about your garden! Sounds like it’s going gangbusters there. When I lived in Virginia – everything grew easily there too. It’s a bit harder here but cherry tomatoes do well. We’re hoping for cucumbers. And other things. Keep you posted. Enjoy your garden.

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