Pandemonium

Posted on January 18, 2022 by Susan
Photo by the Tokyo Zoological Park Society via AP

Well it’s too cold here currently to take a photo outside so instead I will post a photo of the twin pandas on display this past week at the zoo in Tokyo. Adorable bears, born in June. The twin girl and boy are on view only three days due to Omicron concerns. Hopefully the pandas will stay safe!

Thousands have signed up to see them. They’re rock stars already. Years ago I was lucky to see pandas at the National Zoo in D.C. They’re wonderful to watch as they climb and roll around, and seem to have an uplifting effect. I’m sure if the Tokyo Zoo put a panda cam on the twins, I’d probably hardly get anything done. 

I hope your reading is getting off to a great start in 2022. I’m on target but not moving that quickly. And the novel that I picked for “first book of the year” didn’t alas turn out to be my first read of the year. I finished three others before it. … Oh well, that’s the way it goes sometimes. I guess I’m a bit scattered already about my reading. Are you? 

Anyways this week, we’re supposed to be going on our “first road trip” of the year with the dogs to meet up with family in the mountains of Idaho. But I’m still inquiring if I have the right documents to cross the border and get back in. So we will see if we can go (our dog Willow at left wants to). It’s a bit complicated because I have my virtual Canadian Citizenship Ceremony this week (Wow!!), but then afterwards they mail you the certificate, which will take weeks, so I need to figure out if I can go without it, or if I can get a document in the interim. Hmm. But I’m very excited to become a citizen and take the oath in Canada. It’s a great honor and I’ve been working towards it for quite a while. Meanwhile below are a few reviews of what I finished lately. 

Intimacies by Katie Kitamura / Riverhead Books / 240 pages / 2021 

This was one of the last novels I read in 2021, but it made a solid impression on me. 

The story follows an unnamed woman interpreter at The Hague in the Netherlands who becomes unmoored by life in her new city as she starts work translating testimonies at the International Court. The case is against a Head of State of an African nation who is charged with atrocities. Meanwhile she finds the boyfriend she’s seeing there, who is separated from his wife, might not be leaving his wife after all. She also learns that a friend’s brother, a bookstore owner, is mugged in a wave of violence across the city. Little by little, you get a sense through the woman’s observations around her that it’s having a detrimental effect on her psyche. 

It’s a novel where not a whole lot happens but somehow I was pulled in from the beginning … wanting to see what working in The Hague is like for such an interpreter, who’s fluent in several languages. The story is effectively subtle and simmers below the surface. It’s written coolly and its undercurrent feeling is not too unlike Kitamura’s first novel A Separation, which I liked as well. I guess I’m officially a Kitamura fan so I will eagerly read whatever she puts out next.

The Hole by Hiroko Oyamada / New Directions / 112 pages / 2020 

I read this novel for the Japanese Lit challenge going on over at the blog Dolce Bellezza and found it well done. 

It’s about a young wife who agrees to quit her job in the city and move with her husband, whose job is transferred to the countryside, where they plan to take up residence next door to the husband’s parents and grandpa.

The husband is gone mostly at work, and the wife, who tells the story, is trying to get her bearings after leaving her working life to move. She tries to explore their surroundings a bit and is feeling aimless and awkward with her in-laws, then weird things begin to happen on her walks, including falling into a hole. Are they real or is she losing her sanity? It’s all a bit mysterious and unsettling, but is told in an everyday manner that you really believe that such things are happening. 

I’m still unsure if I fully understand what the ending meant in light of the odd things that happened, but I found that okay. I like how not totally knowing made it a bit more disconcerting. I will add the author’s first novel The Factory to my list now. She seems quite a young talent. 

Good Company by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney / Ecco / 320 pages / 2021

A lot of bloggers have read this author so I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, especially since Marin Ireland, who is one of my favorite audiobook readers, narrates it. 

I missed the author’s first novel The Nest, which I know was popular, so perhaps that one is better than this. Though I liked the novel okay — it’s about two couples Julian/Flora and Margo/David and a betrayal of sorts … but I found it just needed something a bit else or more to happen.

I liked that it’s about Julian’s acting troupe Good Company and that Julian, Flora, and Margo are all actors who meet working there, while David is a doctor who meets them at a performance. The story focuses on an affair that seems to upend them all in ways. But around and around it goes. And Ruby is Julian and Flora’s daughter, who is getting ready to go off to college, and she is shielded a bit from what is going on. 

The five of them have backstories that come out as it moves along. I wanted to know a bit more about Margo and David’s marriage, which takes a hit after he has a stroke while operating on a child. I almost thought the story would go more into that incident and the lawsuit, but instead most of the focus is on Julian and Flora’s marriage. There’s also a bit about the end of Margo’s acting job on a long-time popular TV series. I liked the moments where the story is funny or spoofing a bit about the LA and NY acting biz. I could have used a bit more of that. 

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

Posted in Books | 28 Comments

Year End Stats and Favorites

Posted on January 8, 2022 by Susan

Hi. I’m finally getting on the ball about posting about my favorite books from last year as well as some stats on what I read. To tell you the truth, last year was a bit of an off year for me. My goal was to finish 70 books, but I ended up with 63, which I know is a small amount compared with many other bloggers. I had a couple slumps or downtimes in which I was either busy with travel, or needed to clear my head, so that is one reason I had lower results … as well as the fact that I was writing separate fiction reviews for Publishers Weekly, which took a lot more of my time.

That certainly slowed my reading down. When I read for them I practically have to  memorize all the book’s details and write copious notes about them in order to write a cogent review in the style of PW’s publication … whereas with my own blog posts I can just wing whatever I want to say and my thoughts of the book, which is nice and less timely. 

Anyways, below are my stats and the 10 books that sort of stood out to me. You can probably see where I need more work in balancing what I’m reading and which authors. I’m still primarily a female fiction reader who looks to diversify more geographically and racially. I improved though from last year so I am making progress in reading authors from different backgrounds and countries.

The titles that I read for Publishers Weekly unfortunately can’t be divulged as they are meant to be anonymously reviewed on PW’s site. It’s just one of PW’s rules that I have to follow, which is too bad. But I’ve listed my 10 favorite novels that I completed this year for this blog below. If I was pushed to say which one I liked best … I might say Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun … though I know others didn’t like it half as much as I did. There were just some scenes of Klara’s feelings to do right by her ill human Josie and her uniqueness and observations as an Artificial Friend (or robot) that made it seem special and poignant to me … especially the scene where Klara goes into the shed to ask the sun’s help to heal Josie, ahhh. No doubt I have a soft spot for Ishiguro’s novels, whose Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day are still favorites.

  • 63 books completed
  • 35 print or e-books
  • 28 audiobooks 
  • 49 female, 14 male 
  • 54 fiction, 9 nonfiction
  • 23 for Publishers Weekly 
  • 40 for The Cue Card 
  • 44 white authors, 19 non-white authors
  • 31 American authors
  • 14 U.K. authors 
  • 6 Asian born/raised authors
  • 5 Canadian authors
  • 4 Africa born/raised authors
  • 3 Australian authors

1) Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (2021) – I was a sucker for the character of Klara (the Artificial Friend) and how she tried her best — along with Rick – to help the ill Josie.

2) Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell (2020) — This novel opened up a whole new world of Shakespeare’s real life to me. How the author captured the family and their times was amazing.

3) A Burning by Megha Majumdar (2020) — This debut novel set in India about a bombing and its arrests is quite tragic in how it upends the three lives of the main characters, but I found it so well done. The talented author is one to watch.

4) Petra by Shaena Lambert (2021) — This novel by a Canadian author took me by surprise with its grip. It’s about a real life person – a Green Party founder and activist – whose life took a tragic turn.

5) Who Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews (2021) — This debut was devious fun and a clever spoof of the publishing/writing world. Another very talented author to watch.

6) Passing by Nella Larsen (1929) — This classic (both the novel and movie) hit me hard with its story’s predicament and the harsh times the characters were living through.

7) The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris (2021)— Although the first half of this debut novel worked better for me than the last section, I found it sharp, ambitious, and its tension well done. It’s darkly funny and scathing in parts. The author seems a talent to watch.

8) A Calling for Charlie Barnes by Joshua Ferris (2021) — This novel starts out quite amusing and takes a creative twist in the second half. I was impressed by the author and need to try a couple more of his books.

9) Intimacies by Katie Kitamura (2021) — This is a subtle novel but a bit alluring and affecting all the same. The woman’s psyche is going through a crisis of sorts and it simmers below the surface. In some ways it is like Kitamura’s debut novel A Separation, which I liked as well.

10) The Elephant of Belfast by S. Kirk Walsh (2021) — This historical WWII debut novel enticed me from the get-go and was something I didn’t know about Ireland during the war. It was also special since I got to do a Q&A with the author, which was fascinating.

That’s all for now. What did you think of any of these? I can’t wait to read a whole new batch of great novels in 2022. Onward we go.  

Posted in Books | 40 Comments

January Preview

Posted on December 31, 2021 by Susan

Hi. I hope everyone is well and had a great holiday. We managed to get through a week of below zero frigid temperatures here, so I mostly tried to stay nice and cozy inside. Things have been quiet and white here. Who knows … maybe people flew to Mexico.

Now we are moving into 2022, woohoo! One of the best things will be having a clean reading slate. New beginnings, new goals, new books. I plan to post a Year in Review sometime soon … to see how my reading went and what I missed. For now, here’s me pictured with my choice of First Book of the Year … Linda Rui Feng’s Swimming Back to Trout River, which came out last May and is by a Chinese-Canadian author. I’m reading it for my book club to discuss in February. I hope it will be good.

Let’s see what else looks good coming out in January. I’m a bit all over the map on what to choose. I see there’s new novels by such notable authors as Hanya Yanagihara, Isabel Allende, and David Guterson among others. These all look tempting, but perhaps first I’ll pick up Thrity Umrigar’s new novel Honor about an Indian American journalist who returns to Mumbai, where she hasn’t lived since a teenager, to report on the tragic story of a Hindu woman whose marriage to a Muslim incited a murder.

It sounds like a bit of a dark tale, but I’ve enjoyed a couple of Umrigar’s novels in the past. She often writes such moving stories about relations and tensions between cultures. Have you read her?

Next up is Nita Prose’s debut novel The Maid about an eccentric 25-year-old hotel maid (Molly Gray) who finds a guest murdered in his bed. It’s said to be a clever and charming mystery with an endearing oddball at its center … who I gather finds herself a suspect in the crime. The author is apparently a long-time editor and is now at Simon & Schuster Canada in Toronto, which is good since I’m always trying to read more Canadian authors.

I don’t read many mysteries, but this one sounds like fun, and author Ashley Audrain calls it just “the smart, quirky, uplifting read we need” right now, so count me in.

I’m curious too about Weike Wang’s novel Joan Is Okay about a thirty-something ICU doctor at a New York hospital, who’s the daughter of Chinese parents who came to the U.S. to give their kids the American dream. But when Joan’s father suddenly dies back in China … a series of events sends Joan spiraling out of her comfort zone just as the pandemic hits. Is Joan okay?

From what I’m hearing it sounds like Joan is quite the character, unfiltered and with a biting wit, also grieving for her father. As author Heidi Pitlor says “Joan is the perfect guide for our troubled times” and another says “readers will find Joan a kindred soul.” So we will see. 

As for what’s releasing on screen this month, there’s the new George Clooney-directed movie The Tender Bar (streaming on Jan. 7 on Amazon Prime) adapted from the 2005 memoir by J.R. Moehringer … about a boy growing up on Long Island in the early 1970s that seeks out father figures at his uncle’s bar. Ben Affleck plays the uncle bartender, which might not be a stretch to fathom.

Many liked the memoir, but the movie has gotten pretty low favorable ratings so far. Too bad. I thought its storyline seemed promising. I will likely see it anyways since we get Prime. Maybe it has a good soundtrack?

Then there’s the movie The Tragedy of Macbeth (streaming on Apple+ Jan. 14), which stars Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand in the lead roles in the Shakespeare-based classic. Apparently it’s a stripped-down version shot in black and white and directed by Joel Coen. It’s garnering high praise and will likely get some Oscar nominations.

I’m curious to see it, though I wonder if seeing it at the theater on the big screen might be better than the TV. The sets apparently create a lot of mood and have a foggy atmosphere. If we go, we’ll need to avoid Omicron, which apparently is getting harder these days.  

It looks like Netflix has a couple good adaptations out with the movie The Lost Daughter based on the 2008 novel by Elena Ferrante. It stars Olivia Coleman whose beach vacation takes a dark turn when her interest in a young mother and daughter conjure memories from her past. I think it came out in December.

And there’s also the movie Munich: The Edge of War (due out Jan. 21 on Netflix) based on Robert Harris’s 2018 novel about two former friends on a collision course (working on different sides) as they travel to the Munich conference of 1938. It looks pretty decent too, so I guess we gave up a bit prematurely on our Netflix membership. But check it out if you get it. 

Perhaps the biggest TV series to premiere this month is the creator of Downton Abbey – Julian Fellowes’s latest historical drama The Gilded Age (starting Jan. 24 on HBO) set during the boom years of 1880s New York City. It looks to be about a wealthy family and stars Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon as aunts to a girl who moves there from Pennsylvania after her father dies. It’s sure to involve much else … about various robber barons I’d gather. And from what I can tell the sets look very gilded indeed. But will it be anywhere as good as Downton Abbey? We will have to wait and see. 

Lastly in music this month, there’s new albums by Band of Horses due out Jan. 21 and The Lumineers on Jan. 14 among others. I’ll pick the Lumineers new one Brightside for my choice this month, which is the band’s fourth studio album. And don’t forget Trevor Noah will be hosting the Grammys on Jan. 31 on CBS … if you like to watch the performances.

That’s all for now. Happy 2022 to everyone and thank you for stopping by here this past year! I’ve loved your comments.

Let me know what new releases you are looking forward to … or are reading now. Cheers. 

Posted in Top Picks | 42 Comments

Silent Night, Holy Night

Posted on December 18, 2021 by Susan

Well there’s one week left till Christmas. Have you been naughty or nice this year? Luckily we aren’t traveling anywhere over the holiday or New Years. We went away for Thanksgiving and that was plenty. With the latest Covid news, I’m okay just to hunker down. We will likely go cross-country skiing each day with our dogs. They’re all business when it comes to skiing.

I hope the holidays are getting festive where you are. This past week was quite cold and white here — appropriate for Santa’s sled and reindeer. You might recall last week’s post of our “naked Christmas tree” but now here’s a photo of our decorated tree … what do you think? Not too shabby, right? Though we could use quite a few more wrapped gifts under there.

I saw the news that the TV series Station Eleven based on Emily St. John Mandel’s 2014 post-apocalyptic novel is now playing on HBO Max. Apparently the series is more uplifting than one would think for a survivor-pandemic kind of tale. I just saw a snippet of it … and it looked like some grand commune experience, which I can’t say really appeals to me right now, but what about you?

I liked the novel a lot but that doesn’t necessarily mean I want to watch the adaptation now. Perhaps I’ll check it out sometime this winter. Meanwhile we are watching the British TV series Vigil, set in Scotland, about a murder case that takes place in part on a nuclear submarine. It’s a bit crazy, but we are enjoying it nonetheless. 

Last week a friend and I went to see the movie House of Gucci at the theater. It stars Lady Gaga as real life Patrizia Reggiani, who married into the Gucci family in the 1970s … but then got a little carried away. As the family’s legacy begins to unravel, her marriage sours, and a crime takes place, Uh-oh. The movie features quite a star-studded cast with Gaga, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Adam Driver, and Jared Leto among others.

My reaction to it was that it’s entertaining in places but needed editing and runs too long at 2 hours and 38 minutes. It takes a while at the beginning to get going and doesn’t get to the turning point till late in the film. Still the performances are worthwhile, though I’m not sure the script really knew what it wanted to be: whether a family expose, a character study, a spoof, or a murder mystery. It’s a bit all of the above but needed tightening for more effectiveness. My mind sort of drifted, and I wish it had been more of a spoof than a drama … as there’s plenty of crazy material here.

And now, I’ll leave you with a couple reviews of books that I finished lately. 

When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash / Morrow / 304 pages / 2021

This was my first Wiley Cash novel and I found it an enjoyable mystery without being too heavy. It’s set on Oak Island, NC, and is a slow-burn type of murder case. Sheriff Winston Barnes has a lot going against him … as he finds a slain body in the middle of the night on an airport runaway alongside a deserted small plane. Was it about drugs or what? As he begins to investigate, he has a lot on his mind: he’s up for reelection for sheriff, his wife has cancer, and his 26-year-old daughter Colleen has just returned home from Dallas mourning her baby who’s died in infancy. 

Then it appears some bad seeds are raising a ruckus, terrorizing black neighbors with their drive-bys and Confederate flags. Little by little, the case unfolds and is eventually solved, though there’s one twist at the very end that surprised and saddened me. On the whole, the story and the characters of Sheriff Winston Barnes and his daughter Colleen grew on me … and I cared about them as it went along. I was curious too about its Oak Island setting. I listened to this one as an audiobook read by J.D. Jackson, who also read the audio for The Nickel Boys so his reading reminded me a bit of that. He’s a good audio performer.

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See / Scribner / 384 pages / 2019

This is quite a saga, which I read as an e-book for my book club, about a female friendship over the decades from 1938-2008 on Korea’s Jeju Island that is tested to the brink amid harsh times of war, violence, and meager existence. Both women grow up apart of their village’s all-female diving collective whose work it is to obtain abalone, sea urchins, and octopus off the sea floor despite the dangers and numbing temperatures.

Reading about their lives on the water was perhaps my favorite part of the tale, which I’m glad I got to as I’ve enjoyed Lisa See’s novels in the past, most notably Snowflower and the Secret Fan from 2005. In this novel, I was intrigued by the traditional matriarchal diving community (the Haenyeo), which I had not known about before … as well as the fate of villages on Jeju Island, which suffered greatly during WWII and the Bukchon Massacre in 1948-49 and into the Korean War. 

Holy smokes, there was so much brutality and tragedy to live with. Lisa See certainly brings the two friends’ families (their parents, husbands, and kids), culture, and circumstances to light during these difficult days. Though I wanted to shake some sense into the main character Young-sook who becomes so blinded and hurt by her family’s loss that she cuts off her best friend Mi-ja whom she think bears some culpability in it…. not realizing or understanding the full reasons behind her actions. Hmm. I had to rush to the end to see what would happen to their lives and friendship. It’s an epic saga that spans the tides of change, history, and human emotions. I was pleased to finally get to it and see what all the worthwhile fuss was about. 

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read either of these novels and what did you think? Here’s wishing everyone very happy holidays, and I hope you all get a lot of new books!  

Posted in Books, Movies | 30 Comments

Deck the Halls

Posted on December 11, 2021 by Susan

It’s been a scattered week. Is everyone feeling that? Much to do during this holiday season. I got our tree?! Though it took us a while to find where the box of decorations were put. We plan to decorate the tree this weekend with festivities, so until then I’m putting a photo of our “naked tree” up. It’s a stout pleasant thing, right? It’ll look better with the balls.

I know most of you finished decorating and gift buying long ago, but I’m often behind in this endeavor, especially since our Thanksgiving trip was my main focus this season. I still have gifts to buy, but I’m used to being a last-minute Christmas shopper, ha, though I avoid crowds and do most of it online.

Do you still send out Christmas cards? I’m old-school and like such things, but I’ll likely only send out a few this week. After all there’s only two weeks left until Christmas. What am I waiting for?!

Meanwhile, last week we saw the movie Belfast written and directed by Kenneth Branagh. It’s well done and is a coming-of-age tale about a young boy (Buddy) and his working-class family amid the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Have you seen it? It’s based on Branagh’s youth. Apparently he was born in Belfast, the son of working-class Protestant parents and moved with his family at age nine to England to escape the Troubles. The movie shows violence between Protestants and Catholics in a neighborhood where they had once lived peacefully together. 

It’s a moving tale, shot in black-and-white, and the boy’s parents and grandparents play large roles, trying to keep Buddy safe and answer his many questions as they consider leaving Belfast and the violence behind. Irish actors Jamie Dornan (as the Dad) and Caitriona Balfe (as the Mom) are terrific … as well as Judi Dench and Ciaran Hinds as the grandparents. The movie seems to balance the grim parts with cute parts, so it mixes both to good effect and feels substantive without being too heavy. The musical score too is pretty major with many songs by Belfast-born Van Morrison. I think the movie might get some Oscar nominations, so we’ll see. And now I’ll leave you with a review of the book I finished lately.

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout / Random House / 256 pages / 2021

At first it took me a while to get into this novel — #3 in the Lucy Barton series, which I listened to as an audiobook read by Kimberly Farr. It felt like random thoughts from Lucy, a successful novelist, about life and her marriage to her first husband William. It seems as readers we’re stuck in Lucy’s head for most of this story and there’s much grief in there as her second husband has recently passed, and misery from her childhood abuse still hangs over her. 

I wasn’t sure if there would be much of a story to find here other than random remembrances and thoughts, but then William, her ex-husband, asks her to accompany him on a trip to Maine to investigate a possible half-sister (Lois Bubar) he never knew about … and to see his mother’s old house. Then the novel sort of picked up for me. I liked how Lucy often wonders if we can ever really know another person … “we are all mysteries” as she puts it. I’m sure she’s right. 

Although divorced, I thought Lucy and William sort of seemed right for one another … even though William engaged in various affairs when they were married and his mind sort of checks out at times and is unavailable. Still they seem quite close … and helpful to one another in regards to each other’s troubled backgrounds. They feel like peas that should fit in the same pod … but have adjustments to make. 

What captures me again about a Strout novel is how she can write with a naturalness of everyday talk and diction, putting all the pauses and back and forth with the realness of reflection and people who have lived hard lives and have much baggage. There’s often a lot of darkness in a Strout novel but also a touch of humanity and tenderness too. Apparently this is my sixth book of hers …. her Lucy and Olive series capture formidable main characters, but might not be for everyone … as they are mostly character studies without a ton of action that cast light on the frailties and perseverance of the human condition. 

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read this novel and author before and what did you think?  And what are you reading now? Happy Holidays!

Posted in Books, Movies | 24 Comments

Back in the Saddle

Posted on December 4, 2021 by Susan

Hi. Sorry I have been out of the blogosphere for a few weeks. We had a good trip to Southern California around Thanksgiving to see siblings and visit with my folks at a senior community. It was quite a bit warmer than expected and we were at the beach for a few days and even took a dip in the ocean. Luckily there were no signs of the gloppy oil spill that happened back in October off the coast of Orange County. I was so involved with family there, which was terrific seeing them after such a long absence, that I never got to post a Happy Thanksgiving message, but I hope those from the States had a warm and wonderful holiday. How was yours?

Now we are into December, and I’m looking to buy a Christmas tree and wreath this week to get into the spirit. There’s a little bit of snow on the ground here and I’m just catching up. I’ve seen a couple Best Books of 2021 lists, such as from the Washington Post here, and the New York Times here, but I won’t be announcing my list till the end of the month.

It’s interesting to see that the only novel that is on both the Post’s and Times’ lists is the novel by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers called The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, which came out in August. It’s over 800 pages long so I haven’t gotten to it yet, but just hearing the author talk about it back in October on the New York Times podcast was enough to think ‘Wow this sounds really good.’ Could it be the novel of the year for those who’ve read it?

Recently, a few tennis friends and I went to the movies to see King Richard starring Will Smith as Richard Williams, the father and first coach of tennis superstars Serena and Venus Williams. It basically covers the early years, when their Dad starts to teach them the sport and the family is poor and living in Compton, California. You could say his coaching and decisions for the two young athletes are quite unorthodox but proved to be just the right thing for the girls.

The movie is better than I expected it would be. I guess I thought it’d be a cheesy sports movie, but the performances by Will Smith and some of the other cast, such as the mother played by Aunjanue Ellis, make it rise quite a bit above that. And while it seemingly portrays Richard Williams most frequently in a good light, I don’t think it always makes him out to be an easy person. The girls’ story, too, is pretty inspiring. As a tennis player and fan, I knew I had to see it, but I think non-tennis fans will enjoy it as well. It’s likely Will Smith will get an Oscar nomination for the role as it seems he put a lot into the portrayal. 

Last up this week is a review of Canadian writer Cedar Bowers’s debut novel Astra, which came out in June and was longlisted for Canada’s Giller Prize. I picked it up since the novel was on display at the library and has a fetching book cover, don’t you think?

Each of the chapters in the novel focuses on a different person and propels the story forward about Astra and their relations with her. Astra is a girl who was born and raised at an agricultural  commune in British Columbia. She grows up a feral wild child from a poor background who eventually leaves the commune for Calgary and tries to manage with what she’s been given and can do for herself. There’s chapters of her father, women who knew her from the commune, people who gave her jobs, her former boyfriend, her son, and others. 

Through these, a picture emerges of Astra … of her flaws, damaged self from her commune life, and her elusive nature … as well as her allure to the people she meets and knows. The story covers her life from her youth to middle age and as a grandparent, and where she ends up seems to take the story full circle. She can never truly escape the impact the commune had on her. There’s some interesting parts to this character study … and some decent storytelling. I’ll be curious to see what Cedar Bowers puts out next. Her husband is novelist Michael Christie, who wrote the novel Greenwood, and they live on Vancouver Island.

The structure of Astra reminded me a little of Elizabeth Strout’s novel Olive Kitteridge, since Astra, like Olive, has a part in each chapter that focuses on other characters and their relation to her. It’s an interesting way to see the main character from different sides and viewpoints. 

That’s all for now. What about you have you read this one and how was your week? 

Posted in Books, Movies | 36 Comments

Living With Proof

Posted on November 14, 2021 by Susan

Hi. I hope everyone is doing well. It’s been much milder here these past weeks and there is no snow on the ground. It’s just about a couple weeks now until U.S. Thanksgiving. We are planning to fly next weekend to Southern California to see my parents and siblings so that should be fun. It’s been many years since we went anywhere for the holiday. Will you be traveling for it or getting together with family? There’s much to do before then. Here’s a photo of the girls before one of their walks. 

We went out a couple times recently first to the movies and then to a restaurant with friends, which feels weird since we’ve been living under a rock for so long here. Both seemed fairly safe. Heck I’ve been playing tennis (doubles) indoors for quite awhile with proof of full vaccination. So we remain cautiously optimistic that Covid might be winding down for good. Knock on wood, right? What do think? It seems things are pretty open and the amount of travelers around Thanksgiving will likely be crazy … as if Covid is completely done, which might be a bit premature once again. 

Meanwhile this week we saw the movie Passing at the theater. I think it’s on Netflix but we don’t get it, and my husband and I are starting to enjoy going to movies again. It seems archaic — right? — but a bit fun too. Passing is excellent and follows the book closely, about two acquaintances in the 1920s who bump into each other 12 years later in New York and renew a friendship, but one is living a different life that is dangerous.

The two leads played by actresses Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga are terrific. I guess I hadn’t seen Tessa Thompson before but she was in the Creed boxing films. Passing is a quiet, low-budget type of film that was shot in black-and-white in New York, but it’s powerful too, much like Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel that it’s based on. See it if you get a chance. 

In book news, this past week Canada’s top literary award the Giller Prize was announced with author Omar El Akkad winning for his 2021 novel What Strange Paradise, which tells the story of a global refugee crisis through the eyes of 9-year-old Amir, a Syrian refugee who winds up on a small island nation where a teenage girl named Vanna lives. The narrative tells both their stories of how they got to be where they are.

Being about refugees, the novel seems quite a timely story for our times. While I wasn’t a big fan of Akkad’s bleak debut novel American War, I’ve put myself on the library wait list for this one. Omar El Akkad is an interesting author; he’s been all over the world as a journalist and has a lot of perspective on things that are happening now. I met Omar during his book tour for American War in 2017. See here. 

I sort of miss those non-virtual book events. Hmm, will they ever come back? Although we’re able to see more virtual author talks, it’s not completely the same right? But just this week I watched an online author talk with Susan Orlean for her new nonfiction book On Animals. She’s a gem of an author and speaker and her talks are always very entertaining.

It was great to see and it was part of our city’s book festival called Wordfest, which used to be all in-person but has moved to being all virtual the past two years. I’m not sure the festival will ever be coming back in-person, but I hope so. I’m sure it saves a lot of money not to put it on in town, though I miss chatting with other readers and the authors there. What do you think: do you like the virtual chats better or not as well?

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

A Calling for Charlie Barnes by Joshua Ferris /Little Brown /352 pages /2021

As the novel starts 68-year-old father Charlie Barnes is sitting in his basement office about to call each of his grown kids to tell them he has pancreatic cancer, although he hasn’t actually gotten the test results back yet from the doctor. Charlie feels he’s had many failures in his life, including: not getting his college degree, having a career of about 40 jobs, being on his fifth marriage, and having up-and-down relationships with his kids. 

He’s mad too because it’s 2008 and the investment firm Bear Stearns, where he once worked, shafted many before going kaput. He tries to call the CEO and give him a piece of his mind, but the guy who answers the phone says there’s no one there by that name. So Charlie moves on to calling his kids, and leaves messages at their work places about his pancreatic cancer. It’s actually quite comical about those he speaks with in relaying the message. His kids have been told about his health scares before, which weren’t warranted, so they aren’t sure whether to believe him this time. On this day, Charlie seems to be looking back, a bit of a sad sack agonizing over how his life hasn’t amounted to much and now he thinks he’s about to die. 

Then later you learn that it’s actually Charlie’s foster son Jake, an author, who is the one telling Charlie’s story in a novel in an effort to pay him tribute despite his mistakes as he learns of the diagnosis. But his siblings think Jake’s novel is an untruthful account. So you’re not sure exactly what to believe; Jake, the writer, has left some things out and given his take on what happened in their lives. 

In spite of that you get a good picture of the family who all come into play … of Charlie, his current wife Barbara, his son Jerry, daughter Marcie, Jake, and one other daughter who becomes apparent near the end. They all seem flawed but Charlie, the patriarch, has some lovable qualities despite his mistakes. It all adds up to a narrative that leaves much to think about. It’s in part warm and also quite funny … and this author is playing with the reader in various ways to great effect. 

This is a metafictional kind of tale, in which you’re reminded it’s a novel about Charlie being written. I found it a pretty creative family story, of their arguments with each other, that is quite funny at times. I listened to the audiobook read by actor Nick Offerman, who seems to nail the family dynamics and humor. It was my first Joshua Ferris novel, but now I’d like to go back and read a couple of his other novels sometime. He seems a talent and a hoot.

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read this author before? And how was your week?

Posted in Books, Movies | 44 Comments

Falling Back

Posted on November 7, 2021 by Susan

Greetings. I hope everyone had a great week. Nothing too new here. It’s been mild … check out the pink sky sunrise. Did you remember to turn your clocks back? Sadly, I’m one of those who dislikes saying goodbye to Daylight Savings Time, though getting an extra hour of sleep is nice. I know some would like to abolish Daylight Savings for Standard Time permanently, but I’d rather have Daylight Savings stay year around. It’s great to have more light at the end of the day. But now with clocks falling back it’ll get dark here just after four o’clock in the winter, which is tough! Bahh, how depressing. Now we’ll have to wait till March to get it back. What do you say — do you like Daylight Savings, or are you ready to change the clocks?  

In book news, you might have heard this past week that South African author Damon Galgut won the 2021 Booker Prize for fiction. Wow I think it surprised quite a few people, but when I talked about the short list back in September … blogger Stargazer based in London mentioned that most there thought Galgut’s novel The Promise would win, and she was right. Galgut beat out three American authors: Richard Powers, Patricia Lockwood, and Maggie Shipstead, plus two others. 

Though I’m not sure many here know much about his novel. Apparently The Promise is a saga about a white South African family that loses touch after the mother, who has one last dying wish, passes away, but follows the lives of the three siblings who reunite at several funerals over the decades during much political and social upheaval in South Africa. I have not read Galgut yet though I heard him speak at a book festival years ago and his books have been shortlisted for the Booker a couple other times before winning for this his ninth novel. Have you read him, or do you plan to? I think I will put my name on the library wait list for The Promise to check it out. And now I’ll leave you with a review of what I finished lately. 

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby / Flatiron Books / 336 pages / 2021

Synopsis: Two fathers whose married gay sons have been brutally killed team up seeking vengeance to find out who did it. The fathers, one Black (Ike Randolph) and the other White (Buddy Lee) are both ex-cons who didn’t accept or treat their sons well for being gay but now that they’re gone are devastated by their loss and have a lot to come to terms with within themselves while trying to find their killers.

My Thoughts: This is a pretty rough crime novel, which I listened to as an audiobook. It gets a hard R for language and a hard R for graphic violence, so beware of that before starting the book … but no one these days can write a fight scene or car chase like S.A. Cosby, a writer from southeastern Virginia. I actually liked his previous crime novel Blacktop Wasteland (with Bugs) better … as this one takes its time finding “Tangerine” the girl who the two fathers think knows something about who killed their gay married sons. Where the heck is Tangerine?! She’s gone into hiding. I think the fathers had more patience with her than I would’ve. Once they finally find her, I was ready for her to spill the beans like pronto, but they let her avoid the piper so to speak for some time. 

The bad guys in this are pretty ruthless awful guys … a violent biker gang full of hate, dealing god knows what up and down the coast … but they crossed the wrong dudes when they killed the boys of these two ex-con fathers. The fathers, who are so mad at themselves for not being able to tell their sons that they really cared about them, are ready now to put it all on the line for their boys, which they hadn’t done when they were alive. They learned a tough lesson too late to accept their sons as they were … and not castigate them for being gay. Mostly the story is told from Ike’s perspective, with Buddy Lee as the sidekick. The two form an awkward but steady friendship to find the killers, but it takes awhile to trust each other from their different worlds and feelings about their boys. 

There’s a couple twists that kept me guessing a bit about the mystery, so that was good. And I think Adam Lazarre-White who narrates the audiobook does a good job, but I sort of wish there were multiple readers … at least one for Ike and one for Buddy Lee to give a different voice to each. The story on audio seems to blend together a bit as one Southern drawl. Still by the very end, it turns into a rousing tale … and total destruction is the end game. Good luck taking cover. 

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read this author before and what did you think?  And what are you reading now? 

Posted in Books | 40 Comments

November Preview

Posted on October 31, 2021 by Susan

Hi. We had our first snow this past Friday. Usually we get snow around Halloween time, so it wasn’t that surprising, but it feels like there’s no turning back now for colder weather, argh. I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween tonight. Boo. Then we’re onto November. Whoa. We’re near the end of the year. Hard to believe. I know many like to participate in “Nonfiction November” and I plan to finish a few nonfiction too, but I don’t think I’ll read exclusively nonfiction as I have too many piles of other stuff lying around. Still Nonfiction November is a fun event, and I like hearing about what everyone is reading or has liked. I haven’t read much nonfiction this year, but there’s some really good books out there to explore. Now let’s look at what’s new and releasing this coming month. 

Speaking of nonfiction, it’s cool to see Ann Patchett has a new book of essays called These Precious Days due out Nov. 23. Truth be told, I’ve always liked her nonfiction a bit better than her novels, which I know might not be a popular view, but it’s true for me as she’s written some really great  nonfiction.

Perhaps my favorite is her last essay collection from 2013 called This Is a Story of a Happy Marriage, which is excellent, see my review here. Her new book of essays These Precious Days reflects on friendships, knitting, writing, and all sorts of things. So what are we waiting for? 

The rest below are novels, so sorry nonfiction. I’ll likely check out Jung Yun’s new book O Beautiful due out Nov. 9. Her debut novel Shelter gained considerable attention when it came out in 2016, and I liked it fairly well, though I recall it being unsettling and unhappy.

Her new novel apparently is about a former model who turns to freelance journalism and lands an assignment to write an article about a town’s oil boom in North Dakota, near where she grew up. But when she returns she’s dismayed to find out how much it’s all changed from the boom and newcomers, which she grapples with, along with the past with her parents. It sounds like another unhappy story, right? But quite a few have given it high marks on Goodreads, so I think I’ll check it out, especially because I liked her debut.

The next two novels are pandemic stories, which are starting to trickle in, right? The first is Burntcoat (due out Nov. 2) by British author Sarah Hall about a reclusive sculptor Edith, 59, who retreats to living in an industrial studio known as Burntcoat with her boyfriend whom she doesn’t know well. It has a shifting timeline and tells of her past … along with this “novavirus” that’s worse than Covid-19, and it sounds like things get tough.

Then there’s Gary Shteyngart’s new novel Our Country Friends (due out Nov. 2) about a Russian American couple who invites a group of eight friends to ride out the lockdown with them at their Hudson Valley compound, which consists of five bungalows and a main house, in March 2020. Apparently a lot of changes take place over six months time there with new friendships and old betrayals. Not sure I could ride out a lockdown at such a place … but who knew at the beginning how long it would last. What do you say — are you ready for pandemic novels or not just yet?

As for what’s to watch in November: of course as mentioned in an earlier post there’s the movie Passing, due out Nov. 10 on Netflix. It’s based on the 1929 novel by Nella Larsen, which I reviewed last week. We currently don’t get Netflix so we might opt to see it at the theater. Hmm.

There’s also another Princess Diana movie. I kid you not. I thought I’d seen them all, but now Kristen Stewart is playing Diana in the movie Spencer (due out Nov. 5), which has received fairly good reviews about what happens in December 1991, when Diana finally decides enough is enough. I’m not sure Kristen Stewart really looks like the former Princess of Wales, but it seems quite a few actresses over the years have taken on the preeminent role, including newcomer Emma Corrin in The Crown. And look to Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki to play Princess Diana in the final two seasons of The Crown with Season 5 not due out till November 2022. Gulp, quite a wait.

There’s also some music / concert events to watch. First, Adele will be doing a two-hour One Night Special on CBS on Nov. 14, which will showcase the songs off her new album 30 due out Nov. 19. So check it out. Remember when she sang “Hello, it’s Me” live?

Then director Peter Jackson’s three-part documentary called The Beatles: Get Back will air on Disney+ starting Nov. 25, which apparently features much unseen footage of the band from early 1969 for the film Let It Be. As I watched the trailer, it seemed a bit unreal and sad to see these icons so full of life, friendship, and working together on such great music … only to have them split up in 1970, and to have two no longer with us. But still the documentary looks quite incredible and hard to turn away from. 

Also this month, two singers are starring as the lead roles in movies. First, Lady Gaga will be in Ridley Scott’s latest movie House of Gucci due out Nov. 26. Gaga will play Patrizia Reggiani who married into the Gucci fashion family in 1972 then a decade later things started to go sideways, sort of speak. I won’t give away what happens (from real life), but the movie has quite a cast: with Adam Driver, Al Pacino, and Jeremy Irons among others.

Apparently filmmakers started working on the script for the movie in 2006, based on a 2001 book, but then the cast and directors kept changing over the years, and it wasn’t made until now. That’s a long time in the hopper! The film was shot all over Italy in early 2021, so the cinematography should be delightful. Enjoy.  

Also Alana Haim (of the band Haim) is starring in Paul Thomas Anderson’s new movie Licorice Pizza (due out in a limited release on Nov. 26) opposite Cooper Hoffman (Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son) in his debut. It looks to be a coming-of-age comedy/drama about growing up and navigating first love in the San Fernando Valley in 1973.

Ha. It could be a hoot. We’ll see. Bradley Cooper and Sean Penn also have parts. Likely if you’re a Valley girl, it’s a must see, and if you’re not, then it’ll probably be fun anyways. Lady Bird might have been the last coming-of-age California movie I saw, but this new one has much about young love during that lovely decade of the 1970s. 

Lastly in music for the month, there’s new albums by Adele, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, Aimee Mann, Sting, and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss among others. I’m sure Adele’s will be the biggest release by far, but I’m quite a big fan too of Nathaniel Rateliff and Aimee Mann so I’ll check out their new music as well.  

That’s all for now. What about you — which new releases are you looking forward to? And what are your reading plans for the month? Happy November!  

Posted in Top Picks | 28 Comments

All That Spice

Posted on October 23, 2021 by Susan

Hi. We are getting some heavy rain today, which we haven’t seen in months. It’s been very dry. So we are happy … and happy too that it isn’t snow. Yesterday the doggies went hiking with my husband. And pictured here is Willow, so pleased with herself to be on top of the mountain with them. It’s been six weeks now that’s we’ve had Willow and she’s doing well … still learning and going to puppy classes. Her favorite things are chasing the ball (hundreds of times in a row), having her tummy rubbed, being patted endlessly, and chewing whatever toy is in reach. 

Meanwhile we indulged in much sci-fi this week, which is very unusual considering I’m not typically a science fiction fan, but I guess there are exceptions. On Thursday, we went to the Opening Night at the theater of the new movie Dune, which is an epic feature, and early in the week we also started the TV series Foundation on Apple+, based on the Isaac Asimov sci-fi books. So I guess I’ve gone galactic recently. Not sure what is happening.

We hadn’t been to a movie theater since 2019, and overall it seemed quite safe as we weren’t sitting near anyone. Dune was worth going to see on the big screen. Timothee Chalamet does a good job playing Paul, the son of a noble family who travel to the planet Arrakis to rule and manage the very valuable spice production, but unfortunately things don’t go exactly as planned. Arrakis is quite the desert wasteland, and it’s more than just hot (the inhabitants need to recycle their own sweat) … but worse are the giant sand worms who live underground. So beware. Just don’t make a sound and you might make it.

I remembered a bit from the Frank Herbert novel, which I read back in the 1980s. I can’t tell you any more of what happens, but you should see it. It’s quite a production and the cinematography is awesome. The movie covers only half the book so there will be a sequel to cover the rest. 

Also this week I finished the audiobook of Nella Larsen’s 1929 short novel Passing. I’m pretty sure I first learned of this classic last year from JoAnn’s review of it over at her blog Lakeside Musing. It piqued my interest since I liked Brit Bennett’s novel The Vanishing Half last year, which has some of the same themes and plot turns in it involving race and class.

Larsen’s novel is about two black childhood friends in New York — Irene and Clare who have been out of contact for 12 years when Clare gets back in touch wanting to visit Irene. Soon Irene comes to learn Clare is secretly racially “passing” as white and has a white husband, who does not know her true identity and makes a terrible scene in front of them. Yikes. Irene, who is married to a doctor, doesn’t want to be involved with Clare or the risks she poses, though Clare misses Harlem and wants to return to the culture and her old friends. 

It’s more of a complex tale than you initially think, and Irene turns out a pretty conniving  friend as time goes on. It’s clear these two friends have taken different paths in life regarding race and marriage. And even though you can sense what might happen early on, the ending is still palpable and a bit of a surprise. 

It’s hard to believe I hadn’t heard of this novel or author before last year. Though a revival of her writing has been underway for awhile. As for her life, it seems Nella Larsen, who grew up in Chicago and moved to New York in 1914 to go to nursing school, worked as a nurse for years, then as a librarian, and later took a leave to write her first novel, becoming active as well in Harlem’s arts community. 

Tragically later in life after a divorce, Larsen left Harlem and her writing behind and returned to nursing before dying in 1964 at age 72. It’s sad to think that this author with such promise put out two novels and then struggling with depression and life’s circumstances stopped writing all together. Ugh. Only now some of us are just starting to learn of her. Still there’s a movie coming of Passing soon … and I’m looking forward to seeing it with actresses Tessa Thompson as Irene and Ruth Negga as Clare. Don’t miss it. 

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read this author or seen the sci-fi mentioned — and if so, what did you think? Happy Halloween preparations. 

Posted in Books, Movies | 40 Comments