January Preview

Posted on December 31, 2020 by Susan

Greetings. We are about to launch into the new year — 2021 woohoo! — so everyone hold on to their seats. I hope this year will be so much better! It could be a very strange New Year’s for sure, but people need to stay vigilant against CV and hopefully the vaccine will roll out more quickly once Biden gets in. I know #45 will try to throw another wrench into things on Jan. 6 to try to overturn the democratic election, but we are so past that and over him. Let’s rise above it. 

Meanwhile Sheila over at the blog Book Journey is doing her annual post: First Book of the Year, which is always fun to participate in and look at, so I leave you with my pick here (and a photo of my Covid-era hair). It’s always a bit difficult to pick the exact book you want to start out the brand new year with, but for me it sort came about as a result of timing.

Afia Atakora’s historical debut novel “Conjure Women,” which spans two generations of women living in the South before and after the Civil War, has been on my list ever since it drew attention when it came out in April 2020, and now somehow all the versions I was on the library wait list for — the print, ebook, and audio — all came in for me at once. Is that fate or what? I’ve never had all three versions of the same book before so perhaps that’s a sign: read it now or perish. I will let you know how it turns out. 

And now let’s talk about what’s coming out in January. There’s new books by such well-known authors as Joan Didion (essays), George Saunders (nonfiction), William Boyd, Kevin Barry (stories), Melanie Benjamin, Michael Farris Smith, and Angie Thomas among others, which all look enticing.

So I’m a bit all over the place on what I want to pick up, but perhaps the biggest hyped novel this month is Robert Jones Jr.’s debut “The Prophets”  (due out Jan. 5) about the “love story between two men enslaved on a Mississippi plantation.” It’s getting a lot of raves for its powerful storytelling and out-of-bounds (for its times) subject matter, so I’m curious to read it though its depiction of abuse and slavery will not be easy. For those who were moved by Charles Johnson’s “Middle Passage” or Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad,” you’ll likely feel the pull of this one as well. 

I also plan to read Katherine Seligman’s debut novel “At the Edge of the Haight” (due out Jan. 19), which is set in San Francisco about a homeless woman who unwittingly witnesses a murder … and ultimately must decide whether she wants to stay lost or come forward and be found.

The novel is said to be a bit of a murder mystery and to have a strong sense of the city and of the challenges faced by the homeless. And as author Barbara Kingsolver says of it: “At a time when more Americans than ever find themselves at the edge of homelessness, this book couldn’t be more timely.” So count me in. I’m always eager to check out a new California author and this story is said to elicit a lot of empathy of a problem that is a major crisis of our times. 

There’s also two prequels that look worth mentioning: Michael Farris Smith’s novel “Nick” (due out Jan. 5) about the narrator of “The Great Gatsby” years before that book began, and Angie Thomas’s new story “Concrete Rose” (out Jan. 12) that takes place seventeen years before the events of “The Hate U Give”and explores the coming of age of Maverick Carter into manhood. Oh prequels … what do you think of them? Yay or nay? I guess I’m open to them.

Or are you more drawn to picking up Melanie Benjamin’s historical novel “The Children’s Blizzard” (due out Jan. 12) about a devastating storm and tragedy that took place on the Great Plains in 1888, or Ashley Audrain’s intense psychological debut thriller “The Push” (out Jan. 5) that apparently has a bad seed and motherhood kind of plot that brings to mind Lionel Shriver’s dark 2003 novel “We Need to Talk About Kevin.” Uh-oh, disturbing!

As for what looks good to watch this month, there’s the movie adaptation of Aravind Adiga’s debut novel “The White Tiger,” (due out Jan. 22 on Netflix), which as a book won the Man Booker Prize in 2008 and is about the “epic journey of a poor Indian driver who must use his wit and cunning to break free from servitude to his rich masters.”

It looks good and is said to be a darkly comic drama that delivers a broadside on class divisions and corruption in India. I’d like to go back and read the novel of it first, but we will see if I get to it in time. Not sure why I haven’t read Aravind Adiga yet, but his fifth novel “Amnesty”came out this past year.

Next I like the looks of the British movie drama “Supernova” (due out Jan. 29), which stars Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci as partners of 20 years, who, after Tucci’s character is diagnosed with dementia, take a trip across England visiting friends, family, and places from their past.

Apparently the moving performances by Firth and Tucci are getting high praise, and the movie according to one critic on Rotten Tomatoes: is a “heartfelt and engaging story about love, sacrifice, and what it means to envisage life without a loved one.” Uh-oh, get out the Kleenex box. 

Another raw movie about loss coming out is “Pieces of a Woman” (due out on Netflix on Jan. 7) starring Shia LaBeouf and Vanessa Kirby as a young mother whose home birth ends in tragedy and includes her year-long odyssey trying to live with it.

Yikes, it might be too much right now, but I thought I’d mention it due to its much talked about notable performances … as well as the fact that Vanessa Kirby was awesome as Princess Margaret in the early seasons of “The Crown” — though interestingly Lady Anne Glenconner who worked for the Princess says Helena Bonham Carter plays Margaret better (due to her shortness and voice etc.). Still Kirby is moving on and up, which is good to see. 

Perhaps the movie “The Dig” (due out Jan. 29 on Netflix) will be cheerier. It is said to be a ravishing World War II period piece based on a true story about a widow who hires an archaeologist to excavate the burial mounds on her English estate at Sutton Hoo, which turns out to have a surprising historic discovery.

Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes star in the movie, which is based on a 2007 novel by John Preston. If you like archaeology kinds of books and movies (yes, please), then this one is for you. Carey Mulligan has had a lot of good (literary) roles over the years, but perhaps my favorite of hers was as Kathy in “Never Let Me Go.” That’s a heartbreaker of a book and movie.

Lastly in music coming out in January, there’s new albums by Steve Earle & the Dukes, the singer Passenger, and singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco among others. I like them all, but I’ll choose Steve Earle’s new album “J.T.” (due out Jan. 4) that pays tribute and features 10 songs from his late son Justin Townes Earle, a talented singer-songwriter who sadly passed away at age 38 of an overdose in August this past year. Ugh. Another terrible, shocking loss, especially since Justin had so many more years and great songs left to him. Here’s to you, J.T. 

That’s all for now. What about you — which new releases this month are you most looking forward to? And how is your new year looking?

Posted in Top Picks | 38 Comments

Let It Snow

Posted on December 21, 2020 by Susan

Hi. Here’s wishing everyone a very happy holiday week. We are staying put and planning to open gifts from under our tree on Christmas Day. Then we’ll do a couple Zoom calls with relatives in the afternoon. Maybe go for a ski … since we are bracing for a major snowstorm to hit here later tonight and Tuesday, so we’ll be digging out the rest of the week. It’ll be fun to have some snow, we actually need it for the ski slopes. I’ve included a couple photos taken when we were at the cabin in the mountains just a week or so ago. It was a nice winter getaway, and I managed miraculously not to wipe out too badly on the icy cross-country tracks. 

In book news, I was thinking about all the 2020 books I wanted to get to but are still waiting (patiently) on my To Be Read list. Throughout the year it seems books rise and fall in priority continually on my list. I hear a bad thing about one then it falls off, then I hear something else and it goes back on and moves up etc. My list is often in flux. Is yours?

Despite the pandemic, 2020 turned out to be a strong year for high-quality reads; certainly most books were written before Covid but still the industry was able to crank them out. Below are several fiction and nonfiction ones from 2020 (in no particular order) that are at the top of my TBR list, which I’m looking forward to pursuing in 2021. I will get to them, though I also have another 20 novels on the list that come after these, sigh. 

Fiction / TBR

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab (Oct. 2020)
The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Dare (Feb. 2020)
Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar  (Sept. 2020)
Conjure Women by Afia Atakora (April 2020)
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell (July 2020)
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi (Sept. 2020)
The Cold Millions by Jess Walter (Oct. 2020) 

Nonfiction / TBR

Sigh Gone, A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In by Phuc Tran (April 2020) 
Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald (Aug. 2020)
A Promised Land by Barack Obama (Nov. 2020)
A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom by Brittany K. Barnett (Sept. 2020)
Uncanny Valley: A Memoir by Anna Wiener (Jan. 2020)
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson (Feb. 2020)

Let me know if any of these were a thumbs-up or thumbs-down with you, and I will adjust my list accordingly. And now I’ll leave you with a review of an audiobook I finished lately. 

The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary / Flatiron Books / 336 pages / 2019

Granted, a romantic-comedy kind of novel is not something I normally pick up but after all the depressing stuff in the news and with my reading, I thought I needed something fun and light to help me through the holidays, right?  

This British debut is a pretty sweet, feel-good story (which now is a label that sort of makes me want to run a bit in the opposite direction but it has a quaint premise) … about a guy named Leon who rents his place and bed to share with a stranger named Tiffy Moore for when he’s not there but working nights and weekends as a hospice caretaker. They never meet but exchange daily menial Post-It notes at the flat for quite awhile — where we learn that Tiffy has had a bad breakup with ex-boyfriend Justin, and Leon’s relationship with his girlfriend is unstable too. The flatmates eventually accidentally bump into one another in a funny scene at the flat that is a bit awkward to say the least and become acquainted over time. There’s subplots having to do with Tiffy’s work (as a crafts book editor) and with Leon’s brother who’s in prison and looking to have his case appealed. Though Tiffy’s main worries concern her past relationship with Justin, who left her for someone else. 

It’s a story and genre that reminded me a bit of “Bridget Jones’s Diary” (if you liked that) especially since both ex-boyfriend Justin and Leon come to interact with Tiffy … in a way somewhat reminiscent of Daniel Cleaver and Mark Darcy with Bridget, though Justin seems more controlling. Despite that, this seems more feel-good and not as humorous a take as the one with the delightfully clunky bad Bridget Jones, though I liked how Tiffy had quite the lively extrovert personality. She has some spunk to her that makes “The Flatshare” not fall totally flat so to speak. 

The audiobook narration of Tiffy sounded a bit like it was the singer Adele, ha, but she’s probably too busy to be doing book narration on the side. (In fact, it’s British actress Carrie Hope Fletcher as Tiffy and Irish actor Kwaku Fortune as Leon doing a fine job performing the audio narration.) There’s some fun dialogue and perceptive inner thoughts of both Tiffy and Leon who alternate chapters throughout the novel … but ultimately the story went on a bit much and I just felt it was a bit too sweet for me. It gave me sort of a sugar cavity or head rush, and it all tied up just a bit too perfectly. Still with everything going on, it was fine for a light rom-com break. 

And now I can get back to all the grime, grit, death, and drama from the novels I normally pick up. 

What about you — have you read this one or reached for anything lighter during these pandemic days? Till next time: a very Happy Holidays to you!

Posted in Books | 24 Comments

Silver Bells, Silver Bells

Posted on December 11, 2020 by Susan

Hi. I hope everyone is hanging in there. Isn’t it strange that things can get busy this holiday season even though we’re pretty much in a strict lockdown. There’s no get-togethers or much open (even the tennis facilities here have shutdown for a month), but there’s still holiday cards to do, decorating, online shopping, Zoom calls, and baking if you’re into that. I’m still working on our small Christmas tree (at left), which I was able to put into the car and take home this week. It needs some ornaments and love.

The good news too is that the first shipment of the vaccine will roll out in our city next Wednesday to health-care workers; it’s just 3,900 doses but still it’s a start … that hope is on the way. And tomorrow on Saturday we’re headed to a cabin in the mountains for a few days at a remote place that offers many miles of cross-country ski trails where we can cruise with our dog. It’s our Christmas gift — this winter getaway. It’ll probably be around 20F as the high so we’ll have to wear layers and bring our gear.

In book news, there’s many Best Of Lists out already. I won’t have my list of favorites out till closer to New Year’s, but here are some lists below to whet your appetite:

The New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2020
The Washinton Post’s 10 Best Books of 2020
The Los Angeles Times’ 10 Best Books of 2020
Publishers Weekly Top 10 Books of 2020
The Goodreads Choice Award Winners 2020

And now I’ll leave you with a couple of reviews of audiobooks I finished lately. (I’ve been busy reading memoirs for my freelance gig; most of which have been self-published books for an in-house contest, but if my reviews of the traditional published ones come out, I’ll let you know.) 

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy / Flatiron Books / 272 pages / 2020

Often I get to my favorite novels of the year in December … go figure, but it happens. And this novel by an Australian author will likely make my year-end list. Kudos to Charlotte McConaghy for blasting me out of my stupor of run-of-the-mill books. It’s a bit of a dark and sad tale but it fits so well into the milieu of 2020 that you can’t imagine it anywhere else. 

“Migrations” features  Franny Stone — quite a flawed but equally alluring protagonist who hopes to follow the Arctic terns on their last migration from Greenland to Antarctica … as climate change is wrecking havoc and many species on the planet are becoming extinct. She manages to talk her way onto a fishing boat and there ingratiates herself with Captain Ennis and the crew to follow the terns south in hopes that the birds will lead them to a big catch of fish. The narrative follows the crew’s adventurous journey and also alternates chapters with Franny‘s past life in Galway, Ireland, about growing up with her mother, and how she comes to meet the love of her life ornithologist professor Niall Lynch. 

Niall is kind and patient with the very lonely Franny and the two make quite a match … but nothing’s ever easy and Franny’s life is filled with dark holes. In time you come to find she’s serving a prison sentence of some sort… but you don’t know why … until — along with the sea journey’s endgame — it becomes clear near the end of the book. 

Ohh the novel is quite a love story between Franny and Niall and also with nature itself … those beloved birds and the end of the animal kingdom, which the ugliness of humans have made extinct. There’s some beautiful writing along the way and you come to feel you’re on the boat and you’re traveling alongside Franny as she and Captain Ennis and the crew endure some dangerous episodes at sea on their expedition south. The alternating chapters of Franny’s days with Niall and her past leading up to getting on the boat are equally fetching … and sad like a dagger to the heart. 

I recommend the audio read by Barrie Kreinik who seems to nail the narration of Franny Stone so well. It’s a book that will leave you with a gut punch and an Antarctic wind that’ll blow straight through you. 

These Women by Ivy Pochoda / Ecco / 352 pages / 2020

I appear to be in the minority about how much to like this murder mystery/crime novel set in south Los Angeles … which has received a lot of very high ratings on Goodreads. It features six women (a mother who lost her daughter, a young dancer, a survivor, a vice cop, an artist, and a witness) whose lives have all been impacted in some way by the acts of a serial killer who 15 years ago killed 13 women (mostly prostitutes) … and who has recently resurfaced to kill again. 

Yikes it is a pretty gritty bleak story, which I listened to as an audiobook, and perhaps the timing of it just wasn’t right for me being near the holidays. It’s not exactly happy stuff but is filled with hard lives on the streets kind of thing, making a buck anyway they can and being murdered by a violent nut.

Some of the writing of the various female characters and the often R-rated language and dialogue seemed authentic and capturing. I was drawn into these women’s worlds (like it or not) and it sort of reminded me of the real-life Grim Sleeper case in Los Angeles … but then it seemed also to diverge from that. The ending, which somehow I hung on for, is creepy and the atmosphere is heightened by the wildfires ravaging the hillsides. Goodness I will have to take a break now … and delve into something a bit lighter and happier. Still I have wanted to try L.A. author Ivy Pochoda for a long while now and so finally I have. She has a feminist take to her crime story that makes it more unique and welcomed. 

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read these books or authors and if so, what did you think? I’m sending a virtual hug and thanks to my blogging & reading friends whose messages have kept me going this past year and a very Happy Holidays & stay well wishes to you all!

Posted in Books | 32 Comments

December Preview

Posted on December 2, 2020 by Susan

Greetings. We’ve made it to the last month of the year. I gather not many people will be sorry to see 2020 go. Next year has got to be better, right? I guess December will be quieter this year — no real parties or public gatherings. We plan to stay in town during the holidays though I might try to travel to California in January to visit my parents again. We will see.

I hope everyone has a lovely month despite everything, and maybe the holiday lights and carols (and vaccine news) will bring forth some holiday spirit. I hope so. So far the past couple weeks here have been pretty somber and also mild … and it actually might reach 50F degrees a few days this week, which is sort of unheard of for this time of year. See the pink sunset.

As for book news, it looks like Penguin Random House has agreed to buy Simon & Schuster, consolidating the publishing industry even further, which many say is really bad news for readers, authors, and small presses by reducing competition and editorial diversity in the marketplace. Uh-oh PRH is already a behemoth, and making it more so feels like it’d have a monopoly over ideas and books, hmm. Quite a few organizations oppose the merger, but I’m not sure anything can or will be done to stop it.

Meanwhile, it’s also been announced that BookExpo and BookCon have been “retired” and will be no more. Whoa, the big U.S. trade show always seemed to be a lot of fun, though I only went once. The pandemic threw a wrench into it this past year … and now it’s been cancelled for good? I guess virtual events have really changed the outlook for book tours in the future.

As for books coming out in December, I’m not sure there’s a lot I’m looking to pick up. But Jane Smiley has a new novel — “Perestroika in Paris,” apparently it’s an animal feel-good story about a horse in France, which might please animal freaks (like me).

Then there’s a debut novel by Irish writer Michelle Gallen called “Big Girl, Small Town,” which has been shortlisted for the Costa Book Award, and is said to be an “irreverent portrait of small-town Northern Ireland” about a young woman on the autism spectrum working at a chip shop, whose life’s perspective is upended by the death of her granny. Hmm.

Lastly I’m looking a bit at Homeira Qaderi’s Afghan memoir called “Dancing in the Mosque: An Afghan Mother’s Letter to Her Son,” which seems to be a heartbreaker about terrible circumstances endured under the Taliban. Grrrr… I’m sure it’s more than enough to rile your skin. 

As for what’s coming to the screen this month, there’s plenty due out … especially new movie adaptations of books, which is what we like!  First off there’s the film version of “Nomadland,” starring Frances McDormand, (due out Dec. 4), which is based on the 2017 nonfiction book by Jessica Bruder about the phenomenon of transient older Americans traveling the country in vans and RVs in search of employment. It’s sure to be a troubling but hopeful tale about resilient people who deserve better. Who could be better than McDormand for the role?

I also like the looks of the six-part BBC miniseries “A Suitable Boy” (due out Dec. 7 on Acorn TV) adapted from Vikram Seth’s sprawling 1993 novel, which is set amid the cultural upheaval of 1950s India, and follows four families over 18 months, centering on Mrs. Rupa Mehra’s efforts to arrange the marriage of her younger daughter to a “suitable boy.”

It’s directed by Mira Nair who also directed the movie “The Namesake,” which was based on Jhumpa Lahiri’s memorable 2003 novel. Woohoo, “A Suitable Boy” is a period drama. 

Then there’s the movie “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (due out Dec. 18 on Netflix) based on the 1982 play by August Wilson. Viola Davis stars as Ma Rainey, who was a blues singer (in fact the “Mother of the Blues”) … who recorded and performed during the 1920s and until 1935.

Ma was close friends with singer Bessie Smith, though this movie is more about her band and horn player who is played by Chadwick Boseman in his last role. Ugh I’m so sad he passed away this year — what a terrible loss. Still we can retain the memory of him through this and his other films. 

Though if it’s spooky and dark you’re looking for then you might gravitate toward the TV miniseries “The Stand” (due out Dec. 17) based on Stephen King’s 1978 post-apocalyptic novel. Apparently in this story, the fate of mankind rests upon Mother Abagail (Whoopi Goldberg) and a handful of survivors … who face bad guy — the Dark Man — Randall Flagg played by actor Alexander Skarsgard. Gosh he was bad in “Big Little Lies” too.

The only good news is that you can face the end of the world with Greg Kinnear who is in this as a survivor. He’s usually a sweetie so if Kinnear’s there, I have a feeling there’s hope.

But if he’s not enough for you, then there’s George Clooney in “The Midnight Sky” (due out Dec. 23 on Netflix) based on the 2016 post-apocalyptic novel “Good Morning, Midnight” by Lily Brooks-Dalton … about a lonely scientist in the Arctic who’s racing against time to warn a crew of astronauts from returning home to a mysterious global catastrophe. Uh-oh I hate when that happens.

Clooney is looking pretty cold in this … but must figure out a way to get a message to Felicity Jones who’s one of the astronauts. (Last time I checked she was RBG, but alas that was another movie.)  I’m game for this Arctic get-the-message-out kind of journey. 

Another big movie I need to see is “News of the World” (due out Dec. 25) based on the 2016 novel by Paulette Jiles. Oh yeah!  I liked this western story about a Civil War vet who agrees to transport a young captive of the Kiowa back to her relatives … all the way from north Texas down south 400 miles. Oh it’s quite the journey, dangerous too.

Yep Tom Hanks plays the Captain (who else) and Paul Greengrass of Jason Bourne-fame directs. Oh it should be big. This kind of post-Civil War-era journey hasn’t been done perhaps since “Cold Mountain” and we know how that turned out. Get the popcorn going.

The only other TV series I should mention is Bryan Cranston’s new intense legal thriller “Your Honor” on Showtime starting Dec. 6. Set in New Orleans, it’s about a judge, whose world changes when his son is involved in a hit-and-run that embroils an organized crime family. Whoa you don’t want to mess. It appears Cranston finds himself in another stressful situation — as if “Breaking Bad” wasn’t hard enough — in order to save his son.

If that doesn’t get you, then check out “The Dissident” — a documentary film (due out Dec. 18) about the 2018 disappearance and murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, which is said to be truly scary and disturbing. Will his death ever see justice? 

Meanwhile in new music for this month there’s new albums by Shawn Mendes (“Wonder”) and Paul McCartney (“McCartney III”), but perhaps what we really could use is some new holiday music … so I’ll pick Canadian singer/songwriter Jenn Grant’s new album “Forever on Christmas Eve,” which has some traditional classics on it. 

That’s all for now. What about  you — which new releases are you looking forward to this month?

Posted in Top Picks | 36 Comments

Leave the World Behind

Posted on November 22, 2020 by Susan

What a week eh? The U.S. Thanksgiving holiday is almost upon us but is anyone going anywhere? Some of the airports are actually looking busy, though with so many Covid cases, things are just getting nuts. And the current occupant of the White House looks more and more desperate trying to overturn the U.S. election with his enablers staying silent. What a troubling precedent. Let’s hope it’s put to rest soon.

Meanwhile President Obama’s memoirs came out this past week and I snagged a copy before it sold out at our local indie bookstore. It’s a beautiful book and I look forward to starting it. Apparently “A Promised Land” sold nearly 890,000 copies in the U.S. and Canada in its first 24 hours, while Michelle Obama’s book in 2018 sold 750,000 in its first day — both huge sellers that have helped the book industry stay vibrant, yay!

Also in book news, I see that one of my predictions came true: that Douglas Stuart’s debut novel “Shuggie Bain” won the Booker Prize this past week. I still hope to read the book, which has been in high demand at the library all year. It is said to be quite a bleak story about the working-class life of a young gay man and his alcoholic mother in Glasgow in the 1980s, uh-oh. 

But my other predictions for the National Book Award for fiction and the Giller Prize were off by a mile: Rumaan Alam’s novel “Leave the World Behind” did not win the National Book Award nor did Emily St. John Mandel’s novel “The Glass Hotel” win the Giller.

So instead congrats to Charles Yu for winning the National Book Award for fiction for his satirical novel “Interior Chinatown” about an aspiring actor who confronts stereotypes in his quest to get better roles. Also kudos to Souvankham Thammavongsa for winning Canada’s Giller Prize for her short story collection “How to Pronounce Knife” that “traces the stories of immigrants building new lives far from home, straining against the mores of both societies as they search for a sense of belonging.” Check these out if you haven’t already. They sound good. 

And now, I’ll leave you with a review of Rumaan Alam’s slow-burn thriller “Leave the World Behind,” which I finished as an audiobook this past week, read by the wonderful Marin Ireland. (Please note: I have recently picked up a freelance gig, reading and reviewing for a trade magazine, so it’s uncertain how much time I can find for my personal reading outside of that for this blog, but we will see as time goes on. Things are busy!)

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam / Ecco / 241 pages / 2020 

Yeah I went into this blind—not knowing much—which worked well. It starts out pretty simply and I wasn’t sure what the big deal was … a white family (Amanda, Clay, and their two teenage kids) is renting a secluded place in the Hamptons when the supposed owners—a prosperous older Black couple GH and his wife Ruth—return due to an apparent power outage on the East Coast. 

Soon it appears that something has happened in the U.S. or globally, but nobody really knows what. Is it a disaster or is it an attack? All information has been cut off. Little by little the story beings to pull you in and feel a bit eerie. Flamingoes fly into the pool … and a migration of hundreds of deer show up in the woods nearby. What do the animals know? The families hunker down but then weird things begin to happen like a loud sonic sound outside … and the son Archie becomes sick. Then later more loud sounds. And still the two families don’t really know what is happening and become full of fear. 

I thought the novel’s creep-factor and the interaction and dialogue between the two families are well done. The novel felt not only scary but also subtly satirical in places about these family members lives, making preconceived notions based on skin color and class … and how we’re all too connected to our phones—with a need for constant updated information—and are useless without them. There were times I laughed about how ridiculous the characters are or what they said or were thinking … despite the quiet horror of the situation. It’s weird that there’s a bit of uneasy humor even in times of fear but sometimes there is. 

Kudos to the author for the interesting mix. Much of the writing is well done. Though I’m still wondering about the last chapter and whether it was a bit of a letdown and a cop-out. There are no easy answers to grasp onto here. So you might feel like chucking the novel against the wall when you finish. But yet it seems so timely and believable for this year … it feels like 2020 in many claustrophobic and fearful ways—the year of anything or everything bad. I think reviews were split on Goodreads, but I recommend this one. 

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

Posted in Books | 28 Comments

Time to Move On

Posted on November 11, 2020 by Susan

Happy Remembrance Day. We took this past long weekend away, thinking it would be good after the U.S. election to relax a bit and get out and walk in the woods with the dog and see new sights, which was all well and good.

Little did we know politics as usual would still be going on when we returned and the election results not conceded. How crazy and disheartening. The vote is clear, so let the democratic process stand and the next administration get ready. Meanwhile Covid cases seem to be surging everywhere … so I guess stress still abounds. It’s best to stay safe, vigilant, and escape whenever possible into various books and discussions. Below are reviews of three I finished lately. 

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson / Penguin / 1962

This was my Halloween read this year and it did not disappoint.

From the beginning you know that: Merricat, age 18, and her older sister Constance Blackwood are living with their feeble Uncle Julian in a large mansion on an estate and the rest of their family is dead. Merricat who narrates the story loathes the villagers who bully her and mock their family, and only leaves their locked gate to shop in town twice a week, but Constance, who cooks and tends to their vegetable garden, hasn’t left the place in six years. 

It’s an unsettling start … and something or all feels amiss. Merricat, who has her superstitions of burying coins, nailing up items, and repeating her safe words, worries change is in the air and that something is coming that will disturb her and her sister’s safe, confined world. And indeed cousin Charles Blackwood arrives out of the blue to stay, but seems only interested in their money. Uh-oh. Merricat is not pleased and wants him gone.

Little by little you come to understand what happened to the rest of the Blackwood family and why the girls keep to themselves — being two close sisters who rely on one another and want to continue living undisturbed in their large house …. which comes to some ruin in due time. Uh-oh. 

Merricat is quite a character, like a feral cat, who hides in the woods on their property, and seems much younger. She loves only her sister Constance, and Jonas, her cat. Her cousin Charles poses a problem for her and she feels he must be dealt with. 

It’s epic Shirley Jackson … unsettling with a building dread of what will come and has happened. There’s a feeling of isolation, of being an outsider, and being persecuted by the villagers … which reminded me of Jackson’s famous short story “The Lottery.” It also reminded me slightly of the excellent 2009 HBO film “Grey Gardens” (starring Drew Barrymore & Jessica Lange) — although there it was with a mother and daughter and here it’s with two sisters — but both feature two close relatives living in a ruined state and eschewing things beyond their walls. It’s both creepy and something you can’t turn away from.

Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road by Kate Harris / 2018

This is a book I read for Nonfiction November and which gained considerable praise when it came out in Canada a couple years ago. 

What It’s About: Part memoir, part travelogue, this is about a Canadian girl Kate who dreams about being a scientist and an astronaut on a mission to Mars but instead ends up bicycling the Silk Road from Europe to Asia with her childhood friend Mel. In 2006 between her stints at Oxford (as a Rhodes scholar) and then MIT as a microbiologist, Kate had cycled with Mel part of the Silk Road and got a taste for the adventure. Then later when Kate bails on her MIT lab life, the two head back to finish the Silk Road from 2010 to 2011. 

It’s quite an undertaking that had interested Kate ever since reading about explorer Marco Polo when she was young and his travels along the Silk Road around 1271 to 1295. And as a cyclist myself I was interested in Kate and Mel’s long-distance biking through such rigorous terrain … as they pedaled east across the Caucasus and Central Asia, and then south across Tibet, and west across Nepal then north into India, ending at the Siachen Glacier in the Himalayas at the edge of the Tibetan plateau. 

It’s an epic journey across some incredible lands and plateaus, where they encounter various people from different countries who are mostly helpful to them long the way. It’s not all about the biking, quite a bit of the book includes the author’s thoughts on exploration, geography, history, science, borders, ecology, and geo-political landscapes. Much of it I found interesting and well-paced with some beautiful writing at times of the sights and places, though there are some slower parts later that I found a bit denser.  

Still I marveled at Kate and Mel’s travels and was interested in their lives and the countries, people, and cultures they encounter along the way. I learned quite a bit (especially about Kate’s focus on the relations between China and Tibet … as well as what “the stans” are like (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, etc.) of Asia, and it sparked my interest in long distance bike rides. I think Kate (along with Mel) are quite the adventurers, naturalists, badasses, thinkers, and in general do-gooders towards people they meet and the planet. I’ll be interested to see what the author puts out next from her life off the grid in a log cabin in northern British Columbia. 

Monogamy by Sue Miller / Harper Books / 352 pages / 2020 

What It’s About: Annie (a photographer) and Graham (a vivacious bookstore owner) have had a long marriage in Cambridge, Mass., which is the second marriage for both. Annie is friends with Frieda (Graham’s first wife) and their married son Lucas who now works in publishing in NY … and Annie and Graham also have a grown daughter Sarah who lives in San Francisco. All seems fairly happy and close until something happens to Graham … which sends Annie spiraling down … and even more so after she learns something about his life — which makes her wonder if she ever really knew him. Uh-oh. 

This is a slow-burn of a novel — that you know with a title like that is likely not going to be about a marriage that has been always faithful. The novel swirls around with Annie’s grief and thoughts about marriage and monogamy (even in her past) and there’s also chapters from the perspectives of the ex-wife Frieda, and the two adult kids Lucas and Sarah that round out this character-driven novel about long-lasting love. 

The beginning half with Graham I thought was the most interesting, but after that … things eventually begin to wallow a bit with Annie. There are some interesting thoughts on marriage and relationships, but it’s quite an internal journey on getting Annie back on her feet … and her evolution on thinking about Graham and their love. 

There’s not a lot of action, which I was okay with for most of the novel — which I listened to as an audiobook read by the author — though towards the end I sort of started to tire of Annie. Maybe it was just me or the fact that it’s so internal and swirls over the situation that it got a bit tiring. But still I’m glad I listened to it and the author Sue Miller does an excellent job of reading it for the audio. 

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

Posted in Books | 28 Comments

November Preview

Posted on November 1, 2020 by Susan

We’ve made it to November … of this bruising year. I’m not sure what will happen in a few days from now with the U.S. election, but I hold out hope for a Biden/Harris win. And I hold out hope that we can avoid Covid despite all the rising cases out there. Will you be traveling, or gathering for U.S. Thanksgiving or no? I hope everyone’s family is able to stay safe and sound this month. I took the photo at left while we were out hiking today in warmer weather.

Meanwhile the book award season is upon us. This month the Booker Prize, the National Book Awards, and Canada’s Giller Prize will all be announced. I’m slightly wondering if Scottish-American author Douglas Stuart’s novel “Shuggie Bain” will win the Booker Prize on Nov. 17. It seems like I’ve been on the library wait list for it forever.

“Shuggie Bain” is also a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction to be announced on Nov. 18 … but perhaps Rumaan Alam might win that award for his novel “Leave the World Behind,” which a lot of readers are talking about. I’ve read Lydia Millet’s “A Children’s Bible,” which is also a finalist, but I don’t think it will get it.

As for Canada’s Giller Prize to be announced on Nov. 9, I’m hoping either Emily St. John Mandel’s novel “The Glass Hotel” or Gil Adamson’s novel “Ridgerunner” will win. But who knows … I have a lot of reading left to do from that shortlist.  

Many readers/bloggers will know this month as Nonfiction November — dedicated to bolstering reading in nonfiction areas. I could use such encouragement as I am much more a fiction reader. Are you? Though I just finished Kate Harris’s nonfiction book and perhaps President Obama’s will be another. It’s also Australian reading month hosted by the blog Brona’s Books, which is highlighting books and authors from Down Under, so I am hoping to read one or two this month from there. Visit those sites … if you are interested in joining in.  

And now let’s discuss what new releases are coming out this month. Whatever happens on Nov. 3, it’s a sure bet that Barack Obama’s book “A Promised Land” (due out Nov. 17) will be the biggest book — and book event — of the year. The former president’s highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs has received a whopping 3 million first printing, and I for one have already reserved a copy for when it arrives at my local indie bookstore.

I’m not always such a huge fan of politicians’ memoirs due to the usual PR back-patting in them … but with President Obama I can’t wait to get my hands on his thoughts and book. I was also a fan of his wife Michelle’s book “Becoming,” which I both read in print and listened to as an audiobook. And that was a major blockbuster. I’m sure this one will be too — it already is!   

That will be a hard act to follow, but there are a couple debut novels out this month that also look promising. Both are coming-of-age kinds of tales and I’m always sort of a sucker for those. The first one is David Hopen’s novel “The Orchard” (due out Nov. 17) — about an Orthodox Jewish high school student in Brooklyn who finds his world transformed when his family moves to the secularized world of South Florida.

Apparently the lonely protagonist, 17-year-old Ari Eden’s life is filled with religious study in New York, which sounds a bit like the circumstances in Chaim Potok’s 1967 classic “The Chosen” — but then when he moves to Florida he gets in with a group of friends that take him on a wayward path. Uh-oh. Once again like other novels, it’s been compared to Donna Tartt’s campus novel “The Secret History.” Hmm but can it live up to that?  We will have to read it and find out.

The other debut is Susie Yang’s novel “White Ivy” (due out Nov. 3) about a young Chinese-American woman’s dark obsession in Boston with the golden boy of a wealthy political family, which is said to offer insights on the complexities of class and race and the immigrant experience.

Hmm it sounds sort of unsettling as the protagonist — Ivy — seems determined to become a part of the boy’s life and social circles … but as flawed and insecure as she is, Ivy is also apparently smart and winsome, a young woman in search of herself. It sounds like a twisty kind of story that defies stereotypes … so we will see. 

As for what’s releasing on-screen this month, there’s a buddy comedy drama called “The Climb” about two guys’ friendship over many years that looks a bit funny, as well as an 1840’s story called “Ammonite” (due out Nov. 13) — about the British female fossil hunter Mary Anning and the relationship she has with a young woman sent to convalesce by the sea.

It sounds like the story from Tracy Chevalier’s 2010 novel “Remarkable Creatures,” right? But no, this one says its screenplay was written by director Francis Lee, hmm. Kate Winslet stars as the lonely fossil hunter on the beach with Saoirse Ronan and the frequently crashing waves apparently. Winslet’s busy these days and will play WWII photojournalist Lee Miller next. 

But the biggest onscreen premiere this month has got to be Season 4 of “The Crown” (coming Nov. 15 on Netflix). Woohoo. Some say it will be the best and boldest season as it will cover from 1977 to 1990 … which will include Margaret Thatcher played by Gillian Anderson (wow!) and the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. Hmm, you recall the dress.

Oh there will be episodes of other happenings as well. Olivia Coleman will return as the Queen and Helena Bonham Carter as her sister Margaret … and even Claire Foy is set to make an appearance as the Queen in a flashback, which is terrific — we can’t forget her. Apparently the show’s filming was completed before the Covid lockdown … so not to worry.

I’m also curious to see the adaptation coming Nov. 21 on HBO Max of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s 2015 National Book Award winning book “Between the World and Me,” which I admired in 2016. I’m not sure what exactly it’ll be, but it’s said to be more of a special than a movie … and will feature elements of the staged production of the book from the Apollo Theater in 2018 … as well as various actors reading from parts of the book while at home under Covid. Hmm, I think it’ll be a powerful cup of coffee about race in the U.S. … as was the book … which was written as a letter to the author’s teenage son about the realities associated with being Black in America.

Then there’s the adaptation of “Hillbilly Elegy” (out on Netflix Nov. 24) from the 2016 popular memoir by J.D. Vance — about his childhood and working-class family in Middletown, Ohio, that touched on issues of poverty and drug abuse. The movie directed by Ron Howard stars Amy Adams as J.D.’s struggling addicted mother and Glenn Close as the grandmother who raises him.

While I admired — from the memoir — what J.D. overcame in his youth in order to go to college etc., I don’t agree exactly with his politics. Luckily the memoir is not overtly political (in terms of talking about politics), but now J.D.’s a venture capitalist and is sharing his views on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News. Is there anything worse? 

Lastly in adaptations coming out is the TV miniseries “The Flight Attendant” — due out Nov. 26 on HBO Max. It’s based on the 2018 novel by Chris Bohjalian that stars Kaley Cuoco as a flight attendant who wakes up in a hotel in Dubai after a night out … with a dead man’s body lying next to her. Uh-oh. She can’t recall what happened and doesn’t call the police.

I didn’t read the novel, but what I like is that dreamy-looking actor Michiel Huisman is in this. I didn’t catch Michiel in “Game of Thrones,” but I think he came to my attention as Dawsey Adams in the movie version of “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.” I kid you not. If he’s on Guernsey Island, then I will be quarantined there as well. 

As for albums coming out this month, there’s new music by the likes of Miley Cyrus, AC/DC, the Smashing Pumpkins, Chris Stapleton, Donovan Woods, Elton John (unreleased tracks), and Billie Joe Armstrong (cover songs) among others. It’s a tough choice, but I’ll select country-rock, singer/songwriter Chris Stapleton’s fourth album “Starting Over” as my pick this month. It’s due out Nov. 13 and features the single “Cold,” which I really like, but since the video doesn’t feature Chris … I’ll go with the video to the song “Starting Over,” which you can see and listen to here. 

That’s all for now. What about you — which new releases are you looking forward to? 

Posted in Top Picks | 44 Comments

Snowy Pumpkins

Posted on October 24, 2020 by Susan

Well we are getting ready for Halloween, but we’ve had an early start to winter. It’s unusual the amount of snow we’ve gotten so early, but I think next week warmer temperatures are supposed to return, so it should melt away.

I admit I haven’t read anything spooky this month, as many other bloggers have, leading up to Halloween, though I have my sights on a quick read of Shirley Jackson’s 1962 gothic tale “We Have Always Lived in the Castle.” Last year, I read her 1959 classic “The Haunting of Hill House” so I’m trying to continue my education of all things Shirley Jackson. Sometime I’d like to read Ruth Franklin’s 2016 award-winning biography of her called “Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life,” which looks quite good. Have you read it, or any other of Shirley’s tales? 

Meanwhile I’ve been studying for my Canadian citizenship test. I’m not sure when it will be, but my application is in and I’ve been told to study the guidebook for the test. I’m honored to live in this country. If all goes well, I’ll have dual citizenship.

My very first visit to Canada was in 2003 — I was dating this guy, you see, whom I had met in the States but who lived here. Eventually I moved here in 2008, and married later. Hmm so my move wasn’t (exactly) for political reasons, though now I’m scared out of my wits about the upcoming U.S. election. It seems an ulcer in the making. I just want to say: Vote Early everyone, if you haven’t already done so. As Joe said in the debate: “Anyone who’s responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president.” Especially considering he knew early on and did nothing, and didn’t even forewarn the American people with the particulars. So what more do you need to know?!

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

I Give It to You by Valerie Martin / Nan A. Talese / 304 pages / 2020 

This was my first Valerie Martin read and it did not disappoint. If you want to escape with a story about an interesting friendship that starts in Italy over various decades — this novel is for you. It has sort of a memoir-travelogue feel to it, which drew me in from the start, as if these two women were real friends, who had met through travel and continued to stay in touch over years through visits, jobs, travel, and correspondences. 

The narrator Jan is an American writing professor who rents an out-building at a beautiful rural villa in Tuscany during the summer of 1983. She hopes to research and write a book about Mussolini … but instead becomes fascinated by the aristocratic family who owns Villa Chiara where she’s staying, notably her host Beatrice Salviati, also an academic.

Beatrice is an elegant independent divorcee and mother of one son, who soon brings Jan into her confidences about the villa property, the war, and her family’s history there, revealing details about her cousins and mother who still live there, their employees, as well as two deceased uncles — one a Fascist supporter during WWII, and the other who was put in an insane asylum and later killed in the family’s driveway — all of which Jan begins to investigate and piece together.

Captivated, Jan gets Beatrice over time to share more episodes about her upbringing in Italy, the war, college in Boston, her marriage, and changes afoot at Villa Chiara … with Beatrice obliging, “I give it to you.” The two friends’ lives, jobs, and travels go on as they correspond periodically through postcards later in life … with Jan eventually considering whether to use Beatrice’s rich stories about her family to write a novel lightly based on them. You’ll want to stay tuned to see … what becomes of Villa Chiara and their friendship.  

I liked Beatrice who I found quite magnetic with her verve and wit and I really fell into all the episodes she reveals about her life and family. She has troubles with all her relatives really: her son, mother, cousins, uncles, and former husband — still you don’t really blame her. She’s an independent woman who gets things done for herself and the villa. The narrator Jan, whose personal details are not revealed, is more nondescript, just a person interested in her work, and her friend’s life. It’s a tale about friendship, family and writing … that makes you wonder about trust, different perspectives, and whether what you share with each other is there for the taking. 

Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha / Ecco / 320 pages / 2019

Whoa … this crime/family drama novel involves two families — one Korean and one black — whose lives collide right as tensions in Los Angeles are about to boil over after the police shooting of a black teenager. Shawn Matthews remembers a similar kind of pain and anger all too well … since his teenage sister’s death at a convenience store in 1991 shattered his family’s life. He’s an ex-con from his younger years, but now is working for a moving company and doing his best to keep the past behind him.

Grace Park, meanwhile, is living in the Valley working long hours at her Korean-parents’ pharmacy and trying to figure out her sister’s rift with her mother. But then all changes when a drive-by shooting at the pharmacy ruptures Grace’s family, and the investigation into who did it brings up … old links between Shawn’s and Grace’s families. 

Uh-oh. This story is based on a violent killing that happened in Los Angeles in 1991, just a couple weeks after the videotape police beating of Rodney King came out. I didn’t remember it, but boy the author potently re-imagines the events, alternating chapters between Shawn’s and Grace’s perspectives as long hidden, dark family secrets begin to unravel … all the while renewed social unrest is brewing.  I can’t say too much more … 

But whoa, this author deftly re-creates the charged atmosphere in L.A. from 1991 as well as with the recent police protests. Her dialogue, too, and emotions of Shawn and Grace cut across lines and ring true … as they navigate their feelings of grief and culpability to protect the ones they love. Each side at times seems empathetic — as you go back and forth between the families hoping for answers and wondering how it will be resolved … though such killings seldom offer any real closure. Kudos to Steph Cha, a young writer (age 34) out of Los Angeles, for writing such a taut, stirring, and multi-dimensional crime story. She appears to have a very bright career ahead of her.  

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

Posted in Books | 43 Comments

Fall Vistas

Posted on October 12, 2020 by Susan

Hello. It’s a long weekend here. Happy Canadian Thanksgiving. This morning we have been treated to a few snowflakes, sleet, and rain, which is quite nice after a dry fall. Yesterday my husband, dog, and I had a beautiful hike with pretty views outside of town. We were pleased not to run into any hunters (or hear their guns) and had the hike mostly to ourselves. We walked through the fallen yellow leaves on the trail and made it up a few buttes to the end, where this photo is taken from. It was a nice way to celebrate Thanksgiving and now my husband is preparing a turkey dinner (I’m to stay out of the kitchen, ha). It’s still strange for me to have the holiday before Halloween, but that’s the way it goes up here … on a peaceful Monday without the telly or radio tuned in to the Supreme Court ruckus.

Meanwhile in book news, congrats to poet Louise Glück for winning the Nobel Peace Price in Literature last week. Wow, nice to have a poet win it. I want to get more familiar with Glück’s poetry so I’ve put myself on the library wait list for a few of her works, including a collected volume called “Poems 1962-2012.” Are you a fan of hers? She’s been called a confessional poet (somewhat similar to Sylvia Plath) but says: “I look for archetypal experience, and I assume that my struggles and joys are not unique. They feel unique as you experience them, but I’m not interested in making the spotlight fall on myself and my particular life, but instead on the struggles and joys of humans, who are born and then forced to exit.” Check out the rest of her interview with the New York Times here.

And now I’ll leave you with reviews of a few novels I finished lately.

A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet / W.W. Norton / 229 pages / 2020

Yeah author Lydia Millet might be smoking some strong weed with this odd little blistering tale that has a bit of dark humor thrown in. Like this one, her last novel “Sweet Lamb of Heaven” also included some biblical messages and allegory about it. This latest one reminded me a bit of Lord of the Flies for today’s world … mixed in with a little Walking Dead and Twister … and yet it recently made the fiction shortlist for the National Book Award, whoa.

What It’s About: A group of families go to a lakeside mansion … where all the parents do is laze about and drink and the kids (mostly teens) who are disgusted with them … veer off and go on their own. Then a major storm (or rolling storms) hit and the kids row away and end up meeting some Yacht Kids to party with … then come back to the parents’ mansion, which is flooded … then head out again with a man they meet named Burl in a van to an inland farm … and some roving bad guys with guns come and all feels like curtains — Uh-oh — then the mysterious farm owner shows up …

There’s some witty dialogue among the teens in this tale … which seems an angry generational divide kind of story with the group of kids on the one side … and their irresponsible parents on the other. It’s a world ravaged by climate change … which the parents have left to the kids to deal with. And the main protagonist/narrator is teenage Evie (or Eve, it’s biblical right?) who is trying to cope with what is happening and protect her younger brother Jack — who is trying to keep animals safe amid the storms (sort of like Noah).

It’s slightly odd, provoking stuff that has some interesting facets about generational divide and climate change to it, though perhaps I would’ve liked it a bit more if I felt more connected to some of the various teen characters — an irreverent rebellious bunch that Evie hangs with — including Sukey, Juice, Low, Jen, Terry, Rafe, and David. Whoa, they are not often a happy lot.

The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali / Gallery Books / 320 pages / 2019

I didn’t know much about the story of the novel going in though somehow I conned my husband into listening to it with me as an audiobook on our long cross-country drive to the lake. He usually only listens to nonfiction so this was quite a coup (wink wink). Little did I know how sweeping the story would be …

What It’s About: It’s a story of young love told against the backdrop of political upheaval in Iran in 1953 — idealistic Roya, 17, meets Bahman Aslan, a young political activist, in Mr. Fakhri’s stationery/book store every Tuesday afternoon. They fall for one another (both hoping for democracy for Iran) and become engaged to be married though his mother is against the marriage and has someone else picked for her son. Then Roya and Bahman plan to elope, but on that day she waits for him in the town square, where political violence is enfolding, he never shows and she is told in a letter from him she should move on with her life. Sixty years later in 2013, Roya now in Massachusetts finds out that Bahman is living in a retirement home not far away and she has a chance to ask him what happened. And so the whole story of their lives unfolds … and the secrets not known.

I admit I was caught up in Roya’s and Bahman’s love for one another over many decades … (as we drove over hill and dale) and trying to figure out what happened and why things changed. I liked how it was set in Iran during the political upheaval in 1953 when the coup d’etat happened … and the story has a good flavor of that and who they were. Towards the end, the coincidence of Roya and Bahman coming to know and see each other in Massachusetts late in life seems a bit of a stretch … and the writing about their love at times becomes a bit over-wrought, but still I was the softie who was eagerly swept along and took it all in … a bit like a Dr. Zhivago kind of tale … that aims at the heart strings.

What’s Left of Me Is Yours by Stefanie Scott / Doubleday / 352 pages / 2020

From the outset in the prologue — you learn most of the plot about the story: that a married woman (Rina) is dead and a man who had an affair with her (Kaitaro) is on trial for the murder. Rina’s husband (Sato), you learn, hired Kaitaro to have an affair with his wife Rina in order to break up their marriage so he could get a divorce. Rina’s father (Yoshi), an attorney, is following the trial, while raising Rina’s daughter Sumiko age 7.

Once you learn all this — the story takes you back in time — alternating chapters among these main characters as to how and why it happened … as well as to the present some 20 years later when Rina’s daughter Sumiko (a newly minted attorney) begins to investigate her mother’s death, which she comes to learn was not accidental.

In time you find out that all these main characters are hiding truths from one another in attempts to protect those they love from getting hurt … but in the process they end up making matters worse… and ultimately contribute to the tragedy.

It’s a slow-burn of a family drama somewhat similar to a Celeste Ng type of story/novel … that unfolds in its details as it goes along. I give the Singapore/British author points for setting the whole story — which I listened to as an audiobook — in Japan and shedding light on Japan’s legal system surrounding trials, imprisonment, and especially divorce and child custody issues. Among other things, I had no idea about the covert industry “wakaresaseya” in Japan that is used to try to break up marriages … and I also didn’t realize that Japan has no joint-custody system after divorce, and that court-ordered visitation rights are often ignored. My, it seems not a great place for kids or parents of divorce … which is mixed into the plot.

Throughout the novel, the descriptions of the Japanese landscapes and atmosphere made the story interesting. My only problem with it was that since most of the plot is known at the beginning (and the rest can be pretty much surmised) … there isn’t a lot of suspense left to the story and so in places I felt it sort of plodded along … and goes on at times bordering on getting a bit tiresome and melodramatic. I felt a tauter telling or perhaps knowing less about the plot might have helped keep me more engaged. There was some fine dramatic writing at times, though other times it plodded for me. So in that way it seemed a bit uneven. Still it was an interesting debut and I liked finding out about the Japanese system and its rippling effects.

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

Posted in Books | 36 Comments

October Preview

Posted on October 2, 2020 by Susan

Hello. It’s October!  Fall colors are in full swing here and the days have been staying nice. We returned from our enjoyable week away and are now back to reality I guess. Anxiety levels feel high this month with the looming U.S. election and Supreme Court battles and all that living with the pandemic entails … including now that those in the WH have tested positive for Covid. Does anyone else feel an ulcer or coronary coming on? Holy smokes, these are chaotic, uncertain times. This week I’m expediting my absentee ballot to the great state of Virginia, my last U.S. residence. As citizens we must do what we can … and then along side the workweeks … try to manage the stress with exercise and art-inducing escape.

So let’s talk about October’s upcoming new releases. If you like biographies, there’s quite a few this month including big ones about such notable figures as Sylvia Plath, Malcolm X, Eleanor Roosevelt, and John Steinbeck. These all look good and I can see myself jumping into one or two. Do you enjoy biographies, or just memoirs? As for new novels this month, my mind is sort of scattered on what exactly will be good to pick up now during chaotic times and what is just over-hype, so I will mention some below and then we can discuss. I guess my book assistant, pictured above, was not much help with the book selections and she does not enjoy her picture being taken. I had to coax her as usual to look at the camera.

First off, Jess Walter’s historical novel “The Cold Millions” (due out Oct. 27) could be just the ticket — it’s about two orphaned, train-hopping brothers who settle in Spokane, Washington, and get “swept up in the turbulent class warfare of the early twentieth century.”

I hear it’s a lot about labor unions and organizers of the times, and free-speech protests … that could give an interesting perspective on what’s going on today. I have not read Jess Walter before, though I know some liked his novel “The Beautiful Ruins” quite a bit. So I’m keen maybe to try out his fiction and see if it will hold my attention. It’s a historical tale set around 1909-1910.  

Then there’s Tana French’s new detective story “The Searcher” (due out Oct. 6), which is a standalone novel separate from her Dublin murder squad books. It’s about Cal Hooper who retires to a small village in the west of Ireland after 25 years on the Chicago police force … and then is lured into taking one last case regarding a local boy who has gone missing. Uh-oh, small towns have their secrets.

It’s sounds like a good premise but is said to be “slow moving” or a slow-burn of a mystery with various layers. I’m still a newbie to French’s books so don’t know if it’ll grip me enough to hang out with Cal till the sun finally sets … so to speak. What say ye?

There’s also Phil Klay’s debut novel “The Missionaries” (due out Oct. 6) which is set in Colombia during its long and bloody civil conflict and follows four protagonists whose lives become fatally entangled.

You probably recall: Klay, a U.S. Marine vet, received a lot of recognition for his award-winning 2014 short story collection “Redeployment” … and now is back to examine more about the globalization of violence and U.S. intervention. “The Missionaries” is getting quite a bit of high praise, though I sort of wonder if an intense war novel right now would just be too much for one’s plate. Would our heads explode with everything else going on?

And I’m a bit curious too about Martin Amis’s book “Inside Story” (due out Oct. 27), which he calls a “novelized autobiography” that runs through his life from the 1970s to 2019 .. about his loves, family, friendships and development as a writer. It focuses quite a bit apparently on the death of his best friend journalist Christopher Hitchens.

Hmm, admittedly I’m a bit drawn toward reading about Amis, who’s known for his talent as well as his “bad boy of British lit” stature. Would it be a good read or just self-indulgent blather? I think he might have some interesting insights despite some of my caution about him … so I might give it a try.

I haven’t even talked about Rumaan Alam’s book “Leave the World Behind” or Bryan Washington’s debut “Memorial” — two novels that are being bantered around quite a bit this month. The premise of Alam’s book (due out Oct. 6) seems interesting about a white family who rent a beach house in the Hamptons and are interrupted on their vacation by an older black couple who come and tell them they’re the owners and a widespread blackout has caused them to return, which with the internet down arises the other family’s suspicions.

Uh-oh it sounds like a weekend-away gone wrong kind of story … but some say it peters out as it goes on and not a lot happens. Does it? Whatever the case, the global rights to Alam’s novel have already been bought by Netflix, which plans to make a movie of it starring Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts … who were last seen together in “The Pelican Brief” in 1993. Sheesh the novel hasn’t even come out yet!

The other, Bryan Washington’s novel “Memorial” (due out Oct. 27) is about a gay mixed-race couple in Houston (Benson and Mike) who search for the truth about themselves, each other, and their families. It sounds like it has a lot of food for thought in this story about family, love, and relationships and is told intermittently from each other’s points of view, which allows the reader to see the gaps or fractures that arise between them.

Hmm Ann Patchett says it a “tour de force … unlike anything I’ve read before.” Though a few others have said it feels like a slow-moving, inevitable car crash for the couple. What do you think — is it worth a go?

Lastly in books, I just want to quickly mention that Joyce Carol Oates (or JCO to those in the know) has a new one (of course) “Cardiff, by the Sea” (due out Oct. 6) that includes four separate spooky novellas … called psychological and suspenseful … which look to be ripe for reading during Halloween month.

Also I forgot to mention: I’ve heard good things (thanks to Carmen) about Zhang Ling’s WWII epic “A Single Swallow” (due out Oct.1), which is set in China and focuses on the Japanese invasion from a Chinese point of view … of a woman’s life story: her suffering, loves and survival during the war, which sounds pretty eye-opening and brutal but also hopefully redeeming. Check it out if you want a bit of a different perspective. 

As for what’s coming to screens this month, I’m drawn a bit to a couple humorous looking things. Comedian and Trump impersonator Sarah Cooper has her special “Everything’s Fine” coming to Netflix on Oct. 27, which should have some laughs … as well as the movie “Save Yourselves!” (out Oct. 2), whose trailer cracked me up a bit.

It looks to be a silly movie about a Brooklyn couple who decide to “disconnect” from their phones for a weekend away at a cabin and wind up missing news of an alien attack. Ha, I don’t why, but I sort of had to cackle watching parts of the trailer. Am I just at my breaking point … or will this be good fun? 

Back to more serious things, there’s various book adaptations coming to the screen this month … including the movie “Once Upon a River” (out Oct. 2), based on Bonnie Jo Campbell’s 2011 novel that I really liked; and a TV miniseries of “The Good Lord Bird” based on the 2013 novel by James McBride with Ethan Hawke starring as abolitionist John Brown (on Showtime Oct. 4); as well as a TV series called “The Undoing” (on HBO, Oct. 25), starring Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman, which is based on the 2014 novel “You Should Have Known” by Jean Hanff Korelitz that looks to be unsettling … about a therapist’s life that begins to unravel on the eve of publishing her first book, uh-oh. 

But perhaps the biggest adaptation is the remake of Daphne Du Maurier’s 1938 Gothic novel “Rebecca” coming to Netflix on Oct. 21. It’s been made into a movie once before by Hitchcock in 1940, starring Lawrence Olivier and Joan Fontaine as Mr. and Mrs. Winters, and it earned the Academy Award for Best Picture, whoa.

This time around it’ll be Lily James and Armie Hammer starring as the newlyweds who come to the husband’s family estate on the English coast, where the new wife finds herself battling the shadow and legacy of his deceased first wife … the mysterious Rebecca, uh-oh. The remake looks good from the trailer, so I definitely plan to check it out.

A few other things I’m likely to watch are Aaron Sorkin’s movie “The Trial of the Chicago 7” (due out Oct. 16 on Netflix) … about the charges stemming from the violence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. It has quite a cast with Eddie Redmayne as Tom Hayden and Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman (ha) among others. By the way, Sacha is really good in the 2019 TV series “The Spy” on Netflix, which I recommend from last year. 

Speaking of spies, I also might look for the movie “A Call to Spy” (due out Oct. 2) about the lives of three remarkable women who served as spies for the Allies during WWII. It’s based on the real-life stories of women who Churchill ordered his spy agency to recruit and train in 1941. Hmm, it looks good to me …

as well as the four-part Brith drama TV series “Flesh & Blood” (on PBS Oct. 4) about three grown siblings whose lives are interrupted when their recently widowed mother declares she’s in love with a new man (played by Irish actor Stephen Rea). Apparently their rivalries, secrets and betrayals eventually lead to a murder. Uh-oh, so much for middle age romance … but count me in. 

Lastly in music releases this month, there’s new albums due out by Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Dawes, Elvis Costello, Jeff Tweedy, Laura Veirs, and Canadian singer-songwriters Bahamas, and Jennifer Castle among others. Quite a few of these likely will be good. I might have mentioned that over the decades I’ve been a big Bruce fan (seeing my first concert of his when I turned sweet 16) … but his last couple albums haven’t interested me as much. Still among these others, I’ll pick Springsteen’s “Letter to You” as my album choice this month. 

That’s all for now. What about you — which new releases are you most looking forward to this month?

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