The Cue Card

Hi, how is your spring going? Have you watched any March Madness? Most of the snow and ice are gone here now (just left with some mud), and we are contemplating taking our first bike ride of the season today. I’m really excited that winter is over, hooray, though snowflakes can come here at anytime. I hope the buds are opening where you are, and that you are feeling spring fever. It’s a great time of year. I will leave you with some reviews of things I finished last week.

All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg, 2016, Houghton Mifflin, 208 pages

I picked this novel up thinking it might be a bit fun with some attitude — a single girl in the city kind of novel, from an accomplished author, that I heard was bitingly funny. And indeed it didn’t disappoint in that regard. It’s told in a series of vignettes from different points in the protagonist’s life, which go back and forth in time. It read almost like it was a first-person memoir, but instead is a work of fiction.

The main character in the novel, Andrea Bern, is quite a piece of work. She’s approaching 40, lives in Brooklyn, has no passion for her job in advertising, sleeps around with no intention of getting married, and is seemingly lost and going through a rough patch. She is trying to figure out what it means to be an adult since her world is devoid of what typical adults are like. All the while, she is dealing with the grief of her brother and sister-in-law who are caring for a terminally ill child; the absence of her mother, who leaves the city to help them; and her best friend whose marriage is imploding. There’s also the baggage she carries around from dropping out of art school (her one true love), and the death of her father, who died from a drug overdose when she was a teenager.

Andrea would be totally sympathetic if she weren’t so flawed. She’s pretty selfish and self-absorbed and often not that likable. She’s also insecure and at times childish, and I wanted to shake some sense into her. But along the way, while seeking connection, she seems to gain some heart, and I started liking her for being clever, candid, and pretty funny as well. She’s snarky but sensitive too.

The story ends up being not so much about singledom — as perhaps just trying to find happiness, which most of us can relate to, though this book probably won’t be for everyone. But it’s a short, quick novel that turns out to be more touching than I would have initially thought — by an  author whose earlier books I’ve been tempted to pick up. I’m glad I got to this one. Have you read her before?

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, 2013, Viking, 432 pages

Meanwhile I listened to this novel as an audiobook, which is read by the author, who does a superb job of narrating the various characters. The book had been quite popular when it came out a few years back, but somehow I never got my hands on it. I’m glad I finally did. It starts with a relatively simple premise but then expands to cover so much. Who knew?!

It’s about a married Japanese-American writer (Ruth) on a remote island off British Columbia who finds a bag with a diary, a watch, and letters that washes up on shore sometime after the 2011 tsunami hit Japan and caused a meltdown at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. The diary turns out to be written by a teenager named Nao in Tokyo who’s being mercilessly bullied at school. She had once lived in Silicon Valley in California, but her father was downsized there, so they returned to Tokyo, where her father has attempted suicide a couple times, and her mother works a lot.

The chapters alternate between hearing about Nao’s life in Japan and Ruth’s life on the island where’s she going through writer’s block and trying to figure out more about whose diary and letters washed ashore and where they came from. (Don’t you love these lost artifact kinds of stories? Another one is Bich Minh Nguyen’s novel “Pioneer Girl,” which is also quite good.)

Both storylines of Ruth and the young Nao are quite captivating, though Nao’s chapters are more engagingly told as she grapples with the harsh times she’s going through. She’s a plucky teenager, who’s only solace is to write the life story of her great grandmother, a Zen Buddhist nun who’s lived more than a century, and who turns Nao’s life around when she goes to stay with her on summer break.

Oh there’s much more to the story, this is only the tip of the iceberg. It’s a book that covers some dark subjects, such as from Nao’s life: depression, suicide, and bullying, and from Ruth’s life: nuclear fallout, ocean pollution, and species extinction (and from both lives: 9/11). But the book is also oddly uplifting, even a bit funny at times, how the two characters persevere and transcend time and place to reach out to one another through the diary and letters.

The novel’s essentially about the nature of time, and people in time: “time beings” as it says. For those who like a bit of philosophy in their fiction, and even quantum physics, which the story touches on near the end, then this novel is for you. It also includes a dose of magical realism, which luckily didn’t overwhelm me, or the story too much.

For the most part, I was captivated by Ruth and Nao’s lives, and I thought the novel was cleverly put together by the author. My only criticism perhaps was that it felt a bit uneven in parts, and could’ve been edited shorter. It goes on too long and for me didn’t necessarily need to cover so much. For instance, I would’ve been okay without the quantum physics part. Still I was totally surprised by the depth and how involved the story of “A Tale for the Time Being” was. No wonder it was shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize. I thought it deserved it.

Lastly this week, I watched the Best Picture nominated film “Hacksaw Ridge,” which is my second to last film in that category I haven’t seen. (I still need to see “Fences.”) “Hacksaw” is based on a true story about Desmond Doss, a combat medic in WWII who was the first man in American history to receive the Medal of Honor without firing a shot. Because of his Seventh-day Adventist’s beliefs, Doss didn’t touch guns and instead requested to serve as an unarmed medic.

The movie reminded me in some regards of other typical war, heroic films, such as “Saving Private Ryan” and “The Unbroken.” The Battle of Okinawa, which it depicts, was brutal with huge casualties on both sides. The film is quite graphic in terms of showing loss of lives, and body parts blown off. Doss, played by Andrew Garfield, dodges around the battlefield dragging the injured to safety. His courage and exploits are amazing, and apparently he saved 75 lives from the battle.

And though it is like other war films, I was interested to find out about the life of Desmond Doss, who grew up in Lynchburg, Virginia, and dropped out of school in the 8th grade to help support his family through the Great Depression. His beliefs amid the war were quite atypical — so they are thought-provoking in the film. Apparently he lived quite a long time after the war, despite his injuries and contracting tuberculosis in the Philippines. He died in 2006 in Alabama.

What about you — have you read these novels or seen this movie, and if so, what did you think?

It was a busy a week, and I’m a bit behind these days, but I’ll catch up, so bear with me if I haven’t stopped by your site recently. I hope everyone had a nice and safe St. Patty’s Day. Spring is coming, I’m very excited. I wanted to congratulate Louise Erdrich for winning the 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction for her novel “LaRose.” It’s a book I plan to get to and one that Judy over at Keep the Wisdom had  wonderful things to say about. For now, I will leave you with a few reviews of what I finished last week.

Miller’s Valley by Anna Quindlen, 2016, 272 pages

I picked up this novel when I saw it lying around my parent’s house when I was traveling a couple weeks back. After the first 80 pages or so I didn’t think it was going to be for me — it’s a coming of age, family saga that seemed to start off a bit slowly and the material appeared a little thin. Maybe it seemed too quiet, or character driven? But sometime after that the story crept up on me and I became much more invested in it.

In the novel, Mimi Miller recounts her young life growing up in a small Pennsylvania town in the 1960s with her family who’ve lived on a farm there for generations. There’s talk that the government wants to relocate their community, which is susceptible to floods, to make way for a reservoir, while her father and others are dead set against it.

Like her few friends, Mimi’s family is a bit of a mixed bag. Her mother is a nurse, and her father is a fix-it man; she has a successful older brother who’s married and moved away, and another brother she idolizes who parties through high school and then enlists in Vietnam to escape the stagnancy. There’s also Mimi’s reclusive Aunt Ruth who lives in a small house on their property but never goes outside.

All the while, there’s little money or future prospects, so Mimi loses herself in her school work, farm chores, and a sexual relationship. In many ways, the story is not uncommon to a lot of coming-of-age tales with family secrets, setbacks, and heartbreaks, but what I liked about it was Mimi’s narration, which gives it resonance with her insightful thoughts about what’s happening around her. Her sensibility piqued my curiosity into what would happen to her and the fate of the town and her family members.

I liked its themes too of home and place and the people who you grow up with. As Mimi says, “No one ever leaves the town where they grew up, even if they go.” I guess I shouldn’t have doubted the quiet power of an Anna Quindlen novel as the couple I’ve read usually have resonated quite a bit.

The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman, 2007, 384 pages

Meanwhile I listened to this nonfiction book on audio, which took a couple weeks of deeply concentrated dog walks with my headphones on (ha). I was glad to get to it before it comes out as a film at the end of the month starring Jessica Chastain. The movie was filmed in Prague, which stands in for Warsaw in the story. In retrospect, maybe it would have been easier to follow reading it in print, instead of listening to it, as the book covers so many different things pertaining to the Zabinskis’ lives and the war in and around Warsaw. But then again the narration of it on audio was so beautifully done by Suzanne Toren with all the accents and Polish words and ideas, which I liked. So I guess a combination of both perhaps would have been optimal.

The book is about the true WWII story of Jan Zabinski, the director of the Warsaw zoo, and his wife Antonina, who sheltered and hid about 300 Jews and Polish resisters during the war in their villa and in the animal cages and sheds. The author used Antonina’s diaries, and other sources and research to shed light on the Nazi occupation of Warsaw, the ghetto, the uprisings, and how the Zabinskis managed and were able to do what they did.

It’s a remarkable story, but as many have found the book is not exactly an easy read or listen. Judging from what others have said on Goodreads, many abandoned or didn’t care for the book because they found it disjointed or scattered from the main story of the Zabinskis. In the book for example, the author will be telling about an incident with Jan or Antonina or their young son and then often go on a tangent idea about Polish customs or music or Nazi ideology or whatnot. So you have to hang with it a bit for the author to circle back around to the incident she was initially talking about.

It’s a book with a lot stuffed in it. Not only do you learn about the Zabinskis and what they were like, but there’s also a lot in it about nature and animals, what zoos were like at the time, Polish history, language and customs, Warsaw life, and Nazi ideology. It brought to light new things much of which I didn’t know. It also talks about various people who were pertinent to the Zabinskis during the war such as the spiritual head of the ghetto, the duplicitous director of the Berlin zoo, and others in the underground resistance.

I found the author’s research and broad scope phenomenal and fascinating. It might not have made for the easiest storytelling to follow, but sticking with it I found it rich and rewarding. I feel like someday I’ll have to return to the book to scoop up additional facts and tidbits from it. The writing too is often quite poetic and alluring, which I guess is not uncommon from the author, who’s known for this in her naturalist writings. Her love of animals and nature is definitely evident in the book, and makes for a new angle on WWII, which I haven’t heard about much before.

Other things I took away from “The Zookeeper’s Wife” was the courage of these regular people to do what they felt was right and help people despite the threat to their lives, as well as the ingenuity of many of the Polish people and Jewish resisters who thwarted the Nazis. They seemed far from idle or resigned to their fate under the occupation, and their resistance movement and uprisings are quite legendary. I was in awe of them throughout this book. I recommend the book for those who are interested in such tales of WWII resistance but know it’s probably not for every reader.

Finally last week we rented the movie “Jackie” and I thought it was quite interesting and much better than I thought it would be. I guess I thought it would be just a lot of grieving and mourning over the assassinated President Kennedy — and a portrayal of a horrified, stunned Jackie in her bloody outfit, but there’s more to the script than that. Somehow it captures quite a bit of what was going on at the time, as well the perceptions and myths, and it gets to every side of Jackie. It’s more multi-dimensional than I would’ve believed.

It’s also quite a provocative and beautiful film. And despite the flak I might have heard about Natalie Portman’s performance as Jackie, I thought she was terrific and dug deep for the role. How she didn’t win the Best Actress Oscar award over Emma Stone in “La La Land,” I’ll never know. Emma was good, but in my mind didn’t dig as deep as this.

What about you — have you read these books or seen this movie, and if so, what did you think?

Hi, I’ve been out of the loop for awhile traveling. We had a great time touring around Southern California going on some bike rides and spending time in San Diego, the town of Julian, Borrego Springs, Redlands (my hometown), and Temecula. We got rained on a few days, which was unusual, but I know California could use all the moisture it can get, so I won’t complain (too much).

I love the desert, which sort of feels like home to me, and we usually try to get out there once a year as a reprieve from the long Canadian winters.

It was beginning to bloom in Borrego Springs, and many areas including the canyons were quite green from all the rain in California this winter. Even the Salton Sea, the large dying lake out in the desert along the San Andreas Fault, had apparently risen a bit, according to the park ranger there.

In San Diego, we stayed and toured around Coronado Island and visited the USS Midway Museum — the huge aircraft carrier that operated for 47 years and saw action in the Vietnam War as well as serving as the Persian Gulf’s flagship in 1991’s Operation Desert Storm.

It’s fascinating to tour the ship that was once a City on the Sea to a crew of more than 4,000. It was fully equipped with a dentist and doctor’s office, a laundry department that handled 43,000 pounds of clothes a week, a Post Office, a brig, and six galleys that served 13,500 meals a day, oh my. In case you’re wondering, the ship is more than three football field lengths long, but still could cruise at a speed of 33 knots or 38 mph — fast enough to water ski behind. Pretty incredible. I’m pleased I didn’t get lost aboard.

Meanwhile on the trip I read Kristin Hannah’s 2015 bestselling novel “The Nightingale.” I’m aware I’m late to the party on this popular story about two French sisters in German Occupied France during WWII. You remember Isabelle, the resistance fighter based in Paris, and her sister Vianne at home in the countryside with her daughter, billeted with a German soldier. Both sisters (who are quite different from one another) do their best, trying to survive the war and end up helping others in the process. These are scary days indeed. There are grisly things that happen in their lives, make no mistake that this is a lightweight book in that regard.

I know the novel might be considered historical fiction-lite or historical romance, but it was an absorbing page-turner while on my trip. The reading level was pretty easy, YA level perhaps, and it flowed along at a speedy pace. I thought the storytelling was well done and I was caught up in the sisters keeping alive during the war. The story did not sag for me, despite being a good-sized saga. Apparently Isabelle is based on the real life story of 19-year-old Andree de Jongh, a Belgian woman who helped hundreds of Allied aviators escape by escorting many over the Pyrenees on foot. Like Isabelle, she too spent time at Ravensbruck concentration camp. As you might have guessed “The Nightingale” is slated to be made into a movie, but who will star as the French sisters? — that is the question. Any picks for the actresses?

I’ve read about Occupied France in the recent novels by Sebastian Faulks, Anthony Doerr, and Irene Nemirovsky’s “Suite Francaise,” and “The Nightingale” captured and daunted me as well. On top of that, I’m listening this week to the audiobook of the true story of “The Zookeeper’s Wife,” set in Poland during WWII; how much more can I take of these crimes against humanity? If I survive this one, I’ll look to get out of Occupied Europe for awhile in my reading.

While away, I also finished the audiobook of Lynsey Addario’s 2015 memoir “It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War.” The author has photographed for the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, and National Geographic among other publications, and has covered dangerous conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and the Congo. You name it, she’s been there. This memoir tells of her life becoming a photojournalist and of her days on the road in these far-flung places doing the job that she so obviously loves doing, and is driven to do.

I thought the book was told quite candidly, not as a photo expert but more about how her career unfolded as well as her fears, insecurities, and drive to be taken seriously in a male-dominated profession. It also delves into her personal life and how she struggled to try to find a balance between that and her work life. Her travels in this book are quite astounding, and the stories she tells of her photo assignments in dangerous places are pretty hairy; she gets injured and almost killed on a few occasions. Her memoir sheds light on journalists putting their lives on the line to do their jobs and unearth the truth.

I was quite amazed by how driven she is in the book (obviously she’s greatly accomplished at what she does) and it reminded me of the journalists I worked with while at the Washington Post as a copy editor. We often talked to our co-workers while they were in the field over questions or updates on their stories. I remember those busy days and reading about the foreign conflicts Addario talks about.

Some of her choices I thought were pretty crazy, especially traveling to risky places while pregnant and shortly thereafter. It seemed quite nuts to me; for a couple decades it appears she never said No to an assignment, despite the risks or constant travel involved. Still she’s made her life work for her. As I said, I listened to this as an audiobook, which I liked, but then I went to her website to see her photographs, which is a must to get the full experience of what she’s spent her life doing. All in all, I thought it was a thought-provoking memoir, and especially would be liked by those who are interested in  journalism or conflict photography.

Lastly we rented two movies on the trip, “Patriots Day,” which was a passable movie about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing starring Mark Wahlberg among others. I judged it to be slightly above a TV kind of true-story movie, which follows the details of the case pretty closely. It grabs at the emotions pretty well but is not something I would normally go out of my way to see.

We also saw the pretty weird thriller “Nocturnal Animals” with Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal about a wealthy art gallery owner who’s haunted by her ex-husband’s new novel. Have you seen this one? It starts off pretty scary and disturbing portraying the story from the novel then flashes back to their days together. I can’t say much more about it without ruining the story, though it does have one of those huh? kind of endings. Some will like it, others will not. I’m still wondering if it really worked.

What about you, have you read these books or seen these movies — and if so what did you think?

Lately I’ve been averaging finishing one book, one audiobook, and a movie per week, which seems to suit me fine as my thoughts are kept a flutter amid the three. Note: this is the last week before the Academy Awards airs next weekend, so if you’re trying to see something before then, the time is drawing near. Luckily I’ve seen a bulk of the nominees, which I hope to talk about sometime next week in my Oscar post. Meanwhile my husband and I are leaving for our “spring break” trip next Saturday, so there’s a lot to do before then. For now, I leave you with a few brief reviews of what I finished last week.

Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis, published by Coach House Books, 2015, 175 pgs 

This short novel won the Giller Prize in 2015, Canada’s top literary award, and I’ve been meaning to get to it for a long while, especially since it includes dogs. But it’s not your typical dog story; oh no, this one seems to have quite a bit to say about the human condition, perhaps it’s a bit reminiscent in this way to George Orwell’s book “Animal Farm.” “Fifteen Dogs” is about what happens to a group of dogs overnighting at a Toronto vet clinic who are granted human intelligence and language by the gods.

The dogs of course escape the clinic and make a beeline for the beach and park, enjoying their newfound freedom and lives. But things aren’t exactly rosy amid their pack. Some of the dogs want to resist their new awareness and consciousness and go back to their old dog ways, while others want to embrace the change and form their own language. There’s a struggle over this, and it gets hairy! Some of the dogs become exiled, while others are attacked and killed; it’s truly a dog-eat-dog world for them. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to follow all of the cast, but soon the story focuses on a few of the dogs, notably Majnoun, an exiled black poodle who becomes close to a human couple who takes him in; Bengy the conniving Beagle who wanders from house to house; and Prince, a mutt who’s exiled from the pack for composing poetry.

It’s an interesting construct of a story, which unfolds with you waiting to see whether getting human consciousness has doomed these dogs. The interactions within it, too, are revealing in what they have to say about language, happiness, and love. It made me think about consciousness in new ways and I wondered this week what my own dog was really thinking. While I found the story interesting and cleverly done, I can’t say it was exactly a pleasure read. Its view of the dogs is quite grim and dark (except for a couple of them) and not nice and sweet like you normally think of these animals. The story had a little “Lord of the Flies” quality about it, but it made its point for me: dogs are much better off without our own baggage apart of them. But what does this story say about us?

The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore, published by Random House, 2016, 368 pages

This is quite a wild tale — it’s historical fiction that’s based on true events — which I listened to as an audiobook on long walks this past week. I had first heard about the novel from Judy over at the blog Keep the Wisdom who had a lot of great things to say about it. Though I wasn’t sure as I started it, if I would be kept truly interested in a story about the legal battle between Thomas Edison vs. George Westinghouse over the light bulb patent in the late 1880s. Come again? What did I care about following the main protagonist, a young lawyer (Paul Cravath) as he tried to win the patent case for his client Westinghouse? Wasn’t it just two bigwigs battling for prominence?

Sure enough I didn’t know anything about this and had a lot to learn. It didn’t take long before I was engulfed in Paul’s story and all of its particulars. There is so much more to it than I ever imagined — and of how high the stakes were — more to the rivalry of Edison and Westinghouse, more to the science and the times, more to what it was all about. Along the way, there’s interesting glimpses of inventors Alexander Graham Bell, financier J.P. Morgan, and the introduction of the electric chair, which is simply grisly in what happens as depicted in the book.

“The Last Days of Night” brings the history and real characters wonderfully to life. Who knew, about the maneuverings and alliances, the backstabbing and betrayals, and the turns and twists of fate that accompanied the powering of light. It’s like a consuming soap opera. Surely I did not know, nor did I know much about the inventor Nikola Tesla, who plays a quirky and major role in the story. He seems to hold the key for Paul in defeating Edison, or does he? There’s also Paul’s love interest, Agnes Huntington, an opera singer, who is also not all what she appears to be.

Will the case be won, or lost, or will all go bankrupt? You have to stay tuned to the end to find out. The novel has quite a bit of science in it (about alternating currents versus direct currents), yet it’s written for laypeople to understand, which helped me get by. The chapters are short and snappy, which keeps the pace moving. I thought the storytelling was superb, though it didn’t surprise me that an award-winning screenplay writer, Graham Moore, who won an Oscar for “The Imitation Game,” wrote this novel, as it seems written a bit like a screenplay. And sure enough, apparently Eddie Redmayne has signed on to star in the adapted movie of it in 2018. So we will see if “The Last Days of Night” translates well to the big screen. For now, go for either the book, or the audio; both are — shall we say — pretty illuminating. 🙂

The Crown — TV series on Netflix

We finally finished watching the first season of this series. Duh. It took me a while. I liked seeing how the reigns of power passed from King George to Queen Elizabeth, and the behind-the-scenes interactions within the royal family and with Winston Churchill are particularly interesting to watch.

The performances of Claire Foy as the Queen and John Lithgow as Churchill are excellent, though at times I thought the pace of the episodes was a bit glacial and a few times I fell asleep. I kid you not. “The Crown” did wonders for me catching up on a few zzzzs.

I know it’s terrible of me, but I woke up for the parts about Princess Margaret, who seemed to have more life about her than the rest of them put together. It was enraging that the Queen gave her word twice, and yet Margaret was foiled from marrying Peter time and again. Good grief, what torture. Let Margaret be!

Despite my small gripes, I look forward to Season 2 of this six season show, which apparently will cover from the Suez Crisis in 1956 through the retirement of the Queen’s third Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, in 1963.  Claire Foy will be back to star as the Queen once again.

Hidden Figures — based on the book by Margot Lee Shetterly

I’m glad I finally got to see this movie about a team of African American women mathematicians who worked for NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program. Despite all the obstacles they faced, including racism and sexism, they persevered and contributed to helping NASA win the space race. It’s an uplifting and inspiring film based on true events and real people whose lives and jobs were not well known about before Margot Lee Shetterly’s 2016 book came out about them.

After the movie, I picked up a copy of the book, which I’m interested to see how closely it correlates to the film. I particularly liked the photos at the end of the movie of the real women whom the three actresses portray. They seemed amazing in their talents and diligence and it brought it all home for me, as the photos similarly did at the end of the movie “Loving.” These were real women, who made a real difference in the 20th century. Kudos to their efforts, I’m glad they have been honored with their story in this way.

What about you — have you read these books, or seen these films and if so, what did you think?

We had brisk temps all week, but it now looks to be improving, and by Valentine’s Day on Tuesday, it could reach 50F. How heartwarming! That will trigger a massive melt off of snow here.

I’m traveling this weekend and will be having a reunion of sorts, with a couple friends in the San Francisco area, which I’m excited about. So I will leave you with a few brief reviews of what I finished last week. Oh, and many of you know my trusty book assistant and walking partner by now, Stella, pictured at left. She was almost attacked by a coyote this week while we were walking in the hills. Luckily she got away from it after a scuffle and ran back to me. It was a scary situation — and I didn’t know what would happen — but thankfully she is okay and in one piece. Gave me a slight heart attack at the time, but we have learned from this, I hope.

The Dry by Jane Harper: published by Flatiron Books, Jan. 2017, 320 pages

What it’s about: (culled from the publisher’s synopsis and me)

Federal agent Aaron Faulk returns to his small, struggling farming town in Australia for the first time in decades after the apparent murder-suicide of his best friend Luke and his family. Only things don’t add up when Faulk begins poking around, and he begins to wonder if Luke’s death is connected to something that happened twenty years ago when they were both teenagers. Set amid severe drought conditions, the novel follows Faulk and the local detective as they try to piece together what happened to Luke, his wife, and son.

My thoughts:

This is a slow burn of a murder mystery that despite the time it takes developing never seems to wan. I was interested in the story and the main character Falk’s unraveling of it the whole way. It starts with the gruesome deaths of three family members at a farm house, which the police conclude was a murder-suicide, but was it? Falk begins to poke around, while his thoughts become infused with the days he spent there in his youth with his father and friends. He starts having flashbacks, which are intermingled and italicized frequently throughout the story. I know some readers didn’t care for this, but it didn’t put me off too much, as some interesting things, linked to the present case, are divulged amid the flashbacks; it’s just the italics that  got a bit annoying.

But there’s not really a break in the murder case until quite late in the novel. I guess I was expecting more of a “thriller” type pace to the story, though the developments in it kept me engaged. It has a great Australian setting too. I could feel the dryness and the farming town’s struggles from drought, which are evocatively rendered in the novel. I thought I knew who the killer was long before the end, but it takes a turn and I was wrong about who it was. “The Dry” is well done by debut author Jane Harper, and it has an intriguing storyline. I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.

Benediction by Kent Haruf — published by Knopf, Feb. 2013, 258 pages

This novel, which I listened to as an audiobook, is set in the same small town of Holt, Colorado, as were the author’s previous novels “Plainsong” from 1999, and “Eventide” from 2004, but this one involves different characters. I had read “Plainsong” long ago and this is my second of Kent Haruf’s books, though I’d like to eventually read them all. Unfortunately he passed away in 2014 and will be greatly missed. His last novel “Our Souls at Night,” published in 2015, was well liked across the blogosphere and one I hope to get to.

What it’s bout: (culled from the publisher’s synopsis and me)

This novel is centered around Dad Lewis, a 77-year-old hardware store owner who’s just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. He and wife Mary work to make his final days comfortable, while their daughter Lorraine returns home from Denver to help care for him. But Mary and Dad can’t locate their estranged son Frank, to let him know, and his presence is sorely missed. The story also involves a young girl next door, who is being raised by her grandmother after the death of her mother, and the town’s newly arrived minister, who faces disdain after a particular sermon doesn’t go over well.

My Thoughts:

I felt for the dying Dad Lewis in this book and his family, friends, and the community of Holt. He is a codger and sort of a grump, but it seems to be because of his life and how he grew up. As he comes to grips with his diagnosis, you sense the realizations he’s going through and his regrets in life — why he wasn’t a more loving person, particularly to his children, neighbors, and employees.

“Benediction” is a story about life and death, people’s regrets, and the ties that bind us. Although it’s a quiet and relatively simple story (and may not be for everyone), I got caught up in its cast of characters, who seem very real and are all going through different things and emotions. Kent Haruf is a master of writing about small towns, families, and communities— and seemingly can do it perhaps better than anyone else. I’m slightly reminded of author Alice Munro, who’s books are often filled with similar kinds of towns and people. Also the small town feel of “Benediction” made me think a bit of Elizabeth Strout’s “Olive Kitteridge,” but perhaps it’s less quirky than that. Listening to this story was another winner for me, and I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.

Lastly this week, I saw the movie “Lion,” which is a Best Picture Academy Award nominee, and I must say it is quite excellent. I wonder if it surpasses “Manchester by the Sea” for me in terms of which one I liked better, though I know both are high on my list. “Lion” is based on a true story about a five-year-old Indian boy who gets lost from his village and winds up thousands of miles from home. Eventually he is adopted by an Australian couple and grows up there. Then 25 years later he sets off to find his biological Indian family.

This is a powerful movie and will pull at your heart strings along the way. It’s an amazing story, and I actually have the book, which the movie is based on, that I was hoping to read first. But Oops! I got to the movie first. The cinematography is also pretty great, as well as the actors in it. Might “Lion” win Best Picture? Or is it not hyped enough as the others?

What about you — have you read these books are seen this movie — and if so, what did you think?