Absolution

Hi all. Does it feel like spring where you are? It probably is. It’s even feeling a bit like spring up here. Most of the snow has melted away once again, and we are enjoying balmy temps. We might even go for a bike ride this weekend, which is a bit unheard of here in March. And the month is flying by, isn’t it?

We are gearing up for our road trip to California in April, just about two weeks away. It’s hard to believe. I’m getting together a few audiobooks for the trip, which include mostly historical nonfiction ones for my husband. Sorry to say, I will be leaving fiction behind for a while on the journey, then fling open my beach bag of novels once we get there, lol. Is it almost time for the beach?

Good news is I saw a pileated woodpecker this past Wednesday when the dogs and I were at a wooded park near the river. They are fun to see, but we don’t get to see them often. Their red heads make them easy to spot. I didn’t take this particular photo as I couldn’t get a good shot of him bobbing around, but I recorded the bird’s sound, which my Merlin Bird app recognized as the pileated woodpecker. Apparently the bird is the largest woodpecker species in North America and likes to eat carpenter ants, among other things. Its strong bill can chip large holes into trees searching for insects. Do you have these birds where you are?

And now you can see my “library loot” for this week. I still have several remainders from the weeks prior. Ann Napolitano’s novel Hello Beautiful just came in for me. I need to jump on it quickly since it’s long, but I think I’m going to start Ron Rash’s novel The Caretaker next. It looks like a quick, good read set in a small Appalachian town during the Korean War years. I read the author’s 2008 novel Serena, which was turned into a movie with Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, but I think the new one looks a bit better.

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

Absolution by Alice McDermott / FSG / 336 pages / 2023

4.4 stars. This is a story about a woman named Tricia looking back on her life and her friendship with a woman, Charlene, whom she meets in Saigon in 1963. Tricia is corresponding decades later with the woman’s daughter Rainey and telling her things that happened there.

In the ’60s, Tricia and Charlene are “helpmeets” to their husbands’ careers in Vietnam early in the war, giving parties and supporting them. Newly arrived and married Tricia, 23, meets Charlene at a garden party when her baby throws up on Tricia’s dress. From this incident, Charlene comes up with a plan to sell Barbie dolls to help fundraise for toys and things for children in the local hospitals.

Soon Tricia is part of Charlene’s “cabal” to try to do good around Saigon, helping with the Barbie sales and traveling to a leper colony to measure the people for new clothes there. It turns out Charlene, a mother of three, is a “dynamo” of altruistic schemes, trading on the black market, pushing people around, hanging at the country club, popping pills, and doing what needs to be done for her causes. Meanwhile Tricia and her husband are trying to start a family, but she’s having trouble with miscarriages. These worlds collide sometime down the line.

This might not sound like much, but in Alice McDermott’s hands with all the things at play she turns it into gold. A lot of things going on mix: with the Vietnam backdrop, early feminism, faith, war, morality, friendship, children. The novel’s structure too is pretty cool as it looks back and is also in the present. There’s a nostalgia looking back and a naivete of one’s life at age 23 amidst a war zone.

I think Alice McDermott said she was wondering about the wives in Graham Greene’s 1955 novel The Quiet American — what their lives were like — and came up with this novel. The time and place came alive for me with these characters in the 1960s. I have not read McDermott before, but I picked up her novel Charming Billy once when it came out in 1997. I’d like to read more of her books, which mostly have Irish Catholic characters and themes from McDermott’s background.

That’s all for now. What about you — have you read any of these authors and what did you think? Have a great weekend.

Posted in Books | 23 Comments

Spring Forward

Hi All, how was your week? Don’t forget to set your clocks forward on Saturday night. I like Daylight Savings Time — as the light seems to stay around longer in the evenings. And there’s more time to work in the fields, lol. But at first, the time change usually throws me off for a while.

And if you’re planning to watch the Academy Awards it’s this Sunday, so mark your ballots. I suspect that Oppenheimer will win some big awards and perhaps Killers of the Flower Moon. We just finished watching American Fiction and the chilling WWII movie The Zone of Interest, which were our last ones over the past year we’ve seen of the Oscar nominees, which include:

  • Oppenheimer
  • Killers of the Flower Moon
  • Anatomy of a Fall
  • The Zone of Interest
  • Maestro
  • Napoleon
  • American Fiction
  • Past Lives
  • Golda
  • The Holdovers
  • Society of Snow
  • Nyad
  • Priscilla
  • May December

They were all pretty good. We haven’t yet watched the film Poor Things, or the Ukraine war documentary 20 Days of Mariupol, which looks harrowing, but I hope it wins Best Documentary to bring more attention to Ukraine’s plight. Happy Oscar viewing.

Meanwhile in addition to the five library books that came in last week that I posted – I received three more this week. Have you read any of these? They look like winners, but how do I squeeze them all in before they’re due, lol. Usually I juggle and pick and choose and then I have to get some back another time.

And now, I will pose this week’s survey question which is: what is the name of the last indie bookstore you visited? And what did you buy? I will start. At Christmas time, I went into a very small bookstore in Alberta called Yooneek Books, which is a different way to spell unique I gather, and I picked up a nonfiction book entitled: Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden: Two Sisters Separated by China’s Civil War by Zhuquing Li. I have not read it yet, but the author teaches East Asian Studies at Brown University, and it looks like a sad and informative story about her aunts’ lives. What about you — what was your last indie visit?

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

Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips / Knopf / 304 pages / 2023


I loved the storytelling in this novel, which I listened to on audio. Much of it is about a 12-year-old girl ConaLee and her mute mother Eliza, who are being taken by a depraved ruthless man called “Papa” to a lunatic asylum in 1874, where he says Eliza will be cured. The asylum, run by real-life Dr. Story Kirkbride, offers the two refuge from the dangerous world where they’ve come from.

Since the Civil War days of 1864 mother and daughter had been living in a cabin up on a mountain ridge in West Virginia trying to avoid thieves and stragglers from the war, soldiers up to no good. Eliza’s husband left years earlier to fight on the Union side and he hasn’t been heard from since. Neighbor Dearbhla takes the horse to search for him believing him injured in a hospital. While she’s away, the Confederate-sided Papa makes his entrance terrorizing Eliza in a scene that will set off trigger warnings for various readers. By the time, ConaLee and Eliza get to the asylum you feel as about as much relief as they do. The place seems to have an interesting night watchman, a benevolent founder in Dr. Story, an orphan named Weed, and a tough woman who runs the kitchen.

As the story bounces between 1864 and 1874, connections begin to form of who the real father of ConaLee is and what happened to him and what will become of Eliza, her care, and ConaLee, who joins the staff at the asylum. It’s a wonderfully told story that’s both dark — for its wartime shatterings — and light — with the refuge of the asylum. I didn’t know of author Jayne Anne Phillips before, but I’d like to read more of her books in the future.

My Friend Anne Frank by Hannah Pick-Goslar / Little Brown Spark / 2023

The author’s own story and her friendship with Anne Frank are very powerful in this recounting. Although she shared her life story for many decades after the Holocaust, this was my first time knowing about Hannah Pick-Goslar and her friendship with Anne Frank. I feel remiss in not knowing about her earlier.

Hannah and Anne met and knew each other as young neighbors and classmates in Amsterdam and into their pre-teen years when the Nazi roundups began. Like Anne, Hannah suffered much during World War II, though her path differed a bit. When the roundups started, Anne’s family disappeared and went into hiding in 1942, but Hannah’s family stayed and got caught up in 1943 and was sent to Westerbok transit camp. Later in Feb. 1944 Hannah and her family were taken to the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen, where she says her path crossed once again with Anne’s sometime early in 1945.

Apparently one day Hannah heard Anne’s voice on the other side of a fence. When I was listening to the audio — I could scarcely believe it, so emotional to even imagine. Did they really briefly reunite once more?! I like to think or hope so. But by that time Anne was starving and not well and Hannah tried to throw her some food. But then didn’t see her again. Near the war’s end, Hannah tells of how she was one of thousands of Jewish prisoners forced onto the Lost Train to Poland where she was without food or water for 13 days … before being liberated by Russian troops.

Hannah’s years post-war, which she also writes about, are interesting … how she became a nurse and moved to Israel and was in touch with Otto Frank, Anne’s father, who was on a quest to publish Anne’s diary. It goes on to describe how Hannah went on her first speaking tour in the U.S. about the Holocaust in 1957, letting people know of the horrors and genocide and what happened to her friend Anne. And she continued nearly until she died in October 2022, giving talks about Anne and the Holocaust and letting students know.

Hannah was an amazing heroine and one of the last eyewitnesses to the Nazi genocide. Her memoir was made possible thanks to Tel Aviv journalist Dina Kraft who began a series of interviews with her before she passed. This moving and scary memoir is worth its weight in gold and then some.

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

Posted in Books, Movies | 46 Comments

March Preview

Hi All. Happy Leap Day. This extra day of February happens every four years so it’s a bit special, but I think most of us are ready now to move into March and spring. Already things are melting away up here and it’s very windy today. It’s been a strange and warmer winter than usual. Still the coming of March is often a cause for celebration, don’t you think? Will things start to turn green and flowers bloom where you are? They won’t be turning color here just yet, but it’s still nice to think about.

There’s no time to waste in talking about new releases this month, but first check out this picture of the novels that arrived in for me at the library this week. Oh my. When they all come in at once, I have to juggle which I can read before they’re due back. Doesn’t that drive you crazy? I like the looks of all of these. Do any stand out to you, or have you read any of them? I’ll keep you posted which I finish and like. So far I’ve started Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips.

Now for new March books, I’m looking at four that have particularly caught my attention. First off, Percival Everett’s novel James (due out March 19), which I’ve mentioned before, is one that has received a lot of critical praise. It’s a reimagining of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn told from enslaved Jim’s point of view.

As Ann Patchett says: “James is funny and horrifying, brilliant and riveting. In telling the story of Jim instead of Huckleberry Finn, Percival Everett delivers a powerful, necessary corrective to both literature and history.” It sounds good and I hope to read more of Percival Everett’s books afterwards, including his 2001 novel Erasure, which is the basis for the film American Fiction

Also I’m curious about Xochitl Gonzalez’s second novel called Anita de Monte Laughs Last (due out March 5). Her debut novel Olga Dies Dreaming was quite a hit when it came out in 2022, which I still need to read. Now her second novel — about an art history student at Brown University who unearths the buried history of a Cuban American artist who tragically died in 1985 — is getting favorable reviews too.

The story moves back and forth in time and follows both women’s perspectives, while examining themes of art, power, and love. Author Ana Castillo says it’s “a remarkable story about reclaiming what has been erased.” So I’m on the wait list for it.

Next is the debut novel from Rita Bullwinkel called Headshot (due out March 12), which is about eight teenage girls as they compete at a boxing tournament in Reno, Nevada. The girls’ pasts and futures are examined as they summon the emotion and force of will required to win in the ring.

It sounds pretty raw and I’m a bit hesitant to read a girls’ boxing novel, but this debut has received so many glowing remarks about it that I want to check it out even if it’ll make me squeamish a few times or so. We’ll see. The author, who I’ve not heard of before, lives and teaches in San Francisco. 

The last book pick is a novel called A Great Country (due out March 26) by Shilpi Somaya Gowda, which according to the publisher “explores the ties and fractures of a close-knit Indian-American family in the aftermath of a violent encounter with the police” … when the 12-year-old son is arrested.

This one is set in the affluent area of Pacific Hills, California, and examines the fallout of the arrest and how it shakes each family member’s perceptions. It’s been compared to Celeste Ng’s novel Little Fires Everywhere with themes about immigration, social class, and privilege. So count me in. I have not read the author before, but she’s already had a few bestsellers. 

On the screen this month, there’s a plethora of new shows coming out. First off, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the movie Dune Part 2 out March 1. The sequel follows Paul Atreides (played by Timothée Chalamet) as he unites with the Fremen people of the desert planet Arrakis to wage war against House Harkonnen. Hmm. There’s sure to be some sandworms involved, but do note the movie is 2 hr 46 mins long, so plan accordingly if you plan to see it. I’m a bit more on the fence this time around, but it’s still probably a go.

Also note the Academy Awards airs on March 10, so if you plan to catch anymore Best Picture nominees beforehand, you need to get cracking. 

Other than that there’s five new TV series coming out that look pretty good. All of them are based on novels, except the first show called The Regime (on HBO Max starting March 3), which is a six-episode political satire that depicts a year in the life of a crumbling authoritarian regime. It stars Kate Winslet as a chancellor gone power hungry. Is the political climate right for this, or what?

The series was filmed in Austria and features the impressive Liechtenstein Garden Palace in Vienna. Check out the set. 

Next is the seven-part mystery drama series Apples Never Fall (on Peacock starting March 14) based on the novel by Liane Moriarity about the Delaney family whose mother Joy (played by Annette Bening) vanishes, forcing her four adult children to confront their parents’ marriage and their past. Whoa it sounds like a doozy.

Coincidentally my book club will be reading and discussing the novel Apples Never Fall in early May. Should I wait till then to see the show, or go ahead and see it now? I guess I can wait. Reading it first is usually much better.

Then there’s the seven-part historical series Manhunt (starting March 15 on AppleTV+) that’s based on the nonfiction book by James L. Swanson. It follows Secretary of War Edwin Stanton’s search for John Wilkes Booth in the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.

Anthony Boyle, who’s currently in the show Masters of the Air, will be the bad guy assassin John Wilkes Booth with British actor Tobias Menzies as Stanton. The series features a large cast and I hope it will be as gripping as the book.

Next is the gritty crime drama American Rust: Broken Justice (starting March 28 on Prime), which is the second season featuring Jeff Daniels as a compromised chief of police of a small Rust Belt town in southwest Pennsylvania … whose morals become tested when the son of his girlfriend (played by Maura Tierney) becomes accused of murder. It’s based on the 2009 novel by Philipp Meyer. It seems like it’s been awhile since Season One in 2021, which got canceled by Showtime but then was picked up by Prime. Yay, Jeff Daniels is always a treat to watch. 

The last series is the eight-episode period drama A Gentleman in Moscow (premiering March 29 on Paramount+ and Showtime) based on the 2016 bestselling novel by Amor Towles. Scottish actor Ewan McGregor stars as Count Alexander Rostov, who’s banished for decades in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution to an attic room at the Hotel Metropol. Will Ewan be able to pull off the Count? I’m betting he will. And the series was filmed in England, not Moscow, so the Count should be all right. Lol.

For music in March, there’s new music coming out from such well-known artists as Norah Jones, Justin Timberlake, Kacey Musgraves, Lenny Kravitz, the Black Crowes, Beyonce, and Sheryl Crow among others. I’ll pick Kacey Musgraves new album Deeper Well due out March 15 as my choice this month since I’m liking country these days, though I’m also curious about Beyonce’s upcoming country album called Act II due out March 29. So we will see.

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

Posted in Top Picks | 38 Comments

Remembering the Monster Dogs

Hi. How is everyone doing? We are having mild weather here this week, and it feels a bit like spring but that could change next week. Still March is just around the corner, yay. Are you ready for spring?

It turns out my husband and I are planning a road trip at the beginning of April to visit my parents and stay in Southern California for a few weeks. We have never driven there from Canada and plan to bring our dogs and take four or five days, stopping for sights and walks along the route. It’s going to be a humdinger of a trip, lol. Have you ever taken a long road trip and where did you go?

Meanwhile, I saw a neat article in The Washington Post today about the return of an author who wrote a peculiar and captivating tale in 1997 called Lives of the Monster Dogs, which was sort of a cult hit back then about a colony of talking canines trying to find their place in the world. Now after 27 years, the author Kirsten Bakis has finally written her second novel called King Nyx (due out Feb. 27). It’s not about the Monster Dogs this time but is a feminist gothic tale set in 1918 about a paranormal researcher. I’ll have to add it to my list as I’m glad the author is back.

It reminds me though — back in the 1990s, I wasn’t reading a lot of novels because I was working full-time in D.C., doing grad school, playing tennis, and having a social life too, lol, but Lives of the Monster Dogs was sent to me by my Canadian boyfriend at the time — now my husband — and I read and loved it. The particulars of it are now murky, so a reread is soon in order. I still have my original copy, pictured above, despite two moves and twenty-five years later. Ha, funny how things go. Have you read it?

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

Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spenser-Ash / Celadon Books /368 pgs /2023

4.5 stars. I really enjoyed this debut novel about 11-year-old girl Beatrix who is sent by her parents to live with a volunteer family in America after the Germans begin bombing London in 1940. The parents are conflicted about sending their daughter but feel it would be safer. Meanwhile the Gregorys, who live in Boston and have two boys (ages 9 and 13), welcome Beatrix into their family and really take a shine to her, especially when they get to their summer place on an island in Maine. 

As the years go by during the war, “Bea” comes to feel more at home with this family than with her own parents and their spare life in London. The novel alternates short chapters among the various characters including: Bea, her parents in London, the parents in America, and their sons William and Gerald, which gives a variety of interesting perspectives. 

I found it really drew me into their world and I especially liked the first half of the book when Bea and the boys are teens and the Gregorys are loving their summers in Maine on the island: swimming, boating, and hiking in the woods. It felt so carefree and fun before America joined the war and they become more involved. The two boys become quite close to Bea.

But then when the war ends and Bea has to leave to return to her parents, things become harder for them all. Their ties with one another become less as the years go by and the kids start careers but is still formative to them all. Years later, they become in touch again after a loss … with visits in America and the UK and their ties develop anew.

I found this poignant story well written and well done and I got caught up in their lives which felt quite real. I didn’t realize there was a program during WWII where parents sent their kids abroad for safety reasons. I’ve read other novels where parents in London sent their kids to the country in the UK during the Blitz, but this abroad premise opened another facet to that circumstance. I found it an accomplished debut and a touching family story.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain / 270 pages / 1876 

What can you say about Tom Sawyer? He’s mischievous and imaginative — a cunning orphan boy (around age 12) who often gets himself into trouble and then by some miracle comes out on top looking good. He’s a regular brighter Dennis the Menace of the 1840s … in small-town Missouri along the Mississippi River. I thought the tale of his adventures, which I listened to on audio, was fun and I laughed at times as Tom goes about his ways, turning boring days into adventures. 

He makes white washing the fence look enjoyable, falls for classmate Becky Thatcher, and runs away and plays pirates with his buddy the vagrant Huckleberry Finn and Joe Harper to a nearby island. But later when they’re missing for days and the town thinks they’re dead, they come out awashed with love when they reappear at their own funeral. 

Tom and Huck also come up against Injun Joe and witness the crime he committed in the graveyard, with Tom later testifying in court. Later they go in search of buried treasure … and Tom and Becky get lost in a cave for a few days. It’s scary then and Tom cuts it a bit close in that misadventure with Becky falling weak.

On the whole, the tale is good fun and draws interest for being written in 1876 … of how town life and boys were back then, often like boys are now. Twain was already well on his way with this his first solo novel. His writing and language are often a marvel.

I revisited this classic tale because author Percival Everett is coming out with the novel James in March with reimagines Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s perspective, which I hope to get to as well as the original.

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

Posted in Books | 46 Comments

The Survey & More

Hi All. Happy Valentine’s. Woohoo. I hope you can have a nice dinner tonight with your sweetheart, and/or exchange cards and maybe even flowers — ha, go for broke, lol. Here are two of my sweeties, Willow, age 3, and Stella, age 11. They like their balls, walks, and meals … of course.

And can you believe we’re already into mid-February. Most people have a holiday on Monday, so perhaps you have plans to get away? I’ll be reffing a tennis tournament all weekend, starting on Friday, and they say it could be 14-hour days, ouch. So cross your fingers that my new knee can hold up as I will be standing a lot of the time. 

Meanwhile, we will continue the reading survey we’ve been having with the question of what is your favorite or preferred genre or book category to read? Is it mystery, crime, sci-fi, thrillers, fantasy, general nonfiction, literary fiction, classics, romance, historical fiction, memoir, or what? I think it’s okay to have two.Try to be as specific as you can, and maybe also give an example of a book in that category that you liked.

I would say my preferred genre is literary fiction —Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels such as Never Let Me Go are a favorite — and I also like historical fiction such as the recent In Memoriam by Alice Winn or The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. Perhaps I’d also include contemporary fiction, too, as a category I enjoy.

Check out the photo above is what I see from the office window. It’s another view from last week’s post of the office’s bookshelves. 

And this week I am reading Laura Spence-Ash’s 2023 debut novel Beyond That, the Sea, which I heard about from a couple bloggers including Constance over at the blog Staircase Wit. It’s a compelling story about a married couple in London who send their 11-year-old daughter over to America when the Germans begin to bomb the city in 1940. The girl Beatrix comes to live with a family in Boston that really take to her, especially when they go to their summer place on an island in Maine. Its chapters alternate among Beatrix, her new family members, and the parents she left behind.

I won’t say much more till I finish and review it, but I’m enjoying the story, which follows “Bea” and her relations with the family from 1940 all the way to 1977.

I’m also listening to the audiobook of Mark Twain’s 1876 classic The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (see the first edition front picture at left). It’s been a long time since I encountered the mischievous character Tom Sawyer and his sidekick Huckleberry Finn, whose Adventures I plan to revisit next, but author Percival Everett has a new novel called James coming out March 19 that reimagines the tale of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn told from the enslaved Jim’s point of view. So I’m gearing up by returning to Twain’s classic tales.

Everett’s novel James has already received such raves that I’m eager to read it once the library gets it in. I have not tried Percival Everett before, but I would like to read a couple of his other novels too.

Lastly I’ll just mention, my husband and I have been on a mission to see some of the Oscar-nominated movies before the Academy Awards show on March 10. Here are the ones we’ve seen so far. They’ve all been pretty good. I tried to put them in some kind of order, but I’m not sure it’s my final numbering just yet. I’m still tinkering.

  • Oppenheimer
  • Killers of the Flower Moon
  • Maestro
  • Anatomy of a Fall
  • Napoleon
  • Golda
  • Society of Snow 
  • Nyad
  • Priscilla 
  • May December 

And here are the nominated films that we still hope to see beforehand: 

  • Poor Things
  • The Zone of Interest
  • American Fiction
  • Past Lives
  • 20 days of Mariupol 
  • Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning 
  • Barbie 

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

Posted in Books, Movies | 30 Comments

Oh Dear

Hi all. I hope everyone is well and getting through the storms of February. The photos in the aftermath of California’s epic rainstorm do not look good. I hope it dries out soon. We plan to visit my parents and brother there in April. Meanwhile things are fine here. We received several inches of snow over the weekend and it’s nice and white out again. But we’ve had some heavy fog advisories too, which make driving a bit dicey, especially since there are a lot of deer about, which could dart out of the mist at any minute. Speaking of deer, my husband took this photo when he was out walking the dogs in the evening down the street. I couldn’t believe how many there were! No wonder our bird feeders need to be put away at night, otherwise they’d be emptied. So far, this has been working. 

And do you remember when I was working on my bookcases in the office here? Well here’s how it turned out. There’s actually another smaller bookcase on the opposite wall too. But things seem pared down, right? I got rid of six boxes of books when we moved. And I bought the desk from Pottery Barn, but when it was delivered it turned out to be yellow-ish white, which didn’t go with anything, so then I had it painted to match, argh. Nothing’s easy right? But I’m pleased how it turned out and that I have a window to look out. The natural light makes it nice in there. 

In bookish news, I’d like to continue on with the reading survey we’ve been having. In earlier posts, I asked about when you DNF a book, and if you read multiple books at a time. And now I wonder where you get the majority of your books from (is it from the library, your own stacks, a store, or where?) and also what book format is your most preferred (is it hardback print, e-book, audio, or paperback?). I guess I get most of my reads from the library, and I probably read print hardbacks mostly (with some too on an e-reader) along with listening to downloadable audiobooks from the Libby app, Hoopla, and Audible. What about you?  

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

In Memoriam by Alice Winn / Knopf / 382 pages / 2023 

4.5 stars. This novel will likely give you a heavy book hangover after you finish, meaning these characters and their intense World War I experiences last on considerably after the last pages, though it took me a while to get invested in the story at first, probably not till page 100 did things turn more interesting for me. 

The beginning starts at a British boarding school in 1914 where a group of guys are goofing around together, pulling pranks, fighting, and reading the school’s In Memoriam column to see who’s died or been wounded in the war. They talk of signing up and being heroic in battle. Two smart and sensitive ones in particular, Sidney Ellwood, 17, a Jewish poet, and Henry Gaunt, 18, half-German, stand out and seem caught up on one another without letting the other know, though in time they get close. 

Various boys in their clique seem gay at the school or have gay experiences and you might wonder a bit after awhile if this story is going to be for you. But then when Henry Gaunt skips out and enlists in the war things turn dicey at the front where he’s a captain. And Ellwood follows him by enlisting. They hear of classmates getting killed and see horrific things while in the trenches near Ypres, Belgium, including the Germans use of poisonous gas and friends getting blown apart. It’s while they’re on a mission to breach the enemy’s line that their fates become changed. What happens after includes a couple plot twists as the war goes along that kept me rapidly turning the pages. 

It’s an epic WWI story that puts you right there in the grime, amid the trench fears, wounds, camps, and the aftermath’s shell shock, and propels you to know what’ll happen to the characters: the men — Ellwood and Gaunt — and their prep school classmates. The love between Ellwood and Gaunt brings the experience upfront and closer, and the men feel quite real and brought to life as it goes on. 

Debut author Alice Winn seemingly comes out of nowhere to blow the lid off of this one. Her style was a bit different to me in that the novel includes pages and pages linked by dialogue. In fact, so much of the story and setting she’s able to get across by dialogue alone. There’s not a lot of exposition writing here, which is surprising in a novel that seems to get across much of the atmosphere of the Great War and its battles. Kudos to Winn for this epic tale that left me wondering long after it was over.

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino / FSG / 336 pages / 2024 

4 stars. I liked some of the light humor and touching emotions in this coming-of-age novel about a girl born in 1977 who grows up in Philadelphia with a single mom and is really an alien from a faraway planet, which is known at the begining. For the most part, Adina looks and seems human, but she’s a bit of an outcast and every once in awhile she’s faxing her “superiors” in outer space to report back on human behavior, which surprises her in some regards. She also has a bit of an obsession with astronomer Carl Sagan, who was a believer in extraterrestrial life. 

The narrative follows Adina’s youth in the 1980s and ’90s as she navigates her life with her mom, her school years, and the popular mean cliques, while befriending a neighbor in her grade — Toni and her brother Dominic

The three of them eventually wind up in NYC with Adina getting a little dog named Butternut and where Toni works in publishing and persuades Adina to share her writings with the world. The story has some amusing and charming parts as well as some sad ups and downs as Adina grieves over a couple losses and goes through an uneasy breakup. Her Philly Italian mom, who seems opposite of Adina, remains a constant in her life. 

I listened to this as an audiobook narrated well by Andi Arndt, and I enjoyed the story’s premise, its cultural spotlights, as well as Adina’s sensitive sensibilities. My only slight qualm was I would’ve liked to have seen Adina a bit more different than her human counterparts. She’s just a bit nerdy and a loner, but her extraterrestrial being doesn’t stand out all that much. Though towards the end, she begins to wonder about going “home,” or whether to stay on Earth, which lend things some apprehension as the story goes on. This was my first Bertino novel and I think I’d read her again in the future.

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

Posted in Books | 51 Comments

February Preview

Hi all, are we ready for February? Yes, let’s move on from January. We are now beyond the hyped start of the new year. Meanwhile we’ve had some crazy warm temperatures up here that have been melting away the snow. It’s a bit of a mess between mud and ice. These conditions are usually seen in late March and April, argh. Oh well, let’s plow on.

What do you have going on in February? As usual this month there’s the upcoming Grammys this Sunday Feb. 4 and then the Super Bowl the following Sunday Feb. 11, so get your treats and fiesta dip in order, lol. And I hear that folk legend Joni Mitchell will be performing at her first Grammys at age 80. Wow that’ll be amazing and moving, since she had to relearn how to play and sing her music after suffering a brain aneurysm in 2015. Also U2 will perform as well as others, so tune in if you’re interested. 

Lately we’ve been watching some of the Oscar nominated films. We just watched Killers of the Flower Moon, directed by Martin Scorsese. I don’t know what I was thinking — listening to much criticism of it — but the film was good, though the real-life story is sad and disturbing. We watched it over two nights since it’s three and a half hours long.

It’s sensitive I think to the Osage Nation and how it depicts the true case in which members of the tribe were murdered in Oklahoma in the 1920s over their wealth and oil money. Indigenous actress Lily Gladstone gives a subtle and knockout performance as Mollie Burkhart whose Osage family members were being targeted and exploited from a plot conceived by a terrible white rancher named William Hale. The actress is of Blackfoot heritage and grew up on a reservation near Seattle. She won the Golden Globe for her part in the movie and I wonder if she will win the Oscar too. Though everyone in the Best Actress category is very strong this year. 

Now let’s dive into what’s coming out this month. In novels, there’s new books from such well-known authors as Anna Quindlen, Paul Theroux, Tommy Orange, A.J. Finn, and Roxana Robinson among others. I’m considering these and several more, including likely the most highly anticipated novel, Kristin Hannah’s The Women (due out Feb. 6), which Kirkus Reviews says is about: a young woman whose “experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.” The nurses in the Vietnam War have long been overlooked, but now Hannah is back to give them their due. If you liked her historical fiction, like The Nightingale, then you’ll be interested as I am to check this one out.

I’m also keen on Michael Crummey’s novel The Adversary, which came out in Canada back in September and is now due out Feb. 6 in the States. Kirkus explains: it’s set in a remote town on the northern coast of Newfoundland in the early 19th century and is about “a mutually despising brother and sister who fight dirty for control of the area’s fishing and mercantile concerns.” Hmm.

I have loved Crummey’s earlier novels Sweetland (2014) and The Innocents (2019) and sort of consider him my current favorite Canadian author, so I need to check out the novel no matter what it entails. I saw Crummey speak back in October at the book festival here, and I was a fool not to get an autographed copy.

Next I’m curious about Amitava Kumar’s novel called My Beloved Life (due out Feb. 27), that’s said to be an ambitious Indian family saga that follows the narratives of a father from 1935 to 2020 —his life’s journey— and his daughter, who is television journalist in the U.S. Along the way it provides an indelible portrait of India over 85 years and its citizens abroad. The story of the father and daughter covers right up to the Covid pandemic.

I’m not familiar with this author, but he grew up in India and lives in New York, teaching at Vassar College, where he’s written several other books. This novel sounds good to me and has received some starred reviews by PW and Kirkus among other publications. 

Also I’m keeping an eye out for two crime suspense novels, first: Iris Yamashita’s novel Village in the Dark (due out Feb. 13), which is her second novel set in rural Alaska featuring police Det. Cara Kennedy. I liked her first book City Under One Roof so I’ll venture out for this one too. There’s also indigenous author Waubgeshig Rice’s latest called Moon of the Turning Leaves (due out Feb. 27), which is a sequel to his bestselling 2018 post-apocalyptic novel Moon of the Crusted Snow. I need to read book one first. I just heard about these novels set in northern Ontario, which are said to be powerful stories of survival and might be illuminating to me. 

Moving on to screen releases in February, there’s not a lot of new things I’m dying to see, but that’s good since I’m still trying to catch up on several Oscar-nominated films before the Academy Awards on March 10. But I would like to see the final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, which begins airing this Sunday Feb. 4 on HBO Max.

Oh yeah. My husband and I love the show, now in its twelfth season! And similar to Larry David’s show Seinfeld, we still enjoy watching reruns of Curb. Larry’s a cranky obnoxious guy in Curb, but many episodes crack us up. 

If you’re still in need of humor, you might want to check out Season 2 of the comedy-drama Life & Beth (starting on Feb. 16 on Hulu), starring Amy Schumer and Michael Cera as a hapless couple edging towards marriage. Schumer is quirky, and her humor in this seems more PG than her standup monologues, which are pretty rough. I have yet to see the show since in Canada it’s on Disney+, which we don’t get, but the trailers look funny. Someday maybe we’ll break down and rent the show. It could even be a night in February when we’re looking for a laugh, or if the whole world goes to seed. 

In music for February, there’s new albums by Madi Diaz, the Strumbellas, and Brittany Howard formerly of the band Alabama Shakes. I’ll pick Madi Diaz’s new album Weird Faith due out Feb. 9 as my pick this month. I don’t really know her music, but she seems a singer-songwriter based in Nashville who toured a bit with Harry Styles last year and will open a few dates for My Morning Jacket this year. Here’s a song she sings with Kacey Musgraves called “Don’t Do Me Good.” 

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

Posted in Top Picks | 28 Comments

Squash and Berry Pickers

Hi. I hope everyone is doing well. We had a bit of snow here on Monday, but the freeze has left and now very mild weather is ahead. We went from -40 to +40 degrees in a couple weeks time, which is quite a change and means more outdoors time for me and the dogs, yay. The sky in the photo might look like there’s a fire, but it’s only the sunset and the prospects of warm weather ahead. We’ve started taking the bird feeders around the house down at night because deer have been eating them dry. If you can believe it, papa deer is able to stand on his hind legs, balance, and eat from the bird tray in the photo. The deer are also able to empty the other feeders. Squirrels are less of a problem here, but we are on the lookout.

Not much else is new, but we had a couple notable anniversaries this week. First my husband and I passed our one year anniversary since we moved out of the city for the countryside, which has been fantastic. We love it so much more here. We still have more upgrades to do, but we’ll do them over time as we can. Also today marks eight weeks since my knee replacement surgery and I’m doing well. I go to physical therapy once a week and practice the exercises daily as well as I can pedal an indoor bike. So little by little, I’m returning to normal activities, but just not tennis playing yet, which is okay.

Last week I posed the question about when is it time to DNF a book and you all had great answers about your own rules of thumb for it. So I will pose another book-ish question, which is: Are you a “monogamous reader” — reading a book at a time — or do you prefer to have multiple books going at once? And how many do you usually read at a time? I admit I have generally been a monogamous reader all my life. Once I’m hooked in a book, I like to focus on that one till it’s done. Though I usually have one print read going and one audiobook going at a time. Just recently, along with a fiction read, I’m able to have a nonfiction read going on the side. So perhaps I’m trying to leave monogamous reading behind. What about you?

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

Western Lane by Chetna Maroo / Farrar Straus & Giroux / 160 pages / 2023

4.2 stars. I found the writing outstanding in this debut novel set outside London about a British-Indian father and his daughters Gopi, 11, Khush, 13, and Mona, 15, who have just lost their mother as it opens. To occupy them, their father gets them training in squash playing at their nearby rec center Western Lane, though Gopi who narrates the story is the only one who really excels. Her father puts her through a rigorous squash regimen and she begins playing with 13-year-old Ged, whom she begins to like.

However, it’s all very restricted and repressed as the girls, whose Gujarati relatives are lurking and have let the father know they are willing to take and raise a daughter since his wife’s death, live under a tight decorum of rules. But it all begins to weigh on Gopi, her sisters, and the father, and fractures in their family begin to emerge. Towards the end, Gopi trains for a squash tournament that could bring them back together.

Western Lane is a moving coming-of-age story of Gopi’s reckoning and an internal family drama. As an avid tennis player I loved how it brought the sport of squash into Gopi’s drama over the loss of her mother, like a metaphor of her life then. When you’re on the court, “you are alone. That’s how it’s supposed to be. You are supposed to find your own way out,” says Gopi. This novel is a winner and I will watch for whatever Chetna Maroo writes next. This was my first audiobook of the year narrated expertly by British actress Maya Saroya.

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters / Harper / 320 pages / 2023

3.75 stars. The story follows the lives of two siblings from Nova Scotia whose indigenous family comes to Maine each berry season to work and pick in the fields. It’s not really a mystery early in the story that as a young child, age 4, the girl goes missing and is raised elsewhere, not fully comprehending her origins. No one knows what happened to her, but her brother, two years older, lives with the loss and guilt over last seeing her. The story, which alternates chapters between Norma and Joe, explores how their lives play out over a few decades in different places and under different circumstances.

The story felt sincere, heartfelt, and agonizing over how the indigenous family is not whole afterwards and how it suffers from various tragedies over the years as well as how the two main characters’ lives face hardships. There’s quite a bit of sadness and longing to it, and the debut author does well to make the two character’s different lives and places feel authentic (it’s quite a visual telling), though there was still just a touch to me that felt a bit contrived and melodramatic. The story’s also sort of predictable. Still it’s an interesting portrayal of their lives, what happened to them in different families, and it kept me turning the pages.

The novel was a pick by my book club, which will be discussing it in February. It seems to include many issues in it about ethnicity, race, and how and where a person is raised, so I think it’ll make for a good discussion.

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

Posted in Books | 40 Comments

Frigid Days and The Guest

Hi All. We are just coming out of a deep Arctic freeze here, which we were in for about five days. Ouch. At one point it was like -40 (without windchill), which I think is my new record for cold since I’ve lived in Canada. I had my husband “walk” the dogs during the time, lol. Did you get any of the freeze? Now we’re back to regular winter temps and it feels easy in comparison. Even with a snowstorm upon us, it’s much better than a freeze like that.

My reading year is starting off okay, though I feel I’m already getting a bit behind, ha. I had some Publishers Weekly assignments due. Do you remember Adelle Waldman, the author of the 2013 novel The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.? Well she has a new novel coming out in March called Help Wanted, which is a workplace kind of story about a group of box-store workers in Upstate New York and the conditions they face. Adelle is a thoughtful author and I got to do a Q&A with her for PW, see that here. To research her novel, she actually worked at a box-store for about six months and found her co-workers hardworking and funny, but the conditions they faced were pretty unstable and hard to make a living doing.

Also I just came upon a Jan. 2 article in The Post by Stephanie Merry titled “When should you give up on a book? Readers weigh in.” I think it says a lot of readers give a book about 50 pages before deciding whether to stick with it or not. Though some readers bail after a couple of sentences, while others slog through a book to the bitter end. What is your rule of thumb for whether to keep on going with a book?

I must admit I’m usually a “slogger” and I rarely DNF books once I decide to pick them up. Ugh, I know It’s crazy — life is short etc. — but if you do enough research on what you’re going to read beforehand and what appeals to you, then you often don’t run into situations where you dislike a book so much to discontinue it. But once in a blue moon you will, and then it’s either bail or slog. I often think the book might get better so I should stick with it, which perhaps is just wishful thinking, though it can come true occasionally.

And now I’ll leave you with a review of a novel that I finished at the start of the year.

The Guest by Emma Cline / Random House / 304 pages / 2023


4.2 stars. Emma Cline is a master of outsider protagonists who do bad things — the antiheroes. I loved this one: it’s dark, edgy and unsettling — about a 22-year-old girl (Alex) who’s broke and has left the city and an N.Y. apartment full of roommates and a guy named Dom she stole money from — and snagged a rich man (Simon) twice her age on Long Island. She’s living with him for a month or so in his big house with the pool and near the beach but after one false move she’s out and left to make her way with nothing but a bag with a few clothes and a spotty phone that fell in the pool.

She ingratiates herself with a guy or two and bums a couple places to stay. She plans just to stay afloat for a week till she’ll crash Simon’s Labor Day party and try to get back together with him. But until then, she’s left to meander the gated places she’s not a part of. Meanwhile she’s scared that Dom, the guy she stole money from is after her. Along the way, she gets entangled with those she imposes on and leaves a line of destruction in her wake.

This is a fast read. One that stays with you after the last pages turn. Alex has some good sides and bad sides about her that was hard to turn away from. I probably liked the novel a bit more than others on Goodreads since its overall rating is just 3.34. This rating might be because Alex is sort of conniving and the story is a bit dark. Still to me, Cline puts you right there and takes you with this person, barely getting by, who you want to see not fail, despite her not being very likable. Maybe I liked the novel a smidge more than Cline’s 2016 debut novel The Girls, about a young girl who gets caught up in a cult in 1969 California, which was good but creepy. Cline’s still only 34 and a talent to watch.

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

Posted in Books | 48 Comments

Stats and Favorites of 2023

Hi All. It’s time to take a look back at my reading for 2023 and see how I did and what I liked. It’s a bit weird but in terms of stats I would say it was sort of an off-year for me. I think because we moved in 2023 and were fixing and selling the old house and trying to renovate the new one, my head and time for reading were a bit skewed. I listened to many audios while I was driving the hour back and forth between the city and the rural place. Luckily in the end, it worked out and the move was completed and it’s been a happy change. So LoL that’s my qualifier.

Also I’m often a mood reader so it’s interesting to see what I picked up this year. I don’t plan much in advance. It looks like I still need to read more diverse authors and books from other countries, not to mention more nonfiction? Nah, fiction is my favorite. But I like that I read many new-to-me authors and they broadened my horizons. And now without fewer adieu, here are my stats and favorites for 2023.

Stats: 60 books completed & reviewed
Fiction — 50
Nonfiction — 10
Female authors — 46
Male authors — 14
White authors — 48
Non-White authors — 13
Print books — 28
Audiobooks — 32
American authors — 34
Canadian authors — 9
British authors — 4
Irish authors — 3
French authors — 2
Australian authors — 3
Brazilian author — 1
Turkish author —1
German author — 1
Malaysian author — 1
Zambian/African authors — 1

Favorite Fiction


1) Demon Copperhead was an epic read for me. It’s gritty but how Kingsolver weaves her Appalachian tale along the lines of the Dickens classic is nothing less than remarkable.
2) I was pleased to finally get to Gil Adamson’s The Outlander from 2007, which transported me with its journey of a female fugitive on the run in 1903.
3) The Nightbitch surprised me with its darkly funny and satirical look of a harried first-time mother on the brink … transforming into something feral.
4) In the past, I’ve been drawn in by Mary Lawson’s storytelling, and her tales set in small hamlets in northern Ontario hit the heart. A Town Called Solace is my favorite of hers.
5) The Light Pirate surprised me early in 2023 with its strong page-turning tale of climate change run amok in Florida.
6) Yellowface turned into my fun audio of the summer with its clever rendering and diabolical narrator that wouldn’t let go.
7) I had to listen to This Other Eden twice through to fully grasp it but found myself taken in by its lyrical passages and the terrible displacement of the people on the island.
8) Small Mercies is a powerful gritty crime novel set in Boston in 1974. The strong character of Mary Pat Fennessey blew me out of the water.
9) Fiona McFarlane is a new favorite Australian author whose two novels I read this year. Her unsettling tale The Night Guest about an elderly woman’s care didn’t disappoint.
10) The Personal Librarian is historical fiction that introduced me to the real life story of Bella da Costa Greene whose courage and life were amazing and challenging.
11) Eastbound is a novella that drew me in with its intense circumstances of two people in flight on the Trans-Siberian railway.
12) Study for Obedience is a very strange novel with a solitary narrator who is an off-kilter mess. But her unsettling circumstances stuck with me for quite a while after.

Favorite Debut Novels
1) Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder (2021)
2) Trespasses by Louise Kennedy (2022)
3) The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane (2013)
4) Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow (2022)
5) Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens (2023)
6) Go As a River by Shelley Read (2023)
7) City Under One Roof by Irish Yamashita (2023)
8) Maame by Jessica George (2023)
9) This Bird Has Flown by Susanna Hoffs (2023)

Favorite Memoirs /Biographies
1) Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You by Lucinda Williams (2023)
2) The Churchill Sisters: The Extraordinary Lives of Winton and Clementine’s Daughters by Rachel Trethewey (2021)
3) On Hitler’s Mountain: Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood by Irmgard A. Hunt (2005)
4) You Could Make This a Beautiful Place by Maggie Smith (2023)
5) Better Living Through Birding: Notes From a Black Man in the World by Christian Cooper (2023)
6) Run Towards the Danger by Sarah Polley (2022)
7) Left on Tenth by Delia Ephron (2022)

Classics
1) Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin (1956)
2) My Antonia by Willa Cather (1918)
3) The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (1963)

Favorite Crime novels
1) Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane (2023)
2) I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai (2023)
3) Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (2023)
4) The Last Ranger by Peter Heller (2023)
5) City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita (2023)

Coming-of-Age Fiction
1) The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue (2023)
2) Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens (2023)
3) Maame by Jessica George (2023)

Historical Fiction
1) The Personal Librarian by Marie Bennedict & Victoria Christopher Murray
2) This Other Eden by Paul Harding
3) The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
4) The Postcard by Anne Berest
5) The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr
6) Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls

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

Posted in Books | 42 Comments