Small Rain by Garth Greenwell and Other April Reading!

I've been working long and hard this month, but I've managed to make time for my reading adventures. I've had to face it: It's essential for my mental health, the care of my brain, and my mood in these terrible times.

Earlier this month, Garth Greenwell won the PEN/Faulkner Award for his novel Small Rain. I was lucky--I checked in with my fabulous library in Glens Falls--Crandall Library, and they had a copy. It has been a good read for me emotionally. 

Like the narrator, I am completely leery of doctors and their interventions. But when the narrator develops a life-threatening condition that leaves him hospitalized in the ICU for 2 weeks, he mentally scrambles to find a way to accomodate what's happening. He's only in his 40s, completely unprepared for such a venture, and feels an incapacity to handle what usually occurs only in people of poor health in their 60s and 70s. Yet he hustles, as we all do, to find ways to let his mind escape what's happening. Unwittingly he focuses on recent, past traumas, but also on the many wonderful relationships in his life. For me, as a hospital-phobe, due largely to a life-threatening condition that happened to me in 2012 and was not handled well, to say the least, I totally resonated with the narrator's experience and his all-too-real, understandable anxieties. A great novel! I know, it sounds too grim, but I highly recommend it for its veracity to human experience.

 

I am also nearing the end of The Distant Hours by the Australian author Kate Morton. It's 563 pages, and frankly, would have been improved by some tightening, to say the least. However, I have enjoyed it. Gosh--I only paid $1.99 for the ebook, so that's something. It's set in England, mostly during the early years of World War II, but also bounces forward in time so that the daughter of a very young evacuee can visit the "Castle" and the people who offered her mother shelter during the Blitz. A complex family saga, much more complex a story than I've described here. Although overly long, it is compelling. I recommend it!

 

Really Reading Now, As Much as I Can

Yes, another long time away from this blog. But these days I need to read and share with others, like I need to breathe. 

I've been immersed in the Australian writer Charlotte McConaghy's recently published The Wild, Dark Shore. Without knowing what I was doing, I chose it as an Audible book. If I knew then what I know now, I think I would have chosen to read it as a book rather than an audiobook. The writing is beautiful, and because I am not a stellar listener, I feel I'm missing some of its beauty. 

 

I'm still wrapped up in it, nevertheless, and am near the end now. Powerful writing! The novel is set on Shearwater Island in the Antarctic. A friend asked if it's set in the future, and I would say yes, a bit in the future. Shearwater Island is about to become uninhabitable because the ocean is overtaking it, yet one family remains there, though only for a matter of weeks, at which time they plan/hope to be picked up by a ship and taken back to Australia. Wonderful nature writing, yet this novel is a nail-biter as well, and yes, a harbinger of climate disaster. 

I'm only 10 pages from finishing Homecoming by Bernhard Schlink, translated and first published in English in 2008. I just came off being tremendously moved by Schlink's most recent novel, The Granddaughter, and decided, as a project, I would read all of his novels (many of them for the second time). I did read Homecoming back around 2009-2010. But this second reading has been nothing like the first; it has been much, much more startling. 

I reached the ending, and I saw what was coming, though I swear I don't remember. But some part of me remembers, because for a long time, I could not finish the last 30 pages. I did read much of it today, but all of it is so prescient, so unbelievably, incredibly timely that it is horrifying to me. No, nobody dies. No extreme tragedy ensues. But this ending is about our current status--now. A charismatic professor, a person at the helm, leading his students into danger for his own theories and purposes. And in the ADIRONDACKS, no less!! I kid you not!

 So, to rest the mind (!), I'm also reading a Kate Morton novel, The Distant Hours. Have you read that one? It's a very long one, set in England, during WWII to decades later, moving back and forth in time.

A Brief Check-In of Sorts!

 It has been so enormously long since I last posted. I've been happily consumed by satisfying work, and the research for an article I'm writing about the "Hard Winter," 1779-1780, during the Revolutionary War. I'm just barely grabbing moments for non-work reading these days.

A question for any reader out there: Did you ever read a novel set during the American Revolutionary War that you enjoyed, or that you remember reading? I can't recall a single one, other than The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, which I really appreciated. 

I'm in the mood for Revolutionary-War era fiction, given my recent research. We're well into the 250th anniversary of the Revolution, and I hope fiction and non-fiction will be appearing, but thus far, given that I have heard nothing about any new historical fiction on this topic, I fear there will be nothing. 

Right now I'm reading the 2024 translation of the acclaimed German author Bernhard Schlink's The Granddaughter. It's so thought-provoking, so fascinating, I'm riveted, but then again, it's not easy reading, emotionally speaking. It's emotionally hard, as are all his novels. Very worthwhile, however. A young woman brought up in the GDR (East Germany) weds a young man from the FDR (West Germany). Lots going on. It all runs so deep. So deep.

I read The Sequel recently, the thriller-mystery novel by Jean Korelitz, and the sequel of her bestseller The Plot. This one was stupendously clever, I grant you, but the characters are colder than ice and worse than that. So if you need a novel to sustain you in harrowing times, this one is not it. 

I really enjoyed Nancy Thayer's audiobook, The Summer We Started Over. Family fiction, set on Nantucket, and I thought it extremely well done. I highly recommend it for these times. Very soul-satisfying. 

I'm sorry I have not provided links to any of these books. If I have time tomorrow or later, I will. I hope you will be able to find them if you are interested.

 

 

 

 

It's August 1st! So Where Are My 20 Books of Summer?

With only one month left until September 1st, I can truthfully "fess up" that my 20 Books of Summer plans have gone bust. I have been reading, yes. But my working hours, and other household challenges, have made a shambles of what I hoped would be a good stab, at least, at my list of 20 Books.

I have just finished listening to An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I'm so glad I listened to the audiobook first, which is replete with audio excerpts of speeches by JFK, RFK, LBJ, (many of those written by Richard Goodwin, Doris's husband), many of which brought tears to my eyes, and Martin Luther King's speech excerpts. So now, just this minute, I have ordered the hardcover, because I must return to this masterpiece of a book again and again and again. I don't know when a book has spoken to me, straight through to the heart, the way this book has. Hence, I've just this minute placed the order for the hardcover edition, which is selling now for only $20.99 at Amazon! I guarantee that this book will make the all the lists for Top Ten Books of the Year. The political and the personal--the personal and the political--all intertwined inextricably into this splendid mixture. I am so grateful to have been alive and totally aware during this decade. It matters a great deal to me to have experienced a period of such high idealism, integrity, and, well, intelligence!

And, in my last post, I was in the midst of reading The Nature of Disappearing by Kimi Cunningham Grant, which is set in the wilderness of the Idaho mountains. I was a bit uncertain during the first half of the book, but the last half was superb, and I really can say I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Somehow or other, I managed to get myself (miraculously) detoured onto a book I hadn't expected to read, which has really riveted me. Motherland: Growing Up with the Holocaust by Rita Goldberg, has been a genuine surprise. Very well written, exceptionally researched, it's the story of the author's mother's youth as a German Jewish immigrant in Amsterdam, and later in Belgium with the Resistance, and then in Bergen-Belsen. While in Amsterdam as a child, her parents were very close with Anne Frank's parents. Indeed, Otto Frank is a constant presence in this book, throughout her mother's life and after the war, throughout the childhood of the author, and largely because the author was his goddaughter. What has been most surprising to me is that this book, to my knowledge, has received very little acknowledgement, but it is excellent. And I have read literally hundreds of books dealing with the Holocaust. 

Excerpt from Reviews:   A groundbreaking second-generation memoir of the Holocaust and its legacy by Otto Frank’s goddaughter—“The extraordinary tale is heroic” (The New York Times).
 
Rita Goldberg recounts the extraordinary story of her mother, Hilde Jacobsthal, a close friend of Anne Frank’s family who was fifteen when the Nazis invaded Holland. After the arrest of her parents in 1943, Hilde fled to Belgium, living out the war years in an extraordinary set of circumstances—first among the Resistance, and then at Bergen-Belsen after its liberation. In the words of The Guardian, the story is “worthy of a film script.”

SO! As you can see, I have been a totally serendipitous MOOD reader this summer. Reading happily, but frankly, with not anywhere near enough time to read! That is the only somewhat distressing aspect. 

This has been a Summer!!! Ken and I feel we are constantly reeling from the news cycle. Fingers crossed, we're hoping and praying for the best. And then the tornados hit! Our climate is crazy. We never used to get tornados here, and now they're a threat whenever there are severe thunderstorms. 

Well, wherever you are, I hope the weather gods will be kind(er) to you than they have been.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Outrageous HUMIDs Are in Residence! Where's My Brain?

I know that many people tolerate HOT and HUMID conditions fairly well. Alas, I have never been one of them. My physical and cognitive intolerance of these conditions has definitely become worse over time, but especially over the past few years. I can't think well--and thus I can't work well, obviously. 

But, thankfully, I can read books just fine. (And watch Wimbledon!! It's been so satisfying and so much fun!) 

What I'm reading: Yes, due to my dysphoria, I devoured another Lisa Jewell thriller. This one was I Found You, published in 2016, which received a rating of 3.96 on Goodreads. This was my second novel written by Jewell that I've read this summer, and I was not disappointed. As you know, I'm an eclectic/MOOD reader. When I'm feeling at wit's end, I find myself seeking out a thriller, but not just any thriller, but ones with heart. And Lisa Jewell's novels have been wonderfully twisty and filled with psychological nuances that fascinate, with some likeable characters. I steer clear from horror totally! Not for me! But if you are of a like mind, I recommend Lisa Jewell.

 

Right now I have only one novel going. And that is The Nature of Disappearing by Kimi Cunningham Grant. I absolutely loved her debut novel These Silent Woods, and Ken loved it, too, which we both read in 2022. (Don't miss this debut which is a perfect gem! I want to read it again!) Her second novel is The Nature of Disappearing, which is set in the National Forests of Idaho, the wilderness theme recurring, but this one is a bit darker than her debut. Still very good, so far, though I'm only halfway.  If you love novels set in wilderness, I urge you to try her books! I will post a final verdict when I'm finished. 

 

 

    

 

 

 

Reading Update: Eleanor Oliphant, The Safekeep, and Looking Forward

When times are very, very bad, it is such a solace to have lots of books to retreat to and, yes, be buried by! As of July 1st, we are in a constitutional crisis in this country, and the majority of the Supreme Court, in their presidential immunity decision, has created it. I am reeling...

I was absolutely enchanted by my reading of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman.  I wondered why I haven't read it sooner, but I'm so very glad that I read it NOW, while I'm feeling so much despair (about our country). Eleanor is the completely original, wonderful, enjoyable, heart-warming heroine of her own story. I had no idea! I can't think of a book I have thrilled to more in the past few years. And to think I bought it on a sheer whim, when it came up for sale for $1.99 as an ebook. Then I devoured it! What great memories I have of this book to carry me forward! So, yes, I am counting it as one of my Twenty Books of Summer. 

 

The Safekeep by the Dutch author Yael Van Der Wouden (in translation), has received many mega-starred reviews. (To see the excerpts from reviews, click on the link and scroll down to "Reviews.") It was published in June. The wide-spread, though vaguely stated words of acclaim set me on to it. The novel is set in the Netherlands in 1961, and has been widely touted as an historical novel. 

Now that I've read The Safekeep in its entirety, I would agree that it is indeed an historical novel, definitely. But the first half of the novel betrays no evidence whatsoever of that fact. This half of the novel depicts the lives of Isabel and her two brothers and Eva, her oldest brother's girlfriend. Isabel, as a young woman, lives alone (and lonely) in the family house in the east of the Netherlands after her mother's death. When Isabel's brother Louis decides that Eva should stay with Isabel while he is away for 6 weeks for a work project, everything turns on its head. Why does Eva want to stay there, when she knows Isabel dislikes her and is totally antagonistic? And on that note, ensues a huge drama that reaches back to the world of the Netherlands and the Dutch people, especially the Dutch people as a whole, in World War II. 

The Safekeep deserves all the high praise that has been bestowed on it. I will say that for me, at times, it was an uncomfortable read, because of the relationship that evolves between Isabel and Eva, and the deeply unfortunate aftermath. It is so worthwhile--the language and the translation is flawless. I AM so glad that I read it, and I will always remember it, so I recommend it without reservation.

Another book that I've put on my Twenty Books of Summer List.

A Brief Check-In: Doris Kearns Goodwin & More

Today, Saturday, was such a stellar weather day here, which buoyed us as we ran around scurrying to get LOADS of chores done before an unprecedented, extended heat wave hits our area. At least 4 days of 92+ degrees weather next week starting Tuesday, for our home in the mountains. This has never happened before. In fact, we have not had a single day of 90-degree weather here in at least four years. Fortunately, we recently purchased a new AC unit for our second story, which gets hit hard by heat. I realize so many of you will be suffering from much higher temperatures, so I do wish you the best. Just get that cool drink by your side and dive into books!

I am still listening, with the utmost fascination and appreciation, to Doris Kearns Goodwin's memoir An Unfinished Love Story. I have 6 hours of listening left of the more than 17 hours total. It is SO good! I love the conversations that she details with her husband Dick Goodwin, which she relates in total, as she prepared to write this book. Going over his entire history in the Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson administrations. An incomparable speechwriter, Goodwin was! Excerpts from the speeches are included in the audiobook. What can I say? It's a MUST! Listen. Especially now. I hope many of you will be able to hear what political life was like in the 1960s, when Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" brought us Medicare, Medicaid, Civil Rights, the Civil Rights Voting Act, and so much more. 

I realize that Doris is in her 80s now--Gosh! She seems so vital on MSNBC and NBC. I do hope she has the strength and the will to keep writing, in whatever form! Maybe not 400-page books, but whatever she can manage. I so hate to lose such gifted, accomplished historians and writers!

Yes, everyone, I DEVOURED a thriller! In 2 DAYS. Last weekend!  You know, thrillers are a dime a dozen these days, and so many of them are schlock, so I really searched and searched for a good one. It's on my Twenty Books of Summer List:  Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell, published in 2020, a year when many great books got lost in the shuffle due to Covid.  I was mesmerized and not disappointed, which is a huge boon, given how many waste-of-time thrillers are out there. Such a great way to relax, when a thriller is clever and smart beyond belief.

I have finished another book on my list, an historical novel, The Storms We Made by Vanessa Chan. I was attracted to this book because I knew nothing about how Malay (now Malaysia) was affected by World War II. This was Chan's debut novel. It was a heart-wrenching story of how the people of Malay were subjugated by the Japanese, but there was a more compelling story within, of how a Malaysian woman, a wife and mother, was subverted to become a spy for the Japanese. Much more to this story, of course, but I hesitate to give it a strong recommendation because the writing was not strong, and I hesitate to say this, but I felt it had many flaws, including the ending, which was so over the top and unnecessarily brutal in way that was pointlessly contrived. I'm sure others have felt differently about this novel. I would love to hear your comments if you've read this. I would hope to be persuaded otherwise!

Looking forward to reading about your summer literary adventures!

 

 

 

 

 

Turned the House Upside Down--Searching for a Crucial Book

 I know, and probably you all know, that I have dozens and dozens more books than I have room for in bookcases (numerous bookcases in multiple rooms!!) and bookshelves, on tables and other book-holding fixtures. And then! The book piles!!  Under beds, next to beds, on night tables, you name it. Whew.

Because I am listening to An Unfinished Love Story, the new memoir by Doris Kearns Goodwin, and have now completed the Kennedy years in this memoir as experienced by Doris's amazing husband, Richard Goodwin, who served in the Kennedy administration, my historical mind is only naturally turning KENNEDY. 

How WELL I remember those years, with such clarity. But how can that be so, given that I was age 7 during JFK's campaign for president, age 7 at the time of the debates, at the time of the election, and after. This is a very, very long personal story, and is such because I lived right outside of Boston, because I was Catholic, and my father was Irish, and because our entire household was ABUZZ with the DRAMA of KENNEDY for president. 

 

So this may explain why, after listening to the Kennedy years as narrated by Doris Kearns Goodwin, I tore through the house searching for the bio/history I purchased a decade ago, Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years by David Talbot, which is about the actions and relationship of JFK and RFK in that era. I bought the book, placed it on my Kennedy shelf, which is extensive, and THEN a number of years ago, removed it, started reading it to great interest, and PUT IT who knows where? because I was diverted by life and other reads.

Do you think that I could find this book that I am so desperate to read in my house? The search laid bare the absolute total disarray of my books and bookshelves. It's a disaster!  How can my Library have reached this state?? Books shoved under beds! Tumbling down in piles!

So--today--I did the easiest thing and I borrowed this very book from Crandall Library in Glens Falls. I'm so blessed that they have a copy, because they are the only library in the system that has it. 

But a Summer Mission has Begun! It's time to Play Library. Organizing all books. Of course, dispersing books to find new homes. Onward! My mission--

 

 

The Twenty Books of Summer

I've been so intrigued to read the 20 Books of Summer lists that everyone has been posting. Thanks to Cathy of 746 Books for having instigated all of this busy summertime reading so many years ago now. 

Of course, I'm hoping I'll be able to read 20 books this summer, but I know my schedule may not afford me all the time I need to complete it. But I'm feeling optimistic at the end of this first official weekend of summer, Memorial Day Weekend.

Twenty Books of Summer  2024

1.     An Unfinished Love Story by Doris Kearns Goodwin  Audible  17+ hours

2.     Shadow in the Glass by M.E. Hilliard  (#2 Greer Hogan Mystery) Set in Lake Placid

3.     Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell (2020) Her highly acclaimed thriller fr. 2020  finished!

4.     North Woods by Daniel Mason

5.     The Women by Kristin Hannah

6.     God of the Woods by Liz Moore (Starred reviews fr. Library Journal, PW, Kirkus, Booklist)

7.     History:   The Deerfield Massacre by James L. Swanson

8.     Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck  Winner of the International Booker Prize in Translation 2024

9.     The Last Word by Elly Griffiths

10.  Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell  by Ann Powers  Audible

11.  The Storm We Made  by Vanessa Chan  WWII Malaya  finished!

12.  The Lost Book of Bonn by Brianna Labuskes   Germany 1946

13.  Table for Two: Fictions by Amor Towles

14.  The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill

15.  History/Biography: This Spot is Open!

16.  All the Broken Places by John Boyne

17.  A novel or memoir by Paul Auster, cherished author, (1947-2024)

18. This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud  A Must-Read! Highly acclaimed!

 I am keeping #s 19-20 Open. And #15, which will be History or Biography. 

I realize that this list is incomplete. I hope to fill the slots as time and...BOOKS...become available.

The very best wishes for a sunny, but NOT TOO HOT summer for us all, and, of course, plenty of time to indulge in BOOKS.