Midcoast by Adam White and This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

 

Enjoying my Twenty Books of Summer very much.  Midcoast and This Time Tomorrow are my third and fourth books read on my list.

I ripped through The Midcoast by Adam White, his debut novel, eleven years in the making. Every time I turned around this past week, there it was, lying on the couch-side table, ready to be picked up and devoured, which I did, happily. “Compulsively readable” would be the blurb I would stick on its cover.

But, mind you, I must add a caveat—the first 40 pages made me question my decision to read this book. I floundered and worried all through the beginning, “Am I going to have to retire this book?”

 After a slow start, I needn’t have fretted. From then on, I zoomed through to the conclusion. The Midcoast is set in the coastal, very rural community of Damariscotta, Maine. The narrator Andrew grew up in the community, and though he attended prep school and college elsewhere in New England, he returns to raise a family. He ultimately devotes himself to investigating a crime family of sorts, people who have been part of his life since his youth. I have lots more to say about this novel, but worry about spoilers. Sigh!

I just finished This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub, my fourth book from my 20 Books of Summer list. Overall I can say that I liked it, but I kept finding myself wanting to connect with it more, and I had been hoping to love it, given its subject matter of a good father/daughter relationship. At the beginning of the novel, Alice is forty and works as an admissions assistant in the Upper West Side private school that she once attended. Her father is very ill. She longs for a closer connection with him, and miraculously, travels back in time to her sixteenth birthday. There is a lot of time travel in this book, but I would say that it is not a “time-travel genre” book. I loved the depictions of the Upper West Side, my favorite place to hang-out in Manhattan.

20 Books of Summer: The Tsarina's Daughter and More

 I find it's a challenging juggling act to manage the reading for my Twenty Books of Summer. First of all, I must say I'm definitely enjoying myself as I plow through my fourth and fifth book from the list simultaneously. But I also have two other books on the list, borrowed from the library and sitting on my book pile, and I've got to pace myself or hurry up or something. One thing I won't do is plow through a book so fast that I don't care what I'm reading. I draw the line there. So what if a book is overdue for three or four days? So be it. 

Okay. My second read for the List was The Tsarina's Daughter by Ellen Alpsten (2022). Here's my take:

Elizabeth Petrovna Romanova, the second daughter of Peter the Great and his second wife (who ruled as Catherine I after her husband’s death), is the focus of this sweeping historical saga. Elizabeth (Elizaveta), by her 22nd birthday, is the only surviving child of Peter the Great, who, after a lifetime of family tragedies and challenges to her survival, managed to become Tsarina of all the Russias. But this book is not about her life as the ruler of Russia. It is about her childhood and young adult years amidst the riches and extraordinarily perilous and tumultuous Russian court that makes the story. What I enjoyed most about this 477-page book was all that I learned about the early 1700s in Russia: the latter half of Peter the Great’s reign, about Catherine I, and all the struggles waged after her death, as one relation after another fought amongst themselves, sometimes to the death, as to who will become tsar or tsarina.

For me, what’s valuable about reading good historical fiction, is the way it leads me to dig into learning more about the history of an era. In 2018, I bought The Romanovs by Simon Montefiore, which is a scrupulously detailed history of the Romanov Dynasty from 1613-1918. I’m finding I’m really interested to read the actual history of the difficult era following Peter the Great’s death and the power struggles that ensued.

If you like reading absorbing, vast historical novels about Russian history, you will really enjoy this book. The story line is strong, and the intricate descriptions of life during this time period are very well done.

Next up:  The Midcoast by Adam White. 

Classics Club Spin #30

It's been a long time since I participated in a Classics Club Spin. My #20 Slot for The Twenty Books of Summer is empty, so I'll fill it with whichever book rolls around for me on Sunday. Of course, I will not be reading the Classics Club Spin book at the end of the summer. I'll read it in the time specifically allotted. Lots of my 20 Books of Summer List will be read out of order due to the state of My Library Holds List. 

So here's my Classics Club Spin List of Twenty Books:

1. Barchester Towers by Trollope

2. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

3. Short Stories by Shirley Jackson

4. Snow by Orhan Pamuk

5. In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden

6. Walden by Henry David Thoreau (reread)

7. Another Nature title by Henry David Thoreau

8. The Doll: The Lost Short Stories by Daphne du Maurier

9. The House on the Strand by Daphne Du Maurier

10. And Quiet Flows the Don by  Mikhail Sholokhov  

11. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

12. Home of the Gentry by Ivan Turgenev

13. Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott

14. An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott

15. The Things They Carried and Other Stories  Tim O’Brien

16. Pilgrim at Tinker’s Creek by Annie Dillard

17. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

18. The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham

19. The Razor’s Edge  by W.S. Maugham

20. Sanditon by Jane Austen, with essays.

Good luck to everyone with the SPIN!

 

 

First of 20: All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami

This is my first book I've read for The Twenty Books of Summer.

I’m really glad that I happened upon a positive, very brief review of Japanese author Mieko Kawakami’s recently translated novel, All the Lovers in the Night, which was published in a Europa edition in 2022. I knew nothing about Kawakami prior to discovering this book, but after reading it, I’ve searched for more information about her and her work. Kawakami’s most well-known novel is Breast and Eggs.

     Before I describe my wonderful experience with this book, I want to say that the title utterly baffles me, based on my reading of the book and what it is about. So I wonder: Is this a translation of the original Japanese title of the novel? Really? Or, is it, as happens all too frequently, a title slapped on by the publisher, all because a strict Japanese translation of the title would mean nothing to English language readers?

     So, no, I feel I can say with purpose, that this is most assuredly not a book about lovers in the night.

     It is, however, a book about a single woman in her mid-thirties, who lives an incredibly solitary life in the midst of a large city. She works as a copy-editor/proofreader. Her work hours are long and are spent scrutinizing manuscripts for errors, a job that occupies her for 10-14 hours a day, depending. She has no true friends, no family or social life, nor does she have any leisure time activities. She has a television, but never watches because she hates the noise. She appears to be an empty shell. Actually, I was spellbound that this was the sum total of her existence. How can a person live like this and survive?

     What’s fascinating is to observe her slow, plodding, and messy efforts to break out, which creates all the dramatic tension. I was wholly absorbed by everything she tried and her flawed attempts. Brilliantly portrayed by Kawakami.

     She does meet a nice man, in his late fifties, who becomes a catalyst. I loved how this entire relationship was handled.

     I highly recommend this novel.

Summer Reading, and Replies to Readers

 On June 1st I picked up from Crandall Library the first book on my Twenty Books of Summer List, and as of late this afternoon, am over halfway through this fascinating novel by Mieko Kawakami. 

I don't know why I started with this news, because the issue most pressing on my brain is that Blogger is not letting me reply to comments. No biggie, but I've got to be able to reply! So, while I try to figure out the issue, I'll reply to each blogger who left comments at the end of this post. 

In fact, why don't I do this right now? Just to let you know, I have missed all of you so much.

Tracy, I have not read any of the books in The Alexandria Quartet by Durrell. I must check your blog posts about them to see what you thought. And jury duty, no less! I hope your summer will give you more time for reading, without interruption, except for your garden and summer fun, that is. 

Cath, I'm fascinated that you have read The Serpent Pool by Martin Edwards. Did you enjoy Martin Edwards's The Lake District mysteries? I have simply marveled over the first three. I love the fact that one of the main "sleuths" is an historian and I really like his character, and love his detective counterpoint as well. A great match. Great stories! And an incomparable setting! Gosh--have got to look up your list of 20!

Diane, Yes, indeedy, I envision that more than one or two books will have to be substituted. Very tricky! Ragnar Jonasson's book was scheduled to be released in April, now pushed forward to June 28th. In any case, I've been following your reading and we seem to always be intrigued by many of the same authors and titles. I will look forward to your summer reading adventure. Too bad there's not a Joyce Maynard book on the roster this summer. She's on the cusp just like us!! (Celebrating mine tomorrow with a trip to the only bookstore within 60 miles of me--Barnes and Noble in Saratoga Springs.) 

Cleo, I've been meaning to read The God of Small Things for at least 3 years now--time to get on with it, and will be a great counterpoint to the others I'm reading. I must check out your list now. Have a great reading adventure this summer!