Avaland's 2014 Literary Wonderland

Welcome to my 2014 thread. I'm in my 8th year of LT and my 6th year of Club Read. I have some big things going on this year, so I don't know how much time I will have to be here, or how much reading will get done.

NOW READING: (more or less toying with)



The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates (novel, 2014, US, American Gothic)
Hard Choices by Hillary Clinton (memoir, 2014) reading bits of the hardcopy, but I actually plan to listen to this via audio.

RECENTLY READ:



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Before I Burn by Gaute Heivoll (2014, Norwegian, novel)
Back to Back by Julia Franck (2014, T from the German)
North of Boston by Elizabeth Elo (2014 ,US)
Gunshot Road by Adrian Hyland (crime novel, Australian, 2010)
The Hidden Life of Deer: Lessons From the Natural World by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas (nonfiction, nature, 2010)
Children of the Revolution by Peter Robinson (2014)
The Red Road by Denise Mina (2014)

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NOVELS/NOVELLAS:

Before I Burn by Gaute Hevoll (2014, Norwegian)
Back to Back by Julia Franck (2014, German)
North of Boston by Elizabeth Elo (2014, US)
The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan (2013, YA, folk/fantasy, Australia)
The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne (2014, US, SF)
Carthage by Joyce Carol Oates (2014, US)
Léon and Louise by Alex Capus (2011, Swiss)
Burn by Julianna Baggott (2014, SF, US), no touchstone yet.
The Year of the Ladybird by Graham Joyce (2014, UK)
The Lie by Helen Dunmore (2013, UK)
Enon by Paul Harding (2013, US)
The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore (2012, UK, ghost story)

SHORT FICTION:
Evil Eye Four Novellas of Love Gone Wrong by Joyce Carol Oates (2013)

NONFICTION:
The Hidden Life of Deer: Lessons From the Natural World by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas (nonfiction, nature, 2010)

POETRY:
The Circle Game by Margaret Atwood (1966, Poetry)
The World Will Follow Joy by Alice Walker (2013, poetry)

CRIME NOVELS:
Gunshot Road by Adrian Hyland (crime novel, Australian, 2010)
Children of the Revolution by Peter Robinson (2014)
The Red Road by Denise Mina
Gods and Beasts by Denise Mina (2012)
The End of Wasp Season by Denise Mina (2011, Scottish)
Still Midnight by Denise Mina (2010, Scottish)
Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin (2014, novel, UK)
Watching the Dark by Peter Robinson (2013)

MISC. ODDS & ENDS:
What Lot's Wife Saw by Ionna Bourazopoulou (Greek, 2007. T 2013) not so sadly, abandoned.
They Dragged Them Through the Streets by Hilary Plum (2013). Sadly abandoned.

The hubby's thread is HERE (not sure why this link doesn't want to work, but his user name is dukedom_enough, and his thread is here on Club Read)

How and What I read:

I very much enjoy reading what my fellow LTers have to say about the books they read, but strangely for me, and with some exceptions, your reading may seem to have less affect on my reading than it might on others. That's because discovering a book is part of my reading experience, so I still like browsing through publisher catalogs, the bookstore or online. I'm also a free range reader (cage free?) and seldom set goals numerical, topical or otherwise; however, in the past I have herded my reading into various pastures of interest, but these are normally a fairly loose shepherding. I believe also that there is a gender disparity in literature today, so I do my part to correct this by very purposely supporting (and buying) fiction and poetry written by women. I also am cosmopolitan in my reading with intent.

I will read most anything that piques my interest. I have my obsessions, Joyce Carol Oates and Margaret Atwood being two that come to mind, and my comfort reads (well written, solid police procedurals, usually) like anyone else. I'll list BELOW some favorites from the last six years on Club Read

Best of 2013:

Waiting for an Angel by Helon Habila (2004, Nigerian)
Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah (1992, Zanzibar/Tanzania)
Tuner of Silences by Mia Couto (2009, T 2012 Mozambique)
The Quiet Girl by Peter Hoeg (Danish, 2006, Translated 2007)
MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood (2013, Canadian, dystopian satire, 3rd in trilogy)
One Who Disappeared by David Herter (novel, 2011, US, SF/F, 3rd in trilogy)
Hitting Trees with Sticks by Jane Rogers (short stories, 2012)
Under the Keel: Poems by Michael Crummey (2013, Canadian)

I Still Believe Anita Hill, edited by Amy Richards (2013, nonfiction, essays)
My Heart is Boundless: Writings of Abigail May Alcott, Louisa's Mother, edited by Eva LaPlante (2013)
Seeking Palestine: New Palestinian Writing on Exile and Home; Penny Johnson and Raja Shehadeh, editors (2012))

My 2013 Summary:

Looking at my list of books read in 2013 I note that ALL of my short fiction has been authored by women, and all of my nonfiction has been edited by women. My novel reading is roughly 50/50 gender parity. Roughly 25+% of my fiction and 40% of my poetry reading is in translation. My crime fiction comes from: Canada, Iceland, Scotland, England, Australia, Norway, Sweden

Here's an interesting list (interesting to me, at least!) of my favorite books OF FICTION read in the five years I've been on Club Read. It's NOT a compilation of year's end lists.

I've not included crime novel series on the list, most have blurred together at this point. I've noted the author's nationality, original pub date, and date translated (most of them), setting where it might be different from nationality, whether it might be a "first" (first novel, first collection, first translation, first fiction), and a random smattering of awards (not a comprehensive list, just a note here and there), and for the US and Canada I've added states/provinces.

T=translation/translated.

MY FAVORITE FICTION READS: 2009 - 2013 (only my Club Read years), alpha by author.

Fiction (by author)
Aitmatov, Chiniz. Jamilia (novella, Kyrgyz author, 1958, T 2007)
Appaanah, Nathacha. The Last Brother (Mauritius, 2007, T 2010, first work T to English)
Atwood, Margaret. The Robber Bride (novel, Canadian-Ontario,1993)(reread),The Year of the Flood (book 2 of 3), MaddAddam (SF, 2013, book 3 of 3)
Asim, Jabari. A Taste of Honey (short fiction, linked stories, debut fiction-primarily a nonfiction writer/journalist, US author, set in the midwest, 2010)
Baggot, Julianna. Pure (novel, SF/post apocalyptic,1st of trilogy, US, 2012), Fuse (2013, 2nd book)
Barker, Nicola. Wide Open (UK, 1998, Impac Dublin Award winner), Heading Inland (short fiction, UK, 1998)
Bombal, Mariá Luisa. The House of Mist (novel, magical realism, Ecuador, 1937, T 1947)
Campbell, Bonnie Jo. American Salvage (short fiction, US-Michigan, 2009)
Couto, Mia. Tuner of Silences (novel, Mozambique, 2009, T 2012)
Crummey, Michael. Galore (Canada-Newfoundland, 2009)
Djaout, Tahar. The Last Summer of Reason (first novella, Algerian, 2001, T 2007)
Djebar, Assia. The Tongue’s Blood Does Not Run Dry (short fiction, Algeria, 1997, T 2006)
Dudman, Claire. One Day the Ice Will Reveal Its Dead (novel, set in Germany/Greenland, UK, 2003)
El Hachmi, Najat. The Last Patriarch (first novel, Morocco, 2010, set in Morocca/Spain)
Freeman, Castle (Jr.). Go With Me (US-Vermont, 2008)
Gurnah, Abdulrazak Paradise (novel, Zanzibar, 1994)
Habila, Helon. Waiting for an Angel (first novel, could be considered linked stories also, Nigeria, 2004, Commonwealth winner)
Hage, Rawi. DeNiro’s Game (Lebanese, 2006, Impac Dublin Award winner)
Halfon, Eduardo. The Polish Boxer (first novel, could also be considered linked stories, Guatelman, T 2012
Harding, Paul. Tinkers (first novel, US-Massachusetts, 2009, Pulitzer)
Herter, David. The Luminous Depths (book 2 of 3), One Who Disappeared (3rd, 2011) (SF, US-Washington state, set in “interbellum Czechoslovakia”)
Hoeg, Peter. The Quiet Girl (novel, Denmark, 2006, T 2007)
Jen, Gish. World and Town (US-Vermont, 2010)
Jones, Gail. Dreams of Speaking (Australian, 2006), Five Bells (novel, 2011)
Lanagan, Margo. Tender Morsels (fantasy, Australia, 2009)
McCann, Colum. Everything in This Country Must (short fiction, Irish, 2000)
Michaels, Anne. The Winter Vault (novel, Canada-Ontario, 2009, set in Canada/Egypt)
Michalopoulou, Amanda. I’d Like (short fiction, Greek, T 2008, first T in English)
Mieville, China. The City and the City (UK, SF/Crime, 2000), Embassytown (SF, 2011)
Millet, Lydia. Love in Infant Monkeys (short fiction, US, 2009)
Mueenuddin, Daniyal. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (short fiction, linked stories, Pakistan/US, 2009, set in Pakistan)
Muller, Herta. Land of Green Plums (Romania, 1994, T 1996, Impac Dublin Award, Nobel)
Munro, Alice. Open Secrets (short fiction, Canada, 1995, Nobel)
Oates, Joyce Carol. Mysteries of Winterthurn (1984), By the North Gate (short fiction, 1st collection, 1963), The Female of the Species (short fiction); A Bloodsmoor Romance (1982), Childwold (1976), Sourland: Stories (2010), Bellefleur (1980), Them (1969, NBA award winner), The Tattooed Girl (novel, 2003).
Ogawa, Yoko. The Diving Pool (3 novellas, Japan, T 2008)
Omasdottir, Kristin. Children in Reindeer Woods (novel, Iceland, T 2012)
Rahimi, Atiq. The Patience Stone (novella, Afganistan, T 2009)
Rogers, Jane. The Testament of Jessie Lamb (SF/dystopia, UK, 2011), Hitting Trees with Sticks (short fiction, 2012)
Shibli, Adania. Touch (novella, Palestine, T 2010, first T into English)
Shalih, Tayib. The Wedding of Zein (short fiction, Sudanese, 1969)
Temple, Peter. The Broken Shore (Australia, 2005)
Unigwe, Chika. On Black Sisters’ Street (first novel, Nigeran/Belgium, 2009)
Verlhurst, Dmitri. Madame Verona Comes Down the Hill. (novella, Belgium, 2006, T 2010)
Wagner, Elin. Penwoman (novel, Swedish, 1910, T 2009)
Ward, Jesmyn. Salvage the Bones (first novel, US-Mississippi, 2011)
Watson, Sheila. Deep Hollow Creek (novella, Canada-Britsh Colombia, 1992)
Wharton, Thomas. Icefields (first novel, Canada-Alberta, 1995)
Wilson, Kevin. Tunneling to the Center of the Earth (short fiction, first collection, US-Tennessee, 2009)

Anthologies:
Short Stories by Latin American Women edited by Celia Correas De Zapata
Speaking for Myself: An Anthology of Asian Women Writers, By Sukrita Paul Kumar (Editor), Malashri Lal (Editor)

Before you ask, NO, that isn't all of the Joyce Carol Oates I've read in the last five years. I suspect it's about half of the titles or less.
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Authors on the list I follow more or less, having read nearly all of what they have written: Atwood, Baggott, Couto, Djebar, Freeman, Gurnah, Habila, Herter, Jones, Lanagan, Mieville, Rogers, Ward, T. Wharton...
Author Obsessions: Margaret Atwood, Joyce Carol Oates.
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Loosey-Goosey Analysis*: 65 titles. 31% US authors, 31% translated, 65/35 female/male authors, 26% are short fiction collections/anthologies

# of books by region: UK 8, Australia 4, Canada 8, Asia 5, Europe 3, Africa 9, Middle East 2, Central/South America 3, US 20 (9 of which are JCO)

*not exact, of course. Some authors have spent have their lives in one place, but now live in another; some books you think must be translated are not (or the author translated them himself)

eta - fix touchstones, tidy up, analyze.

Good luck with the move!

>4 avaland: Thanks, Kris. I think the move won't actually come until April or May, but the process begins in earnest after the holidays.

Wow, that's an amazing list, Lois! I'm going to have to come back and look at it more carefully. When you say these aren't the books from your year end lists, are these the ones that have stayed with you over the years since you read them? I would find it interesting to go back to my year-end lists and see which books I no longer feel so enthusiastic about. I know when I do my end-of-year lists, I'm no longer so crazy about some of the books I was most enthusiastic about earlier in the year.

>7 rebeccanyc: I purposely didn't just compile my year end lists, but chose from the lists of all books read in each year (basically, I copying and pasted into one file), for exactly the reasons you mention. I imagine both lists would agree to a great degree but not perfectly.

Hi Lois - Can't believe we've been around here for 6 years!

>8 avaland: I can't believe I'm into my 8th year of LT! Time flies!

I'm glad you enjoyed Children in Reindeer Woods too. At the time I read it, I felt like the only one. Others that enjoyed are Madame Verona Comes Down the Hill, The Last Brother and The Wedding of Zein. Didn't care for Land of the Green Plums as much as you; Herta Muller and I just don't mesh very well. Most of the others are on my wishlist or should be! It was a fun list to browse. Thanks.

>11 labfs39: I think Land of Green Plums is a creative masterpiece, and loved it, but it's not the kind of book everyone would like. I appreciate style and creativity, lyrical prose...etc so I fall in love with books like Wide Open, and Tinkers when so many do not. The Winter Vault is on the list, not because I remember so much the story, but that the prose was so lyrical and emotive, and it has stayed with me over the years.

In the years I was at the bookstore, I read a huge amount of 'what everyone else wants to read' so as to be able to handsell to readers or recommend to book clubs...etc. As soon as I left I started reading much more short fiction and translations (both things that generally don't sell in most bookstores). Still, I was a bit shocked that 26% of my list were short fiction titles.

I keep thinking about what I don't have on the list, and I'm surprised to discover many of the titles I imagine should be on it were read BEFORE that first year of Club Read in 2009.

btw, imo, the Danish version of "The Killing" has the most credible and interesting female detective since Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) in "Prime Suspect." Michael and I are both hooked on and fascinated with this series, which is wonderfully complex and certainly well-acted. The show was recommended to me by my daughter, who watched the American version, but I like to see the "original" so we chased the Danish series down. And, this is clearly where the UK's "Broadchurch" got its inspiration (though, I found that show overtly manipulative).

>13 avaland: - The Killing is great. All three series are worth watching although the second one wobbles a little at times. It's hard not to love Sarah Lund and her jumpers.

There is another Danish (this time in collaboration with Swedish TV) crime series called The Bridge - the hook is that a body is found on the bridge that links Denmark and Sweden. It too has a female detective (with a male partner) but nothing like Lund, this one has asperger's syndrome. The second series is about to start in the UK and I'm banking on it getting me through the worst of January and February.

Another great foreign language series is the French one, Spiral. It was so well-received in the UK that the BBC put money into to guarantee a second series (it has now reached four).

Agreeing with Jargoneer regarding the superb original Danish version of 'The Killing' (I admit to losing interest slightly with series 2 after missing an episode and not catching up, and haven't yet seen the third, but anyway...). We checked the American remake - "just to see" - and lasted about three minutes before deciding it wasn't worth the effort and would always be inferior if you'd already seen the original.

'The Bridge' is as good in my opinion. Very satisfying in every regard, and looking forward to the second series as well. There was recently on British TV a remake of it (what's with all the remakes everybody? E.g. 'Alfie' - remake: awful by all accounts, 'The Italian Job' - remake: average by most accounts. There's so much fantastic original writing out there to base films or tv series on, I don't get it...but I digress...) - called 'The Tunnel'. It reprised 'The Bridge' idea of a joint bi-national procedure by recreating the found body scenario in the Channel Tunnel between England & France. Fine acting and production - but again - why bother if the original was so good?

I missed 'Spiral'.

Agree with you Lois 100% on Sarah Lund's credibility. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and looking forward to following your Club Read in 2014.

Paul.

I actually quite like the American remake. I had assumed I wouldn't, American remakes of foreign shows/movies are generally rather lacking, but it's really good, if depressing. I wanted to watch it before the original so that I wouldn't watch it, like it, then turn on the American one and go "agh they killed it!" as normally happens. This way, if it were decent I could enjoy it, and then watch what was presumably even better. We still haven't gotten around to the original yet, though.

(edited for typo)

Monkey - I reckon we'd have preferred it that way round too. I hope you enjoy the original when you get to it - I'm sure you will!

>14 Jargoneer:-16 Turner, there's an American adaptation of "The Bridge" - a body is found on a bridge between the US and Mexico. We just finished the second season, and watching the 'making of,' which was very interesting also. As explained, the show is filmed entirely one episode at a time, and none of the actors know who the killer is ahead of time. Monkey, I heard they have a different killer in the US adaptation. I'm sure the reason that we adapt shows rather than air the originals, is that the general audiences here are unlikely to watch something with subtitles, and likely have a lesser interest in what goes on in other countries (a sad commentary, but there it is. The same can be said of our reading, Nordic crime probably being the exception).

Thanks for the other recommendations. I'm watching the Swedish Wallander shows from the exercise bicycle (it's the carrot).

Very interesting "Best of" list from the Guardian. Various publishers chose "the book that made my year," "the book that deserved to do better," and "the book I wish I'd published," all with brief commentary.

Some expected titles mentioned, a fair number of translations show up in the "the book that deserved to do better" category, but also some other interesting entries.

The American version of The Bridge hits home since there really IS a serial killer in Mexico (or along the border, at least) killing young women.

>18 avaland: Oh I know, I've sadly encountered many people who "don't want to read" their movies and whatnot, which I think is utterly ridiculous. Remakes are never near as good as the original, is it really that difficult to actually devote your full attention to the screen for a couple hours to watch it with subtitles? bah. That attitude is terribly frustrating to me (as I'm sure most here on LT understand).

Different killer, eh? I wonder if they did it so as to keep the suspense, not having it "ruined" for those who watched the other, or just due to the differences in the adapted characters. Maybe a bit of both? Now I'm even more intrigued!

The Killing sounds very good, as does The Bridge. My current box set is an Israeli drama called Prisoners Of War, apparently the original inspiration for Homeland, about two men who are released 17 years after being taken hostage as young soldiers in the IDF - about how they, and their families, adjust to their return. It's very intense and has some graphic images of their ill treatment in captivity, but excellently acted and a gripping, complex story.

>21 .Monkey.: We watch a lot of foreign films, so I find reading subtitles no big deal - and really, one forgets they are reading most of the time.

Apparently there was something about the American season 1 and 2 adaptation ending that left some things unresolved. My daughter tells me that the US season 1 and 2 is all one case (so, I assume that corresponds to the 20-episode season 1 that the Danes made).

>22 wandering_star: Thanks for the recommendation, Margaret.

Yeah, 1 & 2 were one long thing. I don't think the end of that really left anything unfinished? Maybe I'm forgetting something, I don't know.

The list in post # 4, got me thinking about my favorite books during the other LT years, 2006 - 2008, so I went back and made that list also. I dare not attempt a nonfiction list.... The list reflects some formal study of African literature. I had to write papers on each of 12 African novels, so I guess they stuck with me.

I had a pleasant visit back to the 2006 "best of" thread in the "What Are You Reading Now?" group, where many of us hung out in the heady early days of the LT forums. amandameale, rebeccanyc, cabegley, lriley...that's more or less where some of us met. I created Reading Globally in December of '06, if I remember correctly.

My Best Fiction Reads 2006 - 2008 (LT, the early years!)

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Half of a Yellow Sun(first novel, 2006, Nigeria)
Al Aswany, Alaa. The Yacoubian Building (2002, T. 2004, Egypt)
Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake (2003, Canada), Surfacing (1972, a re-read)
Azzopardi, Tezza. The Hiding Place (2000); Remember Me (2003)
Baingana, Doreen. Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe. (first short fiction collection, linked stories, 2005, Uganda)
Brown, Jason. Why the Devil Chose New England for his Work (short fiction, linked stories, 2007, US)
Carey, Peter. The True History of the Kelly Gang (2000, Australia)
Carter, Angela. Nights at the Circus (1984), Burning Your Boats: the Collected Short Stories of Angela Carter
Couto, Mia. Sleepwalking Land (1992, T. 2006, Mozambique)
Dangarembga, Tsitsi. Nervous Conditions. (1988, Zimbabwe)
Djebar, Assia. a.k.a. Fatima-Zohra Imalayen Children of the New World (1962, Algeria), Women of Algiers in Their Apartment (1980, T 1992, novel or linked short stories)
Emecheta, Buchi. The Joys of Motherhood (1979, Nigeria)
Gordimer, Nadine (South Africa) Burger’s Daughter (1979, South Africa)
Grenville, Kate. The Secret River (2005, Australia)
Gurnah, Abdulrazak. By the Sea (2001, Zanzibar/Tanzania)
Habila, Helon. Measuring Time (2007, Nigeria)
Herter, David. On the Overgrown Path (2006, US, 1st in trilogy)
Jones, Gail. Sorry (2007, Australia)
Kraus, Nicole. The History of Love (2005, US)
Lanagan, Margo. Black Juice (short fiction, 2005, Australia)
Mahfouz, Naguib (Egypt) Midaq Alley (1947, Egypt)
McCann, Colum. Zoli (2006, Ireland)
McGahan, Andrew. The White Earth (2006, Australia)
Memmi, Albert (Tunisia) Pillar of Salt (Tunisia, 1953, T 1992 {2nd T})
Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Kenya) The River Between (1965, Kenya)
Oates, Joyce Carol. The Gravedigger’s Daughter (2007, US)
Okri, Ben (Nigeria) The Famished Road (1991, Nigeria)
Olsson, Linda. Astrid and Veronika (2007, Sweden/New Zealand)
Saadawi, Nawal El (Egypt) Woman at Point Zero (1975, T 1983, Egypt)
Sedgwick, Catharinne Maria. Hope Leslie, or, Early Times in the Massachusetts (1827, early American lit)
Shearman, Robert Tiny Deaths (first short fiction collection, 2007, UK)
Shriver, Lionel.We Need to Talk About Kevin (2003, US)
Smith, Ali. The Accidental (2005, UK)
Tiffany, Carrie. Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living (first novel, 2005, Australia)
Ward, Jesmyn. Where the Line Bleeds (first novel, 2007, US)
Wharton, Thomas. The Logogryph: A Bibliography of Imaginary Books (short fiction, 2004, Canada)

Lois, I think I could fill up my reading list for 2014, just by concentrating on your two favorites lists. :)

Happy New Year! Looking forward to your reading journey this year.

Thanks, Colleen. I'm expecting another tumultuous year that may or may not be conducive for reading, but then—who knows?!

As always, the international breadth of your reading amazes me. I see some authors on your lists that I know I've read because of your recommendation (David Herter, Jesmyn Ward, Adichie, Azzopardi) and a good many others that intrigue me and that I hope to get to while my mind still works! I hope there is a lot of good reading ahead for you, along with everything else that 2014 holds in store.

Hi, Linda. Thanks, and you also! Oh, btw, I heard part of an interview with Paul Harding around his new book, and he was noting Faulkner as an influence. They were discussing how his new book, Enon, is connected to Tinkers....

My main use of Netflix is for foreign films. So many great comedies out there, and with actresses who actually look the age their character is (GASP) and aren't always incredibly thin!

It will be neat to see your reading life and not just your crafting life!

Just stopped by to say Hello....and got blindsided by your comments on the Danish version of THE KILLING. I bought a multi-region DVD player for myself, and have the series, on order...I enjoyed the American/Canadian version...but feel the need to go to the source...

I won't say anything about your "lists", except that I am noting Titles......

By the way, I am Jude (from my former LT existence)....the new moniker is just for show.

Hi Lois -- just stopping by to gaze at your lists and catch up on what's going on. Highly sympathetic to tumultuous years -- I hope this one is calmer than the last for us -- but it sounds like you have big changes underway with a move (the very idea makes me tired). BTW -- thanks for last parcel -- the Jungstedt will be sent off to my mother very soon.

>30 mabith: Nice to see you here, mabith!
>31 Jaydit666: Yes, Jude, I'm that kind of go-to-the-source person also.
>32 janeajones: Hi, Jane! Yes, the whole thing makes me tired these days. Glad it arrived. It's the 3rd, I think, and it arrived the day after I sent the previous two.

Well, I already feel I'm running behind—and after such an encouraging few weeks. My last read of 2013 was:



Evil Eye: Four Novellas of Love Gone Wrong by Joyce Carol Oates (2013)

This collection is exactly as it says, four tales of love gone wrong. Certainly, these are not comfortable stories, and I think Oates likes to disturb us—I think of it like shaking up our inner kaleidoscope and see if the glass bits of our thinking will make a different pattern. The first story was okay, the second kind of a creepy, "close call" sort of story, but it's the last two that are more disturbing and fascinating.

The third of the four stories is about a young, college-aged man who hates his parents and returns home to kill them with an axe. The mother survives. Two things were interesting to me in this story, the mind of the young man, who seems chronically incapable of accepting responsibility for anything in his life; everything is someone else's fault (I wondered if this was some kind of specific mental illness - sociopath? psychopath?). At the beginning, the narrator is in the guy's head with all its anger and urgency--it's not a comfortable place. The other interesting part is that the story continues with what happens after, and there is a particularly strange irony in the ending. For those of you who read We Need to Talk About Kevin, this was like getting the story from Kevin's viewpoint.

The fourth story was about a young woman who is sexually frigid because of abuse as a chlid and how she overcomes it (just what does it take in her case). I don't want to give too much away, but it left me conflicted. "Conflicted" - not the most comfy place to be, but the mental turgidity can get the blood flowing.

Lois, I think that "uncomfortable" seems to come through in most descriptions I've read of JCO's writing. And certainly was true for Blonde which I read (and loved) last year. I haven't read enough to know if that describes all of her stories. Does it?

I think the third story would get my attention too. I haven't read WNtTAK, but Crime and Punishment comes to mind.

>34 NanaCC: Colleen, her stories vary tremendously, but she does often write about the uncomfortable topics of poverty and violence, but also justice, prejudice, racism (and other isms), hate...etc. She does this in her novels, of course, also, but also does some things with fairy tales; plays with our American myths, idols and obsessions; and writes 'American Gothics,' tomes that are hard to describe, the latest of which is The Accursed (which I believe is a rewrite of the never before released first of them). I've read three (but not yet the new one)--all are wonderfully wild rides.

The first paragraph of Stephen King's review of The Accursed in the NY Times begins like this:

Some novels are almost impossible to review, either because they’re deeply ambiguous or because they contain big surprises the reviewer doesn’t wish to give away. In the case of “The Accursed,” both strictures apply. What I wish I could say is simply this: “Joyce Carol Oates has written what may be the world’s first postmodern Gothic novel: E. L. Doctorow’s ‘Ragtime’ set in Dracula’s castle. It’s dense, challenging, problematic, horrifying, funny, prolix and full of crazy people. You should read it. I wish I could tell you more.” Then, he goes on to review the book.

>35 dchaikin: Dan, it's one of those you-want-to-look-away-but-can't' sort of stories. I don't know what was more horrifying - the murderous act or the way it ended.

They Dragged Them Through the Streets by Hillary Plum (2013, US, first novel)

Have abandoned They Dragged Them Through the Streets after I realized a bit more than halfway through that each chapter has been narrated by not one, but one of 4 or 5 characters. Now, you might ask, how did Lois miss that? Well, the voices are not terribly distinguishable, and the author uses character's first initials most of the time (so there's a lot of A, F, V, Z going on). Lastly, I effectively ignored the letter at the beginning of every chapter.

The book tells the story of former college friends who radicalize over the war in Iraq after one of their group, a soldier, commits suicide after returning from the war. And then again, one of their group dies as a result of the radicalization. It's also ultimately a tale of lost idealism.

Even the way I read it, it was a thoughtful book. There was some lovely, stylish prose and genuine emotion conveyed, and a real sense of the idealism lost (which I could relate to), although I found it difficult to accept this story of a group of white young people radicalizing over the war enough to try make bombs and talk about where to plant them (eco-terrorism, anti-choice, and PETA, yes, the war, no)

There's a good chance that I may have just been a distracted reader. I really wanted to like this book. The author, Hilary Plum, is the co-director of Clockroot Books, associated with Interlink Books, and has helped bring to publication some fine books in translation, many by women, including Adania Shibli's Touch and several titles by Margarita Karapanou.

Interesting note: I also read Suzanne Matson's The Tree-Sitter, a novel about a young student who gets involved with eco-terrorism.

Just saying 'hello' and adding to the overhwleming approval for both The Killing and the Bridge!

*waves back at char* Did you see "Top of the Lake" - that was excellent also.

I saw the first one and enjoyed it, the rest are waiting to be watched. I'm not often in a 'slow, weird but beautiful New Zealand drama' mood though!

Oh 'Top of the Lake' was excellent I thought. Satisfying television.

Hello!

Am delighted to see The Last Brother on so many people's lists of favourites, as I feel kind of responsible for that one - and all because of a delayed train from Paris one Christmas!

ETA that I've had two more of Appanah's books since soon after that (in French, don't know if they've been translated). One, La noce d'Anna, I got really bogged down in last year; it really didn't grab me and I didn't finish it. I should give the other a go - Les rochers de poudre d'or. Both were written before The Last Brother, as was Blue Bay Palace, which I haven't read either.

>42 rachbxl: Glad I got a chance to hear a little from her at the Pen Festival in NYC in 2011.

>40 charbutton: Succinctly described!

>42 rachbxl: She was in Cape Town in 2012 for the Open Book Festival and I missed her! Still getting over it... :(

There is nothing like packing up one's books to inspire one to accumulate a few more. We have now packed up the entire combined library (we only have separate libraries here on LT) minus a box, or possibly two, worth. We have seen walls we haven't seen in years and years! (btw, never underestimate the insulating power of books and bookcases in a cold climate). And the rooms with wood flooring all echo now.

Picked up recently: Enon by Paul Harding (character in this book is the grandson to the one in Tinkers) and The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore. I've ordered Dunmore's latest, The Lie, from the UK, along with a collection of short fiction by Sara Maitland, the latest Graham Joyce, and Nicola Barker's Burley Cross Postbox Theft. And the bookstore called: the new Ian Rankin awaits me :-)

>45 avaland: "never underestimate the insulating power of books and bookcases in a cold climate"

Love that!

Having to pack up all of one's books for a while might put another plus for the Kindle in that discussion on another thread.

>46 NanaCC: Can't do it, Colleen. Or can't do it yet. I have too much history with the paper ones. And it's a sensual thing, too. The touch, the smell, the sound of the paper page turning, the feel of weight of the book... (not so pleasantly sensual when they are packed in a cardboard box weighing between 30 and 40 lbs though!) I can see a day where it might come - when my kids move me into an assisted living facility perhaps.

In the meantime I'm getting better at letting go of most after they are read (and I no longer buy armfuls of books at library sales). We reduced the physical library by about 20 or 25% this past year before we packed up, that might be considered progress by some. It's tough when we see our books as both an expression of self, and part of our history in this life. But then, I suspect you know all this!

Oh, I would never get rid of paper books. I just meant while having to pack up all of your books, the Kindle just takes up a little space in your purse. I love my Kindle, but I love books too. Chris brought me a bag of books this weekend, and I was quite excited to be able to add them to my "Borrowed from Chris" collection on LT.

>48 NanaCC: Ah, now I see. Yes, it might be handy, though I'd likely not want to tie myself to Amazon.

though I'd likely not want to tie myself to Amazon. The library lending of e-books (and magazines) is progressing nicely. We just don't want you to be totally bereft, Lois!

I pretty much only use mine for books from Gutenberg. I didn't want one and will never stop buying/keeping paper books (there is an emotional comfort from reading a paper book that is unrelated to the words you're reading), but the hands rebel. It has been quite handy. Though I admit I use it most for my kitchen/bedtime audiobooks and playing games in the doctor's office.

>49 avaland: though I'd likely not want to tie myself to Amazon.

You don't. It is easy to buy from Amazon but technically speaking, you do not need to. It is a published format and a lot of sites and bookstores sell books for Kindle. Add to this Gutenberg and similar libraries and things do not look so Amazon-centric unless if you want them to.

There are programs that can convert from other formats to the one that Amazon uses. Calibre, for instance. I don't have experience with it, though.

My point is that I'd rather not download in Kindle format if I can help it, and I'd rather not have a Kindle. Our old ipad has a Kindle App, for example. I'd like to support epub format books also. I can do this on various gadgets with various apps (hubby is waving his Nexus at me). It's not that I hate Amazon or anything—for I'm happy to buy some fraction of my books from them—but I'll not drive any more nails than I have to into the coffin of the brick and mortar bookshop (who very nicely will order almost anything I want that is published and or distributed in the US). But, I'm glad you are all enjoying yours! :-)

But reading in a kindle app is not the same as reading on a eInk device. Just saying (and then shutting up). :)

>53 dukedom_enough: - Calibre is brilliant. It is essentially a digital library system but it also converts the various ebook formats. I use it to convert Kindle books to epub and rather helpfully it strips off the DRM as well so I can use them anywhere. (I also use with Nook & Kobo books). It's not that I don't trust these large companies but I don't really trust these large companies. In an ideal world I would get all my digital books direct from the publishers/authors or from places like Weightless Books and my music from Bandcamp. (Why isn't there a books version of Bandcamp?).

>55 AnnieMod: - I now have both. A Kobo Touch and Nook Tablet (yeah, for deep discounting) and I would say that isn't the same. eInk is a little easier on the eyes but the software on these machines is really quite poor, software readers like Moon and Mantano on Android put the bespoke ereaders to shame. (By the way, Calibre can also control your device).

>54 avaland: - I've made the decision not to buy any more paperbacks due to (lack of) space considerations (actually, I'm thinking of getting rid of a lot of them, not without some regret - I constantly look at the going pile and want to pull items from it). I'm trying to convince myself that most paperbacks are just methods of relaying text like an epub so don't require any special consideration (with some exceptions). I still like nice hardbacks though.

>55 AnnieMod: All information and opinions always welcome!

>56 Jargoneer: Good to know. We aren't there yet.

And with regards to your purging of paperbacks, we hear ya! I purged most of my mass market/pocket-sized paperbacks (SF or otherwise), with some exceptions. Michael did a first round purge of his mass markets before we packed them up (they pack up 60 - 70 a box -- especially the pre-1980s ones), and I won't tell you how many boxes we have. We still have several hundred pre-1970s ones that haven't been entered in LT yet. Trade paper and hardcovers are another matter entirely.

So far behind:

I've been reading Joyce Carol Oates since 1969, when i read Them....i have an entire shelf in my antique oak cupboard...devoted to her work

If I had to pack up all of my books for a move...i would probably have a stroke. I don't think I could do a major book purge...Books have been my "security blanket" since i was able to ride my bike to the branch library in Akron, when i was 10 years old

I usually download PDFs to either my Nook or iPad, where I can control the Font size...my "old eyes" and all. I never tried Calibre..I do own a Kindle, and the Kindle App on iPad...

Making my way through THE BRIDGE/BRON.....and finally received the DVDs of FORBRYDELSEN......I am beginning to understand Swedish/Danish, which is scary

Thank you for letting me into your world..

never underestimate the insulating power of books and bookcases in a cold climate

That's my story, too, although both large bookcases are on interior walls because of silly things like "windows" and "doors". And, having packed up 2/3 of my books, I know exactly what you are experiencing!

I'm in the physical books camp. There's something about a paper copy. I do have a kindle, which is great to stick in a purse and goes places easily. It seems that any book I'm eagerly reading is slightly too large or too thick or is something I don't want to get dinged up in a purse. Also, being in Germany, it feels unfriendly to be reading a book about either world war in public.

>58 Jaydit666: Thanks for stopping by, Jude. I did not start with JCO that early. The first encounter I can think of was around 1980. I remember picking up a book in a library (mass market paperback) and putting it back on the shelf, thinking in might be a bit scary. I did not pick her up again until around 2000. It's funny how I remember that early encounter so well. Bellefleur came out in 1980 but it wasn't that book, I think it might have been Cybele (which I haven't read). So, my kids had to grow up before I could take her on....

Haven't received our DVDs of the Bridge or The Spiral, and have finished with The Killing, so I'm into the 3rd season of Wallander (the 2nd season has a doozy of an ending).

>59 RidgewayGirl: Perhaps we should start the "Book Box Cafe", a support group for those whose books are packed up?

Here's an odd little thing I thought you all might be intrigued by: "70 Zebra Finches Rock Out on Electric Guitars"

http://artery.wbur.org/2014/01/17/zebra-finches-electric-guitars

I may try to get to this exhibit come February when the house is on the market and we have a bit extra time.

What beautiful little birds!

Yes, aren't they? I guess I can understand why the artist chose electric guitars, but I think I might have preferred something a bit more delicate. I'm no rock expert, but it sounds a bit like heavy metal, doesn't it?

I love to look at birds, but I have a thing about them flying about my head. (I think it's Hitchcock's fault). I wonder what the birds think of the sounds they make.

>63 avaland:, Yes, I'm ignoring the guitar. I am imagining it as something more conventional!

>65 fannyprice: I like to imagine that they might use an amplified harp or a keyboard, but I guess they went with guitar because their little feet can grab the strings.

I think they may have chosen the guitar because it can be tuned to be quite sensitive plus the shape of it does resemble a branch. I only hope that these birds don't evolve and start building their own guitars in the wild so that instead of birdsong in the morning I awake to the guitar solo from 'Freebird'.

>67 Jargoneer: LOL!


The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore (2012, UK)

Helen Dunmore has a easy storytelling style and I was quickly caught up in this ghost story set in the early 1950s. Isabel is new wife, who has moved to a new community with her doctor husband. She's lonely, unskilled in her new domestic role, and adrift from her familiar, bookish moorings. The landlady upstairs irritates her with either her pacing back and forth on the floor above, or with her crusty presence. Their tiny furnished apartment is cold and Isabel, in search of extra blankets, finds an old, heavy military greatcoat tucked into a blind corner of the cupboard. It's a bit dusty, but it's warm.

With the appearance of the greatcoat, strange things begin to happen; a man appears outside her window, then at her front door... I don't want to give too much away except that we are drawn back to the war and the nearby air base.

The easy storytelling style and the 200 page length makes this book a quick read. It's a good ghost story, engaging at times, interesting in its period detail, but I can't rave about it. We all know ghost stories are really more about the character who sees the ghost or ghosts than the ghost themselves, and the change in that character. Here is where I think the story just misses the mark, and I can't quite put my finger on why I think that, perhaps because Isabel was so easily complicit, but it's also possible that the menace wasn't quite menacing enough.... Conclusion: a good, short, interesting read but not great.


Watching the Dark by Peter Robinson (2013)

Watching the Dark is another excellent, complex police procedural in the DCI Alan Banks series. As I've mentioned before, Peter Robinson is more generous with his words than say, Indridason or even Rankin, but he invests a lot into his characters and story, and for the most part, I don't find him verbose or rambling. His aim, I think, is not to just lose you in the crime story, but lose you in his world.

Does it matter if I give you a synopsis of the plot? Probably not. With this book, and the other dozen or more of his read last year, I am brought up to current with Robinson's series. I'm glad to have read nearly all of them before watching two seasons of the television adaptations, which are quite very good, though, of course, not quite the same as the books.

Hmm, I think I'll skip The Greatcoat. Dunmore is such a case-by-case author -- some great books, some not so great, some bad!

>69 rebeccanyc: Yeah, I don't think you'd like it. I did receive her latest on my doorstep yesterday.



Not to divert too much attention from books, but we are now watching the Danish/Swedish television mini-series "The Bridge" (a tip of the hat to Turner and Paul, who brought it up in discussion early in my thread....and yes, we now have "The Spiral" also in the TBW pile). After two episodes, I can say that we are very much enjoying it. The pairing of detectives is wonderful with the likable, friendly Danish detective Martin (I would describe him as a "classic" detective); and the obsessive, super-focused, socially-disconnected Swedish detective Saga (I'm assuming here she is meant to have some level of Asperger's).

>70 avaland: i finally watched the entire "The Bridge"...Danish/Swedish...the detective pairing is rather unique...the plot is very convoluted, but by the end, is painfully "simple"...i won't give anything away, but you are in for a "treat"

I love "The Spiral", too...on Netflix.....and can understand the French, much easier than Swedish/Danish......i still think European crime dramas depend more on "acting ability" than Pretty Faces..

The only Helen Dunmore that gave me the "willies" was Your Blue-Eyed Boy.....and that was years ago..

J

>71 Jaydit666: We finished it last night, Jude! We really enjoyed it, though I thought the "painfully simple" answer a bit far-fetched. Still, it was quite a ride, wasn't it? Glad to hear you also loved "The Spiral."

Have abandoned What Lot's Wife Saw (the upstairs book), as I seem to have just lost interest. I read and finished Paul Harding's excellent novel, Enon (the downstairs book) and the wonderfulness of that may have played a part. Will write on both at a later date.

Really glad you enjoyed 'The Bridge'. We're very fortunate to have the second series on the BBC at the moment. The good news is that we think it's just as good as the first series!

>73 Polaris-: Good to know.

Finished Helen Dunmore's recent novel The Lie, now reading Carthage by JCO, and Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin (downstairs, upstairs books).

Just looking at those little birds on the neck of the guitar makes me smile Lois.

Lovely to find some of your reading lists in here. I shall certainly be having a dip from time to time. I'd read a few of the list at >>25 avaland:.

Hmm - a new JCO - I am SO behind with my reading of her. I bought a couple last year with the intent of reading them soon after purchase, but that didn't happen. Maybe I'll have a couple of JCO weeks when I am off.

>75 Caroline_McElwee: As you probably have guessed, I don't read everything that has come out. Have you read Blonde? I hope to finally get to that this year after a conversation on NanaCC's thread whet my appetite a bit. And I still have to finish The Accursed, which I started last year but wasn't up to it with everything else that was going on.

Hope you don't refer to it as "that accursed book"

>77 baswood: ha ha!

We're coming down to the wire with the house as it officially goes on the market the end of next week, and there is still so much to do. But, that said, I don't want to get too behind with commenting on my reading, so I'll make these short.



The Lie by Helen Dunmore (2014, UK)

I haven't read everything Dunmore has written, but I've read quite a lot. I don't think any of her work since has quite reached the power of her The Siege but there are many decent reads in her oeuvre none the less, and certainly The Lie is one of them.

Like with The Greatcoat read prior to this one, I was instantly drawn into this story of a young man, a veteran of the great war, living in Cornwall in 1920.

Daniel Branwell is living a hard, solitary life, near the sea. He is home from the war, changed, still quite young and yet... He tells his own story and as it unfolds we hear of a life of poverty, work and service, and an unlikely longtime friendship with Frederick and Felicia Dennis, children of a well-to-do family his mother worked for (and because of Frederick, his life is also one of books). Post-war Frederik is dead, and Felicity a widow with a small child, both men having died in the war, and Dan is surviving with all the legacies of a very brutal war.

I don't want to give too much of the story away, except to say that Dunmore's easy storytelling style and gift of human observation serve us well in this short book. We are easily immersed and invested in Dan's story, the sense of place, the power of his memories, and before we know it the book is ending.

Enon by Paul Harding (2013, US)

As I set out to write about this book, I fear that I don't have the time or brain cells currently to really do this five-star book justice, but it must be done, hopefully you'll be able to pull some useful things from it.

I loved Harding's Tinkers for so many reasons. I know many were less enthralled. Most were put off by its densely lyrical prose style which I though worked wonderfully for a story about time (and clocks, with their mechanics and regular ticking), and such a sense of place. Enon, a story of grief, not as densely lyrical as Tinkers is, but still beautifully written, and a tad longer than his previous book at 238 pages.

Enon tells us the story of Charlie Crosby (grandson of the Tinkers character) and his journey into grief after the death of his beloved 13-year-old daughter and only child. He and his wife separate soon after. Charlie immerses himself in his memories, both of his daughter and his growing up in the town of Enon. Enon (a fictional town on the north shore of Massachusetts, north of Boston, in the area where Harding grew up), I think, is another very vivid character in the story.

Charlie's memories are mostly affectionate ones, but as he swims in his river of grief, he begins to drown, and his memories get mixed in with his drug-induced dreams. This is, yes, a sad, reflective story, but not a morose or depressing one. Ultimately, it is a powerful, uplifting story about the resilience of the human spirit. Charlie's journey, his wrestling with grief, is like an epic story where the hero must descend to some level of Hades before returning to the land of the living—and we all go with him.

---------

Note :There is a lot about Enon that is very characteristic of many New England towns, and I found some of Harding's reflections disturbingly close to some of my own memories (right down to the Memorial Day parade, the feeding the birds out of his hand, the marshes, the woods...etc), having grown-up in a town not so unlike Enon a bit further up the coast into Maine. Harding, of course, is much younger than I but both of his books have spoken to me on a personal level for their sense of place. In Enon this is aided by the fact that modern technology is rarely mentioned.

Note 2: Again, I am shocked to find that the average rating of this book is 3 1/2 stars. To each his own, I guess. I am so glad I don't read reviews on the book page before I read my books. So glad.

Good to read a very favourable review of Enon. I have not read it myself, but thought the subject matter and writing style might put a lot of people off.

Glad you liked Dunmore's The Lie. I definitely want to read that one when I can get my hands on it.

I'm also glad that you liked The Lie, Lois. I'll plan to buy it when I visit London next month.

I was one of the detractors of Enon, BTW...

>81 fannyprice:, 82 I blew through The Lie in one day. It's short and has an easy storytelling style.

Darryl, it doesn't surprise me that you were one of the detractors. It doesn't strike me as a book you would like (we disagree on several notable books). I'm not sure you'd like The Lie either, Darryl, it's a reflective book like Enon, also with a great sense of place, though the character's current situation is different.

>80 baswood: Barry, the subject matter did give me pause, but the book was short so I took the gamble. I rarely read memoirs on the subject, haven't even read JCO's memoir of losing her husband. HERE'S a short interview with Harding (19 minutes) for a local radio show on one of Boston's NPR stations (it starts about a minute into the recording).

Lois, you have a treat coming with Blonde. I think it is a masterpiece. It is like magic- how JCO inhabits the body and soul and life of MM. She is like a dozen brilliant women rolled into one.

>84 almigwin: Thanks, Miriam, I'll look forward to it.

Oh I'm not sure I'll ever get caught up! I have missed so much with a slow start this year. What great reviews. and I love the finches

>>76 avaland:. I liked Blonde Lois. Your cover for Carthage is far nicer than ours. So much to read so little time, and unfortunately, I love sleep too!

Re The Greatcoat - I wonder if Dunmore was commissioned to write a ghost story. I noticed it is part of Random House's new Hammer imprint. (That is Hammer as iin Hammer Films - some of the titles are new novelisations of old Hammer classics).

>72 avaland: - I do agree that the end of 'The Bridge' is a little far-fetched but it was a good ride up until then. Have just finished watching 'The Bridge II' at the weekend (it is shown on BBC here) - it's probably a better series, definitely a better last episode.

Just catching up and glad you liked the new Dunmore. As you know, I find her work very variable, but I may try this one.

>87 Caroline_McElwee: Agreed!
>88 Jargoneer: Interesting thought, though I suppose it doesn't make a difference in the end The Lie was better than The Greatcoat, but both are quick reads.

>72 avaland:, 88 Agree about it being a good ride. Damn, now there's another DVD I must chase down ;-)

>89 rebeccanyc: Well, I don't have a good sense of whether you will like it or not...

House goes on the market tomorrow and we will have to live without leaving traces for a while. Thankfully, we didn't pack ALL the books, there are 30 or so still in the house. Have set the JCO aside for now, and have taken up Graham Joyce's The Year of the Ladybird also, as it happens, a ghost story (set in 1976)

Good luck with the house sale, Lois. I know how stressful that can be.

You are brave. Here's hoping for a quick sale so that life can be resumed as normal, at least until you have to pack up completely.

The Lie fits the WWI theme.

Glad to have read your review of Enon. I liked Tinkers enough to read Enon...although I don't see myself getting to it anytime soon.

I added The Lie to my wishlist.

HOUSE SOLD! 40+ showings in 2 days, 9 offers and after 3 hours of deliberation over the 9, we chose one and agreed to sell the house for $27,000 over list price. We are still a bit shell-shocked. It was a feeding frenzy! The agency had to triple book some of the showings. It's not that it's such a magnificent house but it's in the right town, the right location and the right price range, and there was one only other house in town that was competition and it had sold. The open house for yesterday was technically canceled but the agent ran it anyway and told people at the door the house had been placed under agreement and she still had 40+ people here.

We are out shopping for a new home in New Hampshire. Pickings are a bit slim this time of year but there are some prospects. Not on LT quite so much lately and not reading quite as much.

Congrats Lois! I don't think selling one's house can go much better than that.

Congrats Lois! I think your house is lovely.

Super congrats on selling your house! At least that's half the battle over.

>96 dchaikin: Thanks, Dan. We agree. Certainly the stress level is worse but at least it was concentrated into two days. And it's made for a great story to tell.

>97 fannyprice: Thanks, Kris. I'm going to miss the sunroom and kitchen. I can design another backsplash, I suppose :-)

>98 mabith: Thanks, Meredith. And we've been working on the other half. Going back to see a good prospect today.

Amazing and in the dead of winter too, when it's hard to get an idea of outside. Congratulations, as dan says, selling a house can't get much better than that.

ETA Now you can bring out some books again!

Yahoo - what a relief to not have to be in showing mode!

>100 SassyLassy: Thanks. Yes, we can't actually see the ground, but most of the acreage is young forest and a bit of wetlands.

>101 mkboylan: Yes, a relief. We are not the kind of people who live in a showplace.

Selling (or buying) houses is always stressful (although in Scotland we don't have the added trouble of agents) but it sounds like that went as well as could be hoped.

Your mention of designing a backsplash made me think of some friends who have just redone their house. What they did was go to the National Library of Scotland and found an old map detailing the 'Edinburgh' coast (Leith to Portobello) where they were both born. The NLS then produced a large scale copy of the map without pixelation (for a mere $30), which they got printed and stuck on the back of the backsplash glass. In situ it manages to do two things - start conversations and produce a little bit of envy.

Jargoneer,

What a terrific idea for a back splash! Hmm, maybe a Chesley Bonestell reproduction...

>103 Jargoneer: I'm going to remember that for my next one.

Congratulations to you Lois, and all the best of luck with the house-hunting!

I'm glad the house sold so quickly. I hope you find a new one just as soon.

>!06, 107 Thanks! We have found one, but the wheels are turning a bit slower now (or, it seems that way!)

Good luck!

The Year of the Ladybird by Graham Joyce (2013, UK)

Refusing to work the summer of 1976 in his stepfather's construction company, perhaps looking for a bit of adventure, David manages to get a job as a "greencoat" at a holiday camp on the East coast. The camp is in Skegness, a place he's drawn to because he's been told that his father—his real father, that is—brought him there when he was three. As a college student he's a bit of a novelty at the camp, but then, everyone seems a bit of a novelty there. There's a heat wave going on and there's also a plague of ladybird/ladybugs. David's the new guy with an ill-fitting uniform, trying to navigate this strange (and sometimes scary) wonderland, while applying his talents to the tasks given to him. As the days go by, David sometimes sees at odd times a ghostly man and his young child, either together or separately, and his sleep begins to deteriorate.

More coming-of-age story, than ghost story (as it is billed), this is an engaging first person tale of one young man's summer journey that includes colorful characters, beautful women, scary politics, some dubious night time activities, drink, games, music, magic and dance. Oh, and lots of rock candy. It took me a while to settle into David's voice, but once settled I enjoyed it. I'd not been very familiar with the institution of the British holiday camp, but Joyce brings it to life by blending fiction and some of his own experiences working in one. This novel won't displace my favorite Graham Joyce novels, nor do I think it's his best book, but it is a entertaining, colorful and diverting read.

>110 avaland: Graham Joyce is a writer I've only become aware of very recently, and I haven't read anything of his yet. What would you recommend? (My mum tells some funny stories about her summer working in a coffee bar at a holiday camp).

Burn by Julianna Baggott (2014, US, SF), no touchstone apparently so I've linked it to the book's page.

This is the third and final volume in Baggott's "Pure" trilogy, a complex, thoughtful, action-packed, often suspenseful, post-apocalyptic story of a population who were divided by "the detonations" into the "Pures," an elite who survived the horror by escaping to "the Dome," and the "Wretches" who survived the detonations on the outside but were altered by them, fusing them, often grotesquely, with animate or inanimate objects they were holding or near at the time. The trilogy follows several teens as they struggle to navigate and try to change their world. There's all the usual things that are in a YA novel: action, adventure, self-identity issues, young love...etc, but Baggott's blends all this into a more complex tale, full of clever things (a la China Miéville light), and interesting, three dimensional characters. It's also more of a science fiction story than most—science and technology still exist inside the Dome—but Baggott doesn't just give us one side of that story, she shows us the human element that determines the "good" and "bad" uses of it. And it's not a simple of story of good vs evil either.

There's not much I can say about a third book if you haven't read the first two, except that it continues the story, has a satisfying ending, and is as excellent a read as the previous two (something that doesn't always happen with trilogies).

The people who produced the Twilight movies are working on a movie for the first of this series. I can't imagine how they will do it—certainly they will have to over simplify it.

I was thinking about why the choice of teens to star in a story such as this, why not adults? If we remember back to our adolescence (and for some of us that's quite a ways back), some of us can probably recall a time of idealism and rebelliousness, a tendency to take risks often without thought to the consequences, an easy embrace of change and a willingness to explore.... good qualities for a story like this where the characters think on their feet, and thoughts tend to breed action.

Not everyone will like these books—the science fiction part with bug some people, the complexity others—but I thought them a great entertainment and lapped them all up eagerly from cover to cover.

I haven't heard of Graham Joyce -- enjoyed your review, but maybe not for me.

I hadn't heard of Joyce either. So what are some of your favorites?

Lois, I'm not sure how you are finding the time to read with a move coming up. I would be far too distracted.

Nice reviews. The Year of the Ladybird sounds interesting.

>113 rebeccanyc:, 114 Here's an excellent review of Graham Joyce's The Limits of Enchantment, which explains, more or less, probably why you haven't heard of him.

My favorites have included: The Tooth Fairy, an excellent coming-of-age story about a boy/young man who is plagued with random appearances in his life of the tooth fairy—a creature of dubious morals, a mischief maker, who wrecks havoc when he's around. The Limits of Enchantment, see review. The Facts of Life, see a Kirkus review HERE and perhaps Smoking Poppy, as described HERE.

>113 rebeccanyc: No, likely not your thing.

>115 NanaCC: Colleen, there's not much else to do. We saved out some books (and bought some) but all my other stuff is packed up. The move isn't until the end of March, so I figure I have a couple of weeks of twiddling my thumbs before I have to start packing (there isn't all that much in the house)

I haven't heard of Graham Joyce either Lois, though am not a big fan of 'coming of age' stories, but your review peaked piqued my interest.

You've piqued my interest with Burn - I've stopped reading so much young adult stuff this year, but this sounds neat.

Never mind being a ghost story; a summer spent at a Holiday Camp at Skeggie (Skegness) sounds more like a horror story. Enjoyed your review of The Year of the Ladybird

>119 baswood: ha ha, Barry, I wouldn't know, but it certainly wasn't all fun and games for the protagonist.

>118 fannyprice: You might find it interesting. The trilogy starts with "Pure."

>117 Caroline_McElwee: Caroline, I would imagine you instead liking some of Joyce's other titles like The Limits of Enchantment or The Facts of Life.

Hi - I see you like police procedurals, have you read any of Denise Mina's books; set in Glasgow (Scotland) they feature a female police officer Alex Morrow, and over the course of the books - though all stand alone as a book - the reader follows her career. I'm reading her latest, 'The Red Road', brilliant, complex plotting. I don't know why I am sitting at the keyboard rather than reading!....give her a try, you won't be disappointed.
Herschelian (aka Jo)

>121 herschelian: No, I've not read Mina yet, but I bought one recently that I expect will be read sometime in the next few weeks. Rebeccanyc has been a big fan of some of hers. i did read some others some years back, also set in Glasgow by Alex Gray. Thanks for the additional thumbs up for Alex Morrow.

That's the trick with LT, to find the balance between actual reading and talking about reading and books—and everyone has their own personal tipping point.

Just to clarify, Alex Morrow is in one of Mina's series; her others feature different protagonists (not police officers).

>123 rebeccanyc: I knew it was just one of her series, what I didn't realize is that the protagonists in the others were not law enforcement. Good to know.

In the Garnethill trilogy, the protagonist is more or less recovering from sexual abuse/incest and in the Paddy Meehan books the protagonist is an aspiring journalist.

I've never heard of Joyce either. The Tooth Fairy sounds right up my alley and there are lots of used copies on amazon.

Léon and Louise by Alex Capus (2012, Swiss)

Set in France beginning in 1918, Léon and Louise is a wonderfully diverting love story. Told by Léon's grandson as family history or, perhaps, family folktale, the story (all 265 pages) is filled with a wry humor.

When we first meet Léon Le Gall he is 17—no, that's not true—when we first meet Léon he's in a casket, dead. It's his funeral and all of his family is in attendance in the cathedral of Notre Dame waiting for the priest to arrive:

Then, far behind us, a little side door beside the main entrance opened with a faint creak. We turned to look. Streaming in through the widening gap came the light of a warm spring morning and the sounds of the Rue de la Cité. A small grey figure wearing a bright red foulard slipped into the nave....The front row of pews in Notre Dame was vibrating with suppressed excitement. Could the new arrival really be Mademoiselle Janvier? Had she really dared to turn up? The womenfolk looked rigidly to the front again and stiffened their backs as if the coffin and the eternal light over the high altar where their sole focus of attention. But we men, who knew our women, realized that they were tensely listening to the staccato click of the little footsteps that made their way sideways into the central aisle. They then performed a ninety-degree turn and, without the least hesitation, without any ritardando or accelerando, pressed on with the regular beat of a metronome. Those of us who were peering out of the corner of our eye could then see a little woman, light-footed as a young girl, climb the two red-carpeted steps to the foot of the coffin, rest her right hand on the side, and silently move along it to the head, where she at last came to a halt and remained for several seconds, almost like a soldier standing at attention. She raised her veil and bent over. Spreading her arms and supporting herself on the sides of the coffin, she kissed my grandfather on the forehead and rested her cheek against his waxen visage as if intending to stay there for a while. She did so with her face in full view, not protectively averted in the direction of the altar. This enabled us to see that her eyes were closed and that her red, carefully made-up lips were curved in a smile that grew steadily broader until they parted to emit an inaudible chuckle.

She released the dead man at the last and resumed her erect stance. Taking her handbag from the crook of her arm, she opened it and quickly removed a circular, dully glinting object the size of a fist. This, as we were to discover soon afterwards, was an old bicycle bell....Having closed the handbag and replaced it in the crook of her arm, she rang the bell twice. Rri-ing. Rri-ing. While the sound went echoing down the nave, she deposited the bell in the coffin, then turned and looked us in the eye, one after the other...When she got to the far right she gave us a triumphant smile and set off. Heels clicking, she hurried past the family and down the central aisle to the exit.

Leon is a bit of an everyman, moderate in most things, with a penchant for collecting up odd, cast-off items; while Louise is a bit of a spitfire. As we see in an early bicycle scene, Leon has to apply some effort to keep up with her. The story, which spans two world wars and beyond, is captivating and nimble, without sentimentality and syrup, and often makes one smile or chuckle. I'll not spoil it for you with an extensive plot summary, except to say that the two are more apart than they are together—you've read the ending, which is also the beginning, now go read the rest.

** I've tried to edit a bit out of the excerpt at an attempt at brevity, without much luck. What you are missing, as indicated by that first ellipsis, is a brief detour by the narrator as he gives a general description and history of the Le Gall men.

P.S. I gave Léon and Louise five stars for a lot of reasons, but mostly because it was a gloriously diverting read. Sometimes a book is just the right book at the right time.

Mmmm...."gloriously diverting". Highest praise, really. I love it when a book just grabs my imagination and won't let go, and I don't keep thinking "that sentence doesn't work", or "THERE's a hint" but just get completely lost in the story.

>129 laytonwoman3rd: That's it exactly!

Hi Avaland! The Year of the Ladybird sounds fun. I had to google the holiday camps and found lots of info and pictures. Very interesting.

I love the excerpt from Leon and Louise. Sounds like another great read.

Lois, Léon and Louise sounds delightful.

Enjoyed your review of Leon and Louise I note that Alex Capus is Swiss and that he usually writes in German.

>133 baswood: Yes, he is and does. The book was nominated for the German Book Prize. I did think it interesting that he should set his story in France.

>132 NanaCC: Colleen, I think you and Chris both would like it.

The End of Wasp Season by Denise Mina (2011, Scottish)
Still Midnight by Denise Mina (2010, Scottish)

There are a few of you in Club Read who read Denise Mina and review her very favorably, so when I was in need of a new crime series I picked up the first I could find. Thank you.
----
These are the first two books in Mina's Alex Morrow crime novels. I'm not going to write at length on the books because they've been capably reviewed by others and, frankly, I haven't the brain cells right now.

These books are both police procedurals and more. Based on these two books, I will speculate that Mina has a three-pronged focus to this series of crime novels, alternating her focus on the police, the criminals, and the victim or those close to him or her. The reader knows "whodunnit" from the very beginning, so no mystery there; it's more of a cat and mouse game. Alex Morrow is a interesting, credible (lead) female protagonist, along the lines of Jane Tennyson of "Prime Suspect" and Sarah Lund in "The Killing" (sorry, television first comes to mind here). About this, I include this quote from Mina about how female detectives have evolved in fiction over the last few decades:

At first, they had to act like men, carry guns, and punch people—be able to beat people up and engage in fisticuffs. In the mid-1990s, their gender was talked about a lot, and they experience prejudice. Now you've reached the point where a woman is just a different type of detective. You're not getting information just because you're a woman; it's not your superpower anymore. It's just a fact about who you are.

Mina pays equal attention to her criminals and *gasp* humanizes them. We get to see what's going on inside their heads. But she also pays a fair bit of attention to the victim or people close to them. In the first book, it's a kidnapping, and she focuses on both the victim and a few members of the victim's family. In the second book, The End of the Wasp Season, the victim is dead and she has no living relatives, so Mina turns her attention to a housekeeper/carer who was close to the family. Mina shows us the collateral damage.

Because of this three-pronged approach the stories are complex, and Mina handles it all deftly. My only complaint is a wee one: I thought the ending in Still Midnight a bit far-fetched, as were some elements about the criminal's situation in The End of the Wasp Season, but these were easily ignored in favor of the overall enjoyable experience. These two novels are engrossing and addictive reading. I'm going out to buy the most recent two very soon.

NOTE: I'm sorry I can't get around to everyone's threads these days. We are less than three weeks from closing dates for sales on our house and the one we are buying, the actual moving from one to the other and all the details that goes with all of those things. I do want to get my impressions done on what I am reading though, so they are not lost.

I'm not going to write at length on the books because they've been capably reviewed by others and, frankly, I haven't the brain cells right now.
And yet, you've told me a good deal about her books that is very helpful in determining whether I might want to read them myself. I'd say your brain cells are working just fine.

I'm glad you like Denise Mina's writing. But I would have been surprised if you hadn't.

Congrats on finding a house! Does it have good spaces for bookshelves?

>135 avaland: I've recently added Denise Mina to my reading list too so I appreciate your well-written opinion (if that's how you write when your brain cells are depleted, no need to worry, you are good for life).

Hope the house move goes smoothly. I too haven't been able to comment in threads much recently, but I've been reading every word.

>136 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks, Linda!

>137 RidgewayGirl: Thanks, Kay. Yes, I'm sure it will, though we are going to take some time to figure out where we want them. It does have 3 floor to ceiling built in bookcases but they clearly weren't built to be used as we all would use them — to hold ALL books. The home inspector heard us mention books and "cautioned" us to be sure to put the cases on load-bearing walls (duh!)

>138 VivienneR: Thanks, Vivienne. I'm fairly picky about crime novels. I appreciate that the crimes Mina has written about in this series (so far) are not super sensationalized, bizarrely sexual or gratuitously sadistic ones. I think some writers (fiction and television) think one has to have that to make the mystery, the puzzle, more intense, but Mina has built her stories more around the people involved.

Hi, Lois. I just stopped by to see how you are making out with your move. It looks like you are getting very near moving day. I hope everything goes smoothly.

I have the Mina books on my wishlist from some of the other reviews, but your comments would have put them there.

Hi Colleen, Thanks. Moving days are the 26th and 27th (out of here one day and deliver in New Hampshire the next -- it's only 25 miles north of here but it would be a lot of overtime to do it in one day).

From the University of Rochester ( http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?id=9922 ):

2014 Best Translated Book Award Fiction Longlist

Horses of God by Mahi Binebine, translated from the French by Lulu Norman (Morocco; Tin House)

Blinding by Mircea Cărtărescu, translated from the Romanian by Sean Cotter (Romania; Archipelago Books)

Textile by Orly Castel-Bloom, translated from the Hebrew by Dalya Bilu (Israel; Feminist Press)

Sleet by Stig Dagerman, translated from the Swedish by Steven Hartman (Sweden; David R. Godine)

The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein (Italy; Europa Editions)

Tirza by Arnon Grunberg, translated from the Dutch by Sam Garrett (Netherlands; Open Letter Books)

Her Not All Her by Elfriede Jelinek, translated from the German by Damion Searls (Austria; Sylph Editions)

My Struggle: Book Two by Karl Ove Knausgaard, translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett (Norway; Archipelago Books)

Seiobo There Below by László Krasznahorkai, translated from the Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet (Hungary; New Directions)

Autobiography of a Corpse by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, translated from the Russian by Joanne Turnbull (Ukraine; NYRB)

The Missing Year of Juan Salvatierra by Pedro Mairal, translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor (Argentina; New Vessel Press)

The Infatuations by Javier Marías, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa (Spain; Random House)

A True Novel by Minae Mizumura, translated from the Japanese by Juliet Winters (Japan; Other Press)

In the Night of Time by Antonio Muñoz Molina, translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman (Spain; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

The African Shore by Rodrigo Rey Rosa, translated from the Spanish by Jeffrey Gray (Guatemala; Yale University Press)

Through the Night by Stig Sæterbakken, translated from the Norwegian by Seán Kinsella (Norway; Dalkey Archive)

Commentary by Marcelle Sauvageot, translated from the French by Christine Schwartz Hartley & Anna Moschovakis (France; Ugly Duckling Presse)

Leg Over Leg: Vol. 1 by Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, translated from the Arabic by Humphrey Davies (Lebanon; New York University Press)

The Whispering Muse by Sjón, translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb (Iceland; FSG)

The Forbidden Kingdom by Jan Jacob Slauerhoff, translated from the Dutch by Paul Vincent (Netherlands; Pushkin Press)

The Devil's Workshop by Jáchym Topol, translated from the Czech by Alex Zucker (Czech Republic; Portobello Books)

The End of Love by Marcos Giralt Torrente, translated from the Spanish by Katherine Silver (Spain; McSweeney's)

Red Grass by Boris Vian, translated from the French by Paul Knobloch (France; Tam Tam Books)

City of Angels, or, The Overcoat of Dr. Freud by Christa Wolf, translated from the German by Damion Searls (Germany; FSG)

Sandalwood Death by Mo Yan, translated from the Chinese by Howard Goldblatt (China; University of Oklahoma Press)

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Here's a great shopping list! (sadly, it's still a bit of a manfest). Posting here is mostly for my reference as I see Darryl has already posted the list (clearly he checks his email more frequently than I do).

I also note from other sources new translated novels forthcoming from Delphine de Vigan (French) and Julia Franck (German. She won the German Book Prize with her previous).

I am riddled with book bullets! Luckily my library has several of them, because I can't buy everything! Graham Joyce & Julianna Baggott both appeal, as does Leon und Louise. And you've reminded me I want to read more Denise Mina. That shopping list above is the real killer, however.

Kudos to you on selling your house and buying a new one and still having the brain to comment on the books you've been reading. I hope the actual move goes smoothly.

>143 markon: Why thank you, markon. We'll know about the move come the 26th and 27th! (I need to explore the above titles via the web and read their synopses).

>142 avaland: There are some interesting prospects there Lois. Going to check out the first as my sister is a regular visitor to Morocco, so might be a good pressie for her.

I have the The Forbidden Kingdom by Jan Jacob Slauerhoff in my pile (I do rather like Pushkin Press - heading to see what their latest releases are now!).

A bit choppy but here's some comments on the latest book finished:



Carthage by Joyce Carol Oates (2014, US)

When the book opens Cressida Mayfield, 19, has gone missing. We learn that she was last seen at a bar and in the company of Brett Kincaid, an Iraq war veteran and former financé of Juliet, Cressida's older sister. No one knows what happened after that. I'm giving away nothing away here that isn't in the jacket information, when I tell you that Corporal Kincaid, who is both physically and psychologically damaged from the war, will give a confused and muddled, but apparently convincing enough confession to murdering the young girl, though, we the reader, know Cressida is alive (though it will be sometime before she is reintroduced in the book).

I had some trouble getting into this book at the beginning. As Oates moved from inside the heads of the various members of the Mayfield family, there was a lot of anxiety to contend with, and I wasn't sure I really liked or connect with the Mayfields. I put the book away for a week or two before picking it up again. The part I found most compelling and disturbing, and what really hooked me, was her focus on the Corporal and his muddled confession, which was so confused with wartime experiences:

Asking what he'd done with her. What he'd done with her body.
And he'd said what was true: he didn't remember.
Some things he remembered, a swirl of things like dirty water rushing down a drain, but it was not possible to attach names to these; and it was not possible to shape the words, the sounds of the words, with his mouth.
Between somewhere in his brain and his mouth/tongue there was a slippage.

After Kincaid's confession, Oates moves ahead seven years and swings her intracranial attention to Cressida, who, thus far, has only been known from others' points-of-view. Cressida unravels her own story for the reader—another uncomfortable psyche to visit with. I don't want to give any more away here, but the reader does know from the dust jacket copy that Cressida is alive and will eventually return home. Just how that all comes about will be answered when you read the book yourself. In the last 150 or so pages of the book, the story comes full circle and brings us back to Carthage.

If I were give one word that comes to mind thinking back on this book, I would say it was "damage." At one point towards the end of the book, it seems everyone is damaged or debilitated...(a meaningful pause here) yet each is finding his or her own way of healing. The book is certainly part multiple character studies, part tragedy. This is an unsettling, even at times a disturbing story, but also a thought-provokingone. The two often go hand-in-hand, yes? Though this won't unseat my favorite Oates works, parts of it will certainly haunt me for sometime to come.

---------

NOTE: After I finished this book I had an errand to run and caught most of a riveting NPR "Fresh Air" interview with Andrew Solomon around his recent article in The New Yorker based on a series of interviews with the father of Adam Lanza, the Sandyhook killer. It seemed an apropos follow up to the book I had just finished.

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=3&islist=true&a..."

Sorry, I realized what I originally said made no sense. The stories I have read that contain bits of the interview are so sad - I'm not sure I can actually stand to read the interview.

>146 avaland: I heard most of the NPR interview. I hadn't planned on reading The New Yorker article, but now I think I have to.

>147 fannyprice: You mean the Andrew Solomon one about his interviews with Peter Lanza? Yes, ultimately sad, but riveting. We rarely hear the parents' (of the young killer) points of view, and we are all too often ready to blame them. Anyone who has read We Need to Talk About Kevin would find it fascinating.

Which brings me to the subject of tragedies, literary ones. Joyce Carol Oates writes quite a lot of them; they are often dark, disturbing, sad and provocative. It can stir the stuff at the bottom of our own ponds, and for our own good, perhaps make us re-examine things that need a bit of updating or some refreshing - perhaps our ideas of justice or fairness, inherent biases, culpabilities, relationships and so on. I find tragedies both disturbing and, strangely, psychologically invigorating (akin to a deep tissue massage for the psyche?)

>146 avaland: enjoyed your latest Joyce Carol Oates review.

>151 baswood: Thanks, Barry. I'm not very happy with it but it's the best I can do under the circumstances.

>149 avaland: I have that New Yorker (well, I have all of them because I subscribe) but I'm not sure I can read the article although I think I should.

>150 avaland: That's a very interesting observation about our response to tragedies, Lois, at least the ones that don't touch us too personally. Why we glue ourselves to the TV or computer when something like 9/11 or the Boston Marathon bombing happens.

Your list of books in translation is fascinating. I've already sent an order to Ammie for the The Devil's Workshop, and several others on there are calling to me too.

Apparently i couldn't not read the Lanza New Yorker article. I just read it. Not surely that how I'm thinking at the moment is true in any way, but it seems like I read about this stuff because I keep looking for an explanation as way of comprehending it. Instead it's very sad and disturbing all over again, which somehow reinforces my sense of needing to comprehend it.

As for Oates, some sympathy as I know it's so frustrating when you can't figure out how to say what you want to say. But, the review reads well and I like the meaningful pause.

Link to New Yorker article: http://m.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/03/17/140317fa_fact_solomon?currentPage=al...

>153 rebeccanyc: Rebecca, the Fresh Air interview is excellent. Terry Gross asks the best questions. Andrew Solomon was very respectful and measured, as appropriate for such a sensitive topic. At the very end he talked about the 2000 letters he's gotten, many from people thanking him for helping them understand, but more from nutters.

>154 laytonwoman3rd: Linda, I've read one small book on the subject of tragedy and I have another in the TBR pile, it fascinates me. You being a great Faulkner fan would find the subject interesting (I must get to some Faulkner...it's been ages and I know I didn't appreciate it when I read it back when).

>155 dchaikin: I know exactly what you are saying, Dan. I haven't read the article, but I assume the content between that and the interview is much the same. It doesn't answer all questions certainly but the information raises our understanding a level so it's not just a gut reaction to blame the parents or a therapist or a school. Towards the end of the interview, Solomon says that he learned that, as parents, this could happen to any of us. I think this is what many of us came away with from reading We Need to Talk About Kevin. It's an awful thing to wrap one's mind around.

Thanks for the article link, Dan. The interview link is above in #146

Great review of the new book by Oates.

Thanks, Edwin.

So I ended up listening to the interview with Andrew Solomon yesterday. I'd heard him interviewed before, I think about his book Far From the Tree, in which he looks at parenting children who are radically different in some way - disabled, criminal, chronically ill, etc. I was actually kind of disappointed in the interview - it struck me as strange that Solomon was so adamant that there was no explanation for Adam Lanza's behavior - there is always an explanation for events, even if we don't know it or can't discern it. Maybe I will read the article after all. Thanks Dan for the article link.

>160 fannyprice: His theory that we can only build on our understanding of the circumstances, but not have an explanation struck me as very accurate. I have always felt this way about violent crime. I was also struck by his discussion about what he would add/change to the book in reference to diagnosis.

>161 lesmel: we can only build on our understanding of the circumstances, but not have an explanation. Yes, I see the truth in that and the reason I found the interview so connected to my reading of the Oates book, is that she writes quite a bit about things that do not always have clean explanations (such as violence, hate, prejudice, poverty) and explores such topics in a way that we as readers might begin to build some kind of understanding of it.

>161 lesmel: and >162 avaland:, Good point. I actually read the interview today and understand now more of what he meant. Originally it seemed to me that Solomon was falling back on the "he's just evil!" explanation, which I find weak, because in my mind it is a way to take actions that we find abhorrent and distance ourselves from them - that could never happen to me, I'd never do anything like that, etc. Having heard Solomon interviewed before, it surprised me that someone as thoughtful as he seems to be would do that. But of course, having actually read the article in the New Yorker now, I can see that's not what it was all about.

>161 lesmel:, I too was struck by Solomon's discussion about wanting to change parts of his book now.

Catching up...

>146 avaland: Nice review of Carthage, Lois.

I also subscribe to The New Yorker and I'm on holiday the next two weeks, so I'll have time to read Andrew Solomon's interview of Peter Lanza and listen to the Fresh Air interview online.

>157 avaland: I still haven't read We Need to Talk About Kevin; must get on that.

>160 fannyprice: I plan to read Far from the Tree next month, as it was chosen for this year's Wellcome Book Prize longlist. It's nearly 1000 pages long, so I probably won't finish it until late April. I saw a bit of the interview of Andrew Solomon on CNN, I think, but I'll definitely listen to the Fresh Air interview before I read the book.

>164 kidzdoc: Thanks for stopping by, Darryl. Enjoy your 2 weeks of holiday (I could use one of those right now).

FYI: If you come here looking for me (or dukedom) and you don't find us be aware that we will be officially without internet *gasp* from the 25th to April 15th. We will have some measure of internet via our phones, and may hoof it to the town library (small town, not open all the time) for wi-fi or drive to the nearest Panera Bread Co.

Might try to comment on the books I've finished before it goes away, but then again, might not have time.

That is a long while to be without internet! Hopefully it's not missed too much.

>166 avaland:, Is that moving time? If so, good luck!

fannyprice,

That's because fiber optic internet is fairly new in the town we're moving to, and the techs are busy doing connections. Or so we're told.

>168 fannyprice: Moving time is now less than a week away!
>167 mabith: Meredith, yes, it indeed is a long time.

>166 avaland: After you get over the initial shock, you might actually like it. My vacations are device free, not even a cell phone. It's amazing the sense of freedom you develop after the initial shock wears off, but unfortunately, the bad habits return with the hookup once home!

It does take an awfully long time to catch up on LT though after two weeks away.

Are you still able to eat at home, or is the kitchen packed too? Time to lay in a good selection of mysteries, more Denise Mina maybe, or whatever gets you through.

Good luck and we'll miss you here. You might those three weeks troublingly sane.

>171 SassyLassy: I packed up most of the kitchen yesterday, but have left out "the basics" all of which will be packed by Sunday night (the kids are coming down Sunday to help pack)

I'm already way behind on LT!

>172 dchaikin: LOL! Thanks, Dan.

Gods and Beasts by Denise Mina.

This is another excellent crime novel, the third in the Alex Morrow series. My comments on her first two in #135 above suggest she might have a three-pronged approach to her books, and this book continues that but with a bit of a twist. My theory was that she followed Morrow & the police, a victim, someone close to the victim (or other person affected by the crime), and also the criminals. In this book, she follows the police and a witness to the crime, and chooses not to follow the perpetrator of the main crime, but follows several 'good' people to show how easily they can be corrupted. At first I thought these side pieces were a bit of distraction, but she wraps it all up nicely together by the end. I'm also enjoying the development of the character Alex Morrow over the course of the books. However, after this third book's bleak presentation of Glasgow I thought I might cross it off my list of places to visit.

Oh, did you want a synopsis? The book begins at a local post office with a terrible robbery and brutal public murder which kills a grandfather in the presence of his 4 year old grandson.

Reading the 4th and most recent now.

I must get to Denise Mina. :)

Mina tends to have a question that she's asking in each book. The Gods and Beasts being about unintended consequences of good deeds. I think what I like is that she respects the people society does not, and understands their motivations, so that actions that would appear as stupid or hostile have reasons behind them.

The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne (2014, US)

Meena, a young woman from a near future India, is on the run and she decides to take advantage of her situation to travel to Ethiopia to find out who her killed her parents, both of whom were murdered at her birth. She will illegally use "The Trail." a string of connected energy-gathering (solar and wave motion) upside-down pyramids that bridge the ocean. She has heard that others have walked the Trail, but first she must gather resources for such a lonely and dangerous journey and learn to walk the constantly moving segments.

Mariama, a little Mauritanian slave girl from a different time, is also on the run. She connects with a small band of people who are driving oil east to Ethiopia. Her journey is also perilous. In alternating chapters, Byrne gives us the story of Meena and Mariama, one moving west, the other east, and despite the different times, the fate of the two will intersect in ways the reader might come to suspect, but perhaps not quite as one imagines.

I had a little trouble getting into this book because I didn't initially find Meena a particularly attractive character. She's a very self-absorbed, self-reliant young woman with an angry edge, but also smart, tough and resourceful. Still, I think the initial setting (near future India) and the idea of the Trail (energy-gathering chains across the oceans) got me hooked first. The introduction of the likable Mariama sealed the deal, so to speak.

That said, I think the book is ultimately Meena's story, and she does grow on the reader - she's intriguing, and sometimes that's even better than being likable. Although she's an adult in her twenties, her journey seems to be one not unlike a modern reworking of a Native American vision quest—traveling in a wilderness, visions or hallucinations...etc. but I think it's got a dash of the hero's journey in there too (anti-hero's journey?). The two storylines dance back and forth with well done reoccurring and shared motifs—a journey and a snake are the most obvious (and the Trail also resembles a snake)—which mysteriously (and delightfully so) connect the two women. The detail of the settings are well-crafted and refreshing. The author has varied literary influences and that shows in her writing and content. Science fictions readers will be interested to note that she is a fan of Ursula LeGuin and Kim Stanley Robinson. While not a perfect novel—it is the author's first—The Girl in the Road is ultimately a very enjoyable and satisfying read and I'll look forward to whatever Byrne produces next.

*for those who may be sensitive to such things: the story has frank, but not gratuitous, sexual content, a necessary part in the story I think. One could argue there might be another reoccurring motif there.

>176 RidgewayGirl: That's an interesting observation, must think on that as I read her latest.

Further notes on The Girl in the Road. Here in the US, the novel is being published under Random House's Crown imprint, not an imprint known for science fiction. I think the marketing strategy is to appeal to both SF readers and non-SF readers in the way The Sparrow or The Speed of Dark did. It might work. And while I know we are in 2014 and everyone's reading "gender-blind" these days (ha ha, at least they claim so), I will be interested to see how the general, male-dominated SF audience takes to a book entirely about women, and how it is criticized (I consider the SF-reading males of Club Read usually a cut above the pack).

>174 avaland: Don't give up on Glasgow!

Have you read anything by James Kelman? That's truly bleak Glasgow.

Looks like you'll have a new thread to go along with your new home.

>174 avaland: and >176 RidgewayGirl:, That sounds really cool. I might have to check out Denise Mina.

>180 SassyLassy: I do have a Kelman book but I haven't read it yet. It's the one that won the Booker.

I consider the SF-reading males of Club Read usually a cut above the pack).. Thank you for that

Enjoyed your review of The girl in the Road

>183 baswood: Thanks, Barry.



The Red Road by Denise Mina (2014, Scottish)

This is the 4th and most recent of Mina's "Alex Morrow" novels. I'm not even going to bother to give you a synopsis except to say that the plot is detailed and complex, and each piece of that puzzle has a human face. I liked this book particularly because of that, and because Denise Mina doesn't see a crime, justice, law and order, good or bad, as simple things. She takes us into the murky gray areas and then guides us through slowly with a flashlight/torch. This one is a police procedural at its best.

>135 avaland: - Great reviews of Mina - so glad you liked her.

I'm looking forward to hearing how your time without internet went.

>184 avaland: Glad you enjoyed Mina. I'm especially happy as I still have so many still to read.

Here's a book for you:

Checking in; we closed on the old house two days ago. That was a big relief. Still a lot of work to settle in to the new one. Poetry unpacked and shelved in one of the house's built-in bookshelves.

Congratulations! Happy book unpacking

Thanks for stopping by! No internet until mid-month. I think we are going to build a 'wall of books' -- the kind with one of those sliding ladders on a rail. So, perhaps not too much unpacking of books for a while.

Reading a great mystery thriller titled North of Boston. The fishing industry and perfumery in the same book! More later on.

Thanks, for the book, Joyce :-)

When I was a kid I thought that a wall of books with a sliding ladder in the home was basically the pinnacle of adult achievement. I can't say I've changed my mind.

>will let you know if and when it happens, Meredith!

Just a wee update. I'm working, working, working. It's rather brain-busting so I'm a bit burnt out when I get home in the evening, and having started the job so soon after moving, I have been trying to cram everything else in on the weekends. Not much reading is getting done and I rarely make it very far into LT these days (or FB, for that matter). Miss you all and wistfully think of the days with the kind of flexible schedules that allowed me to romp about LT...well, perhaps in retirement, eh?

Still haven't unpacked many of the 4,000 books. We are planning to have some shelving built in just above our heads near the ceiling (which is higher than in the previous house) to make use of that space (still planning the "wall of books" and "man cave/room"), but I don't want to load hundreds and thousands of books into a room/area before I paint it -- if you know what I mean.

I do try to keep my reading in the top post updated and my new acquisitions logged into my library. I'm dithering with several books now, but it's slow going when I only read four or five pages a night before I fall asleep!

I'll be waving at you from the shore (at least that's what it feels like)

Hi, Lois. You are missed around here. I've been in that "working, working, working" camp before, and it can take its toll on reading and life in general. Try to take time to enjoy your new home.

I'm out here in an old cantankerous rowboat with only one paddle, but I'm waving back. Noticing 2014 a lot in the first post.

Yes, once you fill a bookshelf, you will never paint that room again. Or, rather, once I fill a bookshelf, I will never paint that room again.

You are missed, but we'll be here when you have more time or retire. And I have The Shining Girls out and ready to read soon.

Great to have the update, I've been thinking of you. It all sounds overwhelming, but even four pages is progress. Keep checking in when you can.

I picked up Hillary's book last week Lois. I liked the person I met in the first book she wrote, so am looking forward to this, especially as it is about International Affairs.

What are you working at Lois? Besides settling in, I mean.

I miss you, Lois! Hope life settles down for you soon.

Thanks, mates!

>194 NanaCC: I cram a lot into the weekends, Colleen, but there's time to sit and enjoy the woods and gardens (if only because my knee limits me a bit)

>195 dchaikin: Dan, yes, a legacy of my book industry past, I think. Reading the new stuff, that is.

>196 RidgewayGirl: Which is why I'm having a good think about the colors before I do so! re: The Shining Girls, thus far I'm a wee bit disappointed that the prose is so light, and that it's set in Chicago (!). Akeela read this, I think. We have her first book somewhere in the packed books.

>197 SassyLassy: I saw over on Michael's thread that you've put the house on the market! Will be thinking of you! I do try to tell myself that 4 pages is progress. I guess I just think there is too much to do to read other than before bed.

>198 Caroline_McElwee: Caroline, I'm going to listen to it on audio, I think, though I've read the first section (I found it so interesting - the end of her campaign and the switch to supporting Obama). I listened to her first on audio (she read it herself) and also Madeline Albright's memoir on audio (she also read it herself).

>199 janeajones: Jane, I'm doing a temp job at a company that sells scientific equipment to schools and universities. It turned out to be more complex than I expected, so the first six weeks or so I was totally burnt-out learning the ropes. Now the work has become more rote and there's a general cubicle weariness. It's the first time I've worked in a corporate situation, too.

>200 Nickelini: Thanks. I'm hoping to take some of the fall off after this job ends, before I look for something else. Lovely photo of you and the recent graduate I saw on FaceBook (during one of my infrequent visits there.

I have Madeleine Albright's early life memoir.

I don't really do audio books now.

Glad to hear the Clinton book is good.

>202 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks for stopping by, Caroline.

Brief comments on the last three books read:


North of Boston by Elisabeth Elo

Two word review: Refreshing different.
Why this book? An intriguing story—a crime novel—that mixes the fishing industry with the perfume industry, and with a tough, screwed up, 2nd generation Russian female protagonist (and rich) How is that not intriguing? Additionally, a friend/former co-worker handed me a reader copy.

I wasn't sure I was going to warm up to Pirio Kasparov, the protagonist in this debut novel, but I did. Both the story and Pirio are complicated things. In the end I found it to be a very satisfying read and a refreshingly different crime novel.

Here's a review from the Boston Globe that's decent, although I think the reviewer is a bit dismissive.


Back to Back by Julia Franck (translated from the German)

One word review: Haunting.
Why this book? I was browsing the book store shelves (yes, some of us still do this) and I remembered Franck's previously translated book, The Blindness of the Heart won the German Book Award. This recently translated book was set in the former East Germany where the author is from originally -- what do I know of post war East Germany.

I admit this book was hard to read at times, but it's also compelling (isn't that true of many tragedies?). It's about two siblings growing up in East Germany post war. Their mother is a sculptor and doesn't seem to have a maternal bone in her body. She is unaffectionate and self-focused, and leaves them alone to fend for themselves for weeks at a time (her other two, younger children were in foster care). It's a sad, tragic and haunting story set against the changing and bleak backdrop of East Germany in the decade and a half after the war.



Before I Burn by Gaute Heivoll (2014, Norwegian)

Nearly one word review: Unusual & very satisfying
Why this book? Again, browsing the bookstore shelves, I happened upon this. The front cover with its Karin Fossum blurb suggests it's part of the wave of Scandinavian crime fiction, yet the blurbs on the back suggested something unusual. That conflict in the blurbs intrigued me.

There is no mystery here and no thriller pacing...etc. It's about a series of fires that terrorized a small Norwegian community i the late 70s, and the reader very early on learns who the arsonist is (although the community doesn't know until near the end of the book). It's the story of the arsons/arsonist, yes, but it's also the story of the narrator (who shares a name with the author and is also a writer), who was born at the time of these fires, and also an introduction to the community both he and the arsonist grew up in. It's slow-paced, beautifully written, unusual book.

I usually pass my crime novels on to my sister-in-law, but this book isn't going anywhere!

Glad to see you're still managing to read some unusual stuff...I can count on you to bring books to my attention that no one else is talking about!

Before I Burn caught my attention.

Always nice to see what you're reading.

Thanks, Dan and Linda. Dan, I think you might like it.

I'll look for Back to Back and Before I Burn while I'm in the US on vacation.

Interesting, and I like your approach to short reviews. Particularly intrigued by Before I Burn.

(ETA: this is currently low-priced on both UK and US Amazon, for any Kindle readers, so I've quickly bought a copy!)

>208 wandering_star: Thanks for the heads up.

>207 RidgewayGirl:, 208, 209 Thanks for stopping by! Wish I had the luxury to hang out in CR a bit more....