What are you reading the week of July 1, 2017?

I'm continuing to indulge my interests in early civilizations by reading Mesopotamia: The Invention of the the City by Gwendolyn Leick. It's a quick history of 10 different cities in the near east spanning several thousand years.

Just read the reviews of that here - please report back your thoughts on the book. It sounds like it could be right up my alley, but wanted another view!

An Unfinshed Life Mark spragg

>2 cindydavid4: I like Mark Spragg's books, and enjoyed that one. I believe a movie was made from it, as well, though I haven't seen the movie.

Still reading The Fireman and The Beautiful Mystery.

I'm reading The Vanishing Velázquez by Laura Cumming, and subsequently Diego Velázquez: Life and Work by Dieter Beaujean so I can look at some of the paintings referenced that aren't included in the first book. I just discovered my local art museum has an art lover's book club which is how I found out about the book. Even though it's nonfiction it reads like a story.

I'm also reading Summer of Night by Dan Simmons for a read along on Instagram. Just started it, but a lot of attention is being given to the setting.

>3 whymaggiemay: what others would you recommend I read next?

Finished The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny. Enjoyed just as much as all the other Inspector Gamache books I've read to date.

Reading Provincial Lady in America by E.M. Delafield.

>2 cindydavid4: "Hmm. Tricky," to quote Deep Thought. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

I've recently become interested in the early pre-history of humanity and of those regions commonly referred to as the "Cradles of Civilization" in my old junior high school history class. So, I'm starting from a very thin base of information. With so little background in the subject, it's difficult to be effectively critical about a single work.

I'm enjoying the book, but it has its quirks. As with most books, you have to be willing to sift through the ideas and sort them according to how well you think the author supported those ideas with facts and reasonable inferences. The author doesn't fare well in this regard. She has a strange predisposition toward believing that the oldest cities were egalitarian democratic societies. But this seems to be based on little more than wishful thinking and the "openness" of the architecture.

Beyond the architecture, she focuses on the lack of any evidence of rigid governmental bureaucracy and control to support her desired interpretation of Mesopotamian society. But that does not follow. The record is extremely sparse, and bureaucracies don't exactly leave unambiguous remains in the pre-historic archeological record. You aren't going to find an office door with a sign saying, "2nd Assistant to the Undersecretary for Salted Fish to the Minister of Fish Mongers." They do leave a lot of records, and there are thousands of examples of such records in Mesopotamia. So her case is weak.

On the whole, I'm enjoying the book. Can I recommend it? It depends on the reader. If you're looking for the One Book with all the facts, this isn't it. But if you enjoy reading on a topic and testing your own ideas against those of the author, then it can be fun and interesting. And frankly, that's all that I ask of a book.

>6 cindydavid4: I liked Where Rivers Change Direction and The Fruit of the Stone. I'd tried to pick up a copy of Fire Bone, but at the time it was out of print and not in Kindle yet. I see that it's available now, so I'll add it to my tremendous TBR. In full disclosure, I should say that one of the reasons I like his books is that he sets his stories within 100 miles of where I was born (over the state line in Montana). I traveled that area enough as a child to remember it and his descriptions are absolutely spot on. Reading his books bring back memories for me.

I would also recommend Larry Watson, especially Montana 1948 and White Crosses. I have read a couple of others and have several others on Mt. TBR. He also sets his scenes near my birth place (about 75 miles the other way) and his descriptions are likewise excellent. I recommended Montana 1948 for a book club read and they thought it was a perfect choice.

>9 fredbacon: (always love a HGTTG quote) I am in the latter category; Ive read enough popular history to get a sense of how much the author makes up and how much is based on something. But I forgive a lot if its fun and intersting (Tony Horowitz is a big fav of mine in this regard). So I'll have to check it out, thanks

I finished up And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You by Kathi Kamen Goldmark, a breezy comedic fable about the world of Country music. It's kind of a groovy tale, sort of reminiscent to me of Bagdad Cafe, with characters just a bit too quirky and fab to be real. So don't look for veracity, but the book is mostly good fun.

I've now started Back to Delphi by Greek novelist Ioanna Karystiani. The first 30 pages or so have definitely caught my attention. The writing style is wonderful.

Thanks to Framboise, I read and loved John Boyne's newest The Heart's Invisible Furies. I gave it 5 stars and I very rarely give anything 5 stars. It really has to get right into my heart and be beautifully written. Highly recommended!

I'm going between Notes From a Dead House(thank you Fred Bacon - it's fascinating!) and Don Quixote which is becoming a fun, relaxing, fantastical novel. I just received in today's mail The Poet's Daughters, sadly, I don't even remember ordering it but it looks interesting!

I'm giving Anthony Horowitz's Moriarty a reread, just for fun.

>13 enaid: That was fast! I'm the same way about rating & recommending books--it has to have a spectacular story and well-written for me to LOVE it. But I agree, anyone who loves literature, should read The Heart's Invisible Furies.

I haven't been reading much the last couple of weeks. Doing a reread of The Handmaid's Tale but lately I've just been reading a few pgs before bed.

>13 enaid:
John Boyne has become a favorite author of mine based on having read only one of his novels, The Absolutist, an anti-war novel set after the end of WWI. It's a short work but incomparable for its power.

Yes, he writes beautifully. Thanks for the rec of another title by him.

Am mostly not reading. I can't concentrate on books when insomnia strikes, and I've also been busy planning an upcoming vacation. In the few minutes I can grab to read, I pick up The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, which is fascinating, but not light reading. I'm also attempting, for the third time, to read Stephen King's The Stand. To add to that, I am being paid to read and review Expect Trouble by JoAnn Smith Ainsworth.

I got waylaid from Culloden by John Prebble to Where My Heart Used to Beat by Sebastian Faulks so will alternate between them.

I wasn't a fan of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (which is sacrilege in some quarters) but I like the sound of The Heart's Invisible Furies and >15 Limelite: The Absolutist, so onto the wishlist they go. Thanks!

Started Flame in the Mist which started out really interesting, but I am tiring with this wishy washy character who is not as smart as she thinks she is. One of those books where I will look at reviews to see if its worth my while finishing it. Too many other great books out there to read!

The Agony and the Ecstasy – Irving Stone
Audiobook read by Arthur Morey.
4****

Stone’s epic historical novel tells the life story of Michelangelo. Stone did extensive research, living in Italy for several years, and using many of Michelangelo’s letters and documents found in various archives. He really brings the artist (and his works) to life. While most of us are familiar with his Pieta and David sculptures, and the Sistine Chapel paintings / frescoes, Michelangelo was also an accomplished poet and architect. Stone brings all these elements into the novelized biography.

Additionally, the novel includes much of the politics of the times, from the Medicis in Florence to the various Popes in Rome, it’s a fascinating history of the era.

This man was a giant among giants, whose influence on art and architecture is almost without measure. His life requires an epic story. That being said, the novel is incredibly long in order to cover all of Michelangelo’s eighty-eight years, and his life’s opus. I found his efforts to study anatomy in an era when dissection was absolutely forbidden fascinating, but grew tired of the repetitive references to his search for “peasant models” or insistence on the male nude form.

I may have noticed the repetition more because this was a second reading. I first read the novel sometime in the mid- to late-1960s; I’m fairly certain I read it before the movie, starring Charleton Heston, was released, but maybe it was shortly after that. My rating reflects my recalled reaction at that time.

I do wish there was an “illustrated” edition of the novel, to show some of his works alongside those chapters describing their creation. But I suppose that what Google is for!

Arthur Morey does a fine job narrating the audio version. At 34 hours in length, it’s a significant commitment, but worth it (and you don’t have to carry that huge tome around).

The Lowland – Jhumpa Lahiri
4****

From the book jacket: Born just fifteen months apart, Subhash and Udayan are inseparable brothers, one often mistaken for the other in the Calcutta neighborhood where they grow up. But they are also opposites, with gravely different futures ahead. It is the 1960s, and Udayan – charismatic and impulsive – finds himself drawn to the Naxalite movement, a rebellion waged to eradicate inequity and poverty; he will give everything, risk all, for what he believes. Subhash, the dutiful son, does not share his brother’s political passion; he leaves home to pursue a life of scientific research in a quiet, coastal corner of America.

My reactions
This is a dense, character-driven story, that explores both the immigrant experience and the relationships between family members. Spanning decades, we watch these characters muddle through life, changing their goals and expectations as tragedy or joy, opportunity or obstacle comes up. No one wants to make these kinds of decisions, but sometimes life forces us to do so. In this way we can all relate to the characters. And yet, their experience is very different from my own, and while I feel for their plight, I’m not sure I understand them. And I definitely do not like a few of them.

The story is not linear; Lahiri uses flashbacks as characters remember past events or wonder about what might have happened. It is never recognized as such, but clearly several of them are suffering from PTSD, doing what they can to hide from the world and avoid further pain (a strategy which, of course, does not work).

Lahiri writes beautifully, and I kept marking passages. She has a gift for putting the reader into the setting with her descriptions. One can feel the heat and humidity of Calcutta, smell the fresh briny scent on the breeze of a Rhode Island beach, hear the sounds of a morning ritual, and taste the food served. Her characters observe what is going on around them and their hesitancy or surprise when encountering new experiences, made me look at my familiar surroundings with new eyes. For example:
The main doors were almost always left open, held in place by large rocks. The locks on the apartment doors were flimsy, little buttons on knobs instead of padlocks and bolts. But she was in a place where no one was afraid to walk about, where drunken students stumbled laughing down a hill, back to their dormitories at all hours of the night. At the top of the hill was the campus police station. But there were no curfews or lockdowns. Students came and went and did as they pleased.

I so wish this was a book-club selection, because I long to discuss it with someone.

>19 BookConcierge: I read that book when I was about 15 (nearly at the same time you did because I remember seeing the movie abut that time as well) and really enjoyed it. Brings back memories for me.

Just finished reading Altered Lives, which I got from the Early Reviewers program. It was very, very good. Currently reading City Ash and Desert Bones, another Early Reviewers program entry. It's been a disappointment so far. Also listening to Broken Grace, which I'm enjoying

Finished Death in a Strange Country by Donna Leon. Liked it well enough. Next into the rotation is Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear.

>20 BookConcierge: For what it may be worth to you, my reaction to Lowland, which I read in 2015, is here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/185977#5110325

About 70 pages into The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt... Still just introducing characters and laying down the thematic foundations, but I'm already intrigued.

Finished Where My Heart Used to Beat by Sebastian Faulks - a therapist in need of therapy tries to fill gaps in his memory and along the way unravels the mystery of his father's death in WW1. Disappointingly, for me it ended like a damp squib.

Started Jude The Obscure by Thomas Hardy. Hadn't realised Hardy was an architect who worked on conservation of old church buildings. I'm liking him already.

>25 ghr4:
"Children's Book" was slow going and (at times) heavy slogging for me. I never felt grounded in the story; it kept slipping away with what I thought were lengthy narrative diversions. Artistic book about artistic people, no doubt. But it could have benefited from artful editing.

>26 floremolla:
Confess to being a champion of "Jude" in the War of Opinion between those who like it and those who go "GAK!" But must admit that I haven't been back to the Thomas Hardy trough for more.

The Japanese Lover - Isabel Allende
Audio book read by Joanna Gleason
3***

In 1939, with the Nazis rising in power throughout Europe, Alma Mendel’s parents send her from their Warsaw home to live with her aunt and uncle in their San Francisco mansion. Her childhood playmate becomes Ichimei Fukuda, the son of the estate’s gardener. But Ichimei and his family are sent to an internment camp after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Decades later, Irina Bazili, a care worker with a troubled past, meets Alma Belasco and her grandson, Seth, at Lark House, where Alma resides in an assisted living apartment. Irina and Seth become intrigued by a series of mysterious gifts and letters sent to Alma, and thus learn about Alma’s secret passion.

This is a sweeping love story that spans decades. Told in alternating time frames, and with alternating points of view, the story unfolds as Irina and Seth discover tidbits of information. I loved Alma; she’s an independent, intelligent, strong-willed woman. But she has had decades of practice guarding her privacy and she’s not about to give up her secrets easily.

Which makes Irina a perfect care giver / companion / assistant for her. Irina has a pretty big secret in her life as well. Like Alma, she left her home to come to the US as a child for the promise of a safer, more secure life. But Irina’s childhood was much different from the pampered Alma’s. She’s a fighter, emotionally fragile, but intelligent, resilient, fiercely independent, scrupulously honest, a hard worker and a tender care giver. As her friendship with Seth and Alma develops, Irina’s past slowly comes out.

I was intrigued and interested in the puzzle of Alma and Ichimei’s relationship. The title alone is a pretty clear indication of what is to come in the novel, and yet I was fascinated to learn the details. I thought the subplot of Irina’s background story was a distraction, however. And while it does remind me that everyone has a story to tell, even the minor characters, I wish that Allende had left it out of this book. I also felt that the men in the story – Ichimei, Nathaniel, and Seth – deserved a little more attention. I felt their characters were not so developed as the two women’s were.

Joanna Gleason does a fine job performing the audiobook. She has a good pace, and I was never confused about time frame or which character’s story was being told. That being said, she does nothing to try to differentiate the voices of the characters. Everyone sounded the same – man or woman, old or young.

>24 rocketjk:
Thanks for the link .... good review, that brought some of the things I thought about as well. Totally agree about how the story seemed bog down in the middle third, but I was completely captivated in the last third of the book.

The Odds of Loving Grover Cleveland - Rebekah Crane
1*

From the book jacket: According to sixteen-year-old Zander Osborne, nowhere is an actual place – and she’s just fine there. But her parents insist that she get out of her head – and her home state – and attend Camp Padua, a summer camp for at-risk teens. Zander has only one word for her fellow campers: crazy. In fact, the whole camp population exists somewhere between disaster and diagnosis. … Amid group “share-apy” sessions and forbidden late-night outings, unlikely friendships form, and the teens begin to reveal their tragic secrets. Zander finds herself inextricably drawn to (fellow camper) Grover Cleveland’s earnest charms, and she begins to wonder if she could be happy.

My reactions
Okay, I knew this was a YA novel about a summer camp for at-risk teens, going into it. I knew from the title and cover art that some sort of summer romance would come into play. But I am so over the teen angst phase of my life, that I find it overly dramatic and cliched.

In addition to Zander the kids at camp include: her cabin mate Cassie, who describes herself as a a “manic-depressive-bipolar-anorexic,” Alex Trebec, called Bek, who is a pathological liar, and Grover Cleveland (yes, like the president), a cute guy who is certain he’ll be schizophrenic one day, given his family history. We don’t know Zander’s problem up front, but she has a tendency to obsessively conjugate French verbs when feeling stressed. Populating the novel with these kids was just a bit too over-the-top for me to enjoy it.

The crisis that results in some break throughs is somewhat believable given the emotional and mental difficulties these kids face. But the way in which this is resolved is totally unbelievable. It’s a relatively fast read, and satisfied a couple of challenges, so I finished it, but that was really time wasted.

I'm reading Sudden Sea, about the great hurricane that struck New England in 1938. It's a gripping story.

>27 Limelite: I've just started Part 2 - finding it very readable so I'm optimistic it'll get a thumbs up from me. :)

I agree with you about The Children's Book - there were many elements of it I liked but the whole didn't satisfy.

>27 Limelite:
>32 floremolla:
Now 134 pages into The Childen's Book, and feeling much as you did... just too much packed into the book; too many ideas and themes floating around, too many characters - and now start the embedded stories! - so yet another layer to contend with! I had expected something more focused by this point. I'm forging ahead, but with trepidation...

So Big by Edna Ferber
4/5 stars
Edna Ferber's So Big though written in 1924 is still a wonderful and relate-able read to modern readers. It follows the story of Selina Peake DeJong, who after losing her father has to make over her life while coping with a change of fortune. She ends up in a farm community teaching their children and falling in love with a young farmer and supporting the artistic talents of a young neighbor. Despite hard times she puts her whole life into her family's farm and raising her son who is her pride and joy but who will make choices he eventually will regret.

>2 cindydavid4: I read An Unfinished Life several years ago was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. I keep meaning to read more of him.

>33 ghr4: I didn't entirely dislike the book and rated it roughly in line with the LT average of 3.8 - but I had higher hopes for it. That's not to say you won't enjoy it more than I did!

<35Just finished it. Yes, very good. Need to read more definitely. In the wrong hands this could have been overdramatic, over sentimental, with stereotypic characters. I have read too many 'scrooge' type books where the old grumpy person changes because of a child. They usually don't work, this one does.

The Rosie Project - absolutely delightful.

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers – Mordecai Gerstein
4****

From the book jacket: In 1974, as the World Trade Center was being completed, a young French aerialist, Philippe Petit, threw a tightrope between the two towers and spent almost an hour walking, dancing and performing tricks a quarter of a mile in the sky.

My reactions
Gerstein brings the sense of awe and wonder to Petit’s amazing feat. He also recognizes the illegality of the stunt and that Petit was arrested and charged with a crime for trespassing, though his sentence was to perform free for the children of New York.

His illustrations are beautifully rendered, and I particularly enjoyed those from a “bird’s-eye” perspective. They even evoked a sense of vertigo. Two fold-outs expand the scope, one showing the view as Petit crosses the wire, with birds flying beneath him, and the Hudson far below, the other giving a sense of the vertical height from the ground as spectators watch in amazement.

>34 JulieLill:
JulieLill .... This has been on my Tbr for SOooooo long ... maybe now I'll finally get to it.

Finishing Into the Whirlwind by Elizabeth Camden
Novel set during the 1871 Great Chicago Fire and its aftermath

I finished Golden Hill. It was a book I was anxiously awaiting the release of, but in the end I was somewhat disappointed with it. It seemed a story set in New York City in 1746 rather than historical fiction. It was a rip roaring tale full of mystery but I found the characters a little unbelievable and the not altogether likable.

Started The Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North and am so far really enjoying it.

>38 gsbzhanan:
I'm enjoying "Rosie," too. Love the way the author constructs dry witty sentences. He's really good at putting the reader into a literal mind. Am half through the book and enjoying at least one lol per chapter.

Finished The Thirst, an excellent Harry Hole installment.

Next up for listening is Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon To White America by Michael Eric Dyson.

>43 JulieLill: I read that too and though I found it dragged in places, I really enjoyed the premise and all the possibilities. A memorable read.

The new thread is up over here.

Tigers in Red Weather - Liza Klaussmann
Book on CD read by Katherine Kellgren
2**

Cousins Nick and Helena grew up spending idyllic summers at Tiger House, the family’s estate on Martha’s Vineyard. As World War 2 ends, the two young women are about to begin their “real” lives – Helena is off to Hollywood and a new marriage to producer Avery Lewis, while Nick travels to Florida to reunite with her husband Hughes Derringer, home from the war. But reality doesn’t meet their expectations. Twelve years later, the cousins – along with their children Daisy and Ed – try to recapture their memories by once again spending the summer at Tiger House. But when Daisy and Ed make a gruesome discovery, the secrets and lies that each family member thought were safely buried begin to push to the surface.

This is Klaussmann’s debut and I see a nugget of a good novel here. But the execution falters. The dialogue is tortured. And the fractured timeline and changes in point of view do little to help the story arc. Klaussmann gives the reader some clues … dividing the book into sections titled with the character from whose point of view events will be relayed: Nick, Daisy, Helena, Hughes, Ed, and heading each chapter with the year and month. However, within the chapters events go back and forth in time as the character reflects on things. So, a chapter might be titled 1947: February, but some events relayed may have taken place months or years previously. I’m sure the author intended that this device would help build suspense, but mostly it just confused me. By the time the big reveal takes place I didn’t care, I just wanted the book to end.

Katherine Kellgren’s performance on the audio does nothing to help the novel. She has a tendency to be overly dramatic when voicing the characters. I wound up reading the text for more than half the novel. ZERO stars for the audio performance.

>42 snash: Yeah I was eager too, and disappointed. kept trying to go back to it, but nothing clicked. pity, I'd heard so much about it.