What are you reading the week of November 27, 2021?

I'm floundering a bit this week. Nothing that I pick up has managed to hold my interest.

A Very Punchable Face
Colin Jost
4/5 stars
Colin Jost has been a member of Saturday Night Live since 2005 in which he has written skits, acted on the show and has been the Weekend Update co-anchor. He grew up on Staten Island and in this book, he goes over his life and career at SNL. If you are a fan of SNL, you will definitely enjoy this book!

As noted at the end of last week’s thread, I’ve just started The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Iranian writer Shokoofeh Azar. This novel was shortlisted for the 2020 International Book Prize. Over the first 20 pages or so, I’m enjoying this novel quite a lot.

Knocked off Moon Rush, a piece of advocacy that already feels dated. A third of the way through the really excellent Neptune's Inferno. Will wind up the month with Equoid. Will start out December with What Abigail Did that Summer.

I am reading Emma by Jane Austen for the first time. I’m enjoying it so far.

Recently finished Binti. Enjoyed it.

I'm currently reading Death Cure and listening to The Circle audiobook.

>5 Tara1Reads: Emma is on my list of the funniest books I’ve ever read. Something about that book just really resonated with me.

Taking a small break from my reading rotation to cleanse the brain with Third Girl by Agatha Christie.

Recipes. Only recipes.

Finished listening to The Sentence. Excellent.

Next up for listening is Happiness by Aminatta Forna.

I'm reading Moon Palace by Paul Auster with my book club. I like it so far.

Harriet the Spy
Louise Fitzhugh
4/5 stars
This is a wonderful children’s book about Harriet, a young girl who likes to spy on others and keeps track of her efforts in a notebook. However, things are not going well with her. First, her longtime nanny leaves the family and then she loses her notebook which the other kids find. Will her friends ever forgive her? I read this a long time ago but I had just read the author's biography this year and wanted to re-visit Harriet's story.

I’m really enjoying The Lincoln Highway.

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
So far, I am liking it!

I have just finished Pulitzer Prize winner A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

Next up is The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling

I have just finished Pulitzer Prize winner A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

Next up is The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling

Finished Third Girl by Agatha Christie. Still like it.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales of Terror – Robert Louis Stevenson
Digital audiobook performed by Scott Brick
3***

Classic horror from a master of Victorian gothic fiction.

I appreciate the atmospheric nature of Stevenson’s writing. The reader can feel the dampness of a foggy London night, smell the freshly turned earth in the graveyard, hear the clip clop of a horse’s hooves on cobblestoned streets, clearly see the horrific images of a mutilated body, and taste the bile that rises as a result of all the above.

The title story is an exploration of man’s baser instincts. Can a potion be created that will change a generous, kind, proper individual into a fiend? And once the gentleman has “tasted” the freedom from inhibition that results, can he go back? Will he want to? Of course, Dr Jekyll’s alter-ego changes physical appearance as well, further confounding those around him.

The other stories in the collection had similar psychological / ethical themes, though I didn’t like them all quite so much. The Bottle Imp explores greed and regret and selfless love. Stevenson shows that true events can be as frightening as fantasy in The Body Snatcher, which is based on the real practice of trafficking in bodies needed by medical students for dissection that happened in the 19th century. And the remote setting of The Merry Men make the ghost ships seem all the more real.

Scott Brick does a marvelous job of narrating the title story. But bear in mind that the audio version is limited to this one short story.

Finished A History of What Comes Next by Sylvain Neuvel. Enjoyed it. Next up is Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.

Either I'm mellowing with age, or the Goddess of Reading is smiling on me. I've read three outstanding novels this month, all of which are going to end up on the "Best of 2021" list.

This one is Jill Ciment's The Tattoo Artist, and my full review is up here: https://www.librarything.com/work/462795/reviews/209103139

(Incidentally, a clue on how to make a quicklink would be appreciated!)

Easy Crafts for the Insane: A Mostly Funny Memoir of Mental Illness and Making Things
Kelly Williams Brown
3.5/5 stars
Brown talks about her life when everything is falling apart, her marriage breaks up and she is trying to move forward. One of things that helps her is crafting and you will find craft projects in-between the chapters about her life. The memoir was well written and interesting but as for the crafts projects, I just scanned them.

Shuggie Bain – Douglas Stuart
Digital audiobook performed by Angus King
5*****

Stuart’s debut work explores the impoverished working-class families of 1980s Glasgow. The Bain family lives in public housing and struggles to make ends meet even with the assistance they’re given. Shuggie (Hugh) is the youngest child of Agnes, and much of the story focuses on his efforts to understand and deal with his mother’s alcoholism and depression. His father opted for divorce, and his two older siblings have pretty much left the nest, so it is the tender, kind, lonely Shuggie who is left to deal with his mother.

Oh, my heart breaks for this child. He is so tender and loving, so devoted to his mother, so trusting and naïve, and so worldly and responsible. The burden he carries is far too heavy for his small shoulders.

The novel opens in 1992, with a 16-year-old Shuggie struggling to make it on his own – out of school, working parttime at a supermarket (where he gets a discount on dented cans of fish), and living in a flop house where he is preyed upon by older men. Stuart then takes the reader back a decade to witness the child’s tender years.

Agnes is a complicated woman. She has dreams and ambitions and is tenacious about keeping herself, her children and her house clean and as fashionable as possible. Shuggie learns these lessons well; he helps her with her hair, makes sure his shoes are polished and his clothes pressed. The taunts of the children in his neighborhood do not phase him, for he knows his worth. But Agnes is an alcoholic and alcohol will ruin her life. Stuart makes the reader privy to the most intimate details of their lives, This makes their descent all the more painful to watch. There is no neat happy ending here, but there is some hope for Shuggie.

Angus King does a marvelous job of narrating the audio book. He sets a good pace and really brings these characters to life.

Being Mortal – Atul Gawande
Book on CD narrated by Robert Petkoff
5*****

Stop reading this review and read this book.

SUBTITLE: Medicine and What Matters in the End

Just because physicians CAN do something, should they? Should we want them to? At what cost – not to society or to our wallets, but at what cost to our humanity and dignity? Atul Gawande, a surgeon in Boston Massachusetts, explores the ways in which medicine (and specifically American medicine and American society) helps and hinders the aged, the infirm, and the dying.

If you know anyone who will someday die … stop reading this review and read this book.

As he did in his previous books, Gawande gives clear information and asks probing questions. He does not necessarily try to give us THE answer, but he does propose some alternatives, ultimately leaving the final answer up to each and every one of us. Having helped both my parents face their mortal ends, I can tell you that my family members and I – brothers, sister-in-law, and husband – have had many discussions about these issues over the past several years. Some of the physicians we encountered were open to such frank discussion, but not all were. There are difficult issues, heart-wrenching dilemmas, and anxiety-producing situations. But they do not get less difficult, less anxiety-producing, or less heart-wrenching when we ignore them.

Oliver Sacks wrote the following blurb: “We have come to medicalize aging, frailty, and death, treating them as if they were just one more clinical problem to overcome. However, it is not only medicine that is needed in one’s declining years but life – a life with meaning, a life as rich and full as possible under the circumstances. Being Mortal is not only wise and deeply moving, it is an essential and insightful book for our times…”

WHY are you still reading this review? Read the book … NOW! Think carefully about what you want, and then talk about it – to your family, your friends, your doctors. Encourage them to read the book, too.

Robert Petkoff does a superb job reading the audio book. There is a bonus interview with the author at the end of the audio version.

UPDATE 2021: I re-read this for my F2F book club meeting. I’m older now and the issues are more personal, rather than just familial. Wonderful discussion at book club, and continued discussions with my husband and brothers. READ IT!

Just finished reading the novel MATILDA by author ROALD DAHL

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>23 BookConcierge: I completely agree with your encouragement for everyone to read this book. I do the same thing. I’ve gotten two people to read it so far that I know of.

>8 seitherin: I also just finished The Third Girl and I completely enjoyed it. A clever mystery! Agatha Christie has been my comfort during the past two years and I've grown especially fond of Monsieur Poirot.

I've started Matrix by Lauren Groff and it has been a joy to read. Groff's previous novel Fates and Furies was one my top reads for 2020. I'll always be grateful to that novel as it kept me enthralled during a long flight delay in Charlotte, NC. Those two hours passed unnoticed because of Fates and Furies!

The new thread is up over here.