What are you reading the week of March 12, 2022?

I had a busy week. I read Lock No. 1 and Maigret by Georges Simenon. The 18th and 19th Inspector Maigret novels. Both were very fun and engrossing.

I'm now a little more than a third of the way through Gustave Le Bon's The Psychology of Revolution. It's interesting but suffers from the prejudices of a century ago. (As opposed to the prejudices of today, I guess.)

I've also begun Anne Applebaum's Red Famine. I haven't read much of it yet, but like many right wing scholars she seems to ascribe too much of the blame for the famine to collectivization. It's much more insidious than that. Stalin basically stripped Ukraine bare to pay for his industrialization efforts. Peasants and farmers were useless to him. He didn't need farmers; he needed factories. The sale and export of grain was how he payed for it. Starvation and death was how the people payed for it. In Stalin's view, Russian farmers were inefficient and a drag on the economy. They had no place in his utopia. He needed that grain to pay for the future. Shedding the dead weight of the peasantry was a bonus.

Michael Caine had a great line in the film The Last Valley. "Magdeburg was revenge for one of our cities, for one of their town, for one of our villages, for one of their hamlets, which was probably destroyed to give some fat little princeling a better view of the Rhine. Magdeburg is as simple as that."

"And so it goes." -- Kurt Vonnegut.

Let's see, considering that I basically gave up on Axiom's End, that allowed me to read Fins: Harley Earl, the Rise of General Motors, and the Glory Days of Detroit during the preceding week.

I essentially finished Empire of the Black Sea this morning. I'm still working on Sand and Steel. I'll be starting Lords of the Sea: A History of the Barbary Corsairs today. Alternate Routes is the next novel.

A lot of this forced-march pace is driven by Jamieson's book being an inter-library loan and I really need to get it turned back in by, say, this coming Saturday.

Starting this Kindle eBook that Alexa will read to me ~

See Her Die: Bree Taggert, Book 2
by Melinda Leigh

This has been the week from hell so I've not read much. I've been listening to an audiobook of Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. It's excellent, with the most dastardly man I've ever encountered in fiction; I loathe him. I am rather fed up with Helen's piety, but otherwise I've been enjoying the book thoroughly. Only two more hours to go.

I started reading Piranesi this morning. I've heard many good things about it.

>4 ahef1963: Coincidentally, I started The Tenant of Wildfell Hall this week. I was surprised by the male POV. I’m not far enough into it to get a good read on the characters. I read Bronte’s Agnes Grey last year and loved it.

I’m also reading Royal Flush, Rhys Bowen’s third entry in her Royal Spyness series. Pure silliness.

I'm really enjoying Billy Summers by Stephen King. I've started A Different Person by James Merrill, the poet. I've also got Armadale in the background.
I stopped in at a used bookshop yesterday and what a pleasure that was! I didn't have much time so I skimmed the surface of what the eccentric owner had on hand. Love the smell of musty books! :)

Still reading Hammered and The Quarter Storm.

Just finished My Policeman by Bethan Roberts. A heartbreaking tale of unrequited and illicit love between three people set in 1950s and 1990s Brighton, UK. Soon to be released as a movie. Highly recommended.

I'm reading 1 story per day from Skeleton Crew by Stephen King with a group on Instagram. I haven't read one I didn't like yet.
For the rest of the day I read Gordath Wood by Patrice Sarath. It's a fun fantasy story so far.

I just finished Indian in the Cabinet by Jody Wilson-Raybould. It provided information and an interesting perspective, but there was a rant-like quality to it. Now I have two books on the go: The e-book is Over the Edge by Jonathan Kellerman and the audiobook is Memory Man by David Baldacci. Both authors really grip my imagination and take me away from my reality. On another thread, there is a challenge to read a book that has been on your tbr pile the longest. Mine would be War and Peace. Not so sure I want to tackle that one at this time.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe– Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Digital audiobook performed by Lin Manuel Miranda
4****

This is a coming-of-age story featuring two Mexican-American teens trying to figure out their place in the world. Aristotle (Ari) Mendoza is the youngest son of a Vietnam veteran with PTSD and his wife, and the only child still living at home. He has few friends because his interests are different. Then he meets Dante Quintana at the pool. Dante’s father is an English professor, and he shares not only a literary or classical name, but a love of the same kinds of games and reading. To the delight of both sets of parents, the boys become fast friends.

I enjoyed this book and felt connected to these boys and their struggles. I’m way past that stage of life, but I remember the pain of not feeling like I fit in, the joy of finally having a good friend, the heartache when I thought I’d lost her to a different life, the fumblings and push/pull of early romantic encounters. And I loved these two boys, their reliance on one another and their growing relationship. We should all be so lucky to have such a steadfast friend and such understanding parents.

There are some pretty dramatic turns in this story, and Ari, in particular, has much to deal with in his family history, but both boys have supportive parents. However … I was somewhat dismayed by Ari’s parents when they seemed to be forcing him to decide to be gay. Don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty clear that this is where the story is headed, and I’m glad to see such supportive parenting in a situation that some teens don’t survive. I just think the realization would have been better handled had Ari come to his own decisions and then found that his parents supported him no matter what. So four stars instead of five.

As for the audiobook. Lin Manuel Miranda does a superb job of performing the audio version. He really brings these characters to life.

I finished House of Names. I found this retelling of the Greek classic, Agamemnon, enjoyable. Admittedly my enjoyment may have been augmented by how unenjoyable the last two books I read were. In the book several family members recount their version of events from the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter through the various revenges over the years thereafter.

I finished listening to the absolutely lovely Strange Flowers.

Next up for listening is Slow Horses by Mick Herron.

The Day of the Owl by Leonardo Sciascia.

Finished listening to the excellent Slow Horses.

Next up for listening is The Outsider by Stephen King

Just finished the LTER for Wilma Mankiller; full review is up over here https://www.librarything.com/topic/340315#n7787198 (assuming I pasted the link properly!)

Nice balance between accuracy and readability, covering a portion of the civil rights movement that doesn't get much press.

Moving on to something much lighter now with Monkey Love by Brenda Scott Royce. Fun so far, but I'm not sure how long I can keep up with the crisis-juggling heroine before I get the urge to smack her upside the head and say "Grow a BACKBONE, girl!"

Had a couple of DNFs already this month -- A Dublin Student Doctor just didn't grab me, and Everywhere You Don't Belong was my F2F group read for March. I couldn't get excited about starting it, and when I realized I was going to be out of town the day the group met, I took it back to the library unread.

From the library:
Snow-Storm in August by Jefferson Morley
I had seen a locally made documentary about Francis Scott Key on our Maryland PBS station a few years back so I was a bit familiar with the incident.

Crimson Reign by Amelie Wen Zhao (YA)
New and #3 in the Blood Heir trilogy

Washington Goes to War by David Brinkley
DC during WWII

Just finished Monkey Love, which was a fun screwball comedy. Next up is Sandra Dallas' Buster Midnight's Café. Dallas is a long-time favorite, so that should also be an enjoyable read.

Greetings all! My wife and I were away for a spur-of-the-moment week's-plus vacation in the south of Baja and just returned home last night. During the time away, I finished my reading group's selection for this month, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution by David Quammen. I found it to be quite an excellent book. I'll have a review up on my 50-Book Challenge thread within the next few days.

I'm now, at the age of 66, finally reading Sense and Sensibility, only the second Jane Austen novel I've read. (Emma is the other.)

I’m taking a break from Ritchie Robertson’s The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness 1680-1790 to read Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. Also pondering reading Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie; I’ve read the first few pages.

The Wit and Wisdom of Benjamin Franklin This is a Barnes & Noble book.

I'm almost finished with A Different Person by James Merrill. Kind of a lovely and interesting book about being a young gay man in the 1950's. Although it does remind me of how self obsessed we are when young. ;)
I started The Exorcist by Peter Blatty. I didn't plan to actually read it, I was only glancing at it but I'm now halfway through it! Completely eerie, creepy and entertaining!

>22 enaid: I enjoyed Blatty's novel, however the film was terrible. (IMO)

Finished listening to the excellent The Outsider.
Next up for listening is Lenin's Kisses by Yan Lianke.

Lady Clementine – Marie Benedict
Audible audiobook narrated by Elizabeth Sastre
3.5***

This work of historical fiction focuses on Lady Clementine Churchill, the woman beside (not behind) the man, Winston Churchill. As she has done with other subject, Benedict delves into research to bring this woman, whose role in history was previously unheralded, to light.

The novel follows the couple from their wedding day through several decades. Benedict was privileged to have access to many of the letters Winston and Clementine wrote to one another throughout their lives. This gave her insight into not just the historical facts, but their personal feelings for one another, and about the situations in which they found themselves. Lady Clementine emerges from the pages as a strong woman, with the courage of her convictions and easily able to stand up to (and for) the man in her life, helping Winston Churchill achieve the successes for which he is so well known. She was more than simply a witness to history, she helped to shape history.

I have a hard time, however, leaving behind my expectations of a modern-day woman who juggles career and motherhood with the expectations and restrictions of the era and society in which Clementine Churchill lived. That is my failing, not the author’s.

Elizabeth Sastre does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. She sets a good pace and has clear diction, so she was easily understandable, even when listening at double speed.

>23 JulieLill: I'm really enjoying it and it's not at all my usual kind of read. Peter Blatty is a darn good writer! Agree about the movie.

>22 enaid: Years ago, when it first came out, I was reading The Exorcist on my lunch break at work. One of the guys (and this is important) asked me about it. I told him it was a good book, but one shouldn't try to read it after dark if one were home alone. Being a big strong manly-man, he just laughed at me.

Two days later, I ran into him in the cafeteria. He was carrying a copy of The Exorcist, which he held up and said ... "You were right!"

>27 LyndaInOregon: That's a great story. :) I just finished it and I thought it was a good/ gripping read.

The new thread is up over here.

>22 enaid: The Exorcist scared the beejesus out of me! Back in 1972 or 1973, I read it in one sitting ... yes, at night. I was afraid to go to sleep. I sat in the living room and made the dog (who was confused as he was not allowed in the LR) come sit at my feet ... actually ON my feet, I needed his touch. When he got up to go get a drink of water in the kitchen, I went with him. And I had every light on in the apartment. I remember when my roommate got home at about 3 a.m. (she was a waitress at a local bar) I had just finished.

>30 BookConcierge: Thank goodness I had the sense to wait to read it until now. Even now, at 60, I found myself jumping at sudden noises after I finished it! Remember all the stories about demonic possession that were around back in the 70s? The Amityville thing, etc? That was nuts! Of course, I was convinced that Satan was just waiting to inhabit me - like he couldn't anyone better!

>22 enaid: >30 BookConcierge: >31 enaid: Ok, you've got me! Just added to my wish list!

>32 PaperbackPirate: Ha! I love it! :)

Just started the new Maisie Dobbs book A Sunlit Weapon by Jacqueline Winspear.