What are you reading the week of March 26, 2022?

I'm about halfway through Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine, by Anne Applebaum. The book is fascinating and very readable. It's excellent background reading for understanding the historical origins of the current Russo-Ukrainian war. It's heavily anecdotal. This makes for an interesting read, but it leaves me with more questions than answers. I still highly recommend it.

Starting this audiobook via hoopla ~

The Letter from Briarton Park (The Houses of Yorkshire, #1)
by Sarah E. Ladd
(Regency England romance/Austen-Brontë type tales)

Right now I'm alternating between Italian Battleships, Krazy and Engines of Oblivion; this will basically take me through the end of the month.

I'm almost done reading Gordath Wood by Patrice Sarath. I was hoping for more horse story and less war story.

Up next is Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse for book club.

I'm closing in on finishing Sense and Sensibility which I'm enjoying, but with certain qualifications.

Finished from the library:
In Search of a Prince by Toni Shiloh
A NYC school teacher finds out she's royalty and travels to meet her grandfather the king.

Started: A Distance Too Grand by Regina Scott
First installment in the "American Wonders Collection" trilogy. Set in the American West, three young women experience the frontier.

Just finished the beautiful and devastating novel A Little Life. Started it a couple of weeks ago but really got lost in it last week after the first 100 pgs or so. Everyday I'd get lost in the story for hours it seemed. I am not one for 500+ pg books, nonfiction or fiction, but this was a masterpiece. I will take a break with some lighter fare before I start her new one To Paradise.

Still reading Memory's Legion and The Kaiju Preservation Society.

OK, last night I finished Sense and Sensibility, which I enjoyed, more for Austen's use of language and razor wit than for the story itself. I've got a review up on my 50-Book Challenge thread.

Next up for me will be a recent impulse purchase from my local independent bookstore: Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes. The published reviews I've read have been mixed, mostly due to the authors' evidently frequently use of italics to insert their own conjectures regarding what people were thinking at critical junctures. None of the criticisms have imputed the accuracy of the reporting otherwise, however.

I finished the LTER book, Roar of the Sea. It was a very readable and interesting account of the man, Henry Elliott, who championed the fur seals of the Bering Straits from capitalist corporations, governments and pirates over some 50 years. Culminating in the first international treaty written to save endangered wildlife, a model for many such treaties thereafter. The book also profiles one of the more notorious pirates of fur seals.

Finished listening to the excellent Lenin's Kisses.

Next up for listening is Silent Witness by Robin James.

I've just finished listening to The Europeans by Henry James, which I loved. Yes, there was a pat "everyone in the same room" denoument - a trope that I dislike - but I still thought it was great. This past week I also listened to H.G. Wells's The Invisible Man, and it was pretty good, although in the last quarter of the book Wells seems to have discarded any sort of plot and went for violence and long-winded speeches instead of sense.

I am reading The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris. I'm not far enough in to have an opinion yet. Yesterday I finished Autobiography of my Mother by Jamaica Kincaid, which I liked very much.

Just finished The Most Fun We Ever Had, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Fans of Richard Russo will eat this one up, too.

Getting ready to start The Throwaway Children by Diney Costeloe. I enjoyed The Lost Soldier, which she also wrote, and this is another wartime novel, but set in WWII rather than in The Great War.

Finished listening to the excellent Silent Witness by Robin James.

Next up for listening is an Irish novella, Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan.

Say Nothing– Patrick Radden Keefe
Digital audiobook read by Matthew Blaney
4****

SUBTITLE: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

From the book jacket: In December 1972, Jean McConville, a thirty-eight-year-old mother of ten, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders, her children clinging to her legs. They never saw her again. Her abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known at the Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the IRA was responsible. But in a climate of fear and paranoia, no one would speak of it. … Keefe’s book … uses the McConville case as a starting point for the tale of a society wracked by a violent guerrilla war, a war whose consequences have never been reckoned with.

My reactions
I confess that while I had heard of “The Troubles” I had never really studied the causes of the conflict, nor did I closely follow the politics at play. I remember reading about bombings and noting how the London underground would be shut down due to bomb threats, but the events seemed so distant from my late teen / early adult years in America that I paid little attention.

I’m so glad that my F2F book club chose this book, because I learned about not only the conflict portrayed, but perhaps a little about how a young person becomes radicalized and how festering dissatisfaction can turn from angry rhetoric to acts of terrorism.

Keefe is an accomplished investigative journalist, and he certainly did his homework here. Of the book’s 443 pages, fully 90 were devoted to meticulous notes (printed in teeny tiny print) citing his sources. It was also very interesting reading about the role that the Boston College’s John J Burns Library archives played in some final conclusions.

Blaney does a superb job of narrating the audiobook. His Irish accent comes through, making me feel as if I’m listening the author, or the individuals profiled. The text copy does include photos sprinkled throughout, which, of course, are not accessible to the listener; I’m glad I had a copy of the hardcover edition on hand.

This I Know – Eldonna Edwards
3***

Grace Carter is the middle daughter of five and she feels guilty that she survived her birth, while her twin brother, Isaac, did not. But Grace also has a special gift, which she calls the “Knowing.” The problem is that her father, a Christian preacher, does not believe this is a gift from God, but rather the Devil’s temptations. The novel follows Grace from age eleven to her early teens, as she tries to gain her father’s approval and love, while remaining true to herself.

I picked this up while trolling my public library’s shelves. I was a bit skeptical, but saw an author blurb from Lesley Kagen, whose books I enjoy, so though I give this a go. I’m glad I did.

I was quickly immersed in the story and eager to see how things would work out for Grace. The setting is a small town in Michigan in the late 1960s. Grace is a typical pre-teen in many respects; she wonders about boys and about getting her period; she fights with her sisters, and has dinner or sleepovers with her friend, Lola; she enjoys time spent with her family and at social activities sponsored by her father’s church. But there is that special gift that sets her apart and which she feels must keep secret from everyone. She just wants to fit in, but she can’t explain how she knows the things she knows, and she realizes that many people are leery of her because of it.

To add to her struggles growing up, Grace’s mother suffers from depression, particularly post-partum depression, so when her baby sister Marilyn is born just as Grace is entering her teens, things take a decided turn for the worse in Grace’s household.

Edwards includes a mystery regarding a pedophile in the area, and I thought this was unnecessary. That plot line comes and goes and is never really focused on, though it does give Grace an excuse to speak with the Sheriff and his wife. Also, some of the scenes got a bit mystical, especially when Grace is visiting patients at the hospital who are otherwise unresponsive.

All in all, though, it was a totally satisfying coming-of-age story.

Abandoning The Throwaway Children after just one evening spent with this mawkish, manipulative, entirely predictable tale.

My rebound book is a re-read of Mary Kay Andrews' Hissy-Fit, which remains her best book and one of the funniest he-done-her-wrong-and-now-she's-out-for-revenge tales out there.

Finished listening to the poignant novella, Small Things Like These.

Next up for listening is A Light In The Window by Marion Kummerow.

Finishing month with this audio via hoopla ~

You Can Run: A Gripping Novel of Suspense (A Laurel Snow Thriller, #1 in a new series)
by Rebecca Zanetti

Finished reading the monumental Books of Jacob. I also finished up These Precious Days, and another ER selection, Cress Watercress. I started and quickly set down an ER selection, Uncommon Measure by Natalie Hodges. It was beyond me, a mismatch between myself and this topic.

Next up for reading is The Cowboy and The Cossack by Clair Huffaker.

Finished listening to A Light In The Window. Meh.
Next up for listening is Defenestrate by Renee Branum.

I finished China Room which was a rather harrowing look at arranged marriages in India and its repercussions in two time frames, late 1800's and 1990. Occasionally confusing but overall well written and interesting.

A Madness Of Sunshine – Nalini Singh
Digital audiobook performed by Saskia Maarleveld.
3***

Nalini Singh is known for her romantic fantasy books (which I’ve never read), but this is her debut adult detective mystery.

The setting is a remote town on the West Coast of New Zealand, populated primarily by indigenous Maori. When a beautiful young woman goes missing while on a regular run, people recall a summer some eight years earlier when several hikers when missing. But those women were all tourists to the area, while Miriama is a native, and knows to stay away from the dangerous cliff areas when she runs.

I really liked this mystery thriller, with several layers of intrigue. Detective Will Gallagher is a great character, with flaws and some darkness in his past … he is, after all, a big-city Detective now assigned to a small town in the middle of nowhere, the only policeman in a town that doesn’t even have a jail. Anahera Spencer-Ashby is recently returned from England to her hometown after her husband died in London. She may have been away for eight years, but she still knows more about the locals and local customs than Will. Together they form a good team.

The twists and turns kept me guessing, and I didn’t see the ending coming. I hope Singh will write another mystery featuring Will and Anahera, though the ending of these makes that seem unlikely. Still, if she writes it, I’ll read it.

Saskia Maarleveld does a fine job narrating the audiobook. She sets a good pace and brings the characters to life.

The new thread is up over here.

>20 hemlokgang: How did you like The Books of Jacob? I've been toying with the idea of reading it.

>24 fredbacon: Fred, it is a challenging and rewarding read. I liked it a lot.

Finished reading the fantastic The Cowboy and The Cossack.

Next up for reading is Bluebeard's First Wife by Ha-Seong Nan.