As the Page Turns (the Book Thread)

[genevieve]

Until I read Into Thin Air, I always thought climbing Everest would be cool, and at the time, I was dating a guy who was training to climb K2.

That book was so tense. I read it 25 years ago, and then later read Into the Wild, which includes similar descriptions of climbing. Krakauer's writing makes me understand the allure, but also cements my personal goal of never climbing a mountain.

I just finished Libby Bray's The Diviners, which of course is the first of a series, but at least this one ended the main plot, though clearly some of the subplots will be continued into later books.

It's YA, set in NYC in 1926, and centers around a group of teenagers with "gifts." The main character can touch things and see things about their owner, which she uses to help solve a series of murders.

My only critique is that Bray has her characters use every single slang term from the 20s that she could uncover. No one uses that much slang! (I think I had this critique about another book. EDITORS ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?)

A friend and I loved Libba Bray's excellent Gemma Doyle series, but found her author's notes and interviews way, way too cloying. Her later book Beauty Queens was almost derailed by how on the nose everything was. This seems on brand.
(Going Bovine is really, really good though!)

I've been reading a bunch of just okay books this year from my library's peak picks. I'm wondering if this is the ripple effect of the pandemic - in 2020/21 I read so many excellent, excellent books, that were probably written or at least under contract pre-covid. Maybe publishers were not signing new authors for a while and now we're seeing the books that weren't originally chosen for publication 2-3 years ago?

 

[PrincessLeppard]

@genevieve Going Bovine has one of my favorite characters of all time, the gnome.

 

[Prancer]

Just finished The Good Left Undone by Adriana Trigiani. It's about the matriarch and three generations of a jewel cutter family. It was extremely slow and not compelling - I did not care what happened to these people. How this book received so many glowing reviews from other authors (some of whom I really like) on the back cover boggles my mind. They must not have read the book.

I had the same reaction to an earlier book by that author. And it is quite likely that some of those reviews were written by people who haven't read the book; publishers expect authors in their houses to sign off on blurbs for other authors in the same houses, whether they read the books or not or they wrote the blurbs or not.

I just finished Lessons in Chemistry, another book that received rave reviews. The waiting list was long. I was really looking forward to reading it and put some other books aside the minute it was available. And...meh. I can see why people like it, but it's just too much of a fairy tale for me.

 

[PrincessLeppard]

I just finished The Stasi Poetry Circle by Philip Oltermann. It's the true story of the writing circle set up by the Stasi to combat "subversive" poetry being written in the GDR. It's an interesting analysis of both poetry and the Stasi. One of the most talented poets in the group sadly no longer writes poetry (although in the epilogue, it does say the he has begun to dabble again in his retirement). It's a fairly fast read; however, I'm not sure if it's available in the US. I picked it up in Köln earlier this summer.

 

[rfisher]

Kind of a cross-over between the book and streaming threads, but I've been watching Reacher on Prime. And At least the actor is much more physically similar to Child's description of Reacher than Tom Cruise. And, it's actually funny which the books most certainly are not. I actually like the TV series better (even if the principal actor isn't that much of an actor.) I also watched all the Bosch episodes and am now rereading the books. Also, very different. Michael Connelly is executive producer of the TV series and writes a number of episodes. It's interesting how he's rewriting the characters. Not just the plot lines, but the characters themselves. I think he decided to make them more likeable. I haven't read the most recent Bosch books (those written after the TV show began) so I'm curious if he changes the personalities of key characters in the books to align with how they are written for TV.

 

[genevieve]

I've slowed down my reading since returning to the US.

The Christie Affair, Nina de Gramont - super speculative historical fiction about the (true) 11 day disappearance of Agatha Christie that was never really explained. The focus of the story is so removed from what I had known about Christie that I think it would be enjoyable even if someone had somehow avoided all Agatha Christie books. Should probably like mysteries though. There are some easter eggs for AC fans, though.

The Family Chao, Lan Samantha Chang - huge family drama! Did not quite work for me as much as I wanted it to. I read a review after finishing that this is supposed to be a reworking of The Brothers Karamozov, which made me mildly interested in reading that classic, but not enough to have sought the book out yet.

 

[PrincessLeppard]

Last night, I finished the The Testaments, the sequel to the Handmaid's Tale. I'm not sure about giving

Spoiler

Aunt Lydia a redemption arc

but I enjoyed the story, even the overly contrived parts.

 

[MsZem]

Last night, I finished the The Testaments, the sequel to the Handmaid's Tale. I'm not sure about giving

Spoiler

Aunt Lydia a redemption arc

but I enjoyed the story, even the overly contrived parts.

That revenge was so cold as to be cryogenically frozen but those were the most interesting parts in the book for me.

 

[Japanfan]

Last night, I finished the The Testaments, the sequel to the Handmaid's Tale. I'm not sure about giving

Spoiler

Aunt Lydia a redemption arc

but I enjoyed the story, even the overly contrived parts.

I liked Aunt Lydia's story arc and wish the series had incorporated it, rather than treating Aunt Lydia's transformation into Aunt Lydia as it did.

 

[PrincessLeppard]

Do you have a teen that is maybe a reluctant or not a stronger reader? I just started the Dead is the New Black series, and the first book was engaging and fun. The plot moves quickly and it's not a very long book. I'm starting the second book now

 

[feetwerk]

Love Kate Quinn. I read all her work after starting with Rose Code.

The Lost Apothecary had a great past story line but I was meh about the modern day story line.

Ami McKay is a spectacular writer. Check her out at http://amimckay.com/

And you can never go wrong with historical fiction by Phillipa Gregory.

I've seen some good recommendations here.

Ps: add me to the Where the Crawdads Sing lovers list.

Have a great day, Gentle Readers!

 

[Susan1]

I just saw Mike Lupica on MSNBC, talking about his latest Robert B. Parker Jesse Stone (I still picture Tom Selleck when I read them) book. I put it on my list. And that reminded me, does anybody read C. J. Box's Joe Pickett books? The Big Sky t.v. series was based on one of his books and there is a Joe Pickett series on the whatever pay streaming that people get that I don't. Anyway, I have read all the books. They are based in Wyoming so there is a veiled "this is a red state and we don't like the government interfering" (never mind that Joe Pickett is employed by the government) in all of them. I skim over the descriptions of what a person looks like after they have been attacked by a bear or the bad guy who is shot in the head by an arrow. But, this Shadows Reel is all (well, I had to quit at page 100) anti-BLM, anti-Antifa - like they are a big organized violent group like the proud boys - and are full of rich white kids going around painting A's on everything. I'm sure he wrote this after the George Floyd demonstrations/before the insurrection. Maybe he knows better now, but all does is validate the trumpers. And then I read the reviews. So many people are objecting to his politics and mischaracterization and fox propaganda. I will read the reviews before I reserve the next book. People are on his FB page 6 months ago saying he should collaborate with Dolly Parton (this would have been around the time her book with James Patterson came out). Uh, no way. She wouldn't cross the street to meet this man.

 

[genevieve]

recent reads:

The Man Who Could Move Clouds, Ingrid Rojas Contreras - this is a memoir and I loved, loved, loved it. Contreras is from Colombia, descended from a long line of curanderos, whose grandfather was renowned for his healing, but did not pass down his "secrets" to is most talented child (the author's mother) because she was not a man. But Contreras' mother, and Contreras herself, experience traumatic injuries at different parts of their lives that result in amnesia and then familial powers. It is impossible for me to make this sound as good as it is - there is a plot of action, but also a lot of family history and political context about growing up in Colombia.

Plain Bad Heroines, Emily M. Danforth - excellent trash. If you enjoy Libba Bray but think she needs to bring more of her way too hip author commentary into her historical fiction writing, this could be for you. It's a hefty tome (600 pages!), not a single idea was left out, although lots of answers were. Probably could have been two separate (better) books, but just go along for the ride and have fun. PS lots of lesbians +5 GOE

Woman of Light, Kali Fajardo-Anstine - I finished this last night and I'm torn. The writing is great, the setting is fascinating (greater Denver area, spanning the late 1800s to 1930s), and then the book just sort of stopped. I wanted more, in a lot of ways.

@Jenny I finally got the latest Chris Pavone from the library. I have another book due sooner to get through but looking forward to it

 

[Wyliefan]

I absolutely loved Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell, so I snapped up her new one, The Marriage Portrait. But I didn't like it as much. I will say it was very good almost to the end, but then it took a turn that I found disturbing.

Spoiler

If I say it had echoes of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, that will give you a clue, if you know that book or movie.

 

[kwanfan1818]

I read Every Good Boy Does Fine: A Life in Music Lessons, a combination of memoir and ruminations on classical music by pianist Jeremy Denk, last week.

I just finished reading this. I've loved Jeremy Denk forever, as a writer from one of the now-defunct music sites. I don't remember if it was a discussion board or a comments section on a site like Andante, but, amidst all of the blow-hardiness -- for all I know, from eminent musicologists and teachers whose names I'd never recognize -- was this smart, generous, curious voice of someone I'd heard play, and who was willing to interact with us mortals, and, despite his (stated) attempt to describe himself in whatever ugly, petty, obnoxious, petulant, jealous, unbearable etc. phase he was in at the time he was writing about, and, pretty successfully IMO, that voice I recognized from decades back came through.

The most recent times I've heard him were online, earlier this Fall at the 92Y. For the first, cellist Steven Isserlis explained Denk was a last-minute sub to play a Mendelssohn work for Cello and Piano because Isserlis' pianist had visa issues and joked (I think) that he'd never thanked long-time friend Denk for anything before, and in the second, Denk featured the brilliant violinist Maria Wloszczowska, and in his intro to the six Bach sonatas they were playing, said they were switching the order of the first and second because (paraphrasing) in these times the first movement was too grim to start with.

This morning, I opened the Vancouver Recital Society newsletter written by Founder and Artistic Director Leila Getz, in which she described how, when her son was 11, he competed in a piano competition with a young pianist name Connie Shih, whose playing blew everyone away. Then Getz wrote,

On the advice of Sir András Schiff, she went to Indiana to study with Geörgy Sebök and after that she continued her studies with Claude Frank at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Steven Isserlis first heard Connie and performed with her at one of our summer Chamber Music Festivals in the early nineties, and they have remained close collaborators pretty much ever since. Connie is a regular at Steven’s Prussia Cove Chamber Music Sessions and she performs with him frequently in London and in Europe.​

​

If we think figure skating is a small world, the classical music world, which has way more elite level musicians and singers by far than skating, feels smaller: every which way you turn, there are connections everywhere -- Denk's friend and co-conspirator Isserlis, the teacher to whom Denk dedicates his book, Sebök, both of them partnering lesser-known young(er) performers in their concerts when they likely could call a better-known friend and sell more tickets. Just in one paragraph.

 

[puglover]

New release from John Sandford "Righteous Prey" with both protagonists Davenport and Flowers. Mixed reviews from what I have read.

 

[PrincessLeppard]

I finished the Diviners series and for the most part, the books were all quality. I had a bit of an issue with the ending

Spoiler: don't peak!

the love triangle is resolved by one of the participants dying and the bad guy dies without ever being held accountable for his hubris

but overall, really good. It was optioned for film/TV back in 2012, and I'm kind of surprised no one has done anything with it. It's multi-racial and multi-ethnic, with straight characters, gay characters, and one asexual character. Plus, ghosts!

I dunno.

 

[ribbon]

I just read “One Italian Summer” by Rebecca Serle. They will inevitably make a movie, and then we’ll have to deal with even more people descending upon Positano.

It’s enjoyable if you like a quick, light read. The protagonist is immature and annoying, but this was one book where I actually could ignore that to enjoy the Italian scenery and food descriptions.

 

[MacMadame]

we’ll have to deal with even more people descending upon Positano.

I had never heard of the place until yesterday when I read this:

The Instagram capital of the world is a terrible place to be

Just because you can (sort of) afford to go somewhere doesn’t mean you’ll enjoy it.

www.vox.com

 

[SHARPIE]

I’m about to start Alan Rickman’s diaries. When I was on holiday last month I signed up for Kindle Unlimited and downloaded a load of fluffy stuff. I read a book by Melissa Hill and then read about 4 more while away. Nice holiday reads.

 

[Seerek]

Denise Biellmann just released a Biography

German interview

Eiskunstlauf: Biellmann verrät Geheimnisse aus ihrer Biografie

Nach wie vor ist Denise Biellmann die einzige Schweizer Weltmeisterin im Eiskunstlauf, sprang als erste Frau den dreifachen Lutz und ihre berühmte Biellmann-Pirouette gehört heute zum Muss bei internationalen Wettkämpfen. Nach wie vor steht die bald 60-Jährige täglich auf dem Eis und spricht im...

www.luzernerzeitung.ch

 

[Wyliefan]

I read Denk's book as well and really enjoyed it. I envy him for being both a brilliant writer AND a brilliant musician.

Speaking of, I just finished Brendan Slocumb's debut novel, The Violin Conspiracy. Slocumb is also a talented musician and writer. His hero, like himself, is a black violinist, and so for him the classical musical world is even more cutthroat than usual. It nearly gave me the vapors to read about a valuable and beloved violin being stolen, but it was a good read nonetheless!

 

[PrincessLeppard]

I read a YA book called Daughters of a Dead Empire, which is about Princess Anastasia and 16 year old avid communist on the run together through war-torn Russia. The plot was interesting and well-executed; I'm curious about how the book is being marketed. I need to look that up.

 

[Prancer]

I haven't posted in a long while in book years, so...

The Murder Rule by Dervla McTeirnan
The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill
Old Bones by Preston and Child
The Favor by Nora Murphy
The Safe Place by Anna Downes
The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse
Blood Sugar by Sascha Rothchild

I have the same review for all of the above--great premise, started off well, got stupid at some point. But in terms of suspense books, all were okay, none were outstanding, most were pretty predictable, but all were okay for quick reads.

I decided to read a classic I had never before, so I read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, which reminded me of why I don't care for most Romanticism.

I also realized that I had never read a Western and that I probably needed to do so, so I read True Grit by Charles Portis. It was charming and funny, and made me think that perhaps I should try another Western. I might (but only might) try Lonesome Dove. I was not that engaged by the Western part of the book.

I also read Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips, which is about how the disappearance of two young girls affects the people of Kamchatka, a peninsula on the northeastern edge of Russia. While it is about the disappearance of the girls and there is a lot of discussion about the mystery of what happened to them, the main focus is on the characters of the people and place. I thought this book was very interesting, as I knew nothing about this part of the world. I am not sure how authentic it is, but I didn't really care as I was reading.

And I read The Distant Dead, which was nominated for a Young Adult Novel award, and also an Edgar award. I would not call this a YA book; it seemed very adult to me, especially the solution to the mystery . A body is found high in an isolated spot in the desert hills of Nevada; it turns out to be the strange math teacher who had recently started teaching at the local middle school. And wow if this is a YA book, because it is depressing in a very adult kind of way.

Then there was some nonfiction:

This Town by Mark Leibovich--Chatty and catty and funny, this book explores the real business of Washington, DC, which has nothing to do with somber Congressional hearings and is even worse than you imagine.

The Violence Project by Jillian Peterson and James Densley--a psychologist and a sociologist propose a solution to America's mass shooter problem. Everyone needs crisis intervention training and the schools need an army of psychologists and a more pro-active approach toward mental health among our youth. Yeah, that might work, but we surely will never know. I did learn some things I didn't know and took notes so I could use them in class. Interesting book.

Silent Invasion by Deborah Birx--COVID under Trump was just as much of a train wreck as you thought, only more so. Dr. Birx writes like a government scientist who writes a lot and well, but still like a government scientist. I don't recall a lot of new information in this book, aside from the fact that it's all told from Dr. Birx's perspective, but I certainly do have a better understanding of why the CDC handled COVID as it did and why everyone at the CDC really hated Dr. Birx.

The Man Who Broke Capitalism--How Jack Welch as the CEO of GE changed capitalism in the US, perhaps forever. If you've ever wondered how corporate America got to be so terrible, this book will give you all the appalling details.

I am now reading Elderhood, an excellent book about heath care for senior citizens. I am, of course, studying for my final and have been taking notes. Highly recommended for anyone who has reason to learn more about senior health care.

When Elderhood gets to be too depressing or scary, I switch over to Let's Talk about Love: Why Other People Have Such Bad Taste . Music critic Carl Wilson (not the Beach Boy) had an intense hatred for Celine Dion and could not understand why anyone liked her music until he decided to really explore the reasons for his feeling. The first half of the book is about his thoughts on Dion and musical taste and the last half of the book is a set of essays on the same general subjects by other writers. So far, I have learned a whole lot about Celine Dion and a few things about musical artists I have never heard of and will probably never listen to.

I'm sure there were some other things in there, but I forgot them somewhere in the midst of student papers .

 

[Wyliefan]

That last one sounds fascinating!

 

[genevieve]

Recent round-up:

The Disaster Tourist, Yun Ko-eun. I picked this up in a very cool bookstore in Singapore this summer. The premise is interesting - a woman who works for a company that creates tours to areas impacted by disaster. It doesn't quite gel the way I'd hoped, but it's worth a read if you can find it.

Carrie Soto is Back, Taylor Jenkins Reid. TJR is definitely taking advantage of her moment in the spotlight and cranking 'em out. That was how I approached this book - but I think it might be my favorite of hers. Although anything after Malibu Rising would be an improvement Carrie Soto is hard to like, but also impossible not to root for. Not a ton of surprises here, but very satisfying - the relationships are more of the focus than the plot.

Two Night in Lisbon, Chris Pavone. I don't want to say too much about this. Vintage Pavone, with a very male interpretation of female stereotypes and speech patterns that is both hilarious and annoying. It's also a checklist of all the big hit sites in Lisbon - although I take exception to how he described the 28 tram as seedy and almost dangerous

Tales of a Seventh-Grade Lizard Boy, Jonathan Hill. This is a graphic novel created by a friend of a friend. Very engaging story about having to leave where you're from and pretend you're something you're not. Also worth reading all the acknowledgements and afterword stuff.

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy, Jamie Ford. A book with multiple characters in different times, about several descendants in one matrilineal line. I had to put it down for a while, because there was just so much trauma. Glad I came back to it. Honestly, I would have welcomed longer stories about any of the women besides the main protagonist, who was a lot less interesting than she should have been, and structure of epigenetic memory that the book centers on was the weakest part. The protagonist lives in Seattle in 2045, and there are some nice nods to both the city, and the likely climate of an almost-coastal city in a few decades, but Jamie Ford now lives in Montana and clearly hasn't been back in a while, because he describes the International District as a neighborhood untouched by development in 2045 - and it's been rapidly gentrifying for the last 5 years.

 

[ChelleC]

I read a YA book called Daughters of a Dead Empire, which is about Princess Anastasia and 16 year old avid communist on the run together through war-torn Russia. The plot was interesting and well-executed; I'm curious about how the book is being marketed. I need to look that up.

I'd forgotten about that book, it's on my wishlist.

 

[Wyliefan]

The new Ian McEwan novel, Lessons, is giving me death in my soul. Ordinarily I like McEwan, but this one is so dull and flat and bleak. And LONG.

 

[canbelto]

I read the new Jennifer Homans biography of George Balanchine and wrote a review on my blog:

Jennifer Homans' Mr. B

Tomorrow, NYCB starts its annual Nutcracker season. Countless little children in the audience will ooh and ahh and the growing tree, they...

humbledandoverwhelmed.blogspot.com

 

[Jenny]

Has anyone read anything by Colleen Hoover? Doesn't sound like my thing, but as I was going through the NY Times Book Review yesterday I noticed that she had not only the top 5 books under paperback fiction, but 4 more in the top 15! I'd never heard of her.

Also, just finished the new Reacher, No Plan B, and if you are a Reacher fan and/or have read many or all including the good and not so good, then I can happily say you'll probably like this one