The Whisper Network

 

Whisper Network by Chandler Baker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A workplace drama that highlights the difficulties of working women, from being ignored and under appreciated, to double standards for behavior, to sexual harassment. This isn't a perfect book and it only identifies with women working in defined jobs, but I did love the way these women looked out and supported each other despite the ways they also let each other down. I loved that several perspectives were portrayed: a new mother, a single mother, wife as main wage-earner, woman working in manual labor job, etc. For the most part they were portrayed as liking their jobs, being competent, and professional, moral people, and still having to struggle for recognition, validation, and respect. The chorus that starts out several chapters was genius. It included us in the frustrations we experience, the unfairness we witness, the demands that are unique to females (including demands by other females) helping us to see how we are all in this together--helping and hurting each other. At one point one character tells another "When another woman offers to help you, you take it. You understand?" --underscoring Baker's point that when we as women help each other, we help ourselves. (Although this a working woman's issue book, I think working men should also read it, to help understand and empathize with their working women colleagues).

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There, There

 

There There by Tommy Orange
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A beautiful exploration into what it means to be Native American in a modern setting. At first I didn't realize that the individual stories were going to be tied together and characters were going to be followed throughout the book, since each chapter felt like a complete short story so I didn't track the characters like I should have to get the full complexity, and the relationships between the characters. Having so many characters allowed us to see so many different perspectives and histories--some grew up in the indigenous culture, others realized their roots later, others abandoned their culture, and others came to celebrate it. Perhaps with a re-read I will feel different, but I felt like maybe there were too many perspectives, and the focus got diluted. You see the ending coming, but it still is shocking, yet I wished for a bit more clarity in the end.

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Bad luck or just bad shit happening to you in life can make you secretly superstitious, can make you want to take back some sense of control.

Something was in her that came out, that seemed so creaturely, so grotesque yet magical, that the only readily available emotion she had for both occasions was shame, which led to secrecy in both cases.  Secrets lie through omission just like shame lies through secrecy. 

The Downstairs Girl

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jo is an unusual heroine--a Chinese-American living in Atlanta at the cusp of the women's vote and Jim Crow laws. She is resourceful and observant, courageous and intelligent. During the course of the book she discovers hidden talents, hidden roots, and hidden love. Its a YA romance that also encourages standing up for what's right, and for others, and for yourself.

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It is better to look out a window than into a looking glass; otherwise all you see is yourself and what's behind you.

An American Marriage

 

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Although this book was borne out of a desire to expose the racial injustice that is still prevalent in America, it also does a good job of exposing the precarious nature of marriage, especially in a country where people choose their partners based on "love". Can love really transcend differences in traditions, social class, and value systems? Can it withstand distance, trauma, and tragedy? What do we withhold from our partners--is there room for any secrets both in the present and in the past? I enjoyed how Jones broke the narrative into the three main character's voices--each one pleading their case for the reader, the truth both ambiguous and changeable, each motivation justified and faulty.

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The Deepest South of All

 

The Deepest South of All: True Stories from Natchez, Mississippi by Richard Grant
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

These are my thoughts reading through this look at one of the more unique places in America: an Englishman stumbles across an eccentric place and takes advantage of his journalistic observations to write a book.
Then, perhaps it takes someone outside the US to really observe some of the problems with race in this country. It was fascinating how a mixture of denying the reality of the past, as well as the rationality of celebrating only part of our history, can lead to the violence of erasure which is almost as bad as the original sin of slavery. But living in a southern state myself, I can see the same patterns, although maybe to a lesser degree: historical sites down here tend to only focus on the Southern point of view, painting the Union soldiers almost as villains as they invaded forts, burned down cities. And the romancing of plantation wealth without focusing on how they maintained those buildings and landscapes.
Then, Grant seemed hyperfocused on how gay things were--several things were the gayest (gayest loafers, outer-stratosphere of gay, gay as a maypole, gayest man in Missippippi, etc.) , which made me contemplate how we still tend to separate others in categories--race, sex, sexual orientation, country, social class.
In the end, I appreciated a look at some of the extremes observed in Nanchez, which looks ridiculous in the extreme, but exists in lesser amounts elsewhere and Grant does a good job striping back the layers of absurdity to the common humanity that drives this community. I also appreciated the history of Prince that Grant weaves throughout the book--reminding us that those we judge as the least amongst us are unrecognized royalty .

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The problem with divisiveness is that it doesn't lead to prosperity.  It holds us back.

Becoming

 

Becoming by Michelle Obama
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Not only is this a beautifully written memoir, including meaningful and interesting details about what it is like the be the First Lady, but it is an inspiring and motivating narrative of finding a higher purpose in life and striving to make a difference where you can.

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Failure is a feeling long before it becomes an actual result.

the unknown wasn't going to kill me

We owed something to each one of these people.  we were asking for an investment of their faith, and now we had to deliver on what they'd brought us, carrying that enthusiasm through twenty months and fifty states and right into the White House.  I hadn't believed it was possible, but maybe now I did.  This was the call-and-response of democracy, I realized, a contract forged person by person.  You show up for us, and we'll show up fro you.  

Jade Legacy

Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Jade universe expands exponentially in this last installment of the Green Bone Saga. Not only does the geography expand to multiple locations, and the cast of characters multiplies accordingly, but the time period covered is extended as well. About half-way in I despaired a little, thinking that by covering so much Lee was losing the thread (or at least I was). But I was still enjoying the larger chess game, so I persevered and was rewarded with a satisfying (if not completely happy) ending. While touching on broad themes such as immigration, global economics, race relations, underground rebellions, Lee keeps the idea of family, honor, and love foremost. A great series full of action and intrigue. I fell in love with all the main characters, and love that Lee includes things such as travel brochures in the back of the novel, because she knows we secretly wish we could visit Janloon.

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It was not the gems themselves that were worthy of reverence.  Jade had meaning because of the type of perosn one had to become to wear it.  Jade was the visible proof that a person had dedicated their life to the discipline of wielding power, to the dangers and costs of being a Green Bone. 

It wasn't a purposeful and powerful fortune that had always swept him along in its inexplicable currents, that trapped him in suffering yet in the oddest moments protected him.  It was insignificance.

Braving the Wilderness

Braving the Wilderness by Brené Brown
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's not that anything Brown says is wrong. It's just that I feel like it's so obvious. So it makes me sad to think that people think this is buzz-worthy. Do we need to be reminded to be nice and reach out to each other? I also just don't jive with Brown's way of presenting. I feel like many of her stories are examples of people NOT doing those things, and shaming them for it. Give us positive examples. If this book helps people be nicer, than it's not bad.

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What You Are Looking For Is in the LIbrary

 

What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Five people all feel stuck in different ways and find themselves going to the community library where a felting librarian points them to books they request, and then one more that seems to have nothing to do with their problems, but which holds all the answers. The thing I enjoyed is that it points out that we can get insights out of all sorts of books--children's books, how-to books, non-ficton, fiction. It's up to us to make the connections, but if we allow quiet moments of contemplation, we can garner wisdom in all sorts of literature. The insights the patrons find are all of the find good in the now, be brave, and all ends are beginnings sort of vein. Nothing earth-shattering, but still all good reminders.

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In Pieces

 

In Pieces by Sally Field
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Perhaps as much of an exploration as a memoir, Field recalls her childhood and her early acting days. At one point she asks "Why is it easier for me to write about the times in my life that felt humiliating or shameful?...Do I hold on to those dark times as a badge of honor, or are they my identity?" And indeed, this is a much darker book than what I'd expected from Gidget. I had never followed Sally Field as a fan, but do enjoy her acting and was surprised to find that she had been through so much. She does have a lot of painful, raw experiences in here--and this book feels like a way for her to maybe make sense of them, figure out what part she had to play in them, and what responsibility she should shoulder as opposed to her mother (and others). She also shares how acting was also a passion, ambition, and escape. Her desire to be better is admirable. Although we get a lot of details about her early life, she races through most of her time as a bona fide star, the focus being her relationship with her mother and the resolution she was able to come to at the end of her mother's life. More interesting and insightful than simply a tell-all, this a beautiful odyssey of self-discovery.

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Jade War

Jade War by Fonda Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Green Bone Saga expands in this book as outside countries become more interested in jade and the clans use this to gain power and money and influence at home. The immigrant lifestyle is explored: how do you carry on traditions and cultural values in a new land, especially when a fundamental part of that culture is illegal? There are still plenty of high stakes clashes and duels, scheming and clever plots, and memorable personalities. It didn't pack quite as much of an emotional punch for me as the first, but it was still a thrilling, exciting plot-driven book.

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It's not your forgiveness we need.  Just your understanding.

Jade City

Jade City by Fonda Lee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of the best plot-driven novels I've read. The world-building is familiar enough that it doesn't take long to settle in with the No Peak Clan of Janaloon. The characters and drama are memorably drawn so that you can picture the schemes, loves, and fights of the clan. The pace moves quick enough that there is plenty to be engaged with but the characterization is done well enough that you care about the outcome. Exciting and engaging!

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This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage

 

This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a fine, but underwhelming collection of essays that were previously published (for the most part) in various magazines Patchett wrote for. There a few stand-outs, but once again I feel like Patchett's strength lies in fiction. It's her personality more than the writing that doesn't jive with me, so it may just be a personal problem with me.

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Most of us are full up with bad stories, boring stories, self-indulgent stories, searing works of unendurable melodrama.  We must get all of them out of our system in order to find the good stories that may or may not exist in the fresh water underneath.

Forgiveness, therefore, is key.  I can't write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing.  again and again throughtout the course of my life I will forgive myself. 

the more we are willing to separate from distraction and step into the open arms of boredom, the  more writing will get on the page.

My mother used to say the more lost you are, the later it got, the more you had investedin not being lost.  That's why people who are lost so often keep heading in the same direction.

The Golden State

 

The Golden State by Lydia Kiesling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Essentially ten days in the life of a young mother as she grapples with grief and loss, the deaths of some students she mentored becoming a catalyst for her to realize her life has become overwhelming. She spontaneously decamps to a house in a small northern California town that her mother has left her, and she tries to figure out her next steps. It's told in stream of consciousness that becomes unique if only because it illustrates the relentlessness of being a parent to a small child. Despite what else is going on, the child must be fed, changed, entertained, etc. She isn't an exemplary parent, which makes it all the more relatable. As she reaches out for connection in the small town she realizes her own strengths and priorities and gives her the motivation to move forward. I personally loved the peek inside the mind of this young mother, the characterization of her and the small town felt spot-on and honest.

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observation is violence, anyway, as any Orientalist knows

"You're never safte from bad things happening..."

"you suffering won't ease anyone else's suffering."

Your Duck is Not My Duck

Your Duck Is My Duck: Stories by Deborah Eisenberg
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There is an art to the short story and I am not sure I fully appreciate it. Instead of a short novel, the short story seems to glory in vagueness and abrupt endings. I'm sure there is an art to reading them and a key to understanding, but it seems to elude me lately. So while I did enjoy some of the stories in this collection, there were others that I thought were frustratingly obtuse. I did enjoy her observations on language and especially the thoughts in "Merge" about the first words humans spoke and how our communication, the written word especially has allowed us to become who we are. And "The Third Tower" about how who we are develops from how we associate different and unique thoughts from the names of things. In fact, those stories hold enough ideas in them that I might give this collection another go after I've given it some time to marinate.

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to observe the moment when, at the heart of the conflagration, the trees that sustained it became phantoms, the fire's memory.

"Can you believe that all that turned out to be then? At the time I somehow thought that it was now.  Did it occur to you that it was going to be then?

The tool that doesn't work, Ernst called language.

Maybe these pictures are memories that somehow became detached from other people and stray through the universe, slipping through rips in the fabric and clinging to whatever living beings they can, faulty beings like her.

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

 

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a fun read. A man dies in Vera's tea shop and she takes it upon herself to solve the murder. She does this by befriending the suspects, making them special tea, feeding them food that sounds amazing, and giving out advice in her demanding, no-nonsense, Vera way.

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Why We Sleep

 

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sleep is more important than anyone would think. I do think we've come a ways since this book was published (maybe because of it?). Walker does a great job of recounting numerous experiments that show how important sleep is and all the ways we cheat ourselves of getting the whole benefits of sleep. I loved his ingenious and imaginative (and specific) ways we can educate and practice sleep hygiene. If there was one thing he didn't cover as in depth as I wished was why we vilify sleep as a culture--the person who wakes up early and works late in the evening is always more admirable than the one who wakes late or leaves early. But at least he makes an airtight case for those of us willing to buck the system and sleep a full eight hours!

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REM sleep, was clearly needed in order for us to heal emotional wounds.

Reality and perceived reality were no longer the same in the "eyes" of the sleepless brain.

Never definitely on or off, the brain of a narcoleptic patient wobbles precariously around a middle point, teeter-tottering between sleep and wakefulness.

We, and not the rotating mechanics of planet Earth, would not decide when it was "night" and when it was "day".  we are the only species that has managed to light the night to such dramatic effect. 

Miracle Creek

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was impressed by the depth and breadth of this mystery/trial story. A hyperbaric chamber has been blown up with patients inside, resulting in death. The problem is nothing is at it seems. Kim does a credible job of convincing the reader of the guilt of one character only to reveal some new secret that changes points to a whole new suspect or discredits all the previous assumptions. But besides being a great crime drama, Kim also explores issues such as immigration, fertility, racism, and sexual exploitation. She tackles autism and other disabilities and the challenges of being a parent of a nontypical child--the exhaustion, the guilt, the frustration, the relentlessness of it. But she also captures the community that can spring up among those experiencing the same difficulties--the support and also some of the competition and envy. But she also ties in how hard it is to just be a parent, how you show love and how kids recognize it (or not).

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But what he hadn't known, hadn't expected, was that this linguistic uncertainty would extend beyond speech, and like a virus, infect other parts: his thinking, demeanor, his very personality itself.  In Korean, he was an authoritative man, educated and worthy of respect.  In English, he was a deaf, mute idiot, unsure, nervous, and inept.

Good things and bad--every friendship and romance formed, every accident, every illness--resulted from the conspiracy of hundreds of little things, in and of themselves inconsequential. 

Anxious People

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I think I might be being generous. I felt like this cutesy telling of a bank-heist-hostage situation was all over the place. There were flashbacks, and witness statements, and more flashbacks and backstories and more flashbacks. Maybe it was me but it was hard to keep it all straight. Especially since there were also mistaken identities, flashback tie-ins, and missing persons. And new persons hiding in the bathroom. It ends nice, but the first part emphasizes everyone's problems and anxieties and made me a little depressed myself. Maybe another time in my life I would have enjoyed this but as it was, it was just a little too much--too twisty, too cutesy, too quirky-corny.

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Manhattan Beach

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What I have read about Manhattan Beach is how much research Egan put into this book. The good news is that it reads as though she researched to write instead of writing to show off her research. There is a lot of information, but it is organic to the story. The plot covers the story of Anna, the daughter of a former dancer and bagman with a disabled sister. WWII comes and her father disappears and Anna goes to work in the shipyard where she becomes obsessed with being a diver. The story itself is a bit disjointed and meandering but the story as a whole seems to focus on the body and the ways it holds up back and propels us forward. Moments when we leave our body behind and become something outside it. How different bodies can accomplish different things and how we are often captured by the way our bodies look. What our bodies can do through will and grit, and how the spirits of those we love can inspire us.

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The Personal Librarian

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I felt like this was one of the most fully-formed fictional historical novel about a real person. Benedict and Murray did a great job of imagining what it must have been like to feel like an imposter in a position that was both exhilarating (running in circles with some of the most powerful and rich men in America) and perilous (see above). I loved how they captured both the anxiety she must have felt, but also how confident and self-assured she must have been to make the deals she did and run in the circles she did. She was a woman who could think outside the box and that allowed her to do more than her circumstances would seem to allow. Thank you Marie and Victoria for introducing us to a lady who didn't let one aspect of herself define everything about her, but used her gifts and knowledge to soar as high as she did.

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Force of Nature

Force of Nature by Jane Harper
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The Australian environment strikes again. This time a group of women go on a corporate outing into the wilderness and one goes missing. She happens to be an informant for Aaron Falk, financial detective, so he and his partner go to wait to see if she turns up. It was just ok. All of the women were awful, and Alice, the missing camper, was the worst. I didn't really care who killed her or why. Once again, the only redeeming factor was the Australian outback which seems equally fascinating and beautiful. Turns out finace is boring even when murder is involved.

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The Trespasser

 

The Trespasser by Tana French
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

French goes back to form with this installment of the Squad series. Interestingly, she filp flops the viewpoint of the same team that investigated The Secret Place. Now we get to understand why Detective Conway comes across so brassy and how Detective Moran is viewed by her and others. The murder investigation is okay but the exploration of how the stories we tell (to others and ourselves) and the stories we believe shape everything we perceive. (Need a new perception? Tell a new story). In fact that theme might have overshadowed the mystery itself, but its a good idea to think about. Not the best of the bunch, but a solid contribution to the collection.

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The Secret Place

 

The Secret Place by Tana French
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

French deviated quite a bit in this entry to the Dublin Murder Squad and while it was a fine detective novel, I felt frustrated that it didn't play by the rules. First of all we go back to two novels to Frank's world instead of the immediately preceding book. If we're going to jump back that far, might as well go back to Rob and Cassie, since they are who we all like anyway. Next, instead of staying inside our protagonist's head we alternate chapters with an omniscient narrator that covers a group of roommates/best friends. The chapters also alternate between present time and when the murder happened a year ago. It makes for an interesting read, but it varies vastly from the other installments. And then finally, the magic that has hovered in and through the other novels from a vague sort of beast in the first book and shows up as watchful shadows and invisible beasts in other installments but which plays a nebulous existence in the narrator's (or victim's) heads, shows up full-fledged in this one, unambiguous and disconcertingly real. Which, again, is ok, but doesn't play by the rules French laid down in her earlier novels. Such deviations were distracting, but the story, another focusing on the power of the magic of youthful friendships and the threat of its destruction by growing up and changing having a devastating result, does stay on French's overarching theme and is told in a relatable and heartbreaking way.

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Their faces on the way home afterwards look older and strained, smeared with the scraps of leftover expressions that were pressed on too hard and won't lift away.

Broken Harbor

Broken Harbor by Tana French
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For me this was the most harrowing of the Dublin Murder Squad series. The small details that kept building sucked me in. I was like why is she including so much of these minor details, and then as I was trying to figure it out I was suddenly horrified and completely embroiled in the mystery. Which maybe helped me to believe such a convoluted murder resolution. The total feeling of isolation both in proximity to others and the emotional isolation that occurs with shame and grief was palpable. The affect of mental illness on family members was also well explored as well as the warning that we all need a community to help deal with catastrophe to protect our own well being. Definitely one of the more haunting in this series.

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The smell of the sea swept over the wall and in through the empty window-hole, wide and wild with a million intoxicating secrets.  I don't trust that smell.  It hooks us somewhere deeper than reason or civilization, in the fragments of our cells that rocked in oceans before we had minds, and it pulls till we follow mindlessly as rutting animals.  When I was a teenager, that smell used to set me boiling, spark my muscles like electricity, bounce me off the walls of the caravan till my parents sprang me free to obey the call, bounding after whatever tantalizing once-in-a-lifetimes it promised.  Now I know better.  That smell is bad medicine.  It lures us to leap off high cliffs, fling ourselves on towering waves, leave behind everyone we love and face into thousands of miles of open water for the sake of what might be on the far shore. 

Over time, the ghosts of things that happened start to turn distant; once they've cut you a couple of million times, their edges blunt on your scar tissue, they wear thin.  The ones that slice like razors forever are the ghosts of things that never got a chance to happen. 

Little Fires Everywhere

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A good exploration of what it is to be a parent, the legality of it, the biology, the real life ramifications. Mix these issues with prejudice--racial, sexual, class. But Ng does this well in the real moments of life--principles we say we believe in may change when confronted with exceptions for our friends, our children. There is also the question of what makes a good parent--which is more important, the temporal or emotional needs? No one escapes from this story without some blame and/or realization that they do not live their own beliefs all of the time. By allowing the focus to follow so many characters we can understand the justifications, the realities and the decisions, even if the other ignorant parties don't and we also realize there are no easy answers. Ng helps us to realize we have our own exceptions and prejudices. Do I completely understand the final scenes? No, because of all the characters, Izzy may be the least explored. But overall I thought the issues and questions raised were thought-provoking and proved there are no easy answers when it comes to the who and hows of parenting.

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Faithful Place

Faithful Place by Tana French
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Frank Mackey who was introduced in The Likeness as Cassie's undercover handler is now the protagonist and he is drawn into a mystery a little closer to home. Literally. He hasn't been to his childhood home since he left at 19 and it soon becomes apparent why. There is very little to find likeable in this clan of overly-emotional, alcohol-driven, violent, and angry characters. Frank is only slightly better and a little unbearable simply because he thinks he is better than them. The mystery spools out slowly and satisfyingly (if sadly) and Frank actually grows a bit. Once again, I am amazed at French's ability to allow the voice of the protagonist to be unique from her other characters--she completely inhabits a character, even if they aren't the most palatable. The exploration of class and community in the Irish culture is also explored. Dialogue was beautifully done.

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The Dry

 

The Dry by Jane Harper
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Aaron Falk returns to his childhood home when his old friend seemingly commits suicide after killing his family. Aaron is a financial detective but even he can see that there is more to the story after he starts looking into it. There are old mysteries to unravel and old relationships to navigate and the landscape plays a part as not only setting but perhaps part of the motivation, an accomplice in more than one way. The plot flashes back and forth from stories from his youth, to the unfolding drama but perhaps because I was also reading Tana French, I found the psychological inner workings shallow and so I wanted more understanding of the motivations of many of the characters.

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The Likeness

 

The Likeness by Tana French
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is one of the more unlikely set ups: the murder victim is a dead ringer for a detective who used to be undercover. So she is persuaded to go undercover and resume the victim's life to suss out the guilty party. The detective in question is Cassie, the partner of Rob Ryan from the first book (Ryan doesn't make a personal appearance). Like the first book of this series, what goes on in the protagonist's mind is at least as interesting as the mystery. What was refreshing was that Cassie had her own voice (as opposed to a female version of Ryan). Instead of being thoroughly detailed like Ryan, Cassie is a woman of action. She doesn't stew in introspection, but acts with plenty of justification but not too much stewing. She's desperate to prove herself and to regain a sense of self after the last case but becoming someone else makes her question where she begins and the character of Lexie ends. Once again French focuses on the special relationships that can develop in your youth--and its ultimate demise.

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In the Woods

In the Woods by Tana French
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is more of psychological thriller than detective story since the more interesting parts of the story happen in the protagonist--Rob's--head. It's a story about friendships, the close kind that only occur at certain times of your life and rarely more than once--where two or three of you are so in sync you feel like they are an extension of you. And how those friendships inevitably ends, due to moving, death, growing up, falling out. The mystery gets solved but questions still remain and I actually like they do--it lets the book haunt you after it ends.

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In some ways grief anonymizes as powerfully as a Greek tragedy mask, cut in others it pares people down to the essential.

People need a moral code, to help them make decisions.

the morally right thing is by definition the thing that gives the biggest payoff.

All these private, parallel dimensions, underlying such an innocuous little estate; all these self-contained worlds layered into the same space.

Sometimes I think about the sly, flickering line that separates being spared from being rejected.

The Spy and the Traitor

 

The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love spy novels and this was one of the best, especially since it was true. I can't imagine the courage and intelligence of Oleg Gordievsky. I also admired the diligence and thoroughness of Veronica Price, who helped orchestrate his escape, but to do so was required to run the plan for years, even when he wasn't in the country. It struck me the reasons Oleg turned traitor to his country and the reasons many of the spies for Britain and America turned--he did it for truth's sake, they did it for money or power. The women married to these spies are the unsung heroes--they didn't choose this life, but had to deal with the consequences and sometimes apparently had to play a crucial part. Changing diapers was never more fortuitous and monumental! Great book!

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Crudo

Crudo by Olivia Laing
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can't really put into words why I liked this book so much. From the first paragraph which I finished and said to myself, that is a perfect paragraph, to the fever finish, I couldn't help but feel excited, even though it is mostly just a stream of consciousness written as third person but felt as first-person. I didn't even understand everything but the writing was just so electrifying. It also helped that it occurred during Trump's first weeks on the job in 2017 and so it perfectly mirrored the time I was reading it. I didn't know anything about Kathy Acker, who is the main character in this book (had she lived). Acker is known for being shockingly vulgar and this book is not that, but it does quote her often. My surface swimming didn't pull up any Acker writings that seemed much like Laing's, so without doing a deep dive I don't know where Laing got her writing style from, but like I said, it tickled me.

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She failed to get a death-grip on time

Memory showers desire, desire infects memory.

Imagine what a process it was to unnumb yourself, he said, to see it as it actually was.  That's the only reason to be an artist: to escape, to bear witness to this.

what is art if it's not plagiarising the world?

Loot

Loot by Tania James
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wanted to like this much more than I did. It's about an automaton built in the 18th century. That part was totally fascinating. In fact, everything was fascinating and that was what was frustrating. There would be these in-depth explorations of characters and events, like the defeat of Tipu Sultan, or the life of the watch-maker who helped craft the tiger automaton, or the English lady who acquired it and was quite non-conventional. All of these stories started to unfold only to be left and time to skip forward without too much of a bridge. I normally think things should be edited out, in this case I wanted more. I kept investing and not feeling like I got a pay out.

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Moonflower Murders

Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked this Susan Ryeland mystery better than the first, even if the conceit is a little implausible--she gets hired to investigate the disappearance of a lady who realized someone was wrongfully convicted of a crime after reading one of Alan Conway's mysteries that Susan edited. Once again there is a modern mystery (maybe two--the original crime and the disappearance) and the cozy mystery. This time the modern mystery goes first and since we are set up to look for clues in the book version, this one was more fun. I thought the tandem mysteries worked well and even Susan wasn't as annoying. On this one, the PBS adaptation works slightly less well than the book, but both are worth looking into.

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Magpie Murders

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This detective story inside a detective story was interesting because it gave you two chances to figure out who the culprit was. One story is a cozy mystery set in the 1950's and I enjoyed the set-up with the chapter headings as part of the Magpie Rhyme...The second one was set in today's time with the death of the author and the editor trying to figure out who did it. Susan, the editor, is a bit unlikeable and no body seemed to like the author so that mystery was less fun. The book was a bit of a showcase of how an author could take real people and real events and twist them until they became part of a new story. The author seemed to dislike the genre he became famous for and skewered the tropes and stereo-types of the mystery genre which made you wonder if that was what Horowitz was doing and almost poking fun at the people who read them, so I didn't like that. The PBS adaptation was actually well-done, and ran the two mysteries side by side instead of consecutively and it worked better. I didn't like the character of Susan in either itineration but I would still see the show over the book in this case.

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The Woman in the Window

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was an ok thriller. I just feel like it tried to smush too much in one book: multiple Alfred Hitchcock plot lines (Rear View Window and Vertigo were ones I recognized, and there were probably many more); unreliable narrator; psychological disorders. All of which made the book interesting, but perhaps it was too much because the the reader is often distracted by things such as references to classic movies (that the author seemed to think was self-evident the reader has seen) or by how much the narrator was drinking and whether or not she was wearing the same robe all four days or if she has a collection, and therefore the plot-line can be confusing. There were also several parts that could have been edited down or out. The whole first 50 pages were boring and didn't add to the story, and the dialogue in the on-line chat room was often superfluous. Actually the movie starring Amy Adams, while not perfect, does a better job tying things together and tightening the story. The exploration into people with agoraphobia was actually informative and there a few surprises I didn't see coming. Still, I would watch the movie in this case.

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How Much of These Hills Is Gold

 

How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Probably 3.5 but rounded up because lyrical writing and a unique point of view. The novel opens on two Chinese-American orphans in gold rush California, trying to survive. The story sprawls out to how their parents got there and what their life was like. Its an exploration of how we are defined and define ourselves--gender, race, and status are explored. Setting the novel so far in the past helps us to question the validity of these social markers. For me it was an uneven book: the writing was so lyrical it felt like a big narrative poem, which worked in many instances, but in others, a more straightforward approach would have been better. There were also varying viewpoints that shifts the reader's perception of different characters--characters morph and change depending on the circumstances and motivations. The overlying message is that a person is more than what they appear to be, there is a truth and a history that must be mined, to take things at face-value is to be deceived (fools gold, if you will.).

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A Separation

A Separation by Katie Kitamura
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an exploration of ideas surrounding a circumstances rather than a straightforward story. And that's what I liked about it. In what ways do we separate ourselves from others? Is it possible to completely cut ourselves off? How does the separation affect new and old relationships? Does a legal document make you more or less separate? Does death? It reminded me a lot of The Infatuations by Javier Marías and weirdly both referred to Colonel Chabert by Balzac. Anyway, a good read for thinking.

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they no longer went away....It was only on the shores of infidelity that they achieved a little privacy, a little inner life, it was only in the domain of their faithlessness that they became, once again, strangers to their wives, capable of anything.

romance is not something that a couple can be expected to conjure by themselves, you and another, the two of you together, not just once but again and again, love in general is fortified by its context, nourished by the gaze of others.

People were capable of living their lives in a state of permanent disappointment, there were plenty of people who did not marry the person they hoped to marry, much less live the life they hoped to live, other people invented new dreams to replace the old ones, finding fresh reasons for discontent.

You need to have a great deal of sadness inside you in order to mourn for other people, and not only yourself.

there was a small but definite wedge pushing between the person I was and the person I was purporting to be

A child is born and for the rest of his or her life the mother will love the child, without the child doing anything in particular to earn it.  But the love of a wife has to be earned, to be won in the first place and then kept.

grief, which concerns itself not with the dead, but with those who are left behind.  An act of consignment occurs: the dead became fixed, their internal lives were no longer the fathomless and unsolvable mystery they might have once been, on some level their secrets no longer of interest.

In this way, I thought, we make ghosts of the dead.

The House at the Edge of Night

 

<The House at the Edge of Night by Catherine Banner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you are not a fan of magical realism, the comparison to Isabel Allende might deter you. Don't. This is the book to read if you question the place of magical realism in literature. It is an argument for choosing the unexplained over explication, enchantment over absoluteness, faith over fear. Most of the "magical" things that happen can be explained in a pedestrian sort of way: the caves cry at night for the dead vs. the wind blowing through the rocks create a mournful sound. Both explanations are presented--which will you choose to believe? Set on a Mediterranean island, it is a modern myth complete with heroes , villains, and legends. A beautiful story with memorable characters in a magical place.

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Still Lives

 

Still Lives by Maria Hummel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fairly good thriller with the added contemplations about the business of art and the violence perpetrated against women, both of which were explored with new angles. There were some story-lines/ relationships I wished were more deeply examined but the plot line mostly held up. I enjoyed the narration by the protagonist as she tries to exonerate her ex. An enjoyable beach read.

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The Women

The Women by Kristin Hannah
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am not a huge fan of Kristin Hannah, but this is the best book I've read from her. The story of a Vietnam vet nurse was unique and enlightening. She balanced the time at war with the experience of coming home well and it was the first time I feel like I understood some of the feelings and controversy of the war. Hannah does seem to pile a lot on her female protagonists but I enjoyed the journey that Frankie made to healing and I thought it was done realistically, thoughtfully, and compassionately. I loved how the women in her world stepped up for her but she had to find the way to healing herself. From the ground in Vietnam, to the protests, to the POW returning home, I felt Hannah captured a bit of what it was like and I felt like I learned a lot.

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The Butchering Art

The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a fairly interesting book about Joseph Lister who proselytized the use of antiseptics in surgery. As a necessity there was a lot of talk of blood, pus, and gore so maybe don't read soon after eating. There isn't a lot of talk of his personal life, especially after he got married. I did appreciate that it stuck close to the subject without a lot of sidetracking. What amazed me most was the response of other doctors who refused to change their ways because it meant admitting they were the cause of all the infections. The jacket art is amazing and is half the reason I read this.

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a wound could heal in one of two ways.  The ideal situation was if a wound healed by "first intention: a term used by surgeon to denote the reuniting of the two sides with minimal inflammation and suppuration ( formation of pus).  Put simply, the wound healed cleanly, or "sweetly" to use a term of the period.  Alternately, a wound might heal by "second intention" through the development of new granulations or scar tissue--a prolonged process that was frequently accompanied by both inflammation and suppuration.  Wounds that healed by second intention were more likely to become infected or "sour".