Everybody's Fool

Everybody's Fool by Richard Russo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Continuing with the lives of the characters of North Bath 15 years after the first book (Nobody's Fool). Sully is now comfortably well off due to good luck, while his nemesis Carl has had bad luck and is bankrupt, alone, and impotent. Both of these characters play only minor roles here though. This one focuses on Raymer, the cop, now chief of police and Roy Purdy who just got out of jail and can't stop making bad choices. I think I might have liked it better had it been a stand-alone novel. There was no real integral plot lines from the former book that played in this one. And the changes to the existing characters (Sully is more cautious, Rub now has a stutter?, no Peter or William to speak of ) was disappointing. Plus the retelling of plot lines while maybe necessary (the book was written 20 years or so apart from each other ) was annoying for those of us who just read the previous book (especially as I said they were just back stories). There is more growth in the characters this time around, and a general theme about secrets, mental and physical health, and loyalty. It is also slightly zanier with lightening strikes, escaped poisonous snakes, and split personalities.

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"Full" as if emptiness were the prevailing condition of their lives, from which eating provided a temporary respite.

They needed to believe that luck ruled the world and their was bad and would remain so forever and ever, amen, a credo that let them off the hook and excused them from truly engaging in the present, much less the future. 

Upstairs at the White House

Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies by J.B. West
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

More of a story about the White House, how it was decorated, repaired, used. Yes, there are some insights into the people who lived there, but I felt West was very careful to couch all his observations with positivity. I admit I skimmed more than I read, and I would have enjoyed a bit more candor, but still gleaned some interesting facts.

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Not a Sound

 

Not a Sound by Heather Gudenkauf
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fast read--a mystery with an interesting protagonist who is deaf which allows another level of terror and manipulation into the plot. There aren't many twists but the plot tracks and it is a satisfying read.

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Camp Followers, On the Strength of the Army

For them it is the reassurance of knowing things as they are

For us it the restoration, an absolution

Those flocks of petticoats trailing after cannon

Priestesses disguised as laundresses

And we do offer up our filthy garments

Heedlessly stripped off, rumpled, thrust aside

Dumped in barrels of river water

They unfurl, water seeking out its wounds

Blood snakes away in ghost smoke

Until the women begin their endless work

A fury of scrubbing with brimstone--

Piss and lye of ash--

Tendrils of hair whipped free

Mutter of prayer or incantation

Boiling baptism of water and fire

Bubbling like excitement

Trembling like terror

Jumble of pathos fighting with itself on the brink

Then an exorcism, a cathartic flogging

Forcing a weeping of anger, of fear, of shame

Swallowed back by pride

Now expelled with violent chastisement

Spent at last they lie them

Out like soulless shells on hushing grass

We open the packages tied with string

An immaculate shirt to incarnate as before

Smelling of sun and boyhood

A traveling to the time before.

Atomic Habits

 

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had a hard time knowing what to rate this book, since through my own trial and error in life, I have come across these same truths, and so there was only a bit that actually enlightened me--namely, how to keep habits motiving and keep improving. But since these are the same truths I've realized in my life I can attest that they work, and wish I had read this book in my teens or early twenties, so maybe wouldn't have had to do so much trial and error on my own. Also, I think Clear does a good job of laying out the premise of his methods clearly, with interesting stories, and enough examples to help illustrate without being tediously repetitive.

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The Ninth Hour

 

The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A beautifully observed story about saving and losing your soul. What sins are unpardonable? And believing there are things you can do are beyond forgiveness, why or for whom would you commit them? If love is laying down one's life for someone, what does it mean when they lose their soul for you? McDermott writes so subtly you never see the twist coming that ties all the pieces together into a whole. One of my favorite authors, for sure.

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There was still the smell of smoke but the smell of cleaning ammonia was now cut into it--the smell of the day going on.

"Down here, we do our best to transform what is ugly, soiled, stained, don't we?  We send it back into the world like a resurrected soul."

A woman's life is a blood sacrifice.

"If we could live without suffering," Sister Lucy said, "we'd find no peace in heaven."

Truth reveals itself.  It's really quite amazing.  God wants us to know the truth of all things, she said, big or small, because that's how we'll know Him.

Nobody's Fool

 

Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I heard of a study that showed that people dropped off in the woods will walk in circles while thinking they are walking straight. This applies particularly to Sully and many of the inhabitants of Bath, NY, a tiny town prone to lots of bad luck. Sully is an enjoyable character, one that doesn't take himself too seriously, or anything else. He has nothing to lose, and so doesn't think twice about following through on impulses that mean trouble for him (or others). And, like most of the other characters in this book, Sully moves forward, making the same mistakes in new situations, and doesn't end up much different from where we met him, but it was a fun ride. And with the addition of an estranged grandson moving into town, we get the feeling that Sully may just finally care about something besides himself enough to slightly change his course.

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If you were going to be reckless in this life, you needed total commitment to the principle.