What are you reading the week of November 4, 2023?

Work has been frantic for the past month, so not much reading time. I'm getting close to finishing The Robots of Dawn.

I'm probably going to finish Unsung Hero of Gettysburg today. After that will come The Navigating Fox, MacArthur's Coalition, and Lend-Lease and Soviet Aviation in the Second World War (which I've actually been looking at for a little over a week).

Having worked through the above lot I'm now reading a A Practical Guide to Conquering the World.

I'm reading and very much enjoying The Good Fight, Shirley Chisholm's memoir of her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination for president in 1972.

I'm still reading Just After Sunset: Stories by Stephen King. Perfect for this time of year.

Reading Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth and Stuart's Shuggie Bain

This week I've read Wish You Weren't Here by Kieran Scott, which was enjoyable. I listened to The Woman in Me by Britney Spears, which I liked quite a lot. She's had an awful time, has Ms. Spears.

I'm now reading The Man Who Died by Antti Tuomainen, a Finnish crime novel, cleverly written. I've not chosen a new audiobook yet.

I've finished my year's goal of 70 books! I didn't mean to reach it so quickly!

Before the Ever After – Jacqueline Woodson
4****

I love poetry and try to get at least one poetry read in April each year. This novel is verse is suitable for middle-school-aged children but deals with a serious issue – brain injury resulting from multiple concussions while participating in contact sports.

ZJ is the only child of professional football star Zachariah Johnson, but to ZJ, his father isn’t a star, he is “Just my dad.” The action takes place beginning in 1999, before doctors had clearly identified chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and the role that repeated blows to the head played in development of this degenerative brain disease. ZJ and his parents struggle to make sense of what is happening to the formerly strong, happy, loving father and husband. ZJ is helped by his best buddies: Darry, Ollie and Daniel. These boys comfort and distract ZJ when things get tough.

I am in awe at how much information Woodson can convey in so few words. The poetry format allows the author to get straight to the emotion of the situation. But make no mistake, she paints some vivid pictures and fully realized characters.

At the end of the story, Woodson includes a note about CTE and the efforts of the medical community (and professional sports organizations) to combat it. I recall recently seeing a news article about a newly designed football helmet specifically for quarterbacks.

>6 ahef1963: Congratulations!

I’m very much enjoying Janice Hallett’s The Appeal.

Started this audio via hoopla today ~

The Lady Tempts an Heir (The Gilded Age Heiresses, #3)
by Harper St. George

The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman
Digital audiobook performed by Lesley Manville
4****

Four residents of a luxury retirement community form the Thursday Murder Club. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim bring their collective intelligence and specific expertise to puzzle over cold-case files in the community’s Jigsaw room each week. But now they have a recent murder to try to solve. They may be in their seventies, but don’t underestimate their talent and resolve.

Gosh but I loved this! It was NOT “cute” … the four friends are absolutely serious about this investigation, but they each have issues, and secrets, that impact their work. Each of the characters has time in the spotlight as the novel progresses, but Osman gives Joyce a first-person narrative voice (she’s writing in her diary / journal), and that lends an interesting change in perspective in the chapters focusing on her.

There are a LOT of characters; close to twenty different characters have a significant presence in the book. I really should have kept a list. I particularly liked PC Donna de Freitas, and the storylines involving John and Penny, and Bernard and Asima. And I loved the continuing chess game(s) between Bogdan and Stephen. Osman gave us some thrilling scenes, as well as scenes of great tenderness, and some humor to lighten the mood every once in a while.

Lesley Manville does a fine job of performing the audio. Like I said, there are MANY characters, and she was up to the task. As a bonus on the audio, there is an interview with Richard Osman, conducted by fellow author Marian Keyes.

Hangsaman
Shirley Jackson
4/5 stars
Natalie, a seventeen-year-old, is the main character in this novel by Shirley Jackson. Her life at home is stifling and when she finally gets away to go to college she doesn't like her life at college either. This story is based on a true event about a young college coed who went missing in the 1940's and was never found. Intriguing!

I finished The Violet Hour which was the story of three generations of a family forced together by an 80th birthday and then death and funeral. While the characters and the story were believable, I did not develop a strong empathy for any of them. The story relied very heavily on back flashes that broke the story line.

I finished The Good Fight, Shirley Chisholm's campaign memoir about her run for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 1972. It was fascinating and well written, indeed, though it doesn't provide much personal information about Chisholm, the person. Chisholm the politician and activist is quite interesting enough and the book tells of a pivotal time in American history. You can find a longer review on my 50-Book Challenge thread.

Next up for me will be the Vietnam War combat history, Sappers in the Wire: The Life and Death of Firebase Mary Ann by Keith William Nolan.

No Land To Light On– Yara Zgheib
Digital audiobook performed by Fayir Al-Kaisi, Ali Andre Ali, and Suehyla El-Attar.
4****

From the book jacket: Sama and Hadi are a young Syrian couple in love, dreaming of their future in the country that brought them together. Sama came to Boston years before on a scholarship to Harvard; Hadi landed there as a sponsored refugee from a civil war. Now they are giddily awaiting the birth of their son, whose native language will be freedom and belonging. When Sama is five months pregnant, Hadi’s father dies suddenly, and Hadi decides to fly back for the funeral, promising his wife he will be gone only a few days. On the date of his return Sama waits for him at the arrivals gate, but he doesn’t appear. She is unaware that Hadi has been stopped by US Customs and Border Protection, detained for questioning, and deported.

My reactions:
Oh, I am so sorry I had to miss my F2F book club discussion on this book! One president’s decision to ban immigrants from certain countries results in a devastating separation. These are educated people. Upright citizens-in-waiting with responsible jobs and many American friends in this, their adopted country. The way they are treated is shameful! How easily we have forgotten our own roots, our own ancestors’ struggles to come here for a chance at a peaceful existence, to raise families, and find success through hard work.

I know a woman whose husband was similarly detained, deported and barred from returning to her. She lives alone, with occasional phone contact with the man she loves and who loves her. In limbo. I could not help but think of them when reading this work of fiction.

I admit that when listening I completely misinterpreted the final chapter. In my initial reaction I was stunned at how the characters reacted. And then I went back and read the last three chapters in text and came to a completely different understanding. This is a book that made me think … and I’ll be pondering it for some time.

The audiobook is narrated by three talented voice artists. This was a very effective way to highlight the changing points of view.

The Painted Drum – Louise Erdrich
Book on CD narrated by Anna Fields.
3.5***

Faye Travers and her mother run an antiques business in their New Hampshire town. When Faye is asked to appraise an estate, she discovers a that the man who died is descended from an Indian agent who worked on the Ojibwe reservation that is home to Faye’s mother’s family. Among the artifacts in the attic is a rare drum. From this point the story moves back and forth, in time and location, as we learn the history – and future – of this particular drum.

This isn’t Erdrich’s best work. It’s slow to start and I wasn’t all that interested in Faye’s current love life. In part two, we have an abrupt jump to the reservation and Bernard Shawano takes up the story, relating how his grandfather came to fashion the drum, and its significance to the family. I found this section, and part three, much more compelling, but I had to wonder what happened to Faye and why Erdrich had just abandoned her storyline. Eventually the reader gets all the pieces of the puzzle and the connection between the storylines becomes clear. Still, I think I would have preferred the book if Erdrich had just focused on the drum’s origin and meaning to the Shawano family, and left Faye out of it.

Anna Fields does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. She sets a good pace and has the skill as a voice artist to differentiate the many characters.

I finished The Appeal which was great fun but maybe a little long. I do love epistolary novels.

My current read is Alice McDermott's latest, Absolution, and it is wonderful!

Finally reading "The Image" by Daniel J. Boorstin. Great insights into the culture of celebrity. In this age of social media it might be even more valuable and relevant than it was when it was written in 1961.

Native Son by JM Hochstetler

The new thread is up over here.