What are you reading the week of January 6, 2024?

Happy New Year!

I finished How Fascism Works by philosopher Jason Stanley. It's a well documented book with lots of examples from the news around the world. But he doesn't really have anything new or interesting to say on the subject.

I'm now about halfway through Serhiy Zhadan's Voroshilovgrad. It's a dreamy, meditative novel about a young man returning to his hometown, a small Ukrainian town in the Luhansk region, to deal with the disappearance of his older brother. The novel takes its name from the old Soviet era name for the region. The novel, written in 2010, is a portrait of a liminal period in Ukrainian history on the cusp between the Soviet era and a more modern, democratic Ukraine. The main character and his friends have a deep nostalgia for their youth in the USSR but are at sea in this new world.

I'm nearing the halfway point of The Manor by Isaac B. Singer. It started off slowly for me but I'm very much enjoying it now.

Just finished Myasishchev M-50 and M-52. Still slogging away with The International Brigades. Will knock off Stalking the Atomic City over the weekend. Might get to The Art of Destiny before next Saturday, but not before I finish up Tremlett's tome.

started this audio via Libby ~

Lady Tan's Circle of Women: A Novel
by Lisa See

I'm reading Horse by Geraldine Brooks on my Kindle.

I'm reading two books right now.

First is The Last House Guest by Megan Miranda for a challenge. I started it yesterday and it's a good mystery so far.

I'm also reading The Book of Delights by Ross Gay for book club. It has been mildly delightful but I'm only 3 essays in.

>3 Shrike58: Have you ever read Antony Beevor's The Battle for Spain? I thought it was extremely good.

Happy New Year to all!

I started a job this week, after ten months of unemployment. It's actually the job of my dreams, teaching youngsters how to read and do basic math at a franchise of a well-reputed tutoring chain. It's not just youngsters; one student this week was 18. I feel great about the job, my boss is terrific, and my coworkers all seem nice. Thank goodness I'm working again.

I've only read one short book this week - Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro. It was pretty good. I'm not much of a fan of short stories, but these ones interconnected, and Ishiguro's writing is sublime. I'm now about six pages into The Family Moskat by Isaac Bashevis Singer, and my audiobook selection is Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte.

>8 ahef1963: Congratulations on the new job. It sounds wonderful.

>8 ahef1963: That's great, congrats!

I'm reading Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

The Queen Of the Tambourine – Jane Gardam
3***

This slim novel is written in epistolary style, as Eliza Peabody writes letters to her former neighbor who is presumably off on some world-wide adventure. As time goes on and Eliza tries to relate what is happening in the neighborhood it becomes clear to the reader that she is not fully connected to reality. At times the work is poignant, other times quite funny, occasionally puzzling, occasionally horrifying and mostly entertaining (if you can consider watching someone descend into madness as entertaining).

I’ve read a number of Gardam’s works and I really appreciate the way she draws her characters. But I felt I didn’t really get to know Eliza, her husband, or any of the other characters that populated this work. It just missed the mark for me as compared to other books by her that I’ve read. I liked it, but didn’t love it.

The novel won Britain’s Whitebread Award for Best Novel of the Year in 1991.

I am reading "Dead Wake" by Erik Larson. He's a wonderful writer ("Devil in the White City"--AWESOME) and this book is a nonfiction about the sad fate of the Lusitania. It jumps back and forth between the U Boat and the passenger liner and tells the story from each POV. It is a fascinating book.

Royal Flush – Rhys Bowen
3***

Book number three in Bowen’s “Royal Spyness” series of cozy mysteries, starring Lady Georgiana Rannoch, thirty-fourth in line to the throne.

Georgie is having a tough time in London. She is really strapped for cash and her latest effort at business has captured the attention of the authorities. However, they will keep quiet if she will do a little spying for them. It seems there is a threat against the royal family, and they suspect it is an insider. Lady Georgiana is the perfect person to observe and report what she finds. So off she goes to her ancestral home, which is just next door to Balmoral.

I like this cozy series. Georgie and her best friend Belinda are quite the pair. And the handsome, if enigmatic, Mark Darcy certainly seems interested. Georgie’s Bohemian mother figures prominently in this storyline, as does her maternal grandfather, a retired policeman with good instincts and some connections.

I like the historical background that Bowen weaves into her plots as well. Historical notes at the end of the novel give insight into what was actually happening during the timeframe of the story, as well as clarifying the author’s inventions for the plot’s sake.

I've recently been back in Isaac B. Singer's world, this time reading The Manor. It's a wonderful, complex picture of Jewish life in Poland in the latter half of the 19th century, as the modern world begins to have a strong effect on orthodox Polish Jewry. The narrative is told in Singer's usual vivid, sympathetic style and provides a varied, fascinating tapestry of characters and concerns. Highly recommended. You can find my (much) longer review on my 2024 50-Book Challenge thread.

Next for me will be The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff.

Learning to Live Out Loud
Piper Laurie
4/5 stars
I knew about Piper Laurie, the actress but I don't think I ever saw her in many films but I going to check out some of her older films. She was the mother in the horror film Carrie (which I did see). She also lived quite an interesting life. I really enjoyed her autobiography. She just recently died in 2023 at the age of 91.

The Stolen Lady – Laura Morelli
Book on CD read by Lisa Flanagan, Caroline Hewitt, and Paul Woodson.
3.5****

A work of historical fiction with a dual timeline – 1939 in France as the Germans are invading; and 1479 in Florence, when Leonardo da Vinci is commissioned to paint a portrait of Lisa Gherandini. In both cases one woman takes it upon herself to ensure that the portrait remains hidden away in order to protect it.

In 1479 the loyal servant Bellina, illiterate and not always fully understanding the intricacies of Medici politics, takes it upon herself to secure an unfinished portrait of her mistress. In 1939, Anne works to help obfuscate and hide the inventories that point to the location of the precious artwork. Having learned to drive a truck she is sometimes pressed into service joining the convoys that move the Louvre’s treasures about the countryside, trying to keep one step ahead of the Nazis. Both storylines have moments of intense activity and suspense, along with romance thwarted (or delayed, or interrupted) by events occurring outside their control.

Between the two storylines, I clearly preferred the World War II one. I wasn’t sure that this novel needed the 15th century story line. For me, it distracted from the danger and adventure of the situation faced by the curators and workers of the Louvre who worked tirelessly to secure the museum’s collections – including, or especially, the Mona Lisa – from invading Nazis. However, I did find the story of the creation of the painting, including the “rivalry” between Da Vinci and “that upstart” Michelangelo, interesting. I had no idea that the artist had presented the painting to the French. I also appreciated the look at how politics and religious fervor affected the residents of Florence during this time frame. I think I would have enjoyed it more had the two time frames been treated in separate novels.

The audiobook is very well done by a trio of talented voice artists. This does help when switching time frames and/or narrators.

I also had the print version readily available and I’m glad I did for it included extensive author notes / interviews and historic photos of the Louvre staff moving these treasures.

The Sandalwood Tree – Elle Newmark
Digital audiobook performed by Justine Eyre
3.5***

The blurb that put this on my TBR promised “Two love stories. 90 years apart.” That’s not quite what I got. But I did get a good historical fiction tale framed by the British leaving India as that country gained its independence.

In 1947, Evie, her husband and son, arrive in India; Martin has a Fulbright Fellowship to study India as part of his Ph.D. dissertation. But the unrest surrounding the coming partition of India and Pakistan results in the family being located in the small village of Masoorla rather than in Dehli. When cleaning the kitchen of their rented bungalow, Evie discovers a loose brick and behind it a stash of letters hidden in a cubbyhole. Those letters were written in the mid-19th century and have been partially destroyed by the heat and humidity of the kitchen, but slowly the story of two British women in India emerges.

Newmark captivated me with this dual story line, although I wasn’t sure there was a real reason to include the lesbian relationship, which was really such a small part of the whole tale. Basically, though, she gives us a story of relationships and the difficulties two people might have, as a result of different cultural backgrounds, family expectations, and emotional trauma suffered by one or both of the parties.

Evie narrates most of the story, though flashbacks provide the story of Felicity and Adela. I liked how Evie grew and came to understand her husband and her own emotions by reading the journals / letters / poetry of these long-dead women. The struggles Felicity and Adela endured help Evie realize what she truly valued. Additionally, Evie, an American, has to come to grips with the British mentality as Britain’s rule over India is ending.

Justine Eyre does a fine job of performing the audiobook. She sets a good pace and is able to give the many characters sufficiently unique voices, so it was easy to tell who was speaking.

started this eBook via hoopla ~

Midnight Creed: (Book 8 Ryder Creed K-9 Mystery Series)
by Alex Kava

My first book of 2024 was The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. As the title implies, this is a book about loneliness and people's various ways they attempt to cope. Each of the characters had a driving passion that they kept hidden except when they spewed out feelings to someone who did not or could not respond. In some ways it's a bleak book but it does reflect the human conditions.

From the library: The Seamstress of Acadie by Laura Frantz

The new thread is up over here.