What are you reading: August 3, 2024 (now with fewer typos)

Now working on Divisions: A New History of Racism and Resistance in America's World War II Military and Escape Velocity.

Starting Weird Dinosaurs; it should be quick, then I'll buckle down to wrapping up "Divisions" (not quite as interesting as I hoped).

I'm still reading Fairy Tale by Stephen King. I started back to school this week so I didn't get to read much, but I love it so far.

I'm about two thirds of the way through The Estate by Isaac Bashevis Singer, part of my twice-per-year read through Singer's novels in order of publication in English.

>3 rocketjk: I tried The Family Moskat last fall but got bogged down in it. I've kept it, as I would like to try it again. What do you consider his best work?

This week I read Beautyland, which was such an odd book, but I liked it very much. Then I read The Last Devil to Die and loved it, but bring kleenex! OMG it's sad. Next up is a re-read of A Gentleman in Moscow.

I'm listening to Anita Diamant's The Boston Girl. Linda Lavin is the narrator, and she's brilliant. Excellent book; I'll finish it today. I've no clue what to listen to next.

>4 ahef1963: "I tried The Family Moskat last fall but got bogged down in it. I've kept it, as I would like to try it again. What do you consider his best work?"

Well, I'm only now reading the 6th of the 18 novels of Singer's to be published in English (there's at least one early one that never got translated from Yiddish), so I can't make an overall determination. My favorite so far is . . . well . . . The Family Moskat, although I thought The Slave and the Magician of Lublin were both very good as well, with The Slave perhaps getting a slight nod over the Magician. The latter two are more compact stories in comparison to the more sprawling multi-generational Family Moskat. Singer's short story collections are also excellent.

I'm halfway through Gail Z. Martin's Scourge and really enjoying the heck out of it. About to start The White Ship and Song for the Basilisk for some more fantasy enjoyment. And reading The Book of Merlyn by T.H. White for my personal Arthurian challenge.

Everything, Everything – Nicola Yoon
Book on CD performed by Bahni Turpin & Robbie Daymond
3.5***

From the book jacket: My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla. But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window and I see him.

My reactions:
This YA romance had some significant serious issues to discuss. Can love (even teenage love) conquer all? Yoon certainly makes a good case.

I really liked Maddy (Madeline Whittier). She’s intelligent and mostly serene. She’s come to accept her very limited world and hasn’t really “missed” what she can’t have. Until now, of course. Olly is more complex and guarded. His family situation is fraught with drama and it’s understandable that he’d want to keep some things to himself. Still …

What starts as messages taped to windows, and progresses to texting and IM-ing, must inevitably lead to meeting in person. Each of these teens has some significant issues to deal with on their own, and sharing their struggles brings them closer together. They come to trust in and support one another in a very nice, somewhat naïve way. Of course, things can’t possibly go smoothly for these star-crossed lovers.

There were some things that bothered me in the plot, mostly dealing with the reality of how things might happen. But I was willing to go along for the ride because I really liked both Maddy and Olly. I guessed the big secret ahead of the reveal, but still liked how Yoon handled it. And I liked the way these teens interacted with one another and their families.

Bahni Turpin and Robbie Daymond do an excellent job of voicing the audiobook. They really brought these teens to life for me. I’m glad, however, that I had the text handy, which includes a number of illustrations which just don’t translate well to audio format.

I just finished The Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean which was fascinating and confusing all at the same time. It describes the escape of Jews from the Spanish Inquisition by pretending to convert to Christianity (they were called "converses") while privately keeping their identity. One of the safer ways to live was to become a pirate and go to the New World where Spain, Portugal and England were claiming territory and looking for gold. Many of them settled in Jamaica. Not perfectly written but interesting!

I am reading Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes. So far I like it better than The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek.

I am listening to The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny. I am only on CD 2. Other than being annoyed because the author waited for several chapters to reveal what the vile professor was advocating when it was so obvious from the start, it's good.

I finished up In Their Own Words: How Russian Propagandists Reveal Putin's Intentions, by Julia Davis. I had to order a second copy because my dog tore up the first copy. Julia Davis is a journalist and the creator of Russia Media Monitor on YouTube. She writes a weekly column on-line about Russian television news and chat shows. The shows she reports on are the Russian equivalent of Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and their ilk, but on steroids. These are government funded programs that spew out the vilest rhetoric you can imagine. The producers of the shows receive frequent briefings from the Kremlin with instructions on the propaganda tasks they want the shows to produce. In Their Own Words is a compilation of articles she has written over the past three years, and they are eye opening. I consider this one of the most important books written in the past few years. As she says in her Afterword, "The United States may not be watching them, but they are watching you." I can not praise this book enough. Her Youtube channel and X/Twitter feed carries clips from the various television shows which she translates and subtitles into English.

Since the touchstone for this book doesn't seem to be working, here is a link: https://www.librarything.com/work/32400239/book/268599801

Next up is Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire by Eckart Frahm.

The Swimming-Pool Library
Alan Hollinghurst
3/5 stars
This is a coming-of-age story before AIDS of a young man who is gay and the relationships he has with his lovers and friends. Well written but a little long! 1988.

China Dolls – Lisa See
Digital audiobook narrated by Jodi Long
4****

This work of historical fiction begins in 1938. Three young women – Helen Fong, Grace Lee and Ruby Tom – meet just as the World’s Fair is set to begin on Treasure Island. They’re from different backgrounds but all are drawn to the glamorous Forbidden City nightclub by their dreams of success. World War II will soon interrupt their career paths, and their friendship will suffer, but they will endure. See follows the young women through the war years and includes an epilogue set in 1988.

I really enjoyed this book. I was in vested in these young women and their aspirations. While my background is different from theirs, we share the push/pull of traditional culture (and the expectations that result) vs the desire to see our dreams fulfilled. I loved, also, the detail See included from costumes to scenery to social issues – these elements really took me back to this era and culture.

See invented her heroines and the majority of characters, but includes a number of actual performers / entertainers of the time period. She did extensive research, including many in-person interviews with now elderly past performers on the “Chop Suey Circuit.”

Jodi Long does a marvelous job of narrating the audiobook. I admit, however, that I sometimes didn’t pay close enough attention to which character was narrating which chapter. (See does state the character at the beginning of each chapter.) Until I got used to the constant changing of point of view, I found myself occasionally confused. That was my fault, not Long’s narration.

Nerve – Dick Francis
3***

This mystery/thriller opens with a bang, as a jockey shoots “himself, loudly and messily, in the center of the parade ring at Dunstable races.” Our protagonist, Rob Finn, is a fellow jockey who witnesses this horrific event. Rob is just starting his career and hasn’t had many good mounts, but he begins to win and captures the attention of trainers, owners and a local journalist with a popular television show on racing. But just as he is getting to the top of the field, things begin to go sour. His reputation in tatters, he is on the brink of despair when he thinks on his fellow jockeys and the troubles they’ve endured in the past year or two. Is someone sabotaging jockeys? Who? And Why?

Francis crafts a compelling psychological mystery. Finn is tenacious and determined. He’s also smart in the way he goes about ferreting out information to build the case against an unlikely perpetrator. I do not know much about steeplechase racing, but Francis gives enough detail to educate me without boring me. Some of the race scenes were quite thrilling; I almost felt as if I were jumping those fences right along with Finn and Template (the horse he was riding).

I came late to the Dick Francis fan club, but I’m glad I finally arrived.

The new thread is up over here.