Becky's Books –

Fourth of July Creek
by Smith Henderson
2014 / 480 pages –
read by MacLeod Andrews, Jenna Lamia
15h 41m
rating:  8 / literary thriller

I just picked this up on a whim – from the blurbs and sample it sounded like it would be good escapist fare.  It’s more than that because of the structure and writing, Faulknerian, McCarthian, strong, Biblical,  but definitely Henderson’s own.

Once again,  as is typical with contemporary novels, we have two  interwoven plot threads.  Both take place in 1981 and involve the same protagonist,  Pete Snow, a rural Montana social worker with some difficult problems of his own. >>>>MORE>>>>

The Conservationist
by Nadine Gordimer
1974 / 270 pages
rating: 9 / 20th century

Mehring is a very rich, white,  South African man who has purchased a 400 acre cattle farm in rural South Africa. This is during the days of apartheid and it all makes him think that he is happy – he works in the city, flies to Japan, rests at his farm, plays with his mistress – life is good – except that he is increasingly isolated in an unfriendly world.

I suppose the title comes from the way in which Mehring wants to “conserve” his world – others, leftists, want to conserve the rhinoceros but Mehring is not concerned.  No one, it seems, wants to preserve the black people who live there.  >>>>MORE>>>>

The Farm
by Tom Robb Smith
2014 /  369 pages / 9h 24m
read by James Langton & Suzanne Toren
rating:  B+ / crime-suspense

When Daniel, our  single first person narrator,  answers his phone one evening he has to listen as his father, Chris,  tells him that his mother has gone mad.  At first Daniel really thinks it’s a joke.  Nope. His father is serious.  But a few minutes later his mother, Tilde,  calls and tells him she’s on her way to London to clear things up.  They emigrated to Sweden and bought a farm several years prior.

When she gets to Daniel’s home he realizes there is a very good chance his father is right –  >>>>MORE>>>>

The Chatham School Affair
by Thomas Cook
1996 / 335 pages / 10h 6m read by George Guidall
rating A+ (8) / literary crime

I’m certainly catching up on my listening and crime books since my 3-month hiatus from the genre and medium!  lol –  And good literary crime is a favorite genre –  literary meaning that the narrative  likely has an interesting structure, thought provoking metaphors and allusions,  some unusual insights into characters or the human condition and,  possibly an interwoven theme or two.   (Note to reader – literary fiction is not always that great, nor is it always appropriate for the general story).  I don’t even use the term “literary” except as an adjective – I don’t really think it’s a genre although that could certainly be argued.  >>>>MORE>>>>

The Museum of Literary Souls
aka The Caxton Private Lending Library and Book Depository
by John Connolly
2013/ 68 pages
rating – 9+ / short story

I enjoy a good short story once in great awhile, especially those of certain authors, but this came on recommendation and sounded interesting.  I’ve read one book by Connelly and wasn’t all that impressed.  – Oh well –

Mr. Berger is a youngish bachelor who has recently been able to retire and move to the country to a cottage his mother left to him when she died. >>>MORE>>>>

Those Who Stay and Those Who Leave
by Elena Ferrante
2014 /400 pages
rating 8.5 / contemp fict. (Italy)

This is the third in Ferrante’s absolutely brilliant (so far) Neapolitan Trilogy which began with My Brilliant Friend and continued with The Story of a New Name (Oh where is that review??) –   (I read in the very back section that this is not the last of the Neapolitan books – there’s at least one more coming in 9/15. – Aaaaaaaarrrrrrgggggh!)  

Those Who Stay and Those Who Leave continues the story of Elena who, in mid-20th Century Naples, Italy, raises herself from a poor neighborhood girl to a successful author. The first book opens with a situation in which in middle age, >>>MORE>>>

The Gods of Guilt
by Michael Connelly
2014/ 401 pages – 11h 49m
read by Peter Giles
Rating – C

This is Connelly’s new one starring criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller, a “Lincoln lawyer” – which means he works out of his car.  Haller gets a call to  defend Andre LaCosse, a web-designer (a digital pimp) who is in jail on charges for having murdered a client, Giselle Dallinger, a high-priced prostitute who was found dead and he was the last one to see her – he says she was alive when he left her.   He’d been at her apartment to collect payment for a job his web-site  had sent her out on – he grabbed her by the neck at the time but then left.  >>>>MORE>>>>

Fallen
by Karin Slaughter
2014/401 pages
read by Shannon Cochran 13h 23m
rating: B- / crime
(Georgia Series #5)

This is another one I’ve had around since April or so – I’m catching up now.  I’ve not read anything by Slaughter before but going by the reviews this was the one to start with.

When Atlanta police detective, Faith Mitchell,  finds her  young daughter, Emma, locked in a shed at her mother’s house with blood leading to the kitchen and a gun missing she manages not to panic.  >>>> MORE>>>>

The Silkworm
by Robert Galbraith
2014/ 464 pages
rating: A+ / crime
narrated by Robert Glenister – 17h 22m

OMG – what an incredible book!  I love it!  Yes,  I liked The Cuckoo’s Calling well enough – and I looked forward to another go-round with Comoran Strike and his sidekick Robin Eliacott so I jumped at the Audible version of The Silkworm when it came out.  Unfortunately, I left  ye olde  iPod in P’ville while I was in Northwood ND for 3 months so it didn’t get read.  But I’m into it now by golly!  (And I can listen for hours on end here –  he he.)  >>>>MORE>>>>

The Last Madam: A Life in the New Orleans Underworld
by Chris Wiltz
2001/ 288 pages
rating 7 / biography – US

This was a “freebie” from Kindle Unlimited and that’s what got me to read it.  It was worth it – lol – worth the monthly price of the Unlimited, that is.  It’s a pretty good book, especially if you’re interested in the topic or enjoy biography/memoirs.  (This is largely based on the subject’s taped memoirs but Wiltz did a commendable amount of extra research.)

Norma Wallace was one of the notorious madams of New Orleans, although her times were a bit after the infamous Storyville era.  She moved to the city in 1917 >>>>MORE>>>>

Burial Rites
by Hannah Kent
2014/ 338 pages
rating 7 / hist. fict – (Iceland)

I really enjoy books set in Greenland or Iceland, especially historical fiction, so I thought this book might be interesting. Too bad. The books by Sjon, Michael Crummy, Haldor Laxness, Peter Hoeg, Jane Smiley and others are incredibly better in many ways. The most important to me of those ways is that in Burial Rites there seems to be very little sense of being in historic Iceland – it’s just a story based on an actual event which took place in Iceland circa 1828 with some language thrown in (actually, though, what’s wrong with that?- lol)  >>>>MORE>>>>

I finished sorting out the pages from the posts and putting them into the right months in the menu.  That’s 3 month’s worth of posts sent from my iPad while I was visiting in North Dakota.  The iPad is wonderful for reading and for writing posts but trying to put in the graphics and doing the intro posts and longer pages which I like is too much.  (I still have to do monthly summaries but … )

I had a great time, though.  And now I’m back to the real world in Porterville, USA.  Hot and dry – I get everything done in the morning and read all afternoon.  🙂

Perfect
by Rachel Joyce
2014/ 400 pages
rating 6/10 – contemp fict UK
read by Paul Rhys – 11h 18m

Not impressive although I must say I was expecting a thriller or a mystery type book and it’s not that.   Also,  I listened to it piece-meal over a period of many weeks so in a way I didn’t give the story a chance.  (That said,  if the book had been grabbing me I would likely have made a point to listen.)  >>>>MORE>>>>

All Our Names
by Dinaw Mengestu
2013/ 272 pages
rating 8/ contemp lit – Africa

Two young men in Uganda pretend to be university students while fomenting rebellion against the dictatorship. Both are apparently named Isaac, at least known by that name as well as others. The 1st person narrator, known as The Professor, is a main follower of the man he calls Isaac who is apparently working with a more radical group.  >>>MORE>>> 

The Golden Bowl
by Henry James
1904/ 386 pages
rating 8 – classic

What if a widowed father were so rich he could buy his beloved only daughter a financially embarrassed Italian Prince to marry? And what if beloved daughter’s best girlfriend and the aforementioned Prince had met before and fallen in love, but because neither has money they can’t marry? Still, best friend has to marry someone, right? Preferably someone rich as this is the Gilded Age, the Belle Epoque, whatever. So girlfriend marries rich widowed daddy which puts Prince and girlfriend together for intimate moments because rich daddy and beloved daughter really prefer each other’s company. That gives a close and concerned mutual friend, confidante and meddlesome Fanny Assingham (yes, that’s the name of my favorite character), as well as the main characters, plenty to consider, speculate, surmise and generally think about – as well as scheme.  >>>MORE>>>

Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune
by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell
2013 / 496 pages
rating 8.5

Based on the NBC news article of the same name, this is the fascinating account of Huguette Clark, the youngest daughter of William A. Clark, Gilded Age multi-millionaire (railroads and copper) and scandal-plagued Senator from Montana. Huguette lived as a debutant and a recluse between her birth in1904 and death 2011. She died in a hospital as she’d lived for 20 years, although she was healthy enough to leave. >>>MORE>>>