Becky's Books –

Brilliant! But beware – this is not for those who read to escape the realties of contemporary life in the political crazies of the Western world. Still, it’s fun and magical – typical Smith for her last several novels.

I’ve followed Ali Smith for years, since her also brilliant Hotel World in 2004 but more seriously since How to Be Both (2014). so this is my 6th novel. I’d really like to read some of her short story collections, but …

*******
Spring
by Ali Smith
2019 / 340 pages
read by Juliette Burton – 7h 2m
rating: 9 – 7h 2m / literary fiction
#3 in the Seasonal Quartet
(both read and listened)
*******

The story is about many things but one of the main characters is a middle-aged grieving film director who might be directing a romance movie about a pair of very real and historical lovers who never did love each other.

And it’s about a young woman who works in an “Immigrant Removal Center” somewhere outside London and her travels and changes.

And it’s about Florence, a 12 or 13-year old girl who manages to slip by everyone, help the detainees, befriend (and use) the worker, assist the grieving filmmaker and go on traveling among other things. Florence is probably the main character here although she’s also the most slightly built – like air almost.

It’s about “the system” in terms of international refugees and Brexit and the disparity between truth and fiction these days. As usual, and wonderful, it’s about people connecting.

Smith’s writing can wander around loose plots and get somewhat magical and creative but it’s always right there for me.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/dean-a-bag-of-air-t12920

I read Kugel’s How To Read the Bible (my review on this site) back in March of last year (2018) and very much enjoyed it deciding to read more of Kugel, but not right away. I think I may have put this book on my wish list at that time but I just bought it (both Kindle and Audible versions) in February. I’m having to read it slowly, a couple chapters at a time. But it’s worth it as it’s very, very interesting and nicely detailed but a bit dry in places – and it can be slow going.

*******
The Great Shift: Encountering God in Biblical Times
by James L. Kugel
2017 / 475 pages
read by Martin Hillgartner – 14h 23m
rating – 9 / Bible history and analysis (not really religious)
*******

This book takes a different tack from o Read the Bible and instead of a study of different ways of reading and interpreting the Bible it focuses on how God, as a subject and as a personal power, was approached in the days of the Bible from Adam and Eve to today’s anthropology .

There is also some emphasis on the problems of reading the Bible in this day and age when word meanings have changed so much, even from the days they were interpreted which go way back themselves.

But the subject Kugel deals with, humanity encountering the divine, is so far-reaching I’ll just let the publisher’s comments speak to it.

“A great mystery lies at the heart of the Bible. Early on, people seem to live in a world entirely foreign to our own. God appears to Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and others; God buttonholes Moses and Isaiah and Jeremiah and tells them what to say. Then comes the Great Shift, and Israelites stop seeing God or hearing the divine voice. Instead, later Israelites are “in search of God,” reaching out to a distant, omniscient deity in prayers, as people have done ever since. What brought about this change?

” The answers come from ancient texts, archaeology and anthropology, and even modern neuroscience. They concern the origins of the modern sense of self and the birth of a worldview that has been ours ever since. James Kugel, whose strong religious faith shines through his scientific reckoning with the Bible and the ancient world, has written a masterwork that will be of interest to believers and nonbelievers alike, a profound meditation on encountering God, then and now.”

There’s a LOT there! It took me a total of 3 months never losing interest to get through it, but I didn’t have quite enough concentration at one time to finish it until now. If you’re interested in the course of history and the changing worldview of the Bible it’s a great read.

And there’s this: Flannery O’Connor – from the end of The Great Shift which sources O’Connor’s private prayer journal:

Dear God, I cannot love Thee the way I want to. You are the slim crescent of a moon that I see and my self is the earth’s shadow that keeps me from seeing all the moon. The crescent is very beautiful and perhaps that is all one like I am should or could see; but what I am afraid of, dear God, is that my self shadow will grow so large that it blocks the whole moon, and that I will judge myself by the shadow that is nothing. 

I do not know you God because I am in the way. Please help me to push myself aside.

Wild Horses
by Dick Francis
1994 / 

This is the 33rd novel by Dick Francis, the amazing jockey and author of over 40 international best sellers.   These are some of my go-to books when I’m really at a loss as to what I’m in the mood for.  There is no real series about the books of Dick Francis as almost all of them  have different 1st person protagonists who are usually very similar. They are generally single, involved in horse racing and with a monied background. ‘

*******
Wild Horses
by Dick Francis
1994 / 388 pages
Read by Simon Prebble – 10h 30m
rating: A+ / mystery
*******

This is the 33rd novel by Dick Francis, the amazing jockey and author of over 40 international best sellers.   These are some of my go-to books when I’m really at a loss as to what I’m in the mood for.  There is no real series about the books of Dick Francis as almost all of them  have different 1st person protagonists who are usually very similar. They are generally single, involved in horse racing and with a monied background.  

In Wild Hoses Thomas Lyon is directing a movie based on a best selling novel by an author who is advising on the set – this in itself creates a lot of tension because the book is based on the true story of a possible murder. 

Valentine Clark, an 80+ year old, horse shoer, is dying.  With Thomas Llyon,  the 1st person narrator of most parts, he pleads for absolution for having killed someone.  He wants a priest and imagines Thomas  to be one.  “I killed the Cornish boy.”   

Valentine had been the shoemaker of racing horses and invented the horseshoe nail.   He was also a writer, an “honored institution in print.” 

This tale can be a bit difficult to follow as there are three separate threads each of which include the protagonist in different touchy situations. The first is with Dorothea Pannier, the widowed sister of Valentine who is  his close friend,. The widow’s son, Paul,  also features prominently.  

The second scenario is concerned with the production of a movie based on a best-selling book which a touchy writer has written.  Our protagonist is the director of that movie and he has to deal with the writer as well as the male star.  

 The third scenario is about the real murder mystery behind the movie which, at the time of production,  is still unsolved.  Between the Panniers, the movie crew and the folks of the original mystery, there are lots of characters 

 Horses are always involved in Francis’ books and Wild Horses is no different.  

These books are so good and Simon Prebble is such a good reader – I’m sorry to see them end.  

I read this for the 4-Mystery Addicts Group.  I’d checked and it had a lot of good reviews and looked so promising. Unfortunately, I wasn’t too happy with my first reading but all those reviews ? –  Yes, it showed promise – kind of.  Maybe I’d missed a lot while thinking about too many other things.  I was almost ready to return it for my credit at Audible but I did a second reading instead.

*******
The Coroner’s Lunch 
By Colin Cotterill
2004 / 272 pages
Read by Clive Chafer
(Dr Siri Palbourn series #1) 
rating B+ / mystery
*******

It’s 1976 in Vientiane, Laos where the old Kingdom has just vanished and a new communist regime set up.  There, with the Mekong River on the west bordering Thailand, and the Ho Chi Min trail to the east bordering Vietnam, the 72-year old Dr Siri Paiboun has been recently appointed the official state coroner. He is the only doctor left in the country and a communist only by default.  That’s the way things are going there.

The body of the wife of an important Party leader shows up at Doctor Siri’s morgue. Following that, the largely decomposed bodies of a couple of old dead Vietnamese soldiers float to the surface of the river from their watery graves.  Siri has his work cut out for him,  but certain Party officials don’t seem to want him to do his job which is going to take a good deal more than carving up old cadavers.  This is going to take some active and intelligent sleuthing in different parts of the country.


Because this is the first book in a series there are a number of character introductions.  The good doctor has two other people in his office,  one is a young man with Down’s Syndrome but an incredible memory who acts as a kind of assistant while the other is an excellent nurse.

This is the first book in a 13-book series, so far. I believe there’s another one due out in August, 2019.  

Well … it’s quite interesting and as a whole rather fun, I suppose although there are difficult parts. It is certainly a very different kind of novel.

The premise is that a young woman, our main 1st person narrator, is traveling the world over a long period of time. She does what she can or what she is involved with as she’s a kind of 21st century nomad. Her main interests seem to be the psychology of travel and collecting stories about people whom she sometimes meets but might even invent. And then she relates the stories to us in 116 little “chapters” or vignettes. But although the story is not linear, she and her life seem to change over time – if you can figure out who “she” is.

*******
Flights
by Olga Tokarczuk
(translated by Jennifer Croft)
2018 / 416 pages
read by Julia Whealan – 12h 32m
rating: 9 / contemp. fiction
(read and listened)
*******

They’re weird stories, ranging from one sentence in length to a couple of short stories. They’re sometimes very realistic but other times more like myths and maybe about magical things and mysticism, but never quite spiritualism. Some are historical. They concern our bodies and senses and even psychologies as related to travel of various sorts (see the title?)

The structure seems to be based on the nature of flying. It goes from one place to another to yet another and then back to the first place. The reader/traveler is simply transported so the overall story arc is definitely non-linear.

The narrator and characters sometimes travel by ferry or cruise ship, sometimes by bus or train as well as on foot and, of course, airplane. The book is about travel as much as anything – a kind of fictional travelogue pointing out the humans and their stories rather than the sites. The narrator calls her journeys “pilgrimages” and says they all involve another pilgrim.

There do seem to be connecting threads between some of the chapter/stories though. The anatomies of people, living or dead, is a definite theme.

The parts about the 17th century anatomist Philip Verheyen include a fascinating discussion of pain and where it comes from. And a couple of other stories are about historical anatomists, their family and friends, although I think most of the characters are fictional – at least partly.

Josephine Soliman, the daughter of Angel Soliman, is also tragically historical as is her father and Francis I of Austria of whom Josephine begs a Christian burial for her father. Captain James Cook is definitely historical as are Chopin and his heart.

There is some discussion of heaven and souls, but it’s always kind of flat and dealing with imagined tangible and physical aspects or presented as myth and things other people believe.

Somehow I am reminded of Ryszard Kapuściński, the Polish travel writer who also, like Tokarczuk, escaped Poland to travel and write as soon as the law permitted – 1989?

Parts sound like they are autobiographical, especially because parts are very much like Tokarczuk’s life, (New York Times) but one section is told from 3rd person points of view and yet it seems like the “She” involved is the “I” in other places. And in a way even the very first story totally fits.

Freederik Ruysch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederik_RuyschPhilip Verheyen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Verheyen

I did it. I finished The Mueller Report including the Notes and Appendices (mostly) – YAY!! And patting self on back!

Bottom line: It is well worth the read if you’re interested. If you want the “good parts” I’d recommend Volume II (check the Table of Contents) but the whole thing is important.

Having followed the news and read a number of books on the Trump campaign and administration, (see my post about Trump books at: https://mybecky.blog/2018/09/27/trump-world-books/ )
I’m fairly well versed in the subject as a whole. But I thought I’d separate my impressions and the narratives of others from what really went down at investigation time with Mueller at the helm. Besides, much of this is old news now and it’s good to see it put forth in well-organized form so as to recollect and learn without being swayed by the day-to-day manics of this depressing presidency. 

There were many things I’d forgot about and several I’d not heard of at all. With the abundance of material spewing forth from the media, it’s good to see something which separates substantive issues out of the noise we were hearing and reading.

*******
The Mueller Report
by the Washington Post
2019 / 448 pages
Read by three – 19h and 3m
rating: 10 / legal document
(read and listened – and glad of it! )
*******

It was nice that both the Washington Post and the Audible versions were free or very cheap when I got them (I think they still are.)

Volume 1: “Report On The Investigation Into Russia Interference In The 2016 Presidential Investigation

There’s quite a lot of substance in the first half of this document even though much has been redacted for various reasons. But with all the redactions it’s almost a listing of who met whom and where without many details. Details like what they talked about. There was quite a lot of talk about “adoptions” for instance. (I think “adoptions” must have been a kind of code word for sanctions and Magnitsky Act in general.)

Both sections are very well organized (as should be the case) and clearly written and narrated. There are a few typos in there, but I imagine the speed with which this report was released might have affected that.

There was also quite a lot of concern with Clinton’s emails. Later there are a lot of Russians apparently trying to establish working relationships with Trump for various reasons.   It seems that the Russians were sometimes interested in saying they could provide more info re “dirt on Clinton” than the Trump team was willing to get involved with these people for – not all Russians were trusted and Trump’s people had certain top-level folks they wanted to deal with.

There’s no “smoking gun,” that’s for sure – there’s barely a gun at this point in the narrative as far as collusion to do anything specific. Trump apparently didn’t have to solicit information, but Jared Kushner and Don Trump Jr. were definitely interested in what various Russians dangled, but didn’t quite supply (as far as is unreacted). 

The Russians were definitely in favor of getting Trump elected, (as opposed to Hillary? – You betcha!) but the Trump people were more interested getting verifiable dirt on Hillary (which might hold up in impeachment hearings?).

The whole thing about Manafort sharing polling data with the Russians goes nowhere because of lost evidence. There are a lot of characters involved, some legit, some not. And there’s a bunch of material on Wikileaks of course. 

After the election there were still Russians around who were anxious to meet Trump and get various things going through Kushner or Cohen or someone.  And by the time of this report several players had been tried and sentenced, others were not found to be willfully in violation of anything or it wasn’t going to be provable in a court of law. 

The standing opinion on Trump and indictment is that although a sitting president cannot be indicted, when he leaves office it might certainly be the next move. 

A Special Counsel shall not have civil or administrative authority unless specifically granted such jurisdiction by the Attorney General. ” [Mueller cites the authorizing document that guides his activity, 28CFR600.4(a)]

 This volume is well footnoted with additional comments as well as sources for more info. The footnotes occasionally have footnotes. And in the Audible version the narrator reads, as they occur, the footnotes which have substance at the appropriate times. 

Volume 2:
This volume is different in both tone and substance. The narrative reads like a page-turner and very enjoyable. In MY mind there is obvious and substantial evidence for a charge of obstruction of justice – but at this point it looks to me like that won’t be done.

Again, it’s well organized and clear – maybe clearer than Volume 1 but the subject matter is a significantly different.  (I think well organized might be a hallmark of most legal documents.)

This section uses the testimony of the witnesses for substance organized around about a dozen issues, it’s not usually verbatim but it is sourced. I’m not going to go through all the sections which delineate the conduct of various members of the Trump, his team and others but many of them pretty clearly show his culpability.

The Report also explains why no indictments were brought against Trump and the OLC had difficulty determining Trump’s state of mind – the report “does not exonerate him.” (Quoted from the report.)  . But if you can’t indict a sitting president and the Republican Senate will not impeach him then ….  (At the moment we may be in the first stages of a Constitutional crisis in order to get to impeachment.)

Appendix C which outlines the written questions submitted to Trump is interesting as are his responses (although the audio version uses a slightly different order to the Q/A than the Kindle version and the Audible version is easier to follow). Trump doesn’t remember a LOT of stuff, but he was very busy in those campaign days and at his best he’s not been exactly forthcoming. He manages to remember whatever was in the media and that’s about it.

Trump was not subpoenaed to testify because Muller knew there would be a court battle and it would drag on way too long – written responses were the best they could do. (I’m not sure but I don’t think he answered all of them.)

There are additional sections in the Washington Post Kindle version including some introductory pages as well as mini-background biographies on Trump and Mueller, glossaries many legal documents, indictments, transcripts, and other legal reports plus examples of political advertisements, reports on political rallies,, descriptions of related crimes and conspiracies, and more.

The final document is Attorney General William Barr’s 4-page summary of the 400 page Mulller Report which Barr provided to congress about 2 days after he got it. Not good.

The 19th Centry Reading Group is trying to get going again and these two novellas were chosen for our first selections. I wanted to both read and listen to these novellas, but I got two different translations of each. I got one audio book containing both stories narrated by Simon Vance, but I’m not sure about the translator – probably Constance Garnett and one e-book of both stories translated and with an Introduction by Ann Pasternak Slater. I’ll likely read both versions of each. I read The Death of Ivan Ilyich a long time ago. maybe a couple times. I think I have a copy of Tolstoy’s stories is here in the house somewhere.

*******
The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Master and Man
by Leo Tolstoy – (translated)
1886 and 1895 originally –
read by Walter Zimmerman
rating – 8.5 / classic Russian lit
*******

The Audible version was certainly not the cheapest version available, but I’m a sucker for Simon Vance. The Kindle version was quite reasonable. The thing is that there are different translations involved. The Kindle book was translated and introduced by Anna Pasternak Slater. I have no idea who the Audible version was translated by but it wasn’t Pasternak because the narratives in the audiobook and the Kindle don’t match. Interesting.

The Death of Ivan Ilyich is basically the story of a very sick and dying man. He thinks about his own life and attitudes but the reactions of his business acquaintances are included. He’s not been a “nice” guy. The story is very insightful as well as being highly moralistic/spiritual and for that it’s a classic.

Master and Man is the story of another death. This time a fairly rich man and his servant travel in bad weather to take care of some business with a neighbor. It was interesting reading a new-to-me Tolstoy.

He wrote these some time after his conversion in the 1880s so there is a pointed moral tone against riches and in favor of the hard but simple peasant life.

I don’t know as I’ll read more Tolstoy. At my age, I think I’m past learning from it and to the point of living it.

I saw this while browsing on Audible and it looked quite interesting and (!) it was narrated by Will Patton! So I put it on ye olde wish list and there it sat for quite a long time – several months at least. When I saw something else about it somewhere, maybe that it had been developed into a television series, I thought “Hmmmm…” And then, while it was on my official wish list it turned upon the “available” list at my library. Okay fine – got it.

I had looked into the blurbs and reviews a wee bit, avoiding spoilers, but I knew it was a historical novel, a family saga type thing, taking place in Texas between the 1840s and contemporary times. It sounded like something Cormac McCarthy might write, but really the resonances go back to Faulklner and include might Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove in a way.

*******
The Son
by Philipp Meyer
2013 / 576 pages
read by Will Patton Kate Milligrew, Scott Shepherd, Clifton Collins Jr.
17h 48m
rating – 9.75 – historical fiction
*******

But The Son has it’s own plot and Meyer has his own style, so the book grew on me to the point I came darn near giving it a 10 on the first reading. For a relatively new book that’s almost unheard of. So YES! it’s worth reading!

As a whole, the narrative mainly consists of three 1st person accounts by members of the McCullough family over the course of 160 years or so.

The first narrative is told by Eli McCullough for an interview with the WPA on the occasion of his 100th birthday – 1936. So, born shortly after the Republic of Texas was born, along came Eli, “the first male child of this new republic.” His story tells of how as at the age of 6 or so, he was captured by Comanches after a destructive raid on his family’s ranch. He lived with them until well into his teens. Eli’s sections in the novel are interspersed with those of his granddaughter, Jeannie McCullough, in today’s time and Pete, Eli’s son of the in-between years. This is not chronological – it’s for the reader to put the pieces together.

The seeming constant warfare between the years of settlement and the oil boom has long-lasting repercussions on members of the McCullough family. The diary-based narrative of Peter, Eli’s son, is filled with guilt for various things and he can’t seem to let go of his family’s expectations or his own desires.

Following that, chronologically, comes the third thread which has Jeannie MccCulloch, Pete’s granddaughter, remembering her life from the vantage point of her living room floor at age 86. The year is 2012 and she now has quite a lot of money and power (not a spoiler), but is a very lonely woman and it feels like she’s readying herself to die. The organization is different from any family saga I remember reading.

This is the story of a wealthy Texas family from its origins in big cattle ranching operations and before all the way to big oil companies and all that comes after -through the generations. An overarching theme is much broader than that history and has to do with the complex relationships between cultures as well as identify, love, hate, fathers and, of course, sons.

The novel goes back and forth through these times and generations so we get an overview of the general history as the story line puts the family history together. And because Meyer delves into details about the Comanches I’ve not read elsewhere it feels totally authentic and original in those sections. (I’ve enjoyed several books about the Comanches – fiction and non-). Historically the other sections are accurate, but not nearly as detailed.

The strength of the novel lies in the historical detail as well as the trajectory of the chronology. I could go on but truth is I feel like downloading the Kindle version and having another go.

I’d never read this and I’m a pretty big Faulkner fan, so I nominated it for the Modern Fiction Group and it got selected. I read it.

Parts are excellent but it’s a bit confusing because it was originally written as a series of short stories about the same characters but later these stories were edited and pulled together into one volume with an added chapter. Still, that part works. What’s confusing are the scrapes the characters get into in each chapter with some characters in a couple chapters but not others and so on and over a period of about ten years.

*******
The Unvanquished
by William Faulkner
1938 / 230 pages
read by Kevin T. Collins – 8h 17m
rating: 8.5 / classic lit – US
*******

But it’s Faulkner in style and substance. The setting is the years between the second year of the Civil War through the years of Reconstruction; from 1862 until 1873. Those were pretty confusing times in rural eastern Mississippi.

The overarching plot concerns a teenage boy named Bayard Sartoris and his buddy Ringo, who goes from being a slave to being a newly freed young man during the course of the book. The two are always deep friends. The chapters or episodes really, take place at intervals of a year or two and each episode has its own plot and story arc.

It’s not one of Faulkner’s best but it’s quite good. I kind of feel like reading Sartoris, which was originally published earlier but the action of which comes after.

The winner of the Pulitzer Award for history about a decade ago, I’ve wanted to read this book ever since, but there were always other books or something else in the way. Now I found it at my new source, my local library’s audio book collection. (And I got the Kindle version to go with it.)

It’s been ten years on the market so much of the information has been disseminated in one way or another in other nonfiction or historical fiction books and I’ve read quite a lot of both including a couple biographies of Jefferson which included a certain amount on the Hemingses. There’s more to this book than that. This is the same story but with the Hemingses as the focal point. There’s less about Jefferson the politico and thinker, more about him personally. Look at the title. It is, more than anything, the story of this American family.

*******
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
by Annette Gordon-Reed
2009 – 800 pages
read by Karen White – 30h 36m
rating: 9.5 / history
*******

The book felt a wee bit slow until the widowed Jefferson got to Paris bringing a few members of his mixed family with him. And there is a lot of new information about France and the lives of the Jeffersons/ Hemingses while there. It’s almost like the Hemingses were Jefferson’s private family complete with education and allowances as appropriate (I think that’s the point.) But he didn’t give them legal freedom and they didn’t apply for it in France. Returning to Virginia had it’s problems, though.

Gordon-Reed seems very even-handed about Jefferson, slavery, racism, power, freedom and the forces of sex. She writes with a great deal of insight and sensitivity to the subtleties and nuances of male/female, slave/master and family relationships – elaborating on the generalities as well as the specifics of the Thomas Jefferson-Sally Hemings relationship. Also, there was a huge difference between their own southern and slave-based society and the freer milieu of Paris.

Another theme in this book is that of women enslaved and used. Human instincts are much the same the world over and slavery, by itself, doesn’t change that. Women are subject to abuse in these cases, but not all men are necessarily rapists even when given the opportunity.

But the book is about the Hemingses and that would entail a lot of information about the lives of enslaved persons and their relationships with white society whether they were free, house servants or field workers in various circumstances – there were LOTS of differences. The book mainly follows the Hemingses and is well researched but there are times when the information is necessarily generalized from the standards of the times – a common feature in the biographies of women and minorities.

The drawbacks are that there are a LOT of family members and their names get mixed up. Also, it’s very long. But it’s a thoughtful and thought-provoking book, amazingly well researched, organized and written. The Pulitzer was well deserved.

Not my usual fare, but a friend recommended it and I thought, why not? – I read The Da Vinci Code when it first came out and enjoyed it quite a lot, but then got upset a very short time later when I found out about the hoax the story was based on and which the story passed off as truth. (I loved Foucault’s Pendulum – called “A thinking man’s Da Vinci Code.”) So although Brown’s books looked tempting at times over the years, and a couple of my friends were avid followers, I didn’t read any more until now, after which I may read more.

Robert Langdon of The Da Vinci Code is still on hand, but he’s become quite well known throughout the world. He has money, connections, sources, charm and a photographic memory (or whatever that’s called). Kind of like a James Bond in his own way (as it looks like several movie reviewers have noted).

*******
Origin
by Dan Brown
2017 / 463 pages
read by Paul Michael – 18h 10m
rating: A+ / suspense thriller
(read and listened)
*******

This time Edmund Kirsch, one of Langdon’s many close friends and a renowned scientist, futurist and thinker, claims to have discovered something which will prove there is no basis for religion – no God, something along those lines. He tells the Catholic, Jewish and Muslim leaders to let them know before the actual announcement which might bring on trouble. Still, and before the official presentation of this discovery, one of the clerics is found dead in the desert but that’s the bare start of what’s coming because no good highly placed religious person would want this sort of thing getting around – what will they do to prevent it?

More to the point of the book are the very broadest of interpretation of the questions; “Where did we come from? Where are we going?” To my mind, that’s not the same question as “Does God exist?” but it’s close enough in some people’s minds. That said, some of the ideas in Brown’s book are quite interesting and new to me.

Brown’s writing has improved since The Da Vinci Code and is now that of a seasoned professional. The clunkiness is gone and he knows precisely how to keep stringing the tension out, when and how to add characters. how to skillfully make chapter endings into cliff-hangers, and how to make the reader burn that midnight oil.

He still bases his stories on controversial subjects and comes up with interesting conspiracies. Much of what’s included is accurate (Google whatever you want and see) and rather esoteric in the first place, then Brown lays a fictional story on top it. It’s a fun ride.

Palmerians: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmarian_Catholic_Church

Other https://blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk/litcaricature/2018/04/17/out-of-the-comfort-zone/

Just yesterday this was on sale from Audible and as it so happens, I was ready for a new book – pronto. Yay! I’d read one of Alistair Burke’s books prior and don’t remember being impressed, but it was okay enough for me to try her again.

*******
The Wife
by Alistair Burke
2018 / 357 pages
read by Xe Sands – 8h 9m
rating: A+ / legal crime – suspense
(C for narration)
*******

Jason Powell, a rich and important New York environmental economist, and Angela Powell, a 1st person narrator, have been married for about 6 years, Angela brought a 6-year old son and a seriously difficult past to the marriage.

When Jason is accused of some serious sexual harassment and Jason denies it, Angela “stands by her man,” as good wives would.

I’m not going to go into specifics because I have no idea where the line would be concerning spoilers – it’s a tangled tale and everything connects in the end. But it’s a very tightly written suspense novel with many great twists and some interesting legal and procedural aspects. I really enjoyed it – except for … the narrator.

The narrator, Xe Sands, has an annoying style of making almost all dialogue sound what I imagine is more realistic to her than the actual written word. Her reading voice is, for most characters, full of pauses and “uh’s, “ahs” and very slight stutters. This affect comes from most of the characters and it ends up sounding like someone is trying to be very laid back and blasé, even hard-edged detectives. She also uses a very wavery and gravely voice which is very tiring. The odd thing is that I complained about the narrator (although less specifically) in my review of The Ex- (Burke again) and all told I’ve listened to 7 with her narrating and possibly complained on each review. (sigh)

It’s a good thing she’s not Burke’s main narrator because I’m certainly likely to listen to another her books. I think I’ll recognize that voice if I run across it in a sample or something. All that said, I did finish the book.

Chosen for my non-fiction group I nominated it because I enjoy an occasional travelogue and this is supposed to be a good one. I was puzzled though because there are no maps or pictures in the book which is supposed to be one of the loveliest in Japan. (He says somewhere in the introduction that he wants to do it this way – sans pictures) and he calls it a “story-map.” I think he’s trying to paint the picture with words alone, but imo a few photos would have greatly enhanced my experience. (I accessed almost all of what I wanted on the internet.) The first time through I listened only but it felt like something someone who was already familiar with the Road would enjoy.

So I read it again with the Kindle to enhance my enjoyment. Yes – it did – the effect of the Japanese hieroglyphics in appropriate place was excellent. And the organization of the trip was more accessible – it’s pretty much one small town per chapter.

*******
Walking the Kiso Road: A Modern-Day Exploration of Old Japan
by William Scott Wilson
2015 / 288 pages
read by Brian Nishi – 7h 58m
rating: 7 / travelogue
*******

I think Wilson is trying to focus not the old and ignore the new as much as possible. He wants to see the old Japan which dates in this area back to ancient times – a couple millennia of peasants and samurai walking this road and putting up temples and statues and telling stories about the places, eating the local foods. That’s what Wilson wants to visit and wants us to “see” without so much contemporary noise, cars and so on. But it’s not avoidable so these things are not completely ignored.

Wilson is a translator, writer and a lifelong traveler who is devoted to Japan, so the inclusion of Japanese poets and writers as sources of epigraphs is natural. He’s written two prior books. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Scott_Wilson

From the publisher:

Step back into old Japan in this fascinating travelogue of the famous Kiso Road, an ancient route used by samurai and warlords, which remains much the same today as it did hundreds of years ago.

Take a trip to old Japan with William Scott Wilson as he travels the ancient Kiso Road, a legendary route that remains much the same today as it was hundreds of years ago. The Kisoji, which runs through the Kiso Valley in the Japanese Alps, has been in use since at least 701 C.E. In the seventeenth century, it was the route that the daimyo (warlords) used for their biennial trips—along with their samurai and porters—to the new capital of Edo (now Tokyo). The natural beauty of the route is renowned—and famously inspired the landscapes of Hiroshige, as well as the work of many other artists and writers. Wilson, esteemed translator of samurai philosophy, has walked the road several times and is a delightful and expert guide to this popular tourist destination; he shares its rich history and lore, literary and artistic significance, cuisine and architecture, as well as his own experiences. 

The history was kind of interesting but very limited and topical related to the locations as he came to them. The folktales and people Wilson met were curious and I did ge quite interested at times, but I had to get involved to envision it and when I googled it kind of destroyed the illusion Wilson was weaving. Towards the end the food descriptions felt like filler.

Here are some helps: (or you can Google “Walking the Kiso Road” and the names of the towns – then turn to satellite view and maybe wander the road yourself)

https://www.travelweekly.com/Asia-Travel/A-walk-through-Japan

https://walkjapan.com/tour/nakasendo-way-the-kiso-road

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/lifestyle/travel/sdut-walking-tour-ancient-japan-kiso-2015sep11-htmlstory.html

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/03/19/books/book-reviews/human-stories-lining-kiso-road/#.XMLrjS-ZPB]

extra: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travel_literature

Photos: https://walkjapan.com/tour/nakasendo-way-the-kiso-road. See blue rectangle in lower left of top photo – “View More Images” click and then click through the gallery.  Preface : “The Kiso Road—kisoji  in Japanese1—runs about sixty miles through central Nagano Prefecture and mostly follows first the Narai and then the Kiso River (traveling from north to south) through the granite forest-covered mountains of that same name. 2 It is the heart of the longer 340-mile road, the Nakasendo (also called the Kisokaido), which stretches from Tokyo to Kyoto. It is called a “road,” 3 and it often runs parallel to or on Highway 19 but just as often wanders into the mountains as a smaller paved road or just a narrow path of dirt or ancient paving stones. The Kisoji has been in use for perhaps over two thousand years, although it was most popular as a thoroughfare during the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries when travelers walked, rode on horseback, or were carried in palanquins through the mountains, along scary suspension bridges built on cliffs overlooking the swift river and over the steep passes.”
A travel blog: https://bitesofoishii.com/2017/03/11/tsumago-magome-nakasendo/Another one: https://donnykimball.com/kiso-valley-43cc25dc0179

Introduction: Japanese clothing of Meiji/Edo era: https://www.pinterest.com/psych0p4nda/clothing-reference-japan-edo-meiji/

Chapter 1: (Tokyo) 
Men’s yukata: https://www.dhgate.com/product/japanese-men-samurai-yukata-kimono-hot-spring/422467592.html

Bishamonten Temple (1595) : https://trulytokyo.com/zenkoku-ji-temple/

Traditional Japanese breakfast: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/traditional-japanese-breakfast-369329(Wilson had “grilled salmon, lightly fried tofu, rice, herbs boiled in a light soy sauce, miso soup and green tea.” – p. 22) 

Shiojiri – from https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Shiojiri

• 1 Narai-Juku (奈良井宿) (20 kilometers south of Shiojiri, ¥410 by JR Chuo Honsen). An extremely well-preserved town from the Edo-Kyoto route times, in the beautiful Kiso valley. There are a few ryokans as well. (updated Oct 2015)

Chapter 2: On the Road – Hideshio, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideshio_Statio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motoyama-juku(Near Shioriji) 

Dosojin (statues where there are walkers)https://www.nakasendoway.com/dosojin/

Chapter 3: Niiekawa: For great visuals google Niekawa Japan And click the map, then then zoom in and click satellite view and zoom in again. You can travel parts of the road this way. 

Chapter 5 – Torii Pass This is cool – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgMl0G82L98
Nakasendo Way: group hike -no words. (Nice shots of Kiso) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gikIc_2s1uQ

Kiso Road through Yabuhara: ( This map shows a good view with lots of roads to click around on) https://www.google.com/maps/place/Yabuhara,+Kiso,+Kiso+District,+Nagano+399-6201,+Japan/@35.9792522,137.6641645,11.02z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x601ce0185a715431:0xe2172c2ddcf7697c!8m2!3d35.9667929!4d137.788423

Chapter 8: Kiso Fukushimia and Mount Ontake Momosuke Bridge across Kiso River – 112 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:150606_Momosuke_Bridge_Nagiso_Nagano_pref_Japan01s3.jpg

Chapter 10: Suhara http://www.kisoji-isan.com/s/en/heritage/28.html

The followup to Hawkins’ excellent debut novel, The Girl on the Train is a rather annoying disappointment in some ways. No wonder there was no wait at the library, heh. In spite of that, it stayed out of my DNI (Did Not Finish) pile because Hawkins is a tremendously skilled stylist of suspense novels and there was something hugely compelling about it.

Specifically, there were rather too many similar 1st person narrators and Hawkins is good, but she’s no Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (the author of Rashōmon) so the overall effect is confusion. Added to that is a chronology which slips back and forth into the dark murky past. What you need is a big family tree for notes on who’s who, where and when.

*******
INTO THE WATER
by Paula Hawkins
2018 / 394 pages (Kindle)
read by a cast – 11h 32m
rating: C- / crime-suspense
*******

From Amazon/and Penguin Publishers:

The small British town of Beckford, known for its winding river and history of women drowning (by suicide or in a test of witchcraft) provides an eerie setting for this tale. Fifteen-year-old Lena’s mother, Nel, who has been researching the river’s mysteries, is found drowned a few months after Lena’s best friend’s body is discovered. Did they take their own lives? Or were they murdered? Multiple detectives are on the case, and chapters from the perspectives of the many characters slowly reveal clues. Hawkins’s sophomore effort after The Girl on the Train is bound to be a hit, but the plethora of characters and measured pace may deter some teens. Those who stick with the novel will be rewarded as the plot picks up toward the end of the book and builds to a satisfying denouement. VERDICT For literary readers of atmospheric mysteries.—Sarah Hill, Lake Land College, Mattoon, IL

So I was one of those who finished and I’ll tell you that the confusion mostly clears up, but it’s not a terribly satisfactory ending.

Oh my – touch my heart then, will ya’? – Back towards the end of last year I’d been wondering about the troubles of Northern Ireland, historically with an emphasis on the troubles of the 1960s and early ’70s. And what do you know – before April, 2019 is done, I’ve read two: Milkman, by Anna Burns which is excellent fiction, and now this one, Say Nothing by Patrick Redden Keefe which is spell-binding nonfiction.

Now I’m not Irish in the least, but my children are because of their dad. And to me, Ireland has a fascinating history from the Vikings and prior through 21st century. I’ve read several historical novels with Ireland as setting but only a few about the “official” time of troubles – the 1960s and ’70s and really up to now. (I did a wee bit of research as I was reading those novels.) .

******
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
by Patrick Radden Keefe
2019 / 455 pages
read by Matthew Brady – 14h 40m
rating: 9.5 / history-true crime / Northern Ireland
(both read and listened)
*******

Although there’s a Prologue to pique the reader’s interest, and there’s a cliff-hanger opening in the first chapter,  the  book really picks up speed after about 50 pages (10%),  when it simply takes off  to page-turner/keep the light burning level, a true-crime thriller.   And then it gets better – lol – as it jumps between threads for awhile and then from incident to incident.   Of course, following the actual war of it all, comes the really sad part, but … (no spoilers on this one – but we have the aftermath in terms of prison time, retribution, the peace accord, and so on ).

Be warned, it gets as graphic as war can get and make no mistake, the Republican struggle was war and the British response was in-kind. When did the Irish troubles with England really start? Who knows – in ancient times perhaps. The book skims that part up to 1969 when the IRA – (the Irish Republican Army, a para-military group) broke loose, with afflicted factions such as the Provos, popping up. It goes on today in some ways and in a very muted form.

Because I had no idea who Dolours Price even was (much less many of the other characters) the book was a kind of thriller to me with the added intensity of the fact it’s verified history (albeit only 45 years ago – I was in my mid- to late 20s). Then came my interest in legal crime which I should mention because that’s a large part of the last half, not courtroom stuff, but legal dilemmas, deals and so on.

Matthew Brady reads it very well, possibly heightening the tension, with an authentic North Ireland lilt and all. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Ireland

Dolours Price:
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/filming-dolours-price-her-name-is-latin-for-sorrow-that-describes-her-life-1.3610215

I procrastinated about buying this book although it was widely touted. It was on my wish list for months. I read Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad and was not terribly impressed although it was award winning. Then Manhattan Beach showed up in audio format available from my local library. Hmmm…. I started listening. At about 1/2 way through I’d lost the thread, but it seemed pretty good in ways so I got the Kindle version to go with it and started over. If you actually read the whole thing it really is a very satisfying and lovely book.

Yes, it is pretty good, but not something I’d recommend to everyone (I doubt any book is). There is an “old movie” feel to it (as one reviewer on Amazon said) but it’s historical fiction set in New York between the wars through the end of WWII so there’s going to be an “old movie” feel in some ways. Still, there are passages of brilliant writing to go with an interesting plot and the nicely developed and complex characters were enough to keep me reading.

*******
Manhattan Beach
by Jennifer Egan
2017 / 449 pages
Read by author, Heather Lind and Vincent Piazza 15h 16m
Rating: 8.5 / historical fiction_
(read and listened)
*******

New York in the 1930s was a place of mixed ethnic populations – some honest and innocent, others involved in mobster doings; some doing wonderfully well in the big city, others, due to luck or judgement , not doing so well. This is a story that mixes those groups, not always distinct.

The story is clever and very different from A Visit From the Goon Squad. Anna Kerrigan, a young woman with a seriously disabled sister and an absent father wants to dive underwater as she’s seen the men at the naval base do. She works in the production area but manages to get transferred.

Although the tale is plot and character driven, the research Egan did is evident, but never overplayed in this plot and character-driven story which develops the usual themes of family and love and war and abandonment. The all-male adventure-style ocean scenes are wonderfully well written.

These were not the best of times for women in un”womanly” situations, but they were better than they had been and Anna faces some harass-ment and very difficult choices. But she is physically quite strong, brave and intelligent. The other characters are neither “good” guys nor “bad” guys – they are nicely developed “complex” characters.

The narration is creatively done with a male and a female voice switching at appropriate places, not necessarily chapter changes and certainly not by character change. I liked it. The narrative is 3rd person so this technique is never difficult for the listener.

Women’s Divers Hall of Fame: http://www.wdhof.org/wdhof-memRosterDetail.aspx?mid=9

Who would think that patent law could be interesting? It is, in bits. And that’s the background for this legal thriller but because patent law is mainly interpretation and analysis it can get dry. So we have a couple of kidnappings and a murder to spice things up a bit.

Judge Scott Sampson doesn’t brag about having a perfect life, but the evidence is clear: A prestigious job. A loving marriage. A pair of healthy children. Then a phone call begins every parent’s most chilling nightmare. Scott’s six-year-old twins, Sam and Emma, have been taken. The judge must rule exactly as instructed in a drug case he is about to hear. If he refuses, the consequences for the children will be dire.

*******
Say Nothing
by Brad Parks
2017 / 441 pages
read by George Newborn – 12h 28m
rating: A / legal thriller
*******

For Scott and his wife Alison, the kidnapper’s call is only the beginning of a twisting, gut-churning ordeal of blackmail, deceit, and terror. Through it all, they will stop at nothing to get their children back, no matter the cost to themselves . . . or to each other. (from publisher)

I quite enjoyed the book even though it’s rather unlikely, unbelievable, that the parents of two kidnapped children would not go to the authorities. Somehow Parks writes well enough to just suspend disbelief and buy into the ideat for the sake of the story. The lengths to which Sampson and his wife go to accommodate the kidnappers while trying to keep their own personal suspicions at bay makes for huge suspense.

“Parks does a fantastic job conveying every parent’s worst fear while also showcasing the marital conflict and mistrust that erupts in the midst of a crisis….Fans of Harlan Coben and Lisa Gardner will love this thriller. Don’t stay silent, tell everyone.”—Library Journal (starred review)