“A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection.”
I have such conflicting feelings about this book. I think the idea that I suspect may be“A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection.”
I have such conflicting feelings about this book. I think the idea that I suspect may be behind it is a good one. But I don’t think this novel does a good job of making that point known. FIGHT CLUB has an interesting opening sentence. Maybe even a good one. But, by the end of the first chapter I had a bad feeling about this book.
To be blunt I hated this text for the first 100 or so pages. At that point it got a little more interesting for me (it’s only 218 pages total), but I never wanted to pick it up. Now before you ask the obvious, it was a book club choice that’s why I kept reading. A book that looks at the neutering of men in society, a book that looks at civil chaos, a book that examines the idea of connection in an increasingly isolated world…such good topics. Good topics not fully realized in this text.
Quotes: • “On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone will drop to zero.” • “Loosing all hope was freedom.” • “Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.” • “There are lots of things we don’t want to know about the people we love. • “Only in death will we have our own names since only in death are we no longer part of the effort.”
I will say this about FIGHT CLUB, although I never liked it, I did appreciate it more after our club discussion than I did before we talked. The vulgarity, the ugliness, the violence…if you are going to go there, then the book needs to be stunning. This one isn’t. I did not enjoy the experience of this read, and I seriously doubt I will ever read this book again, but there is something there…I’m just not sure what....more
THE OTHER WOMAN is very typical spy thriller fare. More so than most of Mr. Silva’s output. The story that Si“But not all secrets are created equal.”
THE OTHER WOMAN is very typical spy thriller fare. More so than most of Mr. Silva’s output. The story that Silva expands and connects to the world of his perennial protagonist Gabriel Allon was inspired from a true-life spy from the mid-20th century. The plot in short is that the Russians have a mole high up in one western intelligence service. Gabriel Allon and Israeli intelligence are caught up in the conspiracy, and we are off to the races. It’s a fun story, but it was not quite as good for me as many of the other novels in the Allon series have been.
One noticeable lapse in this text was that Daniel Silva is usually spot on with his geopolitical analysis. He is off his game in this book. He gets some things right, especially about Russian aggression, but he gets quite a bit wrong too, especially when he takes (what are coming to seem like the obligatory) shots at President Trump. Reading this novel six years after its publication (in 2018) it is obvious Silva’s instincts missed the boat on that account. He has several characters state as fact what we now know as the Russian Collusion Hoax. Whoopsie Mr. Silva. I hope he has not got caught up in politics clouding his judgment. In the previous 17 books in the series Silva made astute observations and made some harsh criticisms of the presidencies and foreign policy choices of republican and democratic presidents. But this time he makes obvious swipes not in service of the story, but out of dislike. It’s cheap and drags one out of the reality of the story. I hope he self-corrected in later books.
Quotes: • “In matters of both intelligence and art, he was a traditionalist who believed the old ways were better than the new.” • “This is Switzerland. Privacy is our religion.” • “Truth is the only currency we accept.”
THE OTHER WOMAN is an average installment in a series that is usually much better than average. I’m no worse for the wear. On to # 19 soon....more
“I want two people to be in love and stay in love and never desert each other.”
SIMON THE FIDDLER is a lyrical novel, compelling in its rhythms and pac“I want two people to be in love and stay in love and never desert each other.”
SIMON THE FIDDLER is a lyrical novel, compelling in its rhythms and pace. The novel is always in forward motion. It features rich robust characters without being bogged down in an eternal internal miasma of self-reflection. Never once while reading it was I bored with it.
The plot, in brief, is that Simon is a young musician conscripted into Confederate forces at the tail end of the Civil War. Originally from Kentucky, Simon is now in Texas. Right at the war’s end, Simon sees an Irish governess at an officer’s ball he is playing for, and he falls in love. And Simon purses that love for the rest of the novel. The entire story takes pace in Texas between 1865 and 1867.
The style of the novel is occasionally very abrupt, which took me a minute to get use to. However, that fast pace and abruptness ultimately works very well for this text. The protagonist Simon is always moving forward. He tackles the circumstances he finds himself in, he is not ruled by them. As a result, the narrative is always propelled forward.
I especially enjoyed how music, the technical and emotional aspects of it, are integrated into the character’s emotional lives. Ms. Jiles does this with a deft and skillful hand. It is so seamless you sometimes don’t realize she is doing it unless you step back from the novel and think about it for a moment.
Quotes: • “He loved solitude; it was as necessary to him as music and water.” • “He knew that he did not play music so much as walk into it…” • “They would be for each other as much as the world was not.” • “Trust in God, her mother said, but never dance in a small boat.” • “But that’s why God made people young at first, to get the doing done.” • “…and now everything I remember will be gone.” • “He had forgotten that there was silence in the world.” • “It was a song that came to people as sadness, as memory, as longing.” • “Become wise, young man, and cynical, and life will be far more understandable.” • “We all suffer from some deficiency and must bear our sinful natures with patience.” • “A person could get seized at the most inopportune moments by sheer animal desire.” • “If we all knew one another’s lives in all the details nobody would marry anybody.”
SIMON THE FIDDLER was my first novel of Paulette Jiles. I will be moving on to others soon. What an interesting, and very good, writer she is....more
This one man show, compiled by the late actor Brian Bedford, is an examination of Shakespeare’s life using Shakespeare’s wor“All the world’s a stage…”
This one man show, compiled by the late actor Brian Bedford, is an examination of Shakespeare’s life using Shakespeare’s works as a sort of outline for this “biography.” I realize that much of what Bedford conjectures in this piece is probably not true, but I wish it was.
I saw Mr. Bedford perform this show live on stage, and it should be noted that this is an audio book only. There is no written version of it. It speaks to Mr. Bedford’s talents that he conveys so much characterization, and depth of emotion, through an audio only performance. His rendering of some of these famous Shakespearean monologues are among my favorites. Some highlights of the piece include: - Bedford’s (probably apocryphal) linking of some of the Sonnet’s to Shakespeare’s life and loves. It really makes some of those pieces come alive. - There are a trio of monologues from RICHARD II that are exquisite in their poetry and beautifully delivered. - This piece includes some rarely performed monologues from HENRY VI that remind the listener of just how good those early plays of Shakespeare’s are. - There is a lovely and sentimental connection that Bedford makes between THE TEMPEST and Shakespeare’s retirement from the stage.
As noted, this piece is mostly not a true rendering of Shakespeare’s life and it draws heavily on the idea of an artist’s work being autobiographical, which is a tenuous premise. But I just love it, and this piece (which I first discovered early in my undergraduate days) was the motivating reason for my falling in love with Shakespeare. I am so glad it is now available in audio book format....more
DARK SACRED NIGHT is the second book in Mr. Connelly’s series about LAPD detective Renée Ballard. It is also the “She could lose herself in the work.”
DARK SACRED NIGHT is the second book in Mr. Connelly’s series about LAPD detective Renée Ballard. It is also the second book of Connelly’s I have ever read, the other being the first in this series. In this outing Connelly brings in his prolific character Harry Bosch, who I only know because I have seen some of the Amazon Prime series based on that character. To be frank, I kinda wish he had kept Bosch out of this series. This novel’s Boschless predecessor (THE LATE SHOW) is better than this one.
The plot- graveyard shift detective Renée Ballard falls into an accidental partnership with Harry Bosch over a 9 year old cold case. They work on this while dealing with separate cases/issues in their individual lives, collaborating as time permits. The novel’s point of view shifts between these two characters.
Honestly this was pretty routine crime fiction fare. There was a little more ridiculousness with some of the plot elements in this one then I recall from the first in the series, and the most eye rolling moments where those with Bosch, which is why I wish he had not popped into this series.
Weirdly one of the biggest surprises in this text was a description of sexual climax that was one of the most succinct and poetic descriptions of that moment that I have ever encountered in a novel. Very unexpected to say the least.
Quotes: • “Well, it’s like they say, the cover-up is worse than the crime. It always gets them in the end.” • “For every noble movement or advancement in the human endeavor across time, there were always betrayers who set everything a step back.” • “He realized that the long wait for justice had been too long…” • “You’ve got scars on your face but nobody can see them.” • “But we bend the rules. We don’t break them.”
The last 100 pages are not as interesting as the first 300 pages. The story fizzles out a little. But it’s still a fun read. DARK SACRED NIGHT ends with an unofficial partnership being declared between active duty detective Renée Ballard and the retired Harry Bosch. I won’t rush to pick up number 3 in the series, but I will get to it at some point. ...more
What a truly bad book THE SENTENCE is. It is all over the place, and never finds a place to land, or a point. In fa“Who doesn’t have a book in them?”
What a truly bad book THE SENTENCE is. It is all over the place, and never finds a place to land, or a point. In fact the only reason I finished it was so that I could give it a bad rating, and I have a rule about rating books I don’t finish. Also, it was a book club pick, so I felt obligated. I did switch to the audio version about halfway through so I could listen to it while doing things that were more interesting than the book. Things like emptying the dishwasher, picking up twigs and dog poop from the yard, and other such sundries. Even still, I should have just dropped it. Have I mentioned it’s bad?
This book tries to tackle a bunch of “relevant” issues, covid, BLM riots, politics, etc., but Erdrich wrote this before enough time had passed to see if what she thought about these issues was actually true. This book gets so many (all) of those issues wrong because it rushed to have something to say about them before enough time had passed to see if first impressions ended up being the truth. Instead what we get is a novel that reflects the arrogance of the assumptions of the author’s world view. The section that deals with covid is especially ridiculous. It is self-important, and for lack of a better word, stupid.
Quotes: • “It’s like you never learned that our choices get us where we are.” • “Delight seems insubstantial; happiness feels more grounded; ecstasy is what I shoot for; satisfaction is hardest to attain.” • “Here I shall be held by love.” • “A people who see themselves primarily as victims are doomed. • “Every piece of wood needs a companion to keep it burning.
These quotes are the sum total of what I found valuable in this book. Moving on. I have some other Erdrich on my “to read” pile. This experience might result in their being jettisoned....more
THE FRENCH EXECUTIONER is an escapist, swashbuckling, historical fiction, quasi fantasy adventure. Which is fine, “Causes are lost. Loyalties change.”
THE FRENCH EXECUTIONER is an escapist, swashbuckling, historical fiction, quasi fantasy adventure. Which is fine, if the book were not stupid. It gets worse and more ridiculous the longer it goes.
The plot is that Jean Rombaud, the swordsman who executed Anne Boleyn, promises to bury her hand at a crossroads in France. That’s the motivating action for this novel, but it is never explained why the hand needs buried, and why those who try to stop this from happening go to the ends of the earth to try and stop it. As a result, the plot seem pointless, as no point was given. The action and characters are all over the place; the Tower of London, a corsair slave galley, an apocalyptic prince, demon possessed monks…I could go on and on. Throw in a fight scene every 10 pages, and you have a 1530’s version of a Marvel action film. Just more ridiculous.
Quotes: • “He was always surprised when ordinary men did extraordinary things.” • “To die is the Norwegian way of having fun.” • “The Devil was abroad in the world, everyone knew.” • “But is it madness to fight, to journey, to dare?” • “…we all know how hard it can be to go home. That’s why many of us never do.” • “I have breath, and thus hope.” • “Only a madman pursues death for no purpose.”
This novel is mindless and ludicrous. If you read it you will have to accept it on those terms and enjoy it for what it is, or you won’t and you will hate it. I’m still not sure where I fall....more
“Small misjudgments ramify into networks of larger ones.”
I really loved this book. Unexpectedly so. Author Jon Clinch cleverly fills in some of the ga“Small misjudgments ramify into networks of larger ones.”
I really loved this book. Unexpectedly so. Author Jon Clinch cleverly fills in some of the gaps that are in A CHRISTMAS CAROL in a manner that works with that text. It is very Dickensian in its style, and the names reek of Dickens’ ability to create character names that also indicate what the character is like. Names like Drabb, Sweedlepipe, Gradgrine, etc. They’re just fun. I suspect many of them probably came from other Dickens works. I have regrettably only read a little of him. The text also abounds with allusions and hints of foreshadowing that readers of A CHRISTMAS CAROL will catch. Especially clever is a cameo from a young (child) Bob Cratchit.
Mr. Clinch has imagined the life of Jacob Marley, who in Dickens’ world we only know as a ghost. Beginning with Marley’s youth in 1787 and ending with his death in 1836 we see what made this man tick. Clinch’s creation is a con man of the highest order. A bad dude, one with not a single scruple.
One of the things I enjoyed about this book was the writing. So many fun sentences, like this… “The deliveryman has a wooden leg that belongs to him, and a horse and a wagon that don’t.” Also enjoyable was the fact that we get a glimpse of the kind of life Scrooge could have lived. It’s sad to see this light in his character, knowing that it will be extinguished with bitterness and greed. Clinch’s Ebenezer Scrooge is a man ruined by his poor choice in friends and partners.
Quotes: • “The details do not matter, though, for the principle is the thing.” • “What sort of Englishman is forever too busy for tea?” • “It looks hastily done but its offhandedness is a matter of much consideration. Such is art.” • “I should think there’s wisdom in choosing when to do battle…” • “They recede into the past, generation by generation, terrible ordinary men with terrible ordinary failings and terrible ordinary secrets that they have learned to keep even from themselves- burdens fated to accompany them to their graves and beyond.” • “It is better to fail at a difficult thing than to succeed at the commonplace again and again.”
As stated, I enjoyed this book. The wonderful depiction of the journey of Jacob Marley is brilliant. I hated him from the text’s onset to almost the last page. I had a visceral reaction to this awful human. But Jon Clinch’s kicker of an ending pulled the rug out from under me…reminding me of Marley’s humanity. Which made his ugliness all the more terrifying. It could be my own. It also seamlessly fits into (and creates) the motivation for Marley to appear as a ghost to Scrooge in Dicken’s CAROL.
MARLEY is a quick read, fast paced, and a thoughtful text. It captured me completely....more
“I also think it’s possible for us to be better people tomorrow than we are today.”
I read EVERYBODY’S FOOL just a few weeks after reading its predeces“I also think it’s possible for us to be better people tomorrow than we are today.”
I read EVERYBODY’S FOOL just a few weeks after reading its predecessor, NOBODY’S FOOL. This novel begins 10 years after that one (about 1994 or so). I recommend reading them close together, mainly just to have the references fresh and to fully immerse in Richard Russo’s wonderfully compelling citizenry of North Bath, NY.
Like NOBODY’S FOOL, this text takes place over only a few days. And like that book it pushes 500 pages. And that’s a good thing. It’s not the action, although the plot is fun, it is the details and observations that flesh out the book. The protagonist of NOBODY’S FOOL, Sully Sullivan, returns in this text and while he is important, he is not the main focus. Like in life, the central characters are always replaced as the world slowly moves on, and daily circumstances change. Along with Sully, other characters return and it is interesting to see how they have changed, and not changed, in the decade the reader missed. However, the protagonist of EVERYBODY’S FOOL is Doug Raymer, a minor character in the previous book. Doug is the current Chief of Police in North Bath, and his role in the previous text was minor and humorous. Doug is still responsible for a lot of humor in this text, and I just could not help rooting for the guy. Mr. Russo does a nice job of fleshing him out and making us feel tender towards him and his many foibles.
This is only my second novel of Mr. Russo’s but I am growing fond of him. Mainly because his writing seems to abound with key insights into human traits and truth. Take this example from the book, which made me wince with self-recognition. “He’s always wanted friends, and later lovers, but also was repelled by intimacy and, at times, even proximity. Careful to cultivate an air of strident self-sufficiency, he was, according to Charice, extremely vulnerable.” There are moments like this that drive straight to the heart of human action and motivation all throughout this novel.
Quotes: • “I mean, look around. Who’s not a damn fool most of the time?” • “An academic affiliation might explain both his windy nonsense and the confidence with which he delivered it.” • “But you come here because you don’t know where else to go.” • “Man starts thinking this late in life, no previous experience or proper guidance, there’s no telling where it could lead.” • “You don’t have to be hard, just because the world is.” • “We don’t forgive people because they deserve it, we forgive them because we deserve it.” • “Wouldn’t it be a kick in the nuts if that was how things worked? If we each knew things that other people needed desperately to know, yet were forever clueless about how to help ourselves?” • “…it occurred to him that waiting for a woman who’d forgotten something was one of life’s underrated pleasures.”
Once again in EVERYBODY’S FOOL Richard Russo’s writing drew me in. I enjoyed that I was revisiting North Bath, New York. Meeting new people, getting to see different sides of people I thought I knew, and watching old friends as life and age changed them too. I love seeing how in Russo’s expert hands we see how all of these things can combine and mix in our life experiences to change our perspectives and our values. A good novel gives you that experience, and this is a good novel!...more
“It’s a hard thing, to love someone and not be able to show it.”
This is a text that came into my life through a book club. I had never heard of it, o“It’s a hard thing, to love someone and not be able to show it.”
This is a text that came into my life through a book club. I had never heard of it, or its subject matter, before. It took me a while to read it, and I did not think often about wanting to pick it up, but every time I did I was captured. An odd experience.
MOLOKA’I is a historical fiction account of a real leper colony that was in Hawaii. This novel takes place starting in 1891 and ends in 1970, and it clips along, covering a lot of material in a pretty quick pace. We follow one Rachel Kalama from pre diagnosis, until death, experiencing the life of one who lives (and Rachel certainly does live a life) with leprosy. The text flows very cinematically, as it does not belabor any point. It presents it, and moves on. And I liked that about this book.
There really are not villains in this piece. Just people. And most people are not really bad, they just sometimes make bad decisions. I appreciate writers who remember that fact. Author Alan Brennert does not take cheap shots at targets that popular culture seems to always take cheap shots at. He does not go after low hanging fruit in this novel, and I marveled that his depictions of the Catholic Church were thoughtful. Lesser writers would have painted the easy (cheap) target of the “unfeeling church”, proselytizing before caring about the individual. But Brennert does not do that. Instead his people of the church are decent (sometimes amazing) humans, with good intentions, sometimes poor execution, but usually good hearted. I appreciated his effort to not paint cheap villains, but instead to give a humanity and realistic depth to his multi-faceted characters and their motives.
Quotes: • “…and the thought draped itself around her, warm and comforting as a favorite blanket: she wasn’t alone here.” • “…after a while the fear became a constant, cold companion, a simple fact of existence.” • “…for a while, at least, the ocean washed everything away. “ • “I believe in Hawai’i. I believe in the land.” • “Fear is good. In the right degree it prevents us making fools of ourselves. But in the wrong measure it prevents us from fully living. Fear is our boon companion, but never our master.” • “…and they sat here wordlessly, sharing more than silence.” • “The sea is always in command, humanity an invited guest; those who did not respect that did not return.” • “I’ve come to believe that how we choose to live with pain, or injustice, or death…is the true measure of the Divine within us.” • “It wasn’t right. But it’s over.”
One of the best things about MOLOKA’I is that the book does not focus on the negative. It focuses on living and life, acknowledging the positive and the negative as part of that process. I for one found that very refreshing. We will experience both good and bad repeatedly throughout this journey called life. And neither should dominate our choices.
A note, this edition of the text features a short “Get to Know the History” section at the end that I found to be a nice complement to the book....more
“…it is a place of contained ill will.” (3.5 stars)
THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE is a well written book that I am sure I do not fully appreciate. I can s“…it is a place of contained ill will.” (3.5 stars)
THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE is a well written book that I am sure I do not fully appreciate. I can see why others would like it a whole lot more than me. I enjoyed it, but nothing more.
The novel is a subtly atmospheric text. With an uncanny simplicity Shirley Jackson creates a story filled with tension. For me, the most powerful element of the text was the depiction of Hill House itself. It leaps off of the page more so than most of the human characters in the book. With descriptions like this, “It was a house without kindness, never meant to be lived in, not a fit place for people or for love or for hope.” how could it not?
Especially interesting was the internal development of the character of Eleanor. It is spot on, and unrelentingly truthful. The harshness of her unguarded internal thoughts are jarring for the reader because we recognize some of ourselves in them.
Exchanges like the following, there are quite a few in the book, were also a highlight for me. “ “I think we are only afraid of ourselves”, the doctor said slowly. “No,” Luke said. “Of seeing ourselves clearly and without disguise.” " Moments like this get under the reader’s skin. Most of the time, the problem is us, not some other!
Quotes: • “Things were said on both sides which only time could eradicate…” • “We never know where our courage is coming from.” • “Well, gossip is always a bad enemy.” • “People like answering questions about themselves, she thought; what an odd pleasure it is.” • “No, the menace of the supernatural is that it attacks where modern minds are weakest, where we have abandoned our protective armor of superstition and have no substitute defense.” • “A person angry, or laughing, or terrified, or jealous, will go stubbornly on into extremes of behavior impossible at another time…” • “…and once spoken, such a question- as “Do you love me?”- could never be answered or forgotten.” • “Without ever wanting to become reserved and shy, she had spent so long alone, with no one to love, that it was difficult for her to talk, even casually, to another person without self-consciousness and an awkward inability to find words.”
Shirley Jackson’s writing has always unsettled me, which I am sure speaks to her immense talent. But I can’t say that I like the experience. THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE is a chilling warning of the power of being seduced by an idea, and then being devoured by it. ...more
NOBODY’S FOOL was my first experience with Richard Russo. It was an interesting experience. There will be others. The book st“Love is a stupid thing.”
NOBODY’S FOOL was my first experience with Richard Russo. It was an interesting experience. There will be others. The book starts on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and 307 pages later we are closing out the Friday after Thanksgiving, and the novel still has over 200 pages to go. It’s a detailed and slow paced, yet engaging, read. Mr. Russo has created an eclectic ensemble, inhabitants of a small upstate New York town called North Bath, whose lives intersect and rotate around the novel’s protagonist, Don “Sully” Sullivan, a 60 year old who has made some bad life choices. Some characters that I really enjoyed getting to know (among many) are Rub, simple minded but decent, and Mrs. Peoples, old, smart, and very observant of human nature. They are vibrant in their humanity. Also worth noting, the dialogue in this book crackles. There is humor on every page. Sully’s wry voice is especially fun when he banters with his sometime boss and frenemy, Carl Roebuck.
More than a few times, ideas about the human heart are considered in this text. Consider this thought, “An imperfect human heart, perfectly shattered…a condition so common as to be virtually universal, rendering issues of right or wrong almost incidental.” That line captures that thing where we recognize someone’s humanity through their ugliness. Other observations about our hearts that stuck with me: “The human heart, where compromise could not be struck, not ever” and this nugget, “…if indeed any human can be said to own his heart.” These are ideas of great depth, and worthy of contemplation.
Another interesting aspect of the text is Sully’s father (Big Jim) who is long dead before the book begins. He hovers over the book, and over Sully’s life. Mr. Russo does an excellent job of recreating the influence a bad parent can exert over a life.
Quotes: • “Where was the middle ground between a sense of adventure and just plain sense?” • “Part of getting old, she knew, was becoming unsure.” • “Whenever he was on a stupid streak he was conscious of the faraway sound of his father’s laughter.” • “You remain the uncontested master of the futile gesture.” • “You could feel good in pain, and that was something not everybody knew.” • “…and allowing herself to become intoxicated by the smells and sounds of food and family and terrible, terrible love and longing.” • “Some phrases were truly magical in their ability to dredge up the past from the bottom of life’s lake.” • “It didn’t pay to second guess every one of life’s decisions, to pretend to wisdom about the past from the safety of the present, the way so many people did when they got older.” • “Don’t get stuck. Words to live by.” • “I believed in intelligence and hard work until I met you. Only luck explains you.” • “How come you never see anything headed your way until it runs over you?”
Mr. Russo has a nice ability to articulate some of the thoughts and observations that most of us make / have about the things around us in an insightful and clarifying manner. He uses a lot of words to do it, but the results in NOBODY’S FOOL are quite satisfying....more
“Once upon a time, more had been expected of him.” (3.5 stars)
I am an Anne Tyler fan. REDHEAD BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD is a solid book.
The plot- Micah“Once upon a time, more had been expected of him.” (3.5 stars)
I am an Anne Tyler fan. REDHEAD BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD is a solid book.
The plot- Micah Mortimer, a man in his early forties has a decent life, a casual girlfriend, and his routines. However, his routines are what he is most focused on, and thus that is what he values most. The novel is a character study about a man who values the mundane in life because it is routine and regular, and thus dependable. That is an interesting premise.
To really get the point of this text, the reader has to read between the lines. You must note the things implied, not stated, in order to really get what this novel has to say. Ms. Tyler once again shows her understanding and great empathy for some of the most powerful, yet least understood, instincts that we as humans possess.
Quotes: • “He hated it when something interrupted the normal progression.” • “But even given a second chance, he wasn’t sure what he’d do differently.” • “What’s the point of living if you don’t try to do things better?” • “You have to pick yourself up and carry on, is what I say.”
The last chapter is easily the book’s best, and the final line of the text is brilliantly appropriate for this story. Anne Tyler gets us. Even the parts of us that we can’t begin to articulate about ourselves, and that is why I love her and enjoyed this read....more
“If you ask me, there’s nothing more boring than a sober writer.”
This text is not good. I enjoyed its predecessor, CAMINO ISLAND, for what it was. A f“If you ask me, there’s nothing more boring than a sober writer.”
This text is not good. I enjoyed its predecessor, CAMINO ISLAND, for what it was. A fun white-collar caper. But CAMINO WINDS is just dumb! First off, there are so many details about so many things that have nothing to do with anything. Most of these details in no manner advance the story.
Another irritation is that the book’s protagonist, bookstore owner Bruce Cable, who I found somewhat charming in the first book to feature him is an absolute dud in this one. Plus, he ALWAYS seems to have a drink in his hand. Always! Should someone tell Mr. Grisham that his protagonist has a problem?
Final summation, it’s just a terrible book. Poorly plotted, poorly written, poorly executed....more
“The history we most often overlook is in our own backyard.” (2.5 stars)
This is novel # 23 in Tim Dorsey’s Serge Storms series, and like any series th“The history we most often overlook is in our own backyard.” (2.5 stars)
This is novel # 23 in Tim Dorsey’s Serge Storms series, and like any series that reaches those sorts of numbers, some books in the batch are better than others. NAKED CAME THE FLORIDA MAN is an average output for this series. Some funny lines, but no real laugh out loud our stand out moments. In fact, just a few days after finishing it, I am having trouble remembering a lot of it.
In this edition of the adventures of the manic serial killer (with a conscience), Serge is bent on visiting cemeteries in Florida that have connections with Florida history and the arts. One of the things I did like about the text a lot was the deep connection with the life and works of writer Zora Neale Hurston. I loved that aspect of the story and there were some clever connections made with the hurricane that was at the center of her iconic novel THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD.
Quotes: • “Blame history. It doesn’t bother to knock.” • “Okay, now you’re really being a bad example…using profanity and ending a sentence with a preposition.” • “One thing YouTube has taught me is that other people are drilling deep into ways to waste their lives.” • “The barbershop was full of experts and bullshit.”
Character exposition and dialogue has not consistently been strong in this series, and some installments of it are better than others. This one is not one of the better efforts in that area.
As is usually the case, I enjoyed my time with Serge Storms and his Floridian misadventures. NAKED CAME THE FLORIDA MAN was an easy, but not always engaging, read. But it is great reading for the beach. A fun annual tradition....more
“Quality of life is about the little things- doing them well, doing them right.”
I approached THE WINTER OF FRANKIE MACHINE for what it is, and I think“Quality of life is about the little things- doing them well, doing them right.”
I approached THE WINTER OF FRANKIE MACHINE for what it is, and I think that, and the fact that I read it on a beach is why I enjoyed it. It is a flawed book, but take it at face value and you will enjoy the read.
The plot in short- someone is trying to kill ex-hitman Frankie Machine. Frankie has been out of the business for a while and is a popular dude on the San Diego waterfront, and he is still connected while being out of the game. Premise is ridiculous. Just go with it.
Much of the novel is flashback as Frankie tries to piece together why someone is after him, by examining his sordid past. During a lot of these flashback moments the text reads a little stereotypical. There are more than a few “Goodfellas” type of moments. Another quibble is that there are lots of names, lots of minor characters with no major impact on the story. It’s like author Don Winslow got a little too caught up in throwing so much detail at the reader. Gets a tad annoying.
Quotes: • “America, Frank thinks- we’re the only country in the world afraid of our food.” • “Things you think are lost forever, and then, suddenly, there they are- faded, worn, but back again.” • “I’ve seen war. Peace is better.” • “It’s proof that redemption is possible, when flowers blossom from the desert.” • “There’s trouble that you’ve had, trouble that you presently have, and trouble that you’re going to have- that’s the world.” • “It’s what happens, this life of ours. Piece by piece, it takes everything away from you.” • “…numbers never lie; arithmetic is absolute.” • “They own the game and the game is fixed, and it isn’t fixed for us.”
A highlight of the text includes a moment where a character goes on a rant about government being the real organized crime family in the US, and it is 100% correct. Government is the biggest mafia going.
The last 50 pages barrel along to a quick and satisfying conclusion, and when I put THE WITNER OF FRANKIE MACHINE down I was no worse for the wear, and I had experienced a fun ride....more
This was my first work by Tolstoy. It won’t be my last. THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYICH is a book filled with univer“Can this be death? No, I don’t want it.”
This was my first work by Tolstoy. It won’t be my last. THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYICH is a book filled with universal truth and experience. If this was par for the course with Tolstoy, then I need more of him in my life. This version, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, is excellently done. And this text features an interesting, short introduction by Mr. Pevear which is worth reading.
This novella begins with the death of the title character, gives us a brief experience of what that feels like to those who knew him, and then takes the reader back into Ivan’s life leading up to his death. Throughout, Tolstoy creates with such clarity the truth of human emotion. You don’t realize how true until the pang of personal recognition smacks you in the face. One such moment for me was when Ivan Ilyich acknowledges that he will die. We all say we know that it will happen, that it’s inevitable, but in our minds, we reject that notion. “Others die, not me.” It is uncanny how true to reality this invented character’s thoughts while dying are. The mark of a great writer is one who understands and can communicate the human condition. Tolstoy certainly does that in this book.
Quotes: • “…the very fact of the death of a close acquaintance called up in all those who heard of it, as always, a feeling of joy that it was he who was dead and not I.” • “ ‘Why, that could come for me, too, right now, any minute’ he thought, and he was momentarily afraid. • “And he became angry at the misfortune or at the people who had caused him the unpleasantness and were killing him; and he felt how this anger was killing him, but he could not repress it.” • “And he had to live alone on the brink of disaster like that, without a single human being who could understand and pity him.” • “Yes, there was life, and now it is going, going, and I cannot hold it back.” • “He wept over his helplessness, over his terrible loneliness, over the cruelty of people, over the cruelty of God, over the absence of God.” • “And what if my whole life, my conscious life, has indeed been ‘not right’?”
There is a lot one could say about this text. I won’t waste time doing so. Read it. The final sentences are ripe with philosophical, religious, and metaphysical meaning. I’m not sure what the meant interpretation is, and I guess that’s the point. Most people (at least those without a faith determination) don’t seem to know what the ultimate point is to this life either....more
This is a short, poetical at times, fictional (although perhaps in moments quasi autobiographical) exam“My sons didn’t hobble. I hobbled.” (2.5 stars)
This is a short, poetical at times, fictional (although perhaps in moments quasi autobiographical) examination of a body and mind retreating inward and shutting down. Author Sam Shepard wrote it while suffering from ALS, and I believe this text is his attempt at examining/thinking about that process. It contains pieces and fragments of loosely connected thoughts about aging, children, family history, memories, and illness.
Quotes: • “Somebody’s waiting for somebody.” • “Someone wants to know something about me that I don’t even know myself.” • “That’s the thing about later. You don’t know what’s coming up.” • “And I’ve never desired to start over again. I have no desire to eliminate parts of myself." • “Let me start over. I can start over. You’ll allow me to start over please.” • “The past doesn’t come as a whole. It always comes in parts.”
Overall, SPY OF THE FIRST PERSON is not that interesting, but the writing is intriguing (and at times very good) and since it is only 82 pages that is why I kept reading it. At that short a length, good writing is reason enough to give it a go....more
Loading...
