July, 2019 Books: "We thread our way through a moving forest of ice-cream cones & crimson thighs." Jean-Dominique Bauby

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July, 2019 Books: "We thread our way through a moving forest of ice-cream cones & crimson thighs." Jean-Dominique Bauby

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1CliffBurns
Jun 30, 2019, 8:19 pm

School's out, summer holidays have begun--time for a big, fat smart book to make Paradise that much more complete.

I've got the new Richard Morgan novel THIN AIR in my sights.

How about you?

2CliffBurns
Editado: Jul 1, 2019, 10:47 am

Wrapped up NONCONFORMITY, a long essay/short book by Nelson Algren.

At one time Algren was among the Big Lads of American literature but after the Sixties his star faded. Part of the problem was he ran afoul of the FBI, Joe McCarthy and HUAC. He won success early but had endure a long, ignominious fall. Still doing his best, still putting one word ahead of another.

Is it time to rediscover Algren, or leave him be, in fitful, grumbling slumber?

3BookConcierge
Jul 1, 2019, 8:43 am


The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches From the Border – Francisco Cantú
Audiobook read by the author.
4****

Cantú studied international relations in college. He was raised primarily by his mother, a Mexican immigrant and U.S. Park Ranger, in the Southwest U.S. He joined the border patrol because, “I spent four years in college … learning about the border through policy and history. I want to see the realities of the border day in and day out. I know it may be ugly. I know it might be dangerous, but I don’t see any better way to truly understand the place.” In this memoir he examines what he learned, what puzzled him, what distressed him, and what haunts him still.

Cantú writes with a stream-of-consciousness style. He uses no quotations marks and there is little exposition. At times the change in time/setting is quite abrupt and made this reader feel a little off-balance. He begins with a visit to Mexico with his mother, covers his training at the Academy, his time in the field and in the office, and ends after he’s left the Border Patrol and is working at a coffee shop where he befriends the maintenance man, an undocumented worker who has been in the USA for about 30 years.

Cantú explains the policies and procedures of the Border Patrol and Immigration. He writes with brutal honesty about the realities of hunting humans, the horrors of finding bodies in the desert, the heart-breaking stories of women and children left to fend for themselves by coyotes who have taken their money (and what little water they had), the callous destruction of “caches” found by the agents (they put holes in water jugs, urinate on extra clothing, break tools). And he explores the dreams that plague him.

It’s raw and emotional and thought provoking.

The audiobook is read by the author. He sets a good pace and has a smooth delivery. And his Spanish pronunciation is perfect.

NOTE: There is occasional Spanish in the book, and Cantú rarely translates it.

4BookConcierge
Jul 3, 2019, 8:19 pm


Eleven Minutes – Paulo Coelho
3.5***

Maria is a young girl form a small Brazilian town. Her first love leaves her heartbroken and she becomes convinced that she is destined to never find true love. She works in a drapery firm, where she fends off her boss. On a trip to Rio de Janeiro she meets a “businessman” who promises her fame and fortune in Switzerland.

Well this went in a direction I wasn’t expecting. Yes, of course, Maria winds up a prostitute and not a famous movie actress, but she comes to understand much about herself and the world. She starts going to the library and reads up on a wide variety of topics. She opens a bank account and saves for her eventual return to Brazil, where she plans to buy a farm for her parents. She explores her sexuality in ways she never expected and thinks long and hard about the meaning of love and whether it really exists.

There were several times when I thought that Coelho really doesn’t know women at all. And still, I was captivated by Maria and her journey.

I had previously read Coelho’s The Alchemist and was not enthralled. At the outset of this book I felt it might just be the author’s attempt to write the same book with a female protagonist. But the strength and beauty of Coelho’s writing carried me away.

I was heading for a 4-star rating, but the fairy tale ending lost a half star for me.

5BookConcierge
Jul 6, 2019, 5:27 pm


Divining Women – Kaye Gibbons
Audiobook read by the author.
3.5***

In 1918 Mary Oliver, the child of well-to-do and somewhat liberal parents and raised in Washington DC, goes to spend time with her uncle Troop Ross, and his wife Maureen, who is expecting her first child. They live in small town in North Carolina, on a property a little out of town. Mary quickly learns that Troop is a bully, keeping his wife isolated, belittling her concerns, and threatening to put her in an asylum if she doesn’t shape up. The Spanish influenza epidemic further isolates the women, but also strengthens their resolve.

I have been a fan of Gibbons’ writing since the 1990s. For a time, I was devouring every one of her books; and I’ve read several of them more than once. But somehow, I missed this book until now.

I like the way Gibbons writes her characters. There are some very unpleasant goings on, and much of it makes me in turns uncomfortable, despairing, and angry. I was rather irritated with Mary for a time, feeling that she was butting in where she had no business. But as it became clear how much control Troop exerted over Maureen, I began to cheer for Mary’s involvement. This is at a time when women had few rights on their own, and yet Mary refused to be cowed by her uncle. And her strength empowered Maureen to fight for the freedom and respect she was due. Brava, ladies!

Gibbons narrates the audiobook herself. I really did not like her performance at all. She showed little emotion and it seemed like a student reading aloud because she was required to do so. Only 1 star for her performance on the audio. I think I’ll pick this up again at a later date and read it in text format.

6KatrinkaV
Jul 6, 2019, 6:28 pm

Just started Chris Kraus's Video Green. Pretty much everything I've read by Kraus has been addictive, even if her experiences are completely foreign to my own. Also just got underway with Catharine A. MacKinnon's Only Words, which pulls you in in its own way—one very different from Kraus'!

7mejix
Jul 6, 2019, 10:18 pm

About a third into the Recollections of the Revolution and the Empire by Madame de La Tour du Pin, one of the ladies of the palace around the time of the French revolution. She comes across as a sophisticated, sensitive, and intelligent person. To her credit she seems to have developed something of an understanding of the conditions that led to the revolution. She is however mostly sad for all that was lost.

8CliffBurns
Jul 7, 2019, 2:43 pm

Reading great chunks of Richard Morgan's THIN AIR.

Very detailed world-building, intricate right down to the last pixel.

Nefarious goings on involving Mars and the massive conglomerate responsible for space travel in the near future.

Well told and gritty as sand between your teeth.

9CliffBurns
Jul 8, 2019, 4:47 pm

Finished THIN AIR, monster book, 500+ pages, world-building with all the nuts and bolts included (and some pretty steamy sex scenes too).

Hard-boiled SF fans will love it.

10CliffBurns
Jul 10, 2019, 6:37 pm

Polished off HOW FASCISM WORKS, a short book by Jason Stanley that admirably lays out the distinguishing characteristics of fascism, its enduring appeal and the ongoing threat it poses.

Recommended.

11iansales
Editado: Jul 12, 2019, 2:26 am

Currently reading The Battle to the Weak by Hilda Vaughan, a Welsh novel from 1925.

12KatrinkaV
Jul 11, 2019, 9:49 am

Moved on to George Seferis's A Levant Journal. Nothing like a well-curated diary to give you some idea of individual existence in fraught times and places.

13CliffBurns
Jul 14, 2019, 9:52 pm

Finished SRECKO HORVAT, another fine offering from Leftie press Zero Books.

Composed of a series of conversations between Slovenian philosopher Srecko Horvat and Alfie Bown. The book is divided into three themes: Politics, Love, Technology.

I particularly like that Horvat makes the point that giant, multinational corporations can only be countered by the collective will of nations, acting in concert. Transnational companies respect no borders and therefore an internationalist response, perhaps by resurrecting the idea of non-aligned states, can serve as a mitigating force against the all-pervasive powers of capitalism.

14BookConcierge
Jul 15, 2019, 10:57 pm


Hero Of the Empire – Candice Millard
Audio book read by Simon Vance.
4****

Subtitle: The Boer War, a Daring Escape and the Making of Winston Churchill

Millard writes an interesting and detailed biography of the young Winston Churchill. Long before he became the statesman who shepherded his nation through the darkest days of WW2, he was a young, somewhat rash man eager to make his mark in the world. Working as a journalist and war correspondent, he was captured during the Boer War. He connected with a couple of other prisoners of war and planned a daring escape. Churchill was the weakest member of the team and his comrades considered leaving him out of the escape, but he was the one who managed to get across the fence. Unfortunately, he had no idea what came next. His propensity to talk out of turn had resulted in his mates keeping the complete plans secret from the talkative Winston. Also, they had the maps and supplies that would sustain them on the hundreds of miles of dangerous and wild terrain. So there he was – facing miles of unfamiliar territory, and without food or water to sustain him. He did the only thing he could … he started going forward.

It’s a fascinating story and gives a somewhat different picture of the man most of us know only from his prominence during WW2. Yet, the reader gets a sense of the man he will become.

Simon Vance does a marvelous job narrating the audiobook. His pace is good and he has the skill as a voice artist to different the many male characters.

15anna_in_pdx
Jul 18, 2019, 2:10 pm

Just finished Christopher Moore's 2018 novel, Noir. It is very funny. Reminds me a bit of Chabon's Yiddish Policemen's Union and the various novels by Carl Hiaasen. As Moore himself states in the afterword, it's more like Bugs Bunny meets Damon Runyon than Dashiell Hammett or Chandler. Recommended if you like silly and light-hearted, yet well-written, novels.

16BookConcierge
Jul 22, 2019, 10:51 am


The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
Book on C.D. read by William Hurt
3***

One of Hemingway’s earliest novels, this was first published in 1926, and has never been out of print since that time. It is loosely based on the author’s own experiences with a circle of friends frequently known as “The Lost Generation.”

The novel follows Jake Barnes, an American journalist, and Lady Brett Ashley, a twice-divorced Englishwoman who seems unable to function without a man fawning over her. Together with a group of friends, including Brett’s fiancé, the Scot, Mike Campbell they travel from Paris to Pamplona for the Festival of San Fermin, and the running of the bulls. Along the way more than one man is convinced he loves Brett and can win her affections.

The first Hemingway work I read was his The Old Man and the Sea, which was assigned reading when I was in 8th grade. I loved it and have been a fan of Hemingway’s ever since. Still, some of his works fail to resonate with me. And this was one of them.

The ennui with which these people live their lives just doesn’t interest me. I am as bored as they seem to be by their own lives. I don’t understand the attraction to Brett, who seems unable to form any lasting relationship but lives for the conquest. Yes, she beautiful and apparently has some money, but men are literally coming to blows over her affections.

And Jake? I get that he’s been wounded in WW1, and that has resulted in impotence. I can understand his resultant reserve and reliance on alcohol to dull his emotions. But I just didn’t get the relationship between he and Brett. Or for that matter, his relationship with the other characters. What drew them together? And what kept them connected?

I may have liked (or at least appreciated) the novel more had I read rather than listened. I absolutely hated William Hurt’s delivery on the audio. He is a wonderful actor, but in this case he sounded so bored and uninterested. I felt that the pace dragged. He even managed to make the bullfight sound boring. 1* for his performance of the audio.

NOTE: The book was published in Britain under the title Fiesta

17anna_in_pdx
Jul 22, 2019, 2:37 pm

>16 BookConcierge: I absolutely hated that book when I read it as a young person. I should probably see if I've grown into it. But I just remember it being a bunch of terrible rich people partying around and being terribly blasé, particularly if they hurt each other or the service people they are constantly making demands on. In fact I had the same reaction to the Alexandria Quartet, not to mention the Great Gatsby. I am out of patience with stories about the idle rich and their hangers-on. No matter how intellectual they think they are.

18BookConcierge
Jul 25, 2019, 3:00 pm


The House of the Spirits – Isabel Allende
Audiobook narrated by Marisol Ramirez and Thom Rivera.
4****

Review UPDATED on second reading

Allende covers three generations of the Trueba family in her native Chile. Based loosely on her own family’s history, the novel weaves together personal and political triumphs and tragedies into an epic story of love and history.

I first read this with my F2F book club back in 1997 and was completely enthralled. I’ve been a fan of Allende’s ever since. I love Allende’s luminous writing, and the way that she seamlessly introduces elements of magical realism into her stories. Her gift for vivid description had me feeling cold drafts, luxuriating in sumptuous fabrics, enjoying the sweet juiciness of ripe fruit, hearing the cacophony of a busy marketplace or a student riot, cringing at the stench of human waste in a prison cell. She makes me believe that a woman can have bright green hair, or be clairvoyant and commune with ghosts.

These two examples show both her range from the vaguely humorous to the creepily eerie:
He had to make an enormous effort not to follow her around the house like a hypnotized chicken.
-or-
It had an impossible labyrinth of dark, narrow halls, in which the stink of cauliflower soup and cabbage stew reigned eternally.

And this passage perfectly described the entire novel:
…he told her about his family: a collection of eccentric lunatics for several generations, whom even ghosts made fun of.

The audiobook is narrated by Marisol Ramirez and Thom Rivera, changing narrators as the primary points of view change in the novel from male to female and back again. I thought they did a marvelous job. But this was my second “reading” so I was already familiar with the story. Because it has so many characters and complex story-telling I may not have enjoyed it as much had I not read it previously.

19BookConcierge
Jul 25, 2019, 3:01 pm

>17 anna_in_pdx: I also hated GATSBY.

20Cecrow
Jul 26, 2019, 7:32 am

>18 BookConcierge:, I'm currently reading Paula by Allende, and even in a memoir all of her gifts for description come into play and shine through. I wish I could write about my own life and family that way.

21anna_in_pdx
Jul 26, 2019, 1:39 pm

Currently reading The Name of the Rose. I read it once many years ago but completely forgot how great it is. Really enjoying it.

22CliffBurns
Jul 28, 2019, 1:10 am

Finished MR. KNOW-IT-ALL, John Waters' latest memoir.

Funny, smart and gross, just like the man himself.

23mejix
Editado: Jul 28, 2019, 2:31 am

Finished Recollections of the Revolution and the Empire by Madame de La Tour du Pin. One of the best books I've read this year. I do not understand how this book is not better known. Madame was in Versailles when the mob got in. She met Marie Antoinette, Napoleon, Talleryand, Lafayette, and Lord Wellington. She lived briefly in Albany New York and met Alexander Hamilton and, Broadway fans will appreciate this, the Schuyler family. The Marquise was charming company.

Also finished A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies by Fray Bartolome de las Casas. A catalog of the horrors committed during the early stages of the conquest. Not for the faint of heart.

24CliffBurns
Jul 30, 2019, 11:01 am

WORKING, Robert Caro's book about how he researches and writes his acclaimed biographies.

Fascinating tome--they don't make authors like Caro anymore: meticulous, exacting, disciplined.

Recommended.

25BookConcierge
Jul 31, 2019, 5:43 pm


The Two Faces Of January – Patricia Highsmith
3***

From the book jacket. Athens, 1962. Rydal Keener is an American expat working as a tour guide and running cons on the side. He is mostly killing time, searching for adventure. But in Cheter MacFarland, a charismatic American businessman, and his flirtatious and beautiful young wife, Colette, Rydal finds more than he bargained for. After an incident at a hotel puts the wealthy couple in danger, Rydal ties his fate to theirs.

My reactions
The only book by Patrician Highsmith that I’ve read previously was The Talented Mr Ripley. Once again, Highsmith manages to give us unlikeable characters that behave in ways that just keep this reader enthralled and interested, turning pages to find out what twists, turns and surprises the plot has in store.

As with Ripley, Keener is subject to “thinking” not with his head, but with his …. Well, he reacts based on lust and desire. Why he gets involved with these two to begin with is a mystery to me. And he gets entangled in their mess to a greater extent than he ever dreamed possible. But “in for a penny, in for a pound.”

Rydal and Chester try to outmaneuver one another, always thinking two or three steps ahead (or not). They are both facile liars, but hardly a match for Colette. Frankly you can’t trust a word any of them says. But that only adds to the suspense. The ending was a complete surprise to me, and I can’t say it was completely satisfying.

Still, this was a fast and entertaining read, though I did have to remind myself of the time and place and recall how much easier it was to change one’s identity in that era. Apparently, there was a movie made around 2014, but I never saw it nor even remember hearing much about it.

26BookConcierge
Ago 4, 2019, 1:27 pm


Fruit Of the Drunken Tree – Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Digital audiobook performed by Marisol Ramirez, Almarie Guerra and Ingrid Rojas Contreras.
5*****

Based on the author’s own life experiences, this novel tells the story of a family “safely” ensconced within their gated community in Bogotá, Columbia in the early to mid 1990s. Chula, the 7-year-old narrator, and her older sister Cassandra enjoy a relatively carefree life within the community. But just outside the walls of their compound, the infamous, and seemingly all powerful, drug lord Pablo Escobar continues his reign of terror with kidnappings, car bombs and assassinations.

I loved that Contreras used two different young women (girls, really) to narrate this story. The viewpoint alternates between Chula and Petrona, who is the family’s teen-aged maid. Chula has a naivete and innocence of youth, and of her upbringing in a relatively safe, secure and stable (if isolated) environment. Petrona, on the other hand, has suffered the indignities and deprivations of the poor and uneducated. The oldest of nine children who live in a slum, she has taken on the burden of being the breadwinner for her family at the tender age of thirteen. The way these two narrators see what is happening in their country is colored by their experiences – each of them having a limited viewpoint for different reasons. And those limitations make them vulnerable to manipulation, and result in some dangerous situations.

I was completely immersed and engaged in their story from beginning to end. Having both viewpoints I recognized the danger long before either of the narrators, but was still caught off guard a few times as twists and turns occurred in the plot. For the time I spent with these characters I had a glimpse of the uncertainty the citizens of Columbia must have felt.

It’s a strong debut for Contreras and I look forward to reading her future works.

The audiobook was masterfully performed by Marisol Ramirez, Almarie Guerra and Ingrid Rojas Contreras. Brava, ladies.