Even more great books in March!

James - Percival Everett
Certainly lived up to all the hype. I've only read Huckleberry Finn once, so I'm not familiar with the story, and not being American, it isn't part of my growing up. But Everett wrote a great version of the story, and I love a good retelling that gives a different view of books.

Goodnight from London- Jennifer Robson (Canadian author, paper)
Historical fiction, book club read, and great fast read. Almost romance, but not overtly. Plucky little American girl get transferred to London for the blitz, to write stories for a newspaper in London and back in NY. A few characters are sacrificed as many did not survive the Blitz, but overall a positive view of her time in London.

The Burgess Boys - Elizabeth Strout
The last of my rereads of Strout-verse before I reread Tell Me Everything with a better memory of Lucy, Bob, and Olive. Oh, families, and the tenuous relationships, based on childhoods together. Bob and his reknown brother Jim, and their sad sack sister Susan, still sticking together even though if they weren't related they'd have nothing to do with each other. Sue's son is charged with a hate crime in Maine (another sad child) and Jim is called on to represent him. He unloads the actual work on Bob, who does little right in Jim's eyes. Which works out because Bob doesn't have much faith in himself. All these relationships are built around an incident which happened when the children were young. Stout does relationships so well!

Prophet Song - Paul Lynch (ebook)
Wow, this was really good. It won the Booker Prize so I shouldn't have been surprised. It is scary to see how easily a society can slip into chaos. It might be a warning for a large country near me. First they came for the unions, etc, etc. A family in Dublin sees itself fall apart after the father is removed (arrested?) for his union activity. The mom tries to get him out, the teenage son is drafted, so joins the resistance, and civil war breaks out. Very scary how it happened. Dystopian novels for the win, and the lessons we need to learn.

The Queen of Dirt Island - Donal Ryan (paper)
I used March as a time to read some Irish books and after @lauralkeet's review, I picked this one up at the library. I love a strong matriarchal book, and the women in the house in this small village were delightful. A woman who's family disowned her, her mother-in-law, and the baby girl who caused the disownment. The story is from the babies view, so in the beginning she only overhears some things, and we just get a sense of her happy life and the people around her. As she grows, her story takes center stage, and we just get to watch her grow, how the women love each other, and how the outside world comes in, but that bond never changes. Delightful.

First half of March

March was a pretty great reading month, or I am getting better at picking what books to read, lol.

Salvation of a Saint - Keigo HigashinoJapanese mystery, sequel to The Devotion of Suspect X, with the physics professor mentor back to help. I listened to this and it was good. A man is poisoned and the police try to figure out how, and whether it was his wife or girlfriend.

Bleeding Heart Yard - Elly Griffiths
I am really enjoying the Harbindur Kaur books. A death at a high school reunion of a politician is Harbindur's first case since moving to London. But this death appears connected to a death from when the gang was in highschool twenty years before. I missed her old assistant, but I liked her making new friends and her adjustment to a new crew. Excellent series, and mystery.

Intermezzo - Sally Rooney
Two brothers in Ireland, one a lawyer in his 30s, one a chess player in his early 20s, dealing with the death of their dad. Peter the lawyer is completely coming apart, but is apparently the more confident brother. Peter has two very different women, both with issues. Ivan is beginning a relationship with an older woman and I much preferred this half of the story.

Amy and Isabelle - Elizabeth Strout (ebook)
I recognized the names Amy and Isabelle from Olive, Again when Olive makes friends with Isabelle so I had to go back and read this as part of my immersion in Strout-land. It is an early book, but you can feel the beginnings of Strout's style and brilliance. It covers mainly one summer in their lives in Maine, and the 'incident' in this book is mentioned later in talks with Olive. It was a little slow as I was reading, but now as I think about it, it was very good.

The Favorites - Layne Fargo
Very much like Daisy and the Six as told like a documentary, with comments from characters interspersed. I like to read a book like this now and then, pure trashy characters with a fast moving story. This is set in the figure skating world, elite people with money and talented people with not much. I liked how it was a play on Wuthering Heights, with Katerina and Heath as the main star-crossed lovers. I hated Wuthering Heights in high school but I like retellings usually better than the originals. I also don't usually like love stories where the characters love so much they destroy each other (lol, not a spoiler if you know anything about Wuthering Heights) but this was a lot of fun!

Crooked Seeds - Karen Jennings (ebook)
I found this Women's Prize for Fiction longlisted book on sale on Kobo so grabbed it. It was a short book which is good because it was pretty sad. Deidre, living in South Africa is a pretty miserable character, to herself and others. It was billed a mystery, and while the police come around asking questions about her old house, I wouldn't really call this a mystery. This event causes Deidre to remember about growing up, so the mysteries are the reveals that happen, but it's not really a mystery. It's much more a story about alcoholism and defeatism, which can be pretty depressing.

I Hope This Finds You Well - Natalie Sue (Canadian)
I can't even remember why I requested this one but it was good, and a quick read. Jolene is working a soul-sucking job at a large business in Calgary. She is not getting along with her co-workers, and not doing well with her over-bearing Iranian mother wanting her to get married. She is called in to HR meetings after a complaint about her and meets cute Cliff. He accidentally gives her admin access to emails and Jolene, in desperation, can't help herself from reading what her co-workers are saying about her, setting off lots of office issues. There is a humour to the book, but much of the story is more serious. The author does a pretty good job of balancing the humor (two Iranians pretending to be engaged to keep their parents off their back, but that doesn't really help) with the seriousness of 'you never know what other people are dealing with' coworkers.

February 17-28

 

Etta and Otto and Russell and James - Emma Hooper
I have not been enamoured of the old person on a trek books (The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry The One Hundered Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, and this book continues. It's not bad, but I don't really understand the motivation to walk. Etta leaves from Saskatchewan and heads east to the ocean. She has some dementia/alzheimer's so that at least makes some sense why she would wander, but I also don't often like books from a point of view of someone with dementia. (boy, I sound cranky today, lol) There's a past and present story, and a Etta and Otto, her husband, point of view so some historical fiction.
I read it because I've had my eye on the book, and it was picked for Canada Reads this year which made it more available at the library.

Brooke Shields is Not Allowed to Grow Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman - Brooke Shields NF
I'm a fan of Brooke Shields, watched the Prime mini-series Pretty Baby, and we are very close in age. I grew up with her, and loved her in The Middle, a family-favourite sitcom. It's a memoir (not her first but the first I've read) about aging woman. I liked her persepective and since this appears to be my year of menopause reading, this book fits right in. She is remarkably down to earth, as presented here and she narrates the audiobook so it feels like we had a great chat. She is critical of doctors and how they give information to women, and she details several medical experiences as you'd expect from an aging woman, lol. She included a lot of research in her book so it wasn't just a celebrity tell-all that you'd expect.

Scandal in Mayfair - Katherine Schellman
This is the fifth in the Lily Adler mysteries, set in Regency London. Lily Adler is a young widow with enough money and freedom to do as she pleases. She gets mixed up in upper class scandals that often lead to murder. I've enjoyed this series with a bit of romance, and manners, and murder.

Rejection - Tony Tulathimutte (ebook)
I particularly like connected short stories so was drawn to this one, despite the mixed reviews I read online. I understand why readers didn't recommend it to people as there is a terrible chapter that I can't imagine anyone finishes. I do look forward to the Tournament of Books discussion on this one. Each story main character is unhappy, sharing through social media, in some way looking for love. Waiting to see them in another character's story where they appeared normal, was my favorite part. There is a meta chapter where the author gets involved, and I do like this experimentation.

Feeding My Mother: Comfort and Laughter in the Kitchen as My Mom Lives With Memory Loss - Jann Arden
Canadian singer Jann Arden shares life with two aging parents from it appears her diary. She is truthful and raw and the topic is not easy to read about but at least it was short, ~ 3 hours.