Wow! Not sure how those five weeks got away from me, but I’m back, with a sextet of titles to share.
1. Lee Child’s Blue Moon, the latest Jack Reacher. Not sure why I enjoy this series when it’s so much more action-packed than usually interests me, but I posted a page on my Instagram reading account that exemplifies what Child can do with a sentence–his prose style matches any gunslinger’s virtuosity, seriously. It either works for you or it doesn’t, I guess, and Reacher and I go way back. . . .plus he’s getting on (although a youngster, mid 40’s), and that intrigues me enough that I’ll keep reading future volumes. . .
2. Kathleen Jamie is a Scottish poet and essayist I’ve only just learned of, and Surfacing convinced me that I must read more from her. Besides what I scribbled in my Reading Journal (above), I also said a few words in my IG post.
3. Ann Patchett, The Dutch House I loved this! The story itself, several of the characters in particular, the setting (different views of New York through different periods), the basic conceit or engine which drives the story (a brother and sister are treated horribly by their stepmother after their father dies unexpectedly, and the brother’s life is shaped by his sister’s need to. . . well, I’d better not say more). . . but I also so admired Patchett’s structuring technique, the way she grabs fabric from past and future onto her needle in the teeniest stitches — sometimes just an adverbial phrase, a parenthetical clause — to pleat a wonderfully intricate garment or quilt or tapestry. Yes, the analogy falls apart here, but if you read this, perhaps you’ll see what I mean. It’s quite mesmerising. . .IG post here — and I wrote a bit about her earlier novel Commonwealth a few years ago
4. Katherine Gilbert Murdock’s The Book of Boy, which I read aloud to my granddaughter. If you’re looking for a good novel for an Eleven, this could be it. . . (this review captures something important about the book: Somehow Murdock has managed to write something simultaneously archaic in form and incredibly enticing to the modern eye. And the reviewer, Elizabeth Bird goes on to say, Boy is the kind of character you can’t help but love. You want to go with him on this journey and, more to the point, you want him to see it to its end. If Boy is the living embodiment of kindness and joy, I can think of no better guide for young readers to encounter. We have a lot of dark, depressing, necessary books out there. Once, just once, let’s enjoy the one unafraid to let a little light and laughter in. So very apropos of our current situation, no?
4. In case you’ve been wondering, while we still have a faint hope for our family gathering in Sicily this June, that possibility grows weaker each day. My preparatory reading for an eventual visit to Sicily, however, continues, and allows me to travel while restricted to home for the duration. . . . I can even travel that way with my husband — I read Marlena de Blasi’s That Summer in Sicily to him over several weeks of his delicious dinners. My impressions below — recommended!
And one last title, another for armchair travel. . . although perhaps better to read on your stationery bicycle with Felicity Cloake providing the scenery to distract you from your tiring legs. . . and building your appetite further through her mouth-watering descriptions of eating her way through France.
That’s it for now. I do have a few more books to tell you about, and now that we’re confined to home, perhaps it won’t take me another month to do that.
Now tell me, what are you reading? any connections with what I’ve been reading? any recommendations? I’m also curious about whether you’re using this period to finally hunker down with whatever big tome you’ve been meaning to get to for ages or are you finding you need lighter fare right now. Best distractions you’ve found this week? Go!
I read pretty much the same kind of books as before,but maybe long for more no-brainer books but they could feel shallow,so I don't buy those so far.
I loved The Dutch House,as well as Elif Shafak's The Forty Rules of Love
I'm reading Wendy's suggestion now- Eugenie Fraser's The House by the Dvina (bio) and like it very much
Dottoressa
Just received my British copy (best cover) of Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light. Haven't started it yet as I already have too many books on the go, including: Diana Athill's Somewhere Towards the End; Mary Lovell's The Mitford Girls; Juliet Gardiner's The Blitz: The British Under Attack; and To War with Whitaker-The Wartime Diaries of the Countess of Ranfurly. The last is a recent recommendation from Slightly Foxed. I was able to get a second-hand copy which I started reading last night and I am loving it. What an intrepid woman with a great sense of humour and way of capturing moments in time or a jagged personality in just a few lines.
Reading The Blitz is nod to my mother who drove an ambulance during the Blitz/war and suffered so many losses (e.g. her home bombed, her Royal Navy brother lost at sea). As I read the gripping remembrances of others, I remember the few stories she shared–having the injured and the dead, including small children, in the back of her ambulance (she rotated driving duties with being in the back, providing first aid)–helping to pull bodies from the burning rubble. Living the unspeakable. Self isolation doesn't seem like a hardship under the circumstances.
Perhaps it's time to give Jack Reacher a try – I've always avoided him for some reason. And definitely the Felicity Cloake book – there's nothing I'd rather do in life than eat my way through France (preferably by bicycle!)
With our library closed I've turned to Kobo and have downloaded the latest in a series I read a few years ago but then abandoned: Martin Walker's Inspector Bruno series. Escapism to a small village in the Dordogne. I'm sure I'll be perusing your previous blog posts for more recommendations!
Frances in Sidney
Dottoressa: I'm the same way — sometimes I think I want lighter books, but it's tough to find ones that can engage deeply enough to distract. . .
Mary: Oh, I loved Somewhere Towards the End. It survived the recent culling of my bookshelves, and I've just taken it down at your prompt. Will probably skim through over the next few days — Thank you!. . . and your mother's recollections would be very pertinent now. . .
Frances in Sidney: Mr. Reacher is not everyone's cup of tea, and you may have very good reasons to avoid. If you decide to try one, his 2004 The Enemy will take you to Paris, although you'd be jumping into the 8th in the series. . .
I've read some Inspector Bruno but not for a long while — great suggestion! But does your library not offer e-books? If not, I hope they consider it after this big interruption of service. I have a good stack of physical books to get through here, but we've also been taking advantage of the library's digital resources. Very lucky!
I commented on your IG post about the Dutch House, and I enjoyed Blue Moon but it was not my favorite Reacher book. I love Reacher, he is such a defined character, and I love Child’s prose and the way he captures a place, especially those otherwise unseen parts of the American great midwest, where I grew up. You introduced me to Lee Child and I will continue reading.
I have the new Hilary Mantel, it arrived last week, but I am currently reading Tayari Jones’s An American Marriage and the second volume of William Manchester’s grand biography of Winston Churchill, a book worth reading for the author’s erudite prose, and broad knowledge as well as the subject. I think I need to finish up both of those before diving deeply into Mantel’s world.
Thought you might like this in our trying times.
spitalfieldslife.com/2020/03/31/one-hundred-penguin-books-x/
Mardel: Probably not my favourite either, but there was still much that I enjoyed. I agree that he really does setting well — I've always liked his depictions of urban geography, elements that are common between cities, town, suburbs, elements that distinguish.
I've ordered the new Mantel, but don't have it yet. So interesting to be reading Churchill in these times, thinking of leadership in times of crisis….
Annie: Ha! So very Anglocentric, aren't they? I can imagine their appeal on historical grounds and undoubtedly some literary value there…
The Anonymous above is me — not quite sure what I was doing! 😉
I’ve just finished The Umbrian Supper Club by Marlena de Blassi- I enjoyed it. Rather strange but something lyrical about the language and the stories of each woman. And I spent most of the book trying to work out if the recipes really were recipes- delighted to find them at the end of the book…. and wondering if I dare try chocolate on pasta cooked in red done! If nothing else plenty of time to read at the moment! Anne Tyler’s new book is next- so looking forward to it.
From New Zealand -Kia kaha- be strong.
Rose: I'll keep an eye out for that title. Strange and lyrical stories from a variety of sources — that appeals to me, and hmm, chocolate on pasta cooked in red wine I'd like to try at least once 😉 . . . Not sure why I've never got into Anne Tyler, only having read one book by her eons ago. So many readers whose opinions I value love her books — enjoy her new book!