“After all, the truth of anything at all doesn’t lie in someone’s account of it.”
I really enjoyed this book! THE DAUGHTER OF TIME was a great and unex“After all, the truth of anything at all doesn’t lie in someone’s account of it.”
I really enjoyed this book! THE DAUGHTER OF TIME was a great and unexpected read. In this text a 400-year-old murder is “solved” from a hospital bed in London. There is no action, just astute observation and process of deductive reasoning, and I found it utterly fascinating.
The plot in short, Police Inspector Alan Grant lies in a hospital bed, recovering from broken bones. He is bored to tears and a friend brings him several items to pass the time, including pictures of historical people. Alan becomes fascinated with the portrait of Richard III and slowly concludes that this is not the face of the man that history records as an infamous monster. He then sets out to research and ponder (from his bed) if this man is capable of the murder of his nephews, the famous Princes in the Tower, who suddenly disappeared and who history tells us Richard had murdered to protect his throne.
Some thoughts I want to share… - This novel is enhanced by a knowledge of the period covered, England 1455-1500. It is not necessary, but I think it enhances the read. - The book is set in 1951, and the time period is key to keep in mind in terms of understanding how the “investigation” is handled. There is no Google and internet in 1951. It was so fun to inhabit a world where one can’t search the internet for answers. They must utilize libraries. Gasp! There are some incredible strengths to this novel. Among many: - The characterization is really well done. Author Josephine Tey has a deft knack for making people seem instantly real and full. Her protagonist Grant has a nickname for almost every character in the text, and his nicknames are spot on, and flesh out and expand the characters. It all works hand in glove to create a well-rounded cast of characters for this text. - The book is filled with delightfully drool lines, like this one, which our protagonist muses as he observes a character who has brought him an item that he needs. “She ceased to be a large female who breathed like a suction-pump and became a potential dispenser of delight.” - The humor is in this text is sly and very dry. More than a couple of times while reading I laughed out loud. I was not expecting that with this book.
Quotes: • “Marta looked as scandalized as a lifetime in the theatre and an hour of careful make-up allowed her to.” • “It was shocking how little history remained with one after a good education.” • “When you sit on a throne I suppose companionship is a rare blessing.” • “Grant had dealt too long with the human intelligence to accept as truth someone’s report of someone’s report of what that someone remembered to have seen or been told.”
THE DAUGHTER OF TIME may not be for everyone, but it was for me. A well written, concise, and vastly intriguing fictional take on one of the great unsolved mysteries of history. The conclusions it presents are indeed plausible, which makes the book even more interesting. It certainly made me think about my perceptions, and how I think about situations (current and historical) that I interact with.
As Inspector Grant observes as he contemplates a portrait of Richard III, “Villains don’t suffer, and that face is full of the most dreadful pain.” Could be…could be....more
“Faith and desperation showed equally in his face.” (3.5 stars)
HEARTSTONE is a solid book, but it is not my favorite of the five books in the Matthew “Faith and desperation showed equally in his face.” (3.5 stars)
HEARTSTONE is a solid book, but it is not my favorite of the five books in the Matthew Shardlake Tudor mystery series that I have read. There was something about it that was not as satisfying as the four books that preceded it.
In this installment of the series, lawyer Shardlake is dispatched to England’s coastal region, near Portsmouth on the eve of the anticipated French invasion in summer 1545. As mentioned, this text was not my favorite thus far, but it does keep building the tension and the intrigue. I certainly never was going to not finish it. Bit by bit, the reader becomes aware of more and more, and suddenly you find that you are very interested in this story!
Quotes: • “However much one lacks piety, the atmosphere in a graveyard encourages quiet reflection.” • “Politics is like dice; the better the player, the worse the man.” • “God will not suffer injustice to children.” • “Someone has to care for those nobody else cares for.” • “But often in this life we must spend our time associating with those who are not our friends, must we not?” • “But no secret lasts forever.” • “But there are only so many favors a man can call in from anyone.” • “But I have faith. It is the only way to live with the mystery.”
Before I end this review, there are two items that deserve to be singled out in HEARTSTONE. First, there is a section where our protagonist goes on a king’s warship. It is surprisingly evocative. The details and atmosphere given to secondary moments like this in the text are vivid. Second, I have greatly enjoyed in this series the developing and deepening characterization of Matthew Shardlake. In this novel his presumptuous and obsessive nature is used to good effect, and it is a natural development from earlier novels.
There are two more books in this series. I will be reading them!...more
PAPER MONEY was my first experience reading Ken Follett. I enjoyed it! Published a couple of years before I was born th“What do I get out of my work?”
PAPER MONEY was my first experience reading Ken Follett. I enjoyed it! Published a couple of years before I was born this text is a taut, tightly written book with fully realized characters, coming in at a quick 221 pages. It is not a bit overwritten. There are few, if any, superfluous words.
There is not a central protagonist in this slim novel. It is a true ensemble piece. The point of view shifts by chapter, and there are quite a few very different voices and storylines explored in this book. In PAPER MONEY Mr. Follett demonstrates a clever interlocking of several plot threads, all told over the period of one day, starting at 6 AM and ending at 4 PM.
Quotes: • “Everything in business is courage.” • “What had he done with his life, to be left with no one who would love him right or wrong?” • “A reputation for honesty was made slowly and lost quickly in the City.”
Unfortunately, I disliked the final chapter of this book, a lot. However, everything that came before it was great! I have been aware of Mr. Follett for a while. PAPER MONEY guarantees that I will read more of his work....more
“If you want to get away with lying, first change the language.”
THE LITTLE LIAR has a great premise, an interesting perspective, an intriguing story, “If you want to get away with lying, first change the language.”
THE LITTLE LIAR has a great premise, an interesting perspective, an intriguing story, and a great idea for a narrator. And it is a good read and one I am glad I have under my belt. Mitch Albom does a nice job with this book. He really does. But as I was reading it, I kept wondering what this great premise would have looked like in the hands of a truly stellar writer. Someone like a Mark Helprin, or a Kent Haruf. However, I will give credit where it is due. Mr. Albom has taken the Holocaust and given a unique and compelling version of a well-worn story in this novel.
The plot, Nico Krispis is 11 years old when his Greek town comes under Nazi occupation, and the deportation dictated by the Final Solution comes to his life. This little boy has never told a lie…until he is tricked into giving misinformation to his fellow Jews. Other key characters are a Nazi officer named Udo Graf, Nico’s older brother, Sebastian, and a friend of the family that both boys have a crush on, Fannie. The story takes us from the 1940s to the mid-1980s.
One of the strongest aspects of this novel is that it is told by a 3rd person omniscient narrator. The Narrator in this case is the Angel of Truth. This device is well deployed by Mr. Albom, and for me was the most intriguing and well-done aspect of the text. When you are presented with unvarnished truth, with no pretense or disguises allowed, it gives the reader no room to question what they are reading. If Truth says it, it is! No unreliable narrators or questions in this book.
Quotes: • “Humans can be trusted only to watch out for themselves.” • “Humans lie constantly, especially to their Maker.” • “But just as ignoring proper food will ultimately decay your body, so will handpicking the Truth eventually rot your soul.” • “Sometimes, it is the truths we don’t speak that echo the loudest.” • “Like many decisions that change a life, it comes silently, without fanfare.” • “But a lie comes in many disguises; sometimes, it looks like safety.” • “We are all one fateful act from a redirected destiny, and the price we pay can be immeasurable.” • “Perhaps it’s because the lies you die with are the first thing the Lord peels away-the lies you have told, and the lies that have been told about you.” • “Jealousy rarely forgets.” • “When it comes to lies, governments can outlast anyone.”
There are lots of nuggets of great human truth strewn throughout THE LITTLE LIAR, and I am very glad that I read this book. Lines like the following are all over this text, and they serve as a powerful reminder of the great responsibility, and consequences, of the Truth. “Truth calls for a reckoning, whether immediate or in the distant future.” We would all do well to realize how very true that statement is!
Another thing that I appreciated about this book was that its bent was toward human redemption and the goodness that humanity is capable of. I think too often in literature we can forget about that, and if we don’t strive to recognize the goodness we are capable of, then all is lost. I won’t have a problem with a book that strives to remind us of that fact....more
“Everybody counted or nobody counted.” (3.5 stars)
THE NIGHT FIRE is the third installment in Mr. Connelly’s Renée Ballard series. Of the three it is m“Everybody counted or nobody counted.” (3.5 stars)
THE NIGHT FIRE is the third installment in Mr. Connelly’s Renée Ballard series. Of the three it is my favorite so far. The relationship between Renée and her unofficial under the radar partner Harry Bosh is getting a little more development, and it was just a tightly plotted novel. By the book’s end three subplots are seamlessly and intriguingly connected into a coherent throughline.
In this text Mr. Connelly also brings in one of his other regulars, Mickey Haller (the Lincoln Lawyer), and a defendant he gets off in court, a cold case from many years ago, and an “accident” at a homeless encampment come together in a manner that never bored me.
Quotes: • “Take every case personally and you get angry. It builds a fire. It gives you the edge you need to go the distance every time out.” • “How did one child retain hope in the darkness, and another come to believe it was gone forever?” • “True heroes are hard to come by I guess.”
One glaring flaw is that the falling action and conclusion of this text is a little to on the nose. I saw it coming a mile off, but the story is a good one and I was always engaged when I picked it up. That is becoming a bigger deal to me the older I get. On to # 4 in the series soon....more
I read THE GUARDIANS sitting with my feet in the ocean, so I am sure that this colored my reading experience with it. In this b“You’re paying for it.”
I read THE GUARDIANS sitting with my feet in the ocean, so I am sure that this colored my reading experience with it. In this book the good guys win, and the momentum is always heading in a positive direction. So, I’m saying it is ridiculous, but a good read for the beach.
Alternating between fist and second person point of view, the novel follows Cullen Post, an Episcopal minister and lawyer who works on behalf of falsely convicted prisoners. The case that is the book’s driving force involves a man falsely convicted twenty-two years ago of killing his lawyer. It is quickly discovered that he was a diversion, scapegoated to protect the real killers and their conspiracy.
Interesting to me was the slightly religious bent the novel has because of the protagonist being a part time minister. Although the religious element is slight in this text, it was nice to read a mainstream fiction book where Christianity is not mocked.
THE GUARDIANS was not a bad read for what it was. Not something I would ever pick up again. I end with the only quote from the book that made me take notice- “Prison is a nightmare for those who deserve it. For those who don’t, it is a daily struggle to maintain some level of sanity.”...more
Went on the annual beach trip, and that meant it was time for another installment in Mr. Dorsey’s Serge A. St“Life is just a few minutes!” (3.5 stars)
Went on the annual beach trip, and that meant it was time for another installment in Mr. Dorsey’s Serge A. Storm series. These books are usually good for a laugh and a bonkers plot. TROPIC OF STUPID is a great addition to the series. In this installment Florida history buff and serial killer (of people who deserve it) Serge Storms gets caught up in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount and also on internet ancestry services that use DNA to make family connections for people. It makes for an interesting combination!
The text boasts lots of subplots; a determined woman in law enforcement, a sleezy lawyer who finds redemption, a serial killer (not Serge) on the rampage and they all eventually tie nicely together to create a coherent and fun plotline.
Quotes: • “Destiny, for better or worse, has stuck me with you as my soul mate. Who decides this shit?” • “And since the meaning of life isn’t about us, it must be about how we treat others.” • “Because doing the right thing isn’t always easy or fun, and sometimes it’s downright sacrifice. You have to become the kind of person who wants to do the right thing more than what you personally desire.” • “Millions of Americans aren’t happy unless they’re unhappy.” • “One thing I’ve learned is that human behavior will never stop surprising you.” • “If you don’t make up cool s%#t about your family, nobody else will…” • “Nudity and gibberish are underrated.” • “Just talking to myself…I like the company.” • “He inhaled deeply and happily through his nostrils, taking in the invigorating aroma of coffee and freshly baked Latin bread, trying to inhale life itself.”
I read TROPIC OF STUPID in the pool with palmetto trees blowing in the breeze. That combined with the fact that Serge’s sidekick Coleman was less annoying to me in this installment than in others in the series and that the plotting was tighter than in some of the previous books, made this a quick and really enjoyable outing for me....more
This was my first Jack Reacher novel. I doubt there is another Reacher novel in my life anytime soon. The p"The sour smell of used money." (1.5 stars)
This was my first Jack Reacher novel. I doubt there is another Reacher novel in my life anytime soon. The plot, in short, Jack Reacher gets off a bus in the little town of Margrave, Georgia and a few hours later he is arrested for a murder he did not commit. Jack Reacher is a former military MP and West Point grad and he does not take getting arrested for something he did not do lightly. What follows contains the obligatory action, blood, and sex that one would expect in a novel like this.
I was just not into this text. It's very heavy in the body count. Very heavy! And it just felt poorly developed. The denouement of the novel is pure violent fantasy schlock. The book just feels like a book of male teenage fantasy. My 15-year-old self would have loved it. I can see why some people like it, but it's just not for me.
Quotes: * "My name is Jack Reacher," I said. "No middle name. No address." * "The big things and the small things which were supposed to represent home." * "They had that slack, empty look that is left behind when life has departed."
I understand that the hero of books like these are meant to be" too good to be true," but there still has to be an element of believability with that character, and in this novel there isn't. Jack Reacher does not feel real to me. This is the first novel of what is obviously a very successful series, so maybe Mr. Child got better. I'm just not sure that I am interested in finding out....more
Translated from Italian, author Rosella Postorino’s AT THE WOLF’S TABLE is an interesting book. I liked it,“I never had enough of living.” (3.5 stars)
Translated from Italian, author Rosella Postorino’s AT THE WOLF’S TABLE is an interesting book. I liked it, but I think that it tries to be too many things at once. In short, it is the story of Rosa Sauer, a woman who has left Berlin to live with her in-laws after her parents are killed in the bombs that drop on Berlin. In rural Germany, she is conscripted to be one of Hitler’s food tasters when he is at his headquarters, known as the “Wolf’s Lair.” Rosa’s husband is also missing in action. Told in the first person, Rosa fills us in on how she came to be where she is, and bit by bit we get backstory and new revelations as they are detailed and revealed by her. The author uses this device well, and there were more than a few times in the novel where I was surprised by something I had just learned. This device is well utilized.
The text is a slow burn, I did not mind that, it is really a character study. As a result, there are few characters, other than Rosa, who are fully rendered. There are a lot of secondary characters in the text, and as mentioned, with only a few exceptions their names and attributes run together. I was never fully aware of who was who. Because they are not distinctly drawn, they tend to jumble together. There are a couple of exceptions to this, and those characters gave me enough to go on to enjoy the book.
Quotes: • “A person can cease to exist even when alive.” • “In those who recognize it, weakness awakens guilt.” • “Often, sharing a secret doesn’t bring people together-it separates them.” • “It’s endearing, the human need to eat so as not to die.” • “People use love to justify all kinds of things.” • “Everything considered, life matters so little, and devoting it to someone fills it with meaning.” • “…how strange, one death that contains another.” • “It’s deranged, the human species; it’s instincts shouldn’t be heeded.” • “With time, even the enthusiasm of a miracle dampens.” • “Marriage is a fluctuating system-it moves in waves, it can always end and always begin again, it has no linear progression, not does it follow logical paths.” • “When you lose someone, the pain you feel is for yourself….” • “The past doesn’t go away, but there’s no need to dredge it up; you can try to let it rest…”
I will say this, the ending was a fascinating take by the writer. I have no other comment than that. I would love to know why she chose to conclude the novel in the way that she did. I would urge someone who starts this book to stick with it. Get past the first 75 or so pages. It gets better. AT THE WOLF’S TABLE boasts an intriguing premise and plot and it gives some interesting insight into the lives of the German civilian population during WW II....more
ALL THE OLD KNIVES is my first novel by Olen Steinhauer, and it's surprisingly good! It is a taut, fast-paced nov“History is full of inconsistencies.”
ALL THE OLD KNIVES is my first novel by Olen Steinhauer, and it's surprisingly good! It is a taut, fast-paced novel, and it takes place entirely around a dinner table with some flashbacks thrown in. I was very impressed by the depth of characterization in such a tightly plotted novel. The book comes in at less than 260 pages, but it doesn't need any more length in order to tell a complete and detailed story.
Plotwise, we have two ex-lovers, both CIA employees who were stationed in Vienna together. At the time there was a terrible terrorist attack at the Vienna Airport. Now, six years after the event and their relationship, they reconnect to have dinner at a restaurant, ostensibly to talk about the events of the past. And that's all I'll say about the plot.
In an unexpected twist I feel like this thriller has a lot to say about what it means to be a parent, and how that changes you. In fact, I would argue that examining how parenthood changes a person is one of the bigger themes of the novel. Another theme that comes into play is the idea of not moving on from the past. There were more than a few moments in this text where I felt a twinge of guilt because I was reminded of past lovers or relationships. Things that perhaps I haven't appropriately put on the shelf and left there. Who expects feelings like that when reading an espionage novel?
Quotes: • “I don’t have a heart to break.” • “In gorgeous landscapes loneliness is more acute-it’s something I’ve noticed.” • “For once I was satisfied, which is really all anyone can ask for.” • “And without failure you’re not really human. You’re just skating on the surface of life.” • “Things happen. The only thing that matters is how we deal with the now.”
As I mentioned, this was my first Steinhauer novel, so I was not prepared for how good a writer he is. The quality of the writing in ALL THE OLD KNIVES is excellent!
There will be more books of Steinhauer’s in my future. I can promise you that. ...more
“Sometimes these days I feel that everywhere I look there is madness and darkness and devils.”
REVELATION is the fourth book in the Shardlake series, a“Sometimes these days I feel that everywhere I look there is madness and darkness and devils.”
REVELATION is the fourth book in the Shardlake series, and this installment really delves into the radical reformers and those who were reverting back to Catholic lite rituals at the end of Henry VIII’s reign. C.J. Sansom creates an interesting plot twist around this civil and religious unrest and incorporates an intriguing development with the Book of Revelation from the Bible as the inspiration for the plot’s driving devices.
As has been the case in this series, one of the best parts of this text is that our protagonist (hunchback lawyer Matthew Shardlake) is such a well-drawn character. A flawed man, yet those flaws pale in comparison to his compassion and flat-out human decency. I did find the characterization of Shardlake to be a little flat in this installment compared to others, but I think that is because the lives of some of the characters that surround him were given much more attention in this book. As in any developing series, the more it goes on the more involved and robust the world of the series becomes. The relationships in this series are real, and they are encountering real problems, and it is seamlessly weaved in with a plot and storyline that will keep you turning the pages. I love that as I continue with this series more and more layers of the reoccurring characters are revealed, and they become more complex, more nuanced, and thus even more human.
As is always the case with this series the period feels real, and I felt the realities of the world of Tudor England while I was reading. I enjoy it a lot when a book creates that kind of immersive experience.
Quotes: • “Christ said, by their fruits shall you know them, and the fruits of the faithful of both sides looked more rotten each year.” • “The strangest matters may have a simple resolution.” • “There are no debts between friends.” • “…that there was little hope in the world, and a man should not be blamed for clinging on to that which he could find.” • “But if we never acted except when we were certain our motives were pure, we would never act at all.” • “I think that is how grief is. The hole in the world will always be there but you begin to notice other things.” • “But we cannot always believe what suits us.” • “Yes, I believe that humility is the greatest human virtue.”
In REVELATION the mystery at its core is interesting and Mr. Sansom does a nice job of incorporating the “reformist” and “conservative” religious issues of 1540s England seamlessly into the text. I am looking forward to reading the last three novels in this series soon....more
You finish a Mark Helprin book, and you bask in the beauty of what you've just read. REFINER’S FIRE is a novel that is upli“By God, I’m not down yet.”
You finish a Mark Helprin book, and you bask in the beauty of what you've just read. REFINER’S FIRE is a novel that is uplifting and examines the beauty in an ugly world. You read Mark Helprin and you bask in his incredible command of language, and the way he wrestles gorgeousness from the English tongue. This is my second Mark Helprin book, and I will be a Mark Helprin completist. All of his books are sitting on my “to read” pile. And I look forward to devouring all of them.
In REFINER’S FIRE we follow the life of Marshall Pearl, a man born on the sea, the child of someone fleeing war and pain, a man who starts life as a foundling. Starting in 1947 on a ship off the coast of Palestine and ending in 1973 in Haifa Israel, we see the first half of Marshall's life. And what a life it is. Marshall’s life takes him from coast to coast in the United States, with stops in Jamaica, Mexico, the Alps, and in the English Merchant Navy. This is an adventure story, a story of one’s maturation, a love story, a semi history of a time in the world, and much more. Helprin has a gift for taking the implausible, and through his mix of satire, humor, and truth of humanity he mixes a fantastical and yet entirely believable story that the reader buys into.
One of my favorite things about REFINER'S FIRE is that this book contains nuggets of satire that just explode off the page, unexpected and pointed, and then disappear just as quickly. At one point, while some characters imagine themselves “revolutionaries”, the reader is treated to this gem of a line, “And besides, most revolutionaries from good universities become effete, epicene, whining, hermaphroditic muffins, fit only to write for the ‘New York Review of Books’”. Helprin wrote that line in 1977. He could have written that biting satire today! There are moments like that strewn throughout this novel. At one point in the story our protagonist extols some virtues to be had in the Code of Hammurabi. It is through the conversation that ensues where Mr. Helprin makes some brilliantly sensible points in a manner that few authors can master.
Quotes: • “A country in war is a country alive. It hurts all the time and is full of sorrow, but is as alive as the blaze of a fire, as energetic and restless as an animal in its pen-full of sex and desires of the heart.” • “He could not restrain himself from consideration of that which was feasible mainly in the magical world and, strangely enough, sometimes in this one.” • “Know the elements, order them with love, and thereby know the great matter of things.” • “The silence vanished and natural laws which had withstood all assaults appeared once again as ultimate guides, as they had been in the beginning and will always be-lines along which shattering can make itself whole.” • “But I detest those who would destroy.” • “Although the weak don’t know this, when you have power you have to protect yourself from it.” • “He could not go backward, and did not try.” • “Of what use is this or that knowledge of this earth, if by our Faith it is not enhanced?” • “He was not against change if it were to perfect rather than replace.” • “It was not the first time that love had arisen from nowhere and given him strength, sustenance, and peace.” • “…there is little more exquisite and taxing than devotion to a lost love.” • “Now go and learn, and when you come back, you will learn more.” • “The only advantage they have is that they’re immoral. That’s a short-term advantage.” • “Those who have compassion only for criminals are compassionless, and themselves criminal.” • “They touched and it was like breathing again.” • “The room was filled with the unsaid.”
One of the most fascinating things about REFINER’S FIRE is how relevant it is to the here and now in mid-2024. Uncannily so. Almost 50 years old and yet the human truth of this book still breathes most powerfully!
At times fantastical, but always insightful and lovely, what Mark Helprin does in this book surrounds the reader. It envelopes you and you surrender to its beauty. Helprin celebrates that most basic of elements in our world. As one character says in this elegant novel, “The special thing was that life came back.”...more
“…it’s hard to keep fighting against something once you realize it’s not a fair fight…” (1.5 stars)
The premise of THE MEASURE is an interesting one. E“…it’s hard to keep fighting against something once you realize it’s not a fair fight…” (1.5 stars)
The premise of THE MEASURE is an interesting one. Everyone on earth receives a box when they turn 22, and inside said box is a string, and that string’s length is your lifespan. Okay, an idea that has been around for a long time (see the Fates in mythology) and I like the idea of the present-day setting. However, in author Nikki Erlick, this idea has been placed in the hands of someone whose skill is not up to the idea.
The characters in this book are bland and interchangeable. There is no depth to any of them, in fact they are hard to tell apart. Very surface level characterization, mostly “types”, but not real humans. And for a book whose focus is on what it means to really live, a book peopled by one dimensional characters cannot fulfill that idea’s potential. One of the subplots involving a presidential candidate and his family is especially bad. Stock characters and plot at its worst. There is also a lot of annoying pop psychology in the text. Lots of telling about emotions, but not actually showing the nuance of the emotion. Again, surface level stuff.
Quotes: • “Aren’t there just some things in this world that can’t be explained by facts or science?” • “…and it sometimes overwhelmed Nina to think that she could spend an entire lifetime reading and never keep up.” • “There were few places she felt more contented than in a bookstore.” • “Yet there was something about the physical, intimate act of writing a letter that made him want to be honest.” • “But sometimes I think we forget that it also takes strength to be able to let go.” • “But surely the chaos didn’t feel so chaotic if you believed it was part of God’s plan.” • “…and everything that needed to be said was said in the silence, in their touch.” • “You saw something wrong, and you didn’t look away…that’s not nothing.”
The last 100 or so pages of this text are not good. It is amateur hour at its finest.
My biggest issue with this book is that it tries to do too many things. A tighter focus of character and plotlines would have made THE MEASURE a better book. The last chapter of the novel is easily its best and demonstrates my above point. One wonders what this text could have been....more
“…you get to what you thought was the end and you find it’s a whole new beginning.”
Anne Tyler captures the quiet nuances of life that we all hold back“…you get to what you thought was the end and you find it’s a whole new beginning.”
Anne Tyler captures the quiet nuances of life that we all hold back, or rarely share with those around us. I would not call it our loneliness, just the distance that most of us create in certain aspects of our lives. LADDER OF YEARS is another example of her displaying that skill. It’s a 326-page book that feels longer, and I mean that in a good way. It’s so well developed, so richly written that it feels fuller, denser than what it actually is. Plot in short- Deila Grinstead, age 40, walks away from her marriage and children (the youngest is 16) one day during a family beach vacation and stats a new life. And the reason she does this is never fully explained. Are such actions ever?
This novel started out slow for me, and then suddenly I was caught up. I wanted to keep reading every time I picked it up. Every time I read Ms. Tyler her simplicity of observation of the small daily things in life make me appreciate being alive. There is a startling moment where Delia remembers beach vacations from her children’s younger days, and the small items that sift through her mind are instantly recognizable to anyone who has taken such a trip. Tyler writes as Delia recounts these memories, “She recalled each less-than-perfect detail, and yet still she would have given anything to find herself in one of those moments.”
Quotes: • “Except that real life continues past the end…” • “Funny how life contrived to build up layers of things around a person.” • “Never do anything you can’t undo.” • “Just a few scattered moments, she thought, have a way of summing up a person’s life.” • “It was not that her sadness had left her, but she seemed to operate on a smooth surface several inches above the sadness.” • “I may be single, but I’m not suicidal.” • “Oh, lately it seems everything I touch goes galloping off in every direction! Leaves me staring after it amazed.” • “All those years when I was a child, longing for it to be ‘my turn’, it hadn’t occurred to me that my turn would be over, by and by.” • “Taken over by rubbish words, while the real words disappear.” • “I mean, how did things get so out of hand here? When did they start to go wrong that I didn’t even notice?”
With about 60 pages to go in the book, I realized that I did not know where this story was going. And that’s life. Who really knows how this journey will end up? I will say that the last chapter of the text killed it for me, but only because it was not the end I wanted. Although reflecting on it, I think LADDER OF YEARS ended the way it was supposed to. It’s an ending that the reader must let percolate.
I keep reading Anne Tyler because her people are real. I’m so glad I have more of her output to dig through....more
“The trick of leading men was to ask a great deal, but not more than they could deliver.”
Ralph Peters is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers o“The trick of leading men was to ask a great deal, but not more than they could deliver.”
Ralph Peters is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers of historical fiction about the Civil War. HELL OR RICHMOND is his third novel about the war that I have read, and I will be sure to read all of them. Focusing mainly on the bloody mess of fighting that occurred between May 5th and June 3rd, 1864, which included the Battle of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse and Cold Harbor, this novel is a harrowing depiction of war and its effect on the men who fight them. Mr. Peters does an excellent job of rendering the chaos of battle. He does not flatter it or try to make it appear noble. I am not sure I have come across a writer yet who is better at it.
Some highlights of this text for me: - Chapter 11 is disturbing to read. It depicts the late afternoon fighting at Tapp’s Field on May 6th, 1864 (The Wilderness). Alternating between the point of view of a sergeant in the 50th Pennsylvania and a Colonel in the 15th Alabama, the shifting POV of two men engaged in a fight against each other on the same field gives a full and unsettling depiction of the heat of battle. - Chapter 17 depicting the night before the bloody assault at the “Mule Shoe” (Spotsylvania Courthouse) uses an alternating point of view to create a tension filled buildup to this iconic battle. - There is a very human moment where numerous officers engage in ribald ribbing of one another before an assault that they know is doomed. The macabre humor in the face of disaster reeks of true sentiment. - A moment where Robert E. Lee contemplates a life of no close human friendship, as he longs to confide in someone, knowing there is no one. This moment is depicted as the result of Lee’s own choices in his life, and it rings true for anyone who has worn a mask in public to hide true feelings. - The constantly shifting point of view in the text is excellently used by Mr. Peters. He creates real flesh and blood characters, and often they may only appear in the book for a few pages and then they are gone. It is a great skill and one that is deftly deployed in this text.
Quotes: • “Their ardor for slaughter repelled him.” • “But ordeals end for the lucky men who survive them.” • “Killing well was the darkest form of genius.” • “An army in collapse made a terrible noise.” • “A man had a hunger to know things, to understand.” • “To seek death was a coward’s act, no matter how others perceived it.” • “Men who had never been poor as dirt didn’t understand the hard figured cost of things.” • “He did not pray. He would not insult the Lord by begging in time of danger. He trusted in the Lord.”
The “Author’s Note” is a brilliant analysis of what should constitute real historical fiction. I thought it was something that anyone who attempts to write in this genre should read.
Ralph Peters’ research and intimate knowledge of the historical particulars of his subject matter makes this novel an excellent resource for those interested in the details of tactical elements of the events depicted, as well as those who enjoy good characterization and human truth and beauty. In HELL OR RICHMOND those elements are combined to make a very good work of historical fiction.
At one point two characters share this exchange; “I joined up believing war exalts a man. But it only humbles us.” “No sir”, Brown said. “It shames us.” HELL OR RICHMOND makes the case for all three....more
“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