Commonwealth

By Ann Patchett

November

The Great Reckoning by Louise Penny, read in November. Gamache is head of the police Cade academy and a strange murder implicates him.

My Reading Life by Pat Conroy ****

"I won this book from the monthly draw on Book Browse, and somewhere on a card, I have Conroy's autograph. That was four or five years ago. When I picked up the book last weekend, I thought I might read a chapter a week or something, and might perhaps find a chapter about bookstores, which is our Book Club theme for April,2017.  I have read two books by Conroy- Beach Music and South of Broad, and thoroughly enjoyed them, especially Beach Music. He is a writer who gets right into the bones of a subject and makes it come alive with beautifully descriptive language. I find that while I may not remember the plots of his novels, I do remember the emotions I felt while reading them, so they obviously made an impact on me.

This memoir is no exception. While the book definitely concerns his reading and writing life, he ends up telling you his life story, not in chronological order, but as these vignettes about books reveal his story to us.

Chapter One is about his mother, how they shared books and inspired one another's reading." To my mother, a library was a palace of desire masquerading in a wilderness of books."

Chapter Two discusses Gone With The Wind, how it is the quintessential novelof the south" There have  been hundreds of novels about the Civil War, but GWTW stands like an obelisk in the dead century of American letters casting its uneasy shadow over all of us"

Chapter Three, entitled The Teacher, tells the story of Gene Norris, Conroy's English teacher, who was a seminal force in his life, and- finally, because Conroy's father was an extremely difficult person, Conroy had met a great man. They remained friends until Norris died of leukaemia. This was a beautiful chapter, a real tribute to a wonderful teacher, guide, mentor, and friend.

Chapter Four tells about the year Conroy spent teaching 18 black children on a remote backwater island in South Carolina, a one- room schoolhouse, grades five to eight. " I was in way over my head and lacked all qualifications to teach those kids. even so, I pulled up a chair and told them not to worry,.'I can teach you everything you need to know', I said. 'We're going to have a blast'.

Chapter Five, The Librarian, relates his discovery of the library in the high school he had just entered- the library became his refuge, and there he met Eileen Hunter, the librarian. " My genuine fondness for Eileen trumps my irritation at the thorny relationship she brought to the librarian's craft. I can forgive almost any crime if a great story is left in its wake"

Chapter Six, The Old New York Book Shop, tells the story of a wonderfully strange bookshop in Atlanta, which Conroy says utterly changed his life. 

Chapter Seven is about a book rep who led Conroy through the process of having his novels distributed. 

There are chapters about writers' conferences, his time in Paris as a young writer, and so on. This has been a wonderful reading journey for me, too!

Lily And The Octopus by Stephen Rowley ***

Well, I did finish this, so that says something about the book, I guess, but it was one of my quiet reads. I actually finished it while waiting on the telephone for Shaw Direct to help me with my receiver- had to wait an hour, only to find I hadn't turned the receiver on ......duh. 

Lily is a dachshund who has a tumour on her head, which the author, who I believe is the narrator in this story, calls an octopus, and the book is the story of how the narrator, who loves his dog unconditionally, thinks he can send the octopus away.

It would have made an excellent short story, but became a bit too strung out.

The Nature Of The Beast by Louise Penny ****

Armand Gamache has retired to Tall Pines, but finds himself involved again in crime solving when a young boy, Laurent, is killed after telling everyone about a huge gun he had found in the woods. 

Gamache, his son-in-law Beauvoir, and Chief Inspector Isabel Lacoste are kept busy when the huge gun is actually found in the forest with a strange and evil etching on it. Several days later another person, Antoinette is killed, and Gamache discovers she was the niece of a man who assisted in its construction.

The plot becomes thicker, and the danger greater as more possible suspects seem to appear. In all of this, the cosy little town with its BandB and the bistro, the bookstore, the grocery store, offers a contrast to the evil gun resting in the forest.

Then ding has all the ends tied up nicely, then you read the afterword by the author and find that this story is based on facts!

Landing Gear by Kate Pullinger. ****

A woman named Harriet is pushing her grocery cart towards her car in the supermarket parking lot near Heathrow airport when a man falls out of the sky onto the hood of her car. The man- a Pakistani named Yacub- is unhurt, rolls off the hood, and Harriet takes him home, and hides him. His appearance is the catalyst for change in the household of Harriet, her husband Michael, and their teenaged son Jack.

Secrets are broken and kept, connections are made, and there are some coincidences as well. 

Facebook has a role in this story as well, and opens a discussion of how social media affects our day to day living.

I liked this book because it was a quick, entertaining read. I enjoyed the glimpse of a modern family, the connections throughout the book,, the stresses of living a regular kind of life .

No Relation by Terry Fallis ***

Fallis' fourth novel is about a young man called Earnest Hemmingway, his problems with dealing with a name so familiar to everyone, especially since he was also an aspiring writer. He forms a group of people who all have famous names - Jackie Kennedy, Mhatma Gandhi, Jesse Owens, Diana Ross, among others, plus Marie Antoinette, who runs a bakery called Let Them Eat Cake.

The story is comic, and there were a few chuckles, but I tired of it after a while, although I guess you could say I finished it. 

Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan - second reading.

First reading was July, 2013, and is on this blog. Book Club selection for May, 2016.

I enjoyed this just as much the second time. The gist of the story- the relationship between sisters- starts on page 134-141.

The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney ***

I only bought this because it was a "Heather's Pick" and was on sale for $15, although I had read several quite positive reviews.  It was a lighter read than "The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen, but it is similar in that it's modern fiction, modern themes, and modern family dysfunction. 

The Nest is an amount of money a wealthy father extends to each of his four children, a fairly substantial amount each of them will receive when the youngest, Melody, turns 40. However, Dad has died, and their flaky Mom, dips into The Nest to pay  damages to Leo, the reprobate oldest son, who gets into a car accident and his passenger suffers extensive injuries. So the rest of the family are all trying to figure out how to get their full share back into The Nest. Most of the four have already set aside some financial goal, counting on The Nest to see them through, and Melody is about to turn 40!

For a first novel, this was well- written, and I think I would have liked it more if I'd read more intensively for the first 100 pages, because I only read a little every day, and kind of lost my focus.

Nora Webster by Colm Toibin ***

I could only give this 3 stars, despite what the critics said. It was a story of a grieving widow, and I recognized Nora's struggle to adjust to a new life, but the story didn't seem to go anywhere. Even when her daughter goes missing, Nora carries on pretty much  as usual- I expected more emotion from her. Anyway, I'm going to try and copy a review of the novel from the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/books/review/nora-webster-by-colm-toibin.html

It worked!

The Dust That Falls From Dreams - Louis de Bernières ****

Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières is one of my favourite novels, so I was happy to find this at the Panama City Library, even though I knew Imight not be able to finish it before leaving. I had to do some skimming near the end, but I did finish it.

It's the story of three families - McCosh, Pendennis, and Pitt- who are neighbours in Edwardian England. The children of these three families are all Pals- close, lifelong friends. Some of the boys grow up to fight in WWI, the girls to work as nurses and volunteer aides. There are romances, heartbreak, tragedies and triumphs, all described so vividly and beautifully by the author.

Bernières is really at his best describing the hash realities of war- life in the trenches, in the planes, in the hospitals. He especially enjoys describing battles in the air, real ones and the ones in which the men let off steam in air shows. He also describes how the war is fought back home in England, and how people like Mrs. McCosh never recover from what she saw during a bombing raid.

He also describes the aftermath of war- how relationships build and break down- how men who were masters of their planes now have nothing to do.

There are some wonderful characters, too, especially Hamilton McCosh, the tradesman who is for ever trying to perfect his golf game and invent various contraptions to enable him to play better and maybe ger rich in the meantime. His Scottish burr comes through, his soft spot for down and outs, his love of his four daughters, plus his patience and charm  with his wife, who is not easy to get along with.

This is an old- fashioned novel, the kind I love to burrow down with. So glad I read this!

Dead Wake by Erik Larson ****

This non-fiction book follows the fateful trip of the ocean liner Lusitania, which was sunk by a German torpedo just off the coast of Ireland in May, 1915. En route from New York to Liverpool, the ship was one day away from its destination, passing through a channel well- known for German submarines, but the ship's captain was led to believe the ship would be safely escorted, and it wasn't. In Britain a highly secret de-coding agency called Room 40, knew of the danger, but for whatever reason- probably thinking a shipwreck like this would hasten America's joining the Allied Forces- the Lusitania sailed, fully ignorant of the danger ahead. 

The book relates the voyage, the passengers' various stories, the trip and the commander of the U-20, the German submarine, plus a detailed description of the sinking. 

This was a very absorbing read, almost like a novel. I'm glad I read it- it offers a completely different vantage point of the Great War, and America's involvement, not to mention the British duplicity, especially Winston Churchill, who was First Lord of Room 40.

Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper ***

Etta, aged 83, suddenly decides to leave her farm in Sakatchewan, her husband Otto, and walk to the east coast to find the sea.Russell, their friend and a former suitor of Etta's sets out to find her, upset that Otto, who fought in the war before marrying Etta, understands why she has gone and why he must let her do this.  Meanwhile, Etta meets James on the road- a faithful companion, although the reader is never really sure if James is actually there or not.

The novel is a fairly quick, tender read, and the author's style can best be described as quirky. The novel moves back and forth in time, and actually some of the characters seem to interconnect in different ways as well.

I'm not sure I liked the ending! I think maybe Etta and Otto become one before they even enter the water- sometimes Otto is the subject of the sentence, but the pronoun is a female one in the same sentence. A bit confusing, but I think the author is telling us there are no pat answers, and there could be several possible scenarios- she uses this technique once in the book while Etta is walking eastward.

The author confesses she writes in a very linear fashion, and it seems to work well for her. 

But I can't give it more than three stars, simply because of the non- ending!

Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith ***

The third round of the Cormoran Strike novels, this was also perhaps the longest, and I eventually tired of it, surprisingly, because I did enjoy the first 200 pages, the tension between Robin and Cormoran, the fact that there were 3 possible suspects, and some interesting characters. JK Rowling, the actual author, says in her acknowledgements, that writing this novel was like a playground for her amidst other writing projects, and I think she just didn't want to let it go. Too much talk, too much dithering about Robin and her fiancé. 

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalinithi *****

The author was only 37 years old, a brilliant neurosurgeon just finishing his residency, when he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, a cancer which had spread to his brain. He was also a student of philosophy and literature- an underachiever he was definitely not- and in the midst of this diagnosis, he was able to find strength and purpose in writing about his journey. This book is the result. 

I heard his wife, who completed the book after his death,  on CBC while driving from Ottawa to Toronto, and knew this was a book I had to read. 

He doesn't just write about his cancer, he writes about his experiences as a doctor, the triumphs and the losses. And what struck me the most was his sense of purpose - that until he died, he would keep on living as fully as he could. 

There are some wonderful highlights on my Kindle, too.

His wife, Lucy, herself a doctor, wrote about his final days in the epilogue. This was not a sad story at all, rather a wonderful tale of living in the moment.

Ethan Fromme by Edith Wharton ****

This is a novella more than a novel, only took maybe three reading sessions to finish it. But quite an enjoyable story about Ethan Fromme, his wife Zeena, and Mattie, the cousin of his wife who comes to care for Zeena, who is constantly ill. Ethan falls in love with Mattie, and Zeena wreaks revenge upon Ethan. Quite a compelling read, a good love story about having no chances at a future together and he the overs seek to solve their problem.

BOOKS NOT COMPLETED!

1. As Chimney Sweepers Come To Dust by Alan Bradley. To page 139. More a caricature of English boarding schools than a mystery, the school is in Canada, Flavia doesn't even know why she's there, the body appears early, but the story was too character-driven than plot- driven.

2. The Secret Life of William Shakespeare by Jude Morgan- I tried twice to read this, because I thought I should try, since this year is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. The second time I got 60% of it read, but amid such boredom, I just couldn't continue. 

3. Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo- I read this some years ago and re-read it because Russo has written a sequel. I enjoyed the over 200 pages I read, but I had read enough.

4. Birdie by Tracey Lindberg- I may come back to this- it's pretty raw.

5. The Crooked House- I enjoyed the first part, when a family, with the exception of Esme, a teenaged girl who was not supposed to be at home when her family was murdered. Not enough happening to hold my interest, and the suspects around her are so obviously rotten and I couldn't understand why she couldn't see that. But then, the story would have had to end! 

6. The Unqiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan- I read about this Canadian author in Maclean's and finally found this book in Peterborough. I did read over 200 pages of it, but there didn't seems to be any progress being made, the women were all a bit flimsy and stereotypical, there was an attempt to create some chemistry between the two detectives, and I thought the atrocities in Bosnia were gratuitously described. When I saw there were about 150 pages of boring stuff left before I could say I'd finished it, I gave up.

7. The Disastrous Mrs. Weldon by Brian Thompson

8. Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien

 

Miss Emily by Nuala O'Connor ****

I'm a long- standing fan of Emily Dickinson, and this biographical novel revealed some more information about her. The chapters alternate with the story told first by Miss Ada, the young maid who has just come from Ireland, and Miss Emily herself. The plot was a little thin, but the novel was basically character- driven, so I accepted that and enjoyed the read. And I learned more about Emily, one of the most fascinating poets, as much for her life-style as anything.

Why did Emily wear only white? 

" ..white has long been of importance to me...It strikes me that if I am pure in dress,my mind may empty itself of all concerns, and that will make it easier for me to write...This decision - to wear white-sings poetry to me: it will speak of obedience to words, my dedication...From now on, I shall be candle-white.Dove-, bread-, swan-, shroud-,ice-,extra-ordinary white. I shall be blanched, bleached, and bloodless to look at; my very whiteness will be my mark. But inside of course, I will roar and soar and flash with color."

Emily on words, and dashes, which are so characteristic of her poetry:

" When my heart or my head hurts, when my body betrays me in sickness, I have words to play with. But, more than play,, they own me. I am their servant, and I serve willingly, with as much grace as I can muster. I have so little power over them, in truth. Words- all words- chill and scorch me.

"each dash I create is a weight, a pause, a question. I select them with care. The exclamation point is juvenile, while the dash is much more promising- a mature Mark. Each dash interrupts, emphasizes, connects and pushes apart the words around it. The dash is a waiting beat- dah-dah-dah.

" my lexicon bulges, but my picks from it are slender: I favorited the blunt and the simple. I prefer one syllable to two....with words I question, I complain, I code. " page 39

The Piano Maker by Kurt Palka *****

A short but powerful novel set mainly in a small French town in the Annapolis Velley, but also in France, and northern Alberta. Hélène Giroux is a piano builder, as well as an accomplished pianist, who suddenly appears in this small town, where the cathedral houses the very piano that her family had built for many years back in France. It is obvious from the beginning that Hélène is trying to put her past behind her, and the author very skillfully gives us readers little bits of information about her past. The story moves back and forth from one time and location to another, as it builds in tension, yet we know all the time that Hélène is a good person. 

It took me only two days to read this, and never once did my interest weaken. SO nice to read a book (by a man no less) that only says what is absolutely necessary and does it expertly and movingly.

Could be a Book Club nomination for another year!

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith ****

This is the second Cormoran Strike novel, this time centred around the world,of novelists, and Strike is hired to find the husband of his client, who has been missing for two weeks. strike finds his bodyA badly torturned and body parts missing, then sets out to protect his client from murder charges. 

His relationship with Robin, his secretary- assistant detective, is just as intriguing as ever, as Robin's fiancé, the hapless Michael, hates Strike just because.

Now looking ahead to the third novel, A Career of Evil, which has just come out.

Broken Harbour by Tana French ****

Another mystery! I read Faithful Place by Tana French last year in Florida, and enjoyed it. Picked  this one up at I the GoodwillStore for 6$. The Book Club's theme for March is Irish Women Writers, and since French is Irish, that was another reason to read it.

Well- written, logically and clearly presented, I can say she's a good writer, but whether she's quintessentially Irish in her writing, I can't say. 

The setting is one of those suburban housing developments that went wrong, so most of the homes are empty. Detective Scorcher Kennedy and his partner, Richie, are assigned to a case where a family of four in this subdivision  has been violently attacked; only the mother, Jenny Spain has survived.

It doesn't take long to supposedly find the murderer, but there's something very odd about the situation- the author has evidently thought this through in detail. The twists and turns are quite interesting, especially the long - some 10 pages at least- confession of the murderer.

I think I can rank French near the top of my preferred mystery writers. So there's Elizabeth George, Louise Penny, Peter Robinson, and I'm about to start Robert  Galbraith's The Silkworm.

A Banquet of Consequences ( Inspector Lynley No. 19) by Elizabeth George ****

My first read of 2016, I read it all and I enjoyed it!  Now it was a little long, but it was good to have Barbara back in full form, leopard print high- tops and all. Inspector Lynley seems to have fallen in love with the veterinarian, Daidre ( I don't know to pronounce her name), and she finally seems willing to commit to him as well. But the villainous Caroline Goldacre is a work of art by Elizabeth George- talk about a manipulative mother, nasty bitch of a wife, fawning employee- she leapt right off the page.

I didn't even finish # 18, it was so long and unwieldy, so I did hesitate downloading it, but since George  has been a favourite mystery writer for over twenty years, I had to give her a chance. I'm glad I did!

TOP BOOKS OF 2015- 42 books completed this year.

I had some difficulties compiling this list, because I didn't read as many wonderful books. A lot of that probably is because of my concentration on Mike's illness, but as much as I wanted a book I could just fall into, I couldn't seem to find one when I needed it. I started many books, and some I even got more than halfway through before sighing and putting them away. However, I still enjoy making this list, even though I would rather have to pick from a greater number of excellent books!

1. Girl On The Train  by Paula Hawkins

2. Station 11 by Emily St. John Mandel

3. Faithful Place by Tana French

4. Travelling To Infinity by Jane Hawkings

5. The Love Story of Miss Queenie Hennessey by Rachel Joyce

6. The Purchase by Linda Spalding

7. And The Birds Rained Down by Jocelyne Saucier

8. Our Souls At Night by Kent Haruf

9. Dearie: The Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz

10. Three related books by Jane Gardam: Old Filth, The Man In The Wooden Hat, Last Friends.