Cariola's 2022 Book Reviews

Hans Holbein the Younger, ca. 1538

This year's theme is Early Modern English Babies. The little man above is Edward, only son of Henry VIII and his third wife, Jane Seymour. Edward never knew his mother, who died of childbed fever--puerperal fever, blood poisoning caused by a lack of sterile conditions during labor and delivery. As his father's heir (and ultimately his last child), he was raised in a carefully shielded environment, one that was both physically protective and staunchly Protestant. At the age of five, Edward was betrothed to seven-year old Mary, Queen of Scots, as part of a treaty to end the wars with Scotland and, hopefully, to eventually unite the two kingdoms. The Scots, however, broke the treaty, spiriting Mary off to France and a new betrothed. Edward succeeded his father at the age of nine and was crowned Edward VI, but because he was still in his minority, the power was held by a Protectorate, a governing council of lords that was initially headed by his ambitious uncle Edward Seymour. (Seymour was removed from his office two years later and beheaded for treason in 1550.)

Despite the chubby cheeks in the portrait above, Edward was a sickly child. In 1553, he succumbed to what historians believe was tuberculosis, never having taken full control of the throne. His will named his first cousin once removed, Lady Jane Grey, as his successor, passing over his two sisters, Mary (a devout Catholic) and Elizabeth (like Jane Grey and Edward, a Protestant, but considered by many--including, for a time, Henry VIII--to be a bastard). Mary's supporters launched a rebellion, and Jane lost her crown and her head in only nine days.

Best of 2022 (so far)
Foster by Claire Keegan
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
Jeoffry: The Poet's Cat by Oliver Soden
Still Life by Sarah Winman
Companion Piece by Ali Smith
The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Ghost Forest by Pik-Shuen Fung
The Good Wife of Bath by Karen Brooks
The Women of Troy by Pat Barker
Love Marriage by Monica Ali
Life Without Children by Roddy Doyle
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth and the Trials of American Democracy by Jamie Raskin
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

Best of 2021:
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris
Matrix: A Novel by Lauren Groff
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Strange Flowers by Donal Ryan
Secrets of Happiness by Joan Silber
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
Ariadne by Jennifer Saint
I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O'Farrell
Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey
The Color of Milk by Nell Leyshon
Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri
How to Pronounce Knife: Stories by Souvankham Thammavongsa

Currently Reading:


January
The Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian
Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth and the Trials of American Democracy by Jamie Raskin
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames by Justine Cowan

February
A Net for Small Fishes by Lucy Jago
The Women of Troy by Pat Barker

March
The Good Wife of Bath by Karen Brooks
Life Without Children by Roddy Doyle

April
Booth by Karen Joy Fowler
Learwife by J.R. Thorpe
The Christie Affair by Nina De Gramont

May
Leonora in the Morning Light by Michaela Carter
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

June
The School of Mirrors by Eva Stachniak
Ghost Forest by Pik-Shuen Fung
Love Marriage by Monica Ali

July
Companion Piece by Ali Smith
The Partition by Don Lee

August
Still Life by Sarah Winman
The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Summerwater by Sarah Moss
Jeoffry: The Poet's Cat by Oliver Soden

September
Five Tuesdays in Winter: Stories by Lily King
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris

October
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li

November
The Fugitive Colours by Nancy Bilyeau
The Bookstore Sisters by Alice Hoffman
Foster by Claire Keegan
The Hero of This Book by Elizabeth McCracken

December
All the Broken Places by John Boyne
James Herriott's Cat Stories

The Hour of the Witch by Chris Bojalian

Bohjalian's novel is a stark commentary on the danger governance that combines a strict patriarchal and misogynistic order with religious fanaticism. In 1662, ultra-Puritan Boston prides itself on not being as witch-crazy as Salem or New Haven--which is not to say that this society is any more tolerant or sane. A witch was hanged the previous year, and citizens are regularly exiled, flogged, maimed, and executed for sins and misdemeanors such as adultery, drunkenness or church inattendance.

It's hard not to shake your head and laugh while reading comments about the new-fangled silver forks imported by the father of Mary Deering, Bohjalian's protagonist. They recoil in horror from "the Devil's tines" and swear that they will never use them, even though the governor and other respected citizens have adopted them. Although Mary rejects the forks, they mysteriously appear buried in her front yard, a nub of the handles ticking out of the ground. Inexplicably, she decides to rebury them. The next time they reappear, they are accompanied by a wooden bowl into which two "Devil's tines" have been engraved. These symbols will figure prominently in the witch trial that the book's title suggests will be forthcoming.

Mary, 24, is the second wife of Thomas Deering a successful mill owner in his 40s. Her stepdaughter Peregrine, several years older than Mary, is married to a handsome young man and has already given birth to two daughters. But Mary's own sorrow is that she suspects that she has no children and suspects that she is barren. She has another, hidden sorrow: that she is the victim of vicious domestic abuse. Thomas is frequently "drink-drunk" and never hesitates to throw her barrenness in her face or to claim that, on one hand, she is sly and conniving and, on the other, that her "head is filled with white meat." In addition, he beats her--but always strategically, making sure that the bruises will bloom in places that can be hidden. When his attacks escalate into a maiming injury that cannot be hidden from prying eyes, Mary fears for her life, retreats to her parents' home, and files for divorce.

I'll not provide any more details about the plot, except to say that they focus on the magisterial hearing for the divorce petition (which Thomas opposes), the aftermath, and the expected charges of witchcraft that Mary eventually faces. The misogyny is heavy-handed to the point of being horrifying, but what else could one expect in a novel set in Puritan Boston? Of course, many of the antagonists are clichés, but there are a number of more complex characters, including Constance Winton, an older woman who has narrowly escaped witchcraft charges and lives in exile outside the town boundaries; Henry Simmons, a young man attracted to Mary; and Mr. Hull, the scribe who helps with Mary's defense.

Initially, I gave this book four stars, but I'm downgrading it a bit. While I did stay engaged with the story, I felt the author could have handled feminist themes more subtly and realistically. If I was to compare this to a classic Puritan novel, 'The Scarlet Letter,' I'd have to say that it is closer to the horrendous Demi Moore film version than to Hawthorne's original. Of course, I couldn't help but note the similarities between the Puritan patriarchy and the evangelicalism rampant in America today. I can only hope that other readers see this as well and do not just shake their heads over the stupidity and intolerance of those in our historical past. Overall, I'd have to say that, while 'The Hour of the Witch' deals with serious issues, the presentation renders it as a rather light read.

>2 Cariola: "I felt the author could have handled feminist themes more subtly and realistically."

As in "he made some of those too 21st century to be realistic in a historical novel set in that period" or as in "he mostly shoved them under the carpet and ignored them"?

Interesting review.

>3 AnnieMod: As in your first interpretation. You must not have seen the Demi Moore film, right?

>4 Cariola: Nope for the film - or not that I remember anyway - there was a time when I and my sister watched a new movie pretty much daily and the TV was usually running at home - so chances are that I saw it but have no memories of it. I haven't been watching too many movies in the last 20 years -- and my memories before that can be spotty :)

I suspected so but decided to give Bohjalian a bit of a chance for me to be wrong if I was misreading you - he is supposed to be a good historical fiction writer. And that is pretty much the only thing that will stop me from reading a novel (or annoy me enough to read the one I started but never to return) - transposing 21st century values into a period they do not belong to... Unfortunately a lot of reviewers seem to ignore it when that happens and to actually like it so historical novels can become a problem for me.

Had you read anything else by him? Is it a problem in all his novels?

>5 AnnieMod: Most of his books that I have read have not been historical, but I hadn't read anything of his for quite a few years. He is a good writer overall and generally does his research.

One thing that really bothered me about this one is that while I was aware of the misogyny of the Puritan period, I don't think it could possibly have been quite as bad as depicted here. I don't think they would have excused Thomas out of hand for beating and stabbing his wife, dismissing her testimony and believing his lies just because he was a man and she was a woman, especially since he was known as a hard drinker. Ex: He pins her hand to the table and stabs through it with a fork, breaking bones in her hand and leaving three clear, evenly spaced marks from the tines. Yet they buy his claim that she tripped and fell on a tea kettle. The doctor testifies about how bad it was, but he, too, says the kettle could have caused it. Another woman says she saw a bruise on her temple; he says again that she fell on some kitchen equipment, and they believe it. All this was just too much to believe. Puritans generally thought of their wives as helpmeets and would not condone obvious spousal brutality. Yes, there was the whole witchcraft persecution, but, as we know, most of those charged were older women who held property--or poor older women who had become financial drains on the community.

>6 Cariola: Not going to read your spoiler because I still might read the book, you never know. But that's a good analysis of it, and if I do read it I'll be going in forearmed. Or forewarned, whichever it is.

>7 lisapeet: Glad I added the spoiler! Several people I usually agree with liked it more than I did, so you might, too.

>6 Cariola: Any recommendation where to start with him? And that would have bothered me as well - although not enough not to finish the book - but I can see what you mean in the review as well based on the spoiler.

>2 Cariola: Great review, and, after reading the spoiler, I think I'll pass.

I really enjoyed your first post a lot - so many heads. As for Bojalian, I think i'll pass. Nice to see your thread.

ETA - I didn't mean to plagiarize Lisa : ) (I only just saw her post)

>9 AnnieMod: The one I appreciated the most was Midwives, one of his earliest.

A lot of people seem to have liked Hour of the Witch a lot more than I did; it has earned 4 stars here on LT. I do love historical fiction, but I am getting pickier and pickier about what I will tolerate.

I probably won't read that one given your 3 star rating, but I really enjoyed your review.

>2 Cariola:
Great review. I'll pass, thanks.

>13 AlisonY:, >14 Nickelini: I hope my next reviews are for books that intrigue you.

Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy by Jamie Raskin

If you were watching the events that took place at the Capital on January 6. 2021 as they unfolded, or if you followed the second Trump impeachment proceedings, you won't learn much that is new from Raskin's book--but that's not to say that it isn't worth reading. Raskin does give us some interesting behind the scenes looks at how the House committee planned its strategy and presentation. But what makes this book memorable is the way he weaves memories of his son Tommy into his account of the insurrection and impeachment. On New Year's Eve, this brilliant, creative young activist succumbed to the depression he had suffered from for several years, taking his own life in the basement apartment of the Raskin family home. Tommy was laid to rest just a few days before Congress was to meet to certify the presidential election results. The Raskins are a large, closely knit extended family, and they came together from all parts of the country to mourn. When Raskin decided that he was obligated to attend and cast his vote in person, his daughter Tabitha and his son-in-law (married not to Tabitha but to her sister Hannah) came with him to lend support. Little did they know that they would end the afternoon hiding under a desk in Steny Hoyer's office as a crowd of angry insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capital. I won't belabor the events of that day; suffice it to say that Raskin's firsthand account is chilling.

Just a few days later, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi called Raskin to repeat her condolences--and to ask Raskin if he would chair the second impeachment committee. Despite the personal tragedy that had just occurred, as one of the few Constitutional lawyers in the House, his inclination was to agree, but he asked for a little time to consult with his wife and daughters. They were vehemently opposed, fearing that the position would put his life in danger and that they could not withstand another loss. But Raskin believed that his son's spirit was with him, encouraging him to take on the task for the sake of American democracy, which had been threatened on January 6. After assuring them that his security team would be even stronger than that provided for Adam Schiff, chair of the first impeachment committee, because of the Capital breaching, he accepted the position.

Raskin walks us through every step in the process leading up to the final vote in the Senate: the selection of committee members, establishing rules, determining press protocol, lining up key witnesses, and planning the final presentation of facts. As I said abovee, there's nothing too unexpected here, but nonetheless, Raskin makes it interesting, and Tommy is with him every step of the way. The memories he shares highlight his son's intellect, his humor, his love of America, his passion for justice, his concern for the environment, for animals, and for the less fortunate. Somehow, Raskin manages to bring together the personal and the political through Tommy in a way that seems natural, not forced. Memories flash in the midst of the events of the day, much as one would expect them to do in the mind of a grieving father, but they serve not to distract him from his difficult task but to illuminate it. It's not hard to see why this book is dedicated to Tommy Raskin.

Unthinkable is not your typical dry political read. It's the very human account of a man dealing with two tragedies, one personal and one political, and of how his love for his son and their mutual love for the American democratic system continue to inspire Jamie Raskin.

>16 Cariola: I'd never read that book, but your review was very interesting. The whole January 6 is pretty bizarre. Anyone who says "who knew?" is just a dolt or a liar, because I don't even live in the US and I'd heard beforehand that something was up, and I actually turned on my TV news midday PST to see what was going on . . . did not blink when I saw the rioting. I could tell you that was going to happen, but the fall out from that, I have no idea. Seems that accountability only happens for the hoi polloi, and then it depends on their skin colour.

>17 Nickelini: True. And even those who have been convicted so far have pretty much gotten slaps on the wrist. As I heard Michael Steele point out earlier this evening, a black woman in Texas went to the polling place to vote and was told she wasn't on the rolls. She filled out a provisional ballot, but it turns out she had gone to the wrong polling place. She got five years in jail for voter fraud. White guys who broke window, destroyed property and beat police officers have, for the most part, gotten three years or less, minus time served. Not to mention that the orange man who incited the riot, is perpetuating lies about voter fraud, and tried to get the Georgia Secretary of state to "find" enough votes to give him the win is living the good life down in Florida.

>1 Cariola: What a lovely portrait. At first glance, I thought it was Henry himself with the colouring and chubby cheeks. Do you suppose Holbein was flattering Henry with this?
Good summary of Edward's short life. Looking forward to more babies.

>16 Cariola: I only heard recently of the suicide of Raskin's son, and that put a whole new perspective on his chairing of the second impeachment committee. I will have to look for this book.

>16 Cariola: I have that on order from the library. I am interested in the personal as well as the political aspects, having seen Raskin several times on TV talking about his son. I had also previously seen him discussing political matters and thought him a brilliant constitutional lawyer. I can't imagine taking on such an important role as impeachment manager so soon after the tragic death of his son.
Last year I read I read Adam Schiff's Midnight in Washington in which a huge focus was on the first impeachment trial which Schiff managed. As a former attorney (and political junkie), I enjoyed reading about the legal maneuvering, the legal analyses and considerations, and all the ins and outs of trial preparation and the trial itself. Schiff's book just skimmed over the second trial, perhaps because he wasn't involved, so I'm looking forward to Raskins legal take on the second trial.

>18 Cariola: it’s all quite shocking. All of it

>17 Nickelini:, >18 Cariola: It truly is shocking! But, I did see an interview recently that said prosecutors often do the “smaller” (can’t remember the exact words used) cases first to lay a foundation for the big fish. It allows them to have a solid case against the people who created the insurrection in the first place. I’m hoping they are right. There are a lot of big fish I’d like to see behind bars for a very long time.

>16 Cariola: I met Rep. Raskin briefly in early 2020, when he spoke to some of us who were canvassing for Elizabeth Warren ahead of the New Hampshire primary. I was impressed; smart man. Sounds like his book further makes that case.

>21 Nickelini: Guy from PA got 14 days in jail for his role in the insurrection. The judge was going to dismiss the case entirely because he was only 19 and it was a first offense, but then he read social media posts he sent from inside the Capital.

>20 arubabookwoman: I think you will enjoy his book. Raskin is a smart lawyer and a Constitutional Law professor. One of the members of the committee was a former student of his. I found the planning fascinating--he was always one step ahead of Trump's lawyers and what they would argue. He had so much faith in the system. Even as the vote was taken, he felt sure that enough Republicans would vote to impeach, based on the irrefutable evidence. But if you watched it, most of the GOP members of the Senate weren't paying any attention because they had already agreed to vote no. Some, like Lindsay Graham, had said before the trial began that they didn't need to hear any evidence because there was nothing there.

>22 NanaCC: I've heard that, too, and I hope it's right. But meanwhile, the clock is ticking. If the GOP takes back the house next year, this committee will be disbanded. And it doesn't look like the Dept. of Justice is really doing much.

>23 dukedom_enough: I believe Raskin is Madeline's representative. I remember her posting on facebook when Tommy died. Very smart, yes, and also a real patriot and an all-around good human being. He quotes lines from literature a lot in the book, as well as from his son's own poetry, which of course won me over, too.

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

It has been years since I've read anything by Louise Erdrich, and I'm happy to say that this was a much better experience than reading Chris Bohjalian's latest after a long gap. Tookie Pollux is a Native American woman with a history of drug abuse and nonviolent crimes and is married to the cop who arrested her when she ended up in jail. She's out on parole and working at Birchbark Books in Minneapolis. One of her least favorite customers, Flora, a white woman claiming that she is Native American, suddenly dies, but Tookie is convinced that her ghost is still hanging around, trying to find the book that will prove her heritage. (Birchbark is a regular bookstore but also specializes in Native American books; one of Tookie's co-workers is a graduate student doing research in Native American studies.) Every morning when she comes to work, Tookie finds books pulled from the shelves and thrown to the floor and paper towels scattered about in the washroom, and she can hear the familiar swishing of Flora's clothes as she passes by.

Initially, no one else thinks the store is haunted, but most of her coworkers do believe in spirits (not ghosts). Tookie's husband Pollux is a master of tribal rituals, but burning sage and other strategies have not laid Flora to rest. When she finds the mysterious book that she believes Flora has been searching for--the book she was reading when she died--, Tookie tries another tactic. But things become even more ominous when she actually hears Flora's voice pleading, "Let me in!"

I don't want to reveal more about the plot, but there are a number of twists and turns, and the characters are wonderful. Besides Flora, two other customers that figure into the story, an elderly black mand that Tookie has nicknamed Dissatisfaction (you can probably guess why) and a strange young man who gives her a book he has written, he says, in "the language of my heritage." There are no printed words in the book, just "chicken scratches." We later learn that his name is Laurent, and he figures more prominently in the story than one might at first suspect. Tookie's co-workers, Penstemon, Ameris, Gruen, and Jackie, her husband Pollux and her stepdaughter Hetta are all unique characters in their own way. Erdrich adds contemporary depth to the novel in the second half, in which two major events affect both the characters and the setting: the murder of George Floyd and the spread of COVID-19. It's impossible not to relive those events through the responses and fears of her Minneapolis Native Americans.

The Sentence is a story of many ghosts, not just Flora's. She is haunted by her relationship with her dead mother, by her absent father, by several destructive love affairs, by the actions that put her into jail. Even though she feels that she was "saved" by books and by the love of Pollux, these ghosts will not rest. And of course, the history of her people haunts not only Tookie but every Native American character in the book.

I really enjoyed this book and will undoubtedly go back to read more by Erdrich that I missed over the last 20 years or so.

>28 Cariola: That is the most compelling review I have read of The Sentence. Is it a stand alone in the Erdrich-universe? I have only read The Round House and the Birchbark House books. I am wondering if I should read this or start with Love Medicine?

>28 Cariola: I just finished The Sentence,and it was my first Erdrich. You reviewed it wonderfully; I really liked Pollux.

>29 labfs39: I mean, who knows what I missed but I enjoyed it and haven’t read any other books by Erdrich.

>28 Cariola: This is on my "read sooner than later" list, so I'm glad to read your review.

>29 labfs39: I loved Love Medicine, but I read it so so long ago I couldn't tell you exactly why.

>29 labfs39: As I said, it has been years since I've read her books, probably since The Master Butcher's Singing Club came out. I do recall that in the first ones, some characters returned or had links to new ones, but this would seem to be a stand-alone novel. If it intrigues you, I'd go ahead and read it, then go back to her earlier novels. I loved that it dealt with contemporary events

>28 Cariola: great review Deborah. This definitely captures my interests (so did raidergirl3's review).

Hey, Deborah...I was in Club Read 2009 (the first Club Read) and I note you are listed as member #3 (behind myself and jargoneer). My husband was #4 and rebeccanyc was #5. The later numbers are less reliable because of members unlisting themselves from old/defunct groups.It was fun to look at who was active then.

>34 avaland: Hmm, I posted back but must have forgotten to save. I'm surprised that I am that high up on the list to sign up. I guess the Cottage is long defunct. Seems a lot of people are moving to Goodreads or just posting on facebook. But I like the conversation here.

The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames by Justine Cowan

I guess I would have to call Justine Cowan's book a memoir, although it is also a biography and perhaps a psychological study of two women: Justine herself and her mother Eileen. The two had a very difficult relationship and were almost totally estranged by the time Eileen passed away. Her mother spoke with a rather practiced aristocratic British accent, and when she married an American GI and moved to California, she did everything possible to convey that she was upper crust. She forced Justine to take riding lessons (which she eventually grew to love), penmanship lessons, violin lessons with a Suzuki master, etiquette lessons, sent her away to boarding school and more, and she constantly criticized her daughter for behaving like or just longing to be a normal kid living a normal life. Her mother also had bouts of fierce rage, often directed at Justine. It got to the point that when Justine finally moved out to live on her own, she would ask her father to visit her alone--until her mother found out and the visits stopped altogether. Curiously, Eileen never talked about her family, even when Justine asked about grandparents or what her life had been like as a child. It wasn't until after her mother's death that she began to search for the puzzle pieces and fit them together. She recalled a time when her mother had phoned her, asking her to visit because at last she wanted to tell her about her past. Justine's response: "It's too late." When she began her research into Eileen's background after her death, she remembered that her mother had also sent her a handwritten autobiography years ago, but she had put it away unread.

Much to her surprise, Justine learned that Eileen had been born to an unwed mother and surrendered to Coram Foundling Hospital where she was given the name Dorothy Soames. She set out on a journey to London to learn as much as possible about her mother's family, her childhood in a rigid institutional environment, and her life after leaving Coram. What she learned finally gave Justine an understanding of her mother's personality and often strange behavior, and it also gave her insight into the effects this background may have had on her own development.

Overall, this was an interesting read--although at times I found Justine to be just as maddening and self-centered as her mother. If the book makes anything clear, it is that the psychologists were right when they determined that early childhood experiences shape our personalities and affect both the trajectory of our lives and the nature of our relationships.

such an interesting premise. How surreal to go your whole life without knowing your mother grew up in a foundling home.

>35 Cariola: I can be bothered to go to another platform/site. This has worked and people post using full sentences!

>36 Cariola: Nice review!

>28 Cariola:. I love Erdrich-- looking forward to reading this one.

A Net for Small Fishes by Lucy Jago

Lucy Jago's narrator, Ann Turner, is one of the "small fishes" caught in a notorious murder plot and trial set in the court of James I. The story is based on actual events involving Frances Howard, a beautiful daughter of the powerful Catholic family. Frances was at the center of two of the greatest scandals of the day, her request for an annulment of her marriage to the Earl of Essex, and the murder by poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury, close friend of her second husband, King James's favorite (and most likely his lover), Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset. I don't want to spoil the novel for anyone by giving away too many factual details, so I will leave it at that.

Jago opens her novel at the first meeting of Frances and Ann Turner, a doctor's wife and designer of the latest fashions. She has been called to Frances's rooms by her mother with orders to dress her for a court appearance. A disheveled Frances is in tears and bears the marks of a beating. The two women hit it off and become fast friends, and Ann becomes the Countess's confidante, privy to the secrets of her unhappy marriage and, later, to her romance with Robert Carr. in many ways, this is a story of female friendship, but it also exposes the brutal world of the court, a world where, as Ben Jonson wrote, people climb on each others' heads to get to the top of the social ladder. While Ann does like Frances, there's no question that she uses their friendship to get ahead and that Frances in turn uses her to fulfill her desires. As a "small fish" compared to Frances, it's no surprise that she suffers greater consequences.

The story will be familiar to anyone who has read much about the court of James I, but Jago makes it interesting by telling it from Ann's point of view. She's a middle class woman longing for access to the court. Her husband is much older, and we learn early on that the youngest of her six children were fathered by another man--with her husband's blessing, since he could no longer able to satisfy her and since this lower level aristocrat has promised to marry Ann if she is widowed. But when George dies, the wedding is delayed, and her eldest son turns her and her three youngest out of the house to fend for themselves. No wonder she clings to hopes that her friend "Frankie" will provide for her.

This is a story of ambition, betrayal, friendship and passion. Jago does a good job of bringing it all together and making her characters sympathetic. If there is a villain here, one would have to say that it is the court and the king who offer temptations only to snatch them away.

>40 Cariola: That one may need to go on the wishlist.

>40 Cariola: When that was published, my favourite BookTubers from the UK raved about it, so it's been on my wishlist. But I haven't heard much about it so it's sitting there. Your recommendation bumps it up toward the must-buy list (I've just bought a lot of books so I'm coasting now, but you've probably sold me a copy of this)

>50 labfs39: “ The story will be familiar to anyone who has read much about the court of James I,”

Which is not me. The true details are pretty fascinating.

>40 Cariola: That sounds like a good one, and thanks for not giving away the details.

>40 Cariola: Must keep an eye out for this one.

>41 laytonwoman3rd: >42 Nickelini: >44 SassyLassy: >45 janeajones:. I hope you enjoy it! I've read a number of factual books abut Frances Howard and Sir Thomas Oerbury, but using Anne Turner as narrator and making her a relatively sympathetic character made the book more interesting.

>43 dchaikin: There are many more juicy details that I decided not to include here! Probably not your cuppa, however.

The Women of Troy by Pat Barker

Barker picks up the narrative she began in The Silence of the Girls, the story of Briseis, a Trojan queen awarded to Achilles as a prize of honor. After Achilles's death, she was given to one of his captains, Alcimus, a kind and honorable man who is happy to marry the woman carrying the great Greek warrior's child. As a wife, Briseis has a measure of privilege and freedom not granted to the other captive women, but she is still watched and limited in her actions. She is also the target of jealousy from Achilles's son Pyrrhus. Although he never met his father, Pyrrhus has inherited his sword and shield and the command of a large number of troops. He is lauded for killing the Trojan king Priam, but rumor has it that this wasn't exactly a clean, honorable kill but more of a botched butchering. Pyrrhus's insecurities often erupt into cruelty. One such act is his edict that Priam's body be tossed on the shore and left to the birds, the animals, and the weather rather than being granted the burial customary for his status. Pyrrhus is sensitive to any criticism that might suggest that he is not worthy of being Achilles's son--and, of course, concerned that a new brother might outshine him in time.

Briseis's relative freedom of mobility allows her to visit the captive women's quarters and huts. Many of the enslaved women have been relegated to lowly tasks in the camp hospital or laundry, or to being used by the soldiers. Briseis visits her friend Ritsa, who now works in the hospital, and the fallen Trojan royals, including Andromache, Hecuba and Cassandra. She also forms a hate/love relationship with Amina, a slave who has been assigned to accompany her whenever she leaves the house. Amina appears to be a withdrawn, quiet girl, but a fire burns within her heart, and she draws Briseis dangerously close to the flames.

I was totally engrossed in this story and in Briseis's ability to act while remaining within the bounds of her captive role. I am sure there will be a third installment, since her child has not yet been born at the book's conclusion (and, of course, we all know that Barker loves trilogies!)

I love these Greek myth retellings and enjoyed Silence of the Girls, so I'll try to get to this one soon.

>47 Cariola: it was fun to revisit these characters in your review and get a sense of what Barker chooses to do with them.

>47 Cariola: I've had Silence of the Girls on my wish list for three years now. I must get to it!

>49 dchaikin: Dan, there is a lot more going on in the book than I wanted to give way. If you enjoyed The Silence of the Girls, you will enjoy this one, too. And Barker always writes so well, especially about war and its effect on individuals.

>50 labfs39: I'd definitely recommend reading that one first so that you'll know Briseis better when you get around to The Trojan Women. She is the key figure in both books.

Hi Deb, I really need to pick up Barker's novels on the Trojan women -- sound fascinating and stories rather neglected in Greek literature itself.

>52 janeajones: You will love them both!

>47 Cariola: Oh yes please! I read Song of Achilles last year so I at least know who Briseis is and some of her story. This trilogy (assuming that's what it becomes) sounds interesting so The Silence of the Girls has been added to my wishlist.

The Good Wife of Bath by Karen Brooks

This one just jumped to the top of my "Best of 2021" list. As you probably guessed from the title, this novel is built around everyone's favorite narrator in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, the lusty five-times married frequent pilgrim whose goal in life is to be the dominant partner in marriage. Brooks brings in all of the Wife's familiar personality traits and many of the characters who play a role in Chaucer's work (Harry Bailey, Alyson's five husbands, the prissy nun and the manly priest, Chaucer himself), and recounts many of the same events. What makes this novel so enjoyable is not only those "ah-ha" moments of recognition but also the manner in which she deepens Alyson's character. Her reimagining of past events lend motivation and understanding to much of the Wife's behavior. You may have known, for example, that her first husband was sixty and she was only twelve. But if you assumed that this was one of those marriages made by parents or guardians for money or status, well, Brooks tells us something else. She even lets Geoffrey Chaucer (often referred to simply as The Poet), who turns out to be Alyson's distant cousin, play a role in the arrangements, and he remains a constant friend and advisor throughout the novel. Brooks even tells us that the Wife's name was actually Eleanore and gives us quite a story about how and why it was changed to Alyson. Her tale takes a positive feminist twist as she is surrounded by a burgeoning network of mutually supportive women: a stepdaughter, household servants, women she employs to spin and weave, local prostitutes and more. The point is clearly made that the Wife is a talented, capable woman with a good head for business, but the misogyny rampant in her day keeps trying to break her.

Brooks has done her research on the period and deftly weaves historical events into the narrative: the radical preaching of John Wycliffe, the Peasants' Revolt, the plague, the many marriages and affairs of the royal family, the disaster befalling a crowd gathered to see the arrival of Richard II's child bride. etc. In her extensive afterward, she details her efforts to understand the customs and social order of the day.

While there is much of the rollicking bawdiness of Chaucer's original character in this fictionalized autobiography of a fictional character, she is much more than a stereotype here. Her life has its joyful moments but also plenty of regret, frustration, violence, and suffering. Through her resilience, determination, and resourcefulness, Alyson always manages to bounce back and start anew. This is a captivating novel, one that immerses the reader in its world. I never like to give too many details in these short review, so if The Good Wife of Bath sounds dull from my description, let me assure you that it's not. There are surprised aplenty and a good deal of action, and I feel sure that you will grow to love and admire Alyson as much as I do. Brooks brings a depth to her character and her life that goes far beyond the caricature of Chaucer's vain and lusty women Wife of Bath. Give it a try--it's a wonderful story that will carry you away.

>55 Cariola: Adding that to my wishlist. Canterbury Tales is rich with possible retellings, and this sounds super fun. I've forgotten which tale was my favourite (it wasn't The Wife of Bath), and this makes me realize I need to re-spark my Chaucer memory.

I spent an afternoon in the spring sunshine with one of my uni profs (who I'd taken 2 classes with - a survey course of Beowulf to 1600 (?), and then an all-Chaucer course) and she told me all about the novel she was writing about Chaucer going to Italy and meeting Boccaccio. It sounded fascinating. I wonder if she ever finished it or got it published.

You have given me some really good books to add to my wishlist! Thank you

>55 Cariola: enjoyed your review. I’m planning on reading Chaucer for the first time next year.

>56 Nickelini: If she finished it, I'd sure like to read it!

>58 dchaikin: You are in for a treat! Are you going to read a modernization or give Middle English a try? If modern, I think the Neville Coghill translation is still the best. He manages to preserve the original tone while keeping it in rhyming couplets.

>60 Cariola: that recommendation is so nice to have. Thank you! I’m clueless and haven’t decided or done the research yet. I _think_ I’m interested in trying to original if there is an edition with enough notes to carry me through. But I don’t know what edition to try. Also, if I can’t hack that, I’ll switch to a modernization/translation. Noting Co Gill.

>55 Cariola: Oh, I must read The good wife of Bath. Don't know how it wasn't on my radar before this.

>58 dchaikin: Middle English isn't that foreign. It just takes a bit getting used to (I remember in college when taking a Chaucer course, I started to dream in ME). If you keep a modern translation nearby, you should catch on quickly.

>55 Cariola: You've sold me. I've added this to my wishlist.

>62 janeajones: Sound like terrific dreams. Let me know if you prefer or recommend any editions.

>61 dchaikin: Typo there: Neville Coghill. The Penguin edition is what I used for teaching, but also the good old Norton Anthology of English Literature, vol. 1. Both have plenty of helpful notes.

The author of The Good Wife of Bath uses Coghill's edition to introduce chapters.

If you read it in Middle English, you will probably just find yourself translating as you go along. Pronouncing it is trickier than reading and understanding it. Here's a link to a pretty good reading of the beginning. The video shows the pages that are being read, so you can get the idea.

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&ei=UTF-8&p=audio+o...

>65 Cariola: thanks!

>65 Cariola: See additions to message 64.

>55 Cariola: Great review. It looks as if I have a project first though - to read Canterbury Tales!

>68 SassyLassy: can i nudge it onto your 2023 plan? 🙂

>69 dchaikin: If you're reading it too!

Is it too early to plan a group read for next year? Because The Good Wife of Bath sounds very appealing but I also haven't read The Canterbury Tales.

>68 SassyLassy: You could just read the Prologue and the Wife's Tale. I think anyone would enjoy this book even without reading these, but it adds an extra layer if you know Chaucer's work. And there's always Cliff's Notes! ;)

>71 rhian_of_oz: I hope you encourage more people to read it together, even if it is next year. It's a great story, and a good excuse to read or reread The Canterbury Tales.

I posted this on janeajones's thread but will post it here too:

The London Review of Books has a great series on four Medieval women, and the segment on "Chaucer’s sexually voracious professional widow, stealth preacher, vivid storyteller and teacher of love," the Wife of Bath, is excellent. All four of them are fun, and definitely worth a listen.

>73 lisapeet: Thanks for that--I'll be looking into it.

Time to catch up on my reviews! I've got two good ones, one bad one to report.

Life Without Children by Roddy Doyle

Roddy Doyle's latest short story collection is set amidst the coronavirus ongoing pandemic. Most of the stories take place in Dublin during the lockdown period, although a few are set in other Irish towns. These are, for the most part, gentle stories about people missing their friends, their family members, their normal routines, and the fears and concerns they have when forced to leave home for necessities like food, work, and medical appointments. We've all been there, so it's easy to empathize with Doyle's characters. But as things slow down, these people have the time to examine their own lives and to learn more about themselves and those around them. That's the surprising up side of life being placed on hold.

In case you're trying to avoid typical "pandemic fiction," let me assure you that only one of the stories has the anticipated tragic outcome. Instead, we see a middle-aged father relishing the fact that his daughter has returned to the family home during lockdown. A man's concerns about the pandemic push his childhood fears to the surface, encouraging him to tells his wife, after 30 years of marriage, how his mother had abandoned him after his father's death, leaving him an orphan shuttled between indifferent family members. A man sent to another town for a business trip observes the attempt of those around him to as is everything was "normal." A husband copes with the loss of his job, his inability to find employment, and his financial dependence on his wife. These are human stories, sometimes told with a bit of humor, sometimes a bit of sadness, but always relatable. I read the entire collection in just a few days.

Learwife by J. R. Thorpe

'Learwife is a good example of why I find myself enjoying audiobooks less and less. I should have loved this book. It focuses on characters from my favorite Shakespearean play, and it's read by one of my favorite narrators, Juliet Stevenson. Yet it took me more than two months to finish listening to it. It's just not a book that lends itself well to the audio format.

If you know the story of King Lear, you know that he has three marriageable daughters at the beginning of the play, yet their mother is mentioned only twice indirectly in the play. When Lear has been rebuffed by his eldest daughter Goneril, he goes to Regan's house. She says that she is glad to see him, and he replies:

Regan, I think you are; I know what reason
I have to think so. If thou shouldst not be glad,
I would divorce me from thy mother’s tomb,
Sepulchring an adult’ress.

In the second instance, Lear states that Goneril's unkindness must be proof that she is a bastard. Much has been made by scholars over the fate of the missing wife and mother. J R Thorpe chooses to give her a fate: banishment to a convent for an unknown "crime" that is never stated. As the story begins, she has learned of the deaths of Lear, Cordelia, Goneril and Regan, and she launches into a monologue addressed to the reader. In it, she covers the happy days of her early marriage, her changing relationships with her daughters, her friendship with Kent, her life in the convent. The problem is that on audio, it all sounds the same: like a complaint seething with anger. One note, both vocally and emotionally, gets pretty monotonous. I just could not stick with it for very long. Additionally, it made me unsympathetic to the character and really uninterested in her fate. If I had to listen to that harpy all day long, I'd want to lock her up, too! So I'll admit that I ended up "listening" to the book but not really listening to it; I turned it on while doing other things on the computer. I probably missed a lot of good stuff, but I just couldn't help it. At some point, I may pick this one up in print or on ebook (but probably not as there are too many good books waiting on my shelf). A star and a half for the concept and for Stevenson's efforts.

(A side note on audiobooks: I that find I prefer to create the voices of characters in my own mind from what I have read. It's getting harder and harder for a reader to please me; so often they are "performing" a character rather than BEING one. And the wrong voice can ruin a book for me. Lately I've been sticking to nonfiction on audio--biographies and memoirs, histories, politics, etc. The reader doesn't matter quite so much in those situations.)

Booth by Karen Joy Fowler

Fowler's most recent book has gotten a lot of bad reviews, but I actually quite enjoyed it. My only negative comment is that it could have been considerably less than 450 pages, given some good editing. What Fowler attempts is a fictionalized memoir of the Booth family and its members, famous, infamous, and unknown. The family patriarch, Junius Brutus Booth, was one of the country's most renowned actors in his day. He married an English girl and brought her to the US to settle on a farm in rural Maryland, where she bore ten children in 14 years. During most of that time, her husband was touring, often spending more on booze than he sent back home. The eldest son, Junius Brutus Jr., known as June, was left in charge of managing the farm (a job he hated) and the oldest daughter, Rosalie, left in charge of the household and her younger siblings. Several children died as infants or young children. Four sons (June, Edwin, John Wilkes, and Joe) and two daughters (Rosalie and Asia) lived to adulthood. Rosalie, who had an undefined disability, stayed home to care for her mother for the rest of her life, Asia married an actor friend of Edwin's, and all of the boys except Joe followed in their father's footsteps on the stage.

Fowler attempts to fill in the blanks with both research and imagination. Each family member has her focus in at least one chapter. If they have anything in common, it's that each was affected by the behaviors of their parents: their father's long absences and drunken escapades, the scandal of the legal wife he abandoned arriving to America to stalk him with her son at hand (which of course meant that the American Booths were all illegitimate), numerous legendary episodes (such as digging up the body of a child who he missed saying goodbye to before she died and holding a funeral for a pigeon); their mother's forfeiture of parenting, her obvious favoritism of John, her obedience to the whims of Junius Brutus, her moving the family from home to home to home, depending on their financial fortunes. The novel moves from the teen years of June and Rosalie through the next 20years or so, ending more or less with Lincoln's assassination and the death of John Wilkes Booth. Fowler does include some final chapters that describe the effects on their personal and professional lives in having a sibling who committed one of the most horrendous murders in our nation's history.

Despite some slow stretches and a need for better editing, I enjoyed the novel and it's portrait of a troubled family.

>76 Cariola: I used to love Roddy Doyle's writing - I can think of no good reason why I've stopped reading him other than I read so much of him in my twenties. Sounds like a great collection.

>79 AlisonY: I hope you pick it up. It's less light-hearted than some of his earlier work, but I really enjoyed it.

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont

This novel is based on Agatha Christie's 11-day disappearance in 1926. At the time, she was just becoming popular for her mystery novels, and many thought her disappearance was a publicity stunt. She had quarreled with her husband after he told her that he wanted a divorce so that he could marry his mistress, and she drove off in her beloved Morris Cowley. The next morning, the car was found parked near an abandoned chalk pit with clothing and an expired driver's license inside.

Nina de Gramont takes this as the jumping-off point for The Christie Affair's rather convoluted plot. Many of the chapters are narrated by Nan O'Dea, the name the author ascribes to Archibald Christie's mistress. De Gramont imagines her to be an Irish woman who had cultivated a highbrow London accent and adapted her personal style for the purpose of seducing Christie and convincing him to marry her. The author creates a lot of background for Nan, both to add romantic interest and to give her a reason for pursuing Archie--a reason I won't give away here, but let's just say that all this is highly imaginative. At 19, Nan had fallen in love with a young man named Finnbar Mahoney while on one of her summer visits to her aunt and uncle's farm in Ireland. Alas, World War I breaks out, and the lovers are separated. By chance, they meet again in London on Armistice Day, their encounter leaving Nan pregnant. When she returns to Ireland, sure that Finnbar will marry her, she learns that he is deathly ill from having inhaled mustard gas. His father drops her off at a home for pregnant women run by the Catholic Church.

That's the backstory on Nan (with more details about her time in the home), and if you are guessing that this novel is more her story than Agatha's, you would be correct. The two women know each other, and surprise! They meet again while Agatha is in hiding. De Gramont throws in some more romance for both of them--and that is when I started to get a bit annoyed with this novel turning into a rather cliché bit of "women's fiction." And of course, she has to include a few murders, since this is, after all, supposed to be a book about Agatha Christie. It was all just a little too ingenious and too "girly" for my personal taste.

Be forewarned that the only "facts" behind this novel are that Archie Christie had a mistress and wanted a divorce; that Agatha left for 11 days, during which time the press had a field day; and that Agatha was discovered in a spa in Yorkshire. The rest is based more on romantic imagination than on logical speculation.

>78 Cariola: Glad to hear that Karen Joy Fowler is hanging in there. I used to read her regularly....somehow I have got behind, me thinks (seems her 2010 collection was the last of hers read). As readers can we actually keep up with all our favorites while still read new authors????

>82 avaland: You might give this one a try. I had read several of Fowler's novels years ago and liked them, but my tastes seem to have changed. My daughter gave me that one about the family raising a lab chimp--title was maybe We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (yep, touchstone popped up). Not my thing, but I'm glad I read Booth.

>83 Cariola: I'm betting I responded much the same way when you wrote about that previous one:-) On your recommendation, I'll take a look at it....

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

Williams's novel focuses on Esme Nicholl, the daughter of one of the lexicographers working on the first edition of The Oxford Dictionary in the late (19th century. (If you've read The Professor and the Madman, you'll have some insight into this world.) Esme is seven when the story begins. Her mother died when she was very young, and she has no memory of her but is cared for by Lizzie Lester, the housemaid/nanny to whom she becomes very attached. Lizzie is just a child herself, only 13. Every day, Esme accompanies her father to the Scriptorium, a shed where most of the sorting and editing takes place. She loves to sit under the sorting table, watching the men's feet and occasionally picking up a fallen slip of paper on which a word has been written. Most of these words have been discarded, but a few have fallen to the floor by accident. Lizzie begins to collect them in a small trunk under Lizzie's bed. She calls it her Dictionary of Lost Words.

In many ways, this is a coming of age novel. We watch as the rather privileged Esme learns how life is very different for Lizzie and the female vendors in the market, and she becomes fascinated with the particulars of their language. Many of the words she collects are "women's words" that she has never heard before. She begins to collect them as the lexicographers do: on a slip of paper with a definition and a sentence using the word that is attributed to the writer (or in many cases, for Esme, the speaker). As one would expect in a coming of age story, the book includes a school experience that deeply affects Esme, several meaningful friendships and a couple of lust/love stories, and a growing awareness of her place in the world and the inequality of classes and genders. The novel's time frame brings in key elements of roughly 1907 to 1928, including World War I and the struggle for women's suffrage. Through all this, Esme's love of words and their various meanings and usages continues to grow.

I can't mention the few things that annoyed me about this book without giving away too much, but overall, I thought it was quite well done and a very enjoyable read.

The lost Words sounds interesting. I was fascinated by The Professor and the Madman and the biography of James Murray, Caught in the Web of Words so this looks right up my alley.

>85 Cariola: I thought this was ok once I accepted that it was more about Esme than the words themselves. It started out focused on the dictionary and I thought it would stay there, but, as you say, it becomes a coming of age story primarily. I wish the words had stayed more central.

>86 janeajones: You will surely enjoy it then! Dr. Murray and his family are of course involved in the story.

>87 japaul22: I'm not exactly sure how the novel could have been more about words, but I get your point. I'm not fond of coming of age stories, but this one kept my interest, for the most part. The words Esme collected were all "women's words" that the male lexicographers and editors either left out of the OED or included with watered down or bowdlerized meanings, and they acted as a framework for her story.

The School of Mirrors by Eva Stachniak

It has been a while since I read a novel set in 18th-century France. This one was good overall. It begins in the reign of Louis XV. Véronique Roux is only 14 when she is selected to become a "student" at Deer Park. When she is told that he job will be to please the owner, a Polish Count who is related to the queen, she naively believes she is going to be train as a servant--although her mother, who is well paid to turn her over, knows otherwise. The girls, chosen for their youth, beauty, and pliability, are patronized by the king's mistress, Madame de Pompadour, and are nothing more than sexual fodder for the count--who in actuality is the king himself. Girls who resist are stripped of all gifts and sent back home. But Véronique is eager to please and fancies herself in love with the count. Alas, the end comes for her when she dares to question her master, and her fate is sealed when she finds herself pregnant.

The rest of the novel focuses on her daughter, Marie-Louise, who is sent first to a wet nurse and then to live with guardians on the outer grounds of Versailles. She knows neither her mother nor her father, and her guardians are less than kind. She has only one friend, the lumpy, awkward grandson of the king, the future Louis XVI. When their friendship is discovered, her life is again turned upside down.

I don't like to give too many details, so I will just say that the novel follows Marie-Louise as she acquires a respectable profession and a family of her own, moving into the era of the French Revolution and the repressive Republic that came after. Stachniak creates interesting characters, and the novel takes a number of unexpected turns. She has based her story in part on two real persons, a Polish count and an innovative French midwife, both mentioned in a diary from the period.

>89 Cariola: That sounds interesting. Every time I see that initial premise I am thinking "she really had no inkling?" and then I need to smack myself on the head that yes, it is not the late 20th century, she probably could not read or write, never went to school (or if she did, she learned only the basic Rs -if that) and unless she lived in court or close by, she literally never saw/heard of some things...

Ghost Forest by Pik-Shuen Fung

As they say, good things come in small packages, and this short book is absolutely stunning. The main character's family (parents, grandmother, two daughters) moved from Hong Kong to Vancouver in 1997, right before the former British Colony was transferred to Chinese administration. The father missed his job and his home city and returned the following year. He is what is known as a "helicopter father," one who shuttles back and forth between two homes. Most of the story focuses on the father's battle with liver disease and the way in which the family deals with it. But that plot line is really just a way to open the protagonist's exploration of her family's history and dynamics. Written in short chapters, the novel reads in something like a recording of what she hears from her mother, father, and grandmother and of her own internalization of events. As her father becomes increasingly ill while awaiting a liver transplant donor, she becomes increasingly aware of the distance between them, caused not so much by his absence as by the fact that it is characteristic of Chinese, especially men, to withhold their emotions. At one point, as she visits him in the hospital, she tells her father that she loves him and asks him to say it back, but he simply cannot. She realizes that she has never heard him tell her mother that he loves her either. His initial response is that he expresses his love by taking care of them, but he comes to realize eventually that it is important to express his love directly, before leaving this world.

The novel is not all about death and sadness. It includes stories related by her mother and grandmother about growing up in Hong Kong, getting married, raising their children, enduring the war and other hardships. I learned a lot about Buddhism and Chinese culture as the author takes us with her through the customs of the marriage and funeral ceremonies, the remedies of traditional medicine, and more. But mostly this is the story of a family and of a young woman, born into one culture but living in another, to understand both and to find her place in each.

I read this book in two days; I had difficulty putting it down to attend to necessary tasks. The writing is just achingly beautiful--so simple and yet so moving. Don't miss this one. I can't recommend it highly enough.

>91 Cariola: I will have to put this book on my " wish list". I did teach students who had parents living in Hong Kong and who sent their children to attend school in Canada. There were many issues! ( they usually expressed their feelings in their art work.)

>91 Cariola: Great recommendation, thank you! On the wish list it goes.

>93 lisapeet: Hope you like it as much as I did, Lisa.

Catching up on your reviews. All interesting, as usual. I find myself in other countries more and more.

>91 Cariola: Enjoyed the review. I just finished a new novel: Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge. A clever, thoughtful and interesting fantasy or magical realism.

>95 avaland: I've been looking at that one, but it might be a bit too fantastical for me.

Love Marriage by Monica Ali

Yasmin Ghorami, a resident physician, is planning to marry Joe, a fellow resident. Her parents are Muslim immigrants from India, and Yasmin has always been enthralled with their "love marriage" story: how her upper class mother met and fell in love with her lower class, orphaned father, a man who made his own way in the world, eventually becoming a doctor. But family life in their home isn't perfect. Yasmin's brother, Arif, is considered by their father to be a wastrel with no ambition and faces constant criticism. Things only gets worse when his girlfriend becomes pregnant. Yasmin is the golden child, the one who follows her father's dreams.

Joe seems to have the perfect relationship with his mother, Harriet, a feminist, activist, and writer; his father abandoned them when Joe was just a few months old. When Yasmin's parents come to their home for dinner, Harriet is captivated Anisah, her mother--and vice versa. And Anisah seems to be even more captivated by Flame, Harriet's performance artist friend. A few days after the dinner, Anisah moves into Harriet's house, throwing the Ghorami family into chaos.

The unravelling of two families is told from several points of view: Yasmin's, Joe's, and Sandor's (he is Joe's therapist). Lots of secrets are uncovered, and some of the characters have a more difficult time dealing with the truth than others. Yasmin, in particular, has to face some uncomfortable truths about herself, her family, and her relationships.

There's a lot more going on here than I want to give away. I found this novel to be both thoughtful and entertaining. Even the minor characters, such as Yasmin's colleagues, her friend Rania, and her elderly patients, are also interesting and well developed. Ali is always good at analyzing family, class, and social issues, and she does not disappoint here.

Companion Piece by Ali Smith

I can't say how much I loved this book, and I want to read it again before too long. The main character, an artist names Sandy whose paintings are based on poems (they actually include the words of the poems underneath the paint), receives an unexpected call from a former classmate that she barely remembers. What Martina remembers about Sandy is that she was always good at analyzing poetry and stories, and Martina has a story for her. Martina works for a museum and was stopped by security while transporting a medieval lock. While waiting seven hours for her release, she heard a voice that asked "Curfew or curlew?" This is the riddle that she hopes Sandy can solve for her. Martina becomes obsessed with the story that Sandy tells her--so obsessed that she ignores her family, and her twins invade Sandy's home, bent on discovering what has happened to their mother. The UK is in the midst of COVID, just released from lockdown and other restrictions, and Sandy is still being extremely careful because her father is in the hospital after suffering a heart attack. But the Pelf twins seem to believe that they are invincible and that COVID is completely gone.

Strange things keep happening, although Sandy seems to take it all pretty much in stride. At one point, she comes home to find a disheveled, battered girl with an odd manner of speaking and an odd-looking bird companion ransacking her closet, looking for a pair of shoes. She becomes the link between Martina's story and Sandy's own.

This is a book for readers who love words, not just plots. Smith loves to play with words, and it takes a bit of concentration to play along, but it's definitely worth the effort. The novel is like a puzzle, and it's a joy to work it out. Along the way, we're given keen insights into art, artists and artisans; politics and society; loneliness v. solitude; and much, much more. Can't wait to pick it up and read it again, but I need to let it settle for a bit first.

>98 Cariola: Sigh... this is why I have so much trouble reading off my shelves. This sounds just fabulous, so I may have placed yet another library hold.

>99 lisapeet: I hope you love it as much as I did.

I've moved all my new book buying to Kindle. It takes up little space and I don't have to be guilted by seeing all those books piling up!

I was going to post a very similar first sentence as Lisa did....

>101 avaland: Lois, it's a short book, and definitely worth your time. I read it in four days with considerable breaks.

The Partition by Don Lee

I enjoyed the first 3/4 of this book, but the last section of three very long stories really dragged for me. They focused more on details of situations like the Vietnam War than on the lives of individuals. Characters were the driving force behind the earlier (and much better, IMO) stories. Lee's main characters are all Asian or mixed Asian people trying to navigate society. Whether a Hawaiian boy of mixed ethnicity, son of a CIA agent, trying to navigate Japanese society or a Korean adoptee working her way to the top of television journalism, all were unique and all illuminated the experiences of Asian-Americans in contemporary society. Were it not for the last quarter of the book, I would have rated it higher.

Love Marriage and Companion Piece are on my list of books to read. Looking forward to them.

>104 RidgewayGirl: I think you'll like them both.

>98 Cariola: This one sounds lovely. Great review.

>100 Cariola: Me too -- I've totally run out of book shelf room.

Still Life by Sarah Winman

I almost gave up on this one early on, but I'm really glad that I stayed with it. The story begins in Italy in World War II when an English soldier, Ulysses Temper, and his inspiring commanding officer join forces with Evelyn Skinner, an art historian bent on saving the treasures of Florence from destruction. The novel then follows these two characters--mostly Ulysses--through the next three decades and a bit beyond. Upon his return to London after the war, he rejoins an interesting group of friends who frequent or work at a pub called The Story and Parrot. There's the surly pub owner, Col, who is raising a mentally challenged daughter, Ginny, on his own. Cressy, an older man who can fix anything, communes with a beloved tree, and acts as a kind of father figure to Ullyses. Peg, a sexy woman with a mesmerizing singing voice; she's Ulysses ex-wife and still sometimes lover. Alys (aka kid), Peg's daughter conceived from a brief affair with an American soldier that she can't forget. Pete, a piano player and actor. And Claude, a parrot who not only talks (frequently spouting Shakespeare) but actually converses and comprehends what's going on around him.

Life changes for everyone when Ulysses unexpectedly inherits property in Florence. He has longed to return to the city since the war ended and decides that a move is in order. At Peg's pleading, he takes Alys, now seven, with him. Author Winman does a wonderful job of depicting the historic city, its marvelous food, and the relaxed lifestyle of the locals. Ulysses makes new friends but maintains his old ones through periodic visits, some of which turn out to be more than temporary. We watch Alys growing up and everyone else growing older, but the love between friends only deepens. That, for me, was the true heart of the novel.

As for Evelyn, Ulysses has never forgotten her, not she him, so it's inevitable that eventually they will meet again. We get bits of her life story woven into the book but more detail in the later sections, one of which focuses on her first visit to Florence. There are thematic ties between Evelyn and other characters, and even to a well-known novel set in Florence, but I'll leave readers to discover these for themselves.

Art, of course, plays an important role, as the title suggests. And like a still life painting that seems frozen in time yet changes in the viewer's perception as his or her own life experiences play out, the friendships in the novel, too, remain the same while weathering many changes.

I really enjoyed Still Life and the world and characters the author creates. It left me feeling more positive about the human race than I have in a long time. I admire Winman's writing--her ability to create unique, memorable characters and to immerse her reader in her setting and her fusion of a framework with her themes. I will definitely be looking into her other books.

>100 Cariola:, >107 janeajones: I'm still 100% physical books. I love being surrounded by them. The significant other has long since gone Kindle but then he still has boxes of books in the basement....

The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz

I had a difficult time getting into this book, mainly because none of the characters was particularly interesting or likeable, but I'm glad I kept reading it. It took a turn for the better about halfway in. The novel focuses on the Oppenheimer family. Salo, the father, was left emotionally scarred by a fatal accident in which he was the driver: the girl he was dating and his best friend were killed. After the funeral, he bonded with Johanna, the dead girl's bestie, and they eventually married. All Johanna wants is a family, but babies aren't forthcoming, and Salo seems more interested in his collection of modern art than his wife, spending much of his time in a warehouse he has filled with his prized possessions. Eventually he gives in to Johanna's plea to undergo fertility testing. After more failed attempts to get pregnant, four eggs are harvested; three are implanted into Johanna's womb, and the fourth is frozen for future use.

The triplets are born healthy, but unlike many multiples, they are not bonded and even dislike each other. About the only thing they agree on is that they hate Walden, the private progressive school where their parents have enrolled them. Harrison is the nasty-tempered intellectual who never misses an opportunity to belittle his brother Lewyn. Sally hates both of her brothers, so much so that when she and Lewyn both start their freshman year at Cornell, she informs him that she never wants to meet with or speak with him. Lewyn--well, he's just a nice, average, uninteresting guy with an inferiority complex.

While Johanna spends her time doting over her children and worrying about their dislike of one another, Salo distances himself even further from the family, delving into his art and pondering his guilt over the years-old accident--until a chance meeting with a documentary director who just happens to be the only other survivor of the accident.

So you can probably see why I was about to give up on the book at this point. I don't want to reveal exactly what changed and gave me the incentive to continue reading it, but much of it was due to the arrival of new characters and the convoluted connections between them and the members of the Oppenheimer family. And these connections led to a more positive conclusion and a more positive experience for me as a reader. Suffice it to say that a book I was ready to give up on halfway through ended up being a 4-star read.

>110 Cariola: I'm relieved you ended up liking it after I encouraged you to keep going. I know part of why I liked that book so much was Salo's art collection.

>111 RidgewayGirl: Me, too! I'm more a fan of the classics he gave away, but I liked her descriptions of what the art meant to him and how it made him feel.

Summerwater by Sarah Moss

The author had an interesting concept for this collection of interrelated stories. It focuses on the people spending a holiday in a group of vacation rentals on a loch in northern Scotland. Each chapter focuses on a different resident (and some 1-2 page chapters on local residents including a deer, a fox, and other critters). Unfortunately, they are plagued by typical Scottish weather: rain, rain and more rain. The vacationers include an elderly couple, a retired doctor and his ailing wife; a family with three young children (the eldest daughter has a nasty streak); another with two typically surly teenagers who would rather be at home and are dismayed by the lack of cell phone reception; a newly married couple (perhaps the only ones happy to be confined indoors); a couple with two young boys, the mother of whom is addicted to running, even in the rain); and a group of Eastern European immigrants (it's never clear exactly where they are from), all adults except for one obviously lonely little girl. The latter party a lot, to the dismay of some residents due to the noise and to others because they aren't invited to join in.

About halfway through, I started to wish that I was done with 'Summerwater,' not because it was bad but because I just wasn't in the mood for something this dreary, dismal and depressing. The writing is very good, the characters all well fleshed out (although some were stereotypes), and their interactions provided a window onto today's society. Maybe it was just the wrong book at the wrong time for me.

>113 Cariola: I'm seriously behind on my Sarah Moss; volumes are accumulating. Perhaps I should stop accumulating until I read more (loves the first few read)

>114 avaland: I just finished reading a sample of The Fell, which I hope my library will order, and I started a sample of Signs for Lost Children, which I am enjoying so far.

Jeoffry: The Poet's Cat by Oliver Soden

This charmingly clever little book is a fictionalized biography pf the 18th century pot Christopher Smart's cat Jeoffrey (usually spelled Geoffrey), who was celebrated in 70 lines of his best known work, "Jubilate Agno." The author provides the lines in the forward to the book. We don't know much about the real Jeoffrey beyond the fact that he spent many years with Smart in the insane asylum where he had been committed for public displays of extreme--and extremely loud--religious fervor and insisting that passersby kneel with him in prayer. He also suffered from fits, but it's unclear whether these were due to his mental condition or possibly to epilepsy. Some experts today believe that Smart may have been bipolar, due to the sequences of manic and depressive behavior.

Oliver Sodon imagines Jeoffrey as a large orange tabby with a white bib who was brought to Smart by an asylum employee who thought that having the company of a cat might help to calm him. But he also gives him a colorful prior life in the city of London. Born in a cupboard in a brothel, he was the darling of Nancy, one of the working girls, until a police raid forced him out on the streets. There, he encounters many adventures and meets a number of celebrities of the day, including Samuel Johnson's cat Hodge. Sodon gives us a colorful account of London life along the way and a detailed account of conditions in the asylum for both Jeoffrey and his master. After Smart's death, he retires to a comfortable life in the countryside for the rest of his days.

If you love cats or the Jeoffrey section of "Jubilate Agno," you will surely enjoy this little gem.

>117 Cariola: I had a cat named Hodge for many years. He was a very fine cat, indeed.

>118 RidgewayGirl: I have a photo of myself taken with Hodge's memorial statue in London!

Five Tuesdays in Winter: Stories by Lily King

This is an interesting collection of short stories, most of them focused on love, loss, desire, and a longing for reconciliation. A man sits at the hospital bedside of his comatose granddaughter, willing her to awake while memories rush in. A new mother and would-be writer receives a frustrating visit from an editor who has come to tear apart her book--which hasn't been submitted anywhere. Two college roommates who have grown apart following one's revelation that he is gay meet again in middle age. The world opens up for a 14-year old boy when his parents hire two college boys to housesit while they are away. A French mother tries to reconnect with her teenaged daughters by telling them a ghost story during a road trip. These stories and more are engaging, their very believable characters examined in depth. King's writing is clear and crisp, and the emotional density of her stories is subtly woven as they progress. This is her first short story collection, following the publication of several successful novels.

>120 Cariola: I've been looking forward to reading this one for a while (definitely disproportionately to how long it's been languishing on my shelves). I read the one about the 14-year-old boy and the housesitters in One Story and really enjoyed it.

>121 lisapeet: I think you'll enjoy the entire collection, Lisa.

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

Maggie O'Farrell's latest novel imagine the life of Lucrezia d'Este, who is believed to have been the inspiration for Robert Browning's poem, "My Last Duchess" (although the painting has either been lost or was itself a figment of Browning's imagination). The middle daughter in a large family, Lucrezia is not as pretty as her sisters but has a bold streak that she struggles against (it's not ladylike). When her sister Marie suddenly dies, her parents, reluctant to lose out on an politically advantageous match, marry the 15-year old Lucrezia to her fiancé, Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara, who is almost twice her age.

The chapters of the book jump around in time, sometimes causing confusion. And Alfonso can be confusing, too. Lucretia tries to please him, but she soon realizes that his moods and demands are unpredictable. He is the type of man who can turn from being gentle and affectionate one moment into a terrifying brute the next, without warning. The main thing he desires from the marriage is a male heir, and when one isn't produced within the first year, he of course blames his young wife--even though rumors of his impotence are circulating, since he has had several mistresses but no bastards.

Throughout the book, Lucretia does her best to keep her husband happy and to find a little peace, if not happiness, for herself. She befriends her maid, enjoys walks outdoors, and paints small pictures that often depict fantastical scenes that she then paints over. But there is no pleasing Alfonso. No spoiler here, especially if you know Browning's poem, but O'Farrell decides to reveal in the first pages that Lucrezia believes that her husband is trying to kill her. Her dilemma, of course, is that there seems to be no escape.

I enjoyed the novel overall, even though it's rather heavy-handed on description and detail, but I think that is probably meant to reflect the boredom and confinement of Lucretia's life as duchess, and perhaps also her painterly eye. O'Farrell's Hamnet is one of my favorite historical novels, and I expected that it would be hard to match, let alone supercede, and The Marriage Portrait bears out this observation.

>120 Cariola: It's been a long time since I read a Lily King book (not since The English Teacher in '05, before LT). Too many books not enough time these days. Thanks for the review, though.

Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris

You may know Robert Harris as the author of historical and contemporary thrillers. I had never read anything by him before but was intrigued by the subject matter of 'Act of Oblivion.' England was torn by civil war in the 1640s, which ended in the 1649 execution of the king, Charles I, and the establishment of a new government led by the Puritan Oliver Cromwell. The new government passed the Act of Oblivion, which was intended to forgive those who had fought on either side--although not everyone was forgiven. When Charles II returned from France to retake the throne, he demanded that the 59 signers of his father's execution warrant be brought to justice. Some, like Cromwell himself, had died in the interim (but that didn't stop Charles from digging him up, chopping off his head, and mounting it on a pike alongside more recently executed traitors on Westminster Bridge). Some were in hiding in England, some had flown to the Netherlands or to the far north of Scotland. Some had been captured and hanged, drawn and quartered. The protagonists of this novel, Edward Whaley, a cousin of Cromwell, and his son-in-law, William Goffe, fled to America, leaving their families behind.

Back in London, Richard Naylor, secretary to the new Privy Council's regicide committee, is tasked with bringing those who signed the king's death warrant to justice. He is obsessed with his assignment, not only out of loyalty to the Stuart monarchy, but because he blames the Roundheads for the death of his beloved wife, who suffered a fatal miscarriage during the turmoil. He is determined to bring Whalley and Goffe back to England for execution (or to kill them on the spot when found), even after the Privy Council has decided to abandon the task of tracking down the handful of signers who may still be alive. 'Act of Oblivion' chronicles both the fugitives' lives in hiding and Naylor's relentless pursuit.

In many ways, this book is an historical thriller in the line of Harris's best sellers like Munich, Fatherland, Pompeii, and others. I would likely not have been drawn to it except for the particular subject matter, but I quite enjoyed the story.

Sounds fun!

I've only read one of Harris's books, And Officer and a Spy, and I really liked it. Not sure why I haven't gotten back to him - a good reminder.

>126 Cariola: I've liked the Harris books I've read, and the subject matter of this one sounds terrific.

>126 Cariola: I'm glad it's good! I have it, for some reason... probably the subject matter/time period, since I haven't read anything else by him. Maybe I liked the cover? Which is a weird consideration for an ebook where you never see it, but that's how my brain works.

I just finished Harris's last book in the trilogy on Cicero and really liked it.

Hope you all read and enjoy this one! I may look into more of Harris's novels.

>130 lisapeet: I really liked the cover, too!

>126 Cariola: I did like his Pompeii. Nice review of the newer book, Deb.

>126 Cariola: Thanks!

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

I almost gave up on this one. The details of 19th-century horse racing and breeding were making the story drag, and contemporary character Jess's obsession with bones started bordering on the absurd when she mentally dissected her love interest, bone by bone. Ultimately, it was the characters that drew me in (not so much the horses and skeletons). They span a few different time periods. The starting point is the 1850s, when a thoroughbred named Darley is born in Kentucky. He is raised by a young slave named Jarret, and the two develop an uncanny symbiotic relationship that lasts a lifetime. Darley resurfaces in our time as Lexington, the greatest racehorse of his day, in several paintings where he appears with an unnamed Jarret and their mutual owners. The paintings and Lexington's preserved skeleton form the links among the various characters who are the focus of alternating chapters. In addition to Jarret, these include the painter, Thomas Scott; Jess, an Australian biologist employed by the Smithsonian to clean and reassemble specimen bones; Theo, a Nigerian-American art history PhD student at Georgetown who is working on depictions of slaves in horse paintings; and Martha Jackson, a successful art dealer who promoted Jackson Pollack and other modern abstract painters in the 1950s.

Many of the characters, including Lexington, his various owners, the painter Scott and the art dealer, are based on real persons (and a real champion horse). The multiple story lines not only depict the brutality and dehumanization of the pre-Civil War racing world but the role of African-Americans and slavery within that world, with a good measure of science, art dealership, and art history thrown in as well. The meeting of Jess and Theo unites these elements in our time, and their developing relationship and Jarret's story provide plenty of human interest that saves the novel from becoming too dry. At first, the multiple stories and time periods are a little off-putting, but Brooks brilliantly ties them together as the novel develops. Just when I was about to abandon 'Horse,' I was swept away. I couldn't put it down and finished reading at 4:15 a.m.!

Great review of Horse, Deborah. I've added it to my library wish list.

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

I've never been disappointed by an Elizabeth Strout novel--but there's a first time for everything. Maybe I just was not in the mood to rehash COVID paranoia yet, or maybe it was the fact that I listened to this book on audio and found the reader rather annoying. In any case, it was not a winner for me. The story opens with Lucy, a well-known writer, living in New York when "the virus" hits hard. Her ex-husband William arrives to take her back to New Hampshire with him. She misses the big city and all the friends and fun she has there. She is upset that locals and strangers, who are themselves fearful of COVID, keep telling her to go back to New York. She worries about her daughters getting COVID. She has friends and acquaintances who get COVID, and some of them don't survive. She complains about having to wear a mask and then complains when other people don't cover their noses with theirs. She fusses over her daughters' decisions while maintaining that she wants them to live their own lives without her interference. Lucy comes off as a whiny, self-centered complainer. How William maintains his patience with her is beyond me.

The other thing I found really irritating about this book is that Strout brings in every conceivable news highlight from 2020-2021. It feels false, and it feels like a gimmick. She is shocked when Donald Trump is elected president. She is shocked by the murder of George Floyd, after which her pregnant daughter takes part in a march in New Haven ("Don't get COVID!"). William suddenly revives his interest in ecological studies. Lucy shakes her head in dismay when rioters invade the Capital. It's all so, SO annoying! This might have sat better with me ten years down the road, but not this soon.

The bottom line, I guess, is that I'm not ready to wallow in the horrors of the last 2-1/5 years all over again, especially through the self-pitying experiences of Lucy Barton. We all suffered, and we're all just trying to get on with life.

>137 Cariola: That sounds like a book that will either age horribly due to the contemporary references or it will become better and better as time passes and we can look at these years as just time that passed. But it’s probably too early for it. :( Nice review though.

>137 Cariola: Lucy comes off as a whiny, self-centered complainer. How William maintains his patience with her is beyond me.

That would be a succinct but accurate summary of My Name Is Lucy Barton and Oh William!, IMO.

>137 Cariola: well, interesting. “It feels false” was almost my exact response to one story in Olive Kitteridge that bothered me so much that i waited 14 yrs to read another book by Strout.

It occurs to me, reading your covid checklist of events, that they do all belong in a book together. (Of course, since we all have lived through this in our own recent memory, whatever is written will compete with our own story and we’re not going to compromise our own experience to anyone’s fiction. 🙂 So maybe that’s what is meant by too soon. ??)

Anyway I really enjoyed My Name is Lucy Barton. Bummer this one seems have been a fail.

>137 Cariola: I'm reading this now -- I'm about halfway through, and yeah, I'm not enjoying it. I have loved every single other thing I've read by Strout and have very much enjoyed what she was doing with Lucy Barton -- the account of how a traumatic and deprived childhood still affects a person, despite that person having achieved a secure and happy life. What is bothering me with this one is how the solution to so many of their problems is to hire someone else to risk their health for their family members -- the cleaner still traveling to Lucy's apartment once she's fled, the driver hired to take a family member out of the city, the carers hired to take care of the in-laws with covid so that other family members will take no risk. I can see making those decisions, but for all of Lucy's sensitivity, she fails to see how her privilege is purchased on the backs of the less fortunate -- ironic given that her own sister works in a nursing home.

And, honestly, the experience of well-off people with plenty of homes to go to and all the resources to allow them to remain home, are the least interesting experiences of this pandemic. Give me the novel about Lucy's sister or her niece. Give me the story of her cleaner and her doorman. Those are the stories I'd like to read.

>139 kidzdoc: I didn't care for My Name Is Lucy Barton, liked Oh William!} a good it more. But her earlier books were much better, IMO.

>140 dchaikin: No doubt that 2020-21 were horrible years for many reasons. (Gee, I think she left out the Mueller investigation and the first impeachment.) So maybe these events do belong together in a book, but this one isn't it. But yes, I think we need the perspective of time. Without it, it just seems like a gimmick to throw them all in, or Strout's determination to be one of the first that tried to do it. Louise Erdrich did it much more subtly and effectively (and earlier) in The Sentence. One difference is that I actually cared about her characters.

>141 RidgewayGirl: I totally agree with your observations. For someone who constantly rails on about the poverty of her early life, Lucy has no problem using her wealth to buy the use of other people, even at their own peril. And for someone who is always ready to recommend therapy to others, she has absolutely no insight into her own issues. There's something seriously wrong with a woman who constantly needs someone to rescue her, and if no knight in shining armor shows up, she pays someone to do it. Or, worse still, has someone like William pay for someone else to do it.

The Book Of Goose by Yiyun Li

I have enjoyed many of Yiyun Li's books, but, unfortunately, not this one. I suspect that I just didn't get it, but I really don't care. The story revolves around two friends, Agnes and Fabienne, who live in a French farming village in the early 1950s. Their friendship is intense; to me, it seemed rather sick. Fabienne is a nasty girl who has no respect for anyone, including Agnes, yet Agnes worships her and believes they complete each other and make life worthwhile. Fabienne makes up mean games to keep them from getting bored. A major one is to write a book. The creation is entirely hers, but she gets Agnes to write them down and then claim to be the author. The stories are violent and disgusting; one involves a dead baby being fed to pigs as the perfect way to cover up a murder. Fabienne then decides they need the help of an adult to get the book published, and they enlist the help of the lonely widowed M. Duvain. Once he has served her purpose, she ruins his life. The book, of course, becomes a best-seller, and people are fascinated by the peasant girl author. When Agnes is offered the opportunity to attend an English finishing school, Fabienne insists that she go. Apparently this is the turning point for their relationship. Although Agnes wants nothing more than to return home to her friend, when she does, the friendship dies. Why? Don't ask me. There's a lot of talk about what is "real life" and blah blah blah. I gather there's some deep philosophical meaning here, but it passed me by.

The Fugitive Colours by Nancy Bilyeau

This is a sequel to The Blue, which I quite enjoyed. Both novels focus on the character of Genevieve (formerly Planché, now Sturbridge), an 18th-century Huguenot fabric designer and former spy who has dreams of becoming a painter. She is married to Thomas, a chemist whose involvement in efforts to find an elusive blue for porcelain production landed him in a French prison, but he is now safe in England with a job as a tutor. He visits Genevieve and their son Pierre occasionally but mostly lives in his patron's home. Genevieve, a resourceful woman, has established her own fabric design business and employs two artists: Jean, a young political activist, and Catherine, a quiet and mysterious young woman. As the novel opens, Genevieve is delighted to receive a commission from M. Carteret, a wealthy weaving magnate, for the design of flowers from exotic places to adorn the silk that will become dresses for stylish ladies of London.

The Fugitive Colours sets Genevieve into the world of celebrities of the day, most particularly the painter Joshua Reynolds, who arranges an exhibition of her grandfather's paintings alongside those of Thomas Hogarth; both depict the everyday life of working men and women. Genevieve is led to believe that Reynolds takes an interest in her own painting. But perhaps he has an ulterior motive?

Bilyeau gives us a mystery full of spying, blackmail, and even murder, as well as a lively portrait of the London social scene and the art world.

4 out of 5 stars

The Bookstore Sisters by Alice Hoffman

This is really more of a longish short story than a book. After the death of their father, a hapless bookstore owner in a New England seaside town, sisters Isabel and Sophia have grown apart. Their father made them promise to keep the failing bookstore open. Sophia tries to keep the promise, but Isabel moves on with her life. When she receives a card with a single word written on it--Help--she returns to her hometown to make amends with her now-widowed sister and the niece she had never me, and to help restore her father's bookshop.

>144 Cariola: The Blue was only $3.99 for kindle, so I went ahead and snapped it up. I'm always looking for smart historical mystery series!

>146 japaul22: Have you read Andrew Taylor's series set in 1660s London? Ashes of London is the first in the series. Another one my brother loves is Edward Marston. He has written series set in the medieval era, Tudor London, the Restoration, the Crimean War, etc.

Foster by Claire Keegan

I loved Keegan's 'Small Things Like These,' which I read over Christmas last year, and also enjoyed two of her short story collection, so I had been waiting for the release of 'The Foster.' This is a very short novella (62 pages) about a young Irish girl sent to live with an aunt and uncle when her family falls on hard times. She is one of many children, her mother is expecting again, and her father is having difficulty keeping his farm afloat. Her aunt and uncle are virtually strangers to her, having met her only once when she was too young to remember. Told from the girl's point of view, we see her wonder at the way she is treated from the first night: a hot bath, plenty to eat, and no scolding in the morning after she wet the bed. The only time her aunt becomes cross is when she innocently asks about a secret.

This is a gentle story that slowly reveals the growing love between the girl and the adults, and along the way Keegan gives us a view of the local community as well. Like 'Small Things Like These," this story focuses on understanding the problems others face without hammering in the point. Both give us hope that the best in us will prevail.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

>148 Cariola: I enjoyed that also. My father was a foster in Ireland. His parents had very little money and he was the oldest boy. He was fostered by his grandparents who had a sheep farm and needed his help. His siblings were very jealous when they would see him. But he told me he only saw his mother on Sundays at church.

The Hero of This Book by Elizabeth McCracken

(I actually finished this one in November, just haven't gotten around to posting a short review.)

In the prefatory pages of her latest book, McCracken assures us that it is not a personal memoir and that she would never write about her mother, who was a very private person. The novel's narrator, an unnamed woman writer, then proceeds to tell us her memories of her recently deceased mother. She has decided to take a trip to London, her mother's favorite city, and at every turn thinks how her mother would have loved this quirky hotel clerk, that little corner pub, watching a play in the nosebleed section of the second balcony. Like most mothers and daughters, theirs was a complicated relationship, but a close and loving one. The writer's memories show us a tough, resilient woman who overcame her humble beginnings and physical limitations, who was smart and funny and loving, whose desire to protect her privacy turned her home into a decaying mausoleum to which visitors were unwelcome, despite het zest for life and curiosity about the world outside. What the writer comes to realize is that her mother was also her best friend and is dearly missed.

Critical reviews keep remarking that The Hero of this Book is an exercise in what it means to be a writer. Maybe so. But I kept feeling instead that it was an exercise in reading fiction, a reminder not to fall into the trap of believing that an unnamed first person narrator is the writer herself, no matter how much she borrows from the lives of those around her.

All the Broken Places by John Boyne

Gretel Fernsby, a respectable 91-year old widow living in a comfortable London flat, has more secrets than anyone meeting her would suspect. She carries with her almost unbearable guilt that, in her earlier days, kept her running from one country to another. Since her marriage to Edgar Fernsby, she seems to have settled in, but guilt none the less continues to dog her. When a new family moves into the flat below hers, she is delighted to meet young Henry, an intelligent boy who loves to read, but he is also a trigger for memories that Gretel would prefer not to revisit, including memories of her younger brother. Henry's mother is a nervous woman, often drunk, and both she and her son frequently show up with bruises, burns, and broken bones. For years Gretel has preferred to live a solitary life as a way of avoiding a confrontation with her past, but isolation could not diminish her guilt, and she struggles to make the right decision: to take action based on her suspicions and risk exposure of her past, or to repeat the sin of ignoring a moral wrong and living with the guilt caused by silence.

The novel moves back and forth through time, from present-day London to 1930s Berlin, World War II Poland, post-war Paris, Australia, and back to London, where Gretel married and settled after the war, living in the same flat for over seventy years. The structure helps us to understand Gretel's hidden life and the actions and inactions that haunt her. Boyne spins out themes of atonement and retribution, self preservation and moral responsibility, and the overwhelming burden of guilt. Overall, this is a compelling book that builds upon what is Boyne's best known novel, 'The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.'

Happy Holidays to you! I have not seen any films recently although I do want to see "The Whale" sometime in the new year. I also want to see " Women Talking"

>152 torontoc: I saw previews for that one--looks really good!