Constant Reader discussion

I knew nothing about Letters to Camondo or Edmund de Waal, but just happened upon this fascinating biography, written as letters to "you", Count Moïse de Camondo, who lived in Paris during WWII.
4.5★ Link to my review of Letters to Camondo with a few photos and a link to more

I have missed Mick Herron's spies, the Slow Horses. These two novellas slot neatly into his much-loved Slough House series but can be enjoyed together without reading the rest.

The List is #2.5 and shows John Bachelor doing 'the milk run', babysitting retired, elderly spooks. Tricky!
4.5★ My review of The List

The Drop is #5.5 and follows the action from The List. Old-school tricks are recognised by old-school spooks!
4.5★ My review of The Drop


These are also available as a single book.
The Drop & The List

The Slow Horses series looks good, Patty. That’s one I have penciled in for future reading. Sounds like a great concept.

Longbourn – Jo Baker – 3.5***
I really enjoyed this follow-up version to Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice . Yes, the major events from P&P are all present, but Baker gives us a rich background to the Longbourn and Netherfield servants that are mostly invisible in Austen’s classic. Regency England had many rules and restrictions that governed proper behavior, whether for the ladies and gentlemen of the upper class, or the servants, farmers and tradespeople in the towns. And this adds an additional layer of suspense in the slow-burn romance between Sarah and her paramour.
My full review HERE

Sue wrote: "The Slow Horses series looks good, Patty. That’s one I have penciled in for future reading. Sounds like a great concept."

It's one of my favourite series, Sue, and I'm not alone there! Hope you find it and enjoy it.

My non-review shows why book reviewers are important. I also link to a very informative real review by a scientist and the interesting NZ article that sent me down this rabbit hole! Please avoid this book, though.
Charles Darwin: Victorian Mythmaker by A.N. Wilson
1★ (for the cover) Link to my non-review and reasons I posted it

A Children’s Bible – Lydia Millet – 4****
I’m not a great fan of post-apocalyptic stories but this one grabbed me. Evie’s narration is often times emotionless, almost a “just the facts, M’am” recitation. But nevertheless, the tension builds, as the children fend for themselves in a world devastated by a major hurricane and plagued by lawlessness. I think it would be a good candidate for a book group discussion, with the symbolism, allegory, and inherent warnings about global warming and consumer excess.
My full review HERE

I loved that book. I agree that it could foster much discussion among book groups.

I usually don't go for romance novels, but I liked The Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen. I gave it 4****. Here's my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I enjoyed The Venice Sketchbook too, Mary Anne. Bowen has written a couple of others set in WWII that I enjoyed as well - especially The Victory Garden and In Farleigh Field.

On the flip side, her "Royal Spyness" series is pure fun. A young woman who is in line to inherit the British throne - if about 25 or 30 people die - keeps getting roped into spying for the Queen. There's romance but the humor is what keeps me coming back to those.

The only short story Toni Morrison ever wrote, Recitatif, has been reissued with an introduction by Zadie Smith. It is a real mind-bender. Which girl is black, which white? I loved it.
5★ Link to my review of Recitatif with a link to an article by Zadie Smith.

Edgware Road by Yasmin Cordery Khan tells the story of an international banking scandal and how an English-Pakistani family living in London got caught up in it, to the point that someone ends up dead. Excellent!
4.5~5★ Link to my Edgware Road review

Reread Graham Greene's The Third Man yesterday for part of a course I'm doing on adaptations. My introduction tellls me the story text never written to be read. Greene seemingly had the opening paragraph written years before he spoke with Alex Korda who wanted to make a movie for Carol Reif about the 4 power occupation of Vienna, It also states that according to Greene it is impossible to write a film play without writing the story first, but that the story text was never intended to be more than the raw material for the movie. This to me makes a lot of sense when you compare the two.

I enjoyed Aussie author Kerry Greenwood's glamorous and fearless (almost) Phryne Fisher flying her Gipsy Moth over the Australian Alps in the 1930s in The Green Mill Murder, #5 in this entertaining series.
3.5~4★ Link to my Green Mill Murder review

I'm really enjoying this historical mystery series by C.S. Harris, set in London in the early 1800s with England and France at war (again? still? always?). In Why Mermaids Sing, Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Lord Devlin, is investigating a murder, and then another, and then . . .
4.5★ Link to my review of Why Mermaids Sing

The Things They Carried in Vietnam include more than stuff. This phenomenal book by Tim O'Brien was a finalist for the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Included in a soldier's burden are shame, fear, and embarrassment. I feel like I know his people, and I wish they hadn't had to go.
5★ Link to my review of The Things They Carried

PattyMacDotComma wrote: "The Things They Carried in Vietnam include more than stuff. This phenomenal book by Tim O'Brien was a finalist for the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Included in a sol..."

I loved this book.

And sometimes we just need entertainment ...



Nice Work – Celia Imrie – 3***
Book two in the Nice series. Love the double entendre of the title as this book is set near Nice, Cannes and Marseille in a charming small French town full of colorful characters and a tight group of expats who are trying to make a new life on the Cote d’Azur. This is a fun, enjoyable read with a bit of intrigue and a likeable cast of recurring characters. Some of the family drama from book one spills over into this tale.
My full review HERE

Patty and Ruth, I read THE THINGS THEY CARRIED towards the end of 2020. I loved it and gave it 5 stars. My review comment at the time was “Brilliant! One of the most powerful books about war I’ve ever read.” Last year I read another of O’Brien’s books, GOING AFTER CACCIATO. It was very good as well, although I gave it 4 stars, not 5.

Mary wrote: "Patty and Ruth, I read THE THINGS THEY CARRIED towards the end of 2020. I loved it and gave it 5 stars. My review comment at the time was “Brilliant! One of the most powerful books about war I’ve e..."
Yes Cacciato (which autocorrect insist as on changing to cacciatore, was excellent, too.

I have just read for the first time Daphne du Maurier's short story The Birds from her collection The Birds and Other Stories and re-watched also Hitchcock's movie version https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056869.

I saw the movie when I was still relatively young and it really scared me and permenantly left me with a dislike of being in close prximity to birds, but I had never read the story. If you haven't I really recommend it. It is very different in setting and characters to the movie. The book focuses on Nat Hocken a post war farm worker and his family when a cold easterly blows in to their coastal location heralding a hard but snowless winter . As in the movie, all species of birds still gather together and for some unknown reason attack.

By the end I was aware that for today's reader, perhaps more distant from war, from the sound of planes, from public announcements on the radio, the story remains apocalyptic, is reasonant perhaps more with the recent Pandemic experience or the Climate Emergency than with war, but its themes of survival, preparedness or rather the lack of it, the activities of disbelievers, and self-reliance in the face of an inactive government/military in the face of an enemy whose reason, motives and purpose are unknown. As a big Du Maurier fan, i am very glad I finally read this one. I vastly prefer it to the movie, and I am a big Hitchock fan.

Mary wrote: "Patty and Ruth, I read THE THINGS THEY CARRIED towards the end of 2020. I loved it and gave it 5 stars. My review comment at the time was “Brilliant! One of the most powerful books about war I’ve e..."

I don't know how Tim O'Brien managed to balance the horrors with the sensitive stories of the men's backgrounds and characters. Somehow, grim as Vietnam was, the awfulness isn't the only thing you take away from The Things They Carried. You just hope that some of those guys managed to keep living - somehow. No wonder it was on the Pulitzer short list.

Buzz Books 2022: Spring/Summer has a long list of books coming out this year, and it includes excerpts from many of them. Authors range from winners of the Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes to debut authors new to the market. It's a great way to get a taste of what's out there.
5★ My review of Buzz Books 2022 Spring/Summer, which has a link to where you can download a copy for free

Author Chris Gill is originally a 'product' of the UK and NZ who now lives in Australia. (YAY!) His latest book, Boy Fallen, takes place on the rugged west coast of NZ's South Island. Accident or murder? It's a good story in a great setting - worth a look.
3★ My review of Boy Fallen

Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen – 4****
It's no wonder this is a classic. Austen is simply the master of dialogue. The way in which the characters interact brings them to life. From Mrs Bennet’s hysterics, to Lydia’s self-centered teen-aged giddiness, to Mr Collins’ simpering diatribes, to Jane’s cautious and measured observations, to Elizabeth’s outrage and clever responses to Darcy and Lady Catherine de Bourgh, the dialogue simply sparkles.
My full review HERE

I've read Pride and Prejudice at least twice, BC, once in print and once in an audiobook production. It is such a treat. When I was young, I didn't read Austen because I didn't think I had any use for women whose seemingly only goal was finding a rich husband. As I got older, less judgemental and more understanding of the barriers 19th century women contended with, I realized what I had been missing.

Nice summary of reading Austen, Barbara. I need to adjust my reading plans and add Austen beyond P & P and other classics I want to read someday. If I’m not careful, I may miss my someday 🌻

This is a bright, appealing children's picture book that would be good for pointing out shapes and finding items from one page to the next. Chelsea O'Byrne is both author and illustrator, and it's lovely.
4★ My review of If I Were King with several of her illustrations

Just finished Aussie author Anni Taylor's suspenseful One Last Child (Tallman Valley's Detectives, book 1), which takes place in the beautiful, mysterious Blue Mountains west of Sydney. Complicating things is that one of the abducted children is Detective Kate Wakeland's granddaughter.
4★ My review of One Last Child

Leonard and Hungry Paul – Rónán Hession – 4****
Two thirty-something single men are friends. They each live at home, they play board games, take satisfaction in their work, like to read, and are, in general, nice. Can quiet, gentle people change the world? Oh, I loved this book! I liked how Hession showed us these two men slowly and gently, revealing their strengths and flaws, as we got to know them. The ending is perfect. Happy and hopeful but not tied up in a nice, neat bow.
My full review HERE

Just finished Mike Nichols: A Life. He was such an amazing person, and this is a great autobiography. He worked with just about everybody.

Also finished The Namesake, then watched the DVD. I recommend both in that order, as the book has more content, but the DVD gives a real flavor of the Bengali lifestyle, and the actors bring Gogol, and especially his parents, alive with wonderful performances.

In the midst of Lifespan: Why We Age—and Why We Don't Have To, and have learned that the metformin I take for my type 2 diabetes is something that many want to be able to get as an anti-aging drug.

Paused in the middle of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, but will definitely get back to it.

About a third of the way through American Dirt for a book club. It's a page turner so far.

Finally got round to reading another of the stories in Ted Chiang's collection Stories of Your Life and Others, this time the title story, the novella behind the movie Arrival Story of Your Life. So glad I did. If the movie didn't make much sense then do try the storynovella. It might be difficult going in places with all the linguistic details but overall very worthwhile read, highly recommended. Speculative fiction at its best in this award winning novella and collection. See My Review

Sheila wrote: "Finally got round to reading another of the stories in Ted Chiang's collection Stories of Your Life and Others, this time the title story, the novella behind the mov..."

Forget that these short stories are SF ... they are simply some of the best short stories written in recent years. Chiang publishes so little ... and wins awards so often. Each story is a gem. I've read Story of Your Life three times ... I'll read it again.

I'm working my way through Proust. I just finished Swann's Way (the Lydia Davis translation) which I loved and have started the next volume, IN THE SHADOW OF YOUNG GIRLS IN FLOWER: In Search of Lost Time: Volume II - Within A Budding Grove.

I'm also reading essays and books in connection with the Proust--the essays of Lydia Davis about Proust in her Essays Two: On Proust, Translation, Foreign Languages, and the City of Arles, the same for Walter Benjamin's Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, Proustian Uncertainties: On Reading and Rereading In Search of Lost Time and Marcel Proust's Search for Lost Time: A Reader's Guide to the Remembrance of Things Past by Patrick Alexander

But I'm more dipping through the accompanying volumes than reading the entire works. I'm trying to read as much as I can before I go to Paris at the end of March to see an exhibit about Proust at the Musee Carnavalet. So I'm overwhelmed by my own project but also excited.

Someday I hope to read at least the first volume in the original. But not today.

Ellie, a long time ago a group of us on Constant Reader decided to read all of the volumes of In Search of Lost Time together. Only a few of us made it to the end but I have always been so glad that I was one of them. I read the Lydia Davis translation of Swann's Way too. I think it had just been published at the time but I didn't know about her essays. I'm going to look for those.
I envy you the trip to Paris. I know that my feeling is far from unique but it's one of my favorite places in the world.

Barbara wrote: "Ellie, a long time ago a group of us on Constant Reader decided to read all of the volumes of In Search of Lost Time together. Only a few of us made it to the end but I have always been so glad tha..."

I can't believe I'm actually going to Paris! And thanks for the good wishes. I read the entire work once but that's maybe 35 years ago so I'm really wanting to read it through again.

I recently finished As I Lay Dying and am now reading or rereading Absalom, Absalom. Except for some stories, I don’t think I have read Faulkner since 1971. Apparently my past isn’t even past. Also purchased Gorra’s Saddest Words, which I began reading a year or so ago but had to return to the library.

I finished Damascus Station yesterday.

Damascus Station is a realistic novel set mainly in Beirut as the Syrian revolution starts and continues, becoming ever more deadly. A CIA case officer recruits a highly placed woman advisor to the Syrian Presidential Place. The insanity of the Syrian government with its 17 separate security/intelligence agencies with everyone spying on everyone else is described as the civil war worsens and the risks increase. But inside this insanity there is love and heroism and the risks from the former are as great as from the latter. You will learn a lot about the Syrian war if you read this book. You will also learn how the CIA operates in dangerous environments where not all the rules make a lot of sense. Not all the craziness is in Beirut. One quote from the book:

“The bipolar nature of the Agency never ceased to amaze: CIA had the ability to find and kill a person in the remote Hindu Kush, and on the other hand he couldn’t find a working stapler at Langley. And so it was with Mariam’s recruitment.”

The book is certainly in the thriller genre. But by the time I finished it, I thought that it had managed quite well to transform itself into an excellent literary novel that stands up well against most spy novels by John LeCarre or Charles McCarry.

Wow, Larry, thanks for this review. It's going on my list. I know bits and pieces about the Syrian war but I've never been able to make it all come together mentally. If good fact-based fiction can help with that, I'm in.

I’ll check this out, Larry, thanks! Alan, my best friend did her Ph.D. In Absalom, Absalom.

The Whale Rider – Witi Ihimaera – 5***** and a ❤
What a wonderful story. Magical, mystical, and yet completely relatable. Eight-year-old Kahu wants nothing so much as to please her Grandfather and be loved by him. But he dismisses her as a “useless girl.” Still, her grandmother, father and uncle champion her cause, as she comes of age and proves that she has what it takes to become chief and lead her people.
My full review HERE

One for the word nerds, like me.
Jumping sharks and dropping mics by Gareth Carrol explains a lot of the idioms and phrases that have slipped into everyday English. Some I know and use, some not so much. Very entertaining.
4★ My review of Jumping Sharks, etc with several examples

Another one for the kiddies (and grown-ups).
Love Grows Everywhere is a charmer of a small picture book by Barry Timms with some enormous ideas, wonderfully illustrated by Tisha Lee. Diversity and acceptance abound in glorious colour! I want to live there. 😊
5★ My review of Love Grows Everywhere with several of the illustrations

Book Concierge wrote: "

The Whale Rider
– Witi Ihimaera – 5***** and a ❤
What a wonderful story. Magical, mystical, and yet completely relatable. Eight-year-old Kahu wants nothing s..."

That looks great. I just placed a hold on it in the library. Thanks for the recommendation.

BC, I loved The Whale Rider. There is a great movie based on it too by the same name. It was a co-production by New Zealand and Germany and was shot on location at the setting of the book.

My mini-review of Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas by Jennifer Raff

If you want to understand what the latest research shows about the peopling of the Americas, then Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas by Jennifer Raff may be the book for you. Raff is an assistant professor of Anthropology at the University of Kansas and is the President of the American Association of Anthropological Genetics. How and when did the Native Americans of the Americas and the Inuit of the northern lands come to live in the Western Hemisphere? She explains that the theory until recently that all the inhabitants came in three waves out of Asia isn’t quite supported by the most recent evidence and that there is strong evidence to support some earliest inhabitants actually came by water along the Pacific Coast.

A few minor criticisms. The writing is not elegant but it is clear. A bigger problem is the paucity of footnotes, even where they are definitely called for. I trust that she knows her material, but there are some issues like the evolution of the dogs who accompanied the first inhabitants where more footnotes are called for as she says the recent research has changed.

She is very repetitive in her statements about lack of sensitivity in the treatment by researchers of the remains of Native Americans/First Peoples. But I’m not sure at all that that should be a criticism. I think that she is generally right to make this point on a number of occasions. And at the end of the book, when she recounts the why the Kennewick Man’s remains were handled and tested, she really tells this story as well as any account that I I have read. (The Kennewick Man refers to a skeleton found along the Columbia River. The remains were about 9,000 years old, and some who first examined those remains postulated that he was of European origin. The final results proved otherwise.)

She easily provides the best detailed description I’ve ever read about DNA extraction and laboratory handling of ancient bones … she makes it methodical (she mentions that it can be so boring at times that listening to music or podcasts in the lab as she works is necessary) and fascinating at the same time. She does such a good job of reporting excitement shared with the need for cautious reporting of results.

Finally, she is excellent about the state of play in what we know and what we believe we know about the peopling of the Americas. As an important case, she reports the latest research including the anomaly relating to a discovery in 2016 of possible Australasian ancestry in some native South American populations. And she explains how strange this result is. I’ll just say that after much analysis it does not suggest a Transpacific migration. You can read the book to understand the two different possibilities that it does suggest. And if you have any interest at all how the Western Hemisphere came to be populated before Europeans arrived in 1492, that’s exactly what I recommend. Read the book.

Sounds fascinating, Larry. Not sure if I will get to it but I have added it.

That really sounds interesting, Larry. Thanks for the review.

Larry wrote: "My mini-review of Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas by Jennifer Raff

If you want to understand what the latest research shows about the peopling of the Americas, then Origi..."

Larry wrote: "My mini-review of Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas by Jennifer Raff

If you want to understand what the latest research shows about the peopling of the Americas, then Origi..."

I have been reading text and listening to audio. It is interesting, but has lots of repetition and the focus isn’t sharp. And I agree footnotes and bibliography should have been better.

Furious Hours – Casey Cep – 3.5*** rounded up
Subtitle: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee. This is a combination of a true crime exploration of the serial killer Reverend Willie Maxwell, and a mini biography of Harper Lee. I found the entire story fascinating, but then I am a fan of both Lee and true crime books. However, I think the author would have been less successful with this book without the Lee hook, and that somehow just didn’t sit right with me. So, three stars: I liked it; other true-crime or Lee fans will probably like it too.
My full review HERE