Play Book Tag discussion

Here's where we will be reading the 2023 Edgar nominated The Peacock and the Sparrow during March!

I hope to start it next week. Just got my copy from Libby.

Sounds good.

I've started reading, but just barely at page 25.

I am still waiting for a copy from the library, but can always buy it if the library one is overly tardy.

I'll be starting it this weekend. Just finishing up 2 other books and my book club meets Sunday to discuss the book I was reading most of this week. Reading now opens up!

My copy just became available from the library so will start tomorrow.

Steven wrote: "My copy just became available from the library so will start tomorrow."

I'll begin reading it again as well. I was feeling all alone.

I see there's a giveaway going on now. And at least one other group has a challenge that includes Spy/Espionage. For me, this book is more thriller than mystery, so not my thing. I started going to a local library book group that was supposedly for mysteries and found that almost all their selections were thrillers so I quit going.

I just started it and on page 2 or 3 it mentions it is Ramadan ... and I thought how appropriate to be starting it today as Ramadan 2024 starts this week.

A couple decades ago I was travelling - a tourist not business - in the Middle East during Ramadan. It had a more noticeable in Jordan as few restaurants were open during the day and hours were cut short for tours and such. Our guides and drivers withdrawals from caffeine and smoking increasingly noticeable as the day wore on. Far less impact in Egypt.

Now to see if that is reflected in the story at all.

Chapter 6. Here is info and photos on tbe actual Tree of Life mentioned.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_...

The Retro Chapter Chicks groups seems to have a Buddy Read of this now too.

I saw an editorial cartoon with dark humor, showing a Palestinian refugee camp with no supplies, where someone is saying "There is going to be a cease-fire for Ramadan so that we can fast"

The Modigliani paintings that Collins mentions remind him of the mosaic artist are

Woman of Algiers from 1917

Almaisa from 1916

Robin P wrote: "The Retro Chapter Chicks groups seems to have a Buddy Read of this now too.

I saw an editorial cartoon with dark humor, showing a Palestinian refugee camp with no supplies, where someone is sayin..."

LOL! My sister and I did Petra during Ramadan and the guides cut our time short in the valley by a good 2 hours 'because it was Ramadan' though it was an unofficial early end, just because they were all jonesing for cigarettes and coffee, we figured they were all off sneaking cigarettes and coffee after depositing us back at our hotel.

Brina wanted to read it as our 1st Quarter buddy read then as usual forgot that is what she said we would read, seemed to lose interest (my second time in a row with Brina as my assigned quarterly buddy read - not signing up any more). I went ahead and planned it for PBT Edgars. Then it came up agai when plotting the mystery buddy reads, Brina wanting to read it in March, not remembering we were supposed to have read it in February. I let it slide - worked better for me.

Chapter 17 - (view spoiler)[ Is Collins in love with her and seducing her for that reason? Is he just luring her as an informant? Both? There us the passage about photos of important women in his life - mother, wife, Almaisa - that suggests love.
Then this passage ...

Still, I was enjoying the game. A spy was a spy, and at fifty-two I could still lure a fish into my net. I hadn’t lost it—that ability to please, to find the soft and hard spots and get inside.

Is it a case that once a spy, always a spy, that there is no divider between work and non-work after a certaon point - which happens in lawyers, detectives, and other professions.

Cudos to the author for keeping me guessing at this point. (hide spoiler)]

Theresa, Thank you for the above -- going to take me a bit to catch up.

I am taking a break. (view spoiler)[I find Collins tiring. (hide spoiler)] Need to make progress on another book. Plus will give others time to catch up.

My first impression is that agent Shane Collins paints a pretty grim picture of Bahrain - do not think he is going to be recruited to be a guide book author.

Note - according to Wiki, Bahrain's population is a just short of 70% Islamic, broken down to 51% Sunni and 49% Shia.

Steven wrote: "My first impression is that agent Shane Collins paints a pretty grim picture of Bahrain - do not think he is going to be recruited to be a guide book author."

Good way to put it! 😅

It also paints, not surprisingly, a very negative picture of those working for US in any capacity, but especialky as a spy. That is not new, of course. You have to assume this is based in more fact than fiction given author's day job for years.

My brother when he worked for the Army Corp of Engineers as a civilian never had a good impression of countries like Bahrain when sent for work. That was from 1970s to about 2000. He never wanted to go back. Unlike the times he went to East Asia.

Fnished. Need to sleep on my review my thoughts.

I did get some reading done yesterday and am finding the story quite good and it is developing nicely (am still only about 80 pages in); however, for me, the author is over using similes. I do not mind a particular creative one, or if they are used sparingly, but too many for some reason are not appreciated. I do like his descriptions of the Middle East, particularly Bahrain with its contrast of towering, brightly lit high rises against the shambles and trash strewn streets of the slums. More interesting than Shane Collins, is Almaisa, the woman artist he has befriended, as Berry is revealing her little at a time.

Bahrain, especially the city of Manama, is a character here. Perhaps the most compelling one. I found myself throughout pulling up Google Maps and looking up the geography, then going through the images that would be provided. I wanted to 'see' Bahrain and Manama, more than I wanted to 'see' any character.

I'll be writing my review today. Carefully, as I will not want to spoil anyone's unpeeling of the layers to this plot. And there are many many layers. Definitely one of the more purely espionage novels I've read in a very long time. Most written these days are more action/thriller then espionage, designed to take the reader along on a quick ride. This is not like that. Although it does pick up around the halfway mark. Just as tensions mount in Bahrain, so does the pace of the book.

I'm struggling with my rating a bit. I think it's going to be higher than I thought. I do not think it will win the Edgar, however, It's not enough of a pure mystery.

I've stalled on this, but hope to get restarted. My method is to have another choice to read that is slower.

Here's my review of The Peacock and the Sparrow.

I ended up giving it 4 stars. This one pulled together for me towards the end but also more so on thinking back over the entire book. Not a quick diversionary read, more thoughtful - or 'thought provoking' if thinking about tags GR readers would use.

Found it amusing that CIA officers need to use a time card to track their hours.

*snort* That was pretty amusing. It's government....

I'm a bit irritated with government today. I need to contact the FDIC about a failed bank in order to get a satisfaction of mortgage for a commercial loan paid off a dozen years ago. The email provided on the website to submit these requests came back MAELOR DAEMON. No phone number provided. Half the links to other pages end in error messages. I've given up for today and will try another route on Monday.

For some reason, this inability to contact the FDIC has me checking my accounts online more frequently.

That is a bit concerning for sure.

Ran into a similar problem with the IRS website and the government website providing compliance information for the Anti-terrorism and Money Laundering Banking Act just a couple of weeks ago....

Conversely, I have found the folks working at Social Security to be helpful, informed, and efficient.

Steven wrote: "Conversely, I have found the folks working at Social Security to be helpful, informed, and efficient."

And with Medicare - I have found the same. But those are also administered on a State level. All these offices I'm trying to use are federal.

I am finished and will try and jot down my thoughts later today.

Looking forward to them, Steven!

It had been a while since I'd read an espionage book that wasn't primarily a thriller. It was refreshing.

Finally getting around to distilling my thoughts about this book. Agree with Theresa that Bahrain is a major character, and the one I liked the best. We received a unique tour of the city, both its grander and poverty. This from an insider’s viewpoint, Shane Collins, the aging CIA operator who was coming unglued from his foundation page by page.

Mixed, convoluted loyalties abound – to the U.S., to a career, to a lover, to one’s friends and family. The novel at its best provides two perspectives – the one example that stands out most for me was Bahrain’s “Tree of Life.” To Shane it was scraggly, stunted, and surrounded by the debris left by those who had previously visited, and to Almaisa, his Shia love interest, it was a living shrine of something that has survived and persevered in spite of the austere and threatening desert environment in which it is rooted. To her it likely symbolized the long struggle for greater democracy, equality, and freedoms in Bahrain.

I have a mixed take on the book as a whole – there were parts I liked and enjoyed, but at times, felt CIA agent Collins was often beyond the pale of the reality that Berry was trying to convey. If I could have gone with 3.5 stars, I would have, but of course, gave the benefit to the author and the story and decided on four.

Excellent summary, Steven, and spot on.

Now that some time - and other books - have passed since I finished it, many things keep surfacing about it. One is Shane's increasing repetition in that last third/quarter of the novel 'I am a good spy'. It's only after a little time has passed that I gave thought to what I was feeling: that he is repeating it in order to convince himself, but that the knowledge he has is that he was not 'a good spy', at least not here in Bahrain.

If this author continues writing these types of novels, I will certainly give them a try.

I too would try another one by Berry.

I just finished this. Was anyone else disappointed that the ending was so far from the truth of what actually happened in Bahrain? I guess I assumed that since it was based on the real Arab Spring revolt that the ending would hew to the way things actually played out.

Liz wrote: "I just finished this. Was anyone else disappointed that the ending was so far from the truth of what actually happened in Bahrain? I guess I assumed that since it was based on the real Arab Spring ..."

I remember being quite startled at the point I realized it was going to have what I dubbed a fantasy ending unrelated to the real Arab Spring. I reminded my self that this is 100% fiction inspired by real events only and that the author created the ending she felt her book - and her antihero - needed. I was okay with it.

I also blamed the publishers and marketers to some extent over my expectations - the blurbs and plot summaries all made it sound as if it was a fictional story set against the actual events rather than a story incorporating the Arab Spring to fit into her story --- not sure I'm stating that clearly -- it's a bit alternative history maybe that's the way to describe it.

In the end, I was fine with it as it fit the layered plot and where they all ended.