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Scott Alexander Howard

Fiction 2024 | 290 pages

In this debut novel by Scott Alexander Howard, an intriguing premise is set. The valley where the townspeople live is surrounded by mountains. But the mountains are very unique. If you pass over them to the east, you will be in the same town twenty years ahead in time. If you pass over them to the west, you will be in the same town, 20 years behind current time. More than anything, this book is about the rules, constraints, values, principles, policies, fears, and possible joys of “allowing” people or not allowing them to cross over.

I really enjoyed the first half of the book, where our main character, Odile Oxanne, is 16-years old and applying for apprenticeships. She most wants to apprentice to a coveted Counseil position, a seat on the board that controls the borders. Many think she can make it … she is smart, wise, a rational and emotional thinker. Then her best friend Edme dies, and Odile withdraws from the apprenticeship education.

In Part Two we find Odile nearly 20 years later, where she serves as a gendarme, her dreams shattered. I found Part Two sad, disappointing, and even depressing. It became so hard for me read, that eventually I lost the plot line and could not figure out who was who. Part Two transformed this book from four hearts to two hearts. I cannot honestly recommend it.

Suggested by a book review in New Scientist, August 3, 2024.

September 2024

The Echo of Old Books

September 2024

Barbara Davis

Fiction 2023 | 425 pages

Thank you, Donna, for suggesting this fun book, The Echo of Old Books.

Ashlyn is the proprietor of a rare books store and is gifted with psychometric abilities that allow her to read the vibrations of old books and sense their previous owners' feelings. When she picks up an old book, she feels the emotions of the owner(s) of the book. This is a gift most of the time, even though she can’t really tell people about it, because they look at her oddly! Sometimes it is challenging, especially when the emotions are dark or depressive.

In The Echo of Old Books, Ashlyn finds two books in a box of donated books, that are without an author or a date or a copyright, but with very strong emotions. What has she discovered? She finds herself compelled to uncover who the authors are and the circumstances that caused them to write and bind but not publish two books, Regretting Belle and Forever, and Other Lies.

Belle and Hemi are all we know about the (female and male) authors as the book begins, but we eventually discover who they are to each other, to their extended families, and out in the world. And how badly they hurt each other.

This book has an interesting premise and is a pure delight to read!

September 2024

Solito

Javier Zamora

Memoir 2022/ 381 pages

This is the memoir of 9-year old Javier Zamora's seven-week journey migrating ("illegally") into the United States from El Salvador in the summer of 1999. He was attempting, alone, to get to his parents in San Rafael, California, who migrated five years earlier. His journey was supposed to take two weeks; it took seven. A mom, daughter, and one of the men "adopted" Javier and the four of them became a "family" who took care of one another for the duration of the crossing from El Salvador through Mexico and into the U S.

The first half of this book is very slow, which reflected the actual speed of his travel. He would spend many days and nights in "apartmentos" or hotel rooms, waiting for the next coyote or the next connection to continue his journey. Just over halfway in, the book sped up as Javier's journey sped up, near the US border, and interactions with border agents made it a scary journey for sure.

A reviewer says this, "I am pretty certain I would have preferred this to be an autobiographical novel or an adult memoir reflecting on this childhood journey. I just could not suspend my skepticism that all the extended dialogue and journey details could be captured so accurately 20+ years later." I think that is an accurate reflection of what I felt. How could he remember how many water bottles he carried on a particular day, or how the refried beans tasted 20 years ago. It degraded the credibility a bit.

I kept feeling I "should" read this book (plus it is a book club read) and I was not surprised to find that the majority of the reviews I read used the words "should read" when describing this book. It IS important to read. We don't often see true narratives of immigrants making this difficult journey. It will inform you, teach you, raise your empathy, and inspire you, as you read about kindness, bravery, family (both blood and adopted), determination, and hope.

I could not find the meaning of the title, even after researching it!

So, yes, I recommend this memoir but know it may take you some concentration. By the way, there is a lot of Spanish in Solito which some people found annoying. I found it delightful.

August 2024

Knots and Crosses

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From Chicken to Eagle

Kamala Bremer & Rosalyn McKeown-Ice, editors

Nonfiction 2022 | 232 pages

In 1979, seven women, ages 26 - 40, came together through their connections and interests, to canoe 172 miles on the Fortymile and Yukon Rivers in Alaska for 11 days, from the town of Chicken to the town of Eagle. This trip, when the women's movement and environmental movements were in their infancies, served as a foundation and mirror for the rest of their lives. When my friend Carol loaned me From Chicken to Eagle, I assumed it was a book about a thrilling, exciting all-women wilderness adventure. It was that, yes, but it was so much more.

Thirty years after the canoe adventure, the women decided to each write a chapter to create the core of this book. Each included their own perceptions, perspectives, and memories from the challenging canoe trip ... but they did so much more. About three pages of each chapter presents each woman's memories. But the mainstay of their writing is about the impact of this trip ... how it built their strength and self-esteem; how it informed their relationships with the wilderness; how it showed up in marriages and child-rearing in some cases; and mostly how it prepared them to launch into major careers at a time when the cultural belief was that women couldn't and shouldn't do much in the work world.

We have in this team of women a lawyer, a doctor, a business leader, non-profit founders and leaders, a writer, a professor, a public relations person, a public health officer. More profound and impactful, we have environmental and social justice activists. These women started day care centers, recycling programs, sustainable education initiatives, climate change strategies, mentoring, political and policy change. They also remain, at ages 66 to 80, canoeists, kayakers, hikers, bikers, explorers, tour guides, adventurers.

Though it wasn't what I expected, From Chicken to Eagle is a fascinating, empowering, and inspiring read. If you are anywhere near my age, it will also bring back memories and cast a new light on what we really did accomplish in our 20s and 30s, and how far we still have to go. Yes, I recommend this short book.

August 2024

Lies and Weddings

Kevin Kwan

Fiction 2024 | 467 pages

I loved this book from page one. I don't know why books about superbly rich people keep showing up on my bookshelf these days but Lies and Weddings just seems to have none of the ostentatious excess of The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post.

The super-rich characters in Lies and Weddings have depth, unique characteristics, well-developed roles, and Kevin Kwan has subtle, wry humor, and a marvelous way with story.

The gargantuan Gresham legacy is flat broke, though the (not very likable) matriarch Arabella does not know this and spends millions and millions in the 437 pages of this book. Nevertheless, she wants to marry off her daughters to men with titles and significant fortunes themselves, and she especially wants to marry her (gorgeous) son Rufus into money. To that end, she keeps fixing him up with entirely inappropriate partners. He is a man with a kind heart and generous soul and the facade of these heiresses do not begin to interest him. And then there is “the girl next door” … a physician, Eden, whom Rufus asked to marry him when they were fourteen.

Because the characters are Chinese, or half-Chinese, or in some way connected to international Chinese culture, each new character is introduced to us with their educational pedigree: (pg 71) for example, “Laurel (Balboa/Thacher/Cornell/MIT) …”. This is delightful! It made me smile every time, though I didn’t know more than a third of the institutions. The introduction of the filthy rich addict Luis Felipe will touch your funny bone!

The fashion, the designer names, the costs of the dresses the women wear to various weddings and pre-and post-wedding events are not even comprehensible in my mind, as I sit here in J. Jill jeans and a long-sleeve t-shirt that is no less than 30 years old!

Yes, enjoy this novel! I started it Tuesday morning at camp and finished it Wednesday afternoon.

Another summertime read recommended by The Week.

August 2024

Baltimore Blues

Laura Lippman

Fiction 1997 | 369 pages

My friend and college roommate Janet suggested I try Laura Lippman after my last post, asking for mystery series. I just finished the first Tess Monaghan novel, Baltimore Blues. It is fun, fast and feisty. Tess has lost her job as an investigative reporter at a local newspaper that folded. At 29, she is trying to get her life together, knitting together small granny squares of jobs, such as working in her Aunt Kitty’s bookstore (Tess lives above the store for reduced rent), and doing administrative work for her uncle.

Less one think she is lazy (she IS accused of this on occasion), she also runs three (?) times a week, rows at 5:30 am six days a week, and lift weights three times a week.

And then her friend and rowing buddy Rock hires her to do some investigation into his fiancé Ava, who disappears at odd and frequent intervals. This begins a series of mysteries and murders that Tess finds herself compelled to investigate, under the radar screen, and mostly without much-needed compensation.

I loved reading about Tess trying to make her way in this new world of murder investigation, all on her own. I really like her as a person … free spirited, smart, and energetic. I will read the next book in the series, Charm City, and I recommend Baltimore Blues.

August 2024

Marnie is stuck in life. Stuck working alone in her London flat, stuck battling the long afternoons and a life that increasingly feels like it's passing her by. Michael, on the other hand, is coming undone. Reeling from his wife's departure, increasingly reclusive, taking himself on long, solitary walks.

A mutual friend invites them both on a walk across England, sea to sea.

The story is sweet. The writing is good. Yet, I fell asleep about every third page. I finally figured it out; it was simply a boring book. It moved too slow for me, with little adventure or intrigue. I am glad to be done with You Are Here and I do not recommend it. Suggested as a summer read by The Week magazine.

August 2024

Iron Lake