Stacked-Up Book Thoughts: A Great Reading Week
I've
reached that point where cabin fever is starting to set in. The sleet
or ice or cold or snow has kept me cooped up inside and made me miss way
too many outdoor walks. It's driving me crazy!
We finally started the new season of True Detective. I like it but need to see a few more episodes before commenting. We finished the Netflix series You, which started out strong, but I was less enamored by the end. We also finally watched the movie Room,
which I liked. It's been too long since I read the book to make
detailed comparisons, but the young actor who played Jack did an
excellent job.
Here's what I read last week.
The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie
(Orbit, Feb. 26): I really liked this epic fantasy--told in a mix of
first and second person--about gods and humans, sons and fathers, how
power travels through the world. As other reviewers have noted, some of
the plot lines are similar to Hamlet (a young man returns from
war to find his father dead and his uncle on the throne), but much is
unique. The god Strength and Patience of the Hill has witnessed eons of
the world's history and the rise of humans. Through Strength's narration
we learn about the ancient gods, how they gain (and lose) power, where
that power lies, what they can (and cannot do), their relationships with
each other, and their complex connections with people. At the same
time, we are following the political and religious goings on in the
kingdom of Iraden. I was intrigued by Leckie's take on the world of the
gods, which is different from that of Roman and Greek mythology. In The Raven Tower
universe, gods must think carefully before they speak, because their
words have the power to change the world and to change their own fate. I
was also caught up in the court politics and how the paths of the gods
and the humans were intertwined. Don't miss this one. I listened to the
unabridged auidobook (Hachette Audio; 12 hr, 2 min) read by Adjoa Andoh,
who does a brilliant job conveying the emotional depth of Strength and
Patience of the Hill and the god's reactions to all it witnesses
throughout the millennia. (audiobook provided by the publisher)
Good Riddance by Elinor Lipman
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Feb. 5): In a fit of Kondo-inspired tidying
up, Daphne Maritch throws her late-mother's annotated high school
yearbook into the recycling bin. In 1968 in a small New Hampshire town,
Daphne's mom, June, was a teacher and the yearbook adviser; from that
time on, she never missed a reunion of that class, updating her copy of
the yearbook with the juicy tidbits of gossip and facts she learned each
year. After Daphne's documentary-filmmaker-wantabe neighbor retrieves
the yearbook, Maritch family secrets begin to leak out. This is a light,
fun contemporary story of a young woman trying to find her place in the
world and in New York. Her widowed father, snobby older sister, and
various apartment building neighbors have parts to play as Daphne learns
that her mother may not have been perfect and that her parents' loving
marriage may have had some cracks. Pop culture, humor, and desperate
acts keep the plot moving. Unfortunately one of the principal motivators
for the entire novel is based on genetics, and the author got those
genetics wrong. If I hadn't been listening to this book for a freelance
assignment, I would have quit right there. The non-geneticists among you
will enjoy this lighthearted novel. The unabridged audiobook
(Dreamscape; 8 hr, 7 min) was very nicely read by Mia Barron, whose
expressive performance brought out the humor and tapped into the
characters' emotional journeys. (audiobook provided for a freelance
assignment).
The River by Peter Heller
(Knopf, March 5): I love Peter Heller, and this novel was one of my
most anticipated books of the year. I was not disappointed, and The River
is now sitting pretty as the best book I've read in a long while. This
is the story of Wynn and Jack, both outdoorsy and from rural
backgrounds, who meet at college and become best friends. They spend as
much time as possible canoeing rivers, fly-fishing, and camping. They
have a natural and respectful interpersonal rhythm, and easily travel
and work together. While on a canoe trip in Canada, they notice the
signs of a not-so-distance forest fire and thus decide to make haste to
their take-out point. On that foggy morning they pass two other sets of
campers: a pair of drunken older men who mock the boys and a couple
camped on an island who can be heard arguing. From that point on the
trip takes a dark turn as the boys' safety seems to be jeopardized along
more than one front. I love how Heller conveys what it's like to be
on a wilderness river--the sights, sounds, work, conditions--and his
obvious passion for and knowledge of fly fishing shines. Heller is a
master at creating a creeping buildup of danger, holding it just out of
sight so you never quite know where and when or if it will manifest. I
was completely connected to Wynn and Jack and understood what moved
them, what made them who they were. Do not miss this one. (copy provided
for a freelance assignment)
Enchantee by Gita Trelease (Flatiron, Feb. 5): I already wrote about
this nicely done alternate history look at pre-revolutionary France and
the intrigues of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette's court. Camille has
inherited the gift of magic from her mother and the printer's trade from
her father, but her apprenticeships are cut off when both parents die
from smallpox in the late 1780s. Her older brother fails to offer
Camille and their younger sister protection, leaving the girls on their
own in a Paris that isn't kind to the poor or to girls. Realizing she
must use whatever power she has, Camille dons her mother's enchanted
dress and infiltrates Versailles, hoping her magic will help her win at
cards and rise from poverty. The only trouble is that the magic of the
dress lasts only so long, life at court is much more complicated than
Camille is prepared for, and she is not the only magician in the palace.
In some ways Enchantee is a Cinderella retelling: through magic,
a poor girl is transformed, goes to court, and turns heads; but she
must leave before her disguise falls apart. I always like a fairy tale
retelling and enjoyed those aspects of Enchantee. I also liked
the historical facts and period details of Paris: the rumblings of
revolution, the storming of the Bastille, the attitudes of the rich, the
fashions of court, and the new technology of hot-air ballooning. There
were few surprises in Enchantee, but the ending was both exciting
and satisfying. I listened to the unabridged audiobook (Macmillian Audio, 12
hr, 56 min) read by Justine Erye, who is one of my go-to narrators. She
did an excellent job with the various accents and distinguishing among
the characters. (print copy provided by the publisher; audio copy
provided for a freelance assignment)
"Mercy" by Mandeliene Smith from Rutting Season
(Scribner, Feb. 12). This week's short story comes from a debut
collection. "Mercy" is set on a small family farm, where May is coping
with sudden widowhood and the stresses of being a single mother solely
in charge of keeping everything on track. The farm was her idea; her
husband was a lawyer who gamely agreed to keeping animals, especially
Pam's beloved horses. The emotional and dramatic aspects of the story
were strong but realistic, and I could sense just how hard it was for
Pam to move through her new reality while trying to present a strong and
upbeat front for her young children. I will be reading more from this
collection; the stories are billed as being about women and families on
the brink of transformation. (digital copy provided by the publisher)
