After much rain, snow, cold, and overcast skies, we had two amazing days this week, with temperatures in the 70's (77 F the second day!) and bright sunny skies! I took full advantage and got out for walks, before we returned to our regularly scheduled February weather.
Melting snow on our deck.
The first snowdrops of spring!
View from a local park.
First buds on forsythia!
Early buds on a neighborhood maple tree.
Warm enough to put the top down!
Out walking in short sleeves!
What a difference a day makes! Cold & rainy 24 hrs later. Back to the parka.
So, 8 books total for me in January, which is a lot! I read mostly fiction, with one nonfiction book (that I read for my medical condition, on the advice of a friend). I focused mostly on adult fiction last month, though I did fit in one YA and one middle-grade book. I only finished one audio book, but it was a longish one. And one of my books was a graphic novel, so a nice variety last month overall! I enjoyed all of the fiction very much. I'm having trouble picking a favorite - maybe a tie between Exit West and Only Child (I will post my review for that one as soon as it is published), both of which were very unique, moving, and thought-provoking.
Progress in 2018 Reading Challenges: This is my favorite part of my monthly summary - updating my Reading
Challenges! I started the year off right, with 4 books from my own shelves for my Mount TBR Reading Challenge. For the Monthly Motif Reading Challenge, January was Diversify Your Reading, so Exit Westfit well (the two main characters are Muslim). I already read one classic for the Back to the Classics Challenge and counted The Martian Chronicles under Re-Read an Old Favorite category.For my new 2018 Badass Books Challenge, I added A Book Published in 2018 (Only Child), a Re-Read (The Martian Chronicles and Book By An Author You've Never Read (Circling the Sun by Paula McLain). It was a great month for international reading - I added UK, Germany, Kenya, and Mars (it counts!) for my Travel the World in Books Reading Challenge. For my 2018 Literary Escapes Challenge, I added three states - NY, CA (always a lot of those two), and TN.
Finally, Bookish Bingo hosted by Chapter Break
- not really a challenge per se, but a fun game that I play
each month. I filled in 19 squares in January - decent start to the year!
Spaces filled in:
Only Child - free child The Adrenal Reset Diet - diet/fitness/exercise, multi-word title Exit West - shelf love (TBR), repercussions Perfect Little World - audio book The Pirates of Cologne - YA, treason Circling the Sun - library book, person on the cover, competition, betrayal Cici's Journal - in a series, library or librarian The Martian Chronicles - re-read, made into a TV show/movie, cold weather Free Space
Last month, I enjoyed listening to the audio of Perfect Little World, a novel by Kevin Wilson about an odd little Utopian experiment. I was mildly intrigued by the description of the novel but found myself pulled into the compelling, warm, and emotionally complex story more than I expected.
Izzy has just graduated from high school in a small town in Tennessee and has just found out she is pregnant. She's been secretly seeing her art teacher, but he is soon out of the picture entirely. Izzy is left wondering how she will ever manage as a single parent. She currently lives in her father's small, rundown house, but he can't even support himself emotionally or financially, let alone Izzy and a new baby. Her only friend is her boss at the local BBQ place where she butchers hogs (and is quite good at it, too). So, when she hears about a program that is looking for parents who are having babies soon and learns that the project will provide full support, including education and job training for her, she signs up, with her friend's encouragement. Dr. Preston Grind is the head of the Infinite Family Project, which is based on his research and seeks to create a small community of ten families, all with babies born within months of each other. The babies will be brought up collectively for the first five years, with all the best support and love but without knowing who their biological parents are.
As you might expect, things go well with the Infinite Family Project at first, but then in-fighting, resentments, and potential funding problems invade their "perfect little world." The story is told from Izzy's perspective, and she is a likable character whom I was rooting for, with plenty of inner strength and love for her son (and the other babies, too). The pace of the story moved along quickly, and I was swept up in the daily ups and downs of life in the project, hoping that things would somehow turn out well for Izzy. This engrossing, heartwarming novel includes plenty of twists and turns to keep things interesting, and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it on audio.
352 pages, Ecco
HarperAudio
Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in
return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced
by my relationship with the publisher or author.
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from
these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help
offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.
I discovered Ray Bradbury when I was in high school and quickly devoured every one of his books in our public library! That was...uh...let's just say a long time ago, and while I remember the joy his books brought me, I don't remember many details from his novels and short stories. I reread Fahrenheit 451 a few years ago for Banned Book Week and wanted to revisit more of my old favorites. I picked up a copy of The Martian Chronicles, Bradbury's 1950 collection of interrelated stories about humans traveling to and settling on Mars, at the bookstore last fall and thoroughly enjoyed reading it and rediscovering Bradbury's clever and creative storytelling.
In his introduction, Bradbury describes The Martian Chronicles as a book-of-stories-pretending-to-be-a-novel, but I quickly got into the flow of his storytelling. Though some of the stories were published as stand-alones at one time or another, they are collected here in chronological order so that they tell the story of man exploring and trying to settle Mars, from January 2030 to October 2057. Little attention is paid to the technology - these are stories about people (and Martians). Each story has its own characters, and sometimes certain characters reappear in later stories, but this is mostly a sequence of individual tales that link together to tell a complete story of man's efforts to take over another world, with our typical disregard for those already living there. In fact, since it was written in the 1940's, some of the technology, characters, and their actions seem quite old-fashioned. It's a novel about human nature, though, which doesn't change much.
I was absorbed by the characters and their world immediately. Bradbury is very creative in his imaginings of this foreign world, describing places, topography, and cities - and even more so in his descriptions of the existing citizens of Mars. Some are somewhat human-like and some are entirely different kinds of beings. The invaders from Earth, though, are always, predictably very human. I had forgotten what a wonderful sense of humor Bradbury has! I often laughed out loud or appreciated a subtlety in the storyline. I was thrilled to rediscover what I loved so much about Bradbury's writing as a teenager - it is clever, thoughtful, and very entertaining.
268 pages, William Morrow (HarperPerennial)
Disclosure: I purchased this book myself. My review is my own opinion.
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from
these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help
offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.
Order The Martian Chronicles from an indie bookstore:
I was looking at the list of TV shows my husband and I are currently
watching to see if there were any I hadn't reviewed yet. There is! We
were avid viewers of The X-Files back in the 90's, rewatched many
of the old seasons with our sons in the 2000's, and were excited last
year to see our old favorite show come back with a new season 10. We are
now enjoying season 11, and this unique mix of detective show,
paranormal, sci fi, and humor is still going strong.
In case you somehow missed The X-Files
phenomenon the first time around, the shows (and spin-off movies)
center on two FBI investigators, Fox Mulder, played by David Duchovny,
and Dana Scully, played by Gillian Anderson. Waaaay back in the very
beginning, Mulder was stuck in a basement office investigating so-called
X-files, strange or unexplained cases that often veer into the
supernatural. Scully is a medical doctor and was initially assigned to
keep an eye on Mulder and bring her skeptical, hardcore scientific point
of view to bear on his supposedly woo-woo cases. Long story short, 11
seasons and more than 20 years later, Mulder and Scully still work
together in that basement office, and Scully's medical and scientific
expertise still can't explain away the X-files. Along the way, they
uncovered a massive conspiracy involving aliens and alien DNA.
So,
when the show came back last year for season 10, more than a decade
after it ended, it picked up where it left off: at the end of season 9,
the X-files had been closed and the two partners had been living their
own lives. At the start of season 10, we see that Mulder never stopped
investigating the alien conspiracy, and now the X-files are being
re-opened, with Mulder and Scully back together, along with their
longtime boss, Walter Skinner, played by Mitch Pileggi. Like the first 9
seasons, the show still alternates between stand-alone episodes with
investigations of weird X-files type stuff and episodes that move the
bigger storyline about the alien conspiracy forward.
As ever, The X-Files
is creepy, suspenseful, intriguing, and has a great sense of humor,
especially in some of those strange stand-alone episodes. The chemistry
between Duchovny and Anderson is still great, even more so after so many
years together (both the actors and the characters). Many of the same
elements are still here from the original nine seasons, sometimes with a
modern twist. We are thoroughly enjoying this old favorite.
If you have never watched The X-Files before, then you might
want to start back at the very beginning with season 1 (especially if
you are looking for a binge-worthy show) because of that ongoing
conspiracy storyline that was slowly built up over time. The beginning
of season 10 does provide some information on what came before, but it
is a lot to pack into a single episode recap/continuation. Season 10 is
just 6 episodes (I guess they were testing the waters), but we are now 6
episodes into season 11, which looks like it will be 10 episodes long.
If you were an old X-Files fan back in the 90's, then definitely dive
into seasons 10 and 11 - it's like seeing old friends!
You can still find all of season 10 and what has aired so far of season 11 On Demand for free. It looks like ALL 11 seasons are available online for free at the Fox website. You can also stream The X-Files on Amazon for $1.99 an episode or $14.99 a season. Here are links to season 1, season 10, and the current season 11.
Two weeks ago, one of my friends treated me and another friend of ours to a movie because she so enjoyed this film with her family that she wanted to share it with us! We went out to dinner and then saw The Greatest Showman (in my favorite local recliner theater), and she was right! It's a fun, joyful spectacle of music, bright colors, and dancing, along with plenty of heart.
Hugh Jackman stars as P.T. Barnum, and the movie is based (quite loosely) on his life. It begins in his childhood, the poor son of a tailor. He is in love with Charity, the daughter of a wealthy neighbor. Though he is sent away to school, he and Charity write letters to each other, and when he returns, she agrees to marry him and move to New York City. There, they barely scrape by and have two adorable little daughters, but Barnum has big dreams. He buys an old museum and tries to make it a success with wax figures and faked strange creatures. He finally gets the attention and success he craves when he changes it to a live show, peopled by those with unique talents, like trapeze artists, animal acts, and what was then known as freaks. In short, he created the first circus. He hires Phillip Carlyle, played by Zac Efron, as a second ringmaster, and their fame grows. Of course, things don't go smoothly for them, and the pair encounter plenty of challenges, including scorn and prejudice from some people.
The Greatest Showman is a musical, and one that the three of us enjoyed very much. It is filled with songs, dancing, and showmanship. It's best to approach this movie just as that - a colorful spectacle of fun. It is not a biopic of Barnum's life. According to the Wikipedia entry on Barnum, he was a bit more focused on money than on saving the forgotten people he hires, and there is no mention of a wife or children (and he was not nearly as handsome as Hugh Jackman!). It's best to go into this kind of film ready to be entertained - and we found it very, very entertaining. The music and dancing are all very well-done (who knew Jackman had so many talents?), and the brilliant colors and scenes of the show are joyful and fun, and heartwarming as well. Need a pick-me-up? We all left this movie with big smiles on our faces!
The Greatest Showman is still playing in some theaters - I highly recommend seeing this one on the big screen (check for recliner theaters near you!). Use the Fandango link in the sidebar to find out where and when it is playing locally. It will be available for streaming on Amazon on March 20, 2018, and on DVD (available for pre-order now) sometime this spring.
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from
these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help
offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.
We are back to gray, gloomy skies here today, but they say it might hit 75 degrees F by Wednesday! To put that in perspective, it snowed Saturday night. Crazy.
We had a fun but super-busy weekend, hosting our annual Mardi Gras party (yes, a bit late this year). Good food, good music, and great friends! Some (though not all) of our oldest, closest friends came over - and same for our sons - so we all had a good time. Yesterday was a bit rough (I can no longer drink because of my immune disorder, but I still feel hungover after the exertion of a party!), but I am feeling about back to baseline today. My back and neck are getting better from last week, too.
And, of course, amid the Mardi Gras Madness, we still found time to enjoy our books this past week. Here's what we are reading:
I am still reading (will probably finish today) the next selection for my neighborhood book group, Killers of the Flower Moon: the Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
by David Grann. This is a nonfiction book that was a finalist for the
2017 National Book Award, set in Oklahoma in the 1920's, about a long string of murders of Native Americans (Osage) for their very lucrative rights to the oil underground. It's
fascinating, compelling, and of course, horrifying. Should be a great discussion next week.
On audio, I am still listening to A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline,
an adult novel that centers on a painting by Andrew Wyeth. It's
especially interesting to me because Andrew and his father N.C. Wyeth,
both famous painters, lived in our area - in fact, my husband and I just
saw an Andrew Wyeth painting at the Delaware Art Museum last week! I
also wanted to listen to this book now because Kline will be here in our
area in April, and I plan to go to her talk. Our All-County Reads book
is her earlier novel, Orphan Train, which I loved, but I wanted to read this newer release as well. It's excellent so far and very absorbing on audio.
My husband, Ken, chose to read a sci fi classic next, Foundation by Isaac Asimov, which is oddly the 3rd book in the Foundation series (apparently, he later wrote two prequels). I think he read this series years ago, but he recently bought a bunch of them in paperback.
Our son, Jamie, 23, just finished book 5 in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, The Fires of Heaven, last night (he stayed here this weekend).
He loves this epic fantasy series, and is going to move right on to book 6, Lord of Chaos.
What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.
There are a million other things I should be doing on this busy Saturday, but I really enjoy participating in Saturday Snapshot!
Here are a few photos from the past couple of months of various winter skies. We've had a lot of overcast days, but when the sky is blue and there are interesting-looking clouds out, I get out my camera. Always remember to look up!
I liked these little cottonball clouds!
Sunlight, clouds, and treetops
Winter branches & sky
More cottonball clouds
But this is how the sky has looked for most of the winter!
I was so happy to see blue sky again this week, I grabbed my camera!
If you're a regular reader of my blog, you've probably heard me say (multiple times) that I need a break from World War II books. They are often very good but usually emotionally wrenching - important to read but perhaps not as a steady book diet. So, I surprised myself by agreeing to review a new YA novel set during WWII, The Pirates of Cologne by Dinah Mack. I was even more surprised by how how powerful and compelling this story-based-in-fact was. I'm glad to have read it.
Thirteen-year old Sebastian is living in Cologne, Germany, in 1942. He managed to escape from a Hitler Youth Camp, and is now taking care of his grandmother while his father, who was a leader of the local Communist party, is in a Nazi prison camp. Sebastian loves to read (though books are scarce now) and write, but he is lonely until he meets Hans, another teen boy. Hans dropped out of school in order to support his mother, while his nineteen-year old brother is at the front. Hans introduces Sebastian to the other Pirates of Cologne, a small group of local boys who associate themselves with the Edelweiss Pirates, who aim to resist Hitler and Nazi propaganda. Sebastian gets involved with the Pirates, first participating in small shows of resistance, like stealing food from Nazi officer homes. Soon, though, the boys have a chance to join the larger resistance movement, and have a greater impact...though they are also exposed to far more danger.
The Pirates of Cologne is a gripping, moving story that pulled me in right from the first pages. The novel is action-packed and filled with suspense, but it also has a lot of heart, as you come to care for these brave boys who choose to put their lives at risk for what is right. It is inspiring, but it is set in WWII, so it is not all happy endings for all of the boys. As much as I resisted reading yet another WWII story, there are still important stories to be told, and this novel introduced me to a different aspect of that period of history that I had been unaware of. The Edelweiss Pirates were real, though these characters are fictional,
and the courage and dedication of these young people was awe-inspiring and is important for today's youth to learn about.
216 pages, Levellers Press
Disclosure: I received this book from the author in
return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced
by my relationship with the publisher or author.
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from
these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help
offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.
Purchase from an Indie bookstore:
Or you can order the paperback or e-book from Amazon:
Exit West, a novel by Mohsin Hamid, appeared on many Best of 2017 lists in the book world, and I had heard several intriguing interviews with the author on my favorite book podcasts last year. My husband gave me the book for my birthday last summer, and I finally read it last month. This unique, thoughtful, and compelling novel was a great way to start the new year!
Saeed and Nadia live in an unnamed Muslim country when they meet and begin tentatively dating. Their budding relationship is moved forward rather quickly, though, as their country is embroiled in a civil war, and their city becomes a violent, frightening, and unsafe place. The two come together to keep each other - and Saeed's father - safe amid bombings and other destructive violence. Then, something entirely new and unforeseen happens. Mysterious doors begin to emerge all over the world, including in their city. Word is that you walk through these black doors and emerge into an entirely different part of the world - a random town or city in a far-away country. Things can't get much worse than where they are, so Nadia and Saeed combine their savings, pay someone off, and decide to walk through one of these doorways. They end up in a more peaceful place, but that country is struggling with the sudden influx of immigrants. Nadia and Saeed make their way across the globe, with several journeys through different doors, as the world is rocked by this new type of immigration.
I loved this imaginative story that combines the very intimate lives of this new couple with the emerging global problems created by the doors. The immigration controversies that better-off countries are dealing with today in the real world are amplified in this brave new world where thousands of people can move to a new country simply by walking through a door. Hamid has found a very clever and thought-provoking way to explore these issues. At the same time, this slim novel is also a love story, following the arc of a relationship, from its beginning. The complexities and evolution of the relationship are paralleled with the more global evolution of a new world order. I was captivated from beginning to end of this creative and introspective story of love, immigration, and worldwide changes.
231 pages, Riverhead Books
Disclosure: This book was from my own shelves. My review is my own opinion.
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from
these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help
offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.
My husband and I (and my dad, too) enjoyed reading The Alienist by Caleb Carr, shortly after it was published in 1994, amid a flurry of rave reviews. Now TNT has turned this best-selling story of an 1896 serial killer into a TV series.
If you cross the TV show Bones with an FBI psychological profiler and set it in the 1890's, you begin to get an idea of the feel of this dark thriller. In 1896 New York City, Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, played by Danial Bruhl, is an alienist. According to the show's intro:
"In the 19th century the mentally ill were thought to be alienated from
their own nature. Experts who studied them were known as Alienists."
Kreizler is something of a renegade in showing both interest and compassion toward the mentally ill since the standard practice of that time was to lock them up or try to "cure" them through all kinds of barbaric methods. When Kreizler hears that a young boy dressed as a girl has been found brutally murdered on top of the just-being-built Brooklyn bridge, he sends his friend, John Moore (played by Luke Evans), to the scene, since Moore sometimes works as a crime reporter, putting his drawing skills to work. Moore brings a drawing of the horrific scene back to Kreizler.
The police - who are mostly corrupt and operate on a bribe system - show little interest in solving the case, even after Kreizler points out that other child prostitutes have been found in similar condition recently. This is a class of people the police would prefer to just brush under the rug. Sara Howard, played by Dakota Fanning, grew up with Moore and now works as an assistant to Police Commissioner Roosevelt, the only woman in the police department. She is also interested in the case, and the three begin to investigate it on their own, along with the help of two Jewish brothers who are budding forensic specialists. Despite the apathy of the rest of the police force, Roosevelt wants to do the right thing and so allows this undercover investigation.
As with the original novel the show is based on, my husband and I are both enjoying The Alienist. If you enjoy modern detective and forensic shows, then it is pretty fascinating to see this turn-of-the-century approach, where fingerprint analysis was a brand-new concept and crime scene investigation cursory at best. The three main characters - and the supporting actors as well - are excellent in their roles, and the growing mystery is captivating. As you might expect from a show of this nature, it is pretty gruesome at times and very, very dark, both in topic and tone. I prefer not to watch this one right before bed! It's engrossing though, and we can't wait to see what happens next - I only wish my dad were still here - he would love this show!
We are three episodes into the new show, and all three episodes are still available On Demand (where we watch it) or on the TNT website. You can also watch The Alienist on Amazon, where the first episode is free and additional episodes start at $1.99 (or $15.99 for the entire season).
