I read two very different books last week, The Dark Wives by Ann Cleeves and In Praise of Good Bookstores by Jeff Deutsch, and I enjoyed both. That I would enjoy an Ann Cleeves novel as much as I enjoyed The Dark Wives doesn't really surprise me simply based on my past experience with various Cleeves-authored series. On the other hand, I didn't know at all what to expect from Deutsch's heartfelt praise of the bookstore, but I found much of it to be quite thought provoking - even inspirational. But as often happens in books about books, I found myself floundering several times while trying to keep up with the author's thoughts. It's not so much that I don't at least partially understand what's being said when that kind of thing happens, it's more that I find myself "numbed" by the whole conversation. I'll have more to say about In Praise of Good Bookstores later.Still in progress are Pat Buchanan's The Death of the West and Morgan Talty's Night of the Living Rez, two books I'm hoping to finish this week.
I mistakenly mentioned last week that this is a ten-story collection, but as it turns out there are actually twelve stories in Night of the Living Rez. An even better surprise to me, now that I've read nine of the stories, is how the stories connect to each other through two different sets of characters that appear in alternating stories. All of the stories are set on a single reservation, with every story focusing on a single family unit, so I don't expect that the two groups will ever interact. This technique has the effect of making Night of the Living Rez read more like a novel than a short story collection.
I've also been reading A Study in Scarlet, the first, and very short, Sherlock Holmes novel this week, but the book I really want to talk about is one that I hope to start in the next two or three days:
Amy Tan's Saving Fish from Drowning was published in May 2010, and until yesterday I didn't realize that I had a copy of it hidden on my shelves. (I sometimes place books behind a displayed row with the intention of getting to them a little later on.) I'm as taken with the cover now as I must have been when I purchased the novel, but it's the plot that really caught my attention this time around: "Twelve American tourists join an art expedition that begins in China...and heads south into the jungles of Burma...And then on Christmas morning, eleven of the travelers boat across a misty lake for a sunrise cruise - and disappear." So now I'm just hoping that this one is half as good as its book jacket description makes it sound.
Another novel I unearthed during a complete resorting of the books on my shelves is The Moment Before Drowning by British author James Brydon. I have no doubt why I bought this one...it is set in December 1959 and focuses on a French Resistance fighter who has just returned from the fighting in Algeria. The man is a former detective, and while awaiting his own trial for a brutal crime (in Algeria?) he is asked to help investigate the murder and mutilation of a teenaged girl in the small French village he calls home. This is a 2018 novel.
I'm still recovering from spending almost all of yesterday resorting my bookshelves from top to bottom. That turned out to be much more a physical challenge than I expected it would be, so I'm taking it relatively easy the rest of the weekend. I'm way behind on catching up on all my favorite book blog reading at the moment, but I do hope you all have been discovering some great new books for the rest of us. See you soon.
No wonder you are tired. That is a big job, and an emotional one for me. All my books are special in one way or another, and when I do change around the books, I stop a lot and think about a book. I haven't done it in years, and just now it seems daunting.
ReplyDeleteNan, most everything on my shelves is in hardcover so it all got quite heavy at times - and frustrating when two of the stacks I made suddenly collapsed, knocking down several others, with everything ending up in one big pile to be sorted yet again. I'm sure it would have all been good exercise it I only were in better shape. After six or seven hours, I was about ready to just give up but knew I really didn't want to face the rubble the next morning.
ReplyDeleteThe results, though, are very pleasing to me. I sorted the books into whole new genres rather than by author, and that really makes it much easier to find specific books that I can picture in my mind but can't come up with the precise author.
Glad you are getting your bookshelves sorted out. On the one hand it's alot of fun sorting books in new ways but it's alot of work. But it ends up rewarding.
ReplyDeleteNight of the Living Rez sounds good. I would like to read about life on a reservation and the families that live there and the stories are connected.
I know what you mean about classics that we know are out there and have never gotten around to reading. Never read Farenheit 451. I should make a list and see if I can read some of these books.
It was definitely worth the effort, Kathy, despite the fact that my knees were screaming at me by the end of the day to just cut it out and sit down. Night of the Living Rez is very good. I have a statistical way to grade short story collections overall so that I don't let one particularly good story or a particularly bad one skew my judgement. This one is almost definitely going to comp out as a four-star book. Hey, if I made a list of unread "classics," it would be as long as my TBR list...and that's long.
DeleteWell done on the sorting out of your bookshelves. I seriously need to do that too. I'm not moving yet, possibly next year, or possibly not, I will play it by ear. But when I do, I need to have 'less' books because I'm sure I will have less room for them. But we'll see. You never know, there might be room I could use for a dedicated library. LOL! That Amy Tan book has grabbed my imagination! I hope you do get to it and let us know a bit about it.
ReplyDeleteI'll never have enough room, Cath, and it kinds of breaks my heart to get rid of some of the books I have right now...but I've loaded up the trunk of my car with a couple of dozen hardbacks that I'll carry to my next high school reunion lunch later in the week. And I'll hope that a few of the books will find new homes to be appreciated in for at least a while longer.
DeleteI can't imagine moving house right now. Just sorting through my books in this one room almost did me in. Moving is going to be a nightmare for us when that day finally comes, I'm afraid.
That seems like an unusual Amy Tan novel ... but look at that cover. It is quite alluring. Resorting your bookshelves seems like a noble task but very tiring. It would take me a long while with mine. You need to rest. Have a good week.
ReplyDeleteThe plot fascinates me. I had a quick look at the introduction to the novel and saw that it's all based on a true story. Tan stumbled upon it completely by accident and couldn't get it out of her mind until she turned it into this novel.
DeleteReorganizing all of the books in the study would not have been so big a problem except for my knees. I had forgotten that I can't stay on my feet for long stretches of time anymore, and about halfway through the project I realized that they were going to hurt the rest of the day...at least. But it was worth it. lol
It's a huge and exhausting task, but I'm a little jealous of your ability to re-organize your bookshelves. When we sold our house in 2019, we were ruthless in purging books. Everything had to be moved to FL and put in storage for a year while we worked on the house. Anyway, I've since regretted parting with so many books... but am guilt-free when I make purchases now!
ReplyDeleteYour reading assortment this week looks good and I'll be interested to hear more about In Praise of Good Bookstores. I've never read Brave New World either...
I think the worst thing about getting rid of books, JoAnn, is the moment that I realize that what I've been so frantically searching for is one of the ones I no longer own. Kinda sad that when the mood to read one of those suddenly strikes me that the book is sometimes long gone. I've even bought a few of them again and finally read them. lol I envy you having the shelf space to buy without feeling guilty about where you're going to put a book when you've read it. Those days are long gone for me, I'm afraid. In the last few years, I've passed on probably 350 books...and refilled almost every inch of the space they bought me.
DeleteI had a doctor's appointment this morning, so did some reading of Brave New World in the waiting room...wow, what a mess of a world it describes. And some of it hits a little too close for comfort these days, making it even scarier now than when it was written, I suspect.
Resorting bookshelves is always a big job, especially when you own as many books as you do! I read Brave New World when I was in my twenties...which means it was decades ago, and I don't remember it well. ;D Currently, I'm reading Operation Pineapple Express about the mess we made in Afghanistan when we pulled out...it focuses on all the former military guys and green berets who worked tirelessly from the states to get their Afghani interpreters and allies out in time. It's so heartbreaking...and infuriating, too.
ReplyDeleteLark, I think that in many ways, Operation Pineapple Express would be more disturbing a read for me than Brave New World. What we did to those people by abandoning them so suddenly is disgraceful and I suspect that one day we will be reading some very sad accounts of what happened to many of those who could not get out.
DeleteI am glad you found your copy of Amy Tan's Saving Fish from Drowning. I had forgotten that I have a copy too. When I first saw it in your post I thought it was a nonfiction book that I have read, but that was The Opposite of Fate. I have also read The Joy Luck Club.
ReplyDeleteIt's a novel, Tracy, but it sounds like it's very closely based upon a real-life incident that Tan found out about and wanted to further explore. I haven't read her nonfiction yet.
ReplyDelete