Book Memories: What You Remember and What You Forget

I stumbled upon a 2018 article from The Atlantic this morning that reminded me of exactly why I began Book Chase back in 2007. Even before I went public with my efforts, I had been writing very short "reviews" to myself for a while of the books I was reading because I realized how little I was retaining of them despite enjoying them so much while turning their pages. 

The problem seemed to be getting worse, but I was not ready to call "aging" the culprit, especially since everyone I knew, despite their own ages, readily admitted to the same thing. I more readily blamed it all on the emergence of e-books and all the other reading all of us do on our computers (and now even on our phones). Nothing seemed to sink in the way it used to do, nor did it stick around as long.

In the article mentioned, Pamela Paul (who was the editor of The New York Times Book Review at the time) explains her own reading memories this way:

"I always remember where I was and I remember the book itself. I remember the physical object. I remember the edition; I remember the cover; I usually remember where I bought it, or who gave it to me; what I don't remember - and it's terrible - is everything else. 

The article goes on to discuss why that is for so many people, but it so precisely described my own reading memories in 2007, that it surprised me to think that someone in Pamela Paul's position would have the same problem. Luckily, I've gotten relatively better at remembering what I read, and I attribute that to two things: "reviewing" to one extent or another everything that  I read, and having learned to concentrate much, much more effectively on what I read electronically. 

As a result, I think I love reading...and books...more today than I've ever loved them in my life. That's really saying something, because I've been a confirmed book-nerd since I was about four years old, and that was a long, long time ago. All of this tells me that even after Book Chase is no more, I'll be writing reviews on scraps of paper for a (hopefully) long time to come.

(Do read the article if you're interested in more of what Julie Beck has to say about her own experience. The Atlantic allowed me to read the full piece despite me not being a subscriber to the magazine.)

What Lies Between Us - John Marrs

I want to tell you all about John Marrs’s What Lies Between Us. I really do…seriously, I do. But that is not an easy thing to do without ruining some of the surprises that Marrs sprinkles throughout the entirety of this 363-page crime novel. So I’m going to have to be very careful with what follows. First, though, you should know that the International Thrillers Writers group called this one Best Paperback Original when announcing its 2021 awards. As someone who has never been sure why some books are paperback originals and others are not (marketing department decisions, I assume), I too often tend to downgrade paperback originals in my mind when looking for new reading material. And then a novel like What Lies Between Us comes along and blows my prejudice right out of the water. Now maybe, I’ve finally learned my lesson.

The safest way for me to describe the novel’s plot is to quote directly from its back cover:

“They say every house has its secrets, and the house that Maggie and Nina have shared for so long is no different. Except that these secrets are not buried in the past.

Every other night, Maggie and Nina have dinner together. When they are finished, Nina helps Maggie back to her room in the attic, and into the heavy chain that keeps her there. Because Maggie has done things to Nina that can’t ever be forgiven, and now she is paying the price.

But there are many things about the past that Nina doesn’t know, and Maggie is going to keep it that way — even if it kills her.”

The hook described in this cover blurb is enough to make readers curious, but, really, it does not do the complicated plot full justice. Marrs has written a story about two women in a very strange relationship that will have the reader questioning over and over which of them is really the victim in that relationship. And every time they think they finally have it all figured out, along comes another revelation or hint that begins the process all over again. The twists and turns, in fact, keep coming right up until the book’s final couple of pages when readers reach the novel’s stunning conclusion. 

Bottom Line: I wish I could tell you more, but if you read this one, you’ll understand why I can’t. Let ’s just say that I had more fun with What Lies Between Us than I’ve had with almost any other book I’ve read this year. 

John Marrs is a former UK television interviewer who is now a full-time novelist. What Lies Between Us is his seventh book. 

John Marrs

Not Tonight, Josephine: A Road Trip Through Small-Town America - George Mahood

Because I enjoy wandering the back roads (I hate interstate highways with a real passion) so much myself, I’m always on the lookout for a well written travel memoir about that kind of trip. It doesn’t matter if the travelers are walking, biking, or driving; I’m ready to make the trip with them. I’ve made lots of those trips in the US and Canada, even a bunch in the UK when I was younger, so George Mahood’s Not Tonight, Josephine: A Road Trip Through Small-Town America from my first glance at its cover seemed just about perfect. 

Two young Brits, author George Mahood and his buddy Mark, decided to spend the better part of a year exploring America, having correctly assumed that the experience would be a much better way to learn about the country and its people than exclusively following the usual tourist track instead. Their plan, however, changed even before they landed in New York because Mark was granted only a 90-day visa, leaving George on his own when it was time to turn their rather ancient Dodge Caravan (called Josephine) around and head back to New York for the flight home. (George would inadvertently have his own visa problems later on.) Thankfully, Mark was able to join George before anything happened to George as he wandered around solo through places like some of Baltimore’s most drug-infested neighborhoods on foot searching for a place to sleep. 

Not Tonight, Josephine is every bit as much fun as I hoped it would be. Because the boys, due to budget restraints, spent the bulk of their nights sleeping on Josephine’s too-small seats, parked wherever they felt relatively safe, they had more than a few encounters with local cops who spotted them parked overnight in unusual spots. And because the trip began so late in the year, they often woke up with ice on both sides of the windows and chattering teeth. Even some of America’s cheapest, dirtiest, and weirdest motels began to look good to them at that point. 

There is even a love story happening in Not Tonight, Josephine despite the fact that George and Rachel have the Atlantic Ocean firmly fixed between them. At one point, as George continues to move westward and Rachel decides to relocate to Ireland, they manage to put more and more miles between them. For both, it is a new relationship with an old friend, and George fears that he is destroying it even before it begins. After Mark returns to England, George wants nothing more than to have Rachel join him for the return leg of the trip, but she is not so sure that is what she wants to do.

Bottom Line: I ended up liking Not Tonight, Josephine even more than I expected I would. George and Mark steered Josephine through many of the small towns and more-isolated regions of the country that I’ve explored on my own, and reading about their experiences brought back some good memories. It’s the “little things” and unexpected encounters that make this kind of trip a true success, and despite all the things they barely missed seeing on their travels, George, Mark, and Rachel ended up experiencing a very successful road trip with a lot of help from Josephine. This one is fun.

George Mahood

The Book Chase October 2021 Reading Plan

I started gathering books in preparation for my October reading plan a couple of days ago, and ended up with eleven strong possibilities for the next four weeks, a bunch of books I really want to read soon. Then today, I dropped by the library to return The Reading List and to pick-up the new Craig Johnson Longmire novel only to walk out of the building with five other books also in my hands. Luckily, I'm able to keep a few of the books well into November because there is no way that I'm going to read anything near sixteen books in October (I don't recall reading more than twelve in a single month - ever). 

Here are the most likely ones to get read and reviewed first:

I'm carrying this one forward from September, and I'll likely finish it in the next day or two. It's the travel memoir of a young Brit who decides to take a several-months-long road trip through "small-town America," beginning the trip with a male friend who ends up having to leave the road early and finishing it alongside his English girlfriend. I'm particularly enjoying the portion of the trip that happens in the American West, but still shaking my head a little at all the things Mr. Mahood manages just barely to miss.

I came across What Lies Between Us in a list of 2021 award-winners from the International Thrillers Writers. The novel won "Best Paperback Original. This one has a strange premise: "Every other night, Maggie and Nina have dinner together. When they are finished, Nina helps Maggie back to her room in the attic, and into the heavy chain that keeps her there. Because Maggie has done things to Nina that can't ever be forgiven, and now she's paying the price." I'm 62 pages in...and loving it so far. 

Mieko Kawakami is a new writer to me, but after reading Diane's review over on Bibliophile by the Sea, I knew it was something I wanted to read. This one is a coming-of-age novel set in a Japanese school and tells the story of a boy and a girl who become friends there largely because each of them are so terribly bullied by their peers. I've read about thirty pages so far, and the bullying described is really heartbreaking. I'm not sure where it's headed, but Diane describes it as a novel with "deep" and "complicated" characters, so I expect to like (if not exactly enjoy) this one.

I'm consciously trying to read more of the mid-twentieth century fiction that I've missed out on, and this 1947 novel by Jean Stafford is part of that quest. It is a coming-of-age novel set in California and focuses on the two youngest children in a family of four siblings, a ten-year old boy and his eight-year-old sister. The two are a little "wilder" than their older sisters. I'm a little bogged down on this one right now and have put it aside for a breather. But I'll definitely be back.

This is Craig Johnson's seventeenth Longmire novel, and since I've already read the other sixteen, I find myself a little reluctant to read it right now. Somehow, the library system allowed me to check it out this morning for six weeks, so Daughter of the Morning Star may end up slipping into my November reading. This one addresses a serious issue: "the plague of missing Native women in Indian Country." I've been reading about this for a few years and still find it hard to believe that the disappearances continue at such a horrible pace.

Diane did it to me again when she mentioned this book in a review she wrote for the second book in the series. The main character sounds like a real hoot, and because I enjoy short stories as much as I do, this one seems like a no-brainer, something I will enjoy for sure. Maud is described this way: "Maud is an irascible 88-year-old woman with no family, no friends...and no qualms about a little murder." What's not to like about a character like Maud? This should be fun.

I can thank Cathy at Kittling: Books for first bringing this one to my attention (way back in April) when she reviewed it on her blog. My memory was later triggered when I saw that the International Thrillers Writers awarded this one Best First Novel on that same list I mentioned earlier. The clincher was a quote from Craig Johnson calling the book "a testament in napalm you won't be able to put down because it burns and holds fast." It features Virgil Wounded Horse, "local enforcer" on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

I've always been a Sherlock Holmes fan, but longtime fans of those tales know that there is always new Sherlock material to be enjoyed. I've not read any of Laurie R. King's Holmes-related series, so I'm jumping in with this fourteenth book in that seventeen-book series. It's a long story, but this one from 2016 finally caught my attention . From the back cover: "Mary Russell is used to dark secrets - her own, and those of her famous partner and husband, Sherlock Holmes. Trust is a thing slowly given." 

I find myself in the mood for something from the great Shirley Jackson, and this one came to mind. I watched the movie version of We Have Always Lived in the Castle several months ago and found it riveting...and memorable. I've read lots of Jackson's work, mostly the short stories, but have somehow never read this 1962 novel. It is relatively short, but the characters, two sisters, are what make this one so special. It was published only three years before Jackson's death.

I've had William Shaw's Deadland on hand for a while now, but I've been reluctant to read this third Cupidi book because I know how difficult it is to find Shaw's novels in the U.S. (Shame on Mr. Shaw's publisher for that crime.) DS Cupidi is a great crime fighter and the books are very atmospheric. She is, though, no politician, and she doesn't find it easy to be "one of the boys" or even be all that likable, when it comes right down to it. I love this cover.

I also have a small stack of books that may end up displacing some of the ones I've featured here, depending on how the reading-mood strikes me during the month. Among these are Louise Penny's The Maddening of Crowds, Denise Mina's two-volume graphic novelization of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Gerald Seymour's The Walking Dead (one I've mentioned before), Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and an e-ARC from T. Jefferson Parker titled A Thousand Steps. It's all a little overwhelming when I think about it...and now I can't wait to get the fun started.

The Reading List: A Novel - Sara Nisha Adams

Where to begin? First off, The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams is not at all what I expected it would be. I was expecting more of a novel showing how each of the eight novels on “the reading list” had something specific to teach us about being human beings living lives we too often take for granted…with emphasis on the themes and characters of each book. Adams does, I think, convincingly make that point, but she accomplishes it by taking a rather barebones approach to the eight books on the list themselves. 

But the more I think about it, the more I believe that Adams perfectly tailored The Reading List to her chosen target audience: those of us who self-identify as readers. Adams likely assumed that most of her readers would already be familiar with the eight novels on the list and the one other one that plays a large role in this, her debut novel. (I’ve read seven of the nine books, and I suspect that might be about just about the average for people drawn to The Reading List.) For those wondering, the list consists of To Kill a Mockingbird, Rebecca, The Kite Runner, Life of Pi, Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, Beloved, and A Suitable Boy. The Time Traveler’s Wife is not actually part of the list, but it will turn out to be the most significant book in Adams’s story.

The Reading List is rather cleverly constructed. It is divided into nine sections, each carrying the title of one of the nine books I’ve mentioned. Within each of these sections there are several short chapters titled with the name, or names, of the book’s two main characters, Aleisha (a teenager whose life centers entirely on taking care of her invalid mother) or Mukesh (an elderly Hindu man who has been a widower for one year). Intermeshed with all of this are brief flashbacks to 2017 (the book is set in 2019) that feature a handful of side characters that play key roles in the story. 

At first, I found it all a bit confusing, and then when I figured out where we were heading, I began to have second thoughts about reading this one at all. It all seemed too cute and make-believe, a fairy tale of sorts just for avid readers. And it was obvious that Sara Nisha Adams is a talented writer who knows where all the “buttons” are — and that she planned on pushing each and every one of them before she was done. Not going to work on me, I thought, so why read on? Well, let’s just say that I was wrong; even though I knew exactly what Adams was up to by pushing all those buttons, I could not resist reading the next page, then the next chapter…and then I was well and thoroughly hooked. The Reading List is, as it happens, a character-driven novel after all, and I found myself caring about Aleisha and Mukesh and could not wait to find out how things would turn out for them and those closest to them.

As The Reading List opens, Mukesh is a timid little man who seldom ventures outside his home anymore. His three adult daughters worry about him, but they really don’t have the time to make sure that he is doing well after the loss of their mother. Mukesh wants nothing more than to find a way of bonding with his little bookworm of a granddaughter, and he finally gets brave enough to venture into the local library in search of a book they can share. There he meets Aleisha, a rather cranky library summer-worker, who practically runs him out of the building. Aleisha, though, has recently found a book list inside a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird that she was shelving, and after her boss coerces her into making amends with Mukesh, she decides to recommend those eight books to the old man — one by one. 

But the only way Aleisha can discuss the books with Mukesh is to read each of them before she gives him the next book on the list. And what happens next is the sometimes tragic fairy tale at the heart of The Reading List. 

Bottom Line: The Book List is a novel aimed at dedicated readers, and Sara Nisha Adams, herself an obvious reader, strikes the perfect tone here. As sad as the novel is at times, it manages to be just the kind of feel-good story that we need every so often. Even the little side incidents used to develop the characters strike the right tone.One of my favorite passages from the novel describes the day that Mukesh takes his granddaughter Priya to the flagship Foyles bookstore in London:

“Wow!” Priya gasped quietly. She quickly shook off her awe, trying to play it cool. Mukesh felt the same. He’d seen books now, but the library was sparse compared to this. Shelves and shelves. Floors and floors. Tables and tables. Piles and piles of books. It was as if they were floating all around him, lifted up by some kind of magic, offering new worlds, new experiences. It was beautiful. 

And then Mukesh brings his granddaughter to the till where he tries to impress her by asking for copies of Rebecca, The Kite Runner, and To Kill a Hummingbird. Now there’s a scene I’ll remember for a while. 

Sara Nisha Adams

In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: "The Crooked Man" by Michael Connelly

Talking about the collection of Nero Wolfe pastiches and parodies, The Misadventures of Nero Wolfe, last week reminded me of a book that has sat neglected on my shelves for five or six years now. This one is titled In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon and it was published in 2014. I think I was probably inspired to purchase it because its fifteen stories include ones by some of the writers whose work I've enjoyed reading for several decades. That's why I bought it; I just wish I had an answer for why I never read it.  

Anyway, the six authors that immediately caught my eye were: Michael Connelly, Sara Paretsky, Jeffery Deaver, Cornelia Funke, Harlan Ellison, and John Lescroart. Of these half-dozen, I'm particularly fond of Connelly and his Harry Bosch books, so when I saw that Connelly's "The Crooked Man" was the first story in the collection and that it was a Harry Bosch short story, I knew I had to have the collection. 

"The Crooked Man" opens with Harry and his partner, Jerry Edgar, being called to an early-morning murder scene in what seems to be the most prestigious gated-community in all of Los Angeles, one that sits on top of a mountain looking down on the rest of the city - in more ways than one. There, the detectives find a Hollywood studio exec sprawled out dead on the floor of his library and displaying a massive head wound. They also find, much to Bosch's delight, coroner Art Doyle, a man so well known for correctly assessing death scenes that everyone calls him Sherlock. And that's when the real fun begins for Sherlock Holmes fans.

Before this fifteen-page story is over, "Sherlock" will have successfully led Bosch to a solution of the murder, identified the culprit, and even diagnosed a hidden illness that Bosch has attributed to his fast approaching old-age (Bosch is about to turn 60 in this story). 

"The Crooked Man" was particular fun for me because it gave me another glimpse into Harry Bosch's world, but I'm intrigued now about the other stories, so I'll be reading the other fourteen soon. I am pleased to see that the collection even includes the first graphic short story I've ever seen, one by Leah Moore and John Reppion called "The Problem of the Empty Slipper." Too, Gahan Wilson's contribution to the collection includes three of his classic cartoons, all of them, of course, related to Sherlock Holmes. 

Maybe In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon had to sit on my shelves until the moment I would most appreciate it. Now feels like the perfect time.

Editor Laurie R. King
(also edited by Leslie S. Klinger)