Book Log 2023 #6: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

It's odd that I'd never read this book before, given that I've read a lot of Bradbury's writing and that it's part of a trilogy that starts with Dandelion Wine, which might be my favorite book. It doesn't have any of the same characters as the first book, but is set in the same town (Green Town, a stand-in for Bradbury's hometown) and traffics in some of the same mystery and wonder of being a kid and growing up.

It's now late October in Green Town, and there's a sense among the people that something is coming. What that turns out to be is a carnival, to the delight of most. But there are a few who have a sense of foreboding, which turns out to be justified.  There is a supernatural power to the carnival and its leader, Mr. Dark, which threatens the town, and it's up to a pair of 13 year old boys and one of their fathers to save the day.

While there are thematic similarities between this book and Dandelion Wine, this book is darker, and leans more heavily into fantasy and horror. It's also much more cohesive as a story, as it was written as a novel (via a short story turned film treatment) rather than a series of linked stories. I still think Dandelion Wine is my favorite Bradbury work, but this may be second (I'll have to reread Fahrenheit 451 to be sure).

 Book Log 2023 #5: The Chosen by Chaim Potok

It's another book assigned in junior high, but this time one I actually finished and liked (helped, I would think, by being about two high school boys).

Danny Saunders and Reuven Malter meet during a baseball game which is as much a contest between two strains of Judaism - Reuven and his team are from an Orthodox school, while Danny and his team represent a nearby Hasidic school - as it is a game. The two schools are geographically close, but the kids don't really know each other that well.

When Reuven is injured by a ball hit by Danny, it leads (eventually) to a friendship. They confide in each other about family (Danny's father only talks to him when studying Talmud) and the future, where Danny wants to become a psychologist rather than follow his father as leader of their community. The relationships between the fathers and the sons is a major theme of the book, as is the role of tradition and faith in the modern world.

I, of course, missed a lot of this when I first read the book, having no real experience with Judaism or the expectations of living up to a specific tradition. I'm glad I revisited it.

 Book Log 2023 #4: The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

Frida is a new mom, who, like most new moms, finds tending to her child exhausting. When she leaves the child unattended for a couple of hours to see to herself, she is caught and sentenced to the titular school, where instructors (none of whom actually appear to be mothers themselves) will re-educate Frida so she doesn't make the same mistake twice.

This is the very basic outline Chan's debut novel, which in its satire of mommy culture and government/family dynamics also ventures into issues of gender (notably in interactions with the school for fathers) and race (not surprisingly, non-white mothers have a much harder time at the school and with the system in general). There is a distinct Handmaid's Tale vibe, though it's hard to say if the draconian nature of the school extends into other facets of the government.

I'm guessing I would have gotten more out of the book if I were a mother, or even a woman considering having children (which is where Chan was when she started writing). I don't think you have to be a mother to feel for the characters or understand the tensions in the story, but I have to think that being able to see yourself in Frida or one of the other mothers would open up another level of connection.

 Book Log 2023 #3: Shroud for a Nightingale by P.D. James

This is the fourth book in the Adam Dalgliesh series, where he investigates murder at a local nursing college. I think it's better than the books preceding it, but I'm still struggling to connect with the series. I think the main problem is that I still don't have much of a clue as to who Dalgliesh is. By comparison, four books into the Inspector Morse series I had a much better idea of who he was as a person and his approach to solving cases (even if we didn't know his first name).

I am likely to stick with the series, just not in any particular hurry to do so. 

 Book Log 2023 #2: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

For years, seventh grade world history classes at my junior high school read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Except for my class in my seventh grade year, when the teacher pulled an audible and assigned this book instead.  In retrospect the change makes some sense, as it's a shorter book and I don't think the class really spent much time on Africa. And it was in the middle of the Cold War, so some added insight into the Evil Empire couldn't hurt.

Except that the class, almost to a person, decided not to read the book. I myself barely got more than ten pages in when I decided to bail. I didn't find the book too difficult, it just didn't click for me (much like A Passage to India, which I was also supposed to read at some point and bailed on early).  You can imagine the talking to we got after taking the test on the book.

Anyway, I decided to give this another try for a reading challenge (read a book you bailed on in school), and found it much better going this time around (which I did not experience when I took my second pass at A Passage to India). I think younger me would have actually liked the book had he stuck with it. Its depiction of gulag life in the Stalin-era Soviet Union shows both the brutality and the mundanity of the system, and how one man finds ways to manipulate both so he can survive to the next day.

If you have any interest in the Soviet era, you should read this.

 Book Log 2023 #1: Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry

A pair of aging Irish drug runners stake out a Spanish ferry terminal to find one of their daughters, who took off after the death of her mother and is now traveling with kindred spirits around Spain and north Africa. While they wait the pair reminisce about their criminal past and what may lie ahead as aging gangsters.

For all the talk of crime in this book, it's not a crime novel. It's more about the ways past choices come home to roost, and the ways in which friendship can endure and, in some cases, be the only thing one can count on. And as you might expect in a book about Irish hoods, there's a fair bit of dark humor over both the past and their current situation.

This book picked up a number of accolades, and rightfully so. It avoids the tropes and easy markers of crime fiction and gives a much more nuanced and soulful examination of lives not that well-lived. Barry has a knack for writing characters on the margin (notably in his debut novel, City of Bohane), and here uses it to maximum effect.

 Book Log 2022: The POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

Once again, I'm looking to see how well the books I read in 2022 fit the prompts of the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge, and as usual I am allowing books to satisfy multiple categories where applicable.

A book published in 2022 - The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections (Eva Jurczyk)

A book set on a plane, train, or cruise ship - 

A book about or set in a nonpatriarchal society

A book with a tiger on the cover or "tiger" in the title

A sapphic book - 1979 (Val McDermid)

A book by a Latinx author - In the Distance (Hernan Diaz)

A book with an onomatopoeia in its title

A book with a protagonist who uses a mobility aid

A book about a "found family" - here I'm going with St. Marks is Dead (Ada Calhoun), as there are numerous examples of how the people who lived there over the years developed familial bonds.

An Ansfield-Wolf Book Award winner

A #BookTok recommendation

A book about the afterlife

A book set in the 1980s - La place de la Concorde Suisse (John McPhee) was published in 1984, so I'm guessing the author's time with the Swiss military took place in that decade. 

A book with cutlery on the cover or in the title 

A book by a Pacific Islander author

A book about witches

A book becoming a TV series or movie in 2022 - Slow Horses (Mick Herron)

A romance novel by a BIPOC author

A book that takes place during your favorite season - The September Society (Charles Finch), for fall (at least in the title, I don't recall if the book actually takes place in the fall)

A book whose title begins with the last letter of your previous read - The 99% Invisible City (Roman Mars), read after Dad is Fat (Jim Gaffigan)

A book about a band or musical group - Running' with the Devil (Noel Monk)

A book with a character on the ace spectrum

A book with a recipe in it - Taste (Stanley Tucci) has several

A book you can read in one sitting - The Plough and the Stars (Sean O'Casey), though this might be cheating as it's a play

A book about a secret - Where the Crawdads Sing (Delia Owens)

A book with a misleading title - I'd say Dad is Fat (Jim Gaffigan) fits here, as I wouldn't consider him fat.

A Hugo Award winner

A book set during a holiday

A different book by an author you read in 2021 - The September Society (Charles Finch)

A book with the name of a board game in the title - The English Assassin (Daniel Silva)

A book featuring a man-made disaster - Termination Shock (Neal Stephenson)

A book with a quote from your favorite author on the cover or Amazon page

A social-horror book

A book set in Victorian times - Gillespie and I (Jane Harris)

A book with a constellation on the cover or in the title

A book you know nothing about - The Stranger in My Genes (Bill Griffieth), which I pulled off the shelf more or less at random to fit a different reading challenge

A book about gender identity

A book featuring a party The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections (Eva Jurczyk) has a party for library donors

An #OwnVoices SFF book

A book that fulfills your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge - Sex Cult Nun (Faith Jones). The prompt (a book set in multiple countries) may not be my favorite, but it lets me use the book with the most provocative title I read this year.

ADVANCED

A book with a reflected image on the cover or "mirror" in the title

A book that features two languages - Code Talker (Joseph Bruchac) is in English and talks about how Navajo words and concepts were used to convey military information during World War II.

A book with a palindromic title

A duology (two books)

A book about someone leading a double life -  The Kill Artist (Daniel Silva), whose protagonist is an Israeli spy whose cover is as an Italian art restorer

A book featuring a parallel reality 

A book with two POVs

Two books set in twin towns, aka "sister cities" (two books)

 Book Log 2022 #66: Grass by Sherri Tepper

Humanity has spread throughout the galaxy, but that spread is threatened by a plague that is taking root across all human settlements. The powers that be notice that one planet, Grass (named for its vast prairies), seems immune to the plague, and sends investigators to figure out why. The investigators ingratiate themselves into the aristocratic ruling class of the planet, who have adapted local fauna to engage in a form of fox hunting that's all the rage. The participation in these events, and a deeper look into the native life forms of the planet, lead to a conclusion about the plague and immunity that put Grass the the future of humanity in jeopardy.

The book is seen as a classic, and is noted for its use of feminist, ecological, and class themes. That being said, I found I disliked the book more as I went along. One review I read of the book suggested that it felt like two books put together to make one, with the second half marred by an unexpected romantic story line and a convoluted reveal as to why the planet is immune. I don't know that I feel exactly that way, but I do feel like there was a shift that significantly changed where the book was going.

This is the first book in a trilogy, though I don't think I'll pick up the other two. That's it for 2022!

 Book Log 2022 #65: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

I'd seen this on any number of 100 best book lists, and thought it was time to check it out. I did like it quite a bit, maybe not as much as the people who put those lists together, but it's probably the most personal and moving book I've read about soldiers in Vietnam. I did find it a little confusing early on, as the line between memoir and fiction can get pretty thin, but it was more of me getting used to the structure of the book rather than a failing in writing.

 Book Log 2022 #64: Northern Spy by Flynn Berry

Tessa, new mom and BBC producer in Belfast, is confronted with video of her sister apparently participating in an IRA bank robbery, Tessa is loathe to believe this, thinking that her sister was somehow coerced into participating. When she learns the truth, she is faced with the difficulty of trying not only to save her sister, but to protect her family from potential IRA reprisal.

On the one hand, I did like the book quite a bit as a well-paced and plotted thriller, and for not being another IRA story where women are simply victims or bystanders. But I never quite bought into the IRA being as active as depicted in the book. I don't doubt that the IRA is still functioning in some fashion, but based on my own consumption of Irish news and media I don't get the sense that they're as present in Irish society as depicted here (though maybe I'm just not connected to the right stratum of Irish society).

 Book Log 2022 #63: Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac

This book tells the story of a Navajo teen, Ned Begay, who serves in World War II as a code talker, who used their indigenous language as a basis for communication (either through a code developed from the language, or in the language itself). The book covers his training and eventually deployment, depicting his wartime experience as well as the difficulties a young Navajo would have in a largely white military.

I didn't particularly care for this while I was reading it, but I did not know that the book is aimed at a YA audience, so I'm pretty sure my expectations were off.

 Book Log 2022 #62: La Place de la Concorde Suisse by John McPhee

Included here for completeness, as I originally logged this in 2015. I've probably read this three or four times, and always find it fascinating.

 Book Log 2022 #61: Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

After her generation-spanning debut Homegoing, Gyasi focuses in on the current immigrant experience in this follow-up. Gifty is the daughter of Ghanian immigrants, a PhD student at Stanford driven to neuroscience by a family tragedy. That tragedy puts further strain on a difficult relationship between Gifty and her mother, who suffers from depression and has attempted suicide.

Not that it was easier during Gifty's childhood in Alabama. Her mother worked long hours for low pay, having to pick up the slack after Gifty's father moves back to Ghana. Her brother, once seen as the gifted child, slides into a troubled adolescence as Gifty becomes a standout student. That gets her out of Alabama and to Stanford, but doesn't remove a feeling that she doesn't fit in.

As different as this book is from Homegoing, it's equally moving in its depiction of the difficulties of family, immigration (forced or otherwise), and personal trauma.

 Book Log 2022 #60: Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci

Tucci's career has a theme of food running through it - from the film Big Night to writing two cookbooks to his CNN show Searching for Italy - so a food-themed memoir wasn't a huge surprise. I should also should not have been as surprised as I was at how much I liked the book. Tucci clearly has a knack for storytelling and a passion for telling stories involving food.

It helped that I didn't know that much about Tucci's personal history, so there was additional emotional impact from learning about things for the first time.  And while I haven't tried any of them, there are also recipes for many of the dishes mentioned (not all Italian - there's a recipe for his English wife's roasted potatoes). So not only is the book a feast for the reader, but it can be an actual feast if you're culinarily inclined. 

 Book Log 2022 #59: St. Mark's is Dead by Ada Calhoun

St. Mark's Place is a stretch of 8th Street in New York City's East Village, and has long been home to people on the fringe. This book goes all the way back - the first section lists a timeline of 10,000 BC to 1904 - to look at who lived there and how the neighborhood's continued changes over time belied the common refrain that the change meant that St. Mark's was dead.

Calhoun grew up in the neighborhood in the 1970s, and the people and places of her time on St. Mark's makes up the bulk of the book. She has clear affection for the neighborhood, warts and all, and does an excellent job of describing the vibrancy created by the cast of characters who lived, worked, and played there.  I'm not usually that interested in New York stories (having spent my entire life in the shadow of Boston), but I was drawn in from the start. It's a highly colorful and entertaining history and social commentary, which laments what's been lost but celebrates how the street rolled with the changes.

I picked up the book for a reading challenge (a book with your name in the title), and wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did.

 Book Log 2022 #58: A Song for the Dark Times by Ian Rankin

When his daughter Samantha calls to say that her husband has been missing for a couple of days, John Rebus sets out for their remote village so he can do what he does best: be a pain in the ass until he can figure out who done it. Which is exactly what he does, while tying in the history of a local World War 2 internment camp and a newly-founded commune whose leader caused a bit of a row between Sammy and her husband.

Back in Edinburgh, Siobhan Clarke and Malcolm Fox investigate the murder of a Saudi student, who traveled in a group of rich young jet-setters. Their taste for high-end clubbing and property development pulls in a disgraced politician and old friend "Big Ger" Cafferty. As so often happens, the two cases are connected, though (spoiler alert) not as closely as in past novels.

I did like this book, and appreciated the different way in which he was brought into an investigation (he couldn't dig into cold cases forever). The ending of the book suggests a significant change for at least one of the characters mentioned above - though we won't know what it is (or even if it is) until the next book.

 Book Log 2022 #57: 1989 by Val McDirmid

Allie Burns, the protagonist of 1979, is still working in journalism, no longer as an investigative reporter  but as an editor for a thinly-veiled version of Robert Maxwell. Still, her instincts for a story lead her to look into why so many AIDS patients from Scotland are winding up in Manchester (where she now lives with her partner), a question that ultimately leads her to Berlin, where she's also doing some digging around for her boss, who has a sense of the coming post-Soviet era and wants to get in on the ground floor. And along the way she also covers the Hillsborough stadium collapse, providing an eyewitness account of the chaos surrounding that disaster.

Reviews for the book were mixed, mostly complaining about the pacing and lack of tension compared to the first book. I don't recall it being that slow. It could be that the book tries to cover too much ground, though it would be hard to write a book set in 1989 and not talk about the AIDS epidemic or Hillsborough. Maybe trying to shoehorn the Maxwell story into this was one story too many?

I like the book fine, and am interested in continuing on (it's apparently planned as a five book series). 

 Book Log 2022 #56: Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story by Chris Nashawaty

On one hand, this book is a film history, as it details what went on behind the scenes of filming Caddyshack, from the excesses of its stars to the all the ways it could have been a much different film (such as having Mickey Rourke play Danny Noonan, or keeping the original script's stronger focus on class issues).

On the other hand, it's a film criticism, as it discusses Caddyshack's place among period films, comedies in particular. There are the obvious comparisons to films like The Blues Brothers and Animal House, but also distinctions with more mainstream comedies (such as Any Which Way But Loose, where Clint Eastwood costars with an orangutan).

In both senses the book is largely successful, giving great detail as to how the film got made while also discussing how it's place in film contributed to not being an instant success at the box office. The book also spends a fair amount of time on the film's writer, Douglas Kenney, whose gift for comedy was often countered by episodes of depression. 

 Book Log 2022 #54: The Gilded Page by Mary Wellesley

This book examines the history of medieval manuscripts, from the people that created them, the subjects they covered, and the various ways they've survived into the present day. Wellesley goes into detail on specific manuscripts, detailing their history and what's unique about their subject matter and construction, while also taking a broader look at the contexts within which manuscripts were created.

It's there that I think the book lags a bit, as Wellesley spends a fair amount of time examining things through a feminist lens, not always with success. Part of me thinks this may have been better served with a separate book about the role of women in the production and ownership of manuscripts, but I also see where covering the topic in a more general work has merit.

Either way, if this is a subject that interests you it's probably worth checking this out. 

 Book Log 2022 #53: Slow Horses by Mick Herron

I first became aware of this series through the acclaimed series on Apple TV. I wanted to watch it, but didn't want to start until I'd started the books.

Set in the world of British intelligence, the term "slow horses" is given to those MI5 agents assigned to Slough House after committing some sort of grave offense in the line of duty. In the case of River Cartwright, it was training exercise that went very wrong in public. For others it's their personal habits, or just being up against the wrong person at the wrong time. Regardless of the reason, they're shunted off and given busywork in the hopes that the ongoing tedium will lead them to quit.

This tedium is interrupted when, in the course of investigating a fringe right-wing journalist, the agents get drawn into the kidnapping of a Pakistani student by a white nationalist group. As they get more involved, we learn more about why the agents have been sent to Slough House, and how there may be more to the kidnapping than first thought.

There's a fair bit of lore to go along with the main case, from River's relationship with his grandfather (himself a retired intelligence agent), the political machinations of MI5's leaders, and the mysterious death of a senior intelligence agent with connections to at least two of the slow horses. 

I really enjoyed the book, which uses liberal doses of humor to balance the more violent aspects of intelligence work. Looking forward to both the other books and the TV series.