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Post by sophie on Jan 12, 2024 16:14:27 GMT -5
Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic. This was a treat from my Secret Santa this year. An author I had never heard of, murder mystery set in Australia. The main character is mostly deaf, which complicates any social interactions, but also gives him some extra perceptions. Good action, unexpected outcome… I enjoyed it and will look to see if I can find more of her novels. This was her first.. very good for a first novel.
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Post by Q-pee on Jan 12, 2024 16:56:58 GMT -5
Revolutionary Road, by Richard Yates. Written in 1961, set in the '50s, and the style reminded me of other American writers from that time - Mary McCarthy, maybe Saul Bellow, etc. It's about 2 damaged people who are married to each other. Most of the book is written from the husband's point of view, though it switches to a neighbour/friend's now and then, and to April's near the end for a bit. They disdain American suburban culture, scoffing at it and despising those who want it - while they live it. But for Frank, his whole life is an act. Trying to be cool, basically. Being a rebel against ordinary life is how he became interesting as a young man so he has to keep it up. He's desperately insecure, I think. April is taken in by his act and thinks he really does want more/a different life, and blames herself for the fact that she got pregnant and "trapped" him. One of the challenging aspects of the book is that no one is very likeable. Movie is very good - and no-one is likable but FSM Kate Winslett can act even when she's given very little to do in the script. There's a moment where the camera is on her face coming in for a close up and you can see the moment she makes a decision, and you dread the consequences.
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Post by Q-pee on Jan 12, 2024 16:59:04 GMT -5
And thanks for the comments on Demon Copperhead, it's been recommended a lot so I had a free read in a bookstore today but it did not grab me.
Bought "Unruly" by the other David Mitchell instead.
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Post by scrubb on Jan 13, 2024 1:06:41 GMT -5
6. Here on Earth: An Argument for Hope, by Tim Flannery
The description of the book said it was a history of life on earth, which is not really accurate though it does discuss some of the origins of the planet and life on it. Mostly, Flannery is outlining 2 opposing views of humanity - the Medean, and the Gaian. The Medea view is that mankind will inevitably destroy itself; the Gaian is that humanity will learn to work cooperatively and live sustainably.
I was hoping that it would be a counter to the very depressing "Under a White Sky" which I read last month, and which suggests that we have already lost the battle against climate change. Unfortunately, though he builds a case for hope, I thought the Medean viewpoint was a lot more likely. His suggestion that we're capable of working together to save the planet felt way overly optimistic. He brought up a bunch of things that he thought indicated that we should feel some optimism and hope - and I felt like most of them have disappeared/not panned out/reversed in the 13 years since he wrote the book.
I found it hard to get into at first, but the last 2/3 or 3/4 was a lot more engaging.
One thing he discussed that was new to me, and that sounded possible to put into action, was how straight forward it can be to improve land management so that the soil holds vastly more carbon than it does under current land practices. The way he described it (which wasn't in depth, but I trust him enough to believe he's done the groundwork to know what he's talking about) it's a win-win thing - that the changes would increase productivity as well as take a lot of carbon out of the atmosphere - and while I find it impossible to believe that all the countries in the world will work together on a political policy level (we've seen how that's playing out...), I can believe that those responsible for land management (farmers, park managers, and others) could agree to changes that would end up benefitting them in the not-toooooo-long term.
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Post by Q-pee on Jan 13, 2024 6:25:59 GMT -5
Last Rose of Shanghai Weina Dai Randel
This is set in Shanghai during the Japanese Occupation, so 1937 - 1945. With a modern-ish timeline interspersed.
During that time there was a sizable Jewish community in Shanghai, and as things worsened in Europe more Jews arrived as refugees overwhelming the resources of the community. The tricky thing was that Japan occupied China and was an ally of Germany so eventually the community was put into "restricted zones".
It's a fascinating bit of history that is often overshadowed by European history... so I was looking forward to this book.
I think it's trying to do too much. There's a love story between an unlikely couple - a beautiful Chinese woman who is an entrepreneur and something of a socialite and a young Jewish man who has fled from Austria. Their love child is given away... so there's the mystery of what happened to her. There's a whole lot of history to be explained regarding the occupation. And there's the grueling corruption and misogyny of contemporary Shanghai. The author has chosen to switch viewpoints from the man to the woman in very short chapters (almost all the chapters are 1=2 minutes) so it feels very choppy, and I didn't get the sense that I knew either of them. There's a lot of each pining for the other and a lot of improbable coincidences.
The grim bits are very grim, and the ending is a bit saccharine. 2.5 stars.
However... there's a bibliography
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 13, 2024 8:15:51 GMT -5
scrubb is that land management technique the "no till" farming thing? I vaguely remember that from when I was taking all those environmental science classes. I unfortunately agree with you that the prospects of humans collaborating with each other to avoid catastrophe are pretty unlikely, but sometimes we surprise ourselves.
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Post by scrubb on Jan 13, 2024 14:49:46 GMT -5
That was one of the tools, yes. I think it's become quite wide-spread.
Another method is decreasing the intensity of grazing - rotating through pastures to reduce grazing pressure from high to moderate, means the grasses put more energy into roots which hold a lot of carbon, and also mean the grass recovers better (both faster and more densely) than if it's intensively grazed.
Also things like using complementary crops to reduce weeds, rather than herbicides, etc. I can't remember if that was part of the carbon argument, or just "it's better for biodiversity" (also critical).
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jan 13, 2024 16:56:53 GMT -5
Flannery is Australian. He’d be very aware of the consequences of over grazing our marginal land.
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 13, 2024 17:13:42 GMT -5
That was one of the tools, yes. I think it's become quite wide-spread. Another method is decreasing the intensity of grazing - rotating through pastures to reduce grazing pressure from high to moderate, means the grasses put more energy into roots which hold a lot of carbon, and also mean the grass recovers better (both faster and more densely) than if it's intensively grazed. Also things like using complementary crops to reduce weeds, rather than herbicides, etc. I can't remember if that was part of the carbon argument, or just "it's better for biodiversity" (also critical). Yes - carbon solutions that don't also address biodiversity - like planting a monoculture of trees to replace a clearcut forest - are not helpful. The complementary crops thing is a very, very old technique, like you could ask any subsistence farmer about that - so it's pretty great that we sophisticated moderns are returning to it.
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Post by sophie on Jan 13, 2024 18:28:03 GMT -5
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano. Another outstanding novel. It traces the lives of a group of sisters in Chicago and a man who falls in love with their family. He has been brought up in a very cold, emotionally empty family and this has resulted in him sliding into a major depression later. The bulk of the novel deals with the consequences of his illness and its effects on others. The portrayal of hurt souls is incredible in this book, as is the family love and interactions. Amazing novel. Highly recommended… but be forewarned that a box of Kleenex might be needed.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jan 14, 2024 3:21:25 GMT -5
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano. Another outstanding novel. It traces the lives of a group of sisters in Chicago and a man who falls in love with their family. He has been brought up in a very cold, emotionally empty family and this has resulted in him sliding into a major depression later. The bulk of the novel deals with the consequences of his illness and its effects on others. The portrayal of hurt souls is incredible in this book, as is the family love and interactions. Amazing novel. Highly recommended… but be forewarned that a box of Kleenex might be needed. I'm pretty sure that's on our list of possible future reads for book club.
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Post by scrubb on Jan 14, 2024 16:08:51 GMT -5
7. Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan
Think I got the recommendation for this short Booker-nominated Irish novel here. Paints such a clear picture of the main character, and his home, and his community. It was excellent - and left me feeling a little more upbeat than my last read!
ETA: I realize on rereading that it sounds a bit odd to say that a book about the Magdalene laundries left me feeling upbeat! None the less, the book had a tiny bit of positivity at the right time.
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Post by sophie on Jan 15, 2024 0:13:27 GMT -5
Just reread Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus as it’s our book club read for this month. I laughed.. as long as it’s not take too seriously, it’s a fun read. And it is very rewarding to have the male chauvinists put in their place!
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jan 15, 2024 6:22:06 GMT -5
4. To the Bone, Jeff Carson. Thriller set in Colorado, with lots of snow, and dinosaurs.
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 15, 2024 8:05:12 GMT -5
2) Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error
Nonfiction: a detailed, personal history of the people of Montaillou, an early 14th-century village in the Pyrenees that happened to contained a number of Cathar heretics. It was based on detailed notes taken in interrogations by the local representative of the Inquisition, and is fascinating. It describes not just daily lives but actual speech and gestures of 14th-c people: who's sleeping with whom, what they ate, what their opinions and beliefs were. E.g., "[w]hen the fire was not alight, [the oven] was used for storing fish and snails."
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Post by scrubb on Jan 15, 2024 14:37:15 GMT -5
That sounds really different and interesting, Liiiiiisa!
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 15, 2024 17:02:03 GMT -5
I only learned about it because the author died last year and there was an op-ed in the New York Times that mentioned this book. I had to order it via inter-library loan, there wasn't a copy in this system!
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Post by scrubb on Jan 16, 2024 17:10:02 GMT -5
The Personal Librarian, by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. Heard about this on here (Q, maybe?). The story of Belle la Costa Greene, born Belle Marion Greener, who became the personal librarian of J.P. Morgan and helped develop his library of important manuscripts and art. She did so while passing as white.
The book is based on historical facts and people. The narrative voice is kind of boring, unfortunately. Very properly written in an attempt to sound like it fits in with how people spoke at the time (late 1800s-early 1900s) and reflecting how the character would have written, I guess; but there's rarely any feeling at all there. Since it's not presented as a journal or collection of letters, it could have realistically been less restrained, I think. Also, the character is supposedly very bold and witty and flirty, but there's never more than 1 or 2 sentences of her "witty repartee" and they come awkwardly out of some didactic paragraph where she discusses how "I was behaving boldly and flirting with the men".
Regardless of the fact that the character doesn't evoke much feeling in the reader, the story is pretty fascinating. Her father was the first black person to graduate from Harvard and he worked with a lot of the now famous people like WEB DuBois and Booker T. Washington to fight for civil rights; her mother decided that the family would have a better life if they all passed as white. So her parents split and she lived with her mother and passed as white for the rest of her life. She was responsible for building one of the best collections in the world, with JP Morgan trusting her to spend his money well. He left her the largest bequest outside of family in his will.
She was feted as the most accomplished woman of her time by women's rights groups, the subject of both scandal and admiration.
Overall, maybe worth reading for the history but not for the telling of it. So I'd probably recommend an actual biography instead.
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Post by sophie on Jan 17, 2024 18:50:17 GMT -5
The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi. Excellent novel .. Lille had recommended it earlier this month, and yes, it’s down the same line as R.F. Kuang with Babel but yet different. The concept of translation, cultural appropriation, consuming/integrating what one has conquered.. done in a much more personal way. Decisions and actions are individual rather than societal. Very thought provoking, a bit slow at times (on action not ideas!!) it is an amazing debut novel. The main character Anisa is a gem, the rest of the cast is well fleshed out.
I loved it.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jan 18, 2024 0:06:19 GMT -5
Phew, I'm glad you liked it Sophie!
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Post by sprite on Jan 18, 2024 10:11:53 GMT -5
The Girls in the Glen, Lynne McEwan
DI (DCI?) Shona Oliver is visiting her daughter on an archeological dig in a Scottish peat bog when a fairly modern body is discovered. About the same time, a politician hobnobbing with the local aristocrat is injured by a rifle shot--but who was the real target? Oliver believes the body was left by a serial killer, but head office wants her to keep the politician happy. Readers will be shocked to learn that there may have been weaknesses in the original murder investigation--is the killer still out there?
Oliver's husband is away in London facing fraud charges, so she's on her own managing daughter, case, and meals.
An enjoyable mystery with some good bits about the period of Scottish history where the Reivers, inventors of the word 'blackmail, were active. Also good tips about surviving if you fall into a fast-moving river--Oliver is a member of her local water rescue team.
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Post by scrubb on Jan 19, 2024 0:26:35 GMT -5
Just read Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. Like sophie said above - I laughed. As long as you don't take it seriously, it's fun. But don't let yourself think too hard about it. Although, it did make me glad I grew up when I did, after white picket fences were no longer what I was expected to want.
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Post by sophie on Jan 19, 2024 23:57:05 GMT -5
Meet Me At the Lake by Carley Fortune. Every year, our national radio/tv service (CBC) has a Canada Reads competition. 5 well known celebrities champion a book written by a Canadian writer. Over the course of a week there is a daily debate and one book is eliminated. The last book is the ‘winner’. It is followed by a huge number of Canadian readers and it has introduced new writers to a large audience. This year’s books are completely new to me as are their authors. I went out and bought two of them .. this is one of them. It’s a romance novel, a genre I seldom pick on purpose. It’s well written, with girl meets boy 10 years ago. They have one day together, have a very strong connection exploring his Toronto and make plans to meet the following year at the place she grew up, a resort north of Toronto. The following year she is there. He isn’t. She is crushed but carries on. Fast forward 10 years. She is back at the resort as her mother (who owned it) is killed in an accident. She has to make a decision whether to sell or take over the resort. She finds out the guy she has thought about for 10 years who didn’t meet her was hired by her mom as a consultant to update the resort… and what happens is the novel. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
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Post by scrubb on Jan 20, 2024 16:29:40 GMT -5
I usually pay attention to Canada Reads, although I haven't read all that many of the books it promotes. But one year I was hoping that Lawence Hill's book "The Illegal" would win because I liked his earlier book, "The Book of Negroes". And it did win, and I read it, and I thought it was pretty bad. I was really disappointed.
Which shouldn't tarnish my appreciation of the event or the literature it promotes, but somehow does, a bit.
That said, I just put 3 of this year's books on hold at the library!
And, started reading last year's winner.
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Post by sophie on Jan 21, 2024 1:31:57 GMT -5
Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano. A NY family ( parents, 2 teenage boys) moves to LA.. their stuff is going by truck and they are flying. Their plane crashes in Colorado and the younger boy is the only survivor. He ends up living with his aunt and uncle in NJ. The bulk of the novel deals with his recovery and coming to terms with what happened to him as well as all the other people on that flight. It’s an emotional novel, yet very readable. I loved it. Highly recommended.
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Post by lillielangtry on Jan 21, 2024 3:03:46 GMT -5
Maria Semple, Where'd you go, Bernadette
I just did a search for this book and discovered that Liiisa named it her worst read of 2012!
I don't know if it'll be my worst book of this year but it was odd. We picked it for book club because we do have a habit of reading very depressing books (well, they tend to have more to discuss!) and someone suggested this as a lighter book. It did have its amusing moments but its treatment of mental illness was not that funny, I felt. I was reminded a little of how some people felt Eleanor Oliphant was funny and others felt it was disturbing.
What it's about: a woman called Bernadette is supposed to be going on a cruise to Antarctica with her husband and teenage daughter, but instead, after a series of mishaps, she disappears. The book is largely epistolary, supposedly emails and the like. I don't think the emails were written in a realistic way.
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 21, 2024 8:16:38 GMT -5
lol lillie I saw that title there and was "like ugh I HATED that book!," then laughed about you retrieving my comments from 2012. It wasn't quite abandonment-level bad, so I must have read a lot of good books in comparison in 2012.
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Post by scrubb on Jan 21, 2024 21:57:19 GMT -5
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, by Kate Beaton.
This graphic novel won Canada Reads, which Sophie mentioned above, last year. A 22 year old from Cape Breton (Nova Scotia) goes to work in the Oil Sands in Northern Alberta to make enough money to pay off her student loans. She lived on the remote industrial site where men outnumbered women 50 to 1 and was exposed to a lot of sexism and harassment.
I spent nearly 18 years working at a remote northern industrial site where men outnumbered women by 10 to 1 or so (more out in the field), so I listened to interviews with interest. Her experience as she discussed it in those interviews didn't ring many (any?) bells for me. Admittedly, I didn't go there at age 22, but I hired girls that age and younger, and I really did not think her experience mirrored any of ours.
But I finally read it, and the book is more multi dimensional than the interviews made it sound. She also clearly says that this is only HER oil sands story and she knows other people's Oil Sands stories are completely different.
She really hated living and working there. Even though she met some good people, she also dealt with a lot of real assholes and a horrible company culture. She went through some very, very traumatic stuff. Her view was that camp life wasn't real life. It was this bizarre isolated world where no one has connections and many men go feral.
I won't go into all the reasons that her experience was so different from mine and my co-workers, but by the end of the book I understood why, and I also saw where she was coming from.
I liked it a lot.
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 22, 2024 6:05:15 GMT -5
Oh I love love LOVE Kate Beaton!
I've been wondering about this one. I have a copy of her "Hark! A Vagrant!" which is one of the funniest things, and wondered about this one since it can't possibly be funny (per descriptions I've read). However, part of what makes that so funny is what a good observer of life she is.
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Post by sprite on Jan 22, 2024 12:15:34 GMT -5
The Fourth Pig, Naomi Mitchison.
I have no idea why I borrowed this. It was on some sort of promotion list, had a woman author, it was available immediately. It's a set of re-worked fairy tales and ballads. I'll be honest, I skipped the ballads, I find it hard to remember what's going on in a narrative poem, especially before bed.
The book was published in 1936, but doesn't feel it. The 4th pig is the one who watches his 3 brothers whooping it up in the house made of brick, while he has a sort of existential crisis. I'm quite a superficial reader, and normally don't 'get' the point of short stories, and I'm sure I missed some stuff, but otherwise, I enjoyed this. it was easy to read but thoughtful.
I'll have a look for some of her other work.
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