WWW Wednesday

WWW Wednesday is a weekly reading event hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

• Right now I'm reading:

& Sons: A Novel, by David Gilbert
(Just opened this one, so I'm not sure how I'll like it.)

• Last week I finished two books:

Fer-de-Lance, by Rex Stout
(My first Nero Wolfe. Loved it!)

The Flamethrowers, by Rachel Kushner
(Had trouble finishing it. Would not recommend.)

• Up next:

A Fatal Likeness, by Lynn Shepherd
(Looking forward to this one!)

Review: Farewell, Dorothy Parker

Written by Ellen Meister
G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2012

Publisher's Description:

When it comes to movie reviews, critic Violet Epps is a powerhouse voice. But that’s only because she’s learned to channel her literary hero, Dorothy Parker, the most celebrated and scathing wit of the twentieth century. If only Violet could summon that kind of strength in her personal life. 

Gripped by paralyzing anxiety, Violet visits the Algonquin Hotel in an attempt to pull strength from the hallowed dining room, where Dorothy Parker and so many other famous writers of the 1920s traded barbs. But she gets more than she bargained for, and the feisty spirit rematerializes . . . hitching a ride onto Violet’s already troubled life. An irreverent ghost with problems of her own—including a refusal to cross over to the afterlife—Mrs. Parker helps Violet face her fears, becoming mentor, tormentor, and, with any luck, friend.

My Thoughts:

Whenever possible, I try to write my reviews of LibraryThing's Early Reviewer books before I read any other reviews of the work -- that just seems like the fair thing to do. But I have to be honest here: While I was trying to form my thoughts about Ellen Meister's Farewell, Dorothy Parker, I glanced at another review and noticed that the reviewer said something about it being "chick lit" and not to her liking -- and I had one of those ah-hah! moments.  (Or maybe more like Doh!) Something about the book had been nagging at me, and I now realize that's it. Chick lit is what it is, and that's where the problem arises -- I don't generally enjoy that genre.

But I really didn't dislike this book; I just felt it didn't live up to its potential. The idea behind the story -- a magic book housing the ghost of Dorothy Parker -- sounds wonderful, and I was expecting to be wowed. Well, I wasn't wowed by Meister's novel, but I think it had some very good moments.

My main problem with the book is just that I never really warmed to its central character, the annoyingly weak-willed Violet Epps. The Dorothy Parker character was much more entertaining (of course), but she only showed up now and then. But it was a brisk read, with lots of action and conversation, so all in all a pretty pleasant experience.  Could this mean I should rethink my opinion about "chick lit"?

Note: This review refers to an advance reader’s edition of the novel, provided free of charge by the publisher, through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer program. No other compensation was received.

Review: The Heat of the Sun

Written by David Rain
Henry Holt and Company, 2012

Publisher's Description:

Ben "Trouble" Pinkerton first appears to us through the amazed eyes of his Blaze Academy schoolmate, the crippled orphan Woodley Sharpless. Soon Woodley finds his life inextricably linked with this strange boy's. The son of Lieutenant Benjamin Pinkerton and the geisha Madame Butterfly, Trouble is raised in the United States by Pinkerton (now a Democrat senator) and his American wife, Kate. From early in life, Trouble finds himself at the center of some of the biggest events of the century—and though over time Woodley's and Trouble's paths diverge, their lives collide again to dramatic effect. From Greenwich Village in the Roaring Twenties, to WPA labor during the Great Depression; from secret work at Los Alamos, New Mexico, to a revelation on a Nagasaki hillside by the sea—Woodley observes firsthand the highs and lows of the twentieth century and witnesses, too, the extraordinary destiny of the Pinkerton family.

My Thoughts:

I liked David Rain's The Heat of the Sun much more than I expected I would at the outset. It begins as a typical boys' boarding school narrative which is not one of my favorite genres -- seems to me they're all pretty much the same story over and over. Fortunately, it gets better once the boys are out of school and on their own in the years leading up to World War II and during the war. I enjoyed all the many plot twists and turns, even though some of the coincidental meetings and developments were just a bit implausible.

It was a little difficult to accept that the Madame Butterfly story was real and that there had never been a famous opera based on the tale -- that was an awful lot of disbelief to suspend. I guess secretly I kept thinking that sooner or later one of the characters was going to say something like, "Hey, doesn't this all sound really familiar?" But that's a problem I have with a lot of historical fiction, and it wasn't enough of an issue to keep me from being thoroughly entertained. Definitely a good read, if you give it a chance.

Note: This review refers to an advance reader’s edition of the novel, provided free of charge by the publisher, through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer program. No other compensation was received.

Review: Cold Remains

Written by Sally Spedding
Sparkling Books Ltd, 2012

Publisher’s description:
When Jason Robbins arrives at the eerie Heron House in deepest Carmarthenshire for a writing course, he soon meets its two weird servants who seem to exercise a sinister power over their scheming employer, Monty Flynn. Another newcomer is Helen Jenkins, a cook, to whom Jason is instantly attracted. Together they discover what dangers really lurk behind those ivy-clad walls; how the terrible post-war past bleeds into the present when the tormented soul of the young woman haunting them will stop at nothing to have her story told. But is the ghost's version of events to be trusted? And at what cost to Jason and Helen when they attempt to find out the truth? 

My Thoughts:

Sally Spedding’s Cold Remains has been called a “noir-ish thriller” -- a darkly atmospheric mystery novel with supernatural elements. And I suppose, strictly speaking, that’s a fair description; I agree it’s a very dark tale. And I generally love that. But something about the book just kept repelling me, and I don’t think it was spookiness. (It also wasn’t the fact that every other sentence seemed to be about Helen's menstrual cycle -- that was pretty repellent, too, but it was there for a reason.)

For one thing, there were at least two storylines going on, in two different time periods, and a host of characters to keep track of, in each. That’s fairly standard for novels these days, I know -- and I know it shouldn’t bother me by now, but in this case it did. Also, it seemed to me that Spedding never really decided if she was writing a mystery or a supernatural thriller. Most of the time, that supernatural part of the book felt really tacked-on.

A lot of the action was confusing, too -- jumping around in time and from place to place. And throughout the book, I had trouble understanding exactly what motivated the characters, and that kept me from caring much about them. I suppose that might have been part of the mystery -- not giving too much away before the big reveal at the end. But it just didn’t work for me.

Note: This review refers to an electronic edition of Cold Remains which was furnished free of charge by the publisher through NetGalley.com. No other compensation was received.

Booking Through Thursday: Returns

This week's BTT question/topic:

What book(s) do you find yourself going back to? Beloved children’s classics? Favorites from college? Something that touched you and just makes you long to visit? (Because, doesn’t everybody have at least one book they would like to curl up with, even if they don’t make a habit of rereading books? Even if they maybe don’t even have the time to visit and just think back longingly?)

Well, to be honest, the older I get, the less I'm tempted to "think back longingly" about any of the books I've read in the past -- there are just way too many books to be read, and WAY too little time left to read them!

But I'm certainly not opposed to re-reading, and I do have favorites that I've read more than once: Lewis Carroll's Alice books, Huckleberry Finn, Wuthering Heights, Orlando by Virginia Woolf, Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier, The Aspern Papers and The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, The Ox-bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, Nabokov's Lolita, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, and most of Barbara Pym's novels (actually, I can't think of anything by Pym that I haven't read more than once). Also The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody by Will Cuppy -- one of the funniest books ever written.  I'm sure there are others, but those are the ones that come to mind.

Monday Reading Update

So here we are in the midst of May already.  Can you believe it?  Where did April go?  Could we slow the year down just a bit, please?

Probably not.

Anyway, back to the subject.  April was another not-too-great month for me, reading-wise.  I only finished two books -- Lawrence Durrell's Clea (last book in his Alexandria Quartet), and The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club, by Duncan Whitehead.

Hope to get reviews up soon.  Actually, I have a bunch of reviews I need to get posted -- I'll be working on that later in the week.

Right now I'm trying to finish up The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner

(which I'm having a lot of trouble staying with), and Rex Stout's Fer-de-Lance

(which I'm enjoying, but keep putting aside to finish other things).  Also just started The Seduction by M.J. Rose,

and I have a feeling that one is going to nudge me into putting all the others aside, yet again.


It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. If you want to let the world know what books you're going to be reading this week, head on over to her blog and leave your link. It's also a great way to discover new books and new blogs.

Teaser Tuesdays: Clea

This week my teaser lines come from Clea, the final novel in Lawrence Durrell's series of novels known collectively as the Alexandria Quartet.  I read the first three books -- Justine, Balthazar, and Mountolive -- many years ago, and don't know why I've waited so long to get to this one.  I guess I was waiting for the Middle East Reading Challenge to come along and give me the necessary nudge.  This snippet comes very early in the novel -- I'm reading an electronic version, so I'm not sure about page numbers.

A faint and terrible moaning came out  across the water towards us, pulsing like the wing-beats of some fearful prehistoric bird -- sirens which howled as the damned must howl in limbo. One's nerves were shaken like the branches of a tree.

Durrell is a wonderful writer and I'm enjoying the book so far.  It's not exactly heavy on plot or action, though -- but some really gorgeous prose.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in your comment here.

Booking Through Thursday: Sporting

This week, BTT asks a couple of sports-related questions:

1. Do you read books about sports? 
2. How about AT sporting events? (Kid’s soccer practice?)

And my answers are really pretty simple: No and No.

I do consider myself something of a sports fan -- I watch lots of sports on TV (mostly because the hubby watches them, but I enjoy them too).  But we VERY rarely attend live sporting events, so the second question really doesn't even apply in my case. 

And I hardly ever read a sports-related book, although one of my favorite "new finds" of recent years was The Longshot by Katie Kitamura, set in the world of mixed martial arts.  I would never have picked that one up if I hadn't been sent the ARC for review -- and I ended up really loving it.  So I guess that just shows how valuable a step out of your comfort zone can be.

Teaser Tuesdays: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

This week I'm taking my teaser lines from the classic children's book, From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, written by E.L. Konigsburg who died last Friday.  I read this one for the first time a few years ago and really enjoyed it, so in honor of Konigsburg's passing, I gave it a quick re-read over the weekend and as a "tease," here's a snippet from the beginning of the tale:

Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away.  That is, running away in the heat of anger with a knapsack on her back.  She didn't like discomfort; even picnics were untidy and inconvenient: all those insects and the sun melting the icing on the cupcakes. Therefore, she decided that her leaving home would not be just running from somewhere but would be running to somewhere.  To a large place, a comfortable place, an indoor place, and preferably a beautiful place.  And that's why she decided upon the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Good book.  But I used to work in a museum, and it was definitely spooky after all the visitors and staff left for the day -- so I'm not really sure about living in a museum, even for a short time.  Still -- good book.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizB at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in your comment here.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Didn't get a great deal of reading done last week -- we were busy with visitors and errands and family stuff.  But I did manage to get through one book.  Hoping to finish at least three or four more before the end of the month, so I can get back on track for my 50-book goal for the year.  So far, this week looks pretty clear -- I might even be able to get a few reviews posted (fingers crossed).

• Finished last week:

The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club. Duncan Whitehead
**Will try to get a review of this one up later today. **

• Reading this week:

 Clea. Lawrence Durrell

 Fer-de-Lance. Rex Stout

 The Flamethrowers. Rachel Kushner

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. If you want to let the world know what books you're going to be reading this week, head on over to her blog and leave your link. It's also a great way to discover new books and new blogs.