Anyone read this ?

Woodnymph - It's always interesting to see our tastes here on RP vary. I loved Virgil Wander - read it twice in a row. It's way up there near the top of my favorite books list (which doesn't actually exist, but if I had one, it would be there).

I'm now reading "Burning Questions" by Margaret Atwood. It's a series of essays, many pertinent to the times in which we live. I am liking the fact that I can read a chapter at a time and then put it down, to be picked up at a later date.

Kathy, what was it about "Virgil Wander" that you liked? Have you read Enger's third novel?

I'm reading The God of the Hive by Laurie R. King. It is a continuation of the previous one, The Language of Bees, that I read early this month. Usually I spread her books apart, but this picks up as if it were the same book. Even Mycroft is being held prisoner.

Woodnymph - I can't think how to coherently explain what I liked about Virgil Wander. For me, it was such a feel good book. This in spite of the fact that some parts verge on magical realism, something I always claim to dislike about other books. But the man standing in the lake, waiting to help Virgil should he need it ... well I just really liked that idea. He was like a guardian angel, though never identified as such. And I loved the way that little kid (Galen Pea?) talked. And I just loved the way Virgil was able to come back from a low point in his life (the plunge into Lake Superior) and make a new start at life that was so simple, and yet so appealing, and how he truly became part of a community when previously he had apparently felt distant from others. As I warned, not a very organized explanation.

I finished the last (at least for now) Scotland Street novel, Love in the Time of Bertie. It wrapped up a several story lines in a satisfying manner, so I'm guessing he won't be back to this series for a while, if at all. I enjoyed these books so much and I'm so pleased I gave the series a chance after not loving his other books.

Not reading but listening to via the BBC a daily reading of Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe. Fascinating and scary . . . about the hugely wealthy Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma the makers of Oxy Contin and the wild spread of the opioid epidemic both in the US and Europe. I wonder how people with so much wealth, most of it ill-gotten, can sleep at night?

Vee, maybe they count their money instead of sheep.

I also loved Virgil Wander...for all the reasons Kathy stated, PLUS the descriptions of kite flying were so nostalgic and reminiscent of childhood for me. He perfectly captured the magic of kite flying that I felt as a child and young adult. Things I never could have described but were so familiar as I read them; it was almost magical. I was so smitten with the book, I checked two of the author's (Leif Enger) other books from the library, Peace Like a River and So Brave Young and Handsome. I recently finished Peace Like a River and found it disappointing after Virgil Wander. It was a good book, but I didn't care for it nearly as much as Virgil Wander. Haven't gotten to the other yet.

I recently finished reading The Weekend by Charlotte Wood. It is about three Australian women in their 70s who meet at the beach house of a recently deceased member of their friendship foursome. They'd all spent time together at this vacation getaway many times over the long years, but this time it was to clean out the house over Christmas weekend before it was to be sold. Well, it was quite a depressing weekend, and not just because they were mourning a lost friend. They were individually mourning a lot of things about their lives. My goodness.

I understand this book was highly praised and apparently quite popular in Australia when it was first published in 2019. I'm wondering if any of our Australian friends have read it or have anything to say about its popularity. Astrokath? Annpan? Others?

I don't know anything about this book. It sounds very depressing! Perhaps it was recommended in magazines and on TV book programs.

I mostly read cosy murder mysteries or something light and cheerful.

Annpan - I'm not surprised you have not read this book. There is nothing cosy about it. I would not recommend it to you. But I am curious about why it was apparently so hightly praised. The cover of my copy says it was a "#1 international best seller" but nothing in the book notes says what best seller list it appeared on. And I'm aware that it was short-listed for The Stella Prize, but I don't know anything about that particular prize.

Olychick - Regarding Virgil Wander - oh yes, the kite flying as depicted in this novel is, as you say, magical. And I loved the intricate unlikely shapes of the kites that Rune created. Plus, I just really loved Leif Enger's writing. Again, I don't know how to describe his writing, but he just uses our language in such a lyrical (?), charming manner. I would love to hear him speak.

kathy, I haven't read The Weekend but checked it out on Amazon UK. A few people loved it but most said it was rather dull or you were not already depressed you would be after reading it. Apparently the Sunday Times gave it a good write-up for 'holiday' reads . . . probably along with about 100 other titles, and the Guardian approved of it, possible because it dealt with misery. I shall give it a miss!

Vee - Consider it my gift that I warned you away from it.

My next book is A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams.

I stopped reading Some Tame Gazelle with two chapters left.

It was, in a word , insipid. I disliked most of the characters and really didn't care how the story ended.

I have just finished The Last Dance of the Debutante by Julia Kelly. Vee, have you read it? It is about the last court presentation of debs and their "season" in 1958. For some reason, I found it enthralling. She is also the author of The Last Garden in England that I read recently, and I found she has written lots of books many of which sound like Regency romances just from the titles. I will explore the more recent ones further.

I finally finished J.G. Ballard's The Drought, aka The Burning World. A very odd book that I also found difficult to follow, between the changing surrealistic landscapes and increasing alienation of the POV character (Charles Ransom). The book is peopled with characters that border on the grotesque who appear and reappear in dreamlike sequences (I was frequently reminded of Peake's Gormenghast, although the books are nothing alike), and I haven't decided whether Ransom has died in the end or not. I think this is a book that will stick in the mind for a while.

On to my other library books before the time runs out. I've got a Margaret Atwood anthology, Good Bones and Simple Murders, The War Queens, a history of women who led their nations in war, The Butcher Bird, the second J.D. Sykes historical mystery, and Haiku III from R.H. Blyth. Not to mention the book that is waiting on hold for me, Frank:Sonnets, by Diane Seuss. We won't mention Mt TBR.

Yoyobon, did you try the book you asked about above, the one about Lewis/Narnia? I'm curious if it's worth the effort to put it on hold, partly because I knew someone who as a boy had questions about Narnia, questions that his mother forwarded on to Lewis, resulting in a correspondence between the mother and Lewis that lasted through the boy's reading of the series. Those letters are now in the Lewis collection at Wheaton College.

I finally finished The Butterfly House by Katrine Engberg. Aside from a rather odd beginning and some translation spelling errors that were often comical, it's an excellent who-done-it novel filled with twists and turns and detailed character analysis. The Butterfly House is a private mental care facility for troubled young people who, while there, suffer at the hands of a greedy owner/director and some rather unsavory staff members. The facility closes after two years as the result a law suit brought by the parents of a young girl who commits suicide while supposedly in care. But that's just the background for the unusual murders that begin to occur in present day and which are the basis for the main tale. It's well written and held my interest to its last page. I'd recommend it with a 4.5 rating. IMO...it's an intellectual thriller whose author does not rely on foul language or descriptive sexual encounters to tell her story.

From there...as long as my eyes hold up...I'm on to Katherine Faulkner's Greenwich Park and then, three more of Sara Blaedel's novels...The Silent Women, The Killing Forest and The Stolen Angel.

Yoyobon, I felt the same way about The Golden Hour that you did about Some Tame Gazelle. I was about halfway through it when my library ebook expired while we were on our cruise, and I really didn't care. LOL I found the WWII story dull; I was more interested in the older story line but got bored with that one, too.

I'm still working on Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon. I really enjoy her books, but it's quite an undertaking to read one! This one is 1330+ pages on my iPad.

Donna

Carolyn, I haven't read The Last Dance . . . but looked it up. For some reason I had thought it was non-fiction. There are several books written by 'Debs' from that time. Looking back it must have been a very stuffy and outdated piece of recent history. We had family friends from Germany who's daughters were 'presented at Court' in about 1955. Somewhere we have a photo of them in an anti-room at Buckingham Palace, sitting very straight and formally dressed in 'afternoon' frocks, hats, white gloves etc with an elderly lady who was 'presenting' them. They had spent ages practicing their 'Court curtsy' so as not to wobble.

They told us afterwards that Prince Philip, who must have been bored senseless, and to whom they were very distantly related, winked at them!

Msmeow.......didn't it seem like Beatriz got bored with the story line also ? Just didn't make it to the finish line. Or perhaps it was the characters. Willis and David were so unlikable and the fictional characters was dreary.

I forgive Barbara Pym with the Gazelle novel given the time when she wrote it. There simply was no story in it......It felt like it got stuck in the muck and never came out.

I feel like I have to give Barbara Pym a little love here ;-). FWIW, the reason I love that book so much is that there isn't much of a story to it, it's just a slice of very quiet, gentle life from a time and place that no longer exist. I also find her subtle humor very enjoyable. I've loved all her books and over the years Some Tame Gazelle became my go-to comfort read. I know she's not everyone's cuppa tea, and that's absolutely fine. Life is too short to read books that you don't connect with or enjoy.

I've started a non-fiction book from the library titled, Think Again by Adam Grant. It's subtitled "The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know" and it looks intriguing. He writes well, but I'm only a few pages in so we'll see how it goes. I also started Elyssa Friedland's Last Summer at the Golden Hotel, a family story set in a deteriorating Catskills resort where the next generation must decide to continue on or sell out.

Sheri,

Also giving Barbara Pym a bit of love. I've just closed the back cover on Crampton Hodnet. I first heard about it here about ten years ago and for some reason, never read it. Whilst browsing my library two weeks ago, I happened upon it on a shelf and on a whim, checked it out. On the surface, it seems to be just a light little tale about the goings-on in North Oxford over a school year. Students, locals, dons, professors, townspeople, all come together for a comedy of manners (sort of). Where ever there are people, there seems to be drama and intrigue and North Oxford is no exception. But then there was another layer of the rhythm of life and I may just have to read it again from that perspective.

PAM

I have now read The Summer Before the War, the second book written by Helen Simonson who wrote Mr. Pettigrew's Last Stand. I know you all must think I have no discrimination at all, but once again I loved the book. It is set in Rye, and the war referred to is WWI and deals with the restrictions on women just before it and how that began to change.

I read both the Helen Simonson's books, and remember liking them at the time, but I don't remember much about The Summer Before the War anymore. One of these days perhaps I'll reread it. I have it on my shelf.

Sheri......If you haven't already read these , I think you would really enjoy D.E. Stevenson's Young Clementine and Miss Buncle's Book ( the first of four in that series ) . These are just two of the many delightful books that author wrote in the same time period.

yoyo, quite by chance I just returned D E Stevenson's Katherine's Marriage to the library. I found it utterly vapid and 'dated' . . .even for the '60's when it was first published . .. I could only manage a couple of chapters. I have since found that it is the second part of a series which details Katherine's earlier life.

The edition I tried to read was a 'large print' and they never give any information on author, number of books in a series etc. which doesn't help!

D L Stevenson was the cousin of the more famous Robert Louis . . .

Yoyobon, D.E. Stevenson's books are wonderful. I've read all the Miss Buncle series (the first book was the best IMO), Miss Buncle's Book, Miss Buncle Married, The Two Mrs. Abbots, and The Four Graces.

I have The Summer Before the War somewhere in the TBR pile, I should dig it out as I really enjoyed Major Pettigrew.

I managed to borrow a library copy of Maeve Binchy's Full House, an audiobook read by Kate Binchy. It was short and I was able to listen to each disc right through.

This was good as my player doesn't bookmark so if I stop, I need to wind forward to where I paused! One long audiobook took me 15mins to find this!

The palsy effects are slowly wearing off but sadly I can't read comfortably for long, so I am still borrowing audiobooks.

Annpan - Really sorry to hear you still can't read comfortably. But glad you had a good audiobook experience with that Maeve Binchy book. I have always loved her books, but have not read that one. Is it a good one?

Kathy, it is a Quick Reads book and an amusing story. I thought I had read all her books and even a play script (Deeply Regretted By) but am still finding stories I haven't read!

I haven't posted here in a long time, but I just dropped in and I want to recommend Sebastian Barry's Days Without End, which I just reread.Simply magnificent writing in a unique voice during a defining period of American history--pre, during, and post Civil War. But don't mistake this for a Civil War novel. It most certainly isn't. The sequel, A Thousand Moons is worth reading as well, though maybe it doesn't have quite the punch of the first--but then, what could?

I will be looking for more of Barry's books.

I finished Margaret Atwood's essays, most of which I found interesting and enlightening. I found a Louis Penny Gamache mystery I've not yet read, set in Three Pines. I decided to give Penny another chance and so far am enjoying "The Long Way Home", a mystery with psychological overtones.

I've started another Harry Bosch-Renee Ballard book, The Dark Hours. Connelly has written a lot of books with a lot of crimes, but they are always well done.

Well, after a marathon of reading this weekend I finished Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone. And now I have to wait years for the next one! I enjoyed it very much.

Now I’m reading A Paris Apartment by Michelle Gable. An elderly French lady has died and left a hoard of antique furniture and famous art, and our heroine April, an expert in antiques, has traveled to Paris to handle the disposition of everything. It’s off to a good start. (And it’s a mere 338 pages, not as daunting as Bees!)

Donna

Overseas by Beatriz Williams, her first novel way back when. It is a time travel tale and I have no opinion yet since I've just barely started it.

Twenty Blue Devils, a Gideon Oliver book by Aaron Elkins. I had read a few of this series a long time ago and have begun again from the first one reading forward with other books in between. The main character solves murders from old (or newer) bones and in various locales. This one is set in Tahiti, a place I have wanted to go since first reading James Michener's Hawaii.

I enjoy travel and have said for many years that I am saving cruising until I am old. My daughter says I will have to tell her when that is because she's not touching it, but I think a South Pacific island cruise sounds like a wonderful grande finale, don't you?

I agree with you, Carolyn - a fine grande finale!

Carolyn, like you, my old age perception has changed as I grew older. At just gone 85, it is now 90!

Unlike you, I don't fancy a cruise. I have no luck being at sea. Poseidon hates me and sent storms whenever I have ventured into his realm!

Carolyn, I have only gone on river cruises (two of them). I did enjoy them. If I were ever to go on an ocean cruise, and perhaps someday I might, I would want to go on one of the smaller ships. There is something about the mega-ships that offends my sense of proportion. When ever I see them in port, they look like an item cut from one picture and pasted onto another, but not at the same scale. They just look wrong.

But I do enjoy traveling that way, magically floating from place to place without having to deal with the bother of packing and unpacking along the way. If you do go, please tell us all about it!

In my ignorance I had always assumed that cruising was for really rich people with too much money and way to much time on their hands. Recently I found out that several 'local' folk regularly take holidays this way and when they return they compare notes . . . not as to which cities/places of culture they have visited but about how many people have died on the voyage.

"Two went from my deck in the second week."

"Only two? Three died on my cruise and several really old people had to be air-lifted to hospital."

Back in the day (late '50's early '60's) my parents went on a number of cargo-boat journeys around the Med. when cabins became available. The ships seldom took more than 6 -10 passengers and the itinerary was very fluid depending on cargoes, tides, berth spaces in ports. There was no competing to sit at the captain's table and the crew were very knowledgeable about places to visit and they were able to take shore trips to places well away from the tourist trail. Many of these areas have since been devastated by the wars in the Middle East.

Carolyn, as you are interested in the 'South Seas' may I strongly recommend A Pattern of Islands by Arthur Grimble. A wonderful account from a very young Colonial officer on his posting to what were then the Gilbert and Ellis Islands . . . with nary a cruise liner in sight; just before modernity took hold.

Vee, that book was made into a movie which I saw many years ago.

When an Island girl comments on his thin legs, I remember that there was a loud whisper from the women in the audience that he was going to look into a mirror to check.

Sure enough he did and the whole cinema audience erupted into laughter.

Stopping in for an overdue visit. I have just finished re-reading Legends &Lattes by Travis Baldree. it’s a quick read and not a demanding one but it really hit the spot for me on this lazy almost summer day.

Vee, my library doesn't have that book. I'll have to look elsewhere. And, Ann, I'm a little ahead of you in age. I will be 86 in July. I'm not sure how this happened to a nice girl like me, but fortunately I am in good health (not walking as far or as fast as I used to, though).

We actually did do a family trip to Alaska that was part cruise on a big ship and then a land tour, and it was a lot of fun. From where I live, many people take Caribbean cruises that depart from Florida cities, and they are not terribly expensive. There are several competitive cruise lines which makes for good sales sometimes. They were paused for Covid but are back now with bells on, although one woman I know and her husband came back from one sick with the virus.

Has anyone else read Overseas ?? What an odd story of time travel.

Carolyn, my hubby and I went on our first cruise in three years in May and both contracted the virus on the trip. We spent the last two days quarantined in our cabin and had to take two additional days off work to finish the CDC-recommended isolation period.

But it was wonderful to finally be cruising again! :)

Donna

It took me a while but I finally finished Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner. Life has a way of getting in the way of my reading time lately.

It's a decent thriller. The plot is acceptable. It has lots of twists and turns that keep one interested to the surprising conclusion. For some reason...it reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock's work. BUT...the structure is poor...and frustrating. In addition to some much needed editing...the use of characters as chapters is difficult and doesn't add to the congruity..or flow...of the tale. I'd rate the book a 3+. I think the author has talent and for a first novel...it's adequate.