Mrs. March

 It's been a bit since I finished reading Mrs. March by Virginia Feito. I still don't really know what I read and think, should I read this again? I watch the interview by Jenny Lawson of the author (linked below) and it looks like I'm not alone in my boat!

Mrs. March was a book of the month from the Fantastic Stranglings Book Club and it's a damn doozy. I don't intend to spoil it but will try to take you somewhat down the path without really showing you everything.

Mrs. March is the wife of a famous author, George March. She lives a pretty well to do life in the Upper East Side in.... some time period. You can get some clues from context but the author never really comes out and says when this is set. You also don't know Mrs. March's first name. Every single reference to her, even when she's in a flashback as a child, she is referred to as Mrs. March. Her perfectly constructed world starts unravelling when she goes to her regular bakery and the woman behind the  counter suggests that the main character in her husband's newest book is based on Mrs. March. Mrs. March is so appalled she flees the shop and never returns. 

Why is she appalled? Because the character, Johanna, is a prostitute. And, apparently, detestable in all ways possible. That's really all Mrs. March knows about Johanna because she quit reading her husband's books long ago. But this, this is the start of the unraveling.

Mrs. March is a peculiar person. Her entire existence seems to revolve around how she appears to others. She'll go to a museum only to be seen at a museum appreciating art. She'll toss a throw over the back of the couch multiple times until it's achieved the "Oh this? I just casually got up from reading because I forgot I was throwing a party tonight" look. She's never HER. She's only the version of her that she wants people to see. 

On the flip side of Mrs. March, she often has musings. Musing of killing people, such as poisoning everyone at the party she is throwing for her husband. She's sees cockroaches in her fancy apartment, believes people are constantly discussing her behind her back, and that her husband is a murderer.  

Her flashbacks indicate some serious trauma but it's never really delved into. We only get as much as Mrs. March is willing to remember and tell us. Initially, my reactions to Mrs. March were "She has some issues." which fell into "What is wrong with this woman?? Something is seriously messed up" and ended up with "Holy shit, what just happened in her brain?!?!?" I ended with "What did I just read?" which is usually a sign of a really great book for me.

I can't recommend Mrs. March enough. Please read it and then talk to me because I still don't know what I just read.

Interview with the author

 

Temperance Broke My Slump

 I put the new Anthony Doerr book on hold at my local library and wandered in anyways to browse the new book section. The library set up a contactless way to pick up books that I completely bypassed to go in and fondle books. I've really missed browsing the stacks, let me tell you.

I've been in a slump for everything, really. But especially book reading and writing up reviews. I blame 2021 for feeling like 5 years in one. But I was pretty excited to see a new Kathy Reichs book on the shelf and grabbed it. The Bone Code is the 20th book in the Temperance Brennan series (The TV show Bones is based on this book, and weirdly referenced in the book as a show that Brennan watches). I finished this within a day. Yowza. Slump broken?

Brennan is doing her thing, her forensic anthropologist thing, when a hurricane starts hitting the East coast. After getting through the storm with Birdie, Brennan is contacted by a Charleston coroner because bodies in a box washed up on shore. This happens, sadly, but Brennan heads out to take a look. As she is doing her exam, she realizes the details are nearly identical to a case she dealt with in Quebec fifteen years prior. She heads back to Canada to do more investigating.

Andrew Ryan, her former work partner turned boyfriend, is there to greet her and help with the investigation of the cold case. The case turns hairy pretty quickly when it becomes obvious that Brennan is upsetting folks who want their secrets to stay secret. This was a fast-paced book to a pretty satisfying resolution. 

For the science nerds among us, this is heavy in the science of DNA and vaccines, which is pretty timely, eh? I could see this being fodder for anti-vaxxers but I don't believe they read much so we should be good. If you can keep up with the science and all the acronyms involved, you'll learn a thing or two about how vaccines can be altered to really alter your DNA. 

Interview with the Author

The Sunset Route

 It's been a bit since I've reviewed a book. I lost my reading mojo this year, only reading half of what I normally do and losing interest in what I've started. Pandemic Year 2 and it still sucks. I finally got my first vacation in 17 months and realized that I had barely taken off work since then. My only days off were medical procedures or sick days. Yeesh.

For vacation this year, we went to Tennessee, renting a cabin in the woods. I loved it. Besides some touristy stuff during the day, evenings were spent knitting or reading. I brought along The Sunset Route by Carrot Quinn, a book pick from the Fantastic Stranglings Book Club from Nowhere Bookshop, and ended up finishing it in 2 days. I'm honestly surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did!

I was both horrified and entranced. Carrot's (né Jennifer) upbringing was so full of abuse, poverty, and hurt that I am honestly surprised she made it out in one piece. She brings in the light in her life when the book starts getting too heavy, it's really well done to make the reader not want to throw in the towel and cry for the little girl. Carrot's mother, Barbara, is a schizophrenic who thinks she's the Virgin Mary. She neglects her kids, Jennifer and Jordan, sinks them into poverty in Alaska, and abuses them on a regular basis. Carrot describes all of this with detail that hurts your heart. 

"Thankfully" the kids get adopted by their grandparents, Barbara's parents, and move to Colorado. I know the grandparents weren't worse, per se, but damn. Carrot gets out early and works odd jobs to make ends meet to stay afloat. She decides to head to Portland, OR with a family member and there.... I guess you could say her life begins, if you are dramatic. I am, so her life begins. 

The lightness of the book consists of Carrot and friends hitchhiking and riding the trains back and forth across the country. They make the money they need to survive, dumpster dive for food, and shoplift other items as needed. They essentially have no home, but they do. Wherever they end up, they find a home, shelter, somewhere to sleep. Carrot has kept on living this life, living out of her van with her 2 dogs, traveling back and forth between Alaska and the desert.

Initially, all I kept thinking was "I have too many health problems and need too much medical care to do anything like this. Besides, I love my home. And my things." So the first part is true, I'm a mess. But the other 2?  I think that is what Carrot is trying to show, you don't need the material things to have a full life, to have a home, to FEEL at home. She also references being seen, or alternatively, being invisible. Some people do move through this life unseen, either because they are trying to stay invisible or because they are the type of person that people don't want to acknowledge. 

The unwritten law is to not see the houseless people. To gripe about them "needing to get jobs". To not see the mentally ill, let alone provide help to them. To not believe that someone can be happy traveling around in a van with her dogs and never buying into the "American dream" of a house and picket fence. 

I appreciated this book for making me think from a different direction. I appreciate Jenny Lawson for bringing Carrot to those of us who have never heard of her (she has another book!).

Carrot's Instagram - beautiful photos of nature!

“I had learned that you couldn't escape the darkness entirely, but you could learn to live above it. Grief was an ocean but you could reach the surface and bob there, where the light was.”

Jenny's talk with Carrot

Later!

 I wanted a quick audiobook to knock out on my work commute. Obama's Promised Land is proving to be not knock-out-able, so I turned to Stephen King's Later. Not quite 7 hours long, I ended up listening while knitting, doing dishes, during my commute, etc. It was really good!

Jamie Conklin is a little kid with special powers (typical SK so far). His power is the ability to see dead people. WAIT! No, come back. It's not the Sixth Sense! This is actually good! As a little kiddo, he sees his dead neighbor whose husband is crying on Jamie's mom's shoulder. Jamie chats with his dead neighbor, learns that she put her rings in the closet for no real reason, and is pretty frank with Jamie that his hand turkey drawing sucks. Apparently dead people can only tell the truth. So. Ouch, dead neighbor lady.

Jamie's mom somewhat believes him, especially when she helps their neighbor find the wedding rings in the closet, but she insists he not speak to anyone else about his "talent". His mom, Tia, a literary agent, hooks up with an NYPD detective, Liz, until they have a falling out. Liz isn't your stellar detective. True, she has to fight the good ol' boys club but being a dirty cop isn't the way to do that, LIZ.

When one of Tia's clients drops dead before finishing a novel, she drags Jamie to the dead guy's house in hopes of finding him to get the plot of his last novel. A bit shady and desperate, but, as you'll see, Tia is desperate. Liz tags along and gets an earful of Jamie's abilities.

Later, we get into some crazy scary shit for Jamie, all because of Liz. When you think it's bad, it gets worse. Towards the end is where I told everyone to leave me alone because I have to finish this book because, damn. Everything slid downhill. But WAIT! Once the scary is over, we still get that last "Oh shit" moment where I actually knocked out a loud WTF? and startled some people. 

Crazy book, crazy creepy, crazy good. 

Interview with King

Joliment écrite

 The Paris Hours by Alex George is a beautifully written novel that winds the stories of Camille, Guillaume, Souren, and Jean-Paul together in a way that not even the characters understand. Or even know. Add in Ernest Hemingway and Josephine Baker, shake it all up in 1927 in Paris and you will fall down a rabbit hole.

Each of the main characters, but not the famous ones, have their moment to give us their back story and panicked/depressing future. Camille worked for Proust and, in doing so, told him her deepest secret. She discovered later that he wrote it down to be used in his work and it's now out, loose, in the world. 

Guillaume is an artist, a literal starving artist, who is struggling in Paris. Falling in with sex workers and bad guys, he must get twelve hundred francs together or lose his life.

Souren, oh Souren. His story tugged the hardest on my heart. He escaped Armenia, and ended up in Paris. His past is tortured but we really don't understand how much so until near the end of the novel. For someone with such a past, he spent his time in Paris giving amazing joy to children as a puppeteer. 

Jean-Paul has another sad story but he plods on through life, collecting the stories of others instead. He does end up telling his story to Josephine Baker that ends up setting into motion a life-changing event for Jean-Paul, if only he could see it.

After the introductions, the novel takes you quickly through several days where the characters intermingle and, in some cases, impact others. But some just keep going through life, selfish, not concerned with others and not seeing their impact on their fellow human.

This really was a well written novel that makes you wonder.... as you go about your day, whose life are you affecting?

Chat with the author

A Distant Grave

 Last year, I got an early copy of Sarah Stewart Taylor's The Mountains Wild and enjoyed it, but it felt, at first, like an uphill trudge then got so good I read til wee hours of the night. I got an email that Taylor had a new book coming out this week and would I like a copy to read? Why yes, yes I would.

I downloaded A Distant Grave, Maggie D'Arcy #2, and went on essentially the same rollercoaster. I'm wondering if this is the style of the author since this is only the second book of hers I've read. I'm definitely not arguing with the style (maybe the wee hours in the night thing should stop. I'm getting old.)

Maggie is back in Long Island, investigating a homicide of a man shot to death on a beach. We find his name is Gabriel Treacy and he's from Ireland. Which, coincidentally is the same place  Maggie and her daughter Lilly are heading to for vacation. In the first book, Maggie reunites with Conor and, in this book, they are a full on, very long distance couple. Conor doesn't seem thrilled with Maggie's career choice and is concerned this murder might make her miss her vacation. Maggie mixes vacation with work and, while in Dublin, continues investigating Treacy's past.

Treacy's past is a doozy, to be honest. The investigation is nicely intermixed with stories from Gabriel himself about what happened to him when he was kidnapped as an aid worker in Afghanistan. When another murder happens in Ireland that appears related to Treacy's murder, things get a bit twisted up. The American murder throws in some twist with the murder weapon that confuses matters but eventually Maggie puts all the pieces together, while everything around her is really falling apart. She's a pretty stellar detective and honestly, I hope she ignores that boyfriend of hers enough to keep going on her path. 

There were just a few pieces that confused me but it's possible I skipped something in the first book. The DA Jay Cooney was incredibly hostile to Maggie in this book and I had a hard time figuring out why. Even with the reveals at the end, his hostility was, hmmm, extreme. Otherwise, this is a really good book, and most likely will be a good series. I really enjoy the America and Ireland connections and the fact that Maggie works well in both.

I don’t know what it’s like to fear death. I only know what it’s like to fear life.

Dear God: Honest Prayers to a God Who Listens by Bunmi Laditan was a book that both spoke to me and didn't.  I am not religious. Perhaps the furthest thing from it. This book was actually recommended in an Instagram post by Jenny Lawson and I'm glad I took the chance on it. It felt more like poetry with a desperate, faithful touch.

Of course, some poetry is both desperate and faithful too. 

Since this was on my Kindle, I was able to highlight all of the pieces that resonated. Looking back over my "notes", the desperate resonated, not so much the faithful. If I ever needed proof I have been in a bad place, this is it.

"But if we all treated people according to what they deserved, I think we’d all be in hell."

Turning a blind eye. Turning the other cheek. Waiting for karma. All of those things are very hard when people are wearing you down.  It's also hard to get out of a dark place when it seems like your job is to be talked down to, mansplained to, and ignored.

"I didn’t love you because I confused you for your children on their worst days and equated you with buildings. You are so much more."

Christians are really sometimes the worst depiction of Christ. I'm still not a Christian but I'm going to try harder to not assume all Christians are the terrible people that 2020 showed them to be.

"Thank you for those who feed stomachs before minds, give hugs before teachings, and help pull you out of the fire before the reprimand for playing with matches."

But not all Christians. Some truly do understand how this life works and understands that they are not the ones who should be judging. They also understand that actions speak louder than all their preaching. Show me you are good, stop telling me how good you are.

"On the days hope feels like a cruel mirage, when you’re wandering, spinning in place, unable to believe there are plans to prosper and not harm you, unable to believe there are any good plans with your name on them, listen. Hope does not exist to make fools out of pilgrims, for when it is placed in the hands of the eternal, it is the scent of things to come. Let go of your imaginings of what life is meant to look like and let hope lift your soul up and away from present pains, providing respite and breath enough for one more step forward."

"Some days, I wonder who I’d be if I’d had an easier life."

I wonder who I would be without chronic pain and illness. Without a past full of hospitals, surgeries, and bullies. Where my present is full of the same and my future isn't terrifying in it's bleakness. If I could wake up and feel OK (I'm not even asking to feel good. Just OK). 

This is a beautiful book, in spite of the God talk or perhaps because of it. But probably in spite of it.

Interview with the author

 

Yaa Gyasi - No Sophomore Slump

 Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi's debut novel, blew my mind in 2016 when I read it. It was a heavy book, but one that I always recommend to people. When Transcendent Kingdom came out, I wanted to read it, naturally, but was worried. Her debut was so amazing. Could Transcendent Kingdom be on the same level??

It wasn't. It was on a whole other level. This isn't Homegoing, but it's just as powerful. And honestly, I'm jealous. 

Gifty and Nana are just kids, living in Alabama after their parents relocated from Ghana. Right off the bat, you know their life is going to be harder than it should. The Chin Chin Man (their father) tried to make his life work in the US, but ultimately ended up going back to Ghana. Gifty's mother suffered from severe depression and was suicidal. Nana, a star athlete, was dead at a young age due to a drug overdose. And that left Gifty, on her own and a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine.

Funny where paths lead.

Transcendent Kingdom follows present day Gifty as she works her experiments on mice, trying to understand reward seeking behavior (ie. drug addiction) and how people can be treated to avoid it. Gifty's mom ends up coming to stay with her in her tiny apartment while she's in the middle of a severe depression episode. The only family they have left is each other, despite their differences. The book takes us back and forth when the family was a whole unit up until present time, with Gifty trying everything she can think of to help her mom.

Gifty barely knew her dad, but met up with him again when her mother sent her to Ghana for the summer. 

“My memories of him, though few, are mostly pleasant, but memories of people you hardly know are often permitted a kind of pleasantness in their absence. It's those who stay who are judged the harshest, simply by virtue of being around to be judged.”

“If I've thought of my mother as callous, and many times I have, then it is important to remember what a callus is: the hardened tissue that forms over a wound.” 

To say her relationship with her mother, a very religious woman, was complicated is putting it lightly. We often see Gifty on the verge of giving up, we see her mother giving up, but Gifty keeps on.

What is so engaging with this story is the mix of religion and science. Gifty tried to follow her mother into religion, generally overthinking it and often misunderstanding it. Science was her refuge, but religion always stayed there, on the periphery. 

“When it came to God, I could not give a straight answer. I had not been able to give a straight answer since the day Nana died. God failed me then, so utterly and completely that it had shaken my capacity to believe in him. And yet. How to explain every quiver? How to explain that once sure-footed knowledge of his presence in my heart?”

This is a beautiful book, a wonderfully written story to lose yourself. It's not Homegoing, no, but it's something just as good on the other side of the spectrum.

Interview with author

Intro to Glennon

I actually don't/didn't know much about Glennon Doyle. I was curious about her after seeing her Instagram pop up in a #ShareTheMicNow, where white woman with big audiences hands their instagram accounts over to black activists to give the activists a wider audience. Then I saw that Untamed was getting good reviews and was a memoir. So I grabbed the audio from my library and took a listen.

Doyle reads the book but I pretty quickly realized that it wasn't a memoir in the traditional sense. Was it self-help? Memoirish with really quotable quotes? Are we all goddamn cheetahs? (That last one is a YES)

Doyle is funny and likable. She shares her story through, what I assume are, small chapters with blurbs about her marriage (1) and marriage (2), her kids, her coming into her homosexuality and falling in love, her work and her struggles. The self-help part comes from the cheerleader type quotes, wanting women to ditch their every day selflessness, and be a goddamn cheetah. 

The common theme seems to: quit being selfless. Be selfish. At multiple points, I issued a raised fist "Fuck yeah!" and others ... not so much. 

“When women lose themselves, the world loses its way. We do not need more selfless women. What we need right now is more women who have detoxed themselves so completely from the world's expectations that they are full of nothing but themselves. What we need are women who are full of themselves. A woman who is full of herself knows and trusts herself enough to say and do what must be done. She lets the rest burn.”

I would imagine it's hard to let the rest burn as a parent? I'm not clear on that, not being a parent or never will be a parent due to faulty, garbage insides. The aforementioned garbage insides makes me tune out to the parenting portion of the book (there was quite a bit).

Despite that, Doyle does seem to articulate what needs to be said very well.

“Privilege is being born on third base. Ignorant privilege is thinking you’re there because you hit a triple. Malicious privilege is complaining that those starving outside the ballpark aren’t waiting patiently enough.” 

I would recommend this book, especially read by Doyle because I loved her voice. While I didn't get the memoir part, and some pieces were more self-helpy than I wanted, I enjoyed the stories. Because Doyle is a storyteller. That's fact.

The quote I will take in my heart and to my grave from Untamed is "I am worthy of rest"

*raised fist* fuck yeah. 

Interview with Glennon Doyle

Not One Word Wasted

 I fell off the blogging wagon. The pandemic, winter, and holidays ended up being a depressing cocktail, although I can't imagine why. 

I read 45 books in 2020, a little short of normal. I blame lack of commute since I don't listen to audiobooks too much around the house. My list is here if you want to take a peek: https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2020/21324

My first book of 2021, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories by Carson McCullers,  is one I've read before back in 2007. I was looking for a short, familiar book to pass along to my postal book club and found this very old copy in my stacks (price 75cents). I kind of remembered the short stories and thought "This is it, this is what I'll send out into the world"

Carson McCullers is an excellent writer, there isn't one word that shouldn't be there, every word has its place. The stories are spare. Except for the title story, not much happens here. They are really just a moment in time, plucked out for your scrutiny, then you walk away into the next story. Honestly, that's where she shines. 

The title story, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, introduces us to Amelia. She owns the general store in a small mill town and is the richest woman for miles. She's shrewd, she's strong, and she likes to sue people. Add in that she is also the local medicine woman and moonshiner and well, everyone loves her even if they don't like her. Out of the blue, a hunchback appears on her step. Cousin Lymon comes to live with Amelia and, to the shock of the townspeople, she lets him. You can watch the course of Amelia falling in love with Lymon and Lymon just being a general ass to everyone. When Amelia's ex-husband comes back to town, Lymon takes a new dastardly turn. 

Wunderkind is the next story that follows a gifted young pianist at her teacher's home. This story starts the slice of life view that we see. The narrator gives us some history and, while it's not explicitly said, we understand that love may have gotten in the way of genius. 

The Jockey story takes place very quick but you can still feel the anguish of the jockey whose best friend was badly hurt in a race and the give-a-damn attitude of the rich men who win big from the races. The situation is still the same in 2021, the rich get richer and care less while those below are trampled on.

Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland and The Sojourner give us background into the lives of the main characters who use their interaction with others as a wake call to their own lives. The Domestic Dilemma ends on a vague note. An alcoholic unhappy wife and her husband are at odds. These things never end well, do they?

A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud is the last story and it, in essence, teaches about the science of love. See below for a video narration of the story.

This is a great little book, so well worth the read.

His proximity annoys me. But here's an interview with Carson

One of Carson's short stories