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

Love The Skin You're In!

Because it could become a book someday.

Another great, and weird, book from Jenny Lawson's Fantastic Strangelings book club, Dark Archives by Megan Rosenbloom is about Anthropodermic Bibliopegy. In other words, books bound in human skin. I'll admit to dropping all other books to read this one when it arrived based on the cover alone. 

Rosenbloom is a librarian, a journalist, and death positive which makes her quest at finding and proving out human skin bound books all the more intriguing. Obviously, your mileage will vary with this but I didn't find it disturbing or gross, so try not to let that be a deterrent to taking this book for a spin.

In the Mütter museum in Philadelphia, there is a human skin bound book on display. This is Rosenbloom's first foray into this world. And now is a place on my bucket list to visit when the world returns to "normal".

Rosenbloom is very thorough. She takes us through the myths of these types of books, how animal skins are made into leather (honestly, enough to make me stop eating meat for a bit), how they do a quick test to see if the book is indeed human (most aren't, their lore is what makes the book valuable, not the binding), and much more. 

You would think that the bulk of the human bound books would have came from the Nazi era. You would be wrong. As Rosenbloom discovers, most books of this nature are from physician libraries, which might be more disturbing. The physicians who swear an oath to help and protect patients also take skin from patients/corpses to make into books. Some of the books found actually bind the most boring of books, yet the physician felt they were the right book to bind in human skin. Back in the day, there was a disregard for patients who were disenfranchised, because of race, gender, or poverty, and physicians felt they could do what they pleased with these folks (see: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot). Rosenbloom attended a medical school class so she could see how students of today treat the cadavers they work on and discovered there is still a bit of that clinical gaze, but there also is more emphasis on being empathic with patients and not just seeing them as things to deal with. Well, whew, I guess.

It was interesting to note that in order to donate your body to science for medical classes you must be intact, ie. nothing missing. Looks like that's not an avenue I can pursue.

There are so many interesting facts and tidbits in this book that it's well worth reading. Note that Rosenbloom is death positive and has a good view on mortality. Death isn't something to be feared and her viewpoint is infused throughout the book. A good podcast to watch on Death positivity is Ask a Mortician by Caitlin Doughty (who authors many a good book on the subject)

The author on death (potential trigger warning for photos)

Book talk with the author