 Icelandic cafe decor. These are color coordinated books that look cool, but the books have been cut away about 3 inches from the spine so that they can be displayed. The bookshelves don't need to be full sized this way, but the books are unreadable.
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 The Return of the Native. Thomas Harding. 1878. The Return of the Native (Sandra): So, my recommend streak has been sadly broken by this English novel about "love" and backstabbing, unfaithful, unhappy lovers & spouses who make bad choice after bad choice for self-serving purposes and then appear surprised when things don't go well for them. In typical turn of the (20th) century English fashion, the prose is fabulous. The Audible version has Severus Snape narrating. I loved listening to his voice and the language. I just cannot get behind a story where there are no characters that I like or are rooting for.
Recommended by Sandra. *** Comments: Sandra: I'm glad you at least enjoyed his narration, even if not the story. The prose and Alan Rickman make the story for me, but it is representative of a style of literature that I normally do not enjoy reading.  Wild Seed. Octavia Butler. 1980. Wild Seed (Cee). I hate to jinx a good streak, but this is the third really good book in a row I've read. As a general rule, I love Octavia Butler, but not everything she's written has resonated with me and some of the books I have really not enjoyed at all (i.e. Kindred, which I know is hailed as brilliant, but you can't account for taste). So, I didn't go into this book with an expectation one way or the other. Turns out, though, that I really liked. It felt like a smarter, stronger progenitor of Underground Railroad (which I also did not enjoy. Sorry, Oprah.). The story held together and the interpersonal relationships were complex and dynamic. It didn't feel forced or like the symbolism was crashing down on your face page after page, but rather that it was a subtle undercurrent you could feel and appreciate without being swept away by it. Recommend.
 The Girls from Atomic City. Janet Beard. 2013. The Girls From Atomic City (Wendy): Another WWII read, this is about the women who worked at one of the top secret plants that developed fuel for the nuclear bombs. It is a true non-fiction that reads more like Hidden Figures than a novel, but it is fascinating in the same way. Recommend.
Added by fellow Quaker lawyer, Wendy, as (what I thought at the time was) the last of the 50 (except that I missed several, see Accidentally Omitted): The Girls from Atomic City by Denise Kieran about the women working in Oak Ridge Tennessee during WWII.  Beneath the Scarlet Sky. Mark Sullivan. 2017. Me: Beneath a Scarlet Sky (Beth R1). I loved this book. A non-fiction biography, it reads more like a novel and would be a lovely companion for Nightingale, All the Light We Cannot See, and other WWII stories of resistance and resilience that make you wonder what you would have the courage to do. This story is captivating and well written. Highly recommend.
Recommended by Beth R1: Beneath a Scarlet Sky - Mark Sullivan - loved the history & story! Amazing!! Me: Added. And on sale today on Audible! Beth: Hope you enjoy it as much as I did - have to get the main character past being a self-centered teen idiot, then it’s brilliant!!! Julie: I loved it. *** Comments: Beth: Glad you enjoyed it! It’s an amazing story!! Sequoia: I loved this book!  Last Call. Time Powers. 1992. Me: Last Call (Eleanor). The last time I read a "plot summary" was in Mr. DuPratt's grade 9 English class when Moby Dick drove me to the dark side where I read the Cliff Notes because I just could not follow the story. Last Call was so complicated that I actually went online and found a plot summary so I could figure out what was going on about 1/3 of the way through. Along the way to finding an actual plot summary, I glanced a couple of book reviews about the book which all started with, "After the second time I read the book..." or "I just finished reading this book for the second time..." So, I think I was not the only one who got bogged down by the plot. There were some things about this story that I loved. The foreshadowing and symbolism of the Tarot that was incorporated was quite excellent and not at all trite in the way that Tarot is typically used (i.e. Outlander). Much of the writing, especially when dealing with superstition and the occult, was superb, but the plot was so dense and took so much focus that I can't recommend it.
Recommended by Eleanor: Tim Powers, Last Call. I picked it up on a fluke at Book Bin and really enjoyed it. *** Comments: El: Laughing... I love reading odd semi mystical magical realism that fractures my assumptions about time/space. And it is, undoubtedly, easier to track convoluted plots with a hard book in your hands than with earbuds in. El: For next year, not fiction, I’m reading The Patterning Instinct by Jeremy Lent right now. About 1/4 of the way in. Fracturing my assumptions about language and culture and thought and the mess we’ve made.  The Black Dahlia. James Ellroy. 1987. The Black Dahlia (Katrina). Another reminder that I have some friends who are really into dark and depressing books! This is an historical fiction about the gruesome unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short in 1940's Hollywood. I had no idea what I was getting into and didn't realize until the afterward that the murder itself was real. The main character was unlikable, getting even more so as the book progresses. There are a lot of graphic details about rape, murder, and, once again, grave robbing/corpse mutilation. This appears to be a theme in this year's list. Who knew that so many of my friends think I would like books with this theme.
This is a murder mystery, with a lot of characters, a twist ending that was not predictable and therefore pretty tough to see coming, even though I knew a twist ending was coming somehow. It was just too much of a set up. Since it was told in the first person, it was easy to "hide" critical facts in the character's blind spots. I will give it credit for being enthralling, but I have definitely lost sleep over the horrors it detailed. Not recommended (except for those of you who like the dead body genre). Recommended by Katrina. *** Comments: Katrina: When I think of great books, I think of books not easily forgotten. I read this book in 1996 in my 20’s, then I read it immediately over. I read it again in my 30’s and again in my 40’s. It’s fresh every time. Although it is a book about a murder, James Elroy never lost compassion for the victim, which stems from his own mother being murdered in LA 1958. Everyone in the book is broken. It’s such a great example of Noir, and the fact that the movie playing when he goes to Boston (Criss Cross-a classic example of Hollywood Noir in itself) is excellent writing. I think the fact the book made you lose sleep is a recommendation after all. Me: Oh, it was a good read. It sucked me in & was well written. It was just too noir— the gruesome details sometimes felt gratuitous. And the incestuous twist was just too much.  Origin. Dan Brown. 2017. Origin (Stephanie). I didn't realize this was the sequel to The DaVinci Code until I started it and recognized the main character. This was a pleasant surprise since I loved that book. It was an even bigger surprise to find that this is a science fiction book with many twists and turns and with a sophisticated melding of fact, fiction, myth, and mysticism that I loved from TDVC. Religion, mythology, philosophy, technology, the meaning of life, the origin of life, interpersonal relationships (spoiler alert: including a sweet gay couple whose relationship is very secret), adventure, and artificial intelligence are all included. I really enjoyed this book. Recommend.
*** Recommended by fellow Rotarian, Stephanie. |
AuthorI'll read anything a friend recommends & I love telling people what I think about it. Every year, I read 50 books recommended by 50 different friends. Welcome to My 50 Bookish Friends Blog. SearchCategories
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