The core of Michael, Jim, Beth, Christina, Peggy and Linda reported on the books they’ve read. Shayne came online late and had to leave early, so we never heard what he had been reading.
Non-book topics included Daylight Savings Time, The Odyssey – Homer – translated by Emily Wilson (Amazon has the Kindle version for just 87¢!) , getting old, Hamnet, K-Pop Demon Hunters, Jane Austen’s Period Drama (Oscar nominated – watch for free on YouTube), social pressures on women, Gehenna, etc.
The full list of the 38 books reviewed/discussed can be found here:
https://www.mamensa.org/category/book-lovers-sig-book-talks/
Book Lovers SIG always meets on the second Sunday of each month; in this case April 12. We meet online using Zoom, so it is easy to join in. Folks generally start checking in around 2 p.m. for a bit of socialization. Discussions about actual books begin around 2:30 p.m., more or less, or when Peggy says, “OK, Let’s talk about books!”.
To join us on Zoom, simply click on the link shown below:
https://tinyurl.com/BookLoversSIG
You can also open your Zoom app and use these parameters:
Meeting ID: 946 0436 4344
Passcode: 844358
*****
Linda
Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt. 5* An elderly woman works as a night cleaner at a zoo and makes friends with an octopus. The creature manages to facilitate some improvements in her human relationship and finds a long-lost relative for her.
The Rose Field (The Book of Dust #3), by Philip Pullman. The final book in the Dust series. 4*
Stone Yard Devotional, by Charlotte Wood. 3* A middle-aged woman, despite being agnostic, becomes a sister in a community of nuns. The main theme is a really disgusting plague of mice. Set in a remote area of Australia. Some relationships are resolved.
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, by Sangu Mandanna. Sort of chick lit for witches but kind of fun. Predictable. 3*
Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy, by Mary Roach. Many themes around the parts of human bodies that can be replaced or enhanced. Fascinating. 5*
Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3), by Martha Wells. The further adventures of our favorite robot. As usual, I can’t remember any details for a few weeks after reading it. 4*
Peggy
The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans. Read for a new book club and it’s definitely got book club vibes. The narrator, a retired lawyer and divorced mother lives in Annapolis and writes letters to old friends and new, to family and famous authors, and dances around the heartbreak of her life. It reminds me of Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kittredge work where a tough woman gradually reveals herself.
Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vitoria, by Amara Lakhous. The intertwining of the lives of residents within a Roman apartment building become more chaotic when a resident who likes to patrol the elevator is killed.
Heated Rivalry, by Rachel Read. YouTube normally takes me to politics and Shakespeare, but it also took me to a new streaming show about gay hockey players. Watching hockey bros wax rhapsodic about Ilya and Shane was quite the trip, and the series kept showing up on podcasts (and SNL) so I went in search of the main book in the series. More explicit than I would have thought likely for a romance novel and requiring a certain suspension of disbelief, but sweet.
I Am Not Your Enemy, by Reality Winner. This young woman leaked an NSA doc about Russian interference in 2016 and unlike most of the higher-up leakers ended up doing prison time for that. Her life was a train wreck from the beginning: dad a drug dealer, had an eating disorder, and generally unprepared for the consequences of her actions.
The Greatest Sentence Ever Written, by Walter Issacson. We hold these truths… broken down phrase by phrase into a long essay with appendices by Locke, Rousseau, and Jefferson.
Michael
The Shell Collector (stories) by Anthony Doerr.
Doerr’s debut book, published in 2002.
- “The Shell Collector” – a blind marine biologist in Kenya discovers the cure for a fatal
- “The Hunter’s Wife” – a hunter learns his wife can communicate with animal spirits.
- “So Many Chances” – a shy girl is affected by learning to fish.
- “For a Long Time, This Was Griselda’s Story” – the lives of two sisters, one who tours the world as the sexy assistant in a magic show and her plain sister who stays home.
- “July Fourth” – an American group challenges a British group to an international fishing contest, catching the largest fish on each continent.
- “The Caretaker” – a poor man from Liberia becomes the caretaker for a rich man’s estate and develops a relationship with the man’s deaf daughter.
- “A Tangle by the Rapid River” – a fisherman’s life is changed by learning to fly fish.
- “Mkondo” – a paleontologist marries a Tanzanian woman, and, over time, his life deteriorates while hers improves.
About Grace by Anthony Doerr.
A novel about a man who dreams that colleague is about to die and then that person does die in the way dreamed about. The man then dreams that his daughter Grace will drown in his company and so, to keep this from happening, he abandons his wife and child and goes to work in a resort in the Caribbean for 25 years. He then dreams of another death but keeps that death from happening and so decides to search for his daughter who he now believes is still alive. She’s now a scientist working in Alaska.
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr.
Doerr’s next novel after All the Light We Cannot See. Five stories overlap. Two about the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in the 15th century told from opposing points of view: one about a terrorist attempting to plant a bomb in a library in which children are rehearsing a play; one about a man translating an ancient text; and one about a girl marooned in a spaceship. The Constantinople stories are related, and the translator/bomber stories are related, but the spaceship one seems not to be related to the others in any way I could discover.
Four Seasons in Rome (a memoir) by Anthony Doerr.
About the year 2004 in which Doerr won the prestigious Rome Prize, which funds a year in Rome for writers and artists or composers who are recommended so they can work on whatever their current projects are. They receive an apartment, an office, $1300 dollars per month and access to an academic library. Doerr takes his wife and new baby daughter with him and works on WWII research for what will become All the Light We Cannot See and his short story “Village 113” which appeared in Memory Wall. Most of the story, however, is about the city of Rome, the fountains, the museums, the food, and how great it was to live there.
Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle.
A heart-wrenching book about Boyle, who is a Jesuit priest, and his work with children and young men in the worst gang-ridden areas of Los Angeles. We are continually introduced to kids who are trying to rise up and who end up murdered in the streets. Boyle created Homeboy Industries which provide training and jobs and a way out for a lucky few.
The Odyssey by Homer (translated by Emily Watson).
A new translation directly from the ancient Greek, with 100-page introduction explaining the culture, the values, the mores, anything necessary to truly understand this well-known epic poem. Very bright, clean and easy to read.
Beth
Only Begotten Daughter, James Murrow. Jesus, or Jesus’ sister is born on the Atlantic boardwalk in the 80s. She has some amazing adventures growing up, but once she’s an adult, it starts to get really interesting. How does she use this power she has? Should she? Is she for real, or is she the devil? Lots of people have ideas, and it goes sideways almost from the start. What would happen if Jesus showed up in the modern age? How much and what power does Jesus really have? Frank Herbert said in Dune, most people who want to know about the future really only want to know where the treasure is buried.
Water Women, by Bonnie Blaylock. On an island west of Italy, from 1910 to the present. This story focuses on a group of Jewish women that harvest the byssus from a local mollusk and spin it into very fine fabric. This is a real thing, and fabrics made of this have been found in the archaeology, historical records, and excavations. This is a tradition passed from mother to daughter, and a great part of the story is about those relationships down through generations. Interesting, kind of grows on you, as people pass through wars and the rapidly changing world.
Fear and Fury, by Heather Ann Thompson. This is a recounting of the Bernard Goetz story, with all the social and political things that were going on while this decade’s long ordeal went on. Bernie Goetz shot 4 black teenagers on the subway in 1984, wounding them seriously, including one boy who ended up paralyzed and brain damaged. He spent only a very short time in jail on a gun charge and never paid a penny in restitution. He is still hailed as a hero by right wing groups.
The Mercy of Thin Air, Ronlyn Domingue. This is a love story with ghosts. It is told from the perspective of the ghost of a woman who died by drowning in a pool in 1929 and her quest to keep track of her (almost) fiancé through the decades. There are limits on what the ghost can do, and the consequences of doing things that interact with live humans and other ghosts. It takes time to figure out who’s who and how these people are related to each other and as characters in the story. In the meantime, snapshots of lives lived well and not so well, and the choices made, and loves lost, reverberate through the years.
The Widow, John Grisham. A small-town lawyer with a rocky marriage, three kids, a gambling problem, and in debt up to his eyeballs has a dream client walk in the door to redo her will. She says she’s worth $20 million with no heirs. But all is not well and he is unable to nail down her real worth, or her real situation. Then she dies. It turns out to be murder. This book goes on and on, and I am thinking that John Grisham has lost it. None of the characters (in this story) are sympathetic. It is boring. Until that last few chapters.
John Grisham is full on for the Innocence Project. This book offers a more realistic view of what that looks like on the ground. It is a lot of work, and not giving up, and using illegal means to clear his name. And it goes on all the time. The takeaway is that the prosecutor, the cops, and anyone with an ax to grind can throw a wrench in the works, and innocent people are convicted. Worth the read.
Secret of Secrets, Dan Brown. Robert Langdon is back, this time in Prague, at a lecture by an old friend. Things go well, until they go badly. This book has all the political intrigue and people trying to cover their backsides by silencing others usually by stopping their breathing, but it also addresses an interesting topic, consciousness. What is it, where is it (brain or somewhere else), and how does it work. Turns out, some other people are also working on this, and playing for keeps.
Slow Horse Series (First Six Books)
Slow Horses, Mick Herron. This is the first Slow Horse book. This is where they put the failed spies that they can’t fire for whatever reason (like granddad was a service legend and is still around). Then there is some power play by almost everyone and let the chips fall where they may.
Dead Lions, Mick Herron. Back at Slough House with our misfits. They are put on babysitting duty for a visiting Russian oligarch, but this was set up by Spider Webb. Then an old spy turns up dead, far from his usual haunts. Lamb goes to track that down, and things go as sideways as usual.
Real Tigers, Mick Herron. One of the slow horses gets kidnapped, and the team tries to figure out who has her. Of course, many other games are being played at all levels, and Slough House is just a pawn, until it isn’t. This is getting delicious.
Spook Street, Mick Herron. River’s granddad is losing his marbles, a flash mob of teenagers in a mall are killed by a suicide bomber, and more oldies but goodies resurface. River goes on a quest, and more layers of the onion are peeled back.
London Rules, Mick Herron. This story revolves around seemingly random acts of terror in England. The dysfunctional Slow Horses get involved and “much wackiness” ensues.
Joe Country, Mick Herron. The son of Min Harper, a slow horse KIA, goes missing, and everyone gets sucked into the picture.
Jim
Quran, God (Allah) to Muhammad. I’m 40% through this reading of the Quran. Also, I’m doing lots of historical and cultural research to help me understand it.
Brad (21/7001)
The Fighting Bunch: The Battle of Athens and How World War II Veterans Won the Only Successful Armed Rebellion Since the Revolution, by Chris DeRose. ***** 347p.
This is a true story of an almost unbelievable corrupt political system in a county in Georgia. For at least a couple decades all elections were rigged, and blatantly so, but people were resigned by the fact. If you protested, you were arrested at best, often beaten, or sometimes even murdered. No one at the state level would do anything about it, nor at the federal level.
After WWII was over, the young men who fought overseas against tyranny decided they wouldn’t tolerate it anymore. The formed a GI ticket and recruited servicemen to run for every elected office; it didn’t matter if you were a Republican or Democrat. In towns in the county where they were allowed to observe the vote, they won overwhelmingly. But unfortunately, those towns were in the minority. The machine announced they had won every open seat. The GIs met and decided they just weren’t going to accept it this time. They gathered their guns and surrounded the local Sheriff’s office, which was the root of corruption. Then a war broke out. Literally, a war.
Gunfire was exchanged between the two sides for the entire night. The GIs didn’t want to storm the building and risk casualties however, so they assembled homemade bombs and launched them against the building. Eventually the sheriff and his deputies (hired goons) surrendered. The votes were legally counted, and the GI ticket took office, bringing honesty back to government.
The most amazing thing about this story is that I was completely unaware it even happened. After the battle, when real authorities finally appeared on the scene, there were no witnesses. Nobody saw ‘nothin”. Sure, there were rumors, but citizens remained tight-lipped. It took some amazing research and there were lots of interviews with children and grandchildren of the participants before this story could finally be written.
Highly recommended piece of lost American history.
The Illusionist: The True Story of the Man Who Fooled Hitler, by Robert Hutton. ***** 379 p.
Hutton, the speaker for the American Mensa March Theodore Talk, researched and authored this book which I read in preparation. Another fascinating bit of history, about a somewhat eccentric genius who devised massive campaigns of deception which the Allies used to fool, repeatedly, the Axis powers during WWII. Another great read, and highly recommended.
Time and Again, by Jack Finney. **** 500 p.
A time travel story, published in 1970. There is a secret project involving time travel, except there isn’t any fancy machine or physics. Apparently, the key to time travel is simply the ability to imagine yourself traveling back in time. While the book is well written, I never could get past that basic premise: imagining myself travelling through time.
The Journalist and the Murderer, by Janet Malcolm. *** 177 p.
I don’t even know how to write a review on this book.
Malcolm is a journalist who is covering the lawsuit, brought by Jeffrey MacDonald, against Joe McGinniss, the author of the book Fatal Vision. Many years earlier, MacDonald, a physician in the U.S. Army Green Berets, had been accused of killing his wife and two daughters. The Army investigated and exonerated him. But civil authorities later charged MacDonald with murder and he was convicted. McGinniss wormed his way into MacDonald’s life, falsely claiming he believed in MacDonald’s innocence, but then proceeded to write a real hatchet job on him.
Thus, the lawsuit, which is where Malcolm makes her appearance. She covers the trial, but much of the book is about herself, instead of the subject matter.
I did a Google search and MacDonald is still in prison, serving three consecutive life sentences.
The Coming of the Third Reich, by Richard J. Evans. ***** 672 p.
Incredible in-depth research and explanation on how Adolph Hitler came to power. The parallels with what we are seeing happening in the U.S. today are just as stunning. Way too much detail to summarize, but suffice to say, Hitler started his rise with a 25-point plan to obtain power (Project 1920).
I consider this my book of the year. It should be read by EVERYONE.
Mistress of Life and Death: The Dark Journey of Maria Mandl, Head Overseer of the Women’s Camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, by Susan J. Eischeid. **** 536 p.
For me the overwhelming point of this book is that Mandl was not an inherently evil person. She was a young person, and she had a good job at the post office in her small village, but was fired because she wasn’t a member of the Nazi party. (You have to appreciate the irony.) Her uncle ended up getting her a job as a low-level guard at a new internment camp, where the Nazis were sending political prisoners. For once in her life, she had some sense of power and prestige, and it simply went to her head. The more the Nazis demanded cruelty, the more she responded. It became a vicious cycle.
After the war she was found guilty of her crimes and hung to death, one of the very few that met the ultimate penalty.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong. **** 252 p.
There are well written books and beautifully written books. This is a beautifully written book.
Apparently, this is an autobiography of sorts, written as a long letter to his mother, drawing on the memories from his life. Except his mother can’t read English, so it really isn’t a letter written to his mother at all. The schtick became old after a while, which is why I knocked the review down to four stars.
Manitou Canyon (Cork O’Connor #15), by William Kent Krueger. **** 337 p.
Cork, Cork, Cork.
The son and daughter of a wealthy man who has gone missing hire Cork to resume the search, after the authorities have given up with their attempt to find him. Except Cork’s youngest daughter is getting married in just a few weeks. ‘Don’t worry,’ says Cork. ‘This will only take a few days. I’ll be back in plenty of time.’ Famous last words.
Lots of soap opera twists and turns follow.
Sulfur Springs (Cork O’Connor #16), by William Kent Krueger. ***** 318 p.
Published nearly a decade ago, this is a timely read for today.
Cork’s stepson calls Cork’s new wife and leaves a message. It is garbled, but it sounds like he is in trouble down by the border. So, Cork heads south, about as far from the north country that he is familiar with as you can get.
Lots of cartel warlords and human trafficking involved. Reminded me of a similar Orphan X story.
