Beautiful Little Fools

“’Nothing makes you happy except what you don’t have. You’ve never known how to do anything but to take and take and then ask for more. You have everything and act like it’s nothing.’” Truth.

43.12 Tigers in Red Weather

First of all, this is a beautiful book.  The cover art and the end pages are really exquisite and play in to the idea of the socialite existence of these two beautiful women in post WWII America.  They live a privileged life at Tiger House on Martha’s Vineyard, with the parties, tennis clubs, clothes and jewelry, and to have the book literally wrapped in such a classically beautiful way helped get me into the right headspace every time I opened the book.  It is one of those books that I just had to have in hardback, and even better that I found it used!

Second, while the buzz around this book is making it an “it” book of the summer, I had zero idea of its plot coming in which seems to always work to my advantage.  However, looking back, I am not sure plot is really the right word.  This is one of those stories that you progress through with baited breath but in the end nothing much really happens.  The plot spans about 25 years and each section is told from a different point of view of someone in the familywith the events overlapping so you see things in different ways and pick up little nuggets of understanding as you read, but in the end I am not sure what the point of it all was. Even though we get the point of view of each main character I didn’t feel like I really knew any of them very well, or cared deeply for their well being.  I still felt like I was kept at a distance about what was really going on.  However, the last section had me on absolute pins and I couldn’t put it down until I turned the last page.

Third, I have never read a book that made me want to drink so much!  All those hot days filled with cold martinis, white wine, and gin and tonics.  I even have a new jar of olives in the fridge, and a bottle of pinot grigio chilling. I defy anyone to read this without craving something to drink.  And this says something about the descriptions, where her characters may be lacking a bit of depth the setting was palpable.  It all felt so real and so desirable.  It felt like home to me even though I have never been there.  I wish Tiger House was real and I could go live there, something about it felt eternally safe.

All in all, and for a first book, this very well written, and I really enjoyed it for what it was.  It was fun and wonderfully descriptive, but I don’t think it will have a lasting impact on me as a great book.

#24in48 - Day 1

“I’ve never known any trouble that an hour’s reading didn’t assuage.” Charles de Secondat. Truth.

Coming to the end of the first day of the #24in48 readathon created by Rachel over at Home Between Pages.  It looks like I will finish today with 7 1/2 hours read (227 pages), which means that I will probably fall far short of the goal of 24 for the weekend, but I am enjoying the challenge.

I decided to use the EST time schedule because I honestly have not seen midnight in a few years, let alone starting something at that time.  So I started reading at nine o’clock on Friday and made it until, wait for it… ten!  In full disclosure, I was reading Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussman and I defy anyone to read that without partaking in a beverage, here is mine:

It was a bad idea for a number of reasons.  Anyway, I was out after an hour.

Saturday went a bit better with things spotty in the morning, but mellowing out in the afternoon.  It is safe to say that having a three year old running around makes the whole readathon thing a bit more problematic, but my real question is how anyone can complete a 24-hour readathon without napping? I mean: the books, the cozy, the reading… How can you resist?

Anyway, this is the first time I have tried any sort of readathon, and having it spread out over 48 hours has taken a bit of the pressure off which I love.  I finished up Tigers before dinner and it was a pretty great read, so now I am off to start The Thin Man and hoping it will really catch my attention and help me gain some more hours tomorrow!

Those Who Can’t Do, Act

“Human beings aren’t that simple.  Life would be a lot more straightforward if all that mattered was what you actually are, but we’re social animals.  What other people think you are, what you think you are: those matter too.” Truth.

“The ones that slice like razors forever are the ghosts of things that never got the chance to happen.” Double Truth.

42.12 Broken Harbor

 

“Those who can’t do, teach.”  Lovely.  For the sake of all teachers, I cringe every time I hear this.  For me personally, it especially stings because, in my case, it is true.  I have never been great at anything.  I am a middle of the pack master.  Always making the team, but never the winner.  Always getting stuff done, but never all that well.  Always compared to everyone around me but never measuring up.  My whole life I have recognized it while also trying to ignore it. Especially when I was teaching because while teachers may not be doing, one thing they do better than anyone is act; and I have that part down pat. You smile through the insults of students, parents, and colleagues.  Your personal life doesn’t exist.  Your past fears and indiscretions are hidden well from view.  This is something where not just teachers do, we all do; we hide who we are to make it through. 

Tana French’s books bring this truth to life.  Everyone on the Dublin murder squad is faking it to make it.  Detectives have to be in charge, always one step ahead.  Never vulnerable.  Hiding who they are while deciding who someone else is and what they are hiding.  French shows us exactly how they do it and at times it is excruciating to read.  Her detectives desperately want to find someone to be safe with, to be true with, without letting anyone think they are weak, but they never really get there.  Each of her books gives us the point of view of a different detective, and I am so amazed at how she can create a whole new persona every time, male or female, while also writing an intriguing mystery.  In the case of Broken Harbor, I think the murder case faltered a bit.  I didn’t come to care about the victims and I think a lot of the investigation could have been pared down. By the end, it felt more exhausting than triumphant, but regardless I think Detective Kennedy is one of her best detectives, even though I do miss Cassie. 

Until now, all we knew about Kennedy was that he is kind of a jerk, but being in his mind shows us that he is just really trying to be good at what he does; whether as a husband, a brother, or a partner; but he is so focused on hiding who he is, and what he blames himself for, that he can’t keep it all together so he acts like a know it all and pulls away.  He is constantly acting, and he recognizes the same behavior in his partner, the other detectives, and the witnesses he works with. I felt a lot of sympathy and sadness for him, especially when he recognized his new partner trying to open up to him yet pulling away.  He couldn’t reach out to him and I wanted him to so badly, but at the same time I totally get it.  Sometimes what we do, and how other people see us, just becomes the more important thing to protect.

Rama-Lama-Ding-Dong

Wrong pronunciation I know, but I sang that little ditty every time I picked up this book.

“How would you like it if something landed on Earth and decided you would make a good specimen for dissection?” Truth. Odd, but true.

41.12 Rendezvous With Rama

My brother self published a Sci-Fi book and got his first semi-negative review a few weeks ago (my review is here).  It said that the book shouldn’t be called Sci-Fi because he didn’t go into detail and explain all of the science to his, well, fiction.  Things that make you go hmm, right?  Anyway, I told him not to worry because while some readers love that stuff, others don’t.  I am one of the others that don’t. Rama is for those that do.

Rama has a lot of scientific exploration and explanation.  A LOT…  Blurry eyeballs a lot.  The last third of the book is quite fun because they finally do something, but I barely held on that long.  The last sentence of the book was actually the only one I really cared about and really reacted to. I did read this on vacation, a family wedding for the same brother in fact, so I was a bit distracted and my reading progressed slowly but I am not convinced that effected my enjoyment. Initially, I found the discovery of the ship interesting but I never come to care about any of the characters, or the fact that they were going out to collect information and then coming back to process it repeatedly.  I just wanted to know what it was and why anyone should care.  Not to mention the very odd way females were treated “back home.” That part probably could have been left out entirely and I really wish it had been because it kept creeping up in my mind and bugging me.  

I guess Sci-Fi, in its true form according to my brother’s reviewer, is just not really my thing.

The Quote Maker

“Catnapping is a skill everyone should have.” Truth.

40.12 Angelmaker

I love little things. I marvel over the hands that can take such small items and make them function. How can they see and touch with such delicacy? From doll house furniture to mini erasers to jewelry, I have had this fascination for as long as I can remember. So immediately upon meeting Joe in his clock repair shop, I was in love.

What a book!  It is impossible to describe: part steam punk, part spy versus spy, part good versus evil.  All fun!  The names, the devices, the amazing female characters - those “woman of consequence” - and the quotes.  My god the quotes!  I have never found so may funny, thoughtful quotes that I had to stop and read twice all in one place.  

“Particularly now, when thirty years of age is visible in his rear-view mirror and forty glowers at him from down the road, now that his skin heals a little more slowly than it used to from solder burns and nicks and pinks, and his stomach is less a washboard and more a comfy if solid bench.” Page 6

“Glass mirrors are green, and make your image look sick and sad.  He doesn’t want to be the person he sees reflected in a glass mirror.” Page 7

“He tries no to reflect on the nature of a life whose high point is an adversarial relationship with an entity possessing the same approximate reasoning and emotional alertness as a milk bottle.” Speaking of a cat on Page 9

“Bastion’s owner is called Edie Banister, and she is very small, and very wiry, and apparently goes back slightly further than the British Museum.” Page 13

“His cheeks are wide and fatty, so that, if Mr. Cummerbund were a deer or a halibut, they would excite pleasurable anticipation in those fond of rich foods.” Page 21.

“He considers himself the wrong side of thirty-five and no closer to being who he wanted to be, if he ever knew who that was.” Page 87

“It makes the world better, just by being. Isn't that wonderful?” Page 95

“It would be very nice if someone would hug him, just for a minute.” Page 178

Beautiful little pieces of art aren't they? Well done Mr. Harkaway.

Death of The Darcys

“But the past is too much a part of what I am.”  Truth.

39.12 Death Comes to Pemberley

I am not sure it is ever a good idea for one author to try to write like another, but I am a big fan of experimentation in fiction so I had high hopes for PD James and her take on the characters of Pride and Prejudice.  Problem one, James is no Austen.  Problem two, in this case James isn’t even James.  This is easily the most lack luster mystery I have ever read and if being married has turned Elizabeth and Darcy into the people here then ugh…  Death really has come to Pemberley.

When I imagined a murder mystery with Pemberley as a back drop I envisioned a bit of a Nancy Drew/Elizabeth Bennet cross over, with Darcy valiantly taking on the bad guys as he and his wife put all the clues together, trusting each other implicitly and aware of each others intelligence.  Kind of like Charlotte and Thomas Pitt in Anne Perry’s books.  Instead Elizabeth bustles around making sure of refreshments and bedding, while Darcy broods over his decisions and actions of six years ago!  I mean, come on, like these two didn’t sit down and have a bit of a talk before they got married to hash out the various bad behaviors of their courting.  

There is no whit or humor here.  In fact, the whole thing was rather depressing and lacking in fun, which feels like a real missed opportunity.  The murder takes place, but there is very little mystery around it, and the big reveal at the end, while well plotted, just doesn’t seem very important by the time you actually get there. Overall, this is a well-written book of a not very good story and sadly not a fitting tribute to Austen or even to James.  But it does have a great cover…

Hidden Past

“Of all the times I could ever have used a glass of whiskey.” After the month I have had, this is a big TRUTH.

38.12 Hide Me Among the Graves

The whole time I read this book I felt out of sorts.  Was it because I was trying to process unbelievable things in my personal life?  Because I started it on a plane in a haze of exhaustion and anxiety?  Because I read a few pages here and there before really digging in? Honestly, I still can’t figure it out.  It is well written, with beautifully described atmosphere, but somehow I kept thinking I had missed something early on.  Turns out I did – the first book!  This is a sequel and I had no idea until after I finished it and scanned some other reviews of people saying that you HAD to read the first book first.  Really wish I had known that…

The first book, The Stress of Her Regard, was originally published in 1989 and reprinted in 2008.  Oddly, it is not mentioned on the copy of Hide Me, even though the cover mentions two of his other books and his author bio lists an additional four.  I first heard about this book on NPR and they never mentioned this either, which is odd since our hero is the son of the two main protagonists of the first book.  So, it turns out I had in fact missed something and it effected my reading a lot.  Anyway, back to this book.

So what makes the great poets great? Vampirism of course!

This Victorian London is a bit steampunk and real literary figures play many of the characters. While I concede that this may be a new take on a trend, I have recently seen it done better in Anno Dracula and so the whole thing was felt repetitive.  But the most frustrating part was that the bad guys here are easily vanquished and the good guys make it really hard not to hate them for being so stupid.  The build up to action is done well but the end result fizzles.  Our characters include the real life actions of John Polidori, the Rosetti siblings, and Algernon Swineburne, but the only character I cared for was Edward Trelawney.  I kept hoping the story would focused more on him and how he became what he was – but wait, was that in the first book and so I just missed it?  Don’t know, didn't know it existed until I was done with this one, but I am not bitter.

Maybe you really do need to read the first book to understand all the minute of the second or maybe all of those others factors led to me not connecting to the story. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood, but for as long as I have been writing reviews and doing this blog I have never had such a hard time figuring out something to say about a book; I couldn’t even come up with a quote.  It isn’t that I didn’t like it, or that I did, I just didn’t engage with it at all which leaves me feeling even more out of sorts than ever.