819-822 (2018 #33-36). The Rest of May 2018

I've decided, partly because of GDPR and partly because it was just getting to be too much work, to make this blog private (no one was reading it anyway) and to write much shorter reviews (really more like notes) about each book.  The exceptions will be books that I need to review for the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program - they will likely get their own posts and be more complete reviews.  So, that being said, here are the rest of the books I read or listened to in May 2018:

Bittersweet by Colleen McCullough, read by Cat Gould - historical fiction set in 1920s and 1930s in Corunda, New South Wales, Australia.  Two sets of supposedly-identical twins born to the same minister father but different mothers.  Edda and Grace, Heather (called "Tufts") and Kitty.  All initially become nurses (under the "new style" training, where they actually learn some true nursing skills) to get out of the house and away from their overbearing stepmother/mother.  Interesting and unusual relationships with the men in their lives.  Tufts was the only one of the four I actually found likeable, and her story is covered less in the book.  Cat Gould was a good reader.

I'll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan (advance reader edition, no cover photo) is young adult realistic fiction.  Well, sorta realistic - some of the things that happen are a little preposterous.  Nevertheless, the plot was exciting enough that it kept me reading.

Sisters First: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life, written and read by Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush, with a forward written and read by their mother, Laura Bush.  Much better than I expected (and I greatly admire George H. W., Barbara Sr., and also thought W. was a good president).  The twins are great readers and storytellers, Jenna especially as she is rather droll and self-deprecating.  It was nice to learn more about Barbara as she is more reserved in real life.  A memoir with more-or-less alternating tales told by the sisters.  See this review for more:  https://www.librarything.com/work/19659003/reviews/147309502.  Decided to listen to it after Barbara Bush Sr.'s death in April 2018.  E-audiobook included a PDF with photos from the book of the twins throughout the years.

Spoken from the Heart, written and read by Laura Bush (actually finished in June, but swapped with a May book so I could put it right after the memoir by her daughters).  Especially poignant are her stories about her grandmother's and mother's difficulties having children, as well as her own (and it turns out daughter Jenna had some complications too, an ectopic pregnancy and a surprise early arrival).


© Amanda Pape - 2018

809 (2018 #32). One Hundred Names for Love

by Diane Ackerman

This book is another advance reader edition that has apparently been sitting on my TBR shelf since its publication year of 2011 - and was a rather timely read for me.

In 2003, author Diane Ackerman's husband, the author Paul West, suffered a stroke that left him with aphasia, which affects the ability to express and understand written and spoken language.  For a couple that made their livings writing and whose recreation included a lot of word play, this was especially devastating.

In lyrical prose, Ackerman writes about the next four years, Paul's rehabilitation and her feelings and concerns as a caregiver.  Remarkably, he even regains the ability to write and publish again, and lived to age 85, dying of pneumonia about 12 years after the stroke occurred.

Extremely valuable was a postscript with "Some Lessons Learned." As my elderly mother suffers from a form of neurological deterioration that makes it difficult for her to speak, I really appreciated this.  Ackerman had just finished writing An Alchemy of Mind: The Marvel and Mystery of the Brain before the stroke, The knowledge she gained in her research for that nonfiction book helped her come up with some creative ways to help her husband. The tips she provides are the reason I will be hanging on to the advance reader edition for personal future use, rather than passing it on.

Ackerman also provides a long list of further reading, as well as the 100 nicknames for her that Paul came up with after his stroke, a word play they were able to resurrect.

This book was  a finalist for both a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Critics Circle Award in 2012.


© Amanda Pape - 2018

[I will be hanging on to this advance reader edition for a while.]

808 (2018 #31). Villa America

by Liza Klaussmann,
read by Jennifer Woodward

Liza Klaussmann's novel is about the real owners of the real Villa America in Antibes, a resort town between Cannes and Nice on the French Riviera (Côte d’Azur).  Gerald and Sara Wiborg Murphy were fabulously wealthy expatriates who hosted such well-knowns as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Cole Porter and Pablo Picasso at the home they built there, Villa America (which sadly, no longer seems to exist), in the 1920s.

Gerald had a brief career as a painter (I rather like his stuff), and apparently had bisexual tendencies.  Klaussmann explores this with the one entirely fictional character in the book, another American ex-pat, a pilot she calls Owen Chambers.  According to the author's note at the end, a (real) champagne-and-caviar party at Villa America in Hemingway's honor required that the caviar be flown in from the Caspian Sea - and that was the inspiration for Owen.

Ultimately, none of the characters in the book are particularly sympathetic - it's hard to feel sorry for people so well-off, even when they hit some hard times from 1929 on.  The last part of the book zips through the years 1930 through 1937 almost entirely with letters between characters, as the dream world of Villa America is virtually gone.

However, it was nice to learn a little more about this couple who have appeared in other novels I've read in the past few years (such as The Paris Wife and Mrs. Hemingway).  Actress Jennifer Woodward gives a very precise reading as the audiobook narrator.

© Amanda Pape - 2018

[The audiobook, and a print copy for reference, were borrowed from and returned to my local public library.]

807 (2018 #30). The Surrendered

by Chang-Rae Lee

I received an advance reader edition of this book way back in 2010, and finally got around to reading it.  I think the title, the cover, and the length (467 pages) intimidated me.  I'm sorry I waited so long.  The Surrendered was quite good.

The book takes place mostly in 1986 and 1953.  In 1986, June, a Korean-American, is trying to find Hector, the father of her son Nicholas.  She in turn wants him to help her find Nicholas in Europe, as June is dying of cancer.  In 1953, June is fourteen and an orphan at the Korean orphanage where Hector, an American Korean War vet, works.  The orphanage is run by a pastor named Ames Tanner and his wife Sylvie, a daughter of slain missionaries with a tragic past.  The story revolves around June, Hector, and Sylvie, with flashbacks to 1950 and 1934 to give their back stories.

Perhaps because of the post-Korean War setting, this book kept my interest and kept me engaged.  June left her home at age 11 when the Communists invaded Korea, losing her parents, brothers, and sisters along the way.  Hector grew up a brawler and served in the graves unit (collecting the dead) in the war, sticking around afterwards working odd jobs in the orphanage.  They both idolize Sylvie, who witnessed the brutal death of her parents in Manchuria and has not been quite the same since.

The story is bleak and depressing, but intriguing enough to keep my interest until the end.  The book was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

© Amanda Pape - 2018

[This advance reader edition will be passed on to someone else to enjoy.]