It was Ron Charles’ review in his Substack that made me think this was a book I would enjoy and that turned out to be true. This was just the read for me. It begins in suburban Rochester, New York in 1977 when we meet two upper middle class families each with two teenage kids living across the street from each other. There’s Mr. Finnegan (Finn), and Honey, who quite dislikes sex...
This author appeared at the Charlottesville Festival of the Book and I was drawn to hear about someone who made their way in the world playing Bluegrass and Old Time Music. Over the years I have known people whose lives are centered on Old Time music, especially people that we knew in Bloomington, Indiana where we lived in the 1970s. So of course I was interested in seeing a woman born in 1934...
I have been a big fan of Timothy Egan since I read his book The Worst Hard Time, so when Cathy mentioned this one in a comment recently, I read it right away. I listened to the audiobook read by an Irishman and that contributed to my thought that the part set in the US before and during the Civil War was very much the Irish immigrant’s view of a major event in American history. The story of...
Kim at Reading Matters was enthusiastic about this debut book and her description of being swept up in the story persuaded me. And I don’t know when I’ve read a book with a story so intensely told. I hope to write about some of the remarkable aspects of this book without recounting the whole plot. It is set in 2012 in Belfast as the city was recovering from The Troubles. The Belfast...
It was Ron Charles’ review of this book that took me to the author’s previous book Writers and Lovers that also featured Casey, the novelist. So after a decent interval, I happily took up this one. That one was irresistible despite its happy resolutions of seemingly impossible situations. The review gave an indication of the heartbreak in this one and while it is accompanied by hope...
Having recently dipped into the British TV series Victoria from 2016, I looked for a reputable biography of her that was available as an audiobook. I was surprised to find that a book written in 1987 by an American academic whose special interest was George Bernard Shaw had been recorded. The reader spoke in accents and as she imagined Victoria, Albert, or others would have spoken. That made the...
George Saunders is a brilliant writer. Lincoln in the Bardo and A Swim in the Pond in the Rain are wildly different from each other but both are tours de force. This new novel is a tough one and my expectations were lowered by Dwight Garner’s take in the NYT. Saunders very effectively used Bardo dwellers, those who have died, but are not settled into their final rest in Lincoln in the Bardo...
It was Reading Matter’s post about Lisa Ellery’s second book, Hot Ground, that took me to her first book. This was a fast-paced murder mystery set in Perth. The central character is Andrew, a young attorney who works in the prosecutor’s office, called the DPP in Australia. He works closely with police, but despite that, when the murder of Lily, a young woman, is discovered, he...
Another book by the amazing James McBride (my fourth). I had intended to choose a more light-hearted book, but I found myself reading a war story with lots of death and betrayal. But it was a James McBride book, so it had kindness and yes, a miracle too. His Acknowledgements tell us that when he was nine McBride heard stories from his stepfather and his brothers about their times during World War...
I admired the three books of Colum McCann that I read previously, so I was looking forward to this one. The narrator tells us he needs the work assignment he’s been given, writing about the cables that carry internet traffic on the ocean floor, to go well. Ideally, there would be a break in the cable and he would go out to sea with the folks who repair breaks. He makes his way to South...