The subject of this coming of age story is Martin, an appealing 17-year-old who is not a successful student, his good friend Kavanaugh who is, and a recently arrived student who brings danger into their lives. The story is set in Belfast in the early 1960s so the priests are in charge; figures in the art books have been given India ink bathing trunks. The story focuses on Martin, who lives...
A new feature of Charlotte’s booklog will be the occasional posting about books that sound interesting to read, either from reviews or books mentioned by someone. So, here we go.The Original Knickerbocker: the Life of Washington Irving by Andrew Burstein. Reviewed in the Post on May 27. The review mentions the Tales of the Alhambra which I liked so much. Gertrude...
My third book by Ward Just is a more complicated one for me. When it began, I thought it was a straightforward, plot-driven story, but I am left unsure that I have all the implications. Well, I should say, I’m sure I don’t have all the implications, and am not at all sure I can articulate the underlying message. Here we go: The forgetfulness of the title is the...
Knowing the person who wrote a book you are reading enriches your experience. This has not happened to me many times, but having the author’s voice in my head is a great addition. Jon is a psychologist at UVa specializing in the area of positive psychology, which studies how the mind works “well” rather than learning how the mind works based on the its disorders. Most notably...
Audiobook. This wonderful book kept me walking happily for hours and hours. It is the combination of evoking the sights and smells of Afghanistan before the wars and an intense plot that is so pleasing. This book is so plot driven, I find it hard to write about the plot without making revelations that would diminish it to other readers.
An impressive account of bad behavior is cataloged here. Page after page of stories of drinking, trading sex for influence with powerful figures, demanding sex, politically ruining anyone who opposed him, and more; this is Rasputin. He loved and wanted power, but didn’t care for the trappings or appearance of power. Many described him as repulsive at the same time they were fascinated by...
Audiobook. Mary Susan’s recommendation of Rasputin’s Daughter was a bit less enthusiastic than for his book The Kitchen Boy, but I found it equally intriguing. It was really a good book to hear; in particular, I enjoyed hearing the correct pronunciation of all those Russian names. I was moved to pick up a biography of Rasputin in our library by Brian Moynahan which I suspect Robert...
This was loaned to me by Maureen and has been even more of a treat than I expected. She feels bad about her neck, she can’t deal with purses, falls out of love with her upper west side apartment, she mourns the lost cabbage strudel and finds a new cabbage strudel to love, and lots more. Of course the author of When Harry Met Sally is going to be witty, but I didn’t expect to be...
It was fun to read about the Cathars, heretics who were the object of the only crusade undertaken by the church against fellow Christians. Assuming the book accurately portrays the history, it was actually a war to acquire land, a very believable proposition. The twin plots, set 800 years apart, were too overly connected for comfort and were pretty foolish. But on the other...
Audiobook. Imagine hearing the details of sex involving a hugely overweight narrator who always refers to his hands as “squishy” while you are at the gym at the crack of dawn. And I pick his word for his hands to avoid more indelicate possibilities. The narrator, for most of the book, is trying to escape St. Petersburg after the killing of his father, but he can’t get a visa...