RidgewayGirl's Year of Whim and Inclination -- Third Quarter

This is a continuation of the topic RidgewayGirl's Year of Whim and Inclination -- Second Quarter.

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RidgewayGirl's Year of Whim and Inclination -- Third Quarter

1RidgewayGirl
Edited: Yesterday, 12:22 pm

The beginning of July means we have at least another three months of wonderful weather here in the mid-west, as long as the wind doesn't send us smoke and it rains every now and again. Look at me, talking about weather like I live in the "hub of the corn-belt," which is an actual thing this place calls itself. But today there were the most amazing peaches at the farmer's market, along with signs that abundance is just a week or two away.



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5RidgewayGirl
Edited: Sep 30, 6:07 pm

6RidgewayGirl
Edited: Sep 25, 4:13 pm

USA
Julia Bartz (The Writing Retreat)
Elif Batuman (The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them)
Jen Beagin (Big Swiss)
Angeline Boulley (The Firekeeper's Daughter)
Delia Cai (Central Places)
Elaine Hsieh Chou (Disorientation)
Emma Cline (The Guest)
Sean Doolittle (Device Free Weekend)
Kim Edwards (The Memory Keeper's Daughter)
Louise Erdrich (LaRose)
Daisy Alpert Florin (My Last Innocent Year)
Tess Gunty (The Rabbit Hutch)
Jake Hinkson (Find Him)
Jenny Jackson (Pineapple Street)
Stephen Graham Jones (Don't Fear the Reaper)
Ken Kalfus (2 A.M. in Little America)
Mary Karr (Cherry)
Lydia Kiesling (Mobility)
Dana Kollmann (Never Suck a Dead Man's Hand: Curious Adventures of a CSI)
William Kent Krueger (The Devil's Bed)
Catherine Lacey (Biography of X)
Kelly Link (Black Dog White Cat: Stories)
Laura Lippman (Prom Mom)
Bojan Louis (Sinking Bell: Stories)
Anthony Marra (Mercury Pictures Presents)
Elizabeth McKenzie (The Dog of the North)
Clémence Michallon (The Quiet Tenant)
Madeline Miller (Circe)
Maggie Millner (Couplets)
Richard Mirabella (Brother & Sister Enter the Forest)
Lorrie Moore (I am Homeless if This is Not My Home)
Melinda Moustakis (Homestead)
Dwyer Murphy (An Honest Living)
Joyce Carol Oates (48 Clues into the Disappearance of My Sister)
Ivy Pochoda (Sing Her Down)
Lori Rader-Day (Death at Greenway)
Shannon Sanders (Company: Stories)
Laura Sims (How Can I Help You)
Curtis Sittenfeld (Romantic Comedy)
Brendan Slocumb (The Violin Conspiracy)
Jade Song (Chlorine)
Lynne Steger Strong (Flight)
Luis Alberto Urrea (Good Night, Irene)
Katie Williams (My Murder)
Gabrielle Zevin (Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow)

10RidgewayGirl
Edited: Sep 25, 4:14 pm

Books by Publisher

Biblioasis Press (Windsor, ON, Canada) (Small Press)
Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet

Catapult Books (USA) (Small Press)
1,000 Coils of Fear by Olivia Wenzel
Brother & Sister Enter the Forest by Richard Mirabella

Graywolf Press (Independent Publisher)
Company: Stories by Shannon Sanders
Sinking Bell: Stories by Bojan Louis

Grove Atlantic/Grove Press (Independent Publisher)
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Hachette Book Group
--- Grand Central Publishing (division of Hachette)
Device Free Weekend by Sean Doolittle
--- Little, Brown and Company (division of Hachette)
Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea
Haven by Emma Donoghue

HarperCollins (Big 5 Publisher)
--- Harper Perennial (imprint of HC)
LaRose by Louise Erdrich
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li
--- Harper Voyager (imprint of HC)
Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang
--- HarperVia (imprint of HC)
The Laughter by Sonora Jha
--- Mariner Books (imprint of HC)
Flight by Lynn Steger Strong
--- William Morrow (imprint of HC)
Chlorine by Jade Song
Death at Greenway by Lori Rader-Day
If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane
Prom Mom by Laura Lippman

Kensington Publishing Corporation (Independent Publisher)
--- Citadel (Imprint of Kensington)
Never Suck a Dead Man's Hand by Dana Kollmann

Macmillan Publishers (Big 5 Publisher)
--- Farrar, Straus and Giroux (imprint of Macmillan)
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Biography of X by Catherine Lacey
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li
Couplets by Maggie Millner
The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them by Elif Batuman
Western Lane by Chetna Maroo
--- Flatiron Press (imprint of Macmillan)
Homestead by Melinda Moustakis
--- MCD (division of FSG)
Sing Her Down by Ivy Pochoda
--- Henry Holt & Co. (division of Macmillan)
The Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
My Last Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin
A Very Nice Girl by Imogen Crimp
--- Minotaur Books (imprint of Macmillan)
A Death in Tokyo by Keigo Higashino

Milkweed Editions (Minneapolis, MN) (Non-Profit Small Press)
2 A.M. in Little America by Ken Kalfus

New York Review Books (independent publisher)
Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih

11RidgewayGirl
Edited: Sep 26, 1:27 pm

Penguin Random House (Big 5 Publisher)
Cherry by Mary Karr
How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue
--- Ballantine Books (imprint of PRH)
--- Bantam (imprint of PRH)
The Things We Do to Our Friends by Heather Darwent
--- Berkely Books (imprint of PRH)
The No-Show by Beth O'Leary
--- Hogarth Press (imprint of PRH)
An Island by Karen Jennings
Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra
Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez
--- Knopf Doubleday (division of PRH)
Silent Winds, Dry Seas by Vinod Busjeet
--- Anchor Books (imprint of Knopf Doubleday)
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
--- Knopf (imprint of Knopf Doubleday)
I am Homeless if This is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore
The Midnight News by Jo Baker
The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon
The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
--- Pantheon (imprint of Knopf Doubleday)
Autumn by Ali Smith
Spring by Ali Smith
--- Penguin Press (division of PRH)
Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou
The Dog of the North by Elizabeth McKenzie
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
--- Putnam Publishing (imprint of PRH)
How Can I Help You by Laura Sims
--- Random House (division of PRH)
Black Dog, White Cat: Stories by Kelly Link
The Guest by Emma Cline
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
--- Riverhead Books (imprint of PRH)
My Murder by Katie Williams
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
--- Ten Speed Press (imprint of PRH)
Kurashi at Home by Marie Kondo
--- Viking (imprint of PRH)
Call and Response by Gothataone Moeng
An Honest Living by Dwyer Murphy
--- Pamela Dorman Books (imprint of Viking)
Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
--- Vintage International (imprint of PRH)
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Life for Sale by Yukio Mishima

12RidgewayGirl
Edited: Sep 22, 3:03 pm

Penzler Publishers (Independent Publisher)
--- Mysterious Press (imprint of Penzler)
48 Clues into the Disappearance of My Sister by Joyce Carol Oates

Polis Books (Independent Publisher)
Find Him by Jake Hinkson

Simon & Schuster (Big 5 Publisher)
--- Atria Books (Division of S&S)
The Devil's Bed by William Kent Krueger
The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz
--- Avid Reader Press (Imprint of S&S)
Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson
--- Gallery Books (division of S&S)
--- Saga Books (imprint of GB)
Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones
--- Scribner (imprint of S&S)
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

Transit Books (Non-Profit Small Press)
The Birthday Party by Laurent Mauvignier

Two Dollar Radio (Small Press)
My Volcano by John Elizabeth Stintzi

W. W. Norton & Company (Independent Publisher)
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
--- Liveright (imprint of WW Norton)
Lazy City by Rachel Connolly

13RidgewayGirl
Jul 1, 5:30 pm

Now that we're halfway through 2023 and there are enough books listed for me to draw some conclusions -- my reading so far this year has been really good, although I haven't really just read whatever I wanted. Somehow I throw myself at reading constraints, whether it's book clubs or some on-line challenge. Still trying for it, though.

In my publishing stats, it's clear that Penguin Random House dominates the industry, or at least the literary fiction industry. But also, there are a surprising number of independent presses publishing great stuff.

Happy summer, everyone. My birthday is in a few days, I'm taking a short zoom class in writing book reviews tomorrow and the weather has been fine, a few days of heavy rain came just in time to clear the air of all the smoke. Life is reasonably good. Here's Tarzan, doing his best to block my view of my book.



14dchaikin
Jul 1, 6:10 pm

Enjoy the class. I’m sure Tarzan will help.

15RidgewayGirl
Jul 1, 6:23 pm

>14 dchaikin: I'm closing the door. He learned about zoom during the covid lock-down and will appear on camera if given a chance.

16LolaWalser
Jul 2, 12:05 am

Aww, Tarzan is only protecting his human from the weird menace breaking into her life through the computer screen! That face radiates passport-checking authority.

17BLBera
Jul 2, 4:17 pm

Enjoy your class, Kay, and happy birthday.

18RidgewayGirl
Jul 2, 5:01 pm

>16 LolaWalser: He is certainly officious.

>17 BLBera: Thanks, Beth.

So the class was fun and gave me a lot to consider. Hoping it improves the quality of my comments going forward. In the days before the class, I cleared out the very small upstairs room delegated to be a home office. It was originally a sleeping porch and is tiny, but saved from feeling like a closet by the three large windows that bring in a lot of light. It's now a usable space, the desk now clear (it easily fills a third of the room) and, by virtue of being in a back corner, very quiet.

19labfs39
Jul 2, 8:09 pm

Happy almost Birthday, Kay. The room-of-your-own writing nook sounds lovely, and I would love to see photos.

20RidgewayGirl
Jul 2, 8:14 pm

>19 labfs39: Except the problem now is that I want to paint the room. And I have an idea of what to put up on the one blank wall.* So now it's a whole project that will keep me from actually doing any writing in the room.

* I've collected a ton of postcards from the places we've lived or visited over the years, and saved stacks of now-obsolete maps. I'm itching to make collages from them. Is it a way to procrastinate? Definitely.

21BLBera
Jul 2, 8:16 pm

>20 RidgewayGirl: Still, it sounds like a fun project. I hope you'll take pictures. It seems like a great space.

22cindydavid4
Jul 2, 9:16 pm

>20 RidgewayGirl: gosh I got rid of all mine but what a perfect idea for a wall collage

23RidgewayGirl
Edited: Jul 2, 11:22 pm

>21 BLBera: Beth, here's the space currently.



I'm thinking of a saturated color of some sort.

>22 cindydavid4: Cindy, the maps only survived because they were put in a bottom drawer of the desk and forgotten. I'm glad, though because paper maps are largely extinct now.

24cindydavid4
Jul 3, 2:54 am

wow that is a lovely little room! Um where are the rest of your shelves? :) And I am glad I still have my natl geographic atlas, I still use it . David always drove when we took trips, and I was he navigator; I got very good at learning to read all those maps. not so much now with gps. Wonder what thats going to do to peoples sense of directon.

25dudes22
Jul 3, 7:29 am

Happy Almost Birthday! What a great room that is even if it's small. We had a sleeping porch in the house I grew up in and loved to sleep there in the summer. (we fought over who got to sleep there) I always thought your reviews were great and hope you don't lose the snarky ones. They're always great reading!

26BLBera
Jul 3, 10:25 am

I love it, Kay! The windows are great.

27labfs39
Jul 3, 11:44 am

What a fantastic space! Complete with cat

28LolaWalser
Jul 3, 11:52 am

Which catlord is it? Nice of them to let you stay. :)

29RidgewayGirl
Edited: Jul 3, 12:55 pm

Thank you all. The cat in the picture is Freya, an emergency foster who simply became part of the family. I put a blanket on those file boxes and if I'm in there, someone will come in and nap in my general vicinity. After soliciting opinions, I'm looking at three colors right now.



Behr Black Evergreen



Sherwin Williams Subterranean



Farrow & Ball Inchyra Blue

All opinions, as well as color suggestions, welcomed.

30BLBera
Jul 3, 1:31 pm

I'd always go with green or blue. But that's me.

31RidgewayGirl
Jul 8, 4:23 pm



Growing up in a middle class Hindu family in Mauritius in the years surrounding its independence, Vishnu grew up in a vibrant mixed neighborhood. His father is a respected teacher and his mother cares for the household. Vishnu grows up watching how the various groups on Mauritius interact, working hard to excel at school, so he can get a scholarship to study in England, something that will make his family and his entire neighborhood proud. Along the way, he watches as things happen in his extended family and around him on the island. Will his hard work pay off and see him leaving his home?

With Silent Winds, Dry Seas, Vinod Busjeet has written a novel that feels like a collection of connected short stories that tell the coming-of-age story of a boy whose life looks similar to his own. It's beautifully told and gives a real sense of what life on Mauritius in the second half of the last century was like. Vishnu doesn't always understand the complexities of what is going on around him, but he is a keen and curious observer and willing to learn and adapt to his changing circumstances.

AnnieMod has written an excellent review of this book.

32raton-liseur
Jul 8, 10:33 pm

>31 RidgewayGirl: Your review is tempting... And the cover is gorgeous!

33ursula
Jul 9, 1:51 am

>29 RidgewayGirl: I like the Inchyra Blue the most. Although I also love whatever color the door is currently.

34wandering_star
Jul 9, 8:29 am

I like the first and third colours best. Also Silent Winds, Dry Seas sounds like a good gift for my mum - I am always on the lookout for those around this time of year, so thank you!

35RidgewayGirl
Jul 9, 2:08 pm

>32 raton-liseur: The cover is what caught my eye at the bookstore. And it's not a place I have read anything about previously.

>33 ursula: That's my worry with the Inchyra Blue -- the doors, trim and two built-in closets in that back part of the upstairs are all in that lovely dark blue. Would more be too much? I'm leaning towards a dark, muted gold.

>34 wandering_star: A very good mom book, in my opinion.

36RidgewayGirl
Jul 11, 3:25 pm



Life did not make sense if it did not have a forward direction, an upward direction, an uplift.

Bunny is a diplomat's daughter, spending her childhood in far-flung places like Athens, Yerevan, and now Baku, Azerbaijan. She's fifteen, an ordinary girl who now attends a boarding school in Connecticut during the year but this summer is stuck in Baku with her older brother and her father, both too busy to spend much time with her. And so she explores the city, develops a crush on the freelance journalist with an apartment in the same building, watches soap operas in languages she doesn't understand with another neighbor and is dragged to various embassy events as the country's oil boom explodes and journalists, opportunists and political operatives move in. But Bunny's more concerned with the things a teenager should be concerned with; she remains largely uninterested in the geopolitical jostling.

A decade later and Bunny's living in Texas, working in an administrative job at an oil company. The same influences are at work, but Bunny is earning a living and taking care of her Mom.

Then again, as some of the women reminded their peers during their meetings, "diversity, equity, and inclusion" didn't just mean of skin tones and genders--it meant of ideas! All ideas should be welcome. Ideas, it seemed, were the true diversity, and sometimes seemed to matter more than the other kinds. It was important that no one feel left out, especially the men.

In Mobility, Lydia Kiesling shows how geopolitics and greed mean that when developing nations find oil, the wealth generated is not kept by that country, but is passed around to large oil corporations and various opportunists, and she tells this story through the very ordinary life of an American woman. Kiesling has a rare talent for not only writing about the most ordinary routines, but in making those mundane things fascinating. Bunny works as a proofreader, she attends meetings introducing new computer programs, she attends a wedding of a girl she knew from school, she stays with her mother as her mother fails to move forward after her divorce, she lives in a condo in Texas and is pleased to have a job that pays the rent. It's all so ordinary and familiar (I've worked as a proofreader, I've sat through far too many dull meetings, I've gone to weddings for people I've largely lost touch with) that it should be boring. But by burrowing into the ordinary, Kiesling makes it worthwhile, while all the time subtly reinforcing the larger themes.

This is the second novel by Lydia Kiesling that I've read. I loved her debut novel, The Golden State and found that she's continued to develop as a writer with this new book. I'm excited to see what she writes next.

37RidgewayGirl
Jul 14, 1:10 pm



Homestead by Melinda Moustakis is the story of the early days of a marriage, set in Alaska in the late fifties, as Alaska becomes a state. Marie goes to Alaska to visit her sister, eager to get away from the grandmother resentful of having had to raise them. She wants to belong, to be part of a family and to own her own space. Lawrence grew up in poverty and views owning land as the factor that can save a family from ruin. He chooses his homestead with care, and then looks for a woman to marry, because a farm needs many children to help out. They are looking for the same thing, but the differences between them make the marriage difficult, even as they struggle to get a working farm going in the Alaskan wilderness.

As a picture of what life in Alaska was like seventy-five years ago, this novel illuminates the stark realities and the hopes and dreams of people who came to Alaska, and of the people that were displaced as a result. But it's in the portrait of a marriage that this book excels. It's understated, and both Lawrence and Marie are very much part of the time they live in and their approaches to the marriage reflect this. The writing is lovely, with a muted tone that suits this quiet story.

38Cariola
Jul 14, 2:08 pm

>31 RidgewayGirl: This one is going on my wish list!

I'm really looking forward to the new Lorrie Moore.

39Simone2
Jul 15, 2:27 am

>36 RidgewayGirl: Interesting! I loved The Golden State too and her writing style.

40japaul22
Jul 15, 7:45 am

You got me with Homestead - sounds like just my kind of book!

41RidgewayGirl
Edited: Jul 15, 9:21 pm

>38 Cariola: I'm surprised I didn't notice this when it was first published in 2021. As for the Lori Moore, I had just started it when someone else put a hold on it, but I should get it back next week.

>39 Simone2: I loved The Golden State, and this is better. Kiesling is growing as an author.

>40 japaul22: It reminded me a bit of Zorrie by Laird Hunt, if you read that one.

42RidgewayGirl
Edited: Jul 15, 9:21 pm

Duplicate post.

43dudes22
Jul 16, 6:35 am

>41 RidgewayGirl: - Zorrie is our book club choice for September and I'm looking forward to reading it. So I think I'll take a BB for Homestead.

44RidgewayGirl
Jul 16, 1:09 pm

>43 dudes22: Oh, good choice. Lots to discuss with that one.

45cindydavid4
Edited: Jul 16, 1:12 pm

>43 dudes22: ours too and Im leading it! Be rereading it soon and looking for homestead

46RidgewayGirl
Jul 16, 7:31 pm



Skellig Michael is rugged, beautiful and inhospitable island seven miles off the southwest coast of Ireland. It was first settled and a monastery established sometime between the seventh and ninth centuries, by necessity remaining small and was eventually abandoned.



Haven is Emma Donoghue's novel imagining what the first monastic settlement on Skellig Michael might have looked like. Beginning with a cleric from a wealthy background visiting a small monastery in the west of Ireland. He's traveled widely, is intently devout, and that night he dreams of founding a reclusive order with two of the monks, musicians who played after the dinner the night before. He gathers them, along with a curricle filled with minimal supplies and sets off to find a place beyond the map's borders. The island they find is as unfavorable and bleak as anything they've ever seen. But the real struggle is in making their small trio into a team that can survive in this rugged space.

I never quite bought the story that Donoghue was telling. She certainly provided details, but the story hinges on the devoutness of the three men and how that affects their decisions and thoughts. Religious zealotry is a hard thing to explain and the author largely abandoned her attempts to do so in favor of focusing on the two monks sent along with the prior and how their straightforward faith and obedience was tested; a simpler but less interesting story.


47cindydavid4
Jul 16, 8:17 pm

>46 RidgewayGirl: I found this a facinating story, tho it seemed obvious how it would end. I felt the author explain Religious zealoty well through Art, from the very beginning when he refused help from other people on other islands down to his final insult and treatment of his two monks. I thought she was able to show the zeal of the monks, but who still understood and cared for his fellows. Could you explain how this could have been more interesting

48RidgewayGirl
Jul 16, 9:50 pm

>47 cindydavid4: I thought that while Trian and Cormac were fully developed, Artt wasn't as fully fleshed out. By the end of the book he was a caricature of a religious zealot, not a person anymore. Of course that may well have been Donoghue's point.

49wandering_star
Jul 17, 3:19 am

>48 RidgewayGirl: I agree - I was waiting for the point where he realises that he has gone too far and has to question what his actions have led to, but it did not come.

50japaul22
Jul 17, 7:26 am

>49 wandering_star: I think we are seeing a lot of people in modern day who never realize they have gone too far and question their actions regarding religion. Agreed it would have been more redeeming and hopeful to see that, but I think it's sadly not out of line with the human experience for it to have played out the way it did.

I loved the book, but I do remember also thinking it wouldn't work for everyone. I think the remote setting really sucked me in despite some plot problems.

51cindydavid4
Jul 17, 11:08 am

>49 wandering_star: I didn't expect that, its what makes him a zealot, Known many in my life seen others in action. He is no longer human. they question nothing. But its a nice thought

52BLBera
Jul 17, 11:57 am

>46 RidgewayGirl: I thought the setting was riveting, and the fight for survival sucked me into this one, Kay. I found Artt to be a convincing fanatic. But I agree >50 japaul22: that it is one that won't appeal to everyone.

53wandering_star
Jul 17, 6:07 pm

54RidgewayGirl
Jul 17, 6:15 pm

I love how we all saw Artt and what Donoghue was doing with that character in different lights. She remains one of my favorite authors and she looks at the subject of religious devotion from a different angle in The Wonder, which I loved.

55RidgewayGirl
Jul 19, 10:59 pm



When Margo has to suddenly leave her nursing job, she eventually ends up at the Carlyle Public Library, a Carnegie-built library in a small Illinois farming community. She's good at her job, even if she's not a reader, and in the library's calm embrace, she hopes to leave her past behind. Patricia spent years working on her novel, only to find that no one is willing to publish it. She decides to give up writing and fall back on her MLS degree and work as a reference librarian, changes that delight her boyfriend. What doesn't delight him is her decision to take a job hours away from their Chicago apartment, but she is secretly pleased to have a place for herself as she figures out her adjustment to a life without writing. But a lifelong habit is hard to break, Patricia's job is boring and before long she's fascinated by one of the other library staff, a tall woman with an air of authority, which reignites her love of writing and she imagines stories with Margo as her main character. But closely observing her, she's seeing something troubling about Margo.

How Can I Help You by Laura Sims features two main characters, one increasingly unpleasant and the other increasingly willing to slide into gray areas in service to her curiosity. Novels that fall into that odd genre of the literary thriller often fail to deliver on plot, but Sims keeps things moving at a satisfying pace. She writes well, especially the parts told from Margo's point of view, never falling into the trap of withholding information from the reader that is known to the narrator, while maintaining a sense of tension. There are some predictable beats, but the story holds together through the end. As much as can be said about a story involving murders, this was a lot of fun.

56rhian_of_oz
Jul 20, 10:10 am

>55 RidgewayGirl: This sounds intriguing so onto the wishlist it goes.

57RidgewayGirl
Jul 23, 12:55 pm



If I Never Met You is an unabashedly Chick-Lit novel by Mhairi McFarlane, who manages to write so that none of her books resemble each other and her characters are likewise varied. I've yet to read a dud, although this one is maybe my least favorite, largely because of the ending. To be fair, it is hard to stick a landing and McFarlane having to do a little jump at the end doesn't spoil my enjoyment of this fun book.

Laurie is a lawyer, working for the same large law firm as her partner, although they work in different divisions. Yet when he leaves her for another woman, she dreads returning to work and the gossip she'll face. The solution comes in the form of the company's ladies man, who needs to be taken seriously by the law firm's partners to be promoted. They will pretend to be dating; her reputation as a steady worker will make him look more steady, his reputation and looks will prevent her colleagues from feeling sorry for her. Of course this is an often-used plot and a predictable one, but McFarlane makes it fun by providing a bunch of secondary characters who are also living full lives and in making both main characters interesting enough to spend time with. And McFarlane writes so well that her books always make for a few hours of real enjoyment.

58RidgewayGirl
Jul 26, 4:40 pm



Western Lane by Chetna Maroo is a quiet and understated novel about an eleven year old Indian British girl whose mother recently died. Her father is told to find something to occupy her time, and that of her two older sisters and so the usual fun games of squash this family enjoyed becomes a training regimen. Gopi is the only one who shows promise; her oldest sister, Mona, has other concerns, not the least figuring out how to keep the family functioning, and Khush, the middle sister, lacks Gopi's dedication and talent. Squash is the way Gopi and her father communicate, watching famous matches and always training. She also trains with a boy whose mother works at the club where the courts are located, and before long she and the boy are focused on an upcoming tournament.

Most of this novel takes place between the lines, in the brief glimpses we catch of the members of this grieving family. Gopi does her best to do her part, in this case that means training hard and in the uncertainty of a family that has lost its center, squash provides her a refuge. This is a small book, both in scope and page count, but is beautifully told.

59RidgewayGirl
Jul 29, 3:41 pm



The Birthday Party by French author Laurent Mauvignier and translated by Daniel Levin Becker is the story of the four denizens of a hamlet and the terrible events that happened the night three of them threw a small birthday party for the fourth. There's Bergogne, the farmer, content with his cows, in love with his wife, but worried about money. There's his wife, Marion, who works in town and who is about to turn forty. There's their daughter, Ida, who is so excited about the planned celebration and who spends the day before carefully painting a picture for her mother. And there's Christine, who left the art world in Paris for this quiet backwater, and spends her day painting, with only her dog, Rajah and the neighbor's daughter for company. Lately she's been getting some threatening letters though.

What makes this novel so magnificent is the perfection of the pacing and how well the author creates an unbearable feeling of dread in the reader. The novel gives each character a chapter, following their thoughts and every minor preoccupation of their day. It's a style that takes effort to read, until the reader is immersed in each character's life. And, as events move from daily chores or preparation for the party, into the events that make this novel a thriller of sorts, this structure serves to amplify the tension. And by closely following the thoughts of each character in turn, this book is a wonderful collection of complex and conflicted character studies. I was astonished by how good this book was and I hope we see more of Mauvignier's novels translated into English.

60RidgewayGirl
Jul 31, 6:23 pm



When Lori Rader-Day visited Greenway, Agatha Christie's Devonshire home, she discovered that during the Second World War the house had housed evacuees, children sent from urban centers to keep them safe from bombing. Fascinated, she tried to find a book on the subject, but none have been written. She's a mystery author, so Death at Greenway is a mystery novel of sorts, although there are no sleuths or detectives or any of the other usual characters.



Bridget Kelly is a young nursing student living in London with her family. She's eager to help with the war effort, but a mistake at work puts her nursing career in danger. She's given a way out; an offer to help care for a group of children being evacuated from London. Arriving at the train station, she discovers that all the children are under five, two are infants and the other nurse is also somehow named Bridget Kelly and doesn't seem to know anything about nursing or childcare. And the Devon coast is less serene than expected. Not only is there something odd about the other nurse, but there seems to be too many mysterious deaths in the village.

Rader-Day is one of the rare authors who clearly do the research but use what they learned so carefully, that it never feels like she is telling us what she learned. The result is a story deeply set in a place and a time that feels authentic. Bridget is a wonderful character because she fits so perfectly into this setting. She's almost invisible to others, especially those who imagine themselves her betters. Rader-Day also narrates the novel from the points of view of other characters, from that of the housekeeper, to the voice of one of the young evacuees, and makes each voice distinct. I usually like a little more oomph in my crime novels, but as a gentle historical novel about the British home front, this one was very enjoyable.

61kjuliff
Aug 1, 3:04 pm

>38 Cariola: I just discovered Lorrie Moore from listening to her short story “Face Time” on the New Yorker Fiction podcast. Can you recommend a short story collection of her works?

62RidgewayGirl
Aug 1, 6:09 pm



Lou is having a hard time moving on after her murder. After she and the other four victims of a serial killer were cloned, she came home to her husband and baby daughter, but she asks all the time for her husband to tell her what happened on that day, as she can't remember the days leading up to her murder at all. All the former victims meet weekly in a group counseling session with Gert, who has guided them since their return. Her husband is as caring and considerate as he can be, but their daughter cries whenever Lou holds her. Her own father doesn't seem to enjoy talking to her on the phone and has not visited. It's just hard to get back to ordinary life.

My Murder by Katie Williams is a new take on a crime novel. I went into this one knowing nothing about the book and almost set it aside once I saw that it was taking place in another version of our world, or set in the near future. I'm not a fan of speculative fiction! But this works so well and was such a fun surprise, from Lou's voice to the directions this book takes. I was surprised in the best possible way by this innovative take on some of the most well-trodden plots, that of the serial killing of young and attractive women. And the world building is subtle and well thought through, from the big picture stuff, to the small details.

63FlorenceArt
Aug 2, 3:27 am

>62 RidgewayGirl: Sounds intriguing! Although it also makes me want to scream THAT’S NOT HOW CLONING WORKS!!! but I suppose it doesn’t really matter if the book is good.

64RidgewayGirl
Aug 2, 2:12 pm

>63 FlorenceArt: Ha, yes, my husband said much the same when I was telling him about this book. But this isn't science fiction, but an inventive crime novel set in this different version of the world.

65RidgewayGirl
Aug 2, 5:57 pm



Alex was missing the mark so often, lately. Everything was jarred from its proper place, or maybe the problem was Alex. Maybe she should cool it with the pills. Even as she told herself she would try to be better, she was aware that she would not.

Alex's life is a mess. She started out as an escort after leaving home and had done well in choosing her clients. But she's having a hard time not messing up and after she takes money and drugs from the apartment of a man she was involved with, he's angrier than she'd anticipated. And neither the money nor the drugs lasted as long as she'd expected. She's thrown a lifeline when another man offers to let her stay with him at his beach house in the Hamptons. Of course he doesn't know the trouble she's in, nor that she's also now homeless after failing to pay her share of the rent. Alex does try, she does know how to behave as a wealthy man's sidepiece, but she doesn't seem to be able to stop messing up, in ways both big and small. And with one man looking for revenge and another becoming rapidly disillusioned with her, her options are limited.

The Guest by Emma Cline, dealing as it does with a woman intent on destroying her own life, is right up my alley. I think my attraction to this kind of novel stems from the agency it gives the main character. Sure, her life is going downhill fast, but she's the one who is causing the downward spiral. Alex has a lot going for her; she's smart and attractive enough and she knows how to behave among the wealthy. She's also self-destructive to an alarming degree, prone to actions that she knows will alienate the few people still willing to give her a hand, a group disappearing at a rapid pace. Cline knows how to bring a scene to life and Alex is a wonderful character to follow around, as she fails to rein herself in. Alex is not a likable character, but she is a compelling one and Cline paces this novel well, as she walks Alex towards a reckoning of sorts.

66baswood
Aug 2, 6:55 pm

Enjoying your reviews as always >59 RidgewayGirl: particularly interested in this one and I will check it out at my next visit to the library.

67RidgewayGirl
Aug 2, 9:43 pm

>66 baswood: I would love to find out what you think of this book or any other book by Mauvignier.

68markon
Aug 3, 1:36 pm

>58 RidgewayGirl:, >59 RidgewayGirl:, >60 RidgewayGirl: Intrigued by all of these! My library owns Death at Greenway, so I'll start with that one.

69RidgewayGirl
Aug 3, 6:35 pm

I seem to have been reading a lot of crime novels and thrillers lately. Here's another one.



Emily owns and works as the bartender at the restaurant she inherited from her father. She has a crush on Aidan, a young widower with a teenage daughter, who comes in every week for a soda and conversation. He's good-looking and well-known in town for his helpfulness. Rachel is a woman who has been imprisoned in a shed for years. She's learned to respond to this name that isn't hers and to do what is needed to keep her jailor from hurting her more than usual. When he tells her that his wife died and he's moving, she worries that he will kill her as he has so many others, but instead he has a plan to move her, too, and have her live with him and his daughter, posing as his tenant. He's sure that he has crushed her spirit enough to make this new set up work.

The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon begins with an intriguing premise, and she does a few interesting things as this novel progresses that kept me guessing as to how this would all play out. Definitely not predictable. There were some pacing issues and the characters remained fairly opaque, but this is a first novel for Michallon and it's a fun, escapist read that shows promise.

70RidgewayGirl
Aug 3, 6:36 pm

>68 markon: I hope you enjoy it, Ardene. Agatha Christie plays a cameo role in this one.

71RidgewayGirl
Edited: Aug 8, 9:53 pm



Years ago, I read this great little midwestern noir called The Cleanup, about a guy rebuilding his life and working as a security guard at a grocery store. It began my love of Sean Doolittle's novels. So I picked up Device Free Weekend with great excitement.

Seven college friends reunite for a weekend on an island off of Seattle. They've all appear to have done well in life, but one of them is a Zuckerberg-level social media CEO billionaire and it's his private island they're meeting on. Quickly, the reunion turns from old friends reconnecting, to a bizarre trolley problem scenario where the six friends must together make an impossible choice. Of course, there are extra complications -- truly Bond villain-level traps and a staff that possess extraordinary abilities and an utter dedication to their boss.

It was fine. I'm not really interested in billionaires and having the protagonist be a well-off white dude with anger issues didn't work for me. But that's me and this is a fine thriller. I just prefer it when the characters feel more like real people.

72RidgewayGirl
Aug 15, 5:39 pm



In 1943, Irene leaves her fiancé and enlists with the Red Cross, where she trains as a "Donut Dolly," making coffee and donuts from a specially outfitted van in various locations in Europe. She is assigned to a van and meets her partners in the van named "Rapid City," starting out feeding the newly arrived servicemen at the English docks, but is moved to France just behind the D-Day invasion, where she and her partner Dot work in sometimes harrowing conditions and not without their share of danger.

Luis Alberto Urrea based Good Night, Irene on his mother's own experiences in WWII, this novel is both well-researched and a page turner. Irene and her cohorts have an old school Hollywood in their patter and while they may well be as tough as nails, the things these women experience leave lasting marks on their lives. The writing style sometimes feels like narrative non-fiction and sometimes feels cinematic. Irene is a wonderful character, and the author made a good decision when he made his mother a tertiary character rather than putting her in the spotlight. With a fictional heroine, he is free to create a colorful and memorable protagonist for this larger than life story that somehow is closely based on fact.

73cindydavid4
Aug 15, 6:06 pm

>72 RidgewayGirl: i keep reaching for that book then remember I neee to read somthing first, Loved his other books, am glad this one fits i well. Going away next week and its coming with me!

74labfs39
Aug 16, 11:09 am

>72 RidgewayGirl: Ooh, that's a book bullet for me.

75RidgewayGirl
Aug 16, 12:17 pm

>73 cindydavid4: Cindy, it is a perfect vacation book. I have enjoyed every single one of Urrea's books that I've read.

>74 labfs39: Yes, it's really interesting. I had never heard of the donut dollies before.

76BLBera
Aug 16, 7:45 pm

>72 RidgewayGirl: This sounds great.

>71 RidgewayGirl: Pass. Great comments.

77dianeham
Aug 16, 11:58 pm

Now I want a donut!

78RidgewayGirl
Aug 17, 2:03 pm

>76 BLBera: You'd think that all possible novels about WWII had already been written, but apparently not.

>77 dianeham: The women in the book called them "sinkers."

79RidgewayGirl
Aug 17, 7:29 pm



Laura Lippman is one of my go-to authors for a solid crime novel. They tend to be on the lighter side and are always set in or around Baltimore, and she manages to keep things fresh. Her latest, Prom Mom is maybe not as strong as her last few books, but still solid escapist reading for late nights or crowded beaches.

Amber Glass was a teenager when she became news fodder for having a baby during her prom. Now an adult, she returns to Baltimore, where she opens an art gallery. She runs into the one person who knows what she went through, her prom date, and they strike up a cautious friendship. Joe's having some issues; he loves his wife and the woman he'd been having an affair with is disinclined to let him go. And he has financial problems, exacerbated by the pandemic. If Amber's reasons for befriending Joe are murky, Joe's motivations may be even murkier.

I kept thinking I knew where this book was going and each time I was wrong. There aren't any truly likable characters and the plot is one that left me guessing to the end. Lippman is getting a little edgier as she goes, which is fun.

80kjuliff
Aug 17, 7:40 pm

>79 RidgewayGirl: I’ve read a couple of Lippman’s books and find they vary a lot in quality. What’s the best one you can recommend?

I really like her short stories as well but think theses only one collection?

81DavidW0
Edited: Aug 17, 7:54 pm

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82RidgewayGirl
Aug 18, 9:48 am

>80 kjuliff: Sunburn is my favorite Lippman. It's the closest she's written to a noir.

83RidgewayGirl
Aug 18, 11:24 am



When he looked at other couples, he did not know how they tolerated each other. They had just grown accustomed, he guessed. They had cooked each other. Each was the frog and each was the heated water. Still, he envied them a tiny bit. Their love in pots.

I Am Homeless if This is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore follows two timelines. The first is letters from a woman living in the South in the aftermath of the Civil War who runs a boarding house. She misses her sister and is courted by one of her lodgers. The other concerns Finn, who goes to New York to sit with his brother who is in hospice care. Finn was in a long relationship with a manic pixie dream girl-type, although she seemed far more manic than dream girl. He's still not over her although she is involved with another man. When a mutual acquaintance calls and tells him he needs to return immediately, he leaves his dying brother and drives back to Chicago only to find the worst has happened.

This is an odd little book. Moore is known for her short stories and the epistolary sections feel like a full story in their own right. In the Finn sections, which form the majority of the book, Moore lets the constraints of reality go and tells a story that is fantastical and absurd, veering off into odd tangents. There's no doubt that Moore is an extraordinarily gifted writer, and if you're a fan of writers like Jesse Ball or J. Robert Lennon, you will probably like this novel.

84BLBera
Aug 18, 10:05 pm

>83 RidgewayGirl: I've heard really varied reviews about this book. Not sure.

>78 RidgewayGirl: Speaking of twists on WWII stories, did you read Jo Baker's new one, Midnight News. It's very good, and unexpected as well.

85RidgewayGirl
Aug 18, 10:14 pm

>84 BLBera: Yes, I can see it appealing to a reader who likes more experimental stuff. I found it slightly too free-wheeling for me, but it was more that I have a limited appreciation for that kind of thing, than the book itself.

And, yes, I liked it very much. Jo Baker is a favorite of mine. Have you read her novel about Samuel Beckett's war years, A Country Road, A Tree?

86Cariola
Aug 19, 3:31 pm

>83 RidgewayGirl: I've been looking forward to this but not sure how I will feel about it after reading a few reviews. Moore's short stories are just amazing, but her first novel was . . . meh. Hope this one is better.

87lisapeet
Aug 19, 3:43 pm

>86 Cariola: I've heard some really mixed review of the new Moore too, but I'll probably give it a shot at some point. She's just interesting enough to me, even when she's veering into loopy territory.

Anyway, finally caught up and those are some good books—a few I have, a few I want, some I may even read.

88BLBera
Aug 19, 4:43 pm

I LOVED A Country Road, A Tree, Kay. I think that might be my favorite Baker.

89RidgewayGirl
Aug 19, 6:37 pm

>86 Cariola: I liked A Gate at the Stairs and of course her short stories are amazing. This one just didn't hit me the same way, it almost felt too clever at times.

>87 lisapeet: I saw that the reviews for this one were mixed and it absolutely did not stop me from diving in as soon as I could. And I'd do the same again.

>88 BLBera: Last month, at my book group, a woman talked about how much she loved Longbourn, which she had just read and when I mentioned that Baker had written a novel about Beckett's war years, she was very excited and it was fun to hand her my copy at this month's meeting. It really is fantastic. I don't think I've been anything but utterly delighted by anything she's written.

90lisapeet
Edited: Aug 19, 9:59 pm

Y'know, I don't think I've read any Jo Baker, even though I remember when Longbourn was everywhere. Is that a good place to start, or A Country Road, A Tree?

91cindydavid4
Edited: Aug 19, 10:18 pm

>90 lisapeet: Ive not heard of that but plan to read it. I found Wide Sargasso Sea very interesting. is the Baker one similar in tone?

92RidgewayGirl
Aug 19, 10:17 pm

>90 lisapeet: Lisa, it depends on what you think sounds more interesting -- P&P from the perspective of the servants at Longborn, or Samuel Beckett's wartime years. Of course, The Midnight News, set in London during the Blitz and The Body Lies, a sort of feminist thriller, are also very good.

93RidgewayGirl
Aug 19, 10:18 pm

>91 cindydavid4: From what I know about Wide Sargasso Sea, I would say they are quite different. But I thought Longborn was excellent.

94japaul22
Aug 20, 8:10 am

This is a timely discussion for me because Midnight News just came in at the library and I started it last night. The first few chapters grabbed me right away.

I've had A Country Road, A Tree on my shelves for a long time and I need to get to it soon. I don't really know anything about Samuel Beckett - I assume that will make it less impactful?

95RidgewayGirl
Aug 20, 2:28 pm

>94 japaul22: My knowledge of Beckett is scant and entirely covered by what is known in popular culture and I very much enjoyed the book.

96japaul22
Aug 20, 6:51 pm

>95 RidgewayGirl: OK, good! I won't let my lack of Beckett knowledge deter me.

97kidzdoc
Aug 21, 8:53 pm



Hi Kay, I'm sure you remember my dear friend Hillary Bauer, who joined you, Pattie and me for dinner at Truva, the Turkish restaurant in Atlanta's Virginia-Highland neighborhood, just before the start of the 2019 AJC Decatur Book Festival. She suffered with severe chronic illness, and I was shocked and deeply saddened to find out a few hours ago that she died in her sleep last night. I was in touch with her only last week, as we made plans to meet for brunch the next time I was in Atlanta, so I had no idea that she was so sick. Hillary was a wonderful person, a true gift from God, and I'm glad that you and Pattie had the opportunity to meet her.

98RidgewayGirl
Aug 22, 1:07 pm

>97 kidzdoc: Oh, Darryl, that's terrible. She was so young and vibrant and a huge amount of fun at that memorable dinner. It's so hard to lose friends -- I hope you'll be extra gentle with yourself today.

99RidgewayGirl
Aug 22, 2:46 pm

I'm going to be in Chicago, attending the Printers Row Book Festival, if anyone in Chicagoland wants to meet up, at the festival or elsewhere. Let me know.

100kidzdoc
Aug 23, 12:53 pm

>98 RidgewayGirl: Thanks, Kay. Hillary was always like that every time I saw her, including our Facebook conversation last week, when she was eagerly looking forward to joining myself and another dear friend for lunch in the near future. I'm still in complete disbelief that she is no longer with us; her death to me is completely absurd, as it is for practically everyone else in the CHOA (Children's Healthcare of Atlanta) family. I'm glad that I did see Hillary last summer when I was in town, as we met in a great new bookshop on Highland Avenue, Virginia Highland Books, not far from the restaurant in which we dined with her a few years ago.

101RidgewayGirl
Aug 23, 1:35 pm

Before I review this next book, one that I really struggled with, but didn't give up on because I'd requested it from the Early Reviewers program, a brief digression. As I read, I thought a lot about what makes a book bad and about how this novel illustrated many of the things said in the various creative writing books I've read, or even the stuff learned in high school. But what I've really been wrestling with is how to review a self-published book in general and this book in particular.

The opinions on how self-published books should be reviewed and rated fall on a spectrum with "you must always give a self-published book 5 stars and a laudatory review, otherwise you are harming someone's livelihood" on one end and "once a book is out for sale in the marketplace, it should be judged as one would any other book" on the other. I lean toward the "judge it as any other book" but with a bit of nuance. I am happy to be brutally honest with most books, but I am gentler with debut novels and less well-known authors in practice. So what to do when a book is truly bad, but self-published? I'd prefer not to review and I honestly would have put this one aside a few pages in, but here we are.

What is your opinion? Do you read self-published books? I'll admit that I stay as far away from them as I can, for this very reason. There are inequities and large systemic problems with traditional publishing, but they do provide an author with the tools necessary to make their book the best it could be, from agents and editors urging rewrites and changes, down to the copy editors and proofreaders making things readable. I do love small presses, that give the support without many of the barriers to entry, but getting published is hard and I understand wanting to opt out of that obstacle course. The last self-published book I read was over five years ago and, like this book, I was fooled into thinking it had been traditionally published with a professionally designed cover and professionally written copy.

As I wondered how to thread this needle, I looked back at the blurb that caused me to choose this book in the first place and read, Perfect for readers who loved Station Eleven, California, and Gold Fame Citrus... and found my answer. I'm reviewing this book like I would those three. If the author wants to be judged against the very best of modern lit, I can do that.

Review to come later today, but I'd love to hear what the rest of you think about your experiences with self-published books and how you approach reviewing them. Please be opinionated.

102KeithChaffee
Edited: Aug 23, 5:08 pm

I have always been wary of self-published books. The major publishers, as you say, have their problems, but they do provide a level of quality control that self-publishing (and honestly, even some of the small presses) do not; if your book wasn't good enough to be accepted by a professional publisher, I can't help but approach it with some skepticism.

But if I do pick up such a book for some reason, I'll evaluate it with the same critical standards I use for any other book. You put yourself out into the marketplace, I'm going to treat you exactly as I would any other author in that marketplace. To be gentler to the self-published author would be a form of condescension, what George W. Bush once called "the soft bigotry of low expectations" (the phrase is usually attributed to Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson).

That doesn't mean that every book gets judged on the same scale, or in exactly the same way. The author's intent and ambition matters. As Roger Ebert used to say about movies, you judge the work based on how well it meets its own goals, not against some universal scale of merit; Citizen Kane and Escape from New York have different ambitions. Similarly, a Danielle Steel novel isn't trying to do the same thing as War and Peace, and it would be both unfair and unkind to evaluate the two on the same scale. There's a difference between a nostalgia-heavy memoir written primarily for family and friends, and a novel targeting "readers who loved Station Eleven;" I'm going to look at the latter with a more sharply critical eye, whether those books are coming from Penguin Random House or Itty Bitty Press.

103RidgewayGirl
Aug 23, 5:54 pm

>102 KeithChaffee: Back when twitter was a functional social media platform, I enjoyed following the various literary arguments and scandals that swept through with the regularity of an ocean tide. There's been quite a bit of kerfuffle over reader reviews over time, which is where I saw the argument saying that a bad review is an attack on a person's livelihood. Twitter scandals, of course, are very far from life and most people who write reviews (a very small number of people!) just do so without these unnecessarily complicated thoughts. I'm thinking through my honest, but not mean, review now.

And, yes, we do judge different books differently. I can give a high rating to a crime novel that was fun to read while never even considering it in comparison to Jane Austen's novels. But I don't think self-published books should only be measured against other self-published books. In this case, do I measure the book by what it is (a bad thriller) or by what it aspires to be (a literary novel)? I'm going with what it is, although I remain irked I was suckered in by bad marketing copy.

104cindydavid4
Aug 23, 8:38 pm

>100 kidzdoc: oh darryl Im so sorry!She sounds like an amazing person. May memories bring you peace, comfort and strength. and may her name be for a blessing

105BLBera
Aug 24, 10:26 am

>101 RidgewayGirl: You raise some good questions, Kay. I think I would tend to "treat it like other books." I don't know that I've ever read a self-published novel... But, also, I do tend to be more gentle with debut writers, and I also look at genre. I judge mysteries differently from literary fiction, for example.

106japaul22
Aug 24, 10:56 am

>101 RidgewayGirl: I'm not sure I've read a self-published novel either. I suspect I would judge it against others of the genre, regardless of how it was published.

I guess I understand the sentiment that a bad review is harmful to the author, but also, why are we writing reviews at all if they aren't honest? I wouldn't be intentionally mean, of course. I suppose if I really thought the writing was bad and the author was someone I personally knew, I just wouldn't review the book at all.

Also, I have a pretty small circle of people who read my reviews, so that aspect of harming the author's livelihood just doesn't worry me that much.

107japaul22
Aug 24, 10:58 am

Also, after trying to track publishers of the books I read this year, it's really difficult to even know if it's truly a small publishing house or just an imprint of one of the big publishing houses. You really have to dig. And I'm not sure where I'd source self-published works - where do you find those?

Now I'm thinking about lots of aspects of this . . .

108jjmcgaffey
Edited: Aug 24, 4:48 pm

I read a _lot_ of self-published books...and I've read some by the same authors that were traditionally published. Honestly, the quality can be pretty close to the same. I'm talking here about things like proofreading and covers. On the writing quality itself - yes, there are a lot of really bad self-published books out there, that didn't get appropriately gate-kept - but it's usually pretty obvious from the cover text. Not always, but usually. And I've read some traditionally published books that were at least as bad as some of the indies.

I have done some reviews (even recently) that are "this was good, could have been a lot better, I'm looking forward to their next book" for newish authors. I have also done reviews, of both indie and traditionally published books, that were "why was this published?" I generally manage to avoid the bad ones, or DNF, though I've gotten some through ER that I felt I had to review - including some DNFs, which I only occasionally review if they're not ER (I agree with you!).

One thing, though - >102 KeithChaffee: if your book wasn't good enough to be accepted by a professional publisher, I can't help but approach it with some skepticism

Good enough, in this context, does not mean well-written enough - it means "will sell enough books". Dan Brown is always going to have his books accepted, and I don't consider anything he's written good enough for me to read. M.C.A. Hogarth writes science fiction about furries - that is amazing in its depths and characterization and worldbuilding and everything about it (and it's also well-edited - and low sex). No traditional publisher has taken a chance on her, which is their loss as far as I'm concerned. And her loss, because fewer people have heard about her than should have.

It's _harder_ to find good indie books, because advertising and distribution and all that stuff is what the trads are good at. But the best indie books are well up there in the lists of good books overall.

Returning to the actual question - yes, I review the book as a book. I really don't care if it's published independently or traditionally, if the author is white or male or not (and I know my reading skews heavily female, no idea about race), all the meta stuff - the only one I pay attention to is whether it's a first book. I review on the basis of "does this book do what it's supposed to - immerse me, educate me, entertain me". The thing about the livelihood...if this author can't write well (not, do they write about something that interests me, but can they make a sentence and spell words and have a coherent plot etc), they don't _have_ a livelihood writing, at best they have pity buys. Which is no way to live, IMO.

ETA sourcing indie books - Smashwords.com, BookViewCafe.com, Storybundle.com are three good sources. Amazon has a lot, but they're drowned in the floods - and they're also the easy publishing, so a lot of what they have is junk. Once you have an author you know you like, they're good. Storybundle does ...monthly? Quarterly? bundles of books on a theme, and you get a lot of books for not much money (13-15 books for $20), of which some may be enjoyable and some may be great (and some may be just meh). It's also a good way to find authors. And once you have an author you really like, get their newsletter or whatever they have - indie authors will recommend one another, and I've gotten a lot of good ones that way. Also some that didn't work for me, of course, like any recommendation source.

Some indie authors show up at the library (Overview/Libby) too - but that's hit or miss, and again you need to know the author to find them. But whenever I get a recommendation, that's my first stop - then the first two sites above, then Amazon.

109RidgewayGirl
Aug 24, 5:15 pm

>105 BLBera: I plan to do that, but my conundrum is that they have presented the book as literary fiction when it is a badly plotted thriller. One character does sometimes pop out one of the more common quotes from Shakespeare's plays, but that doesn't qualify it as "literary."

>106 japaul22: Good point. I do ordinarily cross-post my reviews on Goodreads, but since this was an Early Reviewer book, I only own LT a review.

>107 japaul22: Jennifer, it does require some digging. Some bookstores carry self-published books, often on a consignment basis, amazon is a common source. My two instances came from the LT Early Reviewer program, which reminds me to dig around before asking for a book.

110RidgewayGirl
Aug 24, 5:23 pm

>108 jjmcgaffey: That's very interesting! I agree that self-publishing works best with certain genres and that authors working in those genres and self-publishing can be very good. I mean, Chuck Tingle made himself a household name (depends on the household, obviously) and authors move between traditional and self-publishing.

In theory, I like the idea of self-publishing, just like I liked those mimeographed zines that floated around in the 90s, but in reality, it's not for me. There are too many books I already want to read.

111rocketjk
Aug 26, 11:24 am

>101 RidgewayGirl: I don't read self-published books, generally. When I owned a used bookstore, I refused to have them on my shelves. That's because when a book is self-published it means that there is no gate-keeper, nobody from a publishing house saying, "Yes, this is good enough for us to publish" and "Let's have our editor give this the once over." I often make exceptions to this self-imposed rule for books written by people I know.

112RidgewayGirl
Aug 26, 12:56 pm

>111 rocketjk: The two I read accidentally were both novels with promising premises that needed substantial rewrites. I can see not wanting to do that work and finding that self-publishing is quicker than the onerous task of reworking a manuscript six more times.

113rocketjk
Aug 26, 3:23 pm

>112 RidgewayGirl: Exactly. Or, in the case of many authors who self publish, I would guess, not realizing that your manuscript needs rewriting.

114RidgewayGirl
Aug 27, 3:41 pm



River is an oil worker in Energy Territory No. 1, which used to be known as North Dakota. She's a veteran, a widow and the mother of a toddler, working in a violent and harsh environment to save up money, when she meets an injured man late at night. She takes him to her apartment, patches him up and intends to send him on his way. But in their few hours together, they are enraptured by each other and so she rescues him again a few hours after he leaves. It turns out that while he is a scientist looking into environmental issues in the territory, he is also the son of the President, a woman who was Secretary of State and who took office after everyone above her was assassinated. She now governs in a state of emergency, Congress has been dissolved and she is making the decisions. But the man who owns the corporation that got the contract to be the sole owner of the two energy territories is on a mission to take charge of all of it and his first target is the President.

48 States by Evette Davis is a novel with a promising premise, but which quickly becomes bogged down with things that don't seem fully thought out. Despite governing during a national emergency, the POTUS spends her days secretly visiting a refugee camp to help a single family, secretly watching a focus group discussion and looking up quotes by Abraham Lincoln to use in an important speech. This is a version of the world where there are no sources of energy except oil and where a mass shooting at a mall become a catalyst to move the populations of two states into refugee camps in the name of energy independence. No one judges a thriller on how well the details hang together, it's all about pacing and suspense. And by that metric, this novel does fine, although a number of pages are spent on the two protagonists examining their feelings for each other and tense moments are often undercut by segues into how each person feels.

48 States was marketed as being ideal for fans of literary novels like Station Eleven, California and Gold Fame Citrus, and had it been blurbed more honestly, I would not have picked it up as I'm not a reader of YA thrillers. This book would have been well-served with a few more rewrites and the input of a good editor.

115labfs39
Edited: Aug 27, 6:37 pm

>101 RidgewayGirl: I have read some very good self-published books, and some not so good ones. One of the best was Romek's Lost Youth: The Story of a Boy Survivor. It's a Holocaust survivor story that couldn't find a publisher before the author passed. His nephew published it. Some, like Mac & Irene are well-meaning, but not quite as polished. The Martian started off as a free serial on the author's website, then became a .99 Kindle bargain, and then was published to huge acclaim. I think there are lots of reasons why good books don't get picked up by the big traditional publishers, I would hate to throw out the proverbial baby in the bathwater simply because Random House wasn't interested.

ETA: But I am cautious as I have been burned by some really awful ones too. I haven't had to review any of the horrible ones, fortunately.

As for the larger question, I would echo others in that I don't judge all books the same way. Some books I read to be entertained, some to be informed, others for a deeper understanding of the world and the strange beings called humans that inhabit it. Misinformation is the worst, then comes self-aggrandizement. Typos drive me nuts, but if the writing is good enough I try to soldier on. Usually with self-published books I am either looking to be entertained or for a perspective that is not mainstream. I tend to be gentler on authors writing about their own lived experiences, young authors, and those from countries without a strong publishing history.

116RidgewayGirl
Aug 27, 9:52 pm

>115 labfs39: I would love to have a source for honest reviews of self-published books so that choosing to read one wasn't such a gamble. There are so many books I want to read that taking a chance on a book of unknown quality is not something I'm willing to do. And I certainly won't take that chance when it comes to ARC requests, because that prevents me from setting the book aside.

I love that so many people were willing to add their experiences and opinions to this discussion. I've learned a lot.

117labfs39
Aug 28, 7:32 am

>116 RidgewayGirl: a source for honest reviews of self-published books

A great idea, Kay. I would definitely participate if you start something! ;-)

118RidgewayGirl
Aug 30, 1:27 pm

>117 labfs39: LOL.

On the other hand, I just finished Paul Murray's The Bee Sting and I'm going to have to think about this one for awhile.

119lisapeet
Aug 30, 8:55 pm

I think Library Journal just started reviewing self-published books after a whole lifetime of refusing to. I generally have trouble getting past the cover on self-published—and teeny press—books. You can just tell much of the time and that irks me, even though there's a whole cliché around that and I should know better. But... it's often true.

120arubabookwoman
Aug 31, 5:05 pm

Hi Kay. Just saw your comment over on the What Are You Reading thread about reading A Fine Balance and loving it. Such a coincidence. I read it back when the paperback first came out (1980's??) and was very moved by it and it has remained one of my more memorable reads. And it just so happens a few days ago I started rereading it.
I'm assuming you haven't read it before (by your reaction) but I was wondering since you usually read more contemporary books what prompted you to pick it up?

121RidgewayGirl
Aug 31, 10:26 pm

>120 arubabookwoman: Hi, Deborah. I'm trying to read without obligation or organization this year, an aim that is, for the most part, failing. But the effort continues. This book has been on my tbr for a few years now and I pulled it out purely on impulse. Hoping to do better on the impulsive reading front in the final third of the year.

122RidgewayGirl
Sep 1, 1:54 pm



The Bee Sting by Paul Murray is the story of a family who falls apart in the aftermath of Ireland's 2008 economic crisis. The Barnes's are among the wealthiest families in a small town in the middle of Ireland, owning and running a car dealership there. When the crash comes, it seems for awhile like they can sail through, and then it seems like they might sail through with a little belt-tightening. And then it seems the sailing days are over.

Murry begins this story with Cass, who plans to attend university in Dublin and live with her best friend. When the financial pressures become evident, so does the disparity in the relationship with her best friend. Cut adrift, Cass has trouble concentrating on her exams, and as her normal teenage woes veer into more serious terrain, it's clear her parents aren't paying attention. Then there's PJ, a sweet child, who may spend his time playing truly frightening video games, but that hasn't affected his sensitive heart, which notices his parents's troubles and does his part to not bother them, no matter what. He's found an on-line friend who is supportive which his parents definitely don't notice.

Murray's skill as a writer is in full display as, having killed all sympathy for these negligent parents, he proceeds to tell their stories and to force the reader to care about them. Murray writes each character so well, each has a voice of their own and the mother's section was just fantastic -- written in a stream-of-consciousness that reflects who she is. The book opens with long sections for each of the four family members, then moving between them more rapidly as the novel builds to its conclusion. We've all read books that end pages, or even chapters, later than they should have. This is the first time I've encountered a book that deliberately ended too early. I'm not sure what to think of that.

123misader34
Sep 1, 2:24 pm

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124markon
Edited: Sep 1, 3:11 pm

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125dianeham
Sep 1, 5:33 pm

>122 RidgewayGirl: too short at 656 pages?

126RidgewayGirl
Sep 1, 5:52 pm

>125 dianeham: This novel is broad and has, essentially, four main characters. It's pacing is almost leisurely for the majority of the book, and then when the viewpoints begin switching up faster and faster, there's an urgency that builds and I'm not sure that Murray went far enough along the path he was taking us, or maybe the ending was perfect and this ambiguity about the outcome is brilliant. I just wanted three more pages.

127RidgewayGirl
Edited: Sep 2, 1:56 pm

I'm thinking my way through another reader issue, this time about how we review books and how we think about the novels we read. I was in a Goodreads discussion (I know! This is my own fault!) about a book that had interesting things to say and I thought was really nuanced and thought-provoking (Mobility by Lydia Kiesling). And the discussion boiled down to "I didn't like the main character, therefore the book was bad." There were some additional complaints, but they all boiled down to the main character didn't behave like they wanted her to and her experiences were not things they wanted to read about. One guy went so far as to explain that books that touch on the things women experience in the world are boring for him to read about and therefore this book should not have been written. Today, I saw a review for a book I'm interested in where the reader disliked it and felt it an unsuitable Booker prize contender because ...this is due to the fact that the book centers around issues of parenting - both the joys and drudgery of such; what happens to one's psyche when one is abandoned by one's mother; and the travails of post-partum psychosis - and these are not subjects I find intrinsically interesting or can really relate to, being childless and male.

So I have a few things I'm thinking about. I do realize this place is unique in having readers who think about what they are reading and also I have no problem with someone saying something like I really loved this book as part of their review. I do wonder if social media, places like Facebook, that have us reacting to people's posts with a quick emoji, have an influence in getting us to think that a book is "good" or "bad" and making that the sum total of one's thoughts about a book. And why is it that so many judge a book by how much they relate to and want to be friends with the main character?

All of this comes from reading reviews outside of this forum or even this website and maybe if I spent more time on goodreads, I'd have a better understanding of why people approach novels looking for characters who look and act like them and that stick to topics the reader personally likes. Mainly, I'd love to hear what you think. Is this a new thing?

128LolaWalser
Sep 2, 3:52 pm

>127 RidgewayGirl:

I don't think the tendency is new, but it may seem so because social media made us so much more aware of "random" people's opinions. Once upon a time when a book came out and you wanted to check out its reviews, there were only a handful of accredited sources for professional reviews and zero for general public's opinion (except perhaps, in an indirect way, if you considered sales as a form of "opinion").

Non-professional reviewers probably feel more free to go with "I know what I like" school of criticism.

129cindydavid4
Sep 2, 3:56 pm

Ive seen those kind of comments. I think a lot of people who dont read a lot stick with the kind of books they like and that are like them (and for I while I did as well) I learned how to branch out when I found Table Talk Salon at the Atlantic, and discovered new ways of thinking about reading and books. Given how few people I know who read like me, Im not surprised by those kind of comments They want books they are comfortable with. So I dont blame their reviews tho Ive read a few thought made me scream. I am thankful I found places like this, thats all.

130labfs39
Sep 2, 4:19 pm

>127 RidgewayGirl: There are times when I want to read something familiar and comfortable and fall back on those that probably most resemble me: British cardigan books (although I'm American and younger than most of the protagonists), in particular. And I can think of two instances where the protagonist felt so alien that I disliked the book. One protagonist was a male incestuous pedophile (in Independent People), and despite the book being by a Nobel Prize winner, I could not get past it, although I did finish the book. The other was The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker. I wrote in my review that I had trouble relating to an emotionally fraught, middle-aged man. But then again I have trouble relating to most emotionally overwrought characters, so I'm not sure how much his being male was the problem. But usually I love seeking out stories by those unlike me: nomadic herder in Mongolia, young girl in Uganda, soldiers, murderers, prisoners. For me, part of the pleasure of reading is stepping into a different pair of shoes and walking a while. I love learning about new places and people. Very rarely do I read books about white American women. Perhaps that's why I never took to Goodreads :-). It felt too much like an echo chamber.

131KeithChaffee
Edited: Sep 2, 4:44 pm

>127 RidgewayGirl: I think Lola in #128 hits on a big part of it: Most people aren't professional critics, and don't have any experience (or interest) in trying to evaluate the merits of something beyond its effect on them.

And honestly, most people don't have any need to do that. They're reading to fill their own needs, whether that's entertainment, education, curiosity, or "because that's what the book club picked," and all they want to worry about is whether the book does what they wanted it to do.

Criticism is a skill, after all, and not an easy one. Nor is it always an appreciated one. When I come home from the movies and my roommate asks me what I thought of what I saw, he doesn't want a five minute monologue about the acting was pretty good except for that actor, and I liked the score, and my god the script was a mess that really needed another draft. He wants me to tell him, "I liked/didn't like it. I think you would/wouldn't like it." And if I offer more, especially if it's negative criticism, the response is often, "Yeah, but you're a critic." (The sneer is audible.)

Which, at least in my mind, I'm not. A critic is someone who has a solid understanding of and experience with the history of the art form, who can place things in historical and cultural context and explain why why they liked or didn't like something, or what the author is attempting to do and how it works or falls short. At my best, I'm merely a very good reviewer; most of us aren't even that, and don't need to be.

132cindydavid4
Sep 2, 7:16 pm

>130 labfs39: I have trouble relating to most emotionally overwrought characters

yup. I finished march but was so tired of living in that womans head that I skipped through much of it till I found the predictable ending

133RidgewayGirl
Sep 2, 10:08 pm

I do understand the love of comfortable books; I certainly enjoy those. But why would anyone start a book and discover that it isn't the thing they want to read, or that the main character is a woman, or the book isn't something they enjoy and then read the entire thing? Anyway, I have quietly left that book discussion group and will stick to this place. Lesson learned.

134dudes22
Sep 3, 7:17 am

>127 RidgewayGirl: - I read this just before I was headed out yesterday and didn’t have time to comment then. I don’t do social media although I think I might have to soon because of a group I joined. So, I can’t really comment on that aspect even though I think your argument makes sense. (and Lola’s) And especially books that are nominated for an award. I’ve read some award nominated books that were not something I might have picked up otherwise and if I don’t particularly like the book, I try to consider instead what was it that had it making the list – what did others see that I did not. But not to arbitrarily dish it. I admire and appreciate people like you and Judy who can articulate not only what the book is about but why it worked or not for you. This often helps me a lot although I feel I fail in this. I just don’t feel I do very good reviews – mine are more like a synopsis of the book.

I think it’s hard to read a book where you don’t particularly like the main character. Unless it’s something you really want to know about. Or if you’re trying to figure out why the author wrote the character the way they did. (look at Scrooge – very unlikeable for most of the book) If I were reading a book where I really didn’t like the main character, I’d be more inclined to just drop the book and not mention it at all perhaps even if I did read the whole thing.

135japaul22
Sep 3, 7:33 am

I think a lot of my reviews are based around my personal and sometimes emotional reaction. I'm definitely not writing them with the goal of producing a professional-style review. And also, I do have certain kinds of protagonists that I avoid reading about - like those rich, white man problem books, often set in NYC - I feel like you have a word for those, Kay, that I can't remember!

But, I also get what you're talking about. I think because so much of social media is based around providing super-short, emotional responses that try to provoke a response and get noticed, they aren't valuable on any sort of deep intellectual or conversational level. And that gets old quickly for me.

136RidgewayGirl
Sep 3, 5:59 pm

>134 dudes22: Thanks, Betty. I can see not wanting to spend hours of time reading about some deeply unpleasant character, and I have certainly been irked by characters the author clearly wanted the reader to relate to but who I didn't like. I've certainly set aside plenty of novels where it is clear that I am only going to be more annoyed by the book than it deserves.

>135 japaul22: Ha! My beloved WMFuN (white male f**k up novel). They are certainly plentiful and I seem to still end up reading them, although I try to make sure that it's doing more than just showing the redemption arc of a wealthy white guy living in a fantastic apartment in New York. And, yes, someone holding up a book and saying either "loved it!" or "hated it!" brings nothing to the table.

137baswood
Sep 4, 9:54 am

>127 RidgewayGirl: I think all of the comments on your thread about the question you have raised, is why I find these threads on Club Read so rewarding to read.

138BLBera
Sep 4, 1:33 pm

>127 RidgewayGirl: You've pinpointed some huge ongoing problems with reviewing. The last time I checked, the majority of the reviewers are still male, and books by men are reviewed more than books by women because women don't write about important things... About the character comments, I used to see comments like that in student writing all the time. I think it's sloppy, uncritical thinking. Some of the best and most memorable characters are unlikeable.

That being said, I am currently struggling to get into a book where a 19-year-old woman is starting an affair with a man 40 years older than she is...

139RidgewayGirl
Sep 4, 2:12 pm

>137 baswood: Exactly! I have a few friends I can have great discussions about these things in person, but there's no on-line community like this one. And here there are so many interesting opinions and approaches to reading.

140RidgewayGirl
Sep 4, 2:15 pm

>138 BLBera: So much all of this. It's a shallow kind of reading and one that does not want any discomfort. I do get your struggle with that book -- I'm looking forward to your review. I read a book earlier this year about a college student who is involved with her professor and it absolutely needed her older self thinking through those dynamics to make that book work for me.

141jjmcgaffey
Sep 4, 5:19 pm

I have read far too many books in which there was no character with whom I wanted to spend time - it's the reason I avoid most "literature" books (that genre seems to specialize in nasty people being nasty to one another, and ending up exactly where they started). Sometimes the story is rich enough to draw me in, sometimes there's one or two characters I like (as in, am interested in and not repelled by their behavior and choices), sometimes I have to slog through for some reason (ER book or whatever). I've never noticed a particular pattern in who I like or am repelled by - white women (like me) may be as decent/interesting or obnoxious as white men, black men, black women, enbys of any race... Sometimes I'm _confused_ by cultural mismatches (and male/female is as much a culture difference as any racial/national difference...) but usually the personality shows, whatever the specific behaviors may be.

I do review "I couldn't stand the protagonist (or whoever)", but I usually end those with "Not for me - someone who likes X may enjoy it".

142ursula
Sep 5, 4:21 am

Unlikeable characters can be interesting, people whose personalities or actions make me uncomfortable can be interesting. People unlike me can be interesting, although sometimes it's a struggle to determine how much of my reactions to them come from not understanding a cultural context (an interesting question to think about in itself). As for men not reading or being able to relate to "women's topics", I think it's just so hard for me to understand what's so difficult about it since girls spend a large part of our education reading books that we can't relate to on the basis of sex or experience and we're just supposed to accept their significance, importance, and what they tell us about the world.

My comments on books don't pretend to be reviews, they're just my reactions to the reading experience. I try to think about what worked and what didn't, etc., but they really boil down to "I liked this" or "I didn't like this".

143FlorenceArt
Sep 5, 8:16 am

I don't do reviews, because I rarely have anything to say about a book that will be useful to others. Also because I'm lazy. Characters are a big part of whether I like a book or not. I have to feel some kind of connection to them as human beings, ideally all of them, even the "bad" ones. I tend to avoid a book when reviewers say that none of the characters are likable, so I'm not sure how I would react but I guess I wouldn't enjoy the book. But I might enjoy a book even less if characters are not believable, at least to me.

144RidgewayGirl
Sep 5, 10:05 pm

>141 jjmcgaffey: Your thread constantly reminds me of how rewarding it can be to reread a favorite book. I do think that characterizing all literary fiction as nasty people being nasty to one another is perhaps an overly broad brush, but we all have genres we are less interested in. A review that says "this book was not for me" is entirely fair.

>142 ursula: Well, exactly. It's good to be a little uncomfortable and/or struggle to bridge a cultural divide while reading and men who don't think they should have to make that effort when the protagonist is a woman are just lazy. And, in my opinion, reviews that assess a book based on what a reader liked or disliked are useful.

>143 FlorenceArt: You persist in being a literary enigma.

145jjmcgaffey
Sep 5, 11:09 pm

>144 RidgewayGirl: I know it's not _all_, I have (accidentally) read some books that were classified as "literary fiction" or "literature" and found them interesting and enjoyable. But I have also read a lot of books that repelled me on a lot of levels, and they are all too often classified as literary fiction (not all, there have been some terrible books in my favorite genres even). So I avoid that genre in general (horror too) unless I have some reason (a review by someone I know shares my outlook) to think that one particular book is worth reading (for me. Always "for me", I hate reading because I "should" anyway).

146rocketjk
Edited: Sep 6, 9:58 am

Coming in late to this very interesting conversation about reviews and reviewing, I think >128 LolaWalser: hits the nail on the head . . .

Once upon a time when a book came out and you wanted to check out its reviews, there were only a handful of accredited sources for professional reviews and zero for general public's opinion (except perhaps, in an indirect way, if you considered sales as a form of "opinion").

Non-professional reviewers probably feel more free to go with "I know what I like" school of criticism.

. . . as does >131 KeithChaffee:

Most people aren't professional critics, and don't have any experience (or interest) in trying to evaluate the merits of something beyond its effect on them.

And honestly, most people don't have any need to do that. They're reading to fill their own needs, whether that's entertainment, education, curiosity, or "because that's what the book club picked," and all they want to worry about is whether the book does what they wanted it to do.

Criticism is a skill, after all, and not an easy one. Nor is it always an appreciated one.

In regards the later, I had a very tough time when I was in my reading group getting any of the other group members interested in considering why authors might have done things the way they did them in their works, the craft of writing, in other words. But that's fine. It is an interest of mine and not of theirs. But their comments about the books we read were certainly colored by that disinterest.

>142 ursula: As for men not reading or being able to relate to "women's topics", I think it's just so hard for me to understand what's so difficult about it since girls spend a large part of our education reading books that we can't relate to on the basis of sex or experience and we're just supposed to accept their significance, importance, and what they tell us about the world.

Here's my "Captain Obvious" theory: Straight males (like me) were brought up into the regrettable paradigm that our concerns and attitudes are naturally preeminent. This now, thank goodness, is changing. Too slowly but still changing. When you read books by and about women, and particularly those that provide an insight into the ways in which those centuries-long attitudes were/are not only harmful, but worthy of women's resentment and ridicule, and you see yourself in those portrayals, well, for many the natural human reaction is to look away and to find some reason that looking away is an acceptable response. "I can't relate to women's topics" can serve that purpose. Or even if the book is about women's lives in a way that directly or indirectly reveals that men are not essential to the equation: same story. If you are resentful and/or insecure about your old role of primacy being challenged, then the toxic nature of traditional gender roles becomes a "women's problem." It's not your problem. Some of us, I actually think many of us by this time, have been working to shed those old attitudes. For us, the "women's issues" we're referring to, which, honestly, have been right there in front of us blockheads all the time if only we'd had the skill and inclination to see them, are nevertheless at this point welcomed and essential.

Finally, I have no problem with unlikeable and/or difficult characters in fiction. If the characters are believable, that is all I ask. My question is, generally, "Have I ever met this character, or some person reasonably like this character, out in the world?" That's my personal criteria. To each his/her/their own, certainly.

147cindydavid4
Sep 6, 10:25 am

>146 rocketjk: "I can't relate to women's topics"

I cant remember who said "all women issues are human issues" but thats what I think when I read things like this, esp nowadays when we are supposedly more aware.I understand that is the way most men are raised. Im hoping that the next generations will realize the truth in the quote and act accordingly. maybe in my lifetime.

" have no problem with unlikeable and/or difficult characters in fiction. If the characters are believable, that is all I ask"

I agree, and honestly as much as I was tired of the character in March, she was believable, even if I coudnt wait to get out of her head.

148rocketjk
Edited: Sep 6, 11:17 am

>147 cindydavid4: "I cant remember who said "all women issues are human issues" but thats what I think when I read things like this, . . . "

You may be thinking of Hillary Clinton's famous declaration, "Human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights," at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. (I had to look up where she said it.) I would assume she wasn't the first person to use the phrase, but her use of it I guess is the most often referred to.

" I'm hoping that the next generations will realize the truth in the quote and act accordingly. maybe in my lifetime."

Amen

149cindydavid4
Sep 6, 12:24 pm

thanks, thats the one. and amen as well, hoping I live that long:)

150dudes22
Sep 6, 1:06 pm

>146 rocketjk: - Very well said and thought out.

151RidgewayGirl
Sep 7, 9:01 am

>145 jjmcgaffey: I whole-heartedly agree with the idea that what we read should be guided by what we want to read. Sometimes that's something challenging, sometimes that's something that is familiar to us.

>146 rocketjk: I'm glad people are still chiming in. It's been great to really think about these words I dash off after finishing a book and how I might approach that in a more intentional way. I review mainly because something in the act of setting down words cements that book in my head, but I'm also placing those words in a public place.

As for men refusing to read books about or by women, I can only feel deeply fortunate that I haven't had to deconstruct that particular barrier. After all, one reason we read is to experience other lives, it seems overly restrictive to omit half the world.

152RidgewayGirl
Sep 7, 9:40 am



Stop recording, he said, at first, like it was a joke because everything was a joke. Then, more insistently: stop recording. He asked for that, a great tiredness obviously sweeping over him. I could hear it in his voice: tired of playing himself, moments of paralyzing doubt about the point of any of it. Too many substances. But there was never any response from the man holding the tape recorder, and the red recording light stayed on.

After a falling out with her best friend, Mae leaves high school and takes a job as a typist for Andy Warhol. She is eventually given the job of transcribing a series of tapes, recordings made of conversations among the denizens of Warhol's studio. Mae is always in the background, watching the glamorous people hang out, and she forms a friendship with the other woman also working to transcribe the tapes, a young runaway who is cagey about her past.

Nothing Special by Nicole Flattery is a coming of age story about a young woman who becomes a peripheral figure in Andy Warhol's milieu. She's also an observer, overlooked by everyone, occasionally going home with men who see her as enough part of that seemingly glamorous world. She's both eager to be part of it all, but too clear-eyed to delude herself or to fall prey to the more risky excesses, but she is, by the end, another teenage runaway in a city that is not known for kindness.

153baswood
Sep 8, 6:26 am

>152 RidgewayGirl: There is an interesting interview of Nicole Flattery by Colm Toibin on Youtube about Nothing Special and the world of Any Warhol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sst9KPPbT_4

154RidgewayGirl
Sep 12, 9:29 am

>153 baswood: Thanks, Bas! I'm eager to watch it as soon as things calm down over here.

I've spent the past four days in Chicago, enjoying the Printers Row Lit Fest with a good friend, as well as spending a lot of time in the Art Institute and in exploring the bookstores and neighborhoods of Chicago. Many books were purchased and fantastic cocktails imbibed in interesting places, including one where the door was hidden enough that we walked by it three times.

155RidgewayGirl
Sep 14, 5:54 pm



Spring, Ali Smith's third installment in her seasons quartet, begins with Richard, an aging director who is deeply unhappy with the direction of the project he was working on. He ends up standing on a platform at a train station in the north of Scotland. Meanwhile, Brit is working as a guard at a detention center for refugees. There is a story floating around about a girl who can move around without being stopped and when Brit sees her, she feels compelled to join the girl, Florence, on a train journey to a small station in the north of Scotland.

Spring makes the same references to the arts as the previous two novels, moving between the main story and one about Katherine Mansfield and Rainer Maria Rilke in a hotel in the Swiss Alps, as well as the photographer Tacita Dean who, like Pauline Boty from Autumn, was new to me. Smith is a talented author, writing at the peak of her abilities and yet this book feels like the weakest in the quartet so far. It is just a little too blunt in its execution to match the subtler approach of the first two books. Her anger is apparent and utterly justifiable; the way asylum seekers and refugees are treated by the wealthiest and allegedly Christian nations is abominable. A less heavy-handed approach might have been more effective. No one enjoys a sermon, even when one agrees with every word.

156RidgewayGirl
Sep 15, 1:37 pm



...they were sharing a room, she said. I think that's the reason it took so long. Trying to explain it to herself more than me. I said I thought she was probably right. That's what she needed me to say so I said it. Sometimes when your friend is being stupid you just have to go along with it.

Erin's found a sort-of job working as an au pair that gives her a place to live when she returns to Belfast, but she's just spinning her wheels, on hold. She left London and university when her roommate and best friend died suddenly. She knew she couldn't stay, but her hometown is not the refuge she'd hoped it might be. Her relationship with her mother is as fractured as ever and the way her friends spend much of their time just hanging out in bars isn't doing her any good, especially when her closest friend is a bartender. She falls back into an old relationship out of habit and into a new one with an American academic who is clearly in Belfast to get away from something.

Lazy City by Rachel Connolly is a perceptive novel about avoiding grief and how sometimes what looks like stasis is moving forward. Erin has a sharp voice and while she may be avoiding her own problems, she can see her own hometown with an understanding of its history and an affectionate clarity about its faults. Here, the boys who never left, the strivers and those who don't know where they are going are observed but not judged. Connolly writes well, although this novel does feel like a debut, with descriptions often going into unnecessary detail. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for her next novel.

157BLBera
Sep 16, 11:55 am

Your time in Chicago sounds fun, Kay.

I think I liked Spring more than you did, but I've read some of her quartet more than once and have found I like them more on rereading.

158RidgewayGirl
Sep 16, 2:48 pm

>157 BLBera: I did reread Autumn in preparation for reading the rest of the quartet this year, and I enjoyed it very much the second time. I think that I was just very much in the mood for more subtlety.

159RidgewayGirl
Sep 19, 6:36 pm



Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto is a novella and a short story. The novella, Kitchen, follows a young woman, Mikage, whose grandmother and last living relative has died. She knows she needs to move to a smaller and less expensive apartment, but grief makes it hard to get anything done. Enter Yuichi, a young man who was friends with her grandmother, who invites her to come live with his mother and him as they have plenty of space. What Mikage is especially drawn to is their well-appointed kitchen, and for awhile they form a new family.

In retrospect I realize that fate was a ladder on which, at the time, I could not afford to miss a single rung. To skip out on even one scene would have meant never making it to the top, although it would have been by far the easier choice. What motivated me was probably that little light still left in my half-dead heart, glittering in the darkness. Yet without it, perhaps, I might have slept better.

The short story, Moonlight Shadow, concerns another young woman. After her lover's death, Satsuki is lost in grief, until an encounter with a stranger encourages her to believe that she will enjoy life again.

Both stories concern characters dealing with grief and sudden death, but are both hopeful and even whimsical in tone. This book manages to be charming without being saccharine. Yoshimoto's characters are well-drawn and the stories have an impact despite their brevity.

160Cariola
Sep 21, 4:32 pm

>103 RidgewayGirl: On the theory that "a bad review is an attack on a person's livelihood": I don't buy it. If you go out to dinner and the server slops soup in your lap, should you not complain because it is an attack on his livelihood? If you get a really bad haircut, should you not post anything about it because it is an attack on the hairdressser's livelihood? If your doctor gives you an injection of something that he should have known you are allergic to, or even if you just feel that he isn't listening to your concerns, should you say nothing because you are attacking his livelihood? For me, in all cases, nope.

Reviews are opinions, and as long as a bad review is backed up with reasons or examples, I have no problem giving it. After all, that book has taken up a lot of my valuable time and, in some cases, has really annoyed me with horrible writing, a hackneyed plot, cliché or unbelievable characters, etc. I'm usually self-aware enough to realize if a book isn't necessarily "bad," just bad for me, and I always give an indication if others might like it but it's just not my cuppa. For example, my review of Where the Crawdads Sing was pretty scathing, but I mentioned that it was a well-loved best seller and that I was in the minority, and I gave plenty of details, reasons, and examples to back up my bad review. And if a book just hit me so badly that I couldn't waste any more time on it, well, I'll just say that and leave it for others to decide for themselves.

161Cariola
Sep 21, 4:43 pm

>127 RidgewayGirl: This book sounds like an example where I would preface my comments by saying it's just not a book that I would enjoy--not my cuppa. And would keep that in mind as I write my review. I may be saying why I didn't like it but not calling it a "bad" book on the basis of content or genre alone.

162Cariola
Sep 21, 5:06 pm

>155 RidgewayGirl: All this review discussion led me back to reread my review of Spring, which I had given 5 stars. I still think it's a good and fair review of a good book. I understand where you're coming from and agree that it may allow Smith to be a bit self-indulgent in her anger. But I tend to be a sucker for interwoven stories and, in this case, interwoven novels. And I liked that--as is appropriate for a book entitled Spring, the season of new beginnings--it ends on a note of optimism.

163cindydavid4
Edited: Sep 21, 6:37 pm

>160 Cariola: I agree totally

speaking of: every since I was a kid it seemed verbotten to return a book. . When I do, usually because I "surprise"already had it or read it. But what about if I buy a book thata was so different from what I was expecting that it was a waste to me. Irene was an example unfortunatel y) Not the stores fault, my problem. Books are too expensive any more to make those mistakes. and theres no magic ball that could let you really see (yes now there are more reviews so its usually not a good excuse anymore) My solution is bring said book to the trade counter. if I cant get all if my money back but its ok, im supporting indie bookstores

but why is it ok to return other items but not books

eta Yes I know I could use the library, and perhaps need to do that now for new books

164cindydavid4
Edited: Sep 21, 6:36 pm

>150 dudes22: just read your review and loved this: No one enjoys a sermon, even when one agrees with every word. yes a hundred times

165RidgewayGirl
Sep 21, 6:42 pm

>162 Cariola: Yes, I noticed that most people loved Spring. I'm looking forward to diving into Summer.

And there are a few reviews that I have prefaced with the information that the genre was not one I usually read. Incidentally, I'm reading a political thriller for one of my book clubs and, boy, is it a genre I do not understand the appeal of. Still, it's not terrible.

>164 cindydavid4: For me, subtle persuasion is far more effective than the cudgel of righteousness. But I suspect that having grown up in a religious environment, I'm more sensitive to a sermon than most.

In other news, the Booker Prize shortlist is out and I've read three; If I Survive You, Western Lane and The Bee Sting.

166labfs39
Sep 21, 7:45 pm

I started reading The Polish Boxer today, and in the first chapter, Halfon the narrator/author writes about teaching undergraduate literature. Several of the pages reminded me of the discussion upthread. The first author he covered in his class was Poe:

At the beginning of a class, {she} raised her hand and said she hadn't liked the stories at all. Fine, I said, that's your right, but tell us why. To which she simply replied, making a disgusted face: Just really gross. A few people laughed; others seconded her opinion. Yeah, really gross. So I explained to them that taste has to be accompanied by a more refined understanding, that most of the time we dislike something simply because we don't understand it, haven't really made an effort to understand it, and the easiest response is just to claim we haven't liked it and wash our hands of the whole affair. You've got to develop criteria, I said, exercise your ability to analyze and synthesize, and not just spit out empty opinions. You've got to learn to read past the words, I said, rather poetically, I believe, though no doubt all I did was confuse them further.

After the class, the girls says she still doesn't like the stories but that she understands them better. "That's all right," {he says}, "Neither Poe nor I are offended."

They read Maupaussant's "The Horla."

Before I began, I asked all those who hadn't like the story to put up their hands. Six hands rose timidly. Then seven. Eight. All right, you eight come up to the front of the class, I said, and they sauntered casually up to the front of the group until at last they formed a sort of crooked line of suspects. Tell us what you didn't like about it. First one: I don't know. Second: Well, I didn't finish it, so I just didn't like it. Third: It's totally impossible to understand, the author doesn't make any sense, and I don't like people who don't make sense. Fourth: Too long. Fifth: Too long. (Laughter.) Sixth: I felt sorry for the crazy guy. Seventh: I only like positive stories, stories that inspire me and make me want to live, not just depress me. Eighth: Yeah, same here, it made me feel bad, and who wants to feel bad? I remained silent, glancing from them to the rest of the class, trying to let something sink in without my having to say it outright. Not a chance.

167RidgewayGirl
Sep 21, 8:16 pm

>166 labfs39: Yes, that nails it. Making note of title.

168ursula
Edited: Sep 22, 5:38 am

Never mind, off topic.

169RidgewayGirl
Sep 22, 2:54 pm

>168 ursula: I invite wildly off-topic comments at any time, Ursula.

170cindydavid4
Sep 22, 5:09 pm

Hahaha! the more the merrier

171Cariola
Sep 23, 3:12 pm

>163 cindydavid4: One thing you might want to do is read a sample on Amazon before purchasing a book. There is usually a "Look Inside" option that lets you read most, if not all, of the first chapter. That might not give you enough to determine if the story or characters resonate with you, although it might not. And it will usually tell you if there's something about the author's style that you don't like.

>165 RidgewayGirl: The only short listed book I've read is This Other Eden. I've enjoyed others by Paul Lynch and may look for Prophet Song.

>166 labfs39: Great passage! I used to teach Cold Mountain to my undergrad non-English majors. It's a great one for discussing structure, description, theme development and character building. Most of them disliked it because it had a sad ending (although really it ends more, I think, as a celebration of love and what really makes family--after the sad part).

172SassyLassy
Sep 23, 3:44 pm

>166 labfs39: That looks wonderful. All my sympathies go to the narrator/author. I will look for this book.

173RidgewayGirl
Sep 23, 5:06 pm

The following book was read for a book club I'm in. We alternate between Golden Age mystery novels and modern novels in the mystery genre. This month's book is a political thriller, which is very much not a genre I read and this novel solidified that decision. This is not a review by an someone who understands the genre at all.



In The Devil's Bed by William Kent Krueger, a Secret Service agent is assigned to protect the FLOTUS while she's in Minnesota visiting her father in the hospital and staying on the family estate. He figures out that not only is there someone who wants to kill her, but her father is also in danger. Then there are a bunch of machinations involving a government agency and the POTUS has to choose between his father, a powerful senator, and doing the right thing, and also a bunch of people get killed.

The main bad guy had a horrific childhood and got tortured a lot working for some special forces kind of thing, so he's messed up. But the secret service agent also had a bad childhood, and is very moral, so there's a lesson there, probably.

This is a well-written novel and there are a lot of twists and turns to the plot, with lots of narrow escapes and descriptions of what specific kind of knife or tractor or gun was used. I can see why this genre is popular, it's just not my thing.

174RidgewayGirl
Sep 23, 5:09 pm

>171 Cariola: There's a copy of The Other Eden waiting for me at the library. Having read three of the books, including the longest one, I will probably read the other three just for the sake of completion. I will say, it does look like a solid and varied shortlist.

175BLBera
Sep 23, 9:37 pm

>166 labfs39: This so brings me back to the classroom! I am making note of this one.

176BLBera
Sep 23, 9:40 pm

>173 RidgewayGirl: Thrillers aren't really my thing either, Kay, although I have read some I've liked in the past. I do like mysteries.

177RidgewayGirl
Sep 24, 2:51 pm

>176 BLBera: I like a domestic thriller or a psychological thriller as a fun escapist read, but when you have imaginary politicians talking to each other and details about the workings of shady governmental agencies, I end up bored.

178rachbxl
Sep 27, 4:32 am

Your thread is always so dangerous, Kay, and I had such a lot to catch up on that as I read I did the equivalent of holding my hands over my ears and shouting "la, la, la, I can't hear you!", and managed to come away with only two book bullets, the Laurent Mauvignier and the Rachel Connolly (totally justified since I recently read a novel by a Northern Irish author (Louise Kennedy) and told myself I would like to look out for more). Very interesting discussion on reviewing, by the way.

179RidgewayGirl
Sep 27, 1:27 pm

>178 rachbxl: Both those books are good choices! And it was a good discussion about reviewing. I learned a lot and it gave me plenty to think about.

180RidgewayGirl
Sep 28, 2:29 pm



A shooting accident leaves two families shattered. On one side of the reservation border, the Ravich family has lost their son. On the other side, the Irons family, a large, chaotic group, is left dealing with guilt, on the parents's part and confusion from the children. An atonement is found in sharing their youngest son, LaRose, with the Raviches.

Louise Erdrich's novel is the story of two families interlaced despite themselves, but also the history of the previous LaRoses and their place within the Irons family, and of the many members of the small Ojibwe community in North Dakota, from the priest, a veteran who has found a place there, to the hospital janitor, to the lively residents of the senior home. Erdrich weaves a rich story that manages to be both full of heart and unflinching about the hardships faced by her characters.

181markon
Sep 28, 2:43 pm

>173 RidgewayGirl: Too bad. I enjoyed the first few of Krueger's Cork O'Connor series, and still read them occasionally as an escape, but this doesn't sound my cuppa at all.

On the other hand, The Polish Boxer sounds quite interesting.

182RidgewayGirl
Sep 28, 4:36 pm

>181 markon: Years ago, I was lucky enough to have lunch with Krueger (an author event where I and a friend arrived late and were seated next to the author) and he is a very nice man. I have his more recent works and am eager to read them.

And I think everyone is now interested in reading The Polish Boxer!

183labfs39
Sep 29, 7:44 am

And I think everyone is now interested in reading The Polish Boxer!

LOL. But do note that the book is made up of interrelated stories, and only the first (so far) is about his life as a professor. That said, the chapter is excellent and could be read on its own.

184RidgewayGirl
Sep 30, 2:55 pm



Company: Stories by Shannon Sanders is a collection of interconnected short stories set in and around Washington DC and centering on the members of a large, extended family. As with any large family, some are doing well and some are struggling and who that is may change over time. There are family stories, family expectations and the roles assigned in childhood that may chafe in adulthood. There are family stories where the reality is somewhat different and what is expected changes depending on the generation.

They would only be in the house on Ashburn Street for six or nine months, a year at the absolute most, and so although Merritt knew she should make a point of meeting the neighbors, she put it off for two weeks after the move-in. She had begun to specialize in putting things off; these days she was leaden as an anchor, and Ashburn Street was the ocean floor.

These stories stand on their own and the connections between the characters in each story reveal themselves as the book unspools. A character in one story is in the background of another, an event in one story is a familiar tale that bears just a glancing resemblance to the facts in another. There are two stories that recount the same event from different vantage points that was particularly effective. Throughout these stories, Sanders writes about people just trying to get through the challenges of their lives. It's a solid collection and I'm already looking forward to seeing what she writes next.

185BLBera
Sep 30, 8:27 pm

>182 RidgewayGirl: I've heard that about Krueger, Kay. I have read quite a few in the Cork O'Connor series, and most have been pretty good. It's been awhile; I should check out the next one. I've been listening to them most recently. The audiobooks are well done.

186RidgewayGirl
Yesterday, 5:37 pm

I noticed today that half of the shortlist for the Booker Prize was written by someone named Paul. What does this domination by Pauls mean to the world of literature and is there anything that can be done?
This topic was continued by RidgewayGirl's Year of Whim and Inclination -- Fourth Quarter.