Review: Award winning novelist’s eighth
novel takes on three generations of a broken family covering a period of fifty
years. Set outside Philadelphia in an ornate mansion that becomes the obsessive
focal point of the family’s life, it is a beautifully told story of loyalty, surrender,
rediscovery and complete angst. The characters are vivid, the relationships heart
wrenching, the prose top notch and has a wonderful evocation of time and place.
A memorable read thanks to my most erudite referral sources, Feel and Maux.
Review: A huge dynamic book that many will
be familiar with from the TV series, though I’ve never seen it and did not make
the connection until I got the book (after reading Carr’s most recent work, “Surrender,
New York”). Carr likes historical fiction with very real characters and is thorough
is his research; think Teddy Roosevelt, John Pierrepoint Morgan, William James).
Alienists were the precursors to today’s criminal profilers and reviled as
dingbats and heretics during the 19th century. This book takes place
in turn of the century New York-a very different place than it is now, and it
is a wonderful picture of the time and place. The pursuit of a “whore-boy” serial
killer is fascinating and well-grounded in both the theories of the time and what
we now know. Hard to put down for most of the book though the end was little shadowy.
Good one to hunker down with.
Notable People: Kevin
Costner, Cole Hauser, Wes Bentley, Kelly Reilly, Luke Grimes, Created by: Taylor Sheridan
Title: Yellowstone
Review: Guilty Pleasure……the writing and acting is moderately
well done (at best), the plots sometimes a bit farfetched and Costner is a surreal
archetype…..BUT……I love this show. The ensemble –family cast is quite good together,
all the actors seem genuinely western, the cinematography is way beyond most
TV, there are occasional clear lines between good and evil and Hauser’s performance
as Rip, the ranch foreman with a rod way up his ass, is worth the price of admission….
not to mention the way out of control Reilly as hard- as- nails daughter, Beth.
And then there is the scenery……Wow…. let’s all move to Montana. The third
season was actually more captivating than the fist two, and the ending was
quite the shocker. Coming back for number four. If you can still stand watching
commercials, this is worth the effort.
Review: this is the ninth in Dunbar’s Tubby Dubonnet series. Tubby is a N’Awlins lawyer trying to live the good life, but nagged by conscience to do the right thing. Complimented by a splendid cast of characters and Dunbar’s (a local attorney) amazing sense of the city, the books are quality diversions. This one went a little overboard with Tubby becoming haunted with a murder he witnessed when first coming to The Easy in 1970……which leads to the usual mayhem…. how many car bombings can go off unnoticed in one day? The story lost momentum in the last third, and had poor resolve, but a very quick and entertaining read, nonetheless. If so inclined, you could follow Dunbar’s food and drink descriptions for a memorable tour of the city.
Review: Hard to believe……500th review over the last eight years or so…. must need something else to do……This is a very complicated first novel from the author of “All the Light We Cannot See”, which I reviewed here and loved. Doerr is meticulous in his writing and at times a bit hard to keep up with. This is a sweeping story of a tortured hydrologist and his quest for some form of truth and meaning…. lots and lots of minutia about all things water in the book, most of it symbolic. The story takes place over 30 or so years moving from Anchorage to Cleveland to St. Vincent’s in the Caribbean, as the protagonist tries to find his wife and daughter, who he abandoned in in 1979 during a flood in Cleveland that he had dreamed would occur (a frequent event in the book). He has no idea if his daughter had died in the flood and escapes to the Caribbean, living a minimalist existence and obsessing over the causal link between his dreams and people’s horrific misfortunes- possibly even his daughter’s death. I was inclined to give up on this book multiple times, but it kept me just enough hooked to carry on, and was glad I did. This is a book that takes time to read and absorb, but is ultimately quite moving.
Review: Hamilton, the author of the long
running and wonderful Alex McKnight mystery series, also writes standalone
books and this is his latest….and a total gem. Like film noir??…. this is for
you. I can imagine a young Robert Mitchum in the lead role. It’s a murder story
shrouded in the cacophony of a man’s devastating grief and loss. Joe Trumbull
is quite the everyman- a widower, jazz lover, boxer and ………of all things…. a
juvenile probation officer, in…. of all places……Kingston, New York. As someone
who has worked in juvenile justice for most of my adult life, this is a rare treat
and the life is portrayed pretty well. As someone who has spent considerable time
in the sleepy city of Kingston, that an unusual, and appreciated, choice for
venue. Honestly, could not put his one down, and devoured it in three readings.
Hamilton is really good.
Review: another in long line of culturally
sensitive books my daughter has given me, with obvious implications. This is Owens,
a longtime Naturalist’s first novel, and it a gem. Set in coastal North Carolina
from 1952 to 1970, it is the story of “The Marsh Girl” (Kya) , a young woman deserted
by all her family as a seven year old, who raises herself in the wetlands of
the remote Outer Banks. It’s a masterful Whodunit mixed in with a beautiful coming
of age story and a treatise of the ecology of the swamp. Beautifully written and
told, with characters that jump off the page. Starts a bit slowly, but becomes
hypnotic………….did not want it to end……ever.
“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom” …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Socrates
“Autumn night- a hole in my paper door whistling”
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Issa
“Therein lies one of life’s biggest lessons. Ain’t
got nothin’ to with deserve. Just pray to the Saint of Lost Causes” …………………………………….
Justen Townes Earle
Autumn seemed to come and
leave……Monday was a hot and humid 82 (felt like 95) ……and we spent the day digging
trenches, burying conduit and cable line and being go-fers for the electrician,
but finished with first ever electric service to the horse barn and the bunkhouse….
let there be light……which finishes the “quickie” 100-hour barn project….and allows
Papi to return to the couch….and the Queen to resume her royal duties……
Back working with the Caribbean
folks on some virtual training for Dominica and Anguilla (not quite like being there)
…and back on Carib time……have a Zoom, respond with what they ask for the same
day…wait two weeks for them to send me the next step……may get the training in
sometime in the next millennium…. but, its ok mon……no rush…don’t worry…be
happy…………………………
Has anyone else bought Zoom stock?
Car Repair in the Mountains
#3- had to go back to the wilds of New Hampshire to the only place in the northeastern
United States that would repair my exhaust system….because the other local mechanic
told me it was too loud and something was not right….so drove an hour plus back
to the Jesus repairs shop (the whole road is one big Evangelical love fest…see
the mailbox photo)….and found that even Acolytes can be vindictive…..the holy- mechanic-
man, obviously irritated that I came back, and doubted The Lord’s Work, made me
sit in the car while he put it up on the highest lift height I have ever seen,
and then made me run the engine rpms up above 80 mile per hour…..I could see
out the garage door to the mountains of Maine,
and felt certainly like I was due for takeoff at any moment…kept me up there for
15 minutes without saying a word….brought me down, grunted it was fine, and sent
me on my way…..
Found Jenn and Lucy hiking the
dirt road, so joined in for the Jesus tour…which apparently comes with The Lord’s
Own Airfield…. did I mention that it poured rain all day…………? I have now decided
that the exhaust system is just fine….
Friday the sun came back out
and it was a gorgeous low 60s-so we took off again, away from New Hampshire and
The Lord’s Work…and down through Ludlow and Chester to the charm of tiny Grafton….
finding our way to an old traveling haunt of ours, the Grafton Swimming Hole,
for a picnic lunch…and then the de rigueur dirt road walk…. they had a “pop up”
set up in the middle of little dirt road Main St. Grafton…. does anyone really
know what a “pop up” is?
Saturday a rainy day again….so
after the requisite weekend trip to see The Dumpmaster, the Postmistress and
the Library biddies…..I spent most of the afternoon overhauling the front of
our big barn/garage…..clearly a Corona-based activity…..hiding most of The Queens
four thousand, five hundred and thirty flower pots in the process….after that,
it was definitely nap time…and then headed down the 140 to Wallingford to do Sal’s’ South for red gravy dinner pick
up….the drive down was a mystical experience with bright in –the –eyes- setting
sun intermingled with intense fog…made me look for another Jesus airfield………
After waiting for Sal to call
me in for one-in- at- a time dinner pickup (I am somehow known as Walt there….
Papi Walt…like it) …. I was hosing down in the car before heading back up the mount,
when Lucy saw three dogs being walked by, and hurtled into the front seat,
going berserk and knocking red gravy all over the car. I was so startled, I smacked
her and shoved her in the back…and have been depressed ever since. She looked
at me with such shock……was the first time in seven years I had laid hands on
her, and felt like we had lost out innocence…. power and control…. blah, blah,
blah…….
Just went upstairs for a
moment to find TQ repurposing our cellar vegetable bin into a shoe rack, taking
up residence in our bedroom…with the rest of the produce……
Has anyone ben keeping up with
the NBA playoffs? Is it me, or is the NBA the most socially conscious business in
the country…. You go ballers……
Being courted by the Vermont Law
School to do some online course teaching this fall and winter……………
Hmmmmm?……..a virtual classroom of wannabe lawyers?…….Better pay well.
Purchase of the summer….
twenty bucks on line for a state of the art, bull goose looney, inflatable raft
with cup holders, headrest and built in sauna…. which will likely stay in the
box until it is warm enough again to go in The Pond…maybe nest July?
Dinner on the ground this afternoon
at the manse of the French Chef and his Francophile Wannabe Bride………
And that, as he said, is all
she wrote, mes amis……
Darling je vous aime beaucoup,
I just don’t know what to do……
Review: Chilling and suspenseful first
novel that baffled me throughout. The book starts in London with a disturbed woman
killing her husband and goes on a whirlwind from there. It is told through the lens
of her equally disturbed psychotherapist, and the erstwhile murderess’ journals,
and is full of unusual twists and turns. Not a traditional mystery, and more of
a full blown treatise on borderline personalities. The psychological themes and
jargon are well researched and the use very short chapters allow for absorbing
the intense narrative. I had no idea where this was going until the very end. Quite
an inaugural effort, though the writing has some maturing to do. A number one
NY Times bestseller, which was gifted to me, and made me wonder about the symbolism
off that.
Review: The 19th book in the
Kate Burkholder series is the best yet in my estimation. In a major departure,
the entire story more or less takes place in a snowbound Amish house in the
fictitious Painters Mill, Ohio. This book delves into Kate’s challenging past
and her break from her origin Amish family and community, as well as the introduction
of a fascinating character from her past. Additional bonus for some of us- much
of the book is centered on Columbus, Ohio and deadly corruption in the Columbus
Police Department-allegedly fictional (but some of us would be believers). The main
series characters have developed very well over the years, the writing is taut and
suspenseful, the sense of Amish life, culture and place is extraordinary. Very,
very compelling reads.
