The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles

 

Yes, I am slowly dipping my toes back into WWII fiction.  I just could not resist the Library setting in this one!!!

What I loved about this story:

-It is based on real people, real events, and a real library!

-I learned several historical facts about Paris during WWII. 

-The Dewey Decimal System!!!!!

-So many books and authors are mentioned throughout, and quoted pertinent to the events in the book, that I kept a list.  Very interesting to consider the books that were popular in the '30's and '40's.

-There is a love story or two, but friendship and relationships with colleagues is more forefront.

- The relationship between Odile and Lily.

-The relationship between Lily and Eleanor. There is a lot to unpack here about teenagers and blended families, and standing up for yourself, from Lily, Eleanor and Odile!

-The author does a good job of presenting how people were so torn during wartime - to do their jobs sometimes they had to betray their friends, or vice versa.  Wartimes lead to impossible decisions and actions that would never have happened during peace.  Walking in other's shoes and skin indeed......

- Even though it is a split timeline, we spend the majority of the novel in the further past (I still have a hard time thinking 1987 qualifies for historical fiction, but that is just me showing my age!).

- The author nailed being a 1980's teenager with angst, grief, and parents that don't understand.

-Did I mention it is a book about books?????  Well, sort of, they are an important secondary character at least!

What I did not really like:

-Young Odile.  UGH!  So immature, even after college.  Maybe that is a statement on the mindset of society about young unmarried girls who during that time still live with their parents until they got married.  But it grated on my nerves that her mother still told her to turn out her light at bedtime, and how she threw temper tantrums and could not keep her mouth shut.  She meant well, and I guess no one is perfect especially when young, but it just took her a long time to learn not to stick her nose in and tattle.  And to face her jealousies - the whole thing with Bitsi was another tantrum.

-Even Odile skirted around her duplicity with Margaret.  That plot was heartbreaking all around.

-Lots of loose ends at the end, esp re: Odile and her past relationships.  I did like how the author really waited til the last minute to reveal all, but I wanted a bit more wrap up, even if the wrap up wasn't happy.  Many of her actions, especially when she moved to Montana and how that happened, just did not add up.  I could not reconcile the woman who turned her light off at midnight bc Maman yelled at her with the woman who eloped.

-  I know it is literary license, but I did not appreciate the timing of when she met Buck.  Way too easy.

Overall, a nice read, good historical fiction, I liked more than I didn't, and it definitely kept me reading to figure out what the book flap meant by betrayal.  And I think there is so much to discuss here, it would make a solid book club book.  The Author's note at the end explains how so much of this is a true story and which of the characters were real people, and that she learned of these people and stories and how they risked themselves to send books to soldiers and Jews while she was working at the American Library of Paris herself!  Cool!!!

PS If you are interested in other WWII books that aren't necessarily about the WAR (as in battles), check out Those Who Save Us by Jenna Bloom; The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck; or The Riviera House by Natasha Lester (very similar to The Paris Library in that they are both split timelines and focus on books and art during the war).

Two books! The Library of the Dead and Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments by TL Huchu

      

Book One:

Three Stars - Which means I liked it!! Enough that I already checked out book 2!

Cadence is different here - lots of slang and casual prose. Ghostalking is a profession in futuristic Edinburgh and Ropa is a teenage Ghostalker responsible for her family. She is hard shelled, poor, a hard worker and sees dead people, and she owes rent. She makes money delivering messages from the other side, until one client has a missing son and asks Ropa for help. She immediately is over her head but is determined to discover what happened to the missing boy, and finds several of Edinburgh’s other kids are missing too. What is going on???? Well constructed and definitely different. It took a while to really get into the plot, lots of backstory here. The style took some getting used to but I enjoyed it once I got the hang of it. Is this indicative of modern British/Scottish literature?? Cool.

                        *******************************

Book Two:

Four Stars!  Ok, I jumped right into this one after reading The Library of the Dead. This second book was unputdownable which is now a word. I love Ropa's voice, her slang, her family, and her loyalty. I love her friends and her talents and how she handles her imperfect but well meaning self in her new role as intern in a magical library. (She used to be a "ghostalker", carrying messages from the other side back to loved ones left behind - for a fee of course). She is a hustler and quite mature for a 15 year old!!! The setting of a not so distant future Edinburgh and the many references to the Catastrophe and how much of a slum the city is now is done only in passing. I am hopeful some of that will come to light in a future installment, as the author has said there should be a total of five books (yea!).

This installment has Ropa, her cradle bff Jomo and their new friend and healer Priya tasked with figuring out why local boys from magical schools are showing up comatose with high fevers, and end up chasing a dark demon, lots of money, better jobs, and for Ropa, a better future for her little sister Izwi. We get more characters in this story, with a more confusing mystery to solve, and some serious old magic. I felt like this novel flowed a little better even with a few "bridges" that sort of jumped time. But I really got into the cadence here of Ropa's narration, her slang, her life, and her intentions. I also hope we get more from her Zimbabwean grandmother in the next installment - of her powers and her history - like we did in the first novel.

A fun new character and series for me - I can see this as YA, but there is some language and some weird demonic violence. No romance though, which I appreciated, but some solid friendships that take a licking and keep on ticking.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

 

Writing is like a puzzle.  Authors have to find the right fit for each word, sentence, chapter.  EACH. WORD.  This is why I am not an author, only a writer.  I am too lazy/impatient/intimidated. (couldn't even decide which of those words to use!!)

By works like this.  

Doerr is a Pulitzer Prize winner for a novel I didn't love.  Yes, it was beautiful and a bit redeeming yada yada but come on y'all, it was SOOOO SAD!!  My book club loved All the Light We Cannot See, but I was like, meh.  I may not have loved ATLWCS, but there is no doubt this man has a seriously good command of language.  

Good thing Sally* tells me to give authors a second chance, and too bad he didn't win the Pulitzer again.  This book was abso-fricking-lutely amazing.  I can see how it might not be for everyone.  It is very...imaginative.   And the structure took some getting used to. And it is looooooong.  And I thought it was amazingly brilliant.

Briefly, you should know that we have three different time periods going on that cover several centuries and three locations, and five different characters whose stories we follow.  It seemed like it would be impossible to follow but somehow, the transitions back and forth were smooth and truly did help narrow the story down, even when we have two characters with two time periods each. Don't let that intimidate you though.  I don't think I am astute enough to catch all the parallelisms that are deep in this book, but I sure tried, and I sure enjoyed the journey.  The common thread, and title, is an ancient "lost" Greek fairytale about a man on the search for paradise.  I am also sure that the title is a wink, a double entendre, and more than just a title. For more plot than that, go read the book flap, which is so well written in its own right that it could win an award, were there awards for that sort of thing.

As a reader and lover of books and stories, I appreciated how this one ancient text stood the test of time and helped frame each of these stories, giving at the end some sort of freedom to each of our main characters, albeit in different ways.  A young girl learns to read in Constantinople; an old man finally finds happiness and purpose at his local library in Idaho; a troubled teenager takes righteous action which goes horribly wrong; an isolated young woman puts together a life-altering puzzle of clues. None of these people know each other, but their lives are woven together like a tapestry.  This is a book about a book (there is a book on the cover!), about a library or two or three (I literally sat up when Konstance's Library was introduced), about how words are immortal.  It is also about war and environmental conservation and owls and dreams for the future and misunderstood youths and Love - romantic and familial. It truly is about finding one's way in this life.  And how the threads of one life can be revealed in the most unusual ways in another.

I took so many notes on this book. I just cannot put them all in a review.  Doerr must have had a string wall to keep all the connections straight. My book club doesn't know it yet, but we are going to read this one.  We will have differing opinions I am sure - this is not a beach read.  And yet, I felt very light reading it. I actually felt like a scholar.  Even with some bad things and a few loose ends, this book made me happy as a reader.  So very much to talk about, and yes I still have some questions especially about the end(s).  This is the sort of book I have a hangover after reading.  Took me a few days to pick up my next book.  I just wanted to enjoy the aura of it, to think about it.

And, yes, to go thank a librarian, as Doerr does in his dedication: to all the librarians, then, now and in the years to come.  Fingers crossed.

*If you are new to this blog, and you don't know who Sally is, she is my local independent bookstore owner and Bookseller.  She recognizes me (or sometimes just my voice!) when she hears me come into her store (Park Road Books) and always has a perfect recommendation.  And I love her.

PPS - to see my review of ATLWCS on Goodreads, here it is:  All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr | Goodreads

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

Fun fantasy read! I finally read this in prep for the TV series after my cousin Pam recommended it years ago. I enjoyed it, I watched the show pretty much at the same time (while yelling, "that's NOT in the book" galore! haha), and thought they were both pretty good. I do like a good fantasy novel, and yes this one takes a lot of plotpoints from The Lord of the Rings, so astute readers/fans will see right through that. 

But the addition of a female magi makes it worth it. Women definitely have The Power here, which is a different take in fantasy a la Terry Goodkind's Wizards First Rule if I remember correctly. But luckily for me this book was not nearly as violent or graphic as Goodkind's.  There is definitely some violence and killing as per the times, but I did not find it graphic.  And the whole spin on women yielding power, both at the high level and in the villages with the Wisdom always at odds with the Village Council is a great refreshing take.  

Our hero is still the unsuspecting farm boy, but his two friends have their own journeys to go on and provide some interesting side stories that I am sure will come to full fruition later down the line, so they are not gratuitous characters.   I also look forward to finding out just how much his friend (??) Egwene and the Wisdom Nynaeve and of course our fearless leader Moiriane (she of the Power) and her Warder/protector, Lan, really do come into the whole prophecy and future of this world.  I loved the TV show's rendition of Loial, his slow and purposeful speech and history and of course, song.  One of the best phrases our hero Rand hears from a seer (another woman!) is regarding his relationship with his friendgirl Egwene:  “She’s not for you, nor you for her; at least, not in the way you both want.”  The Lore is strong, indeed!

I will eventually pick up the next book I think, but this one at 800 pages was such an investment I think I need a break. It was a bit long with all the travelling and innkeeper meeting and monster avoidance. Which means I probably won't remember all the characters' names and all the events, etc, but that is ok. There is always the TV show! Not to mention the very helpful glossary at the end of the book! Probably really three and a half stars, but I am a sucker for a huge fantasy world build (with MAPS!!)

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

 

Once in a while, fair readers, there comes a book you think cannot fail.  It is, after all, a book about READING!!  Whoo Hoo!

Alas, this is not that book.

I was so hopeful for this one - it had great potential in its description.  A story about how a mysterious list of books to read and a library would bring people together just at the moment when those people needed that connection the most.  Sounds great, right?

Told from different perspectives (and narrated for me, I listened to this one), we meet a widowed man named Mukesh whose late wife loved to read; Aleisha, a teenager who reluctantly works in the library and hides her family shame; and a couple of other people who throw in their two cents' worth randomly throughout.

So here was my problem.  First of all this book was WAY too long.  Editors, you failed.  There was way too much build up, too much time with Mukesh and his daughters (although, the renditions of their phone calls to him were pretty funny on audio), not enough time with the woman from a few years ago whose time was so short I don't even remember her name, too much wallowing in Aleisha's sad restricted life, etc etc etc, and not enough time on the Grand Finale where everyone discovers (or not) where the list actually came from, who wrote it, who read it, etc etc etc.

I think the budding friendship between Mukesh and Aleisha is the best part of this novel, and we didn't really get much time with that.  The list of books was interesting.  One of them I had never heard of (wanna guess which??? comment below!) but the rest I was like, YES, pretty good list!  And as other reviewers have pointed out, there are SPOILERS galore for the books on the list, so if you haven't read any of them, beware (I am looking at you, Richard Parker!).  There were some good moments of reflection where the books being read really did speak to the reader at that moment of their life, so there's that.

I just feel that this book missed its mark.  I had to check it out of the library twice and force myself to get through it.  Never a good thing for a reader.  I kept thinking this is going to all come together so gorgeously, I just know it!  The end was awful and then nice and then it was over.  Ugh.  Disappointed.

Lockdown Update - Two Years Later

 This morning, our power went out.  

Now, I know there are more important things going on in the world right now.  Stay with me.

So, when I realized I would not get my coffee fix this morning, I packed up my laptop and my notebook (paper girl 4-EVAH) and went down to my local bakery/coffeehouse.  I was going to update the four book reviews I told myself I need to write before I start my next book.  It is weird for me to be in a space where I am not actually reading, but hey, blogs matter!!

As I was getting ready to catch up on reviews, I was (procrastinating by) scrolling back in the blog and found the trio of posts I wrote during the beginning of the pandemic.  What a fascinating record of feelings and situations and hopes and anxieties!  Reflecting on these posts from two years ago made me think it might be time for an update, for future reference again.

Wait, hold on.  TWO YEARS.  Really?  It seems like forever and yesterday.  My husband predicted this time frame back in March 2020, that it would take two years to get through it.  (I hate it when he is right!)  While I know we aren't really finished with this pandemic with all the variants and people still getting sick and the effects of Long Covid hovering over people I know, we recently had the mask mandate lifted in the state where I live and that feels like such a huge goal/change.  It was actually strange walking into the grocery store without a mask on.  

But gone is the feeling that I was dirty/germy when I walked out of the grocery store, like I felt two years ago.  I am pleased to report that at least in my case, my fears that friends and other people would act suspicious towards me and each other after Covid have not materialized.  I have resumed hugging people!  I started out holding my breath as I hugged so as not to breathe on people, but I don't even do that anymore.  Restaurants and shops are fully reopened, and while many businesses became casualties of Covid, I am pleased to say our little business is now booming and we are actually expanding to another location this summer.  We made it through!! 

Travel has been the biggest piece missing from our lives in my family. We are a mixed nationality family and my in-laws live overseas.  We travel A LOT.  We haven't seen The Cousins in over three years.  But this week, we booked a FLIGHT.  So super excited to see everyone again this summer!  My daughter is studying overseas this semester as planned and has travelled her little tuchus off.  I am so excited to go somewhere and take pictures (that isn't college where I am leaving my baby, that is, said the empty nester!!!)

And, in lots of ways, the New Normal I was so afraid of has actually happened, and it is not terrible.  We have become so used to Covid that I think we shrug it off now as a general population.  Obviously, those who have lost loved ones or seen the devastation of this illness are not shrugging, but as a whole there are fewer news reports, no more charts and flattening the curve-speak and doom and gloom (well, except for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but that is a whole other topic/world issue!!).  I guess what I am saying is our attention has been turned away from Covid and on to other things.  We have adapted.  We aren't ignoring Covid, but we have learned to live with it.  I for one don't feel that people are ashamed at this point to admit they have Covid. That was a terrible side effect, that people felt guilty for getting sick!!  "Pretty much we are all going to get it, let's just do the best we can" became the mantra.

It was so helpful to me that I made a list of the things I DID do during lockdown in those posts from two years ago.  I was reflecting last week that I did not earn a degree, learn a language, practice my calligraphy or read all the books.  But I did get a new job, I moved out of my house where we had lived for 18 years and all the purging and packing that entailed, I became an empty nester, my husband and I have had lots of date nights and a couple of trips to the beach - just the two of us!!!  (Definitely got some reading done at the beach, and puzzles, and walks.....)  Maybe these things would have happened anyway, so maybe there is not something that I accomplished as a direct result of Covid.  But ya know what?  Life went on.  I had accomplishments, disappointments, sadness, joy, new friends, new neighbors, and navigation of a new grocery store (seriously, that is my major stress?).  Life!

We have definitely all changed.  I believe we have become a closer world.  We were all in this together (even when we didn't agree on the how).  We are all starting to come out of our shells and stretch in the sunshine.  Will my introverted side miss those days of being forced to stay home with my nuclear family for that extra "found time?"  Yes!!!  Will the extroverted side of me ever re-learn how to properly get dressed?  

Not looking good, haha.  

 

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

 

A five star read for me, which I did not expect.

A friend encouraged me several times to read this (hey, Lauri!!).  I resisted.  I did not want to read a sad story about a Mexican woman, Lydia, running for her life from Mexico to the US illegally and under the radar at the drop of a hat (or gun as the case may be).  I just didn't.  I don't usually read "sad books."

But now, I am glad I did, not so much because of the subject matter itself, which was of course heartbreaking, but because this book is just plain old GOOD.  It moves fast, it has sympathetic characters, it has a villain with a heart and a villain without one.  It has liars and good people and terror and loss and desperation and risk.  It is about a mother who will do anything for her son.  It is about grief and survival.  The emotions are all there without being patronizing or really even political.  I could feel the heat of the desert and hear the clacking of the trains. This book just flat out tells a story, fact after fact (well, it is fiction but was apparently thoroughly researched, so all that happens could have actually happened).

I read it so fast that I did not stop to take notes (my new MO for reading and reviewing this year, oh well).  I could not put it down.  I don't think the cover does the book justice, it seems unrelated.  Cummins took a LOT of flack for this book as a "privileged white woman" who could have no idea what the immigrant plight is really like.  Well, I don't know but seems to me that all kinds of authors write all kinds of books and if she did her research and brought this topic to the national table then it really shouldn't matter what color she is, either.  She addresses this a bit in the author's notes at the end.  Anyway, no matter what your affiliation or policy, this is a great story, tense and realistic and richly described, from Lydia's emotions to her surroundings to her panic and ability to create family from tragedy.  Highly recommend.