An absolutely absorbing, beautiful read. In non-fiction I especially like books that take one subject and concentrate, elaborate, educate on it. ExampAn absolutely absorbing, beautiful read. In non-fiction I especially like books that take one subject and concentrate, elaborate, educate on it. Examples are OLIVES and THE SECRET LIFE OF THE SEINE and CHOCOLATE by Mort Rosenblum, SALT and COD by Mark Kurlansky, LONGITUDE by Dava Sobel, and THE PENCIL by Henry Petroski. Here Roland Allen does the same intensive study into the idea we call a notebook. I highly recommend. From Amazon: A Globe 100 Best Book of 2024 • A New Yorker Best Book of 2024 • A Kirkus Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2024
The first history of the notebook, a simple invention that changed the way the world thinks.
We see notebooks everywhere we go. But where did these indispensable implements come from? How did they revolutionize our lives? And how can using a notebook help change the way you think? In this wide-ranging history, Roland Allen reveals how the notebook became our most dependable and versatile tool for creative thinking. He tells the notebook stories of Leonardo and Frida Kahlo, Isaac Newton and Marie Curie, and writers from Chaucer to Henry James; shows how Darwin developed his theory of evolution in tiny pocket books and Agatha Christie plotted a hundred murders in scrappy exercise books; and introduces a host of cooks, kings, sailors, fishermen, musicians, engineers, politicians, adventurers, and mathematicians, all of whom used their notebooks as a space to think—and in doing so, shaped the modern world.
In an age of AI and digital overload, the humble notebook is more relevant than ever. Allen shows how bullet points can combat ADHD, journals can ease PTSD, and patient diaries soften the trauma of reawakening from coma. The everyday act of moving a pen across paper, he finds, can have profound consequences, changing the way we think and feel: making us more creative, more productive—and maybe even happier....more
A very entertaining, lighthearted account of a year in the life of Tucci, his family, his friends, and colleagues. From Amazon:From Stanley Tucci, awaA very entertaining, lighthearted account of a year in the life of Tucci, his family, his friends, and colleagues. From Amazon:From Stanley Tucci, award-winning actor and New York Times bestselling author, a deliciously unique memoir chronicling a year’s worth of meals.
“Sharing food is one of the purest human acts.”
Food has always been an integral part of Stanley Tucci’s life: from stracciatella soup served in the shadow of the Pantheon, to marinara sauce cooked between scene rehearsals and costume fittings, to home-made pizza eaten with his children before bedtime.
Now, in What I Ate in One Year Tucci records twelve months of eating—in restaurants, kitchens, film sets, press junkets, at home and abroad, with friends, with family, with strangers, and occasionally just by himself.
Ranging from the mouth-wateringly memorable to the comfortingly domestic and to the infuriatingly inedible, the meals memorialised in this diary are a prism for him to reflect on the ways his life, and his family, are constantly evolving. Through food he marks—and mourns—the passing of time, the loss of loved ones, and steels himself for what is to come.
Whether it’s duck a l’orange eaten with fellow actors and cooked by singing Carmelite nuns, steaks barbequed at a gathering with friends, or meatballs made by his mother and son and shared at the table with three generations of his family, these meals give shape and add emotional richness to his days.
What I Ate in One Year is a funny, poignant, heartfelt, and deeply satisfying serving of memories and meals and an irresistible celebration of the profound role that food plays in all our lives....more
A wonderful novel, beautifully written and memorable characters. And a fig tree as one of the characters. Pithy, evocative remarks such as this one reA wonderful novel, beautifully written and memorable characters. And a fig tree as one of the characters. Pithy, evocative remarks such as this one regarding an unexplained plague killing bats in 1974: "I can tell you one thing about humans: they will react to the disappearance of a species the way they react to everything else---by putting themselves at the center of the universe." This was the fig tree speaking. I highly recommend this book. From Amazon: "A wise novel of love and grief, roots and branches, displacement and home, faith and belief. Balm for our bruised times." -David Mitchell, author of Utopia Avenue
A rich, magical new novel on belonging and identity, love and trauma, nature and renewal, from the Booker-shortlisted author of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World.
Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home. In the taverna, hidden beneath garlands of garlic, chili peppers and creeping honeysuckle, Kostas and Defne grow in their forbidden love for each other. A fig tree stretches through a cavity in the roof, and this tree bears witness to their hushed, happy meetings and eventually, to their silent, surreptitious departures. The tree is there when war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble, and when the teenagers vanish. Decades later, Kostas returns. He is a botanist looking for native species, but really, he's searching for lost love.
Years later a Ficus carica grows in the back garden of a house in London where Ada Kazantzakis lives. This tree is her only connection to an island she has never visited--- her only connection to her family's troubled history and her complex identity as she seeks to untangle years of secrets to find her place in the world.
A moving, beautifully written, and delicately constructed story of love, division, transcendence, history, and eco-consciousness, The Island of Missing Trees is Elif Shafak's best work yet....more
Another wonderful novel set in what is for me another world. Written with an obvious attachment to friends and friendships, this novel is a wonderful Another wonderful novel set in what is for me another world. Written with an obvious attachment to friends and friendships, this novel is a wonderful read. From GOODREADS:From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Return , a luminous novel of friendship, family, and the unthinkable realities of exile
The trick time plays is to lull us into the belief that everything lasts forever, and although nothing does, we continue, inside our dream.
One evening, as a young boy growing up in Benghazi, Khaled hears a bizarre short story read aloud on the radio, about a man being eaten alive by a cat. Obsessed by the power of those words—and by their enigmatic author, Hosam Zowa—Khaled eventually embarks on a journey that will take him far from home, to pursue a life of the mind at the University of Edinburgh.
There, thrust into an open society that is light years away from the world he knew in Libya, Khaled begins to change. He attends a protest against the Qaddafi regime in London, only to watch it explode in tragedy. In a flash, Khaled finds himself injured, clinging to life, an exile, unable to leave England, much less return to the country of his birth. To even tell his mother and father back home what he has done, on tapped phone lines, would jeopardize their safety.
When a chance encounter in a hotel brings Khaled face to face with Hosam Zowa, the author of the fateful short story, he is subsumed into the deepest friendship of his life. It is a friendship that not only sustains him, but eventually forces him, as the Arab Spring erupts, to confront agonizing tensions between revolution and safety, family and exile, and how to define his own sense of self against those closest to him.
A devastating meditation on friendship and family, and the ways in which time tests—and frays—those bonds, My Friends is an achingly beautiful work of literature by an author at the peak of his powers....more
An incredible work of historical novel writing. In THE GLASSMAKER, which I recently reviewed, the protagonists were a family of Venetian glassmakers wAn incredible work of historical novel writing. In THE GLASSMAKER, which I recently reviewed, the protagonists were a family of Venetian glassmakers who, keeping the same characters, the author followed through the centuries. In this tome, the protagonist is a drop of water, followed from 630 BCE, landing on the scalp of the king of Nineveh....to 1840 Thames...to the Tigris in 1872...and so on until 2018 along the Thames.....and is still in the cycle. If you like to be engrossed by historical or other novels I HIGHLY recommend this one to you. My only regret is not discovering this author sooner. She has a number of books to her credit to which I am looking forward. From Amazon:In the ancient city of Nineveh, on the bank of the River Tigris, King Ashurbanipal of Mesopotamia, erudite but ruthless, built a great library that would crumble with the end of his reign. From its ruins, however, emerged a poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, that would infuse the existence of two rivers and bind together three lives.
In 1840 London, Arthur is born beside the stinking, sewage-filled River Thames. With an abusive, alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother, Arthur’s only chance of escaping destitution is his brilliant memory. When his gift earns him a spot as an apprentice at a leading publisher, Arthur’s world opens up far beyond the slums, and one book in particular catches his interest: Nineveh and Its Remains.
In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a ten-year-old Yazidi girl, is diagnosed with a rare disorder that will soon cause her to go deaf. Before that happens, her grandmother is determined to baptize her in a sacred Iraqi temple. But with the rising presence of ISIS and the destruction of the family’s ancestral lands along the Tigris, Narin is running out of time.
In 2018 London, the newly divorced Zaleekah, a hydrologist, moves into a houseboat on the Thames to escape her husband. Orphaned and raised by her wealthy uncle, Zaleekah had made the decision to take her own life in one month, until a curious book about her homeland changes everything.
A dazzling feat of storytelling, There Are Rivers in the Sky entwines these outsiders with a single drop of water, a drop which remanifests across the centuries. Both a source of life and harbinger of death, rivers—the Tigris and the Thames—transcend history, transcend fate: “Water remembers. It is humans who forget.”...more
I found this to be a very good read and am surprised to find the very mixed ratings by readers. It is translated from the Dutch so maybe that is why sI found this to be a very good read and am surprised to find the very mixed ratings by readers. It is translated from the Dutch so maybe that is why some readers can't relate to it. I found the settings and characters very likeable and engaging. From Amazon: When his twin brother is killed in a car accident, Helmer is obliged to give up university to take over his brother’s role on the small family farm, resigning himself to spending the rest of his days "with his head under a cow." The novel begins thirty years later with Helmer moving his invalid father upstairs out of the way, so that he can redecorate the downstairs, finally making it his own. Then Riet, the woman who had once been engaged to marry Helmer’s twin, appears and asks if her troubled eighteen-year-old son could come live on the farm for a while. Ostensibly a novel about the countryside, The Twin ultimately poses difficult questions about solitude and the possibility of taking life into one’s own hands. It chronicles a way of life that has resisted modernity, a world culturally apart yet laden with familiar longing....more
Start with a suspension of disbelief! This novel begins in 1486 and ends in 2019, with the same personages! Impossible, won't work, one might think, bStart with a suspension of disbelief! This novel begins in 1486 and ends in 2019, with the same personages! Impossible, won't work, one might think, but the author pulls it of admirably. This novel will engross you, will have you hooked, will have you staying up late for "just a few more pages!" I cannot recommend it enough. Do yourself a favor, read it! From Amazon:“This charming fable is at once a love story that skips through six centuries, and also a love song to the timeless craft of glassmaking. Chevalier probes the fierce rivalries and enduring loyalties of Murano's glass dynasties, capturing the roar of the furnace, the sweat on the skin, and the glittering beauty of Venetian glass.” – Geraldine Brooks, author of Horse
From the bestselling historical novelist, a rich, transporting story that follows a family of glassmakers from the height of Renaissance-era Italy to the present day.
It is 1486 and Venice is a wealthy, opulent center for trade. Orsola Rosso is the eldest daughter in a family of glassblowers on Murano, the island revered for the craft. As a woman, she is not meant to work with glass—but she has the hands for it, the heart, and a vision. When her father dies, she teaches herself to make glass beads in secret, and her work supports the Rosso family fortunes.
Skipping like a stone through the centuries, in a Venice where time moves as slowly as molten glass, we follow Orsola and her family as they live through creative triumph and heartbreaking loss, from a plague devastating Venice to Continental soldiers stripping its palazzos bare, from the domination of Murano and its maestros to the transformation of the city of trade into a city of tourists. In every era, the Rosso women ensure that their work, and their bonds, endure.
Chevalier is a master of her own craft, and The Glassmaker is as inventive as it is spellbinding: a mesmerizing portrait of a woman, a family, and a city as everlasting as their glass....more
Boring! Now, for about the third time lately, a Silva novel has failed to engross me like the earlier efforts did. His work is becoming more and more Boring! Now, for about the third time lately, a Silva novel has failed to engross me like the earlier efforts did. His work is becoming more and more formulaic with each new novel. For many of us, financial studies and scandals are about the least interesting topics. This book is way too "invested" in the topic. Dull, dull. I need to go back and read his works from the beginning, in order. Those were great. Great locations, great plots, great characters. He barely mentions his family in this one. Get back to what brung you here, Daniel! Review from Amazon, which of course has great financial interest in his books selling. Doesn't sound like the book I read! "Art restorer and legendary spy Gabriel Allon has slipped quietly into London to attend a reception at the Courtauld Gallery celebrating the return of a stolen self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh. But when an old friend from the Devon and Cornwall Police seeks his help with a baffling murder investigation, he finds himself pursuing a powerful and dangerous new adversary.
The victim is Charlotte Blake, a celebrated professor of art history from Oxford who spends her weekends in the same seaside village where Gabriel once lived under an assumed identity. Her murder appears to be the work of a diabolical serial killer who has been terrorizing the Cornish countryside. But there are a number of telltale inconsistencies, including a missing mobile phone. And then there is the mysterious three-letter cypher she left behind on a notepad in her study.
Gabriel soon discovers that Professor Blake was searching for a looted Picasso worth more than a $100 million, and he takes up the chase for the painting as only he can—with six Impressionist canvases forged by his own hand and an unlikely team of operatives that includes a world-famous violinist, a beautiful master thief, and a lethal contract killer turned British spy. The result is a stylish and wildly entertaining mystery that moves at lightning speed from the cliffs of Cornwall to the enchanted island of Corsica and, finally, to a breathtaking climax on the very doorstep of 10 Downing Street.
Supremely elegant and suspenseful, A Death in Cornwall is Daniel Silva at his best—a dazzling tale of murder, power, and insatiable greed that will hold readers spellbound until they turn the final page."...more
This was one of the most touching, engrossing, satisfying read I have had in a long time. Reviewers on the back cover say things like "The unfurling sThis was one of the most touching, engrossing, satisfying read I have had in a long time. Reviewers on the back cover say things like "The unfurling stories...will stun readers as the aromas of Persian cooking wafting throughout convince us love can last a lifetime." "Evocative, devastating, and hauntingly beautiful." If you are looking for a wonderful read, check this one out. From Amazon:From the award-nominated author of Together Tea and The Lion Women of Tehran, a poignant, "powerful" (The Wall Street Journal) and "affecting novel about first love" (Real Simple) that explores loss, reconciliation, and the quirks of fate.
Roya, a dreamy, idealistic teenager living amid the political upheaval of 1953 Tehran, finds a literary oasis in kindly Mr. Fakhri’s neighborhood stationery shop, stocked with books and pens and bottles of jewel-colored ink.
Then Mr. Fakhri, with a keen instinct for a budding romance, introduces Roya to his other favorite customer—handsome Bahman, who has a burning passion for justice and a love for Rumi’s poetry—and she loses her heart at once. Their romance blossoms, and the little stationery shop remains their favorite place in all of Tehran.
A few short months later, on the eve of their marriage, Roya agrees to meet Bahman at the town square when violence erupts—a result of the coup d’etat that forever changes their country’s future. In the chaos, Bahman never shows. For weeks, Roya tries desperately to contact him, but her efforts are fruitless. With a sorrowful heart, she moves on—to college in California, to another man, to a life in New England—until, more than sixty years later, an accident of fate leads her back to Bahman and offers her a chance to ask him the questions that have haunted her for more than half a century: Why did you leave? Where did you go? How is it that you were able to forget me?...more
Having thoroughly enjoyed A SUITABLE BOY, I was looking for another great read by Seth. For 3/4 of this novel I got it. Then, so some unknown reason tHaving thoroughly enjoyed A SUITABLE BOY, I was looking for another great read by Seth. For 3/4 of this novel I got it. Then, so some unknown reason the writing suddenly became a stream of consciousness production. Hard to follow, hard to concentrate on the plot. Nevertheless it was mostly a good read and those of you who have musical knowledge will especially be able to relate to this novel. I still recommend it. From Amazon:The author of the international bestseller A Suitable Boy returns with a powerful and deeply romantic tale of two gifted musicians. Michael Holme is a violinist, a member of the successful Maggiore Quartet. He has long been haunted, though, by memories of the pianist he loved and left ten years earlier, Julia McNicholl. Now Julia, married and the mother of a small child, unexpectedly reenters his life and the romance flares up once more.
Against the magical backdrop of Venice and Vienna, the two lovers confront the truth about themselves and their love, about the music that both unites and divides them, and about a devastating secret that Julia must finally reveal. With poetic, evocative writing and a brilliant portrait of the international music scene, An Equal Music confirms Vikram Seth as one of the world's finest and most enticing writers....more
Another huge, sprawling saga set in India. Usually after reading 700+ pages I am ready for a novel to wind up but not this one! I wanted it to go on aAnother huge, sprawling saga set in India. Usually after reading 700+ pages I am ready for a novel to wind up but not this one! I wanted it to go on and on. That's what happens when you get engrossed in characters and it is the true mark of a great writer. Verghese is exactly that. You will get to know the characters so well that they will be like close friends of yours. From Amazon: The Covenant of Water is the long-awaited new novel by Abraham Verghese, the author of the major word-of-mouth bestseller Cutting for Stone, which has sold over 1.5 million copies in the United States alone and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over two years.
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl—and future matriarch, known as Big Ammachi—will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.
A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the difficulties undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. It is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years....more
It's the short days and long evenings time of year. My favorite, by the way! If you find yourself wanting a juicy and meaty novel to dig into that wilIt's the short days and long evenings time of year. My favorite, by the way! If you find yourself wanting a juicy and meaty novel to dig into that will keep you wanting to read "just a little longer" at night this is the book for you! Thanks to my sister for passing this one on to me. Brilliantly plotted with unforgettable characters, this novel will provide hours of intense reading. I highly recommend it. From Amazon: New Delhi, 3 a.m. A speeding Mercedes jumps the curb and in the blink of an eye, five people are dead. It’s a rich man’s car, but when the dust settles there is no rich man at all, just a shell-shocked servant who cannot explain the strange series of events that led to this crime. Nor can he foresee the dark drama that is about to unfold.
Deftly shifting through time and perspective in contemporary India, Age of Vice is an epic, action-packed story propelled by the seductive wealth, startling corruption, and bloodthirsty violence of the Wadia family -- loved by some, loathed by others, feared by all.
In the shadow of lavish estates, extravagant parties, predatory business deals and calculated political influence, three lives become dangerously intertwined: Ajay is the watchful servant, born into poverty, who rises through the family’s ranks. Sunny is the playboy heir who dreams of outshining his father, whatever the cost. And Neda is the curious journalist caught between morality and desire. Against a sweeping plot fueled by loss, pleasure, greed, yearning, violence and revenge, will these characters’ connections become a path to escape, or a trigger of further destruction?
Equal parts crime thriller and family saga, transporting readers from the dusty villages of Uttar Pradesh to the urban energy of New Delhi, Age of Vice is an intoxicating novel of gangsters and lovers, false friendships, forbidden romance, and the consequences of corruption. It is binge-worthy entertainment at its literary best....more
A beautiful novel, well-written, wonderfully plotted, full of warmth and empathy. I had never heard of this author before but I will definitely be cheA beautiful novel, well-written, wonderfully plotted, full of warmth and empathy. I had never heard of this author before but I will definitely be checking out his other works. I would highly recommend this tender, feel-good novel. From Amazon: From one of America’s greatest, most creative novelists comes Again and Again, a poignant and endlessly surprising story about love lost, found, and redeemed
Eugene “Geno” Miles is living out his final days in a nursing home, bored, curmudgeonly, and struggling to connect with his new nursing assistant, Angel, who is understandably skeptical of Geno’s insistence on having lived not just one life but many—all the way back to medieval Spain, where, as a petty thief, he first lucked upon true love only to lose it, and spend the next thousand years trying to recapture it.
Who is Geno? A lonely old man clinging to his delusions and rehearsing his fantasies, or a legitimate anomaly, a thousand-year-old man who continues to search for the love he lost so long ago?
As Angel comes to learn the truth about Geno, so, too, does the reader, and as his miraculous story comes to a head, so does the biggest truth of all: that love—timeless, often elusive—is sometimes right in front of us....more
Another great novel by Louise Penny. I did give it only 4 stars since the ending seemed to be rushed and frankly not all the ends were tied up, in my Another great novel by Louise Penny. I did give it only 4 stars since the ending seemed to be rushed and frankly not all the ends were tied up, in my estimation. But still a spell-binding read. Jan, I will keep this for you if you want to read it. From Amazon, long review: Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns in the eighteenth book in #1 New York Times bestseller Louise Penny's beloved series.
It’s spring and Three Pines is reemerging after the harsh winter. But not everything buried should come alive again. Not everything lying dormant should reemerge.
But something has.
As the villagers prepare for a special celebration, Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir find themselves increasingly worried. A young man and woman have reappeared in the Sûreté du Québec investigators’ lives after many years. The two were young children when their troubled mother was murdered, leaving them damaged, shattered. Now they’ve arrived in the village of Three Pines.
But to what end?
Gamache and Beauvoir’s memories of that tragic case, the one that first brought them together, come rushing back. Did their mother’s murder hurt them beyond repair? Have those terrible wounds, buried for decades, festered and are now about to erupt?
As Chief Inspector Gamache works to uncover answers, his alarm grows when a letter written by a long dead stone mason is discovered. In it the man describes his terror when bricking up an attic room somewhere in the village. Every word of the 160-year-old letter is filled with dread. When the room is found, the villagers decide to open it up.
As the bricks are removed, Gamache, Beauvoir and the villagers discover a world of curiosities. But the head of homicide soon realizes there’s more in that room than meets the eye. There are puzzles within puzzles, and hidden messages warning of mayhem and revenge.
In unsealing that room, an old enemy is released into their world. Into their lives. And into the very heart of Armand Gamache’s home....more
Preface: For the last year and a half or so I have had to use my iPad to read since I needed the print enlarged. While I appreciate that technology, IPreface: For the last year and a half or so I have had to use my iPad to read since I needed the print enlarged. While I appreciate that technology, I need a REAL book in my hands, I need to touch the pages, smell the pages, annotate the pages sometimes. Having had my cataract surgeries I am joyfully able to read books again. As George Costanza would say, "I'm back, baby!" So here goes:
For those among you who think WAR AND PEACE, DON QUIXOTE, and ANNA KARENINA are just too darn short, this might appeal to you. It's an imposing tome, for the most part very engaging, occasionally tedious, but for me worth the effort. I am a big fan of Pamuk and this one didn't disappoint. From Amazon: "From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature: Part detective story, part historical epic—a bold and brilliant novel that imagines a plague ravaging a fictional island in the Ottoman Empire.
It is April 1900, in the Levant, on the imaginary island of Mingheria—the twenty-ninth state of the Ottoman Empire—located in the eastern Mediterranean between Crete and Cyprus. Half the population is Muslim, the other half are Orthodox Greeks, and tension is high between the two. When a plague arrives—brought either by Muslim pilgrims returning from the Mecca or by merchant vessels coming from Alexandria—the island revolts.
To stop the epidemic, the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II sends his most accomplished quarantine expert to the island—an Orthodox Christian. Some of the Muslims, including followers of a popular religious sect and its leader Sheikh Hamdullah, refuse to take precautions or respect the quarantine. And then a murder occurs.
As the plague continues its rapid spread, the Sultan sends a second doctor to the island, this time a Muslim, and strict quarantine measures are declared. But the incompetence of the island’s governor and local administration and the people’s refusal to respect the bans doom the quarantine to failure, and the death count continues to rise. Faced with the danger that the plague might spread to the West and to Istanbul, the Sultan bows to international pressure and allows foreign and Ottoman warships to blockade the island. Now the people of Mingheria are on their own, and they must find a way to defeat the plague themselves.
Steeped in history and rife with suspense, Nights of Plague is an epic story set more than one hundred years ago, with themes that feel remarkably contemporary."...more
3.0 out of 5 stars Had hoped for a better novel. Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2022 Verified Purchase After THE CELLIST of last year I was 3.0 out of 5 stars Had hoped for a better novel. Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2022 Verified Purchase After THE CELLIST of last year I was hoping for an improvement. This was a bit of an improvement but so far from his early works that it's very noticeable. At least he got away from Russian oligarchs, a topic he beat like a dead horse in earlier works. THIS WAS THE BIGGEST ANNOYANCE: his constant "product placements" of luxury things. Did we have to know EVERY auto's make and model, every wine's vintage and producer, every piece of clothing's designer and fashion house, every jet's impressive name and model, etc and etc ad nauseam? He seems to be putting quantity over quantity in his sentences. Mr. Silva, consider taking a year or two off you seem burned out. I am sure you have enough cash to buy all those luxury items with which you padded this novel....more
Having read ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE (if you haven't read this one I highly recommend it to you!), FOUR SEASONS IN ROME, THE SHELL COLLECTOR, I expHaving read ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE (if you haven't read this one I highly recommend it to you!), FOUR SEASONS IN ROME, THE SHELL COLLECTOR, I expected a great read but this even exceeded my expectations. A masterful epic, a tremendous opus, a touching and sensitive read. This novel is completely different from his other works, in scope, conception, and execution. At 640 pages in the hardback (I read it on my iPad) it requires some commitment but well worth it! From AMAZON: Set in Constantinople in the fifteenth century, in a small town in present-day Idaho, and on an interstellar ship decades from now, Anthony Doerr’s gorgeous third novel is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope—and a book. In Cloud Cuckoo Land, Doerr has created a magnificent tapestry of times and places that reflects our vast interconnectedness—with other species, with each other, with those who lived before us, and with those who will be here after we’re gone.
Thirteen-year-old Anna, an orphan, lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople in a house of women who make their living embroidering the robes of priests. Restless, insatiably curious, Anna learns to read, and in this ancient city, famous for its libraries, she finds a book, the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky. This she reads to her ailing sister as the walls of the only place she has known are bombarded in the great siege of Constantinople. Outside the walls is Omeir, a village boy, miles from home, conscripted with his beloved oxen into the invading army. His path and Anna’s will cross.
Five hundred years later, in a library in Idaho, octogenarian Zeno, who learned Greek as a prisoner of war, rehearses five children in a play adaptation of Aethon’s story, preserved against all odds through centuries. Tucked among the library shelves is a bomb, planted by a troubled, idealistic teenager, Seymour. This is another siege. And in a not-so-distant future, on the interstellar ship Argos, Konstance is alone in a vault, copying on scraps of sacking the story of Aethon, told to her by her father. She has never set foot on our planet.
Like Marie-Laure and Werner in All the Light We Cannot See, Anna, Omeir, Seymour, Zeno, and Konstance are dreamers and outsiders who find resourcefulness and hope in the midst of gravest danger. Their lives are gloriously intertwined. Doerr’s dazzling imagination transports us to worlds so dramatic and immersive that we forget, for a time, our own. Dedicated to “the librarians then, now, and in the years to come,” Cloud Cuckoo Land is a beautiful and redemptive novel about stewardship—of the book, of the Earth, of the human heart. ...more
Quite possibly Louise Penny's best Gamache novel yet. It is unusual in that it takes place in Paris and not the wonderful little Canadian village of TQuite possibly Louise Penny's best Gamache novel yet. It is unusual in that it takes place in Paris and not the wonderful little Canadian village of Three Pines but it still has all the qualities that make her novels such great reads. It's also a hefty book at 439 pages but for those of us who like to really sink into a book that is another plus. I highly recommend this one. From AMAZON: The 16th novel by #1 bestselling author Louise Penny finds Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Quebec investigating a sinister plot in the City of Light
On their first night in Paris, the Gamaches gather as a family for a bistro dinner with Armand’s godfather, the billionaire Stephen Horowitz. Walking home together after the meal, they watch in horror as Stephen is knocked down and critically injured in what Gamache knows is no accident, but a deliberate attempt on the elderly man’s life.
When a strange key is found in Stephen’s possession it sends Armand, his wife Reine-Marie, and his former second-in-command at the Sûreté, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, from the top of the Tour d’Eiffel, to the bowels of the Paris Archives, from luxury hotels to odd, coded, works of art.
It sends them deep into the secrets Armand’s godfather has kept for decades.
A gruesome discovery in Stephen’s Paris apartment makes it clear the secrets are more rancid, the danger far greater and more imminent, than they realized.
Soon the whole family is caught up in a web of lies and deceit. In order to find the truth, Gamache will have to decide whether he can trust his friends, his colleagues, his instincts, his own past. His own family.
For even the City of Light casts long shadows. And in that darkness devils hide ...more
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