Testaments by Margaret Atwood

Posted on March 6, 2020 by bseat

Testaments is one of the books I listed as wanting to read on vacation. It was a good pick! Engaging, well written, with a great plot and interesting characters, this book also answered some questions and filled in some of the back story from The Handmaid’s Tale.

The book opens with Aunt Lydia, hiding a manuscript in which she is enumerating the wrongs, sins and horrors which have occurred and continue to occur in Gilead. Why is she writing this? Isn’t she the foundation of Gilead; a true believer in the movement?

Next we hear from a witness who talks about growing up in Gilead. Daughter to one of the Commanders, she is raised in privilege and love but when her mother dies and her father remarries things begin to change quickly for the worse.

Then another transcript, this time from a witness who is growing up outside of Gilead, in Canada. On her 16th birthday she finds out she is a fraud; that her parents who died that day in a car bombing were not her real parents, and her name, Daisy, and everything she thought she knew about herself and her family was all a lie.

Intertwining these three stories, Atwood begins to add layer and layer of detail and history  to what we know about the oppressive regime of Gilead. Almost twenty years have passed since the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, political power has solidified and structural norms have become entrenched within Gilead, but there are some cracks in the facade. Girls forced into marriages they cannot stand find ways to avoid them, power held by men is being undermined subtly by women who have masterred the art of manipulation, and beyond the borders of Gilead resistance to everything that it stands for is slowly gathering its strength. Atwood builds the suspense slowly, creates interesting and unexpected characters and unexpected plot twists which makes for a very satisfying ending to one of the most prescient and cautionary tales of our time.

Brenda’s Rating: *****( 5 Out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Everyone!

Book Study Worthy? YES

Read in ebook format

 

 

 

 

Posted in Fiction, Literary Fiction, Mystery, Series, Suspense | Tagged | Leave a comment

Vacation is Almost Done….

Posted on February 28, 2020 by bseat

 

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

On Vacation!

Posted on February 21, 2020 by bseat

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

What to Read on Vacation.

Posted on February 14, 2020 by bseat

I am leaving for vacation tomorrow, so I though I would blog a bit about what I am planning to take to read and how I go about choosing the books I take.

First you need to plan out how many books you will need. This is a relaxing vacation with a lot of beach time and very little tourism planned. I go to the same place every year for about the same amount of time so I know I need about one book every other day, with a couple of extras thrown in just in case!  So for my 16 day trip I will need around 13 books.

Next I think about the type of books I want to have on hand. For traveling I need a different kind of book then I do when I am sitting on a beach chair drinking a gin and tonic! For travel I need something fast paced, that keeps my attention, and distracts me from the vagaries of traveling, but that I can quickly put down or pick up with out loosing my place. I don’t want to end up missing my plane because I am so engrossed in what I am reading, but I also don’t want to have to reread the entire last chapter just to remember what was going on. I find detective novels, mysteries, and covert spy suspense thrillers often are the best fit for traveling. This year I am taking:

Messenger of Truth, Jacqueline Winspear

When the Devil Holds the Candle, Karin Fossum

Neon Prey by John Sandford

For reading at the beach I like to vary things up. Sometimes I need a light hearted, romantic novel, sometimes I want something more serious and historical, sometimes I want something non-fiction. I have found that sitting on the beach with the warm sun and sand on your toes, can be very helpful when you are reading difficult things like The 9/11 Commission Report, or  Rick Atkinson’s series on World War II, or even self help books that give you insights on how to be a better person. So this year I am planning on taking:

The Piano Turner, Daniel Mason

A Pledge of Silence, Flora Solomon

Testaments: The Sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood.

The Hamilton Affair, A Novel, Elizabeth Cobbs

The Storyteller’s Secret, Sejal Bandani

Washington Black, Esi Edugyan

Hidden Figures, The American Dream and the untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians who helped win the Space Race, Margot Lee Shetterly

The Woman in the Window, A.J. Finn

The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are, Brene’ Brown

So there you go. A little bit of this and a little bit of that. I hope this give you some ideas on what to take when you go on vacation!

Good reading!

 

 

Posted in Books to take on vacation | Leave a comment

Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon

Posted on February 7, 2020 by bseat

As you know I am big fan of Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series, but when you are all caught up and are waiting for the next book to be released  or there is an eight week wait list at the library, then you have to have an alternative to get your fix of crime solving and soulful reflections on the human condition. As I was looking around for something to feed my Penny habit, I remembered Donna Leon and her Commisario Brunetti series and fell in love all over again! This series is more than an alternative, it is worthy of being on the same pedestal as my beloved Inspector Gamache!

If this all sounds a bit overwrought it may be because I am channeling some of the Italian propensity for drama, as Leon’s series is set in Venice, Italy.  Behind the beauty of the old city, the canals and the gondolas there is a living city and Commisario Brunetti, a detective on the police force, serves and protects the people who live there.

So when a very famous but notoriously difficult German conductor is found dead during the intermission at the famous Le Fenice opera house, Brunetti is called to investigate. With numerous people who had both motive and opportunity, Brunetti is overwhelmed with evidence, but soon realizes that this death may be revenge for an injustice buried deep in the political corruption of Venice’s past, which makes his job even more difficult.

Brunetti has a gruff exterior, but is caring towards the people he works with and his wife and family. He believes in law and order, in right and wrong, but sometimes, especially in Venice, the rules must be bent in order to get justice. Leon evokes the world of Venice with great attention to detail and yet creates a living breathing city, not a Disneyesque replica. Whenever Brunetti stops for coffee, or has lunch, Leon describes it so lovingly you can almost taste it!  I have enjoyed every book I have read, and you will too!

Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 Out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Marian and Keith

Book Study Worthy? Sure, but must go to an Italian restaurant!

Read in ebook format.

 

Posted in Detective novel, Fiction, Mystery, Series, Suspense | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman

Posted on January 31, 2020 by bseat

I did not read Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy when they were first published starting in 1995.  It wasn’t until HBO recently started advertising its new series based on the books that I became interested. Although marketed as young adult novels these fantasy books, like many of the best of their genre, deal with deep questions about faith, trust, love and what makes us human, which make them something all audiences can enjoy.

In the first book of the trilogy, The Golden Compass, we meet Lyra, a young orphan girl who has lived all her life at Jordan College in Oxford, England. In this world the time  period is somewhat reminiscent of Edwardian England and the other notable difference is that unlike in our world, the souls of each human person are visible as a dæmon or physical creature. Lyra and her dæmon. Pantalaimon, who often manifests as a ferret, have the run of the college and town, so when she is not studying with one of her tutors, she is often exploring or making trouble with her friend Roger who works in the kitchens.

When Lyra learns that her uncle, Lord Asriel is coming to Jordan College on an unexpected visit, she is very excited and hopes that this time she can persuade him to take her with him on his explorations in the North. But before his zeppelin even touches down, Lyra, observes one of the professors pouring a vial of liquid into the decanter of wine meant for Lord Asriel and her suspicions are aroused. Although she warns Lord Asriel and even provides valuable insights on the reactions of his audience to his lecture on the latest developments of his research, he refuses to take her with him on his journey north and Lyra is devastated.

Her anguish is quickly shoved aside, however, when her friend, Roger, mysteriously disappears, along with many other children in the Oxford area. In her distress she turns to Mrs. Coulter, a mysterious woman who wants to adopt her. Lyra agrees on the condition that Mrs. Coulter will help her find Roger. As a farewell gift the head of Jordan College gives Lyra an alethiometer, a truth-telling device to help her. Shaped like a small compass, Lyra must learn how to read it intuitively on her own. Eventually Lyra and Pantalaimon begin to suspect Mrs. Coulter is not trying to find Roger. After they find evidence, which the alethiometer confirms, that indicates Mrs. Coulter and the Church are behind the disappearances of Roger and many other children. Lyra and her dæmon run away and team up with the Gyptians, nomads who live on the canals, who have also lost numerous children to what they call the “Gobblers,” Lyra and her dæmon begin heading North to rescue Roger and the other children.

Although some say this is a retelling of Milton’s Paradise Lost, it quickly becomes quite clear that Pullman has no patience for organized religion, and in fact condemns it for its narrow mindedness and fear of anything that threatens its power and control. Pullman’s criticism of religion has been somewhat controversial, but I found his exploration of the power of the church and its resistance to any scientific exploration that questioned doctrine to be in line with the way the church has acted throughout our history right up until the present day.

Lyra is a compelling character, both naive and fearless. She is driven by her love for her friend, but she doesn’t understand the consequences of the choices that she will have to make. Roger is a stalwart friend, and the Iorek Byrnison, an armored bear, is unforgettable in his formidable majesty, Mrs. Coulter is chilling in her obsession, as is Lord Asriel.

The HBO series based on these books is quite amazing. While keeping quite close to the original, they have made excellent choices in updating the books for current day audiences, and their casting of Lyra (Dafne Keene) and Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson) is phenomenal.

Whether you read the books or watch the series you will not be disappointed! Enjoy!

Brenda’s Rating: *****(5 Out Of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book/TV series to: Lauren, Sharon, Marian and Ken

Book Study Worthy? Yes

Read in ebook format.

 

 

 

Posted in Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction, Prize Winner, Series, Suspense, YA | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

Posted on January 24, 2020 by bseat

Years ago I read a novel called Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger, which was a becoming of age story about a young man who in the course of one summer is confronted with lies, betrayal and murder and yet manages to find grace in the midst of it all. It was  powerful and unforgettable and reminded me a lot of Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead.  Krueger’s new book, set in the Great Depression, is just as compelling and powerful and may in turn become a modern classic.

The Lincoln School, located in Minnesota in 1932, was where Native American children, forcibly removed from their parents, were sent to be “civilized.” The school, however is anything but civilized and the children sent there are used mercilessly, beaten for the littlest infractions and given little food, while the superintendent profits from their labor and embezzles donations meant for the school and children. Among the children is Odie O’Bannon, a white child, who along with his brother, Albert, were sent there as orphans making it the only home they have known. Odie, is a boy whose exploits and irrepressible nature make him a hero to the kids but gets him nothing but hatred and punishment from the superintendent. But this time his exploits have gone to far and he has landed in something that he may not survive and so with his brother Albert, their friend Mose, and a special little girl named Emmy, they decide to escape using a canoe heading to the Mississippi River and the city of St. Louis.

As they make their way  down the river, they meet struggling farmers, Indian shamans, a traveling band of faith healers, families on the move and others who like them are lost and trying to find a place to call home. Wanted by the superintendent with their pictures in the newspapers offering a reward if they are found, the children must quickly learn which adults they can trust and how to find a place that each of them can belong.

Krueger, has written an epic that encompasses not only the egregious horrors of what happened to the Native American children separated from their families and culture, but also the displacement caused by the Great Depression. By 1933  a quarter of the work force or 15 million people became unemployed, lost their homes and sought refuge in  “Hoovervilles” or shanty towns like Krueger describes that sprang up on the outskirts of larger towns and cities all around the country. Yet it is Krueger’s unique ability to be both clear eyed and sympathetic (not maudlin or polemic) that makes this book so compelling. Most of the people in this book are broken in some way, either with grief, mental illness, alcoholism or just by the sheer bad luck of their circumstances and yet Krueger is able to make their full humanity shine through, allowing the reader to see both nobility and pathos in each one. Truly a gifted author, Krueger’s unspoken questions on what makes us human, what do we owe each other and how do we find a place to belong resonate throughout the book making us ask ourselves those very same questions.

Brenda’s Rating: *****(5 out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Everyone!

Book Study Worthy? Yes!

Read in ebook format.

Posted in Adventure, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction | Tagged | 1 Comment

Flights by Olga Tokarczuk

Posted on January 17, 2020 by bseat

I became very curious when Tokarczuk won the Man Booker Prize for Flights and then even more intrigued when she recently won the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature. (The award was postponed a year due to internal controversy and dissension among the Nobel Committee.) Although a well known and respected author in her native Poland, Flights was one of Tokarczuk’s first novels to be translated into English. After it won the Man Booker Prize, Tokarczuk mused, “[s]ometimes I wonder how my life would have worked out if my books had been translated into English sooner, because English is the language that’s spoken worldwide, and when a book appears in English it is made universal, it becomes a global publication.” I think we will be making up for lost time as there is no doubt in my mind that audiences everywhere will want to hear more from this gifted author.

The narrator of Flights, is compelled to travel. It is part of her genetic make-up, an almost physical resistance to staying in one place. This powerful need to move, to go, to explore and never stay in one place too long drives her and in the process she collects stories, vignettes, and composes meditations on travel and how it impacts the human body.  The book is what Tokarczuk calls a “constellation” of stories, encounters, and facts about the “human body in motion” that the narrator collects over the course of her travels. We learn how Chopin’s heart was smuggled back into Warsaw by his adoring sister, or the development of a strange preservation method for human organs, the disturbing story of a husband who experiences a psychotic break when his wife and young son who were lost for a few days, inexplicably return, as well as exploring the psychology of travel and the strange disassociation that often occurs when we are away from all that anchors us in our lives. Yet, throughout these varied and seemingly unconnected stories, the insights she imparts on wandering, and the ways the human body must adapt, change and embrace its new surroundings are revelatory and profound.

Although this is not my normal kind of book, the journey I took with Tokarczuk was intriguing and enlightening. I look forward to reading her next book Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead which has just been released in English.

Brenda’s Rating: *****(5 Out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Everyone

Book Study Worthy? Yes

Read in ebook format.

 

 

Posted in Fiction, Literary Fiction, Prize Winner, Reflections | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Map of Knowledge by Violet Moller

Posted on January 10, 2020 by bseat

I have been sick since Christmas Day with a terrible hacking cold and cough. Yesterday, after being sick and tired of being sick and tired, I declared myself well and tried to get back to my normal schedule. Today I am feeling the effects of doing too much too fast. Sigh!

One of the compensations of being sick, however, is the ability to read without any guilt! One of the books that captured my imagination and kept me from feeling sorry for myself was The Map of Knowledge by Violet Moller. This is an intriguing book that traces how scientific knowledge discovered by the Greeks in Math, Astronomy and Medicine survived the fall of the Roman Empire, the burning of the great library in Alexandria. well as the plagues, war and the social upheaval that marked the Dark Ages and reemerge almost 1000 years later to fuel the Renaissance.

Moller traces three great Greek texts: Euclid’s Elements, Ptolemy’s The Almagest, and Galen’s writings on medicine as they made there way through these dark times -following the various translations as they appeared over time which allowed this knowledge to be disseminated more widely. As she follows these three texts, Moller discovers that seven cities emerged as repositories of knowledge and were instrumental in keeping the light of scientific discovery alive. These cities were Alexandria and its vast libraries where the Ptolemaic leaders encouraged the pursuit knowledge until the city was sacked and the vast library burned. Next is Baghdad, where remnants of the Greek texts were sought, studied and even improved on, while translating them into Arabic saved them from extinction. Cordoba and Toledo of Spain were unusual in that they encouraged trade with Muslim countries and knowledge of Arabic allowed the Arabic versions of the Greek texts to be translated into Latin. Meanwhile Salerno became a center for medical knowledge because its location on the coast of Italy encouraged the free flow of knowledge. Sicily, was that rare place in Western Europe which had retained contact with Greece and its language and culture and thus became the first place to go to when rare Greek texts were discovered and there they were translated into Latin or even local languages. Finally, Venice saw the potential of the printing press in the 1500s and translations of these important texts which had managed to survive since 500 AD were printed in large numbers and sent all around Western Europe fueling the Renaissance.

Moller’s clear writing style, and obvious excitement for her subject help keep this book informative and entertaining while at the same time imparting many important facts and historical context.  One thing that came through loud and clear is that without the free flow of ideas and without the encouragement from leadership and government to pursue scientific research and knowledge our world would be a very, very different place today. A lesson that we seem to need to relearn once again!

Brenda’s Rating: ***** (5 Out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Everyone!

Book Study Worthy? Yes!

Read in ebook format

 

 

Posted in History, Non Fiction | Tagged | Leave a comment

Best Books of 2019-A Year End Wrap-up.

Posted on January 3, 2020 by bseat

Looking back at 2019 I realized that the books I really enjoyed this year were by women authors. This seemed appropriate as women dominated in 2019; from Greta Thunberg and Fiona Hill to Nancy Pelosi, strong women made their voices heard in a big way.

Delia Owens who became a bestselling author at age 71, with her lyrical novel Where The Crawdads Sing, is representative of the new women’s voices that seem to be emerging. Her indomitable heroine, Kya Clark presents us with a woman who overcomes immense odds to create a better place for herself in the world and endeavors to find justice when justice is often just an illusion for a woman.

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See, describes the matriarchal culture of the diving women on Jeju Island in S. Korea. Young-sook, now in her eighties must reflect back on her life as a haenyu or diver and her close but fraught relationship with Mi-ja, a fellow diver, whose family comes to see her and asks questions. Their friendship plays out against the complicated political backdrop of invasions by Japan, WWII, and the Korean War which wreaked havoc on their country and their lives.

Women Talking by Miriam Toews is a disturbing but amazing novel based on true events that occurred in a South American Mennonite community where men of the community drugged women as old as eighty and as young as 3 with veterinary grade drugs and then raped them. The novel centers around a conversation a group of women in the community begin as they decide what to do now that the accused men are being released on bail and will be returning to the community in a short while. Should they stay, and if so what conditions do they want to impose for their own continued safety?  Should they go and if so where should they go and how will they get there? A;though this book is very disturbing, it is also very empowering as we hear these women grapple with how to take control of their own lives.

Finally Barracoon: The Story of the “Last Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston is an amazing account of interviews with Cudjo Lewis, one of the last living slaves who remembered crossing the Middle Passage from Africa to the United States. The interviews were conducted in 1927 when Cudjo was eighty-six years old. Hurston tried to publish her manuscript when it was completed in 1931 but there was very little interest but she went on however to write many other works, including  her most famous, Their Eyes Were Watching God.  Recently revised and edited for modern readers by Deborah G. Plant, this book, Hurston and Cudjo Lewis are finally being allowed to  be heard and shine a light on an important and ugly part of our history.

I hope that in this new year we may find many more voices and stories that we have not yet heard so that we can become more open to the unmeasured and amazing diversity of the human experience!

Brenda Seat.

 

 

 

Posted in End of Year Summary, Uncategorized | Leave a comment