A two-book series for dog lovers

Crosby is waiting patiently for his treat.

Do you love dogs? I do. So much so that occasionally I read the humane society adoption postings just for fun. I enjoy looking at each dog’s photo and imagining its personality. The way I see it, every dog is unique, lovable and quirky. (Pretty much like people, right?)

You don’t have to be as dog-crazy as I am to appreciate two books by Nick Trout, The Patron Saint of Lost Dogs and its sequel Dog Gone, Back Soon. A reviewer compares the books to James Herriot’s series that begins with All Creatures Great and Small, but that’s a stretch. While the main characters in both series are veterinarians and both clearly respect the animals they care for, there isn’t much more commonality. Trout’s books don’t have the lengthy literary descriptions of rural landscapes that I remember from Herriot’s writing.

Trout’s books are about Dr. Cyrus Mills, a disgruntled veterinarian who returns to his childhood home in Vermont to sell his late father’s veterinary practice in order to pay off his own debts. Cyrus has been a veterinary pathologist in South Carolina and prefers not to interact with pets and their people, but he soon realizes that he’s got to get his father’s practice solidly successful before he can hope to sell it. And that’s where the stories begin.

In each book, Cyrus solves small mysteries, confronts animal health issues and maneuvers around his human clients. He begins to develop more interest in people, their beloved animals and even one romantic relationship. The two-book series delivers fun, light reading without being too predictable or unbelievable.

When you find the need for lighter reading, pick up Nick Trout’s books The Patron Saint of Lost Dogs and Dog Gone, Back Soon and delight in some dog reading. Then you won’t have to read adoption postings!

Happy Reading! What have YOU been reading lately?

Jess

Much-anticipated… The Great Alone

It’s sugaring season in Vermont! You can see the steam from my neighbor’s sugar house in this photo just below the setting sun.

Hello again, Reading Friends! Maybe you, like me, have waited eagerly for Kristin Hannah’s new book The Great Alone. I loved her 2015 book The Nightingale, a World War II story about heroic women living in occupied France, and I know many of you loved it too. So when I read that Hannah had a new novel coming out I anticipated another wonderful novel.

I wasn’t wrong. The Great Alone is a complicated, emotional story about Leni, a young teenager, who moves to a remote part of Alaska with her parents in 1974. It pulls you along from beginning to end, making it a hard book to put down.

But before I continue I’ll tell you that if you have difficulty reading about abusive relationships or emotionally unstable people, you might not want to read this. I’m a bit sensitive to these issues, and I found the first half of this book quite painful. But I cared a lot about Leni and stuck with it until the end, and I’m glad I did.

The setting of remote Alaska in the 70’s is interesting. Leni’s town is filled with unusual characters who choose to live there for all kinds of reasons. Some escaped unpleasant memories in the “Lower 48” while others are survivalists preparing for the apocalypse. A few families have lived in Alaska for several generations. Leni and her family create a life among their neighbors of subsistence farming, school and whatever work they can pick up.

Leni’s father is a Vietnam vet with a drinking problem and a violent streak. Leni and her mom attempt to form a safety zone around him while becoming adept at extreme rural living. They manage to succeed for a time while facing all of the difficulties you can imagine: wild animals, ferocious storms, lack of money for necessities. No surprise, though, that Leni’s father’s demons follow him to Alaska and while Leni and her mom settle down and establish close friendships, he doesn’t find the peace he is hoping for.

The Great Alone is a story about survival, not just survival of extreme geography but also of a troubled childhood. I think you will love it if you choose to read it.

Be sure to leave a comment about what you’ve been reading. Enjoy springtime!

Jess

The end of the smartphone era?

Spring will return! I had a flock of this butterfly around my sedum late last summer.

Courtney Maum’s new book Touch is a smart fictional book about life in today’s high tech, urban world. Maum’s main character, Sloan, is an influential “trend forecaster” who is hired by a powerful tech company in New York City. (Think Google or Apple.) I had no idea that such a thing as trend forecaster actually exists, but author Maum was one herself at some point so apparently it’s an actual job.

At the start of the story, Sloan is a stereotypical self-absorbed world traveler who is living a luxurious urban life in London. Her partner is similarly self-absorbed, a “neo-sensualist” (what’s that?) intent on being a trend setter who can convince the world that humans no longer need touch. (Thus the title.) Sloane is tiring of her ridiculous partner, and we also learn that she has a troubled past with family back in the U.S.

Touch really gets interesting when Sloane moves to New York and begins her new job as trend forecaster at the tech company Mammoth. She is provided a self-driving, autonomous car (is that redundant?) she names Anastasia who draws Sloane into conversation as she transports her around the city. Through the book, Sloane’s interactions with Anastasia are funny and poignant. Sloane begins to question her luxurious life filled with technology. The experiences and relationships that lead her down this path are entertaining and meaningful.

I highly recommend Touch! It’s a provocative ride into the question of When is enough technology enough? And it’s also an enjoyable story of a woman’s growth.

Spring is on its way! Tells us what you’re reading as daylight stretches later.

Thanks for reading, Jess.

Magical books by Alice Hoffman

I recently read Alice Hoffman’s new book The Rules of Magic and loved it so much I had a hard time putting it down. It’s about the Owens family, particularly the three children Jet, Franny and Vincent. The children, who live in New York City with their parents, discover they have certain gifts that other people don’t have. Their parents, focused on living a normal life in the city, try not to notice their children’s special magical abilities. However, Jet, Frances and Vincent spend every August with “the aunts” in a small town in Massachusetts, and there they are allowed endless freedom to explore their abilities. They also see the elderly aunts in unusual activities: making a unique black soap in the full moon light, helping neighbor women capture romantic love from unsuspecting men, growing unusual plants in their backyard garden to use in potions.

I’m not a lover of fantasy books, but Hoffman’s books are more like literary fiction with threads of fantasy woven deeply into the stories. She creates Jet, Franny and Vincent as such believable characters that their magic is a natural extension of their personalities, completely believable traits. I cared more about them because of their magical qualities.

One of the fun things about The Rules of Magic is that it is a prequel to one of Hoffman’s earlier books, Practical Magic. I hadn’t read Practical Magic before so as soon as I finished The Rules of Magic I hunted down Practical Magic. Now, stick with me because explaining this is a little confusing.

Practical Magic, published in 2003, tells the story of two different Owens sisters, Gillian and Sally. Like Jet, Franny and Vincent, they live with elderly aunts and have special magical abilities. I soon realized that the aunts that Sally and Gillian live with are Jet and Franny! I won’t say more because I don’t want to confuse things further.

If you read both books you get a picture of Franny and Jet as struggling young adults (The Rules of Magic)and then see them late in their lives (Practical Magic) when they’ve become more accepting of themselves and their abilities. As I said, I read the books out of order and the order doesn’t matter. I think The Rules of Magic is a better book so if you are only going to read one make it The Rules of Magic.

I would love to hear what you think about Alice Hoffman’s books, these and others. What are you reading this snowy March?

Jess

A child given away as a raffle prize?

                                 I found these interesting ice formations in the woods.

 

Many of my reading friends read Hotel On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford a few years ago. I did and loved it. So when I heard that Ford had a new book out, I was excited to read it. He also wrote Songs of Willow Frost which I enjoyed.

Ford’s newest book, Love and Other Consolation Prizes, is historical fiction as are his previous novels. Ernest Young, the main character, is a half-Chinese orphan who is raffled off at the World’s Fair in 1909. In the Author’s Note, Ford explains that he was inspired to write this story based on some research he’d done about the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909, what he calls “Seattle’s forgotten world’s fair”. Ford discovered a newspaper article that described that a baby from the Washington Children’s Home Society was to be raffled off. Can you imagine?!

Ernest is “won” by an ambitious madame of a well-respected brothel, and there begins his life-long story. The narrative is told in two time periods, 1909 the year of the fair and 1962 when Ernest is a retired husband and father. The reader learns a lot about Seattle and it’s early history. For most of the book, Ford keeps the reader wondering if one of young Ernest’s loves becomes his wife.

I liked Love and Other Consolation Prizes, but I didn’t LOVE it as much as I loved Hotel on the Corner… Truthfully, I found Jamie Ford’s Author’s Note to be the most interesting part of the book. He goes into details about his writing process, what inspires him and his in-depth research. So, read Love and Other Consolation Prizes and be sure not to skip the Author’s Note.

Let us know what you think of it and anything else you’ve been reading.

Thanks!

Jess

For your winter reading…

 

Hello, Reading Friends! Again, it’s been a while since my last post. I hope you’ve been filling the cold and dark winter hours with good books. I’ve been reading too, and I have a couple of books to tell you about. Maybe you’ll add them to your to-read list.

Americanah

I just finished reading Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Perhaps you’ve already read it, but I’d like to tell you about it because if you haven’t read it, you should. When it was published in 2013, Americanah was named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by the New York Times Book Review. That’s quite an honor!

Ifemelu and Obinze, the main characters, are two young Nigerians whose experiences tell the story of the many difficulties that immigrants face. Ifemelu immigrates to the U.S. while Obinze, blocked by a restriction of U.S. visas, ends up in England. Both, although well educated, are limited to low paying, low-respect jobs at least at first. Adichie (the author) includes such details in her writing that I felt like I could begin to imagine what life might be like for a black immigrant in America today.

I’m treading lightly as I write; I know that my life experiences are not like a black person’s (American or Non-American – the phrase is Ifemelu’s). So really what I want to say is, in reading Americanah, I got a glimpse of the issues of race and class and identity in a completely new, eye-opening way. Although that sounds like serious reading, Adichie writes in an entertaining, easy to follow style. Never, while I was reading Americanah, did I feel like abandoning it because it was too heavy or dry. I desperately wanted to find out what happened to Imefelu and Obinze. I think you might like it as much as I did.

Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran

My reading friend and yoga teacher, Connie, recommended this book, and I was pleased to find it in my rural library. Pomegranate Soup is also a book about immigrants, but it’s very different from Americanah. Three sisters Marjan, Bahar and Layla immigrate to Ireland after fleeing Iran during the revolution. Marjan is a talented cook, and they open a cafe in a small Irish town. Similar to the book Chocolat, the author weaves together sensual details of food and the magic that lovingly-prepared food can create. (I’m sure I could smell the cumin, turmeric and coriander!) The reader slowly learns about the sisters’ experiences in Iran growing up while getting to know their neighbors in Ballinacroagh. The book teeters between realism and fantasy, but Mehran always bring you back to reality with her characters’ lives. She also includes the Persian recipes around which she structures the story. Get ready for a trip to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients!

Thank you, Connie!

What are YOU reading while you keep warm this winter?

See you soon, Jess

Fiction and a memoir: 2 books about Muslim women

I enjoyed my my first canoe camping adventure in the warm 
fall weather.

Although right now, based on the news, it may seem as if women in the U.S. haven’t achieved the respect and equal status that we thought we had, we have to acknowledge that life can be very difficult for women in other parts of the world. I recently read two books that clearly illustrate this.

In A House Without Windows author Nadia Hashimi tells a fictional story about Zeba, an Afghan woman stuck in an abusive marriage. Zeba’s husband is killed, and she is charged with his murder. Zeba is jailed, and while there she learns the stories of other women jailed for their husbands’ sins or for dishonoring their family. The reader learns of the many limitations of women’s freedom in daily life in Zeba’s rural Afghanistan.  Because of the painful topic, it can be difficult to read, but A House Without Windows is a beautiful story about a life very different from ours.

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali is another book I’ve recently read that highlights the difficulties of  women’s lives in other countries. Infidel is a memoir about Ali’s life growing up as a Muslim girl in Africa. Ali is educated in traditional Muslim schools which really means that as child she was primarily taught the Koran. She describes her ongoing exploration of Islam and then her  questioning of Islam’s beliefs and traditions, particularly women’s roles. She ends up emigrating to Holland, and, over time, Ali becomes involved in politics and policy of refugees’ lives. An outspoken critic of Islam, she now has numerous fatwas against her life.

Infidel is an excellent book group book! My group had a wonderful  discussion about tolerance,  what we think we know about Islam (and what we really don’t know), and the treatment of women all over the world.  If your group needs something deeper to dig into, this book is it.

Thanks for reading my ramblings, friends! Checkout the comments from the last post. And I can’t wait to hear what you’re reading.

Jess

After a long delay…

Hello reading friends! I apologize for the long delay between posts. (It’s been months if you haven’t noticed.)

The gorgeous spring, summer and fall weather lured me outside day after day. Although I’ve been reading, as I’m sure you have, I couldn’t resist the outdoors: gardening, hiking, kayaking and just sitting on the porch. I expect you enjoyed the sun and warmth as much as I did. You can see some results of my gardening season above.

There are several books I want to tell you about, but today I’ll begin with just one. And YOU HAVE GOT TO READ THIS. It’s called The Hate You Give, and it is written by Angie Thomas. The Hate You Give is a young adult novel, but it is a well-written book about an extremely important and timely topic, and that’s why you’ve got to read it.

The main character, Starr, is a black teenager who inhabits two worlds, one, the  black, inner city neighborhood where she lives, and two, the white, private school she attends. Starr recognizes that she lives in two worlds and is clear with herself and the reader about her different selves. Early in the book, Starr is with a friend when he is shot by the police. As she tries to deal with this experience, Starr struggles with her two worlds as well as the greater world of racism, justice and inequalities.

I won’t tell you more except to say please don’t be discouraged by the seriousness of this topic. It is the first book in a long time that called me to read in the middle of the day. The Hate You Give is incredibly readable, entertaining and thought provoking. Read it and and then encourage others to read it too. It would be a great book club book.

See you soon with more book recommendations. And share your recommendations with us. What have you been reading during these warm seasons?

Jess

Entertaining, intelligent and funny

A bright orange sunset shines on the fresh snow.

Have you read any of Eleanor Lipman’s books? They are always entertaining and funny, each one an intelligent “light read”. Among my favorites: The Inn at Lake Devine, Isabel’s Bed and  The Dearly Departed. I just finished The View from Penthouse B, and this too will be added to my list of Lipman favorites.

 

The View from Penthouse B is about two sisters who share a penthouse in New York City. One, Margot, is divorced after a messy scandel involving her former husband, a fertility specialist who was jailed for fraud (having sex with his patients), and the second sister is Gwen who became a widow young and unexpectedly. The sisters share a swanky NYC address in order to support each other financially as well as emotionally. They take in another border, Anthony, a young and hip unemployed financier.

Margot and Anthony decide that it’s time Gwen stops living a widow’s life, and they try to guide her in the world of online dating. Meanwhile, Margot and Anthony each seek their own romantic lives.

This description makes The View from Penthouse B sound like it’s a light, airy romance novel, but Lipman’s witty dialogue and complex characters make it anything but. I wasn’t tempted to skim pages to bypass meaningless and wordy descriptions (as I do when reading overly light novels); instead, I found as I read that I cared about Gwen getting past the loss of her husband and Margot making peace with her ex-husband’s crimes. I even reread pages to enjoy Lipman’s use of language and her on-point descriptions of the characters’ actions.

If you are looking for an entertaining yet intelligent next read, find a copy of The View from Penthouse B by Eleanor Lipman. And then read more of her wonderful books.

What did you read during the two-day snowstorm? Tell us about it!

Jess

What’s it like to lose your hearing?

The snow from less than two weeks ago is long gone.

I just finished reading Deaf Sentence by David Lodge. I learned about it in Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch a book I reviewed a couple of months ago. Since I’ve experienced moderate hearing loss, I was curious to read Lodge’s fictionalized account of becoming hard of hearing. Lodge notes in the Acknowledgements that in writing this book he relied on his personal experience with increasing deafness and the specific difficulties that are associated with it.

The narrator, Desmond, in Deaf Sentence is a recently retired professor of linguistics. He struggles with finding purpose in retirement which is exacerbated by his limited hearing. Lodge writes with humor yet the reader can feel the frustration that feeds the humor. His examples of misheard words are hilarious (particularly if you have experienced some hearing loss yourself); for example, Desmond believes his wife is looking for a “long stick” in the kitchen cupboards. Desmond asks why she needs a long stick, and his wife comes closer to him and says “saucepan”. “What’s a long-stick saucepan?” After a  minute of replaying the phrase in his head and his wife’s rolling her eyes in desperation, Desmond realizes she is looking for the “non-stick saucepan”. If this doesn’t make you giggle, I expect your hearing is excellent. I laughed a lot at these situations.

Desmond explains that many retired academics keep busy traveling and giving talks in their area of expertise. Yet Desmond avoids this, describing how the speaking portion works very well when one can’t hear, but hearing and answering questions at the end of a talk is extremely difficult. With his wife’s encouragement (or her desperation) Desmond joins a lip-reading group which is made up of older, grandmotherly women (his description). One of the skills the group practices is using homophenes, these are words that look alike when spoken such as mark, park and bark or white, right and quite. Try it! How can a lip-reading person tell them apart?

Other things are going on in Desmond’s life. He confronts his father’s aging as well as a manipulative graduate student. The deterioration of his father’s health is sad but true to life as many of us know. As he becomes more involved in these other parts of his life, Desmond’s focus on his hearing loss decreases. He realizes he can still be a father, a husband and a caring son.

Deaf Sentence is an entertaining book, not a fabulous one in my opinion. If you have experienced hearing loss yourself or with someone close to you, the book might help you feel less alone with the disability. It will likely make you laugh as well.

Let us know what you are reading as you wait for spring to arrive.

Happy reading!

Jess