We have had beautiful sunny, but cold days here. So we took advantage and went for the first hike of the year up at the county park. Youngest met up with his friends earlier and was hiking ahead of us – they went much higher and farther then Himself, myself, and our two four footed friends. I also went to see The Fighter with a friend and think Christian Bale’s performance is definitely Oscar worthy. Later this week I am off to Salem for the annual St. Cholesterol Day celebration with much reading coming with me: I have The Weird Sisters and The Still Point coming in from the Library and timing is such I will need to read them while I am gone . I have Crow Lake by Mary Lawson to read before I leave so I can read The Other Side of the Bridge at my mom’s. I have been invited to one of my mom’s book groups which means I have to read The Girl who Fell From the Sky (which was on my to read list). Finally, I desperately want to start and finish The Water Theatre by Lindsay Clarke so I can leave it with my mom to read – all this with prepping, cooking, and cleaning massive numbers of meals for St. C’s itself plus all the surrounding dinners, breakfasts, etc. for house guests. Last year it was 66 people for 7 different meals and this year we may surpass that. But on to what has caught my interest this week. I have assiduously avoided the hold button on my library’s internet catalog so I don’t end up with a backlog of books coming in while I am gone but it was really hard this week.
I have see mention of this book throughout the week so was please to see S. Krisna’s review of The Other Life by Ellen Meister. Quinn Braverman has a nice life with a dark undertone. She also has the ability to go through a portal to a life where her what if questions are answered. What if I stayed with that one boyfriend instead of breaking up with him? What if my mother hadn’t committed suicide? Everyone has roads they haven’t taken and it is fun to look back and see what might have been.
Jen of Devourer of Books also reviews a book I have seen mentioned a few other places: I is an Other: The Secret Life Of Metaphor And How It Shapes The Way We See The World by James Geary. This book looks at how deeply our experience is molded by metaphor. I looked up the author and he has a blog called All Aphorisms, All The Time and his posting on Watson, the IBM computer playing on Jeopardy is both interesting and well-written, “What does this have to do with metaphor? Well, the kinds of things Watson and his human opponents will be parsing tomorrow are the same kinds of things that go into metaphors: loose associations, punning relationships, sidelong and sidereal correlations.” If his book is as interesting as his blog (beware – once you go there it is hard to stop reading) then the book should be very good. The book was even reviewed at the IMBD (Internet Movie Database). As IMBD states, “I Is An Other is more concerned with the power of associative thought than the power of flowery language.” I am a big fan of synchronicity and how seemingly unrelated things come into conjunction with each other so this is going on the To Be Read list.
Simon Lelic is an author I have seen mentioned before for his first novel Rupture which concerns a newly hired history teacher in a London school who ends up killing two students, a colleague, and himself. His second book is also gathering some attention and is reviewed by one of my favorite bloggers, Tom of Common Reader. The Facility looks at what happens when a government starts enforcing very stringent anti-terrorism laws; basically a secret government facility, an innocent man in danger, and two investigators trying to find the truth. Tom does mention the novel seems fairly formulaic but it seems like it might be a good travel read.
Rachel of a home between the pages reviews a book I have already read and would recommend it to anyone wanting a light read with literary allusions and Gothic undertones: Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale. In this novel, a bookseller’s daughter is invited to write a biography of a famed, reclusive author by the author herself. The narrator moves from her father’s dusty antiquarian bookshop to a large, remote house on the fog shroud moors to investigate the author’s mysterious past. There are tons of literary references and a bit of suspense which make for a fairly good weekend read.
The Farmlanebooks Blog reviews The History of History: A Novel of Berlin, a debut novel by Ida Hattemer-Higgins. It seems hard to tell exactly what this book is about – I know that the main character, Margaret, is an American working as a walking tour guide in modern Berlin. The book seems both surreal at times as well as full of “with quirky details that make the city come to life”. The author spend time in Japan and the reviewer says that you can see this influence in the work. The publisher, Knopf, describes the book as, “Ida Hattemer-Higgins has written a novel about amnesia—individual, cultural, historical—about memory and oblivion, fantasy and reason, myth and redemption in our time. An unforgettable story from a bold and prodigiously gifted young talent.” I am glad to see my library has a copy and I will try to read this soon.
Finally The NY Times reviews The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady by Elizabeth Stuckey-French – The title alone makes me want to read it and then the Times gives a brief synopsis of the plot. In 1953 Marylou Ahearn is given a radioactive cocktail as part of a government study, a cocktail that has unforeseen results and so for 50 years Mary Lou has been plotting her revenge on the doctor that administered the cocktail. Unfortunately, the “good” doctor has Alzheimer’s. How can you have revenge if the revengee has no knowledge or memory of the deed that has precipitated all this commotion? MaryLou tries to find a way. This novel seems populated by “odd ball” characters and it seems like the author does justice to each and every one. Fortunately for me, my library has this one as well.
Happy reading everyone!
Reflections from the Hinterland 
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