Sunday Caught My Interest

In some ways this was a hard week, we thought we were losing our eldest dog but he slowly rallied around. We think it is going to be a roller coaster ride until the end. The youngest dog is slowly getting better so that was the good news. Himself did an overnight trip to Bellingham to pick up eldest’s stuff and eldest himself will arrive next Friday. Youngest took off on a road trip today – the planning of which drove me crazy – but at eight p.m. last night plans were settled to everyone’s (including parents’) satisfaction. I have read some good stuff this week – The Old Romantic was excellent, The London Train was worth reading, and Before I Go To Sleep is a page turner. Next up is To Be Sung Underwater.

Here is what caught my interest this week:

If you like unreliable narrators then this book is for you. Diane of Bibliophile By The Sea reviews A Kind of Intimacy by Jenn Ashworth (published in May 2010 and now available on Kindle for $6.66).  Annie, a 27 year old, newly single, obese, and socially awkward young woman relocates to a suburb in England. She throws herself a house warming party and after her neighbor, Nick, is friendly to her, she begins to think that his overtures mean far more than just friendship. The fact that he has a girlfriend is of no consequence to Annie. Annie is vague about her past and you are never quite sure if she is telling the truth but as time goes on and her obsession with Nick grows the reader does find more about her and her intentions. Diane raves about the novel saying, “I LOVED this book, and it is without a doubt, my favorite book read in 2011.” That is high praise so this book may be downloaded to the Kindle very soon.

If you are looking for a book to keep by the bedside – one of those books that you can dip in and out of, Danielle of A Work in Progress, recommends Second Reading by Jonathan Yardley. Mr. Yardley writes book reviews for The Washington Post and this is a collection of reviews from his column, Notable and Neglected. I really enjoyed Nick Hornby’s Polysyllabic Spree and this one sounds just as fascinating.  I think this one will make a good start for this year’s Christmas list. Here is some of what Danielle had to say:

The book is made up of about sixty columns that appeared in the Washington Post between 2003 and 2010.  Sounds fairly standard, right?  It’s been done before and done a number of times, but what I like is the way Yardley approaches his subject and the books he chooses.  His column ‘Second Reading’ focused on mostly worthy older books, books he had read and loved growing up.  Revisiting them through his writing and sharing with other readers amounted to something of an “autobiography of a lifelong reader”.

Melody of Fingers and Prose has introduced me to a unique concept that I have not heard of before. For six days last fall, thirty-six Pacific Northwest writers participated in a live event (on stage with an audience), each writing a chapter to Hotel Angeline: A Novel in 36 Voices. While writers have certainly collaborated in group efforts before, I have never heard of them doing so live with the synergy of the audience as part of the package. Hotel Angeline is about a fourteen year old girl who assumes responsibility for managing a residential hotel in Seattle when her mother falls ill. Reviews do say the plot is at times far-fetched but the novel is a cohesive, engaging story. Melody writes, “This book seemed to be more about collaboration, community, and story telling than it is about character development or plausibility…The special part about this is how all of these authors were willing to work together, putting aside their writing quirks–turning a typically isolated exercise into a social, community-wide event.” I love the idea of meeting new writers from the area so this one is going on the list.

I didn’t know that novelist John Banville (author of The Sea, winner of the 2005 Man Booker Prize) had an alter ego, Benjamin Black who is the author of a series of mystery/thrillers featuring Dublin pathologist Quirke. In The LA Times, Carolyn Kellogg reviews Black’s latest work A Death in Summer which she calls, “…a beach read for the brainy, with a backdrop of sweltering Dublin to remind readers to go for a dip every now and then.” Set in the 1950’s, Quirke finds himself investigating the murder/suicide of a wealthy Jewish businessman. Other words used to describe this book are “page-turner”, “tightly plotted”, and “simply remarkable”. This is the fourth book of the Quirke series but it sounds like it can stand alone. The book starts out at a country estate and becomes a police procedural with lots of twists and turns.

Another recommended summer read is Incognito by Gregory Murphy reviewed here by Jen of Devourer of Books. Set in 1911 New York, wealthy, high society lawyer William Dysart, is given a task by a client to buy a parcel of land on Long Island sound which is owned by the beautiful Sybil Curtis. Sybil refuses, the client gets nasty, and Dysart finds himself drawn to the woman who provides a sharp contrast to his greedy, social climbing wife. So the lawyer tries to find out why the land is wanted as well as secrets in his own background. Who is Sybil Curtis and why are both men and the Queen of New York society obsessed with her and what does all this have to do with the Dysart family.

Finally, if you are at all interested in African Fiction – you must read this post at The Blue Bookcase by guest blogger Leslie.

Happy reading!

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