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16
Aug

#Short Stories “Show Them a Good Time”

 

 

Conclusion:

  1. This collection is worth your reading time.
  2. I enjoyed 5 of 8 stories ..62%
  3. That’s a good score!
  4. Only one story was a MAJOR disappointment
  5. …too long… not topic for a short story:
  6. Abortion, a Love Story….advice?
  7. …it should have been developed into novella.

 

My notes:

Show them a Good Time: – reading time 1 hr 45 min

Single setting: (garage with forecourt, gas pumps and mini-store cashier
Characters: 2 main characters Speaker (nameless) and Kevin
Flattery describes their personalities, how they clash.
Later we discover the turning point and ironic reversals of character traits.
Conclusion: …very good, excellent story to begin the collection as ‘hook’.

 

Sweet Talk– reading time: 25 min

Setting: country farm
Summer break: Speaker tells of her ‘adventures’
other teens/friends next to the Virgin Mary statue
New houses on council estate brought in new boys….
Arrival: the Australian (30s) handy man…who wasn’t a bit skilled.
Speaker is in love with him! ( puppy love)
Conclusion: Started off well….but just fizzled out.
No real story to sink your teeth in…just
a 14 yr teenager searching for a summer adventure.

 

Hump:  reading time 20 min
Setting: father’s bedroom
Characters: Father (70 yr) (dying) – mother – speaker
Action: family funeral
Problem: speaker discovers lump in breast
Conclusion: somewhat engaged, bored still a confusing story….

 

Abortion, a Love Story:  reading time ….??
Setting: college campus
Just as I was trying to understand the
speaker and her lover Prof Carr…..
the story made a U-turn and it is all about
another character Lucy!
Conclusion: …I gave up after 20 minutes.
This is just NOT a short story.
Flattery has stumbled upon some interesting material

…but is is NOT the right topic for a shot story
Flattery should take some time and commit this narrative to a novel.

 

Track: reading time: 30 min
Setting: NYC
Characters: speaker (young Irish girl – boyfriend (comedian, famous)
Topic: the RISE snd FALL of a relationship
Core message: “…Never give people what they want.”
Conclusion: disturbing, introspective
…something you have to experience to write like this!
Good work.

NOTE: 2017 White Review Short Story Prize for Track, one of the best Irish short stories of this millennium.

 

Parrot:   reading time 30 minutes
Setting: Paris..visiting art exhibition
Characters: significant other (?) – speaker – stepson
Opinion: First sentence is confusing in an effort to be profound.
I’d rather a short line with few words to shock the reader of set the tone.
I will keep reading the story because I want to review all 8 selections
…otherwise I would have ditched this story…just b/c of this 1st sentence.
Core message: musings of unhappy woman in relationship, her rebellious young
stepson and almost daily conversations with mother
(…still in Ireland) and speaker in Paris does not help.
Flashback: speaker tells us about her husband’s first wife…ill, perhaps mentally ill.
Flashback: trip to Paris with her mother
Flashback: spying her husband’s first wife in a store…a week later she would be dead.
Conclusion: Despite the weak start and confusing title (minimal meaning in the story IMO)…the narrative developed nicely. Good

 

You’re Going To Forget Me:  reading time  15 min
Setting: hotel room. book presentation. hospital room
Characters: Speaker (author on book tour) – her sister (7 months pregnant
Core message: telephone conversations between the women
Topic: importance of what others think about you
Question: is it ever ‘small talk’ between sisters…or is everything important?
Conclusion: intense….great story about sisters, very good.

 

Not The End Yet: reading time 28 min
Setting: car park
Characters: Angela (teacher 41 yr) – nameless men (salesman, 45 yr, 47 yr, 55 yr)
Topic: blind dates…they feel like dental appointments !
Clinical, horrible…must get through it!
Conclusion: Delightfully amusing!

 

 

 

 

9
Aug

#Poetry Ockham NZ Award Winner 2019

 

 


Conclusion:


57 poems
I enjoyed 23
….that is 40% which is a good score.
Helen Heath writes about science, grief and motherhood.
The poems dealing with personal loss, death and birth were the
most memorable.


Favorite poem? “The Owners”
Ms Heath leaves the reader with an impression of sadness.
Ray, James and Gordon are men who have fallen in love with their
customized life-sized dolls.
These people have given up living an taken dolls as their lives.
…emotion invested in a doll that will never return it.

I sympathize with these doll lovers….even if I’m shaking my head.

6
Aug

#ElPaso #Dayton 2019

  1. Taking a break from book blogging to bring you a message that has
  2. touched me to the core.
  3. Do you want to understand what is going on in the USA?
  4. Listen to Princeton professor E.S. Glaude
  5. ….listen carefully.

 

3
Aug

#TBR 2019 list: Tin Man

  • Author: S. Winman
  • Title: Tin Man
  • Trivia: 2017 shortlist Costa book Awards
  • Trivia 2019 longlist Dublin Literary Award

 

Finished: 03.08.2019
Genre: novel
Rating: C-
Conclusion:

  1. This book is about loneliness.
  2. I found the book to be an attempt to
  3. paint loneliness with landscapes….
  4. (sunflowers fill the frame,
  5. swallows soar with heat on their wings (pg 210)
  6. and not describe
  7. the deep feeling of loneliness
  8. …like a mould growing slowly around you.
  9. Yes there are cries of the heart that evoke your emotions
  10. …but all in all the book was too lyrical, too sugar-spin sweet
  11. and just seemed to scratch the surface of the ache of loss.
  12. #Disappointed
25
Jun

#Poetry Eva Bourke (Irish poet)

 

Finished: 25.06.2019
Genre: poetry (39 poems)
Rating: A+++

 

Conclusion:

  1. Perfect 92 pages to enjoy during a heat wave
  2. …refreshing as a glass of summer lemonade with ice!

  1. Not every poem is a ‘home-run’ but all in all
  2. an excellent collection!
  3. Poems are like people.
  4. When you meet people you can like someone immediately
  5. …or don’t even like them at first. Then, gradually, as you get
  6. to know them you begin to apprecaite their qualities.
  7. So is it with poems:
  8. poem is immediately enjoyable
  9. reminds you of something you experienced
  10. “ How true, I felt exactly the same!”
  11. Some poems are  hard to understand at first.
  12. .and by the second reading you start
  13. to understand what the poet is really saying.
  14. My favorite poems were:
  15. Seeing Yellow – excellent (…hospital visit to the now late poet Pearse Hutchinson)
  16. Heimat – breathtaking
  17. Lament for the Birds (discover who Bourke is talking about …poem is a puzzle!)
  18. My brother writes to me – (…reality of chemotherapy and counting swallows)
  19. By the River – pastoral poem at its best!
  20. Plans – dedicated to her husband Ono …the love of her life (RIP 28.12.2017)

 

Strong point:

  1. Eva Bourke makes some
  2. …original and imaginative comparisons
  3. to convey shades of meaning in a few words.
  4. Example:
  5. Sunflowers:  ‘rough stalks like tourches’
  6. Sky:  ‘so smooth like a freshly ironed sheet’
  7. Birds: ‘…fell like stars from the sky into the river to catch their prey’
  8. Beetles: “…like miniature knights chiselled from jet
  9. …dispatched on impossible errands..”

 

Last thoughts:

  1. ….IMO
  2. 11 Excellent poems
  3. 8 very good poems
  4. 12 average…did not make emotional impression on me
  5. 8 .. not my kind of poems
  6. …experimental, fragmented
  7. …for poetry die hards!
  8. Book is available via Kindle
  9. …and perhaps in your library!
  10. #QuickRead
  11. .…poetry  really does refresh the soul!

 

“Seeing Yellow” (title poem  about sunflowers is…..magical!)

 

13
Jun

#Non-fiction Pulitzer Prize for Biography 2019

 

Conclusion:

  1. I agree with other readers
  2. ….this book is comprehensive and very detailed.
  3. It is important to realize that there
  4. …are different types of non-fiction:
  5. literary non-fiction vs commercial non-fiction:
  6. There’s a difference between the book as
  7. cultural work of art and the book as entertainment
  8. …in the same way that there’s a
  9. difference between a classical symphony and a musical.
  10. If you are looking for a high octane entertainment buzz…
  11. you may be disappointed…as I was.
  12. If you see this book as a glimpse into an area of progress
  13. in the Harlem Renaissance…and all that has come out of
  14. that movement...you will be delighted.
  15. It depends on what you are looking for.
  16. #DecideForYourself
8
Jun

#Play The Glass Menagerie

  • Title: The Glass Menagerie
  • Playwright: Tennessee Williams
  • Genre: memory play
  • Publisher: Penguin Modern Classics
  • Performance: Broadway debut  31 March 1945
  • Trivia: 1945 NY Drama Critics Circle Award  Best American Play
  • Wikipedia link:  The Glass Menagerie
  • List of Challenges 2019
  • Monthly reading plan
  • #20BooksOfSummer

 

  • Actresses:
  • Amanda Wingfield is one of the great
  • roles written for older women for the stage.
  • Many great actresses have played the part:
  • Laurette Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Joanne Woodward,
  • Maureen Stapleton Jessica Tandy, Julie Harris, and Jessica Lange.
  • The most recent was May 2017 with Sally Field:

Quickscan:

  1. The Wingfield family is based on the plawrights family.
  2. Restless son Tom. (based on the playwright)
  3. Crippled sister Laura
  4. Manic mother Amanda.
  5. The entire play is Tom’s recollection
  6. …of his sister and mother
  7. as he has never been able to forget about them.

Dysfunctional family…falling apart

  1. Faded Southern belle (Amanda)
  2. having outlived the southern past.
  3. Amanda – Tom – Laura
  4. …characters tear each other apart.
  5. Setting:
  6. moved from the South to urban society
  7. searching for the American Dream

Themes:

  1. Illusion vs truth 
  2. Parent (Amanda) not able to accept who her
  3. children (Tom, Laura)  are
  4. …and what they will not be
  5. Appearance vs reality
  6. Success  is dependent on appearance
  7. ….girls should be attractive to entertain gentlemen-callers
  8. Past vs present
  9. Fantasizing about the  past  – Amanda faded Southern belle)
  10. Running away from the past – Tom, aspiring poet, writer
  11. Unable to see past or future  – Laura, detached from reality
  12. …her unicorn doesn’t even represent a realistic animal!

Life lesson:

  1. One can try to escape the past and one’s ties to family
  2. …. but the bonds are too strong’
  3. Tom has managed to escape the family but
  4. they still have a psychological hold on him.
  5. At the end of the play Tom says:
  6. “Oh, Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me,
  7. but I am more faithful than I intended to be!”
  8. Note:
  9. The troubled life of Rose Williams
  10. …haunts the works of her brother Tennessee.
  11. Williams was devoted to Rose and cared for her until his death.
  12. Rose is the model for the withdrawn, disabled “Laura Wingfield”
  13. …who seeks refuge in her
  14. …collection of glass animals in The Glass Menagerie.

Conclusion:

  1. Masterpiece!
  2. #MustRead

11
May

#NSW Premier’s Award Winner 2019 The Lebs

  • Author: Michael Mohammed Ahmad
  • Title: The Lebs
  • Published: 2018
  • Publisher: Hachette Australia
  • Trivia: 2019 NSW Premier’s Literary Award WINNER Multicultural  Writing
  • List of Challenges 2019
  • Monthly plan
  • #NSWPLA
  • @HachetteAus

Introduction:

  1. M.M. Ahmad, second generation Arab-Australian Muslim
  2. whose family was illiterate.
  3. He has worked very hard to become a creative writer:
  4. four years completing an arts degree
  5. two years completing my honors degree
  6. another four years completing my PhD.
  7. M.M. Ahmad deserves 5 stars!
  8. Next generation of new Australian writers….

 

Conclusion:

  1. Gritty, raw look at
  2. the world that M. M. Ahmad knows so well.
  3. His grandparents came to Australia from Lebanon in 1970
  4. …with no money and no education.
  5. Ahmad has worked hard to master creative writing
  6. …and his 2nd novel is the result.
  7. It is a compelling achievement.
  8. The language is filled with expletives
  9. …but I’ve learned to read around that aspect of the book!
  10. Main character is Bani…a teenager dealing with
  11. many of the usual issues teenage boys face —
  12. gender, sexuality, race, and class….
  13. whilst also trying to obtain an education.
  14. Bani is a Leb second generation Arab-Australian Muslim
  15. growing up in Western Sydney between the
  16. years 1998 and 2005
  17. …what he is describing feels like  a war zone!

 

Last thoughts:

  1. I saw M. M. Ahmad accept the NSW Lit Award 2019
  2. for Multicultural Writing via an internet link
  3. with the ceremonies on April 29th.
  4. I was not going to read this book but felt I should
  5. investigate another side of Australia  other than bush stories.
  6. M. M. Ahmad has impressed met with his novel.
  7. Gripping  look at  the Arab-Australian Muslim male identity.
  8. It is told from the perspective of Bani Adam
  9. a fictional version of the author.
  10. This book is buoyant, intelligent
  11. …and very satisfying as it
  12. …delivers a solid dose of uncomfortable truth.
  13. #MustRead
17
Apr

#NSW Premier’s Award shortlist Robert Lukins

 

Finished: 17.04.2019
Genre: novel
Rating: A+

 

Quickscan:

  1. During the freezing English winter of 1962,
  2. seventeen-year-old Radford is sent to Goodwin Manor.
  3. It is a home for boys who have been ‘found by trouble’.
  4. Drawn immediately to the charismatic boy…West.
  5. …Radford soon discovers that each one of them
  6. …has something to hide.

 

Cover:  symbol =  great oak

  1. “Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.”
  2. Or as Chaucer wrote in 1374,
  3. “as an oak cometh of a litel spyr (sapling)”.

 

Conclusion:

  1. Strong point: foreshadowing
  2. Lukins interjects the ‘thoughts’ of winter
  3. …that builds the tension.
  4. You know something dreadful is going to happen:
  5. …Winter drew air into its cheeks and readied its spears
  6. …perhaps a lesson could go untaught
  7. …Winter’s hands could remain clean of blood.
  8. Strong point: foils  Teddy (rector)  vs  Dr. Cass
  9. Cass – remains sullen and soundless, without humor
  10. Cass – remnant of  past..pre-WWII  (spare the rod, spoil the child)
  11. Teddy – his eyes sparkled with clarity
  12. Teddy – sweet eccentricity, charming father figure for the boys
  13. Best Quote: Teddy
  14. “I will stoke you, because fire lies unnourished in all your centers.”
  15. Strong point: character Teddy …extraordinary, words of wisdom for the boys
  16. Teddy is accused of being weak, to soft on the boys by Dr. Cass
  17. Teddy wants the boys to feel like brothers not rivals: “you must help each other.”
  18. Lukins illustrates one of the wisest truths we all need to learn
  19. through the character of Teddy:
  20. Criticism (discipline) should be like a rain
  21. … gentle  enough to nourish growth
  22. …without destroying the roots.
  23. #GreatDebutNovel
  24. ...hope to read more by R. Lukins!

 

Last thoughts:

  1. This book surprised me as a debut novel
  2. That is why I gave it a 5 score instead of a solid 3.
  3. Usually the theory is write what you know.
  4. My first thought was how could a man in Australia
  5. …write about a correctional school in England for boys
  6. ..with the “wrong attitude”?
  7. Lukins placed more emphasis on character development
  8. instead of a sense of place.
  9. So it does not matter  where the struggles take place
  10. …as long as the reader discovers how the character(s) change.
26
Mar

#Ireland Sally Rooney

 

Wrap-up  #ReadingIrelandMonth19

  1. I have had a busy month reading Irish authors.
  2. There is so much talent on the Emerald Isle.
  3. I want to thank Cathy for hosting.
  4. I will be back next year!
  5. @746books.com

Books read:    List #ReadingIrelandMonth2019

 

Shortlisted books Kerry Group Best Irish Novel of the Year:    read 4/5

  1. Timeline: 4 years
  2. Structure: no chapter titles to indicate what we can  expect
  3. Rooney uses a chronological timeline:
  4. Begin January 2011 – End February 2015
  5. Genre: romantic tragicomedy
  6. Setting: Carricklea, Ireland and Trinity College Dublin

 

Quickscan:

  1. Sally Rooney draws on elements of the social world
  2. that she  inhabited growing up in Castlebar, Ireland
  3. …and then in college.
  4. She studied English at Trinity Dublin, and
  5. …the book is very much about her
  6. …observing that  social milieu.
  7. Two star-crossed lovers:  Connell and Marianne.
  8. “…like two little plants sharing the same plot of soil
  9. growing around one another, contorting to make room.”

 

  1. Connell: popular, quiet, studious, sport jock, good-looking,
  2. cared what people thought of him
  3. …considered quite a catch.
  4. Marianne: unpopular, feels lonely and unworthy,
  5. secretive, independent-minded – the ugliest girl in school
  6. Connell feels “…being alone with Marianne is like opening a door away from normal life…”
  7. Marianne feels “…he bought her goodness like a gift…”

 

  1. How does Connell change?
  2. March 2011:
  3. Connell pretends not to know Marianne in high-school.
  4. He wants to live in two worlds…good-looking, popular
  5. …but still dating the ugliest girl in school. No one must know.
  6. January 2015:
  7. Unlike him to behave  so openly in public
  8. by embracing Marianne and saying: ”I love you”
  9. …on New Year’s Eve.

 

  1. How does Marianne change?
  2. March 2011:
  3. Marianne feels like an observer…be it an awkward one.
  4. January 2015:
  5. Marianne feels dependent upon another human being
  6. …for the first time in her life.

 

Last thoughts:

  1. I have seen 1 star reviews….and 5 star reviews about this book.
  2. For a long time I pushed Normal People to the bottom of my TBR.
  3. The book has been nominated for many prizes and
  4. has been reviewed on blogs, magazines and in  the newspapers.
  5. When a book gets so much exposure….I recoil.
  6. Now I have to read it for Kerry Group Irish Novel shortlist.

 

  1. I read pages of teen-age sexual relationships, parties, boozing
  2. …dysfunctional family including Denise… Marianne’s  mother
  3. …and a jealous and violent  brother Alan.
  4. One of the highlights in the narrative was a minor character
  5. who played a major role:  Lorraine, Connell’s mother.
  6. Life for a millennial is not easy
  7. ….and Sally Rooney has articulated the
  8. …stress and strains of growing up and falling in love.

 

  1. Was I impressed?  No.
  2. Lorraine is the only character that saved this book.
  3. The narrative has an emotional impact
  4. that resonates with many readers.
  5. It is a very easy read and lacks depth.
  6. By that I mean…symbolism, metaphor, images.
  7. This book may be interesting for other millennials
  8. …but I found the plot uninteresting
  9. …on/off romance between two college students.
  10. It was a very average book about
  11. #NormalPeople.

 

Feedback:  to Cathy  @746books.com

I’m so glad to here somebody felt as I did.
I thought I was the only one!
I’m reading The Hoarder today by Jess Kidd…and just after
3 chapters I’ve had MORE reading pleasure than Sally Rooney’s
entire book!
I’ve had a great time reading with you during #ReadingIrelandMonth19!
Thanks for all the effort you put into this challenge (reading suggestions, giveaways etc)
I’ll continue to read Irish authors…and am looking for a #hashtag to gather my Irish reviews..for the rest of the year…any suggestions?

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