#Xmas Reading List: A Christmas Carol

by Charles Dickens

Finish date: 23.11.2024
Genre: novella
Rating: A++++
#Christmas Comfort Reads

Good News: Typical comment made by Scrooge: “Darkness is cheap…”   Notice how many times and when Scrooge hears bells. Dickens uses bells in the novella to symbolise judgement and as a call to moral awakening.

Good News: Impressive sound and narration on the Audible.com book read by Tim Curry. this version was released 14 years ago but still gets a 4,7 score by many readers! Perfect English accent! This audio is included ‘free’ in The Plus Catalogue if you are a memeber os Audible.

Personal: How man many times have I read this novella or seen a movie version? 10X? A miserly, bitter old man is transformed into a caring, kind, generous human following a glimpse into his past and a preview of his future. Dickens never fails to teach us that there is the possibility of redemption: Scrooge comes to realize that one can always change his ways and become a better person…so can we.
Reading time: 3 hr 30 min

#Xmas Readig List: Alphonse Daudet

#Xmas Reading List: A Christmas Legacy

by Anne Perry

Finish date: 22.11.2024
Genre: novella
Rating: A
#Christmas Comfort Reads

Good News: Christmas this year is going to be different. Usually I just keep reading during December but have decided I’m going to do more “seasonal comfort reads” during the holidays before Christmas. Why? Just to slow down, appreciate what this time of year means and savour in the glow of “peace on earth, good will to men.”

Good News: This book had that “Upstairs Downstairs” feeling created in the British drama series 1971-1975 that so many people loved, including me! I superimposed many of the actors from the series on to the characters in the book. Remember the butler, Hudson? the cook Mrs. Bridges and Rose the the parlour maid?

Bad News: I’m afraid there will be more ‘Christmas cheer” in my house after reading these books with a Christmas theme. So delighted with all these happy endings… I will need a nice glass of  Irish Whisky  in front of the fireplace….to end each book!

Personal: After finishing this book I decided it was time to raise a glass to this wonderful little old woman: Mrs. Adelina Harcourt! She really upset her henpecked son and ungrateful daugher-in-law on Christmans Eve. I cannot reveal anymore of the plot…”no spoilers”…but if you have the time try to read this before Christmas!  Yes, the story felt like a Hallmark Movie/Mystery …but who cares? Sometimes you just need a good feeling book!
Reading time: 2 hr

#2024 First Snow!

DECEMBER – Seasonal Comfort Reads

1. A Christmas Legacy – Anne Perry (novella) – REVIEW
2. Alphonse Daudet’s 3  French Christmas stories – A. Daudet – REVIEW
3. Christmas Day – Paul Durcan 
4. Home for Christmas – C.  McCullers  (December 1949) Story of the Week  LINK – READ
5. Gift of the Magi – O. Henry –  short story LINK – ç
   
6. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever – Barbara Robinson
7. The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog –  Dave Barry
   
8. The Cricket on the Hearth  – Charles Dickens
9. The Nutcracker  – E.T.A Hoffmann
10. ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas – Clement C Moore – READ
    
11. A Letter from Santa Claus – Mark Twain – READ
    
12. Christmas at Thompson Hall –  Anthony Trollope
13. A Christmas Carol  – Charles Dickens – READ + Audio narrations Tim Curry
    
14. A Christmas Memory – T. Capote LINK – READ
15. Joyeux Noël ! Histoires à lire au pied du sapin – Gaillmard

#Southern Gothic Cormac McCarthy

by Cormac McCarthy

Finish date: 6 November, 2024
Genre: novel
Rating: F
#Monthly Challenge “Voice Unbound”

Good News: I finished the audiobook. After all the brouhaha a/b the USA election I avoided any news on TV. I had to detox. So I just closed my eyes and listened to a 20 hr book. Suttree is for a reading challenge: read a book whose main character shares same traits with the author. Cormac McCarthy’s time in Tenneessee in 1950s must have been very strange.

Bad News: Suttree (protagonist) keeps some strange friends, miscreants, winos, ragpicker, musselhunters, Indian fisherman, Blind Richard, a black sorceress, the gay Trippin Through the Dew and the  very wierd Gene Harrogate who has a “love” of watermelons, slaughters a piglet and walks around with a sack of 42 dead bats. With every chapter I asked msyelf: “When is this book going to end?”

Bad News: McCarthy wrote the book not caring if it was coherent or made sense to the audience. He wrote the scenes (…there is no real plot) to be bizarre for the sake of bizarre, and off-putting for the sake of itself ( gory details/descriptions). In short, he wrote it for himself, not caring what the audience would think. McCarthy is a deft wordsmith but it felt like pretentious self-importance.

Bad News: McCarthy doesn’t say things plainly in his books. He’ll occasionally say them beautifully being willfully difficult and convoluted.

Personal: Cormac McCarthy is obscure and aloof to no end. He overwrites everything. His writing reads like a few moments of genuine skill and a sharp eye for imagery padded with 280 pages of tedious literary meandering that serves no end.
#GoodRiddanceToOldRubbish

#Classic The Unforgiven

by Alan LeMay

Finish date: 19.11.2024
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: C+
#Classic

Bad News: The novel took ages to get up and running, and when it did, it just dragged. The first “real” plot point was at 34% of the book! I had to read a lot about the landscape and cattle drives to get to something interesting!

Good news: The fear of indian attack on Rachel Zachary’s home and family jolted me awake!
The author’s imagination takes the reader in the middle of a horrfic “battle to the death” between Rachel and her brother Andy against the Kiowas warriors. I must admit it was a white-knuckle read!

Personal: The story did get better. I read this for a reading challenge…otherwise I don’t think I would have pulled this book off the shelf. But it is always good to get out of one’s comfort zone.
Book for…Western Pioneer Adventure buffs!

#Classic Father Brown short stories

by G.K. Chesterton

Finish date: 17.11.2024
Genre: 8 short stories  (198 pg)
Rating: A++
#Classic Short Stories

Good News: I’ve fallen under the spell of a man, round face blank with surprise, short-sighted in a rusty-black clerical garb.
I loved every mystery and awaited the clairon call of Fr. Brown repeted in every chapter: : “nonsense”. Fr Brown, whose business is to believe in things…. admits he is doubtful, noncommittal,. That makes the stories so enjoyable…the irony of an agnostic priest (…aka the keenest of sleuths).

Bad News: Nothing to mention…the book was sheer delight!

Personal: I’ve seen Father Brown series on the TV but never stopped to watch it. Now I know what I’ve been missing. These stories have everything: ghosts, secret staircases, concealed weapons, suspect confessing to a crime that never was committed., a clairvoyant dog, Father Brown and some very nice wine….and a string of rosary beads!
#MustRead Classic

#Nobel Prize 2010 Mario Vargas Llosa

by Mario Vargas Llosa

Finish date: 15.11.2024
Genre: novel (600 pg)
Rating: A+++++
#Nobel Prize 2010

Good News: This was an extraordinary reading experience! Vargas Llosa won the Noble Prize 2010 and he deserves this prestigious award!

Good News: The meeting of Santiago and Ambrosio initiates a four-hour conversation in The Cathedral, the bar-restaurant-brothel ( = 600 pg!) where Santiago and Ambrosio go to drink and reminisce. The “hook” draws the reader into the story on the first pages: the writing is atmospheric, authentic and caters to the readers senses. Writing is art, and art has to make you feel something. We feel the jostling, sweat, smells of the working class in the bar-restaurant.

Bad News:  Writing style –  Once you leave chapter one…be prepared to concentrate on the reading 100%. The dialogue contains another dialogue that contains another dialogue, and so on.
Each dialogue involves different characters speaking at different times and different spaces.
#MajorReadingChallenge

Good News: I found the first 25% of the book difficult to read (overlapping dialogues). It takes time to get used it. Do not let that discourage your reading. The book only gets better and better. Perserver and you will not be disappointed.

Good News: Knowing the structure of the book will make the reading easier. The book would linger in my mind while I tried to put the puzzle pieces together. There are four parts and they do NOT follow chronologically: Part 4|1|3|2…so Vargas Llosa begins the book with the ending!

Personal: I stumbled upon this book by chance b/c it was a recommendation in the Goodreads group: Never Too Late To Read Classic. So glad I finally read this novel. Vargas Llosa is a superb writer but the reader must be up for the challenge!
Reading time: 19 hours
#MustReadClassic

#GermanLitMonth Metamorphosis (Kafka week)

by Franz Kafka

Finish date: 14 November, 2024
Genre: novella
Rating: A
#GermanLitMonth and  #NovNov24

Good News: Classic novella: Traveling salesman Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to discover that he has transformed into a giant insect. His metamorphosis makes it impossible for him to work.

Good News: Audiobook is perfect! (2 hrs and 33 mins) You can immerse yourself fully in this surreal world. Kafka is its best a is a joy to listen to recommended to anyone on a long bike ride or on a dreary winters morning while you sip your coffee. I had no idea how diffcult it is for a bug to get out of bed!

Personal: The Metamorphosis is a metaphor for how our lives can take unexpected and absurd turns, leading us to question the purpose of our existence. This is one of the most famous stories in the literature…..absurdly comic!
#MustRead or #MustListen

Feedback:

Good question from Head Full of Books...what does becoming a bug mean?

Gregor always felt himself as insignificant…only appreciated if he could earn money for the family. So it is not surprising he comes to resemble an ‘insignificant’ bug.

#NonFicNov 2024 Week 3 Pairings

Book Pairing  with Liz link is HERE: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. It can be a “If you loved this book, read this!” or just two titles that you think would go well together. Maybe it’s a historical novel and you’d like to get the real history by reading a nonfiction version of the story. Usually I skip the “book pairings” week….but this year there was an oblivious connection between these two books.

Good news: Clark has done his homework. He blends history with fiction. He takes key pieces of history and makes them fantastical in his writing.

I learned about the origins of the KKK …how it was named and who started the first klan.
I learned about D.W. Griffith’s move “Birth of a Nation” from another perspective! The 1915 D.W. Griffith infamous ‘classic’ film is used to summon Ku Kluxes who are non-human entities of the human Ku Klux Klan. On (pg 81) Clark mentions “…make the invisible Empire strong.”
This is a reference to book (1930) by D. F. Horn Invisible Empire: Story of the KKK 1866-1871.

Personal:
Clark uses the mystery that hangs about the Ku Klux name to create a supernatural / horror story. I thought “Ring Shot” would be the central motif….but it turned out to be the “supernatural sword. Strong point: …bringing in alternate takes on history while mixing in more traditional fantasy elements. If you read this novella …be warned…there’ are a few pages of of slithering and crawling pieces of flesh!  Skim if you are squeamish! #JICK

Good News: Writing: The pacing is terrific, all muscle and no fat. Every sentence has purpose. I read the audiobook and sat in front of the laptop…looking up so much info with Wikipedia! This book is a riveting history lesson. Chilling chapters 15-16-17 : Madge Oberholtzer (1896 – 1925) was an American woman whose rape and murder played a critical role in the demise of the second incarnation of the KKK.

Personal: Indiana is not a state I read anything about but in the 1920s it was the center of the KKK movement! But that is not so surprising: Indiana had 95% native born, 97% white the “purest state in the union!” Indiana had 315.000 members of KKK in 1923, more than in Georgia and Texas. I could not stop myself comparing the rise if KKK and the current politics in the Republican Party! Similarties spring to mind: men were the muscle (Congress, senate, local politicans); women spread the poison (political organization “Moms for Liberty”); ministers sanctify it all! (Ralph Reed’s Turn to Faith movement). Worth your reading time….
#Eye-Opener