Category: Literary Fiction

Categories
Fantasy Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction

The Avram Davidson Treasury: Final Stories & Final Thoughts

*Breathes* is it over? Did I finish? Yes I did!

I’ve written on the prior sections of the Treasury in earlier posts, and now will sum up my thoughts on the final two sections and the collection in general.  Before starting, I noted that for an author that is rarely if ever circulated now despite his massive early  influence, it’s interesting to look at all the awards that he won or was nominated for.

http://www.sfadb.com/Avram_Davidson

How many authors win awards all across the mystery, sci-fi, and fantasy genres?  The entire Treasury itself also won and was nominated multiple times. Naples won a world fantasy award.  Davidson is like a shadow, an influential and widely acclaimed author that everyone seemed to love but now hardly anyone knows or talks about anymore. 

General thoughts

As far as The Seventies and newer stories, I largely liked Davidson’s older works much more than the newer ones. I have been reading through the collection slowly to avoid burn out but so much of the later stories just went straight over my head. Should I have DNF’d? Idk, I wanted to sample the works across the years.  I can’t say why the last bunch were my least favorites other than that I just tended to not understand them, or be bored by the long and winding trails from point A to point Avram.

I’ve been reading the collection since the end of January and definitely struggled at times, but feel like I learned a lot about genre history, general history, many odd facts, and about myself and my own reading habits where I love eclectic & brilliant minds but struggle to keep up sometimes.  If an author gives the editors hell and is considered Out There, I will gravitate towards it. (Y’all remember the Bukowski kick I went on recently)? That said, I can also admit when an author is just far, far too smart for me.

In the afterward, Ray Bradbury (my favorite short fiction writer, sorry Avram) agrees and stresses that reading one or two stories a night depending on the length is the best and only way to consume a book like this.  I also would stress that Davidson’s style starts ‘in a fog’ (Bradbury) and then slowly reveals itself, often times making us wait until the last paragraph or even the last sentence to get “the point” of the story. And oh, you’d better have been able to follow Davidson’s train of thought along the way too 😅. That’s where he lost me towards the end.

I’m not sad. I don’t feel like I wasted my time reading these. I tried. If you want to try too, go for it. I think this is a great collection to get some highlights of his work and related words from other authors. I think Davidson has some great classic stories that deserve to stay in circulation today, but there’s always going to be a lot of ‘other’ to wade through.

The 70’s

IMG_20230329_102603796

From my final batch of stories, I’d like to nod to my favorites: essentially everything from the 70’s I loved except Manatee Gal, Wont You Come Out Tonight. Crazy Old Lady is sad and Selectra Six-Ten is hilarious. Obviously Polly Charms has much attention as well.

The 80’s & 90’s

IMG_20230329_102609052_HDR

This final batch just did not connect with me. The Slovo Stove was probably my favorite because if nothing else, I thought the running joke and legitimate but impossible interest in obscure customs was hilarious. As a group these went over my head

Final thoughts

The last thing I’ll do is share an article I found by Henry Wessels

He wrote one thing that I feel wholeheartedly and have mentioned before while reading some of these stories, which is that reading Davidson just makes me feel like my reading is lacking in so many ways.  So many great authors and great  stories are mentioned that I’ve never even heard of. It makes me feel inadequate 😅 I hope Wessels won’t care that I linked to his article, it’s something I do when frankly someone just says something more eloquently than I can!

Anyway, these are my thoughts and I hope you’ll check out my other writing on Avram Davidson as I’ve made my way through this wild, difficult, wonderful book!

Categories
Fiction Literary Fiction

Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy (is over my head and that’s ok)

Let’s review the bookish quick facts and synopsis really quick and then I’ll share my thoughts:

Bookish Quick Facts:
  • Title: Stella Maris
  • Series: The Passenger #2
  • Author: Cormac McCarthy
  • Publisher & Release: Knopf, 2022
  • Length: 208 pages
  • Rate & Recommend: ⭐⭐⭐ not for me, I don’t know. For someone with different interests
Here’s the synopsis VIA Am*ZON

The second volume of The Passenger series: Stella Maris is an intimate portrait of grief and longing, as a young woman in a psychiatric facility seeks to understand her own existence.

1972, BLACK RIVER FALLS, WISCONSIN: Alicia Western, twenty years old, with forty thousand dollars in a plastic bag, admits herself to the hospital. A doctoral candidate in mathematics at the University of Chicago, Alicia has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and she does not want to talk about her brother, Bobby. Instead, she contemplates the nature of madness, the human insistence on one common experience of the world; she recalls a childhood where, by the age of seven, her own grandmother feared for her; she surveys the intersection of physics and philosophy; and she introduces her cohorts, her chimeras, the hallucinations that only she can see. All the while, she grieves for Bobby, not quite dead, not quite hers. Told entirely through the transcripts of Alicia’s psychiatric sessions, Stella Maris is a searching, rigorous, intellectually challenging coda to The Passenger, a philosophical inquiry that questions our notions of God, truth, and existence.

My thoughts:

Here we go: unfortunately as much as I anticipated and waited and wanted to love these books, they went over my head and that’s fine. I’m not here for deep literary analysis at this point in my life, or at least not like this.  I have no knowledge of math history or abstract physics  and that’s ok too. To me, this added nothing to book one except that Alicia truly needed to be committed and Bobby was equally nuts.

I couldn’t stay awake reading the text. The audiobook only put me to sleep 4-5 times so I did eventually get through it, despite the length these books are A CHORE.  I would stick to reading them in publication order though and if you really want to know more, McCarthy’s The Kekule Problem is an essay that could be additional reading between the two books.

Like any niche topic discussed in any book ever, the long talks about math and it’s history, physics, abstract psychology… who without any knowledge of the fact wants to read these discourses? McCarthy can study all the math he wants in his life but I can’t imagine he’s going to sell any new readers on his older books this way, it’s absolutely tedious for someone like me to read.

My mind doesn’t get that abstract. I don’t know anything about Platonism. I can’t wrap my mind around half of Alicia’s ideas, and I’m willing to let it all slide over my head and not be ashamed.

That said, why did we need two books for this story? I don’t feel like Alicia’s utter lack of humanity added anything to Bobby’s story.   She’s absolutely bonkers and he comes across as even crazier for loving her back.  Most of the “plot points” in Stella Maris were already hit in The Passenger.  There was no further look at the characters mentioned in the asylum either which might have been interesting.

These books are full of the things that interested McCarthy throughout his life and old age. Maybe he wanted to deep dive into an abstract philosophical debate with himself. At least it was more palatable in audio form with the male and female narrators leaving no doubt who was speaking at any time.  Ah yes, the text continues with the dialogue/no punctuation theme so while it flows, it’s an eye full.

And at the end of the day, Alicia can be whatever she wants from a literary standpoint but someone *that* smart should do exactly what the therapist said and realize that disappointment occurs, normal people get on with their lives. No you can’t have your brother’s kid, get over it.  She should have been committed by age 12 and there’s no amount of brilliance related to math and physics that negates that fact.

Long story short I don’t feel much for Bobby in The Passenger or Alicia here in Stella Maris. Even on the basest level it was infuriating to read this discourse with Alicia when every other third sentence out of her mouth was a lie or her trying to bully/manipulate the interviewer.  I deal with too much psych as is at the hospital and that’s enough for me without trying to make sense of this woman’s mind games too.

The whole project of these books is just a no for me. I liked many of his earlier works but this went far over my head and I’m ok with it staying there. I don’t regret putting out the cash for the hardcovers but I’ll pass them on and hope the next reader enjoys them more

Thanks for checking out my book review and thoughts on Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy. I purchased the hardcovers with my own money and all thoughts are as always, my own.  I briefly listened to the audiobook as well which I obtained through my local library via Libby.  Edoardo Ballerini and Julia Whelan are phenomenal narrators in their own right and did help the book but, I’m reviewing my main reading effort (the book)

Categories
Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction

The Passenger by [Cormac McCarthy has lost his mind] (Book Thoughts)

Well. Well well well.  You guys know I had this box set preordered as soon as it was announced and this was my most anticipated read of 2023.  I’m completely and utterly dumbfounded by this stupid book.

It’s brilliant, it’s complete nonsense, it’s the stark raving mad ranting of an 89 year old that no editor dared to raise a red pen to. It’s a bait and switch. It’s aggravating.  And I can’t stop thinking about it. (See Bookish Quick Facts & Synopsis at the end)

The thing about The Passenger is that it ties together almost everything else McCarthy ever wrote. He calls out a lot of his prior works. He sets up a great and interesting mystery that he never follows through on, simply drops the plot line as soon as it gets good.

Is the government after the missing passenger from the fallen airplane, are they after hidden Oppenheimer papers, do they think his son has something? See, in the book, the main character is Oppenheimer’s son, and that angle didn’t work for me because I can’t take a real man with a real documented history and insert him into a fictional situation.  He didn’t die in Mexico, his kids weren’t schizophrenic as far as I can tell (although he was wrongly diagnosed) and it’s just a very bizarre conflagration of real and unreal, although the themes of generational guilt are real.

The schizophrenic circus, the thalidomide kid (really, really? So many old people are having flashbacks of that disaster right now 🤦‍♀️) it was one way to give us a background of the sisters life and psyche but frankly it was just weird.  I think these characters make more sense if you read The Kekule Problem but I would say to read it between The Passenger and Stella Maris.  This isn’t the first story where McCarthy wrote incestuous siblings and he actually gave Alicia more of a personality than most of his female characters.  That said, I think it was fu€ked up but they weren’t, like, physically involved.

So we start with a mystery and end up travelling a circus of bizarre characters, with some prophetic insights on life and more than a healthy amount of ranting about the Kennedys. Throw your plot out the window, no one will even notice, right?

McCarthy isn’t known for punctuation and normal presentation (he would get along with Davidson, real well), and this book falls into that category too so maybe stay away if that style bugs you.  I would recommend the audiobook, I did listen to parts of it to see if it sat in my mind better but honestly… Idk, I can’t retain any specifics.  The narration was good.

I think if you really want the most from McCarthy, you need to go back and read his prominent works and end with this big old finale.  Personally… Idk I’m pretty sure that McCarthy is an old perv who has gone and lost his darn mind, and he’s laughing at everyone trying to make prophecy out of his convoluted ramblings about life, psychology, physics, grief, family ties, the deep dark depths of the ocean,  etc etc etc.

I’ll write more after a Kekule reread and then getting through Stella Maris. I hate it but I’m too oddly fascinated not to keep going, plus SM  is much shorter so there’s that.

Bookish quick facts:
  • Title: The Passenger
  • Series: The Passenger, #1
  • Author: Cormac McCarthy
  • Publisher & Release: Knopf, 2022
  • Length: 400 pages
  • Rate & Recommend: ⭐⭐⭐ for fans.  I don’t know if I think he’ll make new fans with this
Here’s the synopsis from Am*zon

The Passenger is the story of a salvage diver, haunted by loss, afraid of the watery deep, pursued for a conspiracy beyond his understanding, and longing for a death he cannot reconcile with God.

1980, PASS CHRISTIAN, MISSISSIPPI: It is three in the morning when Bobby Western zips the jacket of his wet suit and plunges from the Coast Guard tender into darkness. His dive light illuminates the sunken jet, nine bodies still buckled in their seats, hair floating, eyes devoid of speculation. Missing from the crash site are the pilot’s flight bag, the plane’s black box, and the tenth passenger. But how? A collateral witness to machinations that can only bring him harm, Western is shadowed in body and spirit—by men with badges; by the ghost of his father, inventor of the bomb that melted glass and flesh in Hiroshima; and by his sister, the love and ruin of his soul.

Traversing the American South, from the garrulous barrooms of New Orleans to an abandoned oil rig off the Florida coast, The Passenger is a breathtaking novel of morality and science, the legacy of sin, and the madness that is human consciousness.

Categories
Literary Fiction Science Fiction

The Avram Davidson Treasury: The Fifties

I’ve been following the SFF community for a few years now, four of which I’ve been fairly active online, and I can honestly say that I’ve never once seen Avram Davidson mentioned in any sort of bookish dialogue.  I’ve been trying to read more short stories, sample different American authors, and I’ve been holding onto the Avram Davidson Treasury for years now without reading it too closely. I tend to gravitate towards authors who are eclectic, are known to clash with publishers, and have found another to feature on veterans day as Davidson was a medic with the Navy in WWII.

Anyway, over the past few weeks I’ve read a story here and a story there, and have finally finished the first section: stories from The Fifties.

IMG_20230208_175015895

IMG_20230208_175031271_HDR

This is a cool book though. The cast of science fiction authors who selected and introduced stories are a true who’s who of everyone, sharing fun facts about the author himself and the stories within. I don’t know if I would have picked up on a lot of idiosyncracies and plot points without those comments, and I feel like I’m learning a lot about early SFF in general

Peter S. Beagle calls our attention to the careful language used in ‘Ogre in the Vly‘, a theme that I did notice throughout. Davidson tends to pay a lot of attention to accents and language in general.  The Hugo winning short story “Or All the Seas With Oysters” is introduced by Guy Davenport, saying how the story lives on through plagiarism and it’s tenacity in making everyday objects into something so sinister.

Some I really enjoyed (Help! I am Dr. Morris Goldpepper and The Golem), some were sad (Now Let Us Sleep) and others I had to read a few times before grasping but laughed at the end (Author, Author).  Others just went over my head, like Dagon, Ogre In the Vly and Take Wooden Indians. I can see where Or All the Seas With Oysters won a Hugo but also, some of these are just good reading. Others, uh, not so much.

This post just deleted half of itself somehow and I can’t even think of what is missing, send help… I know I had commented in general that short stories are hard.  Trying to glean meaning and “what I’m supposed to be getting out of them” can be hard, especially when it’s 2023 and these were written in the fifties.  That’s why I liked the author introductions so much.  I always feel dumb reading short stories because I forget them SO quickly too.

If I missed anything I have four more eras to write about here and am curious to see how his writing changes over the years.  I’d also be interested in checking out the episodes of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction that he edited, to see what eclectic types of stories he brought in.

Categories
Fiction Literary Fiction Mysteries

The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green (ARC & Book Club thoughts)

Hi all, here’s one of my last reviews of the year coming at you from a frozen, absolutely snowed in Christmas Eve somewhere in Western NY.

Ahhh, so that’s why reading balmy southern Gothic seemed so appealing right now.

My lovely partner Celadon Books sent me an ARC of The Kingdoms of Savannah and included their lovely book club packet for the novel.  Seeing as the ARC came in September (the book was released in July) and was unsolicited, I intended to read it this year but didn’t quite prioritize it.

1671931481836815614781911673746

1671931574494103734644520734347

Anyway, let’s see the read and then I’ll share some thoughts

Bookish Quick Facts:

  • Title: The Kingdoms of Savannah
  • Author: George Dawes Green
  • Publisher & Release: Celadon Books, July 2022
  • Length: 304 pages
  • Rate & Recommend: ⭐⭐⭐⭐for those who like mysteries and literary fiction steeped in history

Here’s the synopsis from Am*zon:

Savannah may appear to be “some town out of a fable,” with its vine flowers, turreted mansions, and ghost tours that romanticize the city’s history. But look deeper and you’ll uncover secrets, past and present, that tell a more sinister tale. It’s the story at the heart of George Dawes Green’s chilling new novel, The Kingdoms of Savannah.

It begins quietly on a balmy Southern night as some locals gather at Bo Peep’s, one of the town’s favorite watering holes. Within an hour, however, a man will be murdered and his companion will be “disappeared.” An unlikely detective, Morgana Musgrove, doyenne of Savannah society, is called upon to unravel the mystery of these crimes. Morgana is an imperious, demanding, and conniving woman, whose four grown children are weary of her schemes. But one by one she inveigles them into helping with her investigation, and soon the family uncovers some terrifying truths―truths that will rock Savannah’s power structure to its core.

Moving from the homeless encampments that ring the city to the stately homes of Savannah’s elite, Green’s novel brilliantly depicts the underbelly of a city with a dark history and the strangely mesmerizing dysfunction of a complex family

My thoughts:

So I know there is a lot of literature based in and around Savannah, which is a city in Georgia famous for ghost tours and it’s complicated southern history.  I liked reading the author’s historical and personal notes as he drew much of the book from either personal experiences or those of his friends, and from real events.  The result was a strong feeling of authenticity in setting and environment that sucked me into the story.

The balmy days, the rain, the locales, the iced tea and alcohol, the old ladies from old money maneuvering for social position… I kind of likened the reading experience to something that Wilbur Smith would put out, except maybe a little less exciting. I would love to see that author collaboration though *wink wink*

Ok back to Kingdoms – the mystery was exciting enough, except I thought that it went from zero to solved WAY too quickly and easily.  One minute they had a few leads, and the next Morgana had solved it?  I kind of followed her train of thought but I needed something more linking points A to Z.

As far as the characters… I liked them.  I think Green did a good job with their personalities and interactions and showing how the family tended to ebb and flow in their relationships with each other.  Read that as – the book nails southern Gothic. Is it bad that my favorite character was probably Gracie the dog though?  Ha, no for real though I liked the cast of family, friends, and all the homeless people, there were again just soooo many names.  My last and final thought is to mention that huge open ending! I won’t speculate for want of being spoiler free but I definitely wonder. If anyone wants to chat about it, I’m here for you 😅

Overall, this one was super readable. It was 100% a Celadon book: literary and atmospheric.  There were only 5 chapters though, very long, more like parts of the book that were divided into separate mini sections.  It made the read feel slower. The pacing was a little difficult but I was never bored while reading and did enjoy all the history and culture of Savannah.  The book club materials were awesome too – I’m not in a book club but I liked the map, further history, author interview, drink recipes, and all the discussion questions seemed well curated.

Definitely recommend for fans of family drama, southern literary fiction, mysteries.

Thanks for checking out my arc /  book review of The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green! I was sent a free early copy in exchange for an honest review, and as always all opinions are my own ♥️

Categories
Literary Fiction Thrillers

Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer (Snarky Book Review)

If you’ve followed me for any amount of time you probably have heard me say that by principle, I don’t read books that have a legitimate Goodreads rating of under 3.7 ish.  Rare exceptions are made like when I happen to have time to finally read a Jeff VanderMeer and one is available, and unfortunately I picked his worst rated book by far (3.27).

Guys..don’t be me. Let’s do a quick look at the book first then I’ll share some thoughts

Bookish Quick Facts:

  • Title: Hummingbird Salamander
  • Series: N/A
  • Author: Jeff VanderMeer
  • Publisher & Release: MCD, 2021
  • Length: 368 pages
  • Rate & Recommend: ⭐⭐ I mean no not really but if you are a fan of the author maybe give it a try

Here’s the synopsis from GoodReads:

From the author of Annihilation, a brilliant speculative thriller of dark conspiracy, endangered species, and the possible end of all things.

Security consultant “Jane Smith” receives an envelope with a key to a storage unit that holds a taxidermied hummingbird and clues leading her to a taxidermied salamander. Silvina, the dead woman who left the note, is a reputed ecoterrorist and the daughter of an Argentine industrialist. By taking the hummingbird from the storage unit, Jane sets in motion a series of events that quickly spin beyond her control.

Soon, Jane and her family are in danger, with few allies to help her make sense of the true scope of the peril. Is the only way to safety to follow in Silvina’s footsteps? Is it too late to stop? As she desperately seeks answers about why Silvina contacted her, time is running out—for her and possibly for the world

This book tried to be a lot of things. It tried to be dystopian and didn’t succeed.  It tried to be an eco-thriller and missed the mark. It didn’t fall anywhere into science fiction despite a lot of bird and salamander facts that ground the plot action to a halt every time he did a facts chapter.

If anything it’s a bit of a mystery and thriller at times and alternate future.  I felt like he skimmed over pandemics and chaos and the world devolving but nothing got enough attention or traction to stick with me.

The main character was absolutely terrible too. Not only because she was aloof and anonymous and her arc didn’t make a ton of sense, but she had the nerve to call herself a good wife and mother despite the fact that she cheated on her husband multiple times, almost did it again, and left them both to the wolves when she could have used her skills in security to hide and try to protect them.  Mom of the year award, right?

I didn’t even mind all the cryptic language – in fact I liked that. The anonymity and ever progressing loss of identity made sense.  It was the random springing from point A to point F that was terrible, and that the narrator really had no motivation to do anything she did (really, you’re just going to sacrifice your family and life and everything for a random mysterious letter?

When the ending came around, even with the mystery kind of solved and the motivations unveiled, even if the main character had known from the start that was what was happening and why…. Would she have done it? I really don’t know.

Basically the premise sounded really good and, yeah, you know, save the trees don’t trash the Earth and wear a mask, etc etc etc

Onwards and upwards

thanks for checking out my book review of Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer.  This copy was obtained through Libby and as always, all opinions are my own  

Categories
Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction

Vaguely ‘The October Country’ (or: books with meaning cont.)

I feel like I’m screwing everything up this October and the blog is no exception. A hastily assembled month of guest content, genre diverse reading, and nostalgia related articles has led to my worst two weeks of views ever when I was thinking (and hoping) it would be well received.  I know the loss of Instagram traffic is hurting and change is always hard, but…. sigh, tell me again why I even bother?

Last Saturday I started some rambling thoughts on ways that a book itself potentially enhances it’s own reading experience, such as when it’s borrowed from a friend and some bookish conversation is enabled as a result. Or, in this case, when it was owned by and now a link to a deceased relative.

I’ve always gotten nostalgic reading Bradbury, especially the few remaining books I have from my uncle’s collection. The October Country is a short story anthology of some of Bradbury’s oldest stories, a macabre and fantasy-horror filled assortment of human observation and meditation on loss (among other things).  Not sci-fi. One thing I read about Bradbury recently that irked me was someone hating on the book because it wasn’t sci-fi? Like why? Authors evolve over time and sometimes write outside their classically known genre, although I do blame that on early publishers for marketing some of it as sci-fi when it’s not.

Anyway, I’ve got an old Ballantine sci-fi classics edition (see, to me this is setting the book up for undue scrutiny) of The October Country that’s falling apart at the binding.  I’m almost afraid to read it any more but also felt like thumbing through a few stories was suitable for my mood this October, as I tend to do anyway each autumn.  I don’t actually know what my mood is but it’s manifesting as smelling the book and imagining that I can still detect pipe smoke.  It’s having a minor melt down because I dropped and broke one of the last plates I had from his set, I’m supposed to be taking care of them right? It’s feeling one more page detach even though I’m barely cracking the spine and just feeling like I’m destroying everything.  

Anyway, to make this bookish, another way to connect to the physical reading experience is to know who else has owned and loved a book. As evidenced by a beaten to hell paperback that probably belongs in a dust sleeve for preservation but I don’t really think that’s what anyone would have wanted, so I continue to read a few stories every year.

I’ve only read the first few this time around and found myself enjoying and connecting with, not for the first time, the prose contained in “The Next In Line”.  With the frantic wife and the speed of her thoughts.  The evaporating warmth that keeps things (Bradbury uses the clay analogy) from moulding anew.

I’m not scared of skulls and bones…If a child was raised and didn’t know he had a skeleton in him, he wouldn’t think anything of bones, would he? … In order for a thing to be horrible it has to suffer a change you can recognize

If anyone is still following for GrimDarkTober content, I’ve got a guest review coming from Brandy at The Review Booth tomorrow, a review for Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde coming probably Monday, then a slew of guest content including a surprise interview 💀

Categories
Contemporary Fiction Literary Fiction

Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen (Book Review)

Thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press for the gorgeous finished copy of Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen!

From my favorite non-SFF genre, this is a wonderful magical realism book about stories, secrets, acceptance, and the ghosts we hold onto. It’s packed full of great characters and themes that I love.

This comes with my apologies as I should have read and reviewed it already but had a terrible incident of dog vs. marshmallow from the press box (she is ok now!) and needed a little time.

So let’s look at the book, which I am highly recommending for new adult readers and all fans of magical realism!

Bookish Quick Facts:

  • Title: Other Birds
  • Series: N/A
  • Author: Sarah Addison Allen
  • Publisher & Release: St. Martin’s Press, 08/30/22
  • Length: 290 pages
  • Rate & Recommend: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

Here’s the synopsis:

From the acclaimed author of Garden Spells comes an enchanting tale of lost souls, lonely strangers, secrets that shape us, and how the right flock can guide you home.

Down a narrow alley in the small coastal town of Mallow Island, South Carolina, lies a stunning cobblestone building comprised of five apartments. It’s called The Dellawisp and it is named after the tiny turquoise birds who, alongside its human tenants, inhabit an air of magical secrecy.

When Zoey Hennessey comes to claim her deceased mother’s apartment at The Dellawisp, she meets her quirky, enigmatic neighbors including a girl on the run, a grieving chef whose comfort food does not comfort him, two estranged middle-aged sisters, and three ghosts. Each with their own story. Each with their own longings. Each whose ending isn’t yet written.

When one of her new neighbors dies under odd circumstances the night Zoey arrives, she is thrust into the mystery of The Dellawisp, which involves missing pages from a legendary writer whose work might be hidden there. She soon discovers that many unfinished stories permeate the place, and the people around her are in as much need of healing from wrongs of the past as she is. To find their way they have to learn how to trust each other, confront their deepest fears, and let go of what haunts them.

Delightful and atmospheric, Other Birds is filled with magical realism and moments of pure love that won’t let you go. Sarah Addison Allen shows us that between the real and the imaginary, there are stories that take flight in the most extraordinary ways.

So the synopsis is absolutely dead on as far as what the book is about, and I have nothing else to add to the summary. Other Birds is full of both literal and figurative ghosts with a touch of magic throughout.  It’s not quite a GrimDarkTober read but I love it for autumn.

Zoey has moved to Mallow Island before college starts and meets the inhabitants of her mother’s old residence.  There’s a reclusive author, small little birds with big personalities, and three ghosts hanging around.  There’s a lot more too but it’s worth discovering on your own.

I loved the characters.  Each had a lot of childhood trauma in different forms and as they grew up, hoarded love where they could find it.  Everyone was broken in some way and I don’t always love books like this but I did like how Zoey brought everyone at The Dellawisp together and eventually they all found a lot of individual closure.

The theme of letting go to old loves and making room for new ones was touching and I have to give the book 1/2 of a bonus star for making me tear up.  (If anyone remembers my infamous bonus system: real tears is +1 star,  watery eyes is +1/2 star, real laughter is +1 star, chuckles is 1/2 star. Basically make me feel something and I give bonus stars).  What really got me was the point about how on whatever level of abuse occurs, whether it’s horrendous neglect, physical, or just not having a place in your own family for whatever reason –  sometimes it’s better to leave and find your own people. 

The other high point was that the book maintained a level of mystery and and ongoing discovery that kept me interested.  Who was prowling around at night? What was really going on with these characters – including the ghosts? It kept itself interesting and the reveals came at a steady pace.  Some I never saw coming, some I did, and it was a good mix.

The setting and atmosphere was piled on thick too, but this is one of the most character driven books that I’ve truly enjoyed recently. At the end of the day I had a few issues with how the various points of view were thrown together in each chapter, but I love the third person present tense.  It’s an intimate approach and such a generally wholesome book for the new adult like age 18+ readers that I’m just going with 5 stars.  

Anyway, here are a few quotes that packed a lot of punch for me:

Stories aren’t fiction. Stories are fabric. They’re the white sheets we drop over our ghosts so we can see them

It made him even more scared of rejection, because who would ever believe in a loneliness so overwhelming that you called upon a ghost to alleviate it?

Overall I highly recommend this one for fans of women’s fiction, magical realism, and new adult readers!

As a bonus: here are the press kit photos I took! Thank you again to the publisher for the book and box and all the support along the way ❤️

Categories
Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Romance

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Book Thoughts)

In an effort to broaden my reading horizons and shore up some of my literary gaps, I started reading a few classics every year.

For my summer session of classic torture, I was surprised to find that The Scarlet Letter was not really that challenging to read. It is fairly short and the language isn’t terribly insufferable either (My last classic was Notre Dame de Paris ((The Hunchback of Notre Dame)) and … Whew, no thanks).

So let’s talk about my reaction to the book, if I think it has relevance today, and I’ll treat you to my teen-speak synopsis of the book.

Originally published in 1850, here’s the Signet Classics synopsis:

This tragic novel of sin and redemption is Hawthorne’s masterpiece of American fiction.

An ardent young woman, her cowardly lover, and her aging vengeful husband—these are the central characters in this stark drama of the conflict between passion and convention in the harsh world of seventeenth-century Boston. Tremendously moving and rich in psychological insight, this dramatic depiction of the struggle between mind and heart illuminates Hawthorne’s concern with our Puritan past and its influence on American life.

Broadly – I enjoyed the read.  It’s not hard to know what’s happening, and minus a bit of minute descriptive language mostly in the first novella about the Custom House, it was pretty readable.

His author intro is everything: Oh you’re offended by my sketch? I think it’s fine, it’s not like I burned the place down!! I bet Hawthorne had a big personality.

Relevance: I think it has relevance as a cautionary tale today in a world where teen moms get “famous” on TV and you can’t even scroll Bookstagram without seeing books with x rated content advertised. I would definitely put this in a home school curriculum to talk about Puritanism, early settlements, guilt, adultery, having children out of wedlock, stigmas and identity, I mean there’s a lot of discussion content here that I imagine parents would rather handle.

Here’s my teen speak synopsis:

Part 1: So Mr. Hawthorne was in the hot seat for blasting his employer after being fired, and said HaHaHaHA I’m gonna publish this anyway because it’s not offensive so enjoy! Sticks and stones!

Part 2: The Scarlet Letter. Ok so this lady living in Puritan Salem/Boston finds this brown eyed pastor waxing poetic, and even though she’s married, they get their shenanigans on. What the heck did she think would happen when she had a baby? This wasn’t 2020 where Jerry Springer lets your baby daddy and your husband fight it out on live TV, your @$$ is going to be hung by the neck!

That didn’t happen because Hawthorne had to write a book longer than 5 pages, so the two men have to kill each other with psychological warfare instead. A good lesson about carrying around a guilty conscience.

Long story short – actions have consequenes

A few random thoughts:

  • I thought it was funny that even the beggars were shunning charity from Hester. These days everyone grabs all the free stuff regardless of who is handing it out
  • A character mentioned transmuting alchemy to gold, which is something I usually see in fantasy books or nonfiction moreso than historical fiction
  • The book takes place 50 years before the Salem Witch Trials and Hawthorne brought in some real historical figures as characters.  Bellingham was the real governor, as was Hibbins who mentioned witchcraft throughout the book and was hanged in real life shortly after it took place. I didn’t know how many women were hung before the actual frenzy took place

Overall thoughts: I didn’t feel bad for Hester at all. She wasn’t forced into marriage and knew the laws of the time. Dimmesdale probably took advantage of his authority position and that isn’t an excuse for either of them since she clearly knows how to say NO to men in power based off the rest of the book.  I know 2020 is whack but choices, actions, they all have consequences and I’ll never support adultery.  That’s why I think this is a good cautionary tale to lay against idiocracy like “Teen Mom”

This is a quicker, easier to pick apart classic and I definitely think it held up over the years.

Soooo what classic should I read in the fall?

Categories
audiobooks Dystopian Literary Fiction Science Fiction

The End of the World Running Club by Adrian J. Walker (Book & Audio Thoughts)

I haven’t read a dystopian in a while and found one that I don’t see talked about a whole lot.  The End of the World Running Club hits all the right points for a dystopian but fell short over all for me and I’m blaming it on 1) the audio and 2) the ending.

When I read these types of books, the primary questions in my mind are “Ok, how far will these characters go to survive, and what keeps them going? What flavor does the ending leave for both humanity and our remaining characters?”

Bookish Quick Facts:

  • Title: The End of the World Running Club
  • Series: ” ” #1
  • Author: Adrian J. Walker
  • Publisher & Release: Sourcebooks Landmark, September 3017
  • Length: 464 pages
  • Rate & Recommend: ⭐⭐⭐✨ more for those who want to sample the genre

Here’s the synopsis from Am*zon:

Asteroids are striking Earth, the end of the world is near, and Edgar Hill is on the wrong side of the country.

Over five hundred miles of devastated wastelands stretch between him and his family, and every second counts. His only option is to run―or risk losing everything he loves. He’ll have to be ingenious and push himself to the very limit if he wants to see them again. Can he reach them in the race against time, or will the end of the world defeat him?

A dystopian page-turner about the endurance of the human body and spirit―perfect for lovers of apocalyptic science fiction, running books, and anyone who knows that true strength comes from love.

As I said it hits all the points of a good dystopian. There’s a cataclysmic event, despair, survival, hope and hopelessness, the exploration of human nature, an incredible journey, etc. Everything the book should have.  There are helpful friends and harmful scum along the way, complete with all the obstacles you’d expect in a cross country run through a landscape devastated by asteroids.  It also takes place in the UK which is not something that I see so frequently in these types of novels.

That said, I had mixed feelings about where the book ended, and I think a lot of my overall negative feelings are influenced by the fact that the audiobook narrator’s voice got so annoying that I had to close it down and buy the ebook.

I really liked the beginning because Ed, the narrator, started at the end of the story with the description of three graves that he was thinking of digging up to prove his sanity.  Or had he already lost it? He talked about beliefs and it set the book up for the potential to be a mirage.  The whole beginning was absolutely wonderful as the asteroids occurred and then the family was trapped in the cellar. I felt like it went slowly downhill once Ed & Co started the journey.

At the end, again focusing on the graves, Edgar made a big point of bringing into question whether or not the events he told actually happened, versus what he believed. So… I don’t really know what to believe happened at the end and I wasn’t in the mood for that much literary ambiguity in a now open ending. I do think these books need open endings but not necessarily a riddle.

Anyway, I got truly annoyed with the book about the time that Jenny Rae came in. Whether or not my annoyance should give the author more points, I’m not sure. I tend to be super picky with dystopian and this one had a lot of really good elements, and some overdone ones. Like a large, borderline schizophrenic woman that wreaks havoc and is the last person in the world that should be in charge of anything, but would definitely come out on top in the apocalypse.  This is an archetypal dystopian character and I kind of just feel like somebody would have shot her before she came to any kind of power. That whole section was hard, (but heck yeah go Mr Angelbeck!)

Ed’s character arc from inviting the end of the world to running across a continent for his family was lovely.  He’s a morally gray character – as is everyone in a dystopian – and I liked who he became. Harvey, Bryce and Grimes were good characters too but we didn’t get too much of a good look at them. The book took an appropriately deep dive into humanity in general as well as what keeps us going in the dark. Running not so much although there were a few long distance insights and I am in awe that the untrained people ran so far.

I would recommend this one to people wanting to try a dystopian, but probably not hardcore fans of the genre. My favorite one to recommend (after The Road) is A Boy and his Dog at the End of the World. As far as this one, I would read a book version and stay away from the audio. I just did not like the narrator’s voice because he always sounded so happy, regardless of what was going on, and there was an awful lot of loud yelling. The guy also could absolutely not do female voices and eventually I shut it off and bought the ebook, which was a better experience.