Spines and Vines discussion
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Heard It Through the Grapevine
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Jamise
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Jun 04, 2015 02:24PM
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I'm currently reading Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab the Body Farm Where the Dead Do Tell Tales, it's very interesting.
Finished Father of the Rain a few days ago. Not as good as Euphoria. Here is my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget. Here is my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...Next up Eight Hundred Grapes
Seems like all my reads lately are based on alcohol..hmmm.
Just finished The Rising by Kelley Armstrong, the final book in her "Darkness Rising" trilogyMy reveiw > https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Just finished Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab the Body Farm Where the Dead Do Tell Tales and enjoyed it very much. It's a non-fiction based on the first "Body Farm" established in Knoxville TN. my review - 4♦
One I read in 2013 but just dusted off today A House in the Sky. My 5 ★ review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished An Untamed State. A difficult but powerful 5 star read. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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Jamise wrote: "I've had this book since it was released. I hear it's a difficult read but excellent book. Thanks for posting your review!"I look fwd to reading yours Jamise!
Finished Church of Marvels. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this one. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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Thanks for posting your reviews! Very helpful.
Just finished What She Left Behind. Super good 4 ****. Here is my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I just read the book about Robert Peace. It's a very moving book that I just can't get out of my mind. The Short Life Of Robert Peace 5 stars for me
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One of my favorites!! Heartbreaking!!
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My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Just finished and really enjoyedAn Introduction to the Old Testament: Canon and Christian Imagination by Walter Brueggemann
This was my first sustained, scholarly reading in canonical studies. Prior to this, my primary exposure was to source criticism with its emphasis on the historical context of the text of the Old Testament. Typical of Walter Brueggemann, this overview was thorough, thought provoking, steeped in extensive scholarship and well worth the investment of time and brain cells. I know I have only retained a fraction of the material presented. A re-read is in order as well as additional reading in this field.
We Are Called To Rise by Laura McBrideThe various lives that circle around this novel, until they finally converge, have all known the tremendous pain of PTSD, whether from war, political oppression, domestic violence or the death of a child. PTSD is treated with honesty and sensitivity. The writing may not be award-winning quality and the temptation to unlikely resolutions may pull too hard. But, the challenge, the hope that despite the tragedies in life, we can not only survive, but, if we lean into one another, bring beauty out of the ashes is a powerful take away.
Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight
One October morning, wealthy, talented, bright 15 year old Amelia plunges to her death from the roof of her exclusive N.Y. high school. Was it suicide, an accident, murder? The chapters alternate between Amelia’s narration of those first weeks of school and her mother Kate’s search for answers. The plot was sufficiently engaging to keep me reading. However, these rich caddy girls with their social rules and attitudes were so alien to any interaction I have had with adolescents that I found it impossible to connect. Kate’s constant criticism of her mother alongside Amelia’s nonstop praise of hers was overkill. McCreight reduced Kate’s grief to a caricature by resorting to exclusive clichéd histrionics.
Just finished Bird Box...a creepy, good read...maybe for Halloween? Here is my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Soul Sisters Text by Edwina Gateley, Art by Louis GlanzmanTwelve lovely portraits of Gospel figures are accompanied by poetic reflections on that woman. Maybe I don’t sufficiently understand free verse poetry, but these reflections struck me as prose masquerading as poetry by its formatting in short lines. In each of these reflections, Gateley addresses the women in the illustration, linking her presumed oppression under a pervasive patriarchal structure with the similar patriarchal oppression of women today. Old or young, barren or pregnant, vigorous or ill, it would seem that in every state in life, women are inevitably repressed and tormented victims of hypocritical patriarchal authoritarian systems. I will use the illustrations as meditation pieces in days of reflection, but I do not anticipate using the texts.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
A man and his young son travel through a desolate, violent post-apocalyptic world. The reader is never told the cause of the decimation, but I was given the impression of a catastrophic explosion, most likely that of an enormous thesaurus factory. Read aloud, the phrasing had the cadence of poetry which vividly evoked the desolation. But, that poetic style became a window between me and the world of the story, enhancing my vision, but preventing me from entering. I regret this distance because the love and care between the two was a thing of true beauty in this otherwise harsh landscape.
The Orchard by Theresa WeirThis is a memoir of Theresa Weir’s marriage to the oldest son of an Illinois apple farming family. It highlights the dysfunctional family dynamics and the hazard of pesticide spraying.
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
Dinesen owned a coffee plantation in Kenya during the early years of the 20th century. This is less the narrative of those years than a collection of anecdotes from that period that conveyed the feel of the place and local culture, the sense of her experience.
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I really enjoyed this book.
The Round House by Louise ErdrichThe narrator’s mother is brutally attacked, a rape and attempted murder, when he was a young teen. As she sinks into a dark depression, he and his father struggle with their craving for justice. This is the account of the impact of a violent crime on a tight-knit family living in a tight-knit community. It is also the story of the way long ago injustices toward native peoples continues to play out today. The story was completely engaging and its narration spun a web that engulfed me. I fell in love with these characters who strove to deal with their pain with integrity.
The Martian by Andy WeirUnlike the many positive comments about this novel I saw on GR, it left me rather flat. The premise was intriguing. An astronaut is accidentally left behind by a Mars expedition when a dangerous storm forced an emergency evacuation. Alone, with only the supplies for a limited Mars project, he is determined to survive as long as possible. He records his adventures in a diary for what ever future expedition discovers him, dead or alive. With gallows humor and the ability to explain complex science in language a junior high student could understand, this has the feel of an after school program. The chipper, can-do attitude of this stranded man never flags. Life threatening disasters are greeted with a four-letter exclamation and a joke before he quickly figures out how to work around it. The story covers nearly a year and a half, but never is there a physical or mental health problem. Meanwhile, back on earth, NASA works with a limitless source of funds, international cooperation and a perky conviction that every difficulty will work out. I kept waiting them to break out in a group cheer. This was a wonderful vehicle to convey basic science lessons for a young adult audience (minus the occasional sex jokes), but it did not work for me as an adult reader.
Station Eleven by Emily St. MandelA virulent flu strain decimates the earth’s population leaving isolated pockets of survivors. Several story lines and time periods are woven together: the cast of a Toronto production of Shakespeare at the time of the pandemic, the lives of several people connected to the star of that cast decades prior to the outbreak and a traveling Shakespearean troop twenty years after the collapse of civilization. I found the jumping between story lines disjointed and confusing. I suspect the point was to contrast the life the reader takes for granted with the hardships we would face if modernity were to disappear. The pre-disaster episodes were characterized by the superficiality of fame and wealth while the later sections depicted self-sacrifice and lasting friendship born of the need for one another. I found the post-apocalyptic world perplexing; apparently classically trained actors and musicians had immunity to this flu strain while electricians, plumbers, chemical engineers, mechanics, computer designers and all with 20th century technical skills fell victim. Musical instruments, ammunition, wine, pens and paper were available and working, but combustion engines and plumbing systems, cultivated farms and cloth production, electricity and currency were a vague memory two decades after the flu ravaged the planet. This just was not my cup of tea.
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A virulent flu strain decimates the earth’s population leaving isolated pockets of survivors. Several story lines and time periods are woven together: the cast ..."
I literally just downloaded the audiobook from the library this morning. Thanks for the review, I may push this down further on my list. I had another friend mention the same things you highlighted.
It has a high rating and genrally gets outstanding reviews, so the problem is probably with me.
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian BerryRoseanne is a hundred years old and has lived more than half her life confined to a mental hospital in Ireland. Dr. Grene is the psychiatrist responsible for that facility. As Dr. Grene attempts to learn Roseanne’s history in order to assess whether she should continue to be institutionalized, Roseanne is secretly writing her own story. I am ambivalent about this novel. I appreciate the way it explores the malleability of personal narrative, formed and reformed by the various memories that hold it. The writing is lovely, quite literary. However, I found this literary writing incongruous with Roseanne’s history. Dr. Grene’s record, a hybrid of personal diary and patient log felt odd. There is no reason to explain either why he records only this single patient’s story, or why any responsible psychiatric institution would consider releasing a 100 year old who has no known family or resources after 6 decades of institutional care. Finally, I am always disappointed by a neat, somewhat improbable ending.
Lila by Marilyn RobinsonThis third in the Gilead sequence is the account of Lila, the young wife of the wise, beloved, older Rev. Ames. Robinson is lauded for her ability to capture the tiny details with a lyrical voice. This character driven, poetically written novel is the type of book that I gravitate to, so I am surprised that I did not enjoy it. The third person narrator closely mirrors the internal voice of Lila which travels in tight loops from her childhood as a migrant farm worker raised by a loving unofficial foster mother to her early squatting in Gilead to her marriage to John Ames and back again. As is true for most of us, that internal voice continued to tread the same ground, making tiny advances in the narrative. I think this is what I disliked about the novel, its repetition. I realize that this is exactly how our thoughts go, but I am bored by my own repeating inner voice, so I was even more frustrated by that of Lila.
finished The Kind Worth Killing. Was very entertaining! My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Sandcastle Girls by Chris BohjalianA middle-aged narrator chronicles the story of her American grandmother and Armenian grandfather during the 1915 conflict in Turkey that saw the brutalization and massacre of more than a million Armenians. I appreciated the unique setting, but found the characters and plot predictable. The author saturates the story with every atrocity suffered by Armenians; this is not the careful placement of a master of the craft of fiction, but the passion of one who wants the reader to acknowledge that the Turks were guilty of genocide. Short passages from the vantage of the contemporary narrator were so thin that these served no purpose in advancing the narrative, but did argue that the Turks are unrepentant to this day.
Just finished What Do You Want to Do Before You Die?. A fun, light and quick read.https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Irene wrote: "The Sandcastle Girls by Chris BohjalianA middle-aged narrator chronicles the story of her American grandmother and Armenian grandfather during the 1915 conflict in Turkey that saw the brutalizati..."
Thanks Irene - I've read a couple by him but for some reason just can't connect.
A Well Tempered Heart by Jan-Philipp SendkerFar too sweet and fanciful for me.
For those who like gracious living/lifestyle books. I just read one. If you've never read Jennifer Scott before I'd suggest looking at all 3 of her books and picking the one that looks most interesting. No need to read all 3 -- way too much overlap. Here's my review on
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
On Writing, A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen KingI have shied away from reading King because I dislike horror. I was pleasantly surprised by this book, part memoir, part advice to a young writer. King shares personal anecdotes with a quick wit. For some reason, I did not expect that a horror writer could have a sense of humor. Although I have no literary ambition, his sections on the craft of writing were just plain fun; they will make me a better reader. If King writes horror with the same blunt, engaging, zest I found here, I may want to rethink my former prejudice and give his fiction a try.
Irene -- I read Stephen King when I was younger, then hadn't read his work for a couple of decades thinking I'd outgrown it along with "slasher films" and other relics from my teen years.At the strong recommendation of a few friends I read
a few years ago and was blown away. It is not a horror book and there's no denying that King has some serious talent. Then I read
. It involves a murder and is slightly spooky, but I wouldn't classify it as horror. Great character development and writing. You might wish to consider, especially the 11/23/63 book, since you enjoyed his memoir on writing.
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Here's my review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I have to give GR friends credit for making me rethink Stephen King also. I only read the "slasher film" books and nothing since. Been hearing a lot about him so currently have
in my OverDrive queue. If all goes well I will have to check out one of those others Jen so thanks for posting. Perhaps we could find one none of us has read for a BotM on S&V.
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Spines and Vines
Books mentioned in this topic
The Mountain Between Us (other topics)The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (other topics)
The Fire Next Time (other topics)
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (other topics)
The Bell Jar (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Sue Grafton (other topics)Kelley Armstrong (other topics)
