Nonfiction Review: The Art Thief (+Friday56 LinkUp)

Title: The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel

Book Beginnings excerpt:

Friday56 excerpt:

Summary: The story of the world’s most prolific art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser.

Review: Don and I listened to The Art Thief this past week. It is a well-researched tale of a psychologically complicated, misguided, narcissistic art lover who steals artifacts from museums, galleries, and castles throughout France, Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland over several years. He steals the art not for financial gain but because he loves the art and wants to have it to look at and to touch. Over the years he and his girlfriend stole over 200 pieces, worth millions, possibly billions. Spoiler alert: to write a book about an art thief, they have to get caught!

The first half of the book focuses on what Stéphane Breitwieser stole, from where, and how he did it. It became really apparent to us that Michael Finkel did some deep sleuthing in order to uncover this level of detail. Indeed, the author says it took him eleven years to research the details in the book, which included not only many interviews with the thief himself but also with his lawyers, the prosecutors, psychologists, and art crime investigators. The book crammed a lot in a short book, weighing in at just over 200 pages.

The audiobook was narrated by Edoardo Ballerini, an American actor, who did really well pronouncing all the French, German, Swiss names and places as the story recounts Stéphane and Anne-Catherine's trips around Europe on their many stealing sprees. We both enjoyed our listening experience with The Art Thief very much.

Ratings: Don -- 4 stars; Anne -- 4.5 stars.

Sign up for The Friday56 on the Inlinkz below. 

RULES:

*Grab a book, any book

*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your e-reader (If you want to improvise, go ahead!)

*Find a snippet, but no spoilers!

*Post it to your blog and add your url to the Linky below. If you do not add the specific url for your post, we may miss it! 

*Visit other blogs and leave comments about their snippets. Expand the community. Please leave a comment for me, too!  

Also visit Book Beginnings on Friday hosted by Rose City Reader and First Line Friday hosted by Reading is My Super Power to share the beginning quote from your book.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

-Anne

Two Novellas -- Two puzzles

It's November which means it is novella month. Like all books, all novellas are not created equal. These two left me feeling flummoxed. I'm not saying I didn't like them. I just didn't understand them. They both contain a puzzle, leaving me puzzled. Have you read either/both of them? What did you think?

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, translated by William Weaver, narrated by John Lee

     Audiobook version: Tantor Audio, 2013. 2 hours, 52 minutes.

     The book was originally published in Italian in 1972. The first English version was printed by Harcourt in 1974. 165 pages.

A few months ago I came across a list of the 29 Timeless Novels Everyone Should Read created by a news source (no longer available.) Among the titles on the list was one book I'd never heard of before: Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. I read Calvino's On a Winter's Night a Traveler, and found its surrealism perplexing but also fun. I assumed that this book, Invisible Cities, would also fall into the post modern style like the other. This is how the book was described in that list: "Invisible Cities is a mesmerizing journey through the imagined cities Marco Polo describes to Kublai Khan. Each city, unique in its essence, unfolds like a delicate poem, revealing glimpses of human nature and the intricacies of civilizations."

As I listened to the audiobook I was aware that there was structure to the book. There were 55 different cities described by Marco Polo to Kublai Khan as each chapter had a title that seemed to have a repeating pattern. But audiobooks don't allow the eyes to play with patterns needed for understanding. When I looked on Wikipedia I finally realized why I was so confused by the plot. It wasn't a plot. It was a form. Follow the link I've provided and scroll down a bit and you will see that matrix to see what Calvino was doing with his 55 stories about invisible cities. 

Invisible Cities is an example of Calvino's use of combinatory literature [this type of writing which challenges conventional structures]...In the novel, the reader finds themself playing a game with the author, wherein they must find the patterns hidden in the book. The book has nine chapters, but there are also hidden divisions within the book: each of the 55 cities belongs to one of eleven thematic groups. The reader can therefore play with the book's structure, and choose to follow one group or another, rather than reading the book in chronological chapters. In 1983 Calvino stated that there is no definite end to Invisible Cities because "this book was made as a polyhedron, and it has conclusions everywhere, written along all of its edges." Wikipedia 

Think of those kid books where the reader gets to choose-your-own-story, making decisions along the way which alter the outcome. This book is just quite a bit more complex than those. The puzzle and the form are just as important as the stories in this one. It is very mathematical and a genius work. However, its genius was lost on me, an audiobook listener. I did appreciate the beauty of the prose and at some point I told myself to quit trying to figure out what was going on and just let the words flow over me. Clearly I do not recommend this book in the audio format. If you like challenges and puzzles, choose the print version.

Rating: 3.25 stars

Audition by Katie Kitamura

Riverhead Books, 2025. 197 pages.

"One woman, the performance of a lifetime. Or two. A mesmerizing Mobius strip of a novel that asks who we are to the people we love" (Publisher).

Two people meet for a lunch. She is an accomplished actress. He is young man, young enough to be her son. Who are they to each other? Audition is a story in two parts and those two parts don't seem to be connected. They are just confusingly next to each other but they both can't be true can they?

My head swam as I read Audition, trying to make sense of the puzzle I was presented. Confusion reigned and then the book ended. I was desperate to talk in person to anyone else who had read the book but had to rely on Goodreads reviews. Examples:

Emily, 2 stars: A frustrating, high-concept piece of writing. It was beautifully-written and I appreciate it was clever, but it was not my cup of tea.

Emma, 5 stars: Everybody needs to read this book immediately. I don't want to talk about anything else.

Not helpful. Emily and Emma both said pretty much what I said. 

Today I found this interview with the author which was helpful. Kitamura talks about her inspiration for the novel and how she intentionally tried to create a puzzle that cannot be solved. She also compared the story to the ambiguous duck-rabbit image. If you look at the from one angle it is duck, another angle it is a rabbit. Not really helpful in understanding the story, but it is a cool visual. Listen to the video. It is only 9 minutes long and there are no spoilers. I wish I'd listened to it before I read the book. I think it would have saved my brain from being blown.

My rating: 3.5 stars

-Anne

TTT: Books I Enjoyed Even Though They Were Outside My Comfort Zone

Top Ten Tuesday: 

Books I Enjoyed Even Though They Were Outside My Comfort Zone

I have been reading so many genres lately (58 different genres according to StoryGraph) I honestly can say I don't avoid any genre now, but here are some books which did present a challenge to me:

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky -- 

Books by the old Russians scare me because they are so dense and so long. I made my way through this one finally and really enjoyed the experience and felt good about myself for finishing it. (DENSE AND LONG)

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones -- 

This is a vampire story. I usually try to avoid the horror genre but I read this one and really liked it. It has tons of history about Indigenous people in it. That is what I liked best about the story. (HORROR)

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden --

I try to avoid books with explicit sex scenes. I was too far into the story to stop reading even though the sex scenes in it were more detailed than anything I'd ever read before. Outside of that, the story had a lot to recommend it. Another historical fiction based on some actual events. (EXPLICIT SEX)

 

Hamlet by William Shakespeare --

Don't get me wrong. I am a Shakespeare fan and love seeing his plays acted out. I just do not like reading plays in general. Something about the whole script thing with notations of who is saying what and all the stage directions off to the side I find incredibly difficult to read and enjoy. I've discovered recently, however, if I listen to the audiobook of plays then I can enjoy them. That's how I consumed Hamlet, finally! (PLAYS)

Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo --

I don't avoid avoid magical realism but I have to psyche myself up to read it because half the time I don't understand it. This book is one of the most influential books of that genre and I am so glad I read it, even if I missed a few things. (MAGICAL REALISM)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson --

I avoided reading anything by this author for years because I had heard how scary her books were. This is probably categorized as "horror" but I think it is really a psychological thriller/mystery. I found it really compelling. (HORROR/SCARY)

A Bride's Story by Kaoru Mori --

I enjoy reading graphic novels and do so quite often. But I do not enjoy reading manga. I get all confused by the way the diagram swirls the opposite way so the stories never makes sense to me. The Bride's Story was one manga book/series I could read and I enjoyed the diagrams very much. (MANGA)

Orbital by Samantha Harvey --

I don't choose to read Science Fiction very often, especially if the books are set in far off planets with complicated world-building and even more complicated place names or character names. Orbital is my type of Sci-Fi -- based on a real place (the International Space Station) and relatable characters. (SOME SCI-FI)

Adrift: America in 100 Charts by Scott Galloway --

This book isn't outside my comfort zone I just don't usually think to pick up map or chart books. This one completely fascinated me and makes me want to read more books like it with LOTS of illustrations. (CHARTS AND MAPS)

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas --

Another classic book I avoided for years just because it is so dang long. The version associated with the photo of the book is 1276 pages long. When I finally challenged myself to read it I was tremendously proud of myself until other people told me they reread it every year. I won't go that far. (LONG CLASSICS)

-Anne

Sunday Salon and Nonfiction November -- Week 3

Weather: Lovely. Sunny and crisp today. This week we endured king tides and atmospheric rivers, however, bother weather terms we never even heard of as kids.

Nonfiction November, Week Three prompt: This week, pair up a nonfiction book with a fiction title. Maybe it’s a historical novel and the real history in a nonfiction version, or a memoir and a novel, or a fiction book you’ve read and you would like recommendations for background reading. Or maybe it’s just two books you feel have a link, whatever they might be. You can be as creative as you like!

Nonfiction books about Jane Austen, the author of Pride and Prejudice and six other novels. I consider myself a Janeite, or a devoted follower of this author, and enjoy reading books about her and the time period in which she lived -- the Regency period in Great Britain. Currently I am reading two of the books pictured above, finished reading one just the other day, and hope to reread the other two soon.

• *Sutherland, Kathryn. Jane Austen in 41 Objects. Bodleian Library Publishing, Oxford, UK. 2025.
• Devito, Carlo. A Jane Austen Christmas: Celebrating the Season of Romance, Ribbons & Mistletoe. Cider Mill Press, Kennebunkport, Maine. 2015.
• Glaspy, Terry. The Prayers of Jane Austen. Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, Oregon. 2015.
• Jane Austen Companion to Life. The. Sourcebooks, Naperville, Illinois. 2010. With illustrations by Charles Edmund Brock.
• *Tyler, Natalie. The Friendly Jane Austen: A Well Mannered Introduction to a Lady of Sense and Sensibility. Penguin Books, New York. 1999.                                                                                      *=Currently reading. Hyperlinks to Goodreads pages.

This year I am participating with the Classics Club/BronasBooks Challenge #ReadingAusten2025 to read all/some of the Jane Austen books and to participate in discussions about this beloved author. So far I have reread three of her six major works:

• Sense and Sensibility
• Northanger Abbey
• Persuasion -- review pending
• Hyperlinks to my recent reviews
• I haven't reread these three major works: Pride and Prejudice; Emma; and Mansfield Park.
• Hyperlinks to my older/past reviews
• Love and Friendship is considered part of her juvenalia writings, along with The Watsons, Lady Susan, The History of England.
• Sanditon, was incomplete at the time of Austen's death in 1817.

Other books I've recently completed or am currently reading/listening to:

• Audition by Katie Kitamura. A Booker Prize finalist. Read for Novellas in November Challenge. Audiobook. Complete. Rating: 4 Stars.
• Henry and June by Anais Nin. With completion of this unexpurgated diary (nonfiction) I have completed the genre challenge on StoryGraph. E-book. Rating: 2 stars.
• Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. A novella and a classic. I liked the words but not sure I understood the point. Audiobook. 3 stars.
• Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser. A novella and the 2025 Stella Prize winner. Audiobook. Upgraded rating: 4 stars.
• My Friends by Fredrik Backman. A book club selection. Audiobook. 4 stars.
• Heart the Lover by Lily King. An audiobook. I am enjoying this very much. 28% complete.
• The Art Thief by Michael Finkel. Audiobook with Don and nonfiction. 43% complete.
• White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky. My Classics Club Spin selection. Print. 41% complete.

Additional blogging links:

• Nonfiction Review: Furious Hours: Murder, Mayhem, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee
• Reviews: Timecode of a Face and A Study in Scarlet
• TTT: List of 10 Randomly Generated Books on My TBR
• Nonfiction November -- Week Two

Have a lovely week!

-Anne

Novella Review: THEORY AND PRACTICE

Theory and Practice by Michelle de Kretser won the 2025 Stella Prize, the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Australia, and a finalist on the Victorian Premier's Prize for fiction. Not being Australian I had to look up all these awards to see if I could figure out an American or UK equivalent for these prizes. The Stella Prize goes to Australian women (or non-binary writers) for an original, engaging book in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. The equivalent would be The Women's Prize (UK) or the Carol Shields Prize (Canada or US). I'm not sure there is an equivalent for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. It goes to excellent writers from or permanently living in Australia. Victoria is one of six states in Australia but the award doesn't seem to go to only residents of that state. And the Prime Minister's Literary Award sounds like it is similar to the Pulitzer Prize or the National Book Award in the US. That said, Theory and Practice cleaned up in the prize category this year in Australia. And for good reason. It is a brilliantly literary book.

So literary, in fact, I'm afraid my daughter would hate it. She told me once she didn't usually like the books I pick to read because they are so literary (said with disdain.) I asked her what she meant and she said these books seem like to try too hard to write cleverly, using fancy techniques. Hmm. Not sure about the fancy techniques in this book unless one uses the title as a big gigantic hint as to the main theme of the book: theory and practice.

The narrator of the book is a first-generation immigrant from Sri Lanka. She is living in Melbourne and is attending Grad School in English Lit. Her thesis relates to Virginia Woolf, specifically analyzing three of the author's works on feminism and the "generated self." The narrator (Does she have a name? I can't remember!) says that Woolf single-handedly saved her during her teen years. But theory is one thing especially when it comes up against real-life experiences. Calling yourself a feminist is one thing but attending a school where the professors in the department are predominantly male is a whole other thing. As the narrator reads more about Woolf she realizes if she, a Sri Lankan female with golden-brown skin and from a humble background, was to meet the author today, Woolf would dismiss her on either a racial or a classist basis, or both. Theory is one thing. But the practice of that theory is whole other thing.

I didn't especially like this novella. The narrator spent a lot of time focused on her relationship/not relationship with a man named Kit and she got all "stalker-ish" in her behavior...very unfeminist behavior, by the way. But since I finished the book a week ago I keep thinking about how brilliant the writer was sticking to her theme of theory vs practice. In fact, I keep coming up with examples from my own life. Simple stuff like believing that plastics are wrecking our environment yet I keep buying things in plastic containers. It is fine to believe a thing but so hard to practice that theory in reality.

I rated the book 3.5 stars but let's just say, with a round up, it is a 4 stars title.

Theory and Practice is 192 pages long.

 

-Anne

Review: MY FRIENDS (+Friday56 LinkUp)

Title: My Friends by Fredrik Backman, translated from Swedish by Neil Smith

Book Beginnings excerpt:

Louisa is a teenager, the best kind of human.

Friday56 excerpt, from page 22, the last page of preview:

Then he asked one of the other fourteen-year-olds: "Do you think we'll all still be friends when we're grown up?"

Summary:

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.

Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream, a reason to love.

Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find. Louisa is proof that happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art. (Publisher)

Review: I have an uneasy relationship with Fredrik Backman books. I've read four of them: A Man Named Ove; Anxious People; Beartown; and now My Friends. All of them were slow-starters for me. I had to make myself read them (all four were book club selections) and I would put it off as long as possible. This is unusual reading behavior for me. With My Friends, I got the audiobook from the library after a fairly long wait and I still couldn't make myself listen, so I checked out the print version and made a little progress but I wasn't even a fourth of the way finished before that book needed to be returned. Once again I had to wait for the audiobook. This time, with the clock ticking, I finally finished the book and you know what? I liked it. Surprise, surprise. What was my problem in the first place?

The story is told of the four teenage friends the summer they helped launch the artist's talents, when he painted the beautiful piece of his friends on the pier, a painting now worth millions. Then a jump forward in time of 25 years when the artist and Louisa meet up by chance -- a disillusioned teenager and a dying man. This meeting changes the trajectory of her life. What follows is a road trip (via train) and the unspooling of a story of friendship and love.

Because I was so grumpy about the bad start I had with the book I was determined not to like the finished product -- my fault not the author's. But I confess that days after I finished reading My Friends I was still living inside the lives of the four +one teenager's lives. I wanted the story to go on. I missed the book when I was finished. (I'm rolling my eyes at myself right now.) And I know that is a sign of a good book.

My advice to you if you'd like to give this one a chance, don't TRY to read this book and muck around for two months, just START and KEEP GOING. The story will grow on you if you aren't all in at the beginning.

My rating; 4 stars

Sign up for The Friday56 on the Inlinkz below. 

RULES:

*Grab a book, any book

*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your e-reader (If you want to improvise, go ahead!)

*Find a snippet, but no spoilers!

*Post it to your blog and add your url to the Linky below. If you do not add the specific url for your post, we may miss it! 

*Visit other blogs and leave comments about their snippets. Expand the community. Please leave a comment for me, too!  

Also visit Book Beginnings on Friday hosted by Rose City Reader and First Line Friday hosted by Reading is My Super Power to share the beginning quote from your book.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

-Anne

Nonfiction Review: FURIOUS HOURS: MURDER, FRAUD, AND THE LAST TRIAL OF HARPER LEE (+Discussion questions)

In a 2024 survey, 12.6% of respondents named To Kill a Mockingbird as their all-time favorite book from a given list. In 2021 a British survey found that 13% of the respondents named TKAM as the most inspirational novel. In the 2018 PBS "The Great American Read" it was named as America's best-loved novel overall. All of these surveys took place over 50 years after 1960 when Harper Lee penned her famous book and still today people everywhere sing its praises. If I were asked what is my all-time-favorite novel I'd answer To Kill a Mockingbird, too. So why, with all this success, did its author not publish another book for the next 50 years? 

Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper by Casey Cep attempts to answer that question but it also shows how Harper Lee did attempt to write another book, a true-crime book, but abandoned her attempt many years into the project.

Back in the 1960s and 70s there was a black preacher in Alabama named Willie Maxwell. He was well liked and often called Reverend Maxwell, even when he didn't have a church. Then in in August 1970s his wife's bloated, dead body was found in a car in a remote area off the highway. She has clearly been beaten to death and all signs pointed to the Reverend as the suspect in her murder. A neighbor reported that around 10 pm Mary Lou had told her that Willie had called and needed a ride home, that his car was broken down. She was the last person to see Mary Lou alive. It was well know that the Reverend had many lady friends but what wasn't known was how many insurance policies were written in Mary Lou's name with Willie being the beneficiary. In those days it was surprisingly easy to take out life insurance policies on anyone and name yourself the beneficiary. It took the state a surprisingly long time to bring charges against Willie and by then the neighbor had changed her story about what Mary Lou said to her the night of her death. What the jury didn't hear was by that time Willie and this neighbor had become friendly and were planning to get married.

A year after their marriage this second wife was also found dead in a car alongside a country road. She had seventeen life insurance policies in her name. "For the Reverend," writes Cep, "becoming a widower was quite a lucrative business." After her death the Reverend took out life insurance policies on his mother, his brothers, his nephew, his aunt, even his just legitimized infant daughter and the bodies started piling up. Everyone knew it was the Reverend but getting the charges to stick was another story. Eventually justice was found for the Reverend but not through the courts. 

Enter Harper Lee and the second half of the book. It's been fourteen years since TKAM was published. Everyone is bugging Lee to write another book. Why not write a true crime story and go about the research the way she did when she was helping Truman Capote do his research for In Cold Blood? Eventually Lee spent a year in town interviewing and going over all the evidence she could get her hands one for the Maxwell cases. She worked with the lawyer who had been Maxwell's attorney. She uncovered every stone there was to uncover, then she returned to New York to write her book she was calling The Reverend. 

Unfortunately, after years of trying she gave up the project admitting she just didn't know how to organize all the information. During the intervening years between TKAM and this project the editor, Tay Hohoff, who worked with Lee at J.B. Lippincott, had either died or was retired. Lee floundered without the guidance of such a strong and capable editor behind her. Oddly, Casey Cep, this books author, was able to put together the whole Maxwell Murders debacle into a very interesting and compelling account in the book's first part and went on to write an excellent biography of Harper Lee in the 2nd. 

Time Magazine's Lucas Wittmann said this about Cep, "In elegant prose, she gives us the fullest story yet of Lee’s post-Mockingbird life ... an account emotionally attuned to the toll that great writing takes, and shows that sometimes one perfect book is all we can ask for, even while we wish for another."

In some ways I'm sorry I read Furious Hours because Harper Lee, the author of my favorite book, didn't come out smelling like roses here. She drank an awful lot and was, perhaps, an alcoholic. Whether she was or wasn't, alcohol use got in the way of her ability to write from Cep's reporting. After the collapse of the Reverend project, she never again attempted to publish anything other than a few letters or essays. In fact, just this year, a collection of stories and essays by Lee was published in The Land of Sweet Forever. And right after Lee's death in 2016 her sister published Go Set a Watchman, the book she wrote before To Kill a Mockingbird. It was a book she never wanted to publish (and many people wished hadn't been published since it casts the hero, Atticus Finch, in a very bad light.)

I read Furious Hours book for an upcoming book club. I gave the book the rating of 4 stars.

Discussion questions for Furious Hours:

1. How did the book change the way you think about Harper Lee and her literary legacy? What were you most surprised to learn?

2. What were the most disturbing aspects of Reverend Maxwell’s murder spree and the connection between him and his victims? 

3. What surprised you the most about the life insurance policies and the way these companies did business?

4. Discuss how race played into the case of the Reverend Willie Maxwell.

5. What were your first impressions of Tom Radney? How did your perception of him change as you read the book?

6. What do you think about the morality of Robert Burns’s decision to murder the Reverend Willie Maxwell? Do you think his acquittal was right? 

7. How did Harper Lee and Truman Capote’s relationship play into the larger story? How do you think Lee’s experience with In Cold Blood shaped her approach to writing her own true crime tale?

8. Why do you think the Maxwell case captivated Lee’s attention enough to dedicate years of her life to writing it? Do you think she finished it? If not, what do you think stopped her? What do you think happened to whatever existed of the manuscript?

9. Furious Hours combines the horror and mystery of a true crime tale with the in-depth history and detail of a biography. How does Cep integrate the two different pieces of the book? Why do you think Cep was able to pull off what Lee couldn't?

10. How does Furious Hours distinguish itself from other nonfiction books you have read? What other narrative nonfiction books have you enjoyed reading and would recommend to others?

(These excellent discussion questions come from the Sarasota Springs Public Library. I tweaked them just a bit but credit to the librarians at that library.)

-Anne

Reviews: TIMECODE OF A FACE and A STUDY IN SCARLET

November means novellas and nonfiction, and, if I'm lucky, two in one: short nonfiction (which is allowed for the Novellas in November Challenge!) The problem with reading short books is they often can be easily consumed in one or two days which means the reviews really start piling up. Right now I am eight reviews behind! Eek! In an attempt to catch up I shall attempt to write and publish two reviews a day. If that isn't sustainable I will at least aim for one. Don't expect lengthy reviews. Like the books themselves likely the reviews will be short.

Timecode of a Face by Ruth Ozeki
Audio: Canongate Books, 2022, 1 hour, 51 minutes.
Originally published by Restless Books, 2015.

Ruth Ozeki, a favorite author and a Zen Buddhist priest, sets herself the task of staring at her own face in the mirror for three hours hoping to discover new aspects of herself and her heritage. According to ancient Zen traditions "your face before your parents were born is your original face." Staring into the mirror for a long time Ruth Ozeki hoped to discover her true self and her true identity beyond what she knew from her parents. As she gazes on her reflection her thoughts ripple out to memories growing up as a mixed race child -- her mother was Japanese, her father Caucasian -- and the ugly racism she endured. Her thoughts also lingered on the process of becoming a Buddhist priest and having to shave her head as she took her final vows. She also reflected on her studies of the intricate art of the Japanese Noh mask, at one point even making one herself.

Throughout this essay Ruth Ozeki shows herself to be a well-grounded, interesting and interested person, a writer of great integrity. I am a big fan of her books, A Tale for the Time Being and The Book of Form and Emptiness, and now her essay writing. I am fascinated by her life story and how she incorporates Buddhist practices and beliefs into her writing. I didn't learn a ton from this essay but what I did learn about Zen Buddhism was so interesting. In fact, I found those bits of information much more captivating than what she thought of her earlobes.

I listened to the audiobook read by the author herself. It seemed perfectly paced and I was satisfied with what I got out of the listening experience. But here is one thing I've never encountered before when writing a review -- when I visited the author's own webpage, Ozekiland, she refers to this book by a different title: The Face: A Time Code. I'm not sure when and why it was changed, but if you have trouble finding it at a bookstore or library, you might want to try both title variations in your search.

My rating: 4.25 stars.

____________________________________________________

A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Audio: Prince Frederick: Recorded Books, 2017, 4 hours and 30 minutes.
Originally published: Ward, Locke, and Company, 1887.

A Study in Scarlet is Conan Doyle's first introduction of Sherlock Holmes, a fictional detective who has been dominating our imaginations for over 100 years. As in subsequent short stories about the detective the narration is handled by Dr. Watson who has recently returned to London after being wounded in the Battle of Maiwand. After agreeing to share an apartment with Holmes, Watson learns that his flatmate is a detective consultant, helping the police solve cases they have not been able to handle on their own. In this case, a corpse, an American from Ohio, is found in an uninhabited apartment dead on his back. There is blood but seemingly not from the corpse. After the police bungle the case, Holmes swoops in and figures out who dunnit with, what we have come to expect, just minute details everyone else overlooked. As it turns out the murderer had a vendetta against the dead man and his story jumps back to Utah territory and the Mormon settlement there. I won't share any more details because, it is a mystery and I don't want to reveal any spoilers for you.

I expected the first half of the story -- Dr. Watson as narrator; Holmes as eccentric go-it-alone detective; incompetent police -- but I did not expect, in fact I was bowled over by, the anti-Mormon message of the second half. What? Where did that come from? It always strikes me as funny/odd when a classic book, which has been published for years and years, surprises me with a plot twist I didn't see coming and no one has bothered to mention it to me my whole life. Ha!

This is only my second Sherlock Holmes story I've read. The other, The Hound of the Baskervilles, is much better, but if one wants to start at the beginning, this is place to start.

3.5 stars.

-Anne

TTT: The First 10 Books Randomly Generated from My TBR Shelf

Top Ten Tuesday: 

The First 10 Books Randomly Generated from My Goodreads TBR Shelf

I have 250 titles on my Goodreads TBR list. I spent a few days culling that list down from 350+ titles before I found a randomizer on the internet which selected these 10 titles. Some of the books I remember why I added them, in one case I added the book two days ago. Others I don't even remember the book let alone why I added it. If you have any advisce for me concerning these books or authors, I'd love it hear it.

#163 --- Chronicles of Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I'm an admirer of the author and I see that this book is short, a novella, so I'm sure I added it to remind myself to read it during Novellas in November...which is now.

#168 --- Spent: a Comic Novel by Alison Bechdel. Not sure how I ran into this book but I was sold by the word "comic" and  this description "Can she pull humanity out of its death spiral by writing a scathingly self-critical memoir about her own greed and privilege?" I am not even sure if it is a graphic novel or not.

#5 --- Excellent Women by Barbara Pym. This book has been on my list for six year. I think I remember another blogger recommending it but when I look at other reviews on Goodreads some of my friends weren't that crazy for it. Another book which is considered humorous.

#38 --- The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. I think I have added and subtracted this classic thriller to/from my list several times. I want to read it but clearly not enough to drop everything to do it.

#138 --- Joy in the Morning by P.G. Wodehouse. Not long ago I saw a list which stated this was the best of Wodehouse's Jeeves novels. Another one with comedy as a theme?

#249 --- The Guardian and the Thief by Megha Majumdar. A 2025 National Book Award finalist. The description really drew me in: "Wondering if there's a novel out there that gives Cormac McCarthy's The Road a run for its money? Here you go."

#195 ---The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, Leaving the White Evangelical Church by Sarah McCammon. I do not understand how Christians can embrace Trump and his un-Christ-like policies. This book title attracted me as I was casting around looking for answers. 

#237 --- The Sellout by Paul Beatty. The 2016 Booker Prize winner. It came to my attention when it was on the NYT 100 Best Books of the 21st Century list. Another book with the word 'comedy' in the description.

#203 --- Edenglassier by Melissa Lucashenko. I have no memory of this book at all. I see it is a history story set in Australia but that is all I know. I don't know why I added it to my TBR list.

#129 --- Raven Boys: A Graphic Novel by Maggie Stiefvater and Stephanie Willows. I loved the book, so why not experience it through the graphic novel format? That's what I thought.

I'm seriously thinking of wiping all books off my TBR except for the books on my Classics Club list and starting over. I am not sure that the list actually helps me remember to read books or not, especially when it is so long. I sincerely wish there were some sort of TBR creator where I could be more interactive with it -- noting who recommended the book and why, prodding me when a book has languished too long, and the ability to sort books according to my directions.  

Looking over this list of ten books there are only two titles which I feel sure I will get to: The Sellout and Joy in the Morning. Using that statistic -- one in five -- I should be able to cull my current TBR down to 50 books. Hmm...Do I have it in me?

-Anne

Nonfiction November -- Week Two

Week 2 (11/2 – 11/9) Choosing Nonfiction (Hosted by Frances at Volatile Reader): There are many topics to choose from when looking for a nonfiction book. For example, there are memoir, travel, politics, history, religion and spirituality, science, art, food, and more. Use this week to challenge yourself to pick a genre you wouldn’t normally read.

I managed to finish no nonfiction last week. None. Sigh. But I am reading a book, a diary really, which I never would have selected except for the StoryGraph Genre Challenge. As soon as I finish this book, Henry and June: The Unexpurgated Diary by Anais Nin (Erotica) I will have completed the challenge!

Here is how the challenge works: Select and read a book from all 58 genres categorized by StroyGraph. One can see how they are doing by checking out the Stats page and looking at the chart, then consulting the genre list to see which categories are still missing. 

The StoryGraph Genre Chart found on my reading stats page. One book to go and I will have read a book for all 58 of their genres.

I didn't decide to do this challenge until April when I had already read books for around 35-40 genres without trying or paying attention. How hard could it be to complete it? As it turned out, it was very difficult.  First off many genres or categories I thought would be on their list, like "Westerns" and "Satire," aren't. While other genres I'm not interested in, like "Economics" and "Computer Science", seemed difficult to find a book I was willing to read. Oddly some books which were clearly about a topic, like "Race", weren't labeled as such. Fortunately StoryGraph does allow the public to make suggested corrections to a book's record, so I was able to check off books I read that fit, but needed a genre added to do so. All of the genres aren't necessarily for nonfiction titles. Some only work for fiction (Examples: "Speculative Fiction," being one! And then the confusing "Historical" [fiction] vs "History" [nonfiction].)

Here are a few books I really enjoyed that fulfilled a needed genre for my challenge:

Bring the Magic Home: An Exploration of Design Inspired by Disney Parks by Sunny Chanel

Genre: Design

I was twirling around my little neighborhood library trying to find books to fit the challenge and wandered over to the 740s to see if I could find a design book (crafting, interior design, textile design, flower arranging) and this book jumped out at me. Literally. It is a large,  heavy, oversized book with tons of color photographs. It didn't fit on the shelf properly. It is not the type of book one expects to find at a library but instead on someone's coffee table. I sat at a library table to leaf through it and was instantly charmed. Who doesn't love the designs at Disney theme parks? I checked it out and read through the book in a few days, enjoying every moment...though I am still not sure why someone would want their spare bedroom to look like a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean or the Haunted Mansion. Ha!

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North American Maps for Curious Minds: 100 New Ways to See the Continent by Matthew Bucklan and Victor Cizek

Genre: Reference

When I think "reference" I think encyclopedias and almanacs but here is a fantastically fun book for both kids and adults -- interactive maps on topics of history, culture, and geography. For example one map shows where can you find the continent's tallest and steepest roller coasters. Another shows where can you visit the world’s largest island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island. Think about that. Mind-blowing stuff.

Just like the last book, I read through this book quickly, turning back pages to show my husband some of the mind-blowing things everytime he would wander into the room. I learned so much from this excellent reference book. As it turns out I got to check off another genre for this book, too: "technology." Not sure how it fits, though. Perhaps one has to use technology to figure out where there is a lake within an island within a lake.

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The Afterlife of Data: What Happens to Your Information When You Die and Why You Should Care by Carl Öhman

Genre: Computer Science

Two things happened almost simultaneously which brought me to this book. One, I was looking through a list of my Facebook friends and realized that many of them were no longer living, yet their Facebook page persisted. Perhaps I even got a notice on one of their birthdays. Secondly, my mother, who is 96, got tricked into giving a scammer some of her social media information and her whole email list got send SPAM from them. These two things got me thinking about what should happen to social media information after a person dies. This book, based on its title, seemed like a perfect place to go to find out what we should do when Mom dies and what others should do with their loved ones Facebook/Twitter[X]/Instagram/Tik-Tok accounts.

I didn't get a definitive answer to my questions but I did learn some fascinating information about after death practices throughout history and how social media sites can serve as a place for grieving family members to memorialize their loved one and hang onto their grief. Did you know in a few years (2035? I can't remember exact date) there will be more dead persons' accounts on Facebook than live persons? And businesses are attempting to monetize the relationship between social media and grief? Many have already attempted it and have failed because people only want to have these resources if they don't have to pay for them. 

Unlike the above two books, I wouldn't say I liked this book. In fact, I found myself speed-reading through sections. But it has provided me with interesting thoughts to ponder. In fact, after reading The Afterlife of Data, my husband and I had a discussion of what he should do with this blog if I suddenly died. I'd like a few of my posts to still be available for the family to read through if they wanted, like my Sunday Salon posts which are more personal than other posts, and maybe a few of my favorite book reviews. I also instructed him to post a message that I had died. I hate it when bloggers I follow suddenly disappear. I wonder what happened to them. Did they die or just fade away, disinterested in continuing to blog about books?

I think StoryGraph should add a genre to this title: "philosophy." It certainly grapples with ethical questions that "computer science" can't adequately address.

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Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything by B.J. Fogg, PhD

Genres: Psychology and Self Help

I purchased this book during 2020 and just couldn't settled into it during the whole COVID pandemic lockdown. I tried to read it again a few years ago and found I wasn't interested in learning little techniques to change my life. I was ready to toss the book which this genre challenge came along and I realized I owned a "psychology" genre title.

Finally I read the dang thing and actually liked it. Not only that but I was able to make a few changes to my health practices which have (or I hope they will have) an impact on both my dental and visual health. How about that? Everytime I floss my teeth and clap my hands afterwards in a sort of a cheer, I say a little word of praise in my head for this book that showed me the value of celebrations when it comes to changing habits.

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This week, Week Two of Nonfiction November, we are asked to choose a book from a new genre, Well, clearly, I have already done that this year and this post is a celebration of my 2025 year of reading genres up and down the board (woot-woot.) So today I claim two genres which I am especially interested in reading more about: "religion" and "politics." Here are some titles I hope to explore/read soon:

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
Worth Fighting For by John Pavlovitz
Separation of Church and Hate by John Fugelsang
Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
The Exvangelicals by Sarah McCammon
(Links for Goodreads for book descriptions)

-Anne