Review: THE PORTABLE VEBLEN (+Friday56 LinkUp)

Title: The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie

Book Beginnings quote: 

Huddled together on the last block of Tasso Street, in a California town known as Palo Alto, was a pair of humble bungalows, each one aplot* in lilies. And in one lived a woman in the slim green spring of her life, and her name was Veblen Amundsen-Hovda.   

     *Not a misspelling. But "aplot" is not in the dictionary, so your guess is as good as mine as to the definition.

Friday56 quote: 

By clearly emphasizing all that was lacking in others, by mapping and raising to an art form the catalog of their flaws, Veblen’s mother had inversely punched out a template for an ideal human being, and it was the unspoken assumption that Veblen would aspire to this template with all her might.

Summary: 

The Portable Veblen is a dazzlingly original novel that’s as big-hearted as it is laugh-out-loud funny. Set in and around Palo Alto, amid the culture clash of new money and old (antiestablishment) values, and with the specter of our current wars looming across its pages, The Portable Veblen is an unforgettable look at the way we live now. A young couple on the brink of marriage—the charming Veblen and her fiancé Paul, a brilliant neurologist—find their engagement in danger of collapse. Along the way they weather everything from each other’s dysfunctional families, to the attentions of a seductive pharmaceutical heiress, to an intimate tête-à-tête with a very charismatic squirrel.

Review: I am not sure I can adequately review The Portable Veblen. Here is what I can say: It is crammed full of quirky, odd characters. Starting with Veblen herself, whose hypochondriac mother has groomed her to be one of the sweetest, most thoughtful people you will ever meet in all of literature, and her fiance, Paul, who is still traumatized by his hippy parents and his upbringing. One can't help but wonder if both of them should be visiting a  psychiatrist before they even consider marriage, both seem so scarred from their upbringings. In addition to the young couple, we meet all the parents and siblings, several friends, and the pharmaceutical heiress who is so awful, it is funny.

I started off on the wrong foot with The Portable Veblen and would likely have given it the heave-ho after less than thirty pages if for the fact I had purchased the audiobook with Audible credits and I didn't want to waste my money. As I listened on I found myself laughing out loud, groaning with disbelief, rolling my eyes, chortling, empathizing, smiling, and probably crying (since I seem to cry all the time these days.) If you look at the reader reviews on Goodreads you will see, as I did, there are two schools of thought on this book: those who loved it and found it both funny and charming, and those who didn't get it and either didn't finish it or wished they hadn't. Clearly I am in the former camp.

I became aware of The Portable Veblen because it was a Women's Prize Award finalist in 2016. (I am attempting to read current and past winners.) Because of that I visited Elizabeth McKenzie's Women Prize page, which, to my mind, is as quirky as the book. Have fun.

My rating: 4.25 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

TTT: Books Set in a Different Time -- Recent Reads

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Set in a Different Time -- Recent reads

I didn't have to look back very far to find ten examples of books set in the past and the future.

1. Lisette's List by Susan Vreeland -- Set in France in the 1930s and '40s, before, during, and after WWII. (Published in 2014. Completed on Feb. 21, 2025)

2. The Most by Jessica Anthony -- Set in 1957 in Newark, Delaware. (Published in 2024. Completed on Feb. 13, 2025.)

3. Just Kids by Patti Smith -- A memoir set in the 1960s and '70s in New York City. (Published in 2010. Completed on Feb. 11, 2025.)

4. The Ministry of Time by Kalianna Bradley -- Set in London during several time periods because the book is about time travel. The main action happens in the near future but some action happens in the 1840s with references to other times periods in the 1600s, 1700s, 1900s, and 50+ years into the future from current time. (Published in 2024. Completed Feb. 8, 2025.)

5. The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich -- Set in North Dakota in 2008 during the economic recession. (Published in 2024. Completed Jan. 21, 2025.)

6. The God of the Woods by Liz Moore -- Set in 1975, with flashbacks to the early 1960s in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. (Published in 2024. Completed Jan. 18, 2025.)

7. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf -- Based on two lectures given by the author in 1928. (Published in 1929. Completed Nov. 27, 2024.)

8. Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo -- Set in Western Mexico between 1870-1920s. (Published in 1955. Completed Nov. 26, 2024.)

9. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King -- Starts in 1947 and moves forward in time at least twenty years, set mainly in the Shawshank Prison in Maine. (First published in 1982. Completed Nov. 21, 2024.)

10.  The Turn of the Screw by Henry James -- Set in Essex, UK in the 1840s. (Published in 1898. Completed Nov. 10, 2024.)

-Anne

Sunday Salon -- Dragons

Weather: RAIN!!!!! We are experiencing an atmospheric river right now. Lots of water in a short period of time. One could say this dousing rain arrived like a dragon, primal and untamed nature!

Dragons: Today I am thinking about dragons -- real or imagined or metaphorical, in literature and in politics -- the good and the bad. I found this definition of what dragons represent metaphorically:

Metaphorically, dragons often represent powerful, primal forces like chaos, destruction, untamed nature, and the unknown, but depending on the cultural context, they can also symbolize immense power, wisdom, transformation, and the potential for both good and evil within ourselves; essentially embodying the duality of human nature and our inner struggles with raw desires and fears.

This quote: It is important to remember that dragons can be beaten!

Awakening the dragon: Today our country is in turmoil. Many, many people are losing their jobs and even Trump voters are feeling the pain. This post is about five of those voters who are feeling regret, "Everything Comes at a Cost.". My summary, if you don't want to read the whole thing:

• A sample of regretful Trump voters on the theme: ”I didn’t know it would impact me!” 

  This is a core difference between us and them. They happily voted for President Donald Trump hoping he would hurt other people. We voted against him because he would hurt other people. 

• One voter, Graham Peters, working to eliminate invasive sea lampreys in the Great Lakes, lost his job working for U.S. Fish and Wildlife. “Peters feels betrayed by politicians he helped put in office. He voted for Trump in November, impressed by his vows to bolster the economy and slow immigration across the southern border. ‘If I had known that this was going to happen,’ he said, “I wouldn’t have voted for him,’”

• Next up is a disabled veteran who lost his job with the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Northern Virginia. “I voted for Donald Trump. But this is not what I was expecting. We didn’t think they were going to take a chainsaw to a silk rug,” he told WTOP News.

  Trump promised to cut trillions from the federal budget, but the only way that was going to happen was with a chainsaw … along with a wrecking ball, a lot of dynamite, and the meteor that killed the dinosaurs. 

  “I recognize there are a lot of cuts that need to be made, but this is not the one that you think will happen to your family," his wife added. You see, any other cuts would be totally fine. But not something that impacts her and her husband. That cut isn’t fair because he loves his job.

• Another Trump voter is upset and sad because of the cut in funds to the N.I.H. because the medical trial his cousin's daughter was accessing is keeping her alive. "Why weren't Musk and Trump more careful with their cuts?" Now the family is scrambling, trying to find other trial programs for the woman so she can continue living.

Unleash dragons and they're as likely to eat you just as quickly as the people you don't care about.

This movie: "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves." So Fun! (There is a hilarious scene with an pudgy dragon in this one, too!)

Imagine Dragons: Years ago in 2012, I was listening to an audiobook, Seraphina by Hartman, which is a magical story involving dragons. I was so wrapped up in it that my head was swimming in the details even after the book's conclusion. I turned on the car radio after switching off the audiobook and immediately heard the DJ say "Imagine Dragons. It's Time." I honestly didn't know there was a band by that name. I thought this was a message just for me --Imagine life with dragons, Anne. It's time you move out of your linear thinking. It wasn't until several weeks later I realized my folly. Here's the song, It's Time, if you want to listen to it again.

Dragons in literature: Have you read any of these, or can you suggest others? I've read a few books which contain dragons. Here's my list:

• The Hobbit (1937); The Fellowship of the Ring (1954) by Tolkien 
• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952) by C. S. Lewis
• Earthsea (1964) by Le Guin
• Dragonriders of Pern series (1967) by McCaffery
• The Neverending Story (1979) by Ende
• The Paperbag Princess (1980) by Munsch 
• The Colour of Magic (1983) by Pratchett
• Harry Potter series (1997-2007) by J.K. Rowling
• The Inheritance Cycle series [Eragon] (2002-2011] by Paolini
• Seraphina (2012) by Hartman
• When Women Were Dragons (2023) by Barnhill

This week in books and blogging:

• Completed-
• What Kind of Woman: Poems by Kate Baer
• The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie
• Brownstone by Samuel Teer
• Lisette's List by Susan Vreeland
• Currently reading-
• This Motherless Land by Mikki May-- Fiction. Audiobook. 60% complete.
• Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks -- Memorial. Audiobook. 41% complete.
• With My Back to the World: Poems by Victoria Chang -- Poetry. Print. 13%
• The Wedding People by Alison Espach -- Fiction. Print. 8%.
• Blog posts-
• TTT: Books I Loved But Never Reviewed
• Poetry Review: What Kind of Woman: Poems
• Novella Review: The Most
• Nonfiction review: Just Kids

Aging does not make women powerless objects of pity but colorful and entertaining individuals and, on occasion, fire-breathing dragons that wise people don't cross.  --Florence King

(This closing quote seemed apropos after celebrating my birthday this week!)

-Anne

Nonfiction Review: JUST KIDS (+Friday56 LinkUp)

Title: Just Kids by Patti Smith

Book Beginnings quote (from the Forward):

I was asleep when he died.

Friday56 quote: 

Our first winter together was a harsh one. Even with my better salary from Scribner's. we had very little money. Often we'd stand in the cold on the corner of St. James Place in eyeshot of the Greek diner and Jake's art supply store, debating how to spend our few dollars -- a toss-up between grilled cheese sandwiches and art supplies.

Summary: It began in 1967, the summer of love.It was a chance meeting of two people both seeking to create art but both broke and homeless. Patti Smith would evolve as a poet and later a performer. Robert Mapplethorpe eventually landed on photography as the medium for his very provocative artistic style. Both began their life in NYC in innocence and enthusiasm. In 1969 they lived in the infamous Chelsea Hotel where they rubbed elbows with many artists and musicians of the day, including Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Todd Rundgren, and Janis Joplin. During these very hungry years they could always prod and provide for each other as they craved to create art. "Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. It serves as a salute to New York City during the late sixties and seventies and to its rich and poor, its hustlers and hellions. A true fable, it is a portrait of two young artists' ascent, a prelude to fame" (Book cover). 

Review:  At the end of Robert Mapplethorpe's life, Patti Smith, his once-lover and longtime best friend, agrees to write down their story. Neither of them wanted their life or their art to come to nothing. This book, in a lot of ways, makes sure that their wish comes true.

When the two meet in Brooklyn in 1967 they team up recognizing kindred spirits within. They both want to create art but have no money. Remarkably they get by on barely any income for several years, making just enough for rent in a dumpy place, and to buy supplies at second hand shops for their art. Luck would have it that they both would run into others willing to help foster their lifestyles, with encouragement, opening doors, and sometimes with money. It was shocking how many famous people they met and even hung out with during their hungry years. It is as if the milieu of the area of Manhattan where the couple landed, was just perfect for growing talented artists and musicians.

Later, in the seventies, the couple went their separate ways, a bit. Still living near to each other but not together. Robert came out as a homosexual and Patti had relationships with a few men, yet they still collaborated on their art and Patti remained as one of Robert's muses. In the mid-70s Patty joined up with some musicians to form a rock-n-roll band which included performance art and poetry. Later she collaborated with Bruce Springsteen  on what became her most famous song, "Because the Night." By now she is not just hanging out with famous people, she is famous herself. She is also credited for being at the forefront of the punk rock scene and has many, many books and musical albums to her credit.

As it turns out, Patti talks very little about her life after she moves away from Robert, preferring to tell their story, not just hers. In the late 1980s, she visits Robert several times before his death from AIDS. She called him from her home in Detroit, where she lived with her musician husband, Fred Smith, the night Robert died. The last time she saw him in person, she visited him in the hospital. She was leaving when he fell asleep, like a peaceful, yet ancient child. Something drew her back to the room in time to see his eyes open with a smile.  "So my last image was as the first. A sleeping youth cloaked in light, who opened his eyes with a smile of recognition for someone who had never been a stranger" (282).

This memoir is completely fascinating. No wonder it won the National Book Award in 2010.

My rating: 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

Novella Review: THE MOST

It doesn't require a lot of pages for a novel to make a big impact. And that is the case with this novella, The Most by Jessica Anthony. It tells the story of a marriage on the rocks with such power I felt like I was being drawn into "the most", a cunning strategy used in tennis games, right along with the characters.

The Most takes place on a single day in November of 1957 in Newark, Delaware where a young family lives in an apartment after recently moving from Rhode Island. Virgil and Kathleen have reached an impasse in their marriage. Sputnik II has been launched and the first live being propelled into space is an unfortunate dog, Laika, a doomed "Muttnik." The weather is unseasonably warm.

Slowly over the whole story we learn the backstory of each person in the unhappy couple. Kathleen was a good tennis player in college, she decided to marry rather than turn pro. Virgil was a handsome man with little ambition who easily got a job without trying. Neither of them have been faithful to their partner. On this hot day in November Kathleen begs off going to church and while the family is gone, slips into her old, red bathing suit and hops into the apartment's swimming pool. She stays in the pool all day, no one can talk her out.

At one point in the story we learn when Kathleen is a teenager her parents hired a man, Billy, to give her tennis lesson. It is Billy who teaches her about "the move." It essentially traps your opponent at the net before releasing a bomb to the back court. The strategy has not only given the novel it's name but is a tactic employed to break the marital impasse, one designed to force Virgil to show his hand.

M. Praseed, writing for the Chicago Review of books, calls The Most an "incredibly nuanced conflict", a nearly perfect book in just under 150 pages. And H. McAlpin, reviewing the book for NPR, says it deserves to be a classic. I'm not sure I'd go that far but I do think it would make a good book to use to teach how to write a very tight novel. McAlpin also points out the theme of "bridges" in the book. I missed the theme on my read through but admired the references to bridges when she mentioned them.

I liked and admired The Most. I found myself thinking a lot about the differences in our society from the 1950s to today. I think that is another point which elevates the book to the near classic level.

My rating: 4 stars

-Anne

Poetry Review: WHAT KIND OF WOMAN: POEMS

What Kind of Woman: Poems was Kate Baer's first book of poetry published in 2020. It is, as the title implies, almost exclusively dedicated to the experiences of girls, women, wives, and mothers. "Through poems that are as unforgettably beautiful as they are accessible, Kate proves herself to be an exemplary voice in modern poetry. Her words make women feel seen in their own bodies, in their own marriages, and in their own lives" (Book jacket).

Kate, who is the mother of young children, finds that she is more creative when the kids are around. It is clear in this small volume of poetry that kids populate the poems or are around the corner, hovering somewhere neary.

My introduction to Baer came with the reading of her second volume of poems called I Hope This Finds You Well. She started that book in 2020 after the publication of this volume. In that book she used the style of erasure poetry. Baer turned messages and hate mail she received via social media into poems. They were very clever and heartwarming. What woman hasn't felt the eyes of men on them in a judgmental way or, in the political milieu of the day, not felt the condemnation coming from a place of otherness? Baer gave voice to those experiences.

In What Kind of Woman, she give voice to the female experience. For example, in the poem "Fat Girl" the poems highlights messages people say to and about women's weight. "Hard to describe / I don't know how to say / great personality / really pretty face but..." I for one can relate to these comments and even if a person is of an average weight, I'm sure there have been comments about one's looks that have wounded. Baer tells us in this poem, she understands.

The next section is dedicated to wives. In a favorite poem called "For the Advice Cards at Bridal Showers" I felt like I needed to take notes. We all are likely to give advice which isn't appreciated or followed. Instead, if presented with an opportunity to write something on such a card, remind yourself -- "For now just remember how you felt the day you were born: desperate for magic, ready to love."

Motherhood poems charm the third section of book. In the poem "Deliverance" I recognize the moment where everything changed at the birth of my child. "What is the word for when the light leaves the body? What is the word for when it, at last returns?"

Another short poem, "Things No One Says to Me", in this section made me laugh out loud:

You make it took so easy

You don't look like you just had a baby

Motherhood looks good on you

I'm pretty sure that every women would find plenty to relate to in What Kind of Woman and men could gain insights if they could read the poems with an open heart and mind.

I highly recommend this collection.

-Anne

TTT: Books I've Read But Never Reviewed

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I've Read but not reviewed (and what I hope to do about it)

This is a timely prompt because I just finished updating my list of reviewed books -- from 2009 to present. (See list here.) And so I am aware of some of the blaring examples of books I haven't reviewed since I started blogging.

A few years ago I made myself a list of Super Past Due Reviews I hoped to write, even if I read the book years before that date. Of the ten books I placed on that list, I managed to ultimately review, sometimes with a reread, nine of them. See that list of Super Past Due Reviews here. 

Perhaps with the little shove this prompt provides I will create a new Super Past Due Reviews list and set about finally giving the books the credit they deserve.

Here are some good ones that deserve a review from me:

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
First read in April of 2007 (pre-blogging) and reread in June 2012.
Of all the books on my list today, this one deserves a review since it is one of my favorite books.

The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
According to my records on Goodreads, I read this book three times, the last time in 2015 and I've never reviewed it. What a shame. Guess I'll have to read it again and this time write the review it so obviously deserves.

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
I read this book in 2014. It's about a doctor who travels to the Amazon region to discover some very strange medical phenomenons. It is an oversight that I never reviewed it and will add it to my next Super Past Due Reviews list, if I make one.

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
I love this author so it shocks me to discover I never reviewed this wonderful book. Looking over the books I read for book club in 2014, of which this is one, I didn't review very many of them. I've often thought I'd like to write a review now but the book is a long one, over 500 pages, and I'd need to reread it first.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
The third book read for book club in 2014 which I loved but never reviewed. I wonder what was going on that year?

Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart
I read this book in March 2020. Remember that month? No wonder I forgot to review it. After 2020 I made it a yearly goal to review ALL books read for book club but before that time it was hit or miss whether I would review them, now that doesn't happen any more.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
March by Geraldine Brooks
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
This past year I finished up my personal challenge to read (and review) all the fiction Pulitzer Prize winners for the 21st Century. These four books, all read before I was a blogger, never got a full review, each got a summary review as I was winding down the project. I know no one cares except me, but I would like to give them the respect the other winners got by giving them a full review. For a look at my 21st Century Pulitzer Challenge, click here.

I am not sure if I will get to writing reviews for all these ten books this year, but I will at least try to get to a few of them.

-Anne

Sunday Salon -- A few favorite things this week

Valentine's Day love: My cousin's daughter and her son joined us for a heartfelt dinner last night with the whole family. The photo above is of the three "cousins" preparing to eat their heart-shaped pizza.

Weather: Rain. We had fourteen days of very cold weather, where is snowed nearly every day. Very unusual for our PNW climes. But now we are back to a regular winter weather pattern of rain in the lowlands and snow in the mountains.

Our daughter's family with Mushu.

Tiana's Bayou Ride (Splash Mountain)

Close up of Jamie, who DID NOT want to go back on this ride again.

Disneyland funny: My daughter and her family recently made a trip to Disneyland. Before the trip, our grandson, age four, was eating his food diligently so he would grow tall enough to make the height requirement of 42 inches tall. He just made it, but according to this photo I am not sure he enjoyed it very much. I laugh everytime I think of this photo and the look on his little face. Fortunately, he had many happier moments like the one about with Mushu.

 

2024 Cybils Award book announced: I took a year off from judging for the Cybils Awards. The winners of this book bloggers award were announced on Valentine's Day. Check out all the winners here.

This Instagram announcement from Barbara Kingsolver about a project that happened because of Demon Copperhead: Here is the link. I hope it opens. If not, I snipped the photo (above). Get out your magnifying glass. She has opened the higher Ground Women's Recovery Residence with the proceeds to the book. If you didn't read this book, Demon Copperhead's mom died due to her drug addiction and he became an orphan. Here is the rest of the post I had to cut off in the photo:

If you bought and read Demon Copperhead, you’ve already contributed to our project. And you understand that for all the real kids like Demon, a little support can make the difference between salvation or being orphaned. If you’d like to do more, please explore this website - hgwrr.org - to learn how you can help more families find higher ground.

Books and blogging the past two weeks:

• Completed:
• Sunshine: A Graphic novel by Jarrett Krosoczka--a heart-warming graphic memoir about Jarrett's experiences in high school as counselor for Cancer Camp.
• The Ministry of Time by Kalianne Bradley -- a mixture of time-travel and spy novel. Audiobook shared with Don.
• Just Kids by Patti Smith --the amazing memoir about Patti's life in the 1960s and 70s and her relationship with another artist, Robert Mapplethorpe. They rubbed elbows with so many artists and musicians. Many we've heard of, like Bob Dylan, and Todd Rundgren.
• The Most by Jessica Anthony -- a novella about an unhappy marriage and unhappy lives. It was like looking at the details under a microscope.

• Currently reading:
• The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth  McKenzie -- a quirky cast of characters, mostly lovable but also somewhat irritating. Audio. 30%.
• This Motherless Land by Nikki May -- a retelling of the Mansfield Park story set both in Nigeria and in the UK. Audio with Don. 30%.
• Lisette's List by Susan Vreeland -- A WWII story which also involves involves the art and artists: Chagall, Cezanne, and Pissarro. Print. 54%.
• What Kind of Woman: Poems by Kate Baer -- by a poet I've recently discovered. Print. 71%

• Up next (or at least the books I currently have checked out from the library, whether I get to them remains to be seen):
• Let's Call Her Barbie by Renee Rosen (Print / Fiction)
• Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (Print/ Fiction MG)
• White Cat, Black Dog: Stories by Kelly Link (Print/ Short Stories)
• Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks (Audio/Memoir)
• Brownstone by Samuel Teer (Print / Graphic novel/YA)
• The Wedding People by Espach (Print/Fiction/Book club selection. I need to move this one up the list)
• Blog posts
• Review: The God of the Woods
• TTT: Books published in 2024 I still want to read
• Review: Where I compare Sense and Sensibility to the Beatles
• Review: Sunshine: a Graphic Novel
• TTT: Book Titles that Work as Candy Hearts
• Classics Club: Spin #40 announcement and list (Book # will be announced later today!)
• Review: The Ministry of Time

Tennessee kid, Tristan, gives weather report, where there will be 4-6-8-10 inches of snow today. I love precocious kids. (Thanks, Kathy, for sharing this!)

Happy Valentine's Day, from my house to yours!

-Anne

Review: THE MINISTRY OF TIME

Title: The Ministry of Time by Kalianne Bradley

Book Beginnings quote:

 Perhaps he'll die this time.

Friday56 quote:

He came through the front door while I was gazing blankly at the kettle.

    "Good morning."

    "Morning. Have you been out for a walk?"

    "No. To church."

    I felt strangely embarrassed, as if he had just told me that he spent his Sunday mornings at a soft play center.

    He smiled at me and said, "I have noted the dreadful secularism of this age. You may assume a less guilty expression."

Summary:

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,” “Spotify,” and “the collapse of the British Empire.” But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future. (Publisher)

Review: The Ministry of Time was one of Barack Obama's favorite reads of this past summer, making his end-of-season list. I was aware of it before that time since so many bloggers were chattering about it but I decided to read it after seeing it on his list. It has been described as a "A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all." It is a new take on time travel, that is for sure, since the ministry goes back in time and snags people on the cusp of their death (plague, freezing in the Arctic, war) and brings them without consent into the present. Later the reader finds out the same thing is happening from the future. But that gets really mind-blowingly confusing so forget I said anything about it. The spy thriller bits were my favorite but the action and excitement were usually not sustained for very long and were fairly brief. The budding romance was a little nuanced at first and then quite steamy. Could the book have survived without them? I think yes, but it did add an interesting plot wrinkle.

After I completed the audiobook version of The Ministry of Time, I learned of the controversy surrounding the book. According to A.I. (oh no, not AI!) there is/was a Spanish TV series called "El Ministerio del Tiempo" which translates to, you guessed it, "The Ministry of Time." Both the book and the Spanish series feature a government agency that takes people from different historical periods to become time travelers. And they both address how these travelers could/do mess up timelines. Claims of plagiarism really heated up when the BBC decided to make a series based on the book, using the same title as the book and the translated title from the Spanish series. I have no idea what will happen with this.

My husband and I listened to the book together and both of us found it fairly compelling, asking us to think about the ethics of time travel, as if it could really happen. The Friday56 quote brings to mind another issue. As our society has evolved, some of our habits and practices really are dreadful, like Commander Gore pointed out when his bridge acts shocked that he went to church.

My rating: 4 stars. 

  

-Anne

Classics Club, Spin #40

It’s time for another Classics Club spin.

This is the Classics Club’s 40th CC Spin…I wonder how many I have participated in. At least 2/3rd maybe even more, I'd guess.

What is a CC Spin?

• Simply pick twenty books that you’ve got left to read from a list of 20 classic book titles you'd still like to read.
• Post that list, numbered 1-20, on your blog before Sunday, 16th February.
• A number from 1-20 will be announced. 
• Read that book by 11th April.

Here is my list of  Twenty Classics for Spin #40-- Winter 2025

1. Something by Dickens
2. A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
3. The Tenet of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
4. Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams by Sylvia Plath*
5. The Magnificent Ambersons by Tarkington
6. Hamlet by Shakespeare
7. All the King’s Men by Warren
8. The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky*
9. Now In November by Johnson
10. The Reivers by William Faulkner
11.  Excellent Women by Pym
12. Something by Shakespeare
13. Some book that won the Pulitzer Prize (over 50 years ago)
14.  Candide by Voltaire
15. Something by Ray Bradbury
16. David Copperfield by Dickens*
17. Grimm’s Fairy Tales*
18. The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne
19. Silas Marner by Eliot*
20. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle*

*Books I own. I'M HOPING TO FINALLY GET THEM READ AND OFF MY LIST!

And the winning number is...

4

So I will see if I can find on my e-reader: Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams by Sylvia Plath. A collection of short stories and essays.

-Anne

TTT: Book Titles That Work On Candy Hearts

Top Ten Tuesday: Valentine's Day Freebie -- Book Titles That Work on Candy Hearts

(This is a repeat of a post done four years ago, let's see if I can come up with some other clever titles to scrunch onto a candy heart. I've read and recommend all of these books. No duplicates from first list, either.)

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

Suddenly We: Poems by Evie Shockley

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Sunshine: A Graphic Novel by Jarrett Krosoczka

The Moon Tonight Jung Chang-hoon

The Kissing of Kissing: Poems by Hannah Emerson

So Lucky by Nicola Griffith

Sweet Thunder Ivan Doig

Trust by Hernan Diaz

Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Please, Baby, Please by Spike Lee

A Few Beautiful Minutes by Kate Fox

Plant a Kiss by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Dearly: Poems by Margaret Atwood

That was fun! How'd I do?

                                                                               -Anne