Storybook ND, 2022. 69 pages.
A reviewer on Goodreads sums up this book this way:
The English understand wool is the first and the last sentence of this short novel. That neat sentence fits well with the message I took from the story: just as the English understand wool, and the warp and the weft of the cloth made from it, so a person must understand the people they are dealing with—and cut their cloth accordingly. The heroine of this novella, for whom good taste is the best possible measure, has learned how to cut her cloth very much to suit that measure. But she has also learned, to make a long story short, that when dealing with people not cut from the same cloth as herself, she must read the small print, make her actions speak louder than her words, and basically, have her cake and eat it too—no matter that it may be in very poor taste (Fionnuala).
The seventeen-year-old heroine, Bethany, is raised in Marrakech but travels the world with her mother to avail themselves of the finest things: wool in England/Scotland and linen in Ireland, for example. Bringing a seamstress from Thailand to Paris makes complete sense, as does taking tennis lessons and installing pianos everywhere one stays. One needs to know how to cultivate taste and refinement. When Bethany learns her mother isn't who she thinks she is, the publishing world descends and wants exclusive rights to her tragic story. That is when the real fun begins. This heroine wasn't raised to be a pushover.
I learned about The English Understand Wool by watching Ann Patchett's reel with her weekly Friday book recommendations. She learned about the book by visiting a sister bookstore and asking what book was really moving. The English Understand Wool was that book. At 69 pages one can sit down and finish the book in one fell swoop, which is what I did. My initial reaction was "meh" and "what a snotty girl" but since that time, the book has really grown on me. It is so clever, funny, and spot-on. My upgraded rating is 4.5 stars.
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Gallery/Saga Press, 2019. 198 pages.
Simon and Schuster Audio. 4 hours, 16 minutes.
Two special agents, Red and Blue, are on competing factions in the Time War. Red represents the society dominated by technology and artificial intelligences. Blue represents a society dominated by biomass consciousness. The two start a communication with each other, keeping this a secret from their superiors. They have to be very, very careful, communicating between layers of subtlety and deception. They can never, ever meet. What begins as a way of taunting the other turns slowly, over time, into friendship and then love. Because of their relationship, the two women must confront their contributions to this never ending time war.
Described as part epistolary queer romance and part high adventure science fiction, this story unfolds bit by bit and ends in a surprising way.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Cynthia Farrell and Emily Woo Zeller. The narration just sped along and I was so caught up in the story I was shocked when the story ended so quickly. This is How You Lose the Time War won the Hugo, the Nebula, and Locust awards in 2020 for novella. My rating: 4 stars.
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Henningham Family Press, 2021. 121 pages.
After Jesus is crucified he is laid in a tomb, and according to the Gospel of Matthew, four Roman guards are charged with guarding the tomb to make sure none of Jesus' disciples come and steal the body, claiming Jesus rose from the dead. Sometime in the night an angel appears to these guards and they faint out of fear. In the morning, the large stone is rolled away from the tomb which is indeed empty. Now what do the guards do? How do they save face and keep their jobs?
In The Tomb Guardians the story of these guards is played out as they discuss their options set against two art historians discuss the paintings of the four guards created by Bernhard Strigel in the early 1500s for a commission at the dawn of Protestantism. As one group wrestles with historical truth in art, the other tries to figure a way out of a fix. The conversations between the two different groups of people are delineated by the use of regular and italic fonts.
Once I figured out the problem the guards were in, I was pretty much done with their part of the story though they went on bickering intermittently throughout the book. I wanted more of what I was learning from the art historians about why Strigel created these pieces -- the first time ordinary people were depicted in religious art and the first time that sleeping people were painted. I was fascinated how they believed the art was used, as a sort of storytelling tool prior to Easter services. And what I learned happened during the infancy of protestantism. All that was interesting to me. The guards whining and worrying, not so much.
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| The guards at the tomb as depicted by Bernhard Strigel, circa 1511, Germany. |
I was interested by the story and learned new information. I just didn't care for the unique format of the book. My rating: 3 stars.
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