Nonfiction Review: THE ART THIEF

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.

-Anne

Audiobooks with Don Review: BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER

Title: Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

Book Beginnings quote:

Friday56 quote, from page 36:

Summary: 

"In this story-within-story-within-story structure, Buffalo Hunter Hunter opens with a discovery — in 2012, a book hidden in the wall of an old parsonage is found by an unnamed construction worker. It turns out to be a journal, written in 1912 and belonging to Arthur Beaucarne, the pastor of the local Lutheran congregation. Inside it contains the story of his strange encounters with Good Stab, who, after years of carnage, has seemingly come to him to confess. Good Stab is an Indigenous man from the Blackfeet tribe living in Montana around the time of the 1870 Marias Massacre, when U.S. Army troops killed nearly 200 unarmed women, children and elderly members of the Blackfeet Nation, a tragedy that figures in a multitude of ways throughout this gruesome joyride of a novel" (NYT). 

Review: Randy Boyagoda, in his review for the New York Times, wrote the best, most appropriate title I've ever seen --

"He's Undead, He's Indigenous, and He Wants Revenge on America: In the Buffalo Hunter Hunter a Blackfeet man becomes a vampire and seeks vengeance for the country's sins."

One doesn't have to read the whole summary to figure out this is a vampire story with a huge twist. No usual vampire fare in this story -- no foreboding castles, caskets, or bats, and the setting is not Eastern Europe. Instead, the beautiful setting is Montana near the spine of the continent in the area we now call Glacier National Park, where the Blackfeet (Piikani in their own tongue) have lived and thrived for millenia. Enter the white men, including the buffalo hunters who kill off whole herds of the beasts for only the hides or just for sport leaving the meat to rot. The Blackfeet people can no longer sustain themselves and thousands starved to death even before the 1870 Marian Massacre where the cavalry slaughtered hundreds, many of them women and children. When Good Stab gets turned into a vampire, he begins hunting those buffalo hunters, those men who started the whole chain of catastrophes for his people. 

Typically I don't read horror novels and neither does Don. But when I offered this audiobook as an option to listen to together, Don chose Buffalo Hunter Hunter over the others. We got about 30 minutes in when it suddenly dawned on him it was a vampire story. I guess his brain skipped over that detail when I read the summary. By then we were both into the story and forged ahead. We just visited Glacier National Park this past summer so we could clearly picture the setting. The writing was spectacular and we were both interested in learning more about this shameful chapter of American history. Historical horror can be a good subgenre if done right and this book was done right! In fact, I think this is my favorite horror novel of those I've read. Gabino Iglesias, writing for NPR, has read all of Stephen Graham Jones' books, and says Buffalo Hunter Hunter is his masterpiece because "the prose is gorgeous, the plot is complex, engaging, and multilayered" (NPR). I agree. Don't be put off by this book because it's a vampire story, read it because this is an important historical tale, worth your time and attention.

General Sheridan is credited with saying, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian." Now there is Good Stab who quips right back, “What I am is the Indian who can’t die. I’m the worst dream America ever had.” Ha, how do you like that, General?

The audiobook is expertly narrated by three voice actors: Owen Teale, Shane Ghostkeeper, and Marin Ireland. All three did a masterful job at bringing the story forward with their voices and intonation. I highly recommend this format.

Both Don and I rated Buffalo Hunter Hunter with 5 stars.

Audiobooks with Don Review: THERE'S ALWAYS THIS YEAR: ON BASKETBALL AND ASCENSION

Imagine for a moment a book as a basketball game, structured loosely into pregame, four quarters, several intermissions, a time-out, and the postgame. That book is There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib. The book is a very challenging read as the game flow is interrupted by asides and back story in the same way a real game might go. Partly a sports story, as you would guess from the subtitle, the book explores the popularity of basketball in the region of Ohio where the author grew up. There's Always This Year is also part essay, part memoir, part social commentary, part cultural/racial observation, and part poetry, all moving far beyond basketball. 

Abdurraqib grew up in Columbus, Ohio in the 1990s and was a witness to a golden era of basketball as a young LeBron James became a legend of the game while many others with similar talents did not. Why does that happen, some make it and others with equal talent don't? And what does it mean to make it? Who deserves success? What role does the community play in terms of the tension between excellence and expectations on the individual players? These questions are just a few which Abdurraqib grapples with as he also dribbled (get it?) out details of his life growing up poor, black, Muslim, motherless, and in trouble with the law from an early age. Always. Always his focus returned to basketball, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and LeBron James.

I gave this book to my husband for Christmas. He is a sports fans, though he tends to enjoy watching football and golf more than basketball. I thought this would be a book he'd enjoy, but unfortunately the book doesn't allow for easy admittance. One has to pay at the gate to get into the basketball game, right? Well, that is the case with this book, too. It starts with the pregame and begins with this sentence: "You will surely forgive me if I begin this brief time we have together by talking about enemies." What? Enemies? That was not what I was expecting to read in a book about basketball. Let me backup to the epigraph because I think it provides a better launching spot for the 3-point shot of a starting place:

"Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down." -Toni Morrison

I'd say this is pretty good way to start this book. Over the course of the book, the author has to give up a lot of things that are weighing him down: to some degree even Columbus, Ohio, his old neighborhood, his memories and dreams, and yes, even basketball.

Hanif Abdurraqib is described as a poet, essayist, and cultural critic. But I think his poetry leads the way in all he writes. Here are a few examples of his writing. Can you sense the poetry behind the words?

About the death of a high school basketball star on the cusp of making it in the NBA, he writes:

"Sometimes there are funerals, and sometimes there is nothing. No portal through which grief can be passed, no housewarming for the new grief that furnishes the ever-growing tower we carry, that we are responsible for, whether we want to be or not" (90).

About memories of his childhood, Abdurraqib writes so descriptively and says:

"My childhood beloveds, my beloved childhood blocks, it is not you I swear. It is my own memory -- memory that I, even now, cannot detach from dreaming. Which is a more whimsical way of saying that the block doesn't look like the block that I once knew and loved and dribbled basketballs on, dodging cracks in the sidewalks or the glass, broken tenderly enough to take the shape of a small brown mouth" (93). 

Then there was the poetry poetry: 

(165)

After Don's aborted attempt to get into the print version, we decided to listen to the audiobook together. I confess I found the opening five minutes philosophically dense and hard to penetrate, too, but soon we settled in to the author's narration of his story. With only seconds left in the game/book (Do the Cavaliers win the championship with LeBron at the helm, or not?) I start sobbing. Don, who is driving and has other things to pay close attention to, isn't sure why and looks over at me with a question in his eyes. It was this: all the sudden I knew everything the author was saying about life, memories, and dreaming was true. What if our childhoods are still going on in an alternative universe? And we, the livers of that life, are living in two places at once?

"When Brian Wilson completed the song "God Only Knows," he spoke of the impulse to fade the song out on a loop of the chorus, suggesting that it creates a sort of infinity spiral. A world where the song is still going on, always, somewhere. And you, the listener, are still in it, as you were at the time of listening. A dream with no exit. There is a universe, always, where you are joyfully encased in the endless return of chorus, and you might age there, but let's say you don't. Let's say you and the chorus both lock into a type of eternity, a forever of wondering God only knows what I'd be without you, an eternity of praising the fact that you'll never find out. And it is both beautiful and heartbreaking this, that we go on living while a past version of ourselves remain locked, peacefully, in a euphoric dream" (316).

I think the reason I got so choked up at this point related to Don and I both celebrating this summer with our high school classmates the 50 years since our graduations. We took big, long walks down memory lanes. We both lived idyllic childhoods filled with games, friends, sunshine and swim meets. Don especially had a childhood filled with freedom and fun in a small Eastern Oregon town. He'd leave his house on his bike every morning of the summer, bike to the school for baseball practice, stop off for an ice cream on his way to the swimming pool where he'd swim all afternoon, not biking home until dinner, when he knew his folks would begin to wonder where he was. I think I was crying as much for his memories as I was for mine. And I love thinking about that little boy biking around town in an endless, happy summer. It's a rare book that makes you reflect so deeply on your own childhood and feel so connected to a story so different than your own.

Both Don and I loved the audiobook and rated it with 5 stars.

-Anne

Audiobooks with Don

During the Fall months my husband Don and I spend a lot of time together driving up and down the freeway to attend football games in Eugene, Oregon (Go Ducks!). The trip takes four to five hours each way -- depending on traffic -- so we have ample time to immerse ourselves in a good audiobook (or two) per weekend trip.

I really enjoy listening to books with Don and the deep sense of camaraderie we experience doing something together that we both enjoy. Often, we will pause the book for a few minutes to discuss the plot or a new thought or learning spurred by the story. Other times we find ourselves laughing together over a joke or clever turn of phrase. We question each other over points we find confusing and we may need to backup a few minutes to relisten to the narration again with a keener focus so we can continue on. After the end of each book we spend time discussing what we liked or didn't like and often will assign our individual ratings on a 5-point scale.

Before each trip I make sure to have several options downloaded for our listening experience. Sometimes we will listen to five minutes or so of each audiobook before Don makes his selection. I'm good with any of the options and usually will listen to the others not selected on my own time. I'm just happy he is willing to join me in my book obsession for a few hours. Don's favorites are narrative nonfiction, historical fiction, or mystery/thrillers. He appreciates books which give him new perspectives. Of our last five books, four were from the perspectives other than his own: Black lives in the U.S., Native American life on the reservation, women's rights (or lack thereof) during the 16th Century, and the story of an immigrant woman from the Dominican Republic. 

Each week I hope to review at least one of the audiobooks that Don and I have listened to together. So far we have finished three and are on our fourth audiobook -- and we've only made the trip to two home games this month. They are:

• Isola by Allegra Goodman (Historical fiction based on a real person)
• There's Always this Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib (Narrative nonfiction. Essays and poems about basketball and life as a Black man.)
• How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz (An immigrant from D.R. tells her story to a career counselor.)
• Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden. (A Mystery set on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota.) [Currently listening.]

Watch for my reviews of these books in the next few weeks.

If you'd like to start listening to audiobooks with your spouse/partner, here are a few things to keep in mind: 

1. Beware of male narrators who drop their voices when speaking quietly on the audiobooks. Their voices will get lost with all the road noise. I'm not sure if it is just male voices (lower register) which have this problem but if you find yourself adjusting the volume up and down several times, perhaps that is not the best book for a road trip.
2. Let the pickiest person select the book, at least in the beginning. My husband has figured out he really doesn't like long fantasy-type books in the audio format. He is also very aware of repeated phrases or too many cliches ("lazy writing" in his opinion) and gets irritated by them. I don't want to torture him by insisting we continue with these books when other options are available.
3. Some narrators are better than others. If you get an hour or so into the audiobook and you are still irritated by the narrator. Stop and pick one of the other options to try. It doesn't mean that the book is bad, it is just a bad fit for you in that format. Once you find a narrator you really like, check out other audiobooks they've read.  Here is a list of ten of my favorite audiobook narrators.
4. Get your audiobooks from your public library whenever possible. Your library will tell you what format they use for their audiobooks and you'll need to download that app, but once you do everything should be seamless. My libraries (I use three) all use the LIBBY app, but I've also used Overdrive. Place holds on books which aren't readily available. Usually you will have three weeks before the due date once you check them out and you don't even need to leave home to do it. I always keep my eyes on due dates because I don't want to be in the middle of a good book and have it suddenly disappear off my device.
5. Here are a few of Don's and my favorites: (Books marked with * have a high quality production.)
1. *Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, read by Ray Porter
2. A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, read my Stephen Fry
3. *James by Percival Everett, read by Dominic Hoffman
4. The Sentence by Louise Erdrich, read by the author
5. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, read by David Colacci
6. *Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, read by 160+ narrators
7. *How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz, read by Kimberly Wetherell and Rossmery Almonte
8. The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown, read by Edward Herrmann
9. The Soul of America by Jon Meacham, read by Fred Sanders and Jon Meacham
10.  Anything by and read by authors Bill Bryson or David McCullough.

-Anne (& Don)

Best Audiobooks Read in 2024

I love listening to audiobooks and actually prefer doing so over reading the print versions usually. This year there were some real standout audiobooks and then a whole batch of very wonderful ones. I've ranked the standouts but the others I just listed as they came to mind, so the numbering system falls apart at that point.

Standout #1: James by Percival Everett; read by Dominic Hoffman

Random House Audio, 2024. 7 hours and 49 minutes.

James is the retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn story from the point of view of Twain's Jim, the enslaved man who escapes with Huck. In a lot of ways this is a perfect audiobook since so much of the book is about the language or dialect we use. "A white character notices James’s standard English cadence with shock and asks: “Why are you talking like that?” With impressive comedic timing and vocal agility, Hoffman skips nimbly between James’s natural eloquence and the “slave filter” he uses to hide it from white people, deepening a project that hinges on vernacular as both signifier and tool of liberation" (NYT). James is also my favorite book read in 2024.

Standout #2: Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench with Brendan O'Hea; read by Barbara Flynn, Judi Dench and Brendan O'Hea

Penguin Audio, 2023. 12 hours and 5 minutes.

In her 60+ years of acting, Judi Dench has acted in 20 Shakespeare plays and in a variety of roles within those plays. This project, a series of conversations with Brendan O'Hea about the Bard and her career, was meant to for the Globe Theater Archives, but was reworked under the direction of O'Hea with the help of Barbara Flynn (who sounds an awful lot like Dench) into this fabulous audio experience.  "Sheer heaven for fans of Dench, Shakespeare, or the craft" (Cathy, Blue Willow Book Shop). 

Standout #3: The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese, read by the author

Recorded Books, 2024. 31 hours and 16 minutes.

I loved The Covenant of Water narrated by Verghese himself. This was a rare treat because I got to listen to his beautiful Indian accent but also learned how to pronounce previously unknown words and locations to me. The 30+ hours of listening made me feel like I had practically moved to India and more specifically to Parambil, the family estate, built as far away from the nearby river as it could be for fear of the water. The audiobook experience was so immersive it felt like I was living and breathing the same air as the characters.

4. Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, read by Stephen Hoye

Random House Audio, 1974, 2004. 13 hours and 44 minutes.

Killer Angels is a novel about the Battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War. My husband and I listened to the audiobook together. Stephen Hoye did an exceptional job reading the story, building up the tension preceding the battles to a perfect pitch. His accents for the both the Southern Generals and for the Maine men were spot-on and led to an even more personalized experience with the text. Even though I knew who won the battle historically, every time we stopped listening, I wanted to get back to it as soon as possible to find out how things worked out. As I listened I knew the book would end up on this list as best audiobooks of the year.

5. Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan, read by Nirmala Rajasingam

Random House Audio, 2023. 13 hours and 28 minutes.

A Women's Prize judge said Brotherless Night is "a powerful book that has the intimacy of a memoir, the range and ambition of an epic, and tells a truly unforgettable story of the Sri Lankan civil war." The story was intense but I couldn't stop listening to the audiobook. To stop would mean I didn't care. And I did care, very much, because of this story. About the audiobook, the narrator Nirmala Rajasingam did a brilliant job. Audible says this book is meant to be heard. I agree.

6. North Woods by Daniel Mason, read by a cast of ten voice actors.

Random House Audio, 2023. 11 hours and 5 minutes.

In North Woods all the stories revolve around a small cabin in Western Massachusetts over several centuries. North Woods has a series of linked stories told chronologically centering the action on or near the cabin. Four centuries of stories, families, characters, and schemes. And all these stories are not told in the same formats -- some are told in prose, others in lyrics and poetry, newspaper articles, medical case file entries, real estate advertisements, a true-crime detective story, a page entry from an almanac, and even a historical society speech. The audiobook was excellent and used a variety of voice actors, ten in all. That seems about right considering the story took place over so many centuries.

7. Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice from Dear Sugar (10th anniversary edition) by Cheryl Strayed, read by the author.

Random House Audio, 2012, reissued 2022. 10 hours and 41 minutes.

For more than a decade, thousands of people have sought advice from Dear Sugar—the pseudonym of bestselling author Cheryl Strayed—first through her online column at The Rumpus, later through her hit podcast, Dear Sugars, and now through her popular Substack newsletter. Tiny Beautiful Things collects the best of Dear Sugar in one volume, bringing her wisdom to many more readers. I listened to the audiobook of Tiny Beautiful Things which was narrated by Cheryl Strayed. It was a perfect decision to have the author, Sugar herself, read out the advice she had given her readers. Everything about the experience was so authentic. I'm sorry I missed the book when it was first published in 2012, but I am so glad I found it after its 2022 reissue, which has a few updates and additions from the original.

8. The Song for Achilles by Madeline Miller, read by Frazer Douglas

HarperAudio, 2012. 11 hours and 15 minutes.

The Song of Achilles is the retelling of the Iliad story from Patroclus' point of view. The story was new and fresh to me. My husband and I listened to the audiobook, read by Frazer Douglas, and enjoyed it immensely. The pronunciation of names and places were all handled expertly. What we lacked was a complex list of the many characters, gods and heroes alike, to help us keep everyone straight in our heads. Not until I dug around the house and found the print copy loaned to me by my daughter, did I find what I needed to fill out the story: a character glossary and a gods and heroes illustrated closeup. I recommend listening to the audiobook but getting a copy of the print version to refer to as you listen.

9. The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea, read by the author

Hachette Audio, 2018. 9 hours and 46 minutes.

"This audiobook begins with a frantic revelation--"Big Angel was late to his own mother's funeral"--and the pace never slows down after that. The author narrates his novel with a verve and engagement that few performers could emulate, blending Spanish and English, dialogue and narrative with the balance of a dancer. Listeners get to know Big Angel and his family through an almost stream-of-consciousness rhythm that can seem frenetic at some times, poetic at others" (Audiofile). I found this book really enjoyable and helpful in my thinking about what it is like to be a member of a Mexican American family living in California but whose hearts are very much still across the border. This is a fantastic story and Urrea is a fantastic storyteller.

10. The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich, read by Peter Francis James and Kathleen McInerney

HarperAudio, 2008. 11 hours and 3 minutes.

The first book in Erdrich's Justice Trilogy, The Plague of Doves details the interconnected lives of several generations of whiles and Indigenous people living in a town in North Dakota where an unsolved murder in 1911 still haunts the community. "Erdrich is a master storyteller known for her compelling novels, and her lyrical, recursive narrative style is enriched by the narrators' ability to fully portray her characters. This ideal match of writer and readers creates a memorable and moving experience" (Audiofile).

-Anne

Audiobooks We Listened to On a Recent Trip

On our recent 16-day, 3000+ miles vacation, my husband and I listened to five+ audiobooks together. Last night we finally took the time to compare notes on our thoughts. Now you get the benefit of two opinions on each book.

The Fraud by Zadie Smith

This is Ms. Smith's first historical fiction book and the first either of us read by this famous author. The story is based on actual people and a famous court case in British history. Unfortunately, as Americans, we'd heard of neither the court case or any of the people, other than Charles Dickens.

My rating: 3 stars. I honestly think Zadie Smith tried to do too much with one novel and moved back and forth in time too many times. It was confusing. My review.

Don's rating: 3 stars. Zadie Smith read the audiobook, and though she did quite well with the Scottish accent, it didn't translate well to his ears above the car noise. He admits he gave up trying to keep all the details of the book straight after a while.

12 hours, 26 minutes. Read by the author.

Listen to a sample. 

Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Moonflower Murders is the second book in the Susan Ryland series by Horowitz. Don and I listened to the first book, Magpie Murders, a few years ago and enjoyed it a lot. Moonflower Murders was very similar to the form used in the first which involved a book within the book.

My rating: 3 stars. I didn't connect with any of the characters and the plot just didn't add up for me.

Don's rating: 4 stars. Having met Susan Ryland in the past book, he was glad to "meet her again." The book within the book was better this time because he understood what was happening and it didn't jump from present to the book and back, which was confusing about the first part in the series.

18 hours, 29 minutes. Read by Lesley Manville and Allan Corduner.

Listen to a sample.

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

A novel of the American Civil War and the Battle of Gettysburg and the days leading up to it. The story is character-driven and told from the perspective of historical figures from both the Union and the Confederate side. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1975 and a filmed titled "Gettysburg" was made from it. My review.

My rating: 5 stars. Even though I know how this battle works out I still was hanging on every word, eager to get back to the book each time after we had to take a break. I learned so much, too.

Don's rating: 5 stars. He's visited Gettysburg three times and has a military background. We had to stop the book often to allow him to expand on aspects of the battle or to describe the terrain. He was very moved.

13 hours, 45 minutes. Read by Stephen Hoye.

Listen to a sample.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

In a small village in Ireland in 1985, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant, makes a discovery that causes him to confront is past and the complicit silences of town's people due to the church's influence. It is touching Christmas novella.

We both rated the story: 4 stars.

1 hour, 57 minutes. Read by Aidan Kelly.

Listen to a sample.

Sweet Thunder by Ivan Doig

Morrie Morgan returns to Butte, Montana in this third book in the series. This time Morrie is asked to serve the miner's union by writing editorials about their cause for a new newspaper, The Thunder.

My rating: 4 stars.  I absolutely LOVE Morrie Morgan as a character and Ivan Doig as a writer. I probably should rate this book with a 5, but I keep comparing it to the first book in the series, The Whistling Season, and I love that book more. Ha!

Don's rating: 5 stars. He's an even bigger Doig fan than I am. Don is a strong supporter of unions and of freedom of the press, so this book spoke to him on this level, too.

11 hours, 11 minutes. Read by Jonathan Hogan.

Listen to a sample.

-Anne

Review and discussion questions for: THE RABBIT HUTCH by Tess Gunty

This month's book club selection was Tess Gunty's National Book Award winning novel The Rabbit Hutch. It was a unanimous choice at first but then as women started reading the book a few balked, thinking the book was too difficult and contained too many trigger topics. We decided to go ahead with our choice and, boy, am I glad we did.

The Rabbit Hutch weaves together the daily dramas of tenants in a run-down apartment complex in a run-down fictitious town named Vacca Vale, Indiana. The builders, trying to give the apartment complex an air of sophistication named it 'La Lapinière', but the residents just called it the Rabbit Hutch. (Lapinière is the French word for rabbit hutch.) We all are familiar with rabbit hutches but it is odd to think of humans living in one where "walls are so thin, you can hear everyone's lives progress like a radio play." The tenants are all living down-and-out lives in their down-and-out apartments in the #1 Dying City in America. "Set over one sweltering week in July and culminating in a bizarre act of violence that finally changes everything, The Rabbit Hutch is a savagely beautiful and bitingly funny snapshot of contemporary America, a gorgeous and provocative tale of loneliness and longing, entrapment and, ultimately, freedom" (Publisher).

As I read and listened to The Rabbit Hutch I couldn't help but think of the book Lolita by Nabokov. I've always thought of that classic book as the most beautifully written book about a depraved topic. The Rabbit Hutch is stuffed full of trigger worthy topics and themes: child abandonment, the foster care system and shortcomings, sexual abuse of a minors and predator behavior, animal sacrifices, poverty and loneliness. Think of a depraved topic, it is probably addressed in this book. But the writing is brilliant. BRILLIANT! Like Nabokov, Gunty has a beautiful command of the English language and inserts phrases and quips throughout the story which would catch me up so I'd have to stop and think about what was said and the deeper meaning. One gal at book club said the book made her think about herself and her life choices in the face of encountering similar problems with students and neighbors. A book is a wonderful thing if it causes us to stop and change directions toward a more positive future. All this depravity is broken up by humorous situations, which I suppose what made the book bearable.

I am not getting anywhere near to a good summary of the book. I hope you take the chance to read its review in the New York Times. Also take a minute to read the interview Gunty did with the editorial staff at Waterstone, an online magazine. The Rabbit Hutch won the first Waterstone Debut Fiction Award. Both of these sources helped fill out my appreciation of the book.

Now to our book club discussion. The publisher provided no discussion questions and the ones we were able to find online were very basic. I wrote several questions to augment what others were able to find and we ended up having a very robust discussion. To be clear, two of us loved the book, two hated the book, and the rest fell somewhere in the middle. Afterwards all admitted that we had a fantastic discussion, even those who didn't like the book. So don't be afraid to pick this book for your future club meetings.

The Rabbit Hutch Discussion Questions 

(Spoiler alert: Some details of the book will be revealed in the questions.)

1. What did you think was revealed in the opening lines of the book  “On a hot night in Apartment C4, Blandine Watkins exits her body. She is only 18 years old, but she has spent most of her life wishing for this to happen.” And how did this affect your feelings about the book going forward?
2. Why do you think Blandine, the 18-year-old, former foster care 'graduate', is obsessed with Catholic mystics even though she was not religious?
3. Blandine never left Vacca Vale but her whole life she felt like an outsider. How does this happen? Have you ever known anyone in a similar situation? (Our group is made up of teachers, so we could reflect back on past students.)
4. Talk about the characters: Blandine, Moses, Elsie, Joan, Todd/Malik/Jack, James, others. 
5. The theme of "home" is a recurring one. Give some examples of how the characters felt about home.
6. What aspect of "dying cities" have you been aware of where you live? What signs of resurgence?
7. The book highlights how often there is a lack of societal responsibility by its members. Discuss examples of this from the book and in your own community/life.
8. What aspects of the book did you find funny/humorous? (You might need to prompt the group with some you've thought of before the meeting. We found so many funny aspects but of course they were hidden in some awful circumstances. It took us a while to come up with some and then the flood gate was open and we couldn't stop finding new humorous quotes/quips/situations.)
9. How did you react to the chapter of visual illustrations? Did it help you understand the unfolding scene better or not?
10. Todd, Jack, and Malik start sacrificing animals at some point. How does this come to pass and why did they continue it?
11. Late in the book Jack's chapters are written in 1st person. Why do you think the author switched that point-of-view and gave Jack a front row seat? Did you notice it? How did it impact the story?
12. What are your favorite quotes/quips? Here are a few of my favorites:
• "Her voice sounded like a communion wafer -- tasteless and light."
• "He wears his testosterone like a strong cologne."
• "You couldn't go anywhere in this town without bumping into God."
• "It takes Blandine a long time to respond, and when she does, the words seem laborius for her. She lugs them in to the room as though they're pieces of furniture."
13. On the last page of the book Joan wonders what comments people would make to fill the obituary guest book if Blandine died. What comments do you think people would make and who are these people? 
14. What is your reaction to the last few lines of the book summed up as, "I'm awake. Are you?"
15. What growth/positive movement did the characters make by the end of the book?

★Feel free to use these discussion questions for your book club discussion. If you publish the questions for your members or in any other publication, please give me credit. Thank you, Anne@HeadFullofBooks

-Anne

Review: THE COVENANT OF WATER

Title: The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

Beginning quote:

1900, Travancore, South India

She is twelve years old, and she will be married in the morning. Mother and daughter lie on the mat, their wet cheeks glued together.

"The saddest day of a girl's life is the day of her wedding," her mother says. "After that, God willing, it gets better."

Friday56 quote (or from some page):

“Ammachi, when I come to the end of a book and I look up, just four days have passed. But in that time I’ve lived through three generations and learned more about the world and about myself than I do during a year in school. Ahab, Queequeg, Ophelia, and other characters die on the page so that we might live better lives.”

Summary: The Covenant of Water is an epic story following three generations (1900-1977) in Kerala on India's Malabar (Southern) Coast. The family has a secret, a peculiar affliction -- at least one person per generation has died by drowning. This is a problem not only because of untimely deaths but because water is everywhere in the region of India. The family is part of a community known as Thomas Christians, said to be founded by the Apostle Thomas back in the first century CE. The story begins when the woman who becomes Big Ammachi (Big Mother) moves to Kerala when she is but twelve-years-old to marry a widower trice her age. His first wife drowned. She is a witness to unthinkable changes in her family and her country over the span of her life. Many of those changes relate to medicine and patient care. Is there a cure for what ails this family?

Review: The headline in the Washington Post review for The Covenant of Water reads: "Oprah chose well. The Covenant of Water is a rich heartfelt novel." I agree. In fact, The Covenant of Water has everything I like in a book: a detailed plot -- in this case one which covers three generations of a family and many/many side characters; characters who are fully fleshed out, not one-dimensional beings; a theme which is very evident throughout the whole text; literary quotes and thoughts interspersed throughout; an author who treats his readers as intelligent and knowledgeable -- in this case about medical and genetic issues; AND, this may not surprise you, one which clearly has a very spiritual, often scriptural, message.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Verghese himself. This was a rare treat because I got to listen to his beautiful India accent but also learned how to pronounce previously unknown words and locations to me. The 30+ hours of listening made me feel like I had practically moved to India and more specifically to Parambil, the family estate, built as far away from the nearby river as it could be for fear of the water.

Abraham Verghese is novelist (“Cutting for Stone”), doctor and professor of medicine — introduces his enormous new novel, “The Covenant of Water,” with a personal note to advance readers: His late mother, Mariam, “was an incredible storyteller” who “wrote a forty-page manuscript” in response to a grandchild’s query about her life. “In this novel,” Verghese declares, “I draw on some of those stories.” He dedicates the book — 10 years in the making — to his mother. (WaPo)

Verghese draws on his own life and his knowledge of medicine to enhance and enrich this book. It is masterfully written, a story in which one can get lost for days...and I did! At book club each member was asked if what she thought of the book. One member, Becky, told the group that she loved the book so much, she didn't want it to end. And that is saying a lot since the book is 724 pages long! 

-Anne

Review: THE LAND OF LOST THINGS

Title: The Land of Lost Things by John Connolly

Opening quote: 

Twice upon a time - for that is how some stories continue - there was a mother whose daughter was stolen from her.

Friday56 quote:

You can destroy a book. You can burn it, you can tear it to pieces and scatter them to the four winds, you can soak it until it reverts to pulp or the ink turns the water black, but you can’t destroy the contents of the book, or the idea of the book, not as long as there are those who care, who remember… Who read. Neither can you destroy stories, not unless you destroy people—and some have tried.

Summary:

Phoebe, an eight-year-old girl, lies comatose following a car accident. She is a body without a spirit, a stolen child. Ceres, her mother, can only sit by her bedside and read aloud to Phoebe the fairy stories she loves in the hope they might summon her back to this world.

Now an old house on the hospital grounds, a property connected to a book written by a vanished author, is calling to Ceres. Something wants her to enter, and to journey - to a land coloured by the memories of Ceres's childhood, and the folklore beloved of her father, to a land of witches and dryads, giants and mandrakes; to a land where old enemies are watching, and waiting. (Publisher)

Review: This book is the sequel to one of my most favorite books of a decade ago, The Book of Lost Things. I was so, so wrapped up in that story, clearly living inside the world where everything was different and warped.

I didn't even know that I needed a sequel. The Land of Lost Things is a darker version of the first story where some pretty horrifying things happen and yet, the same kernel is there...the importance of our STORY. The opening quote sets the stage nicely for a sequel, don't you think? And the Friday56 quote, which isn't actually from page 56, sets the stage for the importance of books and owning our own story. 

It is a clever but dark book, published over fifteen years after the first book in the series. I enjoyed it a lot but wished I had reviewed the original. Too much time had elapsed and I forgot many of the details. Here is my short review of The Book of Lost Things.

-Anne

Review and quotes: THE HEAVEN AND EARTH GROCERY STORE

Title: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

Book Beginnings quote:

There was an old Jew who lived at the site of the old synagogue up on Chicken Hill in the town of Pottstown, Pa., and when Pennsylvania State Troopers found the skeleton at the bottom of an old well off Hayes Street, the old Jew's house was the first place they went to.

Friday56 quote: 

Moshe happily complied. He attributed her improvement to the arrival of Malachi, who insisted on dropping by the theater every day to deliver a loaf of his challah for Moshe to carry home to his wife. "This will be part of your wife's healing," he said proudly.

Summary:

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows.

As these characters' stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins struggle and what they must do to survive at the margins of white Christian America and how damaging bigotry, hypocrisy, and deceit can be to a community. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town's white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community--heaven and earth--that sustain us. (Publisher)

Review:

Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived and where Chona ran the Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. The year was 1925. The store served the neighborhood's quirky collection of Blacks and European immigrants. They were Jewish. Chona's husband, Moshe, a Romanian-born theater owner integrated the town's first dance hall. When the state came looking for a deaf Black child, claiming he needed to be institutionalized, the community sought the help of the Ludlows in keeping the child safe. Nate and Addie Timblin were the child's guardians and both worked for the Ludlows in some capacity. Could the Ludlows hide the child for a short time while the inspectors were snooping around? So begins the backstory that leads to the mystery presented at the beginning of the book. Who was the skeleton in the well? What did it have to do with the old Jew living nearby?

I bet Book Club will have a lively discussion with this book.

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. First Line Friday is hosted by Reading is My Super Power. Share the opening quote from current book.The Friday56 is hosted at Freda's Voice.  Find a quote from page 56 to share. Visit these two websites to participate. Click on links to read quotes from books other people are reading. It is a great way to make blog friends and to get suggestions for new reading material. 

-Anne

Review and quotes: THE LONELIEST POLAR BEAR

Title: The Loneliest Polar Bear: A True Story of Survival and Peril on the Edge of a Warming World by Kale Williams

Book Beginnings quote: 

Abandoned: She weighed scarcely more than a pound, roughly the size of a squirrel. Her eyes and ears are fused shut. Her only sense of the world around her came from smell, and her nose led her in one direction: toward the gravity and heat of her mother, a six-hundred-pound polar bear named Aurora.

Friday56 quote:

Until the winter of 1918, when death came to Wales on a dogsled.

Summary: 

The heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful story of an abandoned polar bear cub named Nora and the humans working tirelessly to save her and her species, whose uncertain future in the accelerating climate crisis is closely tied to our own.

Six days after giving birth, a polar bear named Aurora got up and left her den at the Columbus Zoo, leaving her tiny, squealing cub to fend for herself. Zookeepers entrusted with her care felt they had no choice: They would have to raise one of the most dangerous predators in the world themselves, by hand. Over the next few weeks, a group of veterinarians and zookeepers would work around the clock to save the cub, whom they called Nora.

Three decades before Nora's birth, her father, Nanuq, was orphaned when an Inupiat hunter killed his mother, leaving Nanuq to be sent to a zoo. That hunter, Gene Agnaboogok, now faces some of the same threats as the wild bears near his Alaskan village of Wales, on the westernmost tip of the North American continent. As sea ice diminishes and temperatures creep up year-after-year, Gene and the polar bears--and everyone and everything else living in the far north--are being forced to adapt. Not all of them will succeed.

The Loneliest Polar Bear explores the fraught relationship humans have with the natural world, the exploitative and sinister causes of the environmental mess we find ourselves in, and how the fate of polar bears is not theirs alone. (Publisher)

Review: I honestly only read this book because it was a book club selection but I found it to be a very compelling and alarming account of what is happening in our world due to our climate crisis. The story of Nora, the abandoned polar bear, and her survival is the hook to pull the other details along. Her story is interspersed with information of what is happening in the arctic area where polar bears live and the historic home of the Inupiat people whose traditional way of life is also in peril. Author Kale Williams, a Oregon journalist looks at the history of climate change, with an eye to what is happening in Alaska.

Initially I liked Nora's story but found the information about our climate crisis to be a bit heavy handed and I often felt scolded. But as I read on it became apparent to me that Kale Williams was actually doing a masterful job of consolidating a lot of points of information into a cohesive story of how we got to where we are today with our climate crisis. The book isn't very long, just a bit over 200 pages so it quite digestible. I know we will have a good discussion during book club, too. 

Polar bears make good ambassadors to make us care about what is happening to their territory and our world. I've fallen in love with Nora and want to go visit her in the Oregon Zoo in Portland! See her in action below.

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. First Line Friday is hosted by Reading is My Super Power. Share the opening quote from current book.The Friday56 is hosted at Freda's Voice.  Find a quote from page 56 to share. Visit these two websites to participate. Click on links to read quotes from books other people are reading. It is a great way to make blog friends and to get suggestions for new reading material.

A SOTH Book Club selection for September, 2023.

-Anne