Book Talk – June 9th, 2024

Great to see everyone at the June Book Lovers SIG.  Regulars Linda, Peggy, and Beth rounded out the group.  Christina couldn’t make it, but did send in her list.

In all, 46 books were read/discussed/reviewed.  The full list can be found here:

https://mamensa.org/category/book-lovers-sig-book-talks/

Book Lovers SIG always meets the second Sunday of each month; in this case July 14.  We meet online using Zoom, so it is easy to join in.  Folks generally start checking in around 2 pm for a bit of socialization.  Book Talk discussions begin around 2:30 pm, more or less, or when Peggy says, “OK, Let’s talk about books!”.

To join us on Zoom, simply click on the link shown below:

https://tinyurl.com/BookLoversSIG

You can also open your Zoom app and use these parameters:

Meeting ID: 946 0436 4344
Passcode: 844358

Book Lovers SIG is yet another way for members who do not live in large metropolitan areas or who can’t make it to local events to get more out of their Mensa membership.  We don’t assign books; we just talk about what we’ve been reading lately.  Even if you haven’t had time to read this month, join us anyway.  Maybe you’ll hear about something that interests you; happens to me all the time!

*****

Peggy

The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson.  Not my favorite of his books, but a look at the 6 months after Lincoln’s election, focused on the battle for Fort Sumter.  Not just Lincoln, Buchanan, Stanton and Davis, but lesser known figures like a British journalist, a Southern society woman, and a young private stuck in the fort provide dispatches, diary entries, and letters to fill out the story.

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson.  After WWI, opportunities for women are closing up again and the main character, who ran an estate during the war, is reduced to serving as a companion to an elderly lady at a seaside hotel.  But the woman who runs the motorcycle club and flying her brother soon turn up to enliven things.  A little mystery, a little romance.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley.  A sci-fi novel where a British intelligence agency uses a new device to bring forward in time people who died in earlier eras — the Great Plague, WWI, and for the main character, a 1840s Arctic expedition non-survivor.  Our narrator, the unnamed “bridge”, is the minder for “1846” and together they find out what the project is really trying to accomplish.  A meditation on bureaucracy, food, and cigarettes.

Lost Birds by Anne Hillerman.  Another Leaphorn and Chee novel that explores the midcentury Indian Adoption Project, where Native American kids were adopted by white families and separated from tribal communities.  Definitely not a hard-boiled mystery but a great sense of place.

Death of a Master Chef (Kommissar Dupin #9) by Jean-Luc Bannalec.  One of my favorite mystery subgenres, the French culinary mystery.  Commissaire George Duplin is sent to the port town of Saint-Malo to attend a management conference but luckily stumbles across a woman killing her sister, a fellow chef, and is asked to investigate with fellow attendees.  With the murderer in custody, more murders are committed.  There’s even pirate treasure!  But, not to worry, even with the detection, there are wonderful meals every night.

The Comfort of Ghosts (Maisie Dobbs #18) by Jacqueline Winspear.  The final book in a mystery series that started in 2003.  We’ve started in WWI and are now open to 1945.  Lots of wrapping up of loose ends but not much of a mystery.

Beth

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly.  A young boy loses his mother to illness (unspecified) in 1939 and hides in his dreams.  The dream world becomes real as he learns to take agency and make real decisions (involving life and death, choosing companions, and facing his fears) that he felt were out of his reach in the real world.

The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss.  A mashup of 19th century stories in London: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Sherlock Holmes, Frankenstein, and Jack the Ripper, told from the perspective of the women who were caught in the web of the wild schemes of bad actors.  The women band together to set the world to rights.

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff.   Set in colonial America, a teenage girl servant escapes her plague filled compound and runs away into the woods, looking for the almost mystical Frenchmen where life will be good.  Totally could be a story of something that actually happened.

The Language of Ghosts by Heather Fawcett.  There are two sides to this palace coup, and it isn’t clear, even at the end who the good guy is.  Lots of magic is involved in getting the best magical weapons to win the coup and counter-coup.  Lots of disposable people, and not everyone grows up or is redeemed.  Not as good as her other books.

The Four Horsemen: The Conversation that Sparked the Atheist Revolution by Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett.  A transcript of a dinner conversation from 2007 between the 4 main authors about religion and its fallacies.  It has some very interesting thoughts about how religion has hijacked the patriarchy, but the hierarchy still stands.

Provenance by Ann Leckie.  Set in the same universe as Translation State.  A political and social thriller with lots of turns and twists.  It was hard to keep track of the politics, but interesting as I kept trying to figure it out.  It was the spider mechs that were the most fascinating characters.  Being somewhat undefined, they can do anything the story requires.  Some beings learn to say “Sorry”.  That could change everything and leads to reading the rest of the books.

Black Sheep by Peter Sims.  A story of the Black Sheep “Organization” by one of the founders.  Peter Sims was a high-powered venture capitalist until it burned him out.  He found himself seeking out people with an artistic bent that would value creativity, collaboration, and story-telling in contrast to the constant chasing of success (defined as money and status).  He was cofounder of Giving Tuesday and the Black Sheep Tour.

Linda

How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr.  Much historical evidence that the USA is indeed an empire. 4*
In Ascension by Martin MacInnes.  Sci-Fi. About algae, ocean trenches and interstellar travel.  A bit all over the place.  Multiple plot threads left hanging.  3*
Three-Inch Teeth by C.J. Box   Latest in the Joe Pickett series.  Wyoming game warden solves crimes. 4*
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett.  Family drama with a wicked stepmother. 4*
All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby.  Black sheriff investigating a murder in a small Southern town. 4*
The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club #2) by Richard Osman. 4*
The Hunter by Tana French.  Sequel to her book The Searcher.  Retired American cop works on crimes in small Irish town. 4*
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.  Female chemist becomes cooking show host.  A delightful character. 5*
Absolution by Alice McDermott.  Women living in Saigon in the early 60s as dependent of diplomats and businessmen get involved in local philanthropy that seems legally sketchy.  Some subplots not fully developed. 4*

Brad

Made to Be Broken (D.I. Hannah Robbins #2) by Rebecca Bradley.  The plot is inspired (I believe) by the Tylenol poisoning murders some years ago.  In this story a bereaved father blames a large pharmaceutical company for the death of his only daughter.  He plans to destroy the corporation by poisoning various products.  The only problem is, the police won’t cooperate by releasing details of the poison he is using.  Which makes him even more furious, tainting even more grocery store products, killing even more people.  Panic ensues.  Thank goodness D.I. Robbins and her crack squad figures things out in the end.  I am starting to enjoy this series. ****

Beartown by Fredrik Backman.  I read Us Against You last month, not realizing it was the second of the three-book series.  So of course I had to go back and read the first book, Beartown.

This is the story of a small town, an isolated town, located in a forest far from any city.  They might lose their factory, and jobs are disappearing.  About all they have left is their junior hockey team, a group of young lads that has grown up together playing hockey.  And they are good.  Good enough to maybe even win the national championship.  But right before the big game their star player, the young man the whole town looks up to, rapes the daughter of the hockey team’s general manager.  And they lose the match.  Fingers are pointed.  Clearly, she wanted it.  The town turns on itself, and the young girl’s family.

Backman excels at character development.  I strongly recommend this series for his writing. *****

Falling by T.J. Newman.  Newman is a former flight stewardess turned author; this is her first book, which, believe it or not, debuted at number two on the New York Times bestseller list.  As the saying goes, soon to be a major motion picture.  Great writing it ain’t, but it is a griping story.   A commercial pilot is flying cross-country to the east coast.  He receives a text from his wife’s phone – she and his children have been kidnapped by a terrorist organization.  He has two choices – let his family die, or deliberately crash the plan and kill all on board.  Once the story gets started it doesn’t let up.  At a certain point though it becomes more like an action movie script than a novel.  Which of course is why it was sold to Universal Pictures.  *** 1/2

Boundary Waters (Cork O’Connor #2) by William Kent Krueger.  I love this series.  I only wish there wasn’t such a long wait list at the library for each book.   As with Backman, Krueger excels at character development.

The story is pretty basic.  A country-western singer disappears (willingly) in the Iron Lake region of Minnesota.  A desperate father comes looking for her, and hires former sheriff Cork O’Connor to help find her.  Well.  Plenty of bad guys and betrayals, plus an excellent twist at the end. *****

The Winners (Beartown #3) by Fredrik Backman.  First, 671 pages?  It didn’t need to be this long.  It’s almost as if Backman just kept writing, hoping to find an ending.  When he couldn’t, he went back and inserted a couple of characters into the story so that he could have an ending, which I found contrived.  *** 1/2

Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Fiction (2022).

Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis’ Fortress Prison by Ben Macintyre.  Nonfiction.  Excellent research.

Colditz was designed as the most secure prison imaginable, to hold some of the greatest escape artists of World War II.  If you were a troublemaker, someone who repeated escaped from other camps, you were sent to Colditz.  The great thing about this book is that Macintyre doesn’t paint a Hollywood picture of what went on; he describes the men and their situation as it was.  What I found interesting was the class system that existed within the prison.  Prisoner or not, the English captives maintained their class system within Colditz.  Officers had servants, who not only had to follow German orders, but officer orders as well.  Other nations were also represented.  Polish officers were the first residents, followed by British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealanders, Dutch, Belgian, and French.  And of course Americans.

Another fascinating story within the story was about MI9 and Christopher Clayton Hutton, the brilliant inventor employed by British intelligence to manufacture escape aids for POWs, from maps hidden in playing cards to a compass secreted inside a walnut.  He was the inspiration for Q in the James Bond series.  AND!!! The actor that played Q in the Bond films, Desmond Llewelyn, was a prisoner in Colditz!  Talk about art imitating life.  Unbelievable.  Highly recommended.  *****

Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best History & Biography (2022).

Fighting Monsters (D.I. Hannah Robbins #3) by Rebecca Bradley.

24 hours after he walked away from court a free man, cop killer and gang leader Simon Talbot is found murdered. In his possession; the name of a protected witness from his trial, one of two witnesses to the crime.  Both under witness protection.  And both now murdered.  How could this be?  Was there a traitor in the department?  Man, lots of good suspense in this one.  Best book in the series so far.  ****

Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett.  I remember this as an excellent movie, but had no idea it was originally a book, let alone the very first book written by Ken Follett.  Written in three weeks no less!  Turns out this is the 40^th anniversary edition.  Man how time flies.  A ripping good yarn about an extraordinarily intelligent German spy who had discovered that Patton’s Third Army was a fake, and that the D-Day was not planned for Calais.  But could “die Nadel” get this information back to Hitler in time to thwart the Allied invasion plans?  Recommended.  *****

Christina

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong. Truly a revelatory read about the vast diversity of how animals experience the world and the lessons we can take from this.  Highly accessible without being condescending.  Read for Stranger Than Fiction.

Star Wars, Vol. 1: The Destiny Path by Charles Soule et al.  First in a comic book series that picks up where The Empire Strikes Back ends.  As someone who loved the original trilogy and is somewhat bemused by all the Star Wars content that has been created since, I found this supremely comforting, cheesy dialogue and all. I will be reading more.  Read for Mysterious MAYhem.

The Fury by Alex Michaelides.  I feel like Michaelides really, really, really wanted this to be the next Glass Onion.  It really, really, really is not.  I was pleased to see him try to put a sort of Deathtrap or Sleuth spin on it, but ultimately it did not work and the whole thing was just a sorry mess.  It also spoils The Silent Patient, but so did the beginning of The Silent Patient.  Read for the Mysterious MAYhem prompt to read a book with a character who uses an alias.

Unsolved by Heather Critchlow.  This Scotland-set mystery follows a true crime podcaster who is still struggling emotionally with the disappearance of his older sister when he was a young child as he searches for the truth for the families of other missing people.  In this case, he’s trying to find out what happened to a young woman who went for a horseback ride and never returned.  Solid debut novel, and I will likely read more in this series.  Read for Mysterious MAYhem.

Love Debugged by C.C. Washington.  The subtitle claims this is an enemies-to-lovers romance.  It is very much not.  It’s an employer-employee smut piece with a bunch of computer technobabble masquerading as a corporate espionage plot.  Read for Mysterious MAYhem.

Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson.  My education in the Classics is a little too sketchy for me to properly appreciate this poetic story following one of the characters from the labors of Heracles.  I will probably revisit this after some background reading, and I think I will do better reading along to the narration instead of doing just text or audio.  Read for my local library’s queer book club.

Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina.  This debut novel is a coming-of-age story and a mystery with horror elements.  It’s set on the fictional Takoda tribe’s reservation in the Southern U.S.  Women have been disappearing and the tribe itself has been struggling with its cultural identity ever since the casino opened.  When the protagonist’s younger sister disappears, she is determined to find her, despite the monster stalking her.  Though I found certain plot elements not integrated well into the story and thought the timeline jumps were needlessly confusing, I really enjoyed Medina’s prose and characters.  I’ll watch for more from him.  Read for Literally Dead Book Club.

Chlorine by Jade Song.  A highly disturbing story of a young competitive swimmer obsessed with the idea that she’s really a mermaid.  Lots of strong thematic elements about perfectionism and fitting in but be prepared for a great deal of body horror.  Read for the F***ed-Up Book Club.

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz.  Newbery-winning collection of monologues and dialogues of medieval youngsters.  The idea is to provide enough speaking parts for an entire classroom and share an idea of daily life in a medieval village.  Interesting and entertaining.  Read for GenreLand’s Medieval Times theme.

Mini Mind Controllers: Fungi, Bacteria, and Other Tiny Zombie Makers by Joan Axelrod-Contrada.  The audiobook sounded like it was the soundtrack to a children’s picture book.  It was informative, but the format was distracting.  If you have kiddos into creepy crawlies, they’d probably appreciate the picture book.  If, like me, you are not fond of images of creepy crawlies but find the concepts interesting, you’re probably better served googling articles.  Read for Zombiethon.

The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste.  A Caribbean-set YA horror novel inspired by the Haitian folk tales about jumbies.  Atmospheric and suspenseful, with strong themes of community and family.  Read for the Mysterious MAYhem prompt to read a book with a trickster character.

Z Is for Zombie: An Illustrated Guide to the End of the World by Adam-Troy Castro, illustrated by Johnny Atomic.  Amusing alphabet primer covering various tropes found in zombie stories.  Read for Zombiethon and the Mysterious MAYhem prompt to read a book with an undead character.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin.  Magical boy goes to magical school and almost destroys the world because he’s kind of a dumbass, then flees the terror he has unleashed, leading it on a merry chase all over the world, leaving chaos in his wake, until he finally confronts his own dumbassery.  Reasonably entertaining, though.  Read for the Mysterious MAYhem prompt to read a book with a map.

Diavola by Jennifer Thorne.  Hell is family vacation.  Literally.  This book isn’t perfect, but I had a lot of fun reading it.  The ending is divisive, but I loved it.  Read for an online thriller/horror book club.

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, illustrated by John Schoenherr.  Beautifully poetic story of a father-daughter owling outing, beautifully illustrated.  Read for the Roll Your Next Read prompt to read an owl book.

Quacko and the Elps by Robert Froman, illustrated by Jean Macdonald Porter.  One of my childhood favorites, this the story of Quacko the dolphin and his encounters with humans, which he calls “elps” because they yell, “Elp!” a lot.  Sixty years old but it holds up remarkably well.  I’d recommend it as an elementary school introduction to some of the concepts in An Immense World.  Read for GenreLand’s Cephalopods and Cetaceans theme.