August, 2020, Reading: "That August time it was delight / To watch the red moons wane to white." A. Charles Swinburne

Got a ton of good books to choose from--and, apparently, the latest David Mitchell book is winging my way (an inter-library loan).

That one goes right to the top of the TBR pile as soon as it arrives.

Currently revisiting Swann's Way. I read it, and the In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower eons ago in a Castilian version of Spanish. The translations were poor and the long sentences were an ordeal but I was very intrigued. Didn't think the long sentences would work in audiobook but actually they do, I think reading them out loud clarifies them. Plus you can always let your mind wander if a section doesn't interest you. The English they use doesn't strike me as regional. The book itself is both elegant and weird.

Work Song– Ivan Doig
4****

Morrie Morgan has arrived in Butte, Montana just after the end of World War I. Morrie is “an itinerant teacher, walking encyclopedia, and inveterate charmer” who’s been attracted by news of “the richest hill on earth” and a need to get as far from Chicago as possible. While he lands a position at the local library, he’s also soon immersed in the miners’ struggles to form a union and fight for better working conditions and fair wages.

What a charming and engaging story! Per the book jacket, Morgan first appeared in Doig’s The Whistling Season; I have not read that earlier work and didn’t feel I was missing any information to understand Morrie and follow this story.

The pace is somewhat slow. As events unfold we learn about the residents of Butte – Sandison (former cattle baron, and still an acknowledged “big man” in town), Grace (Morrie’s young, pretty, widowed landlady), Griff & Hoop (two old miners who share the boarding house with Morrie), Barbara aka Rabrab (Morrie’s former student, now teaching 6th grade), Jared (a young union organizer, and engaged to Rabrab), and Russian Famine (a waif of a boy who needs guidance). The town, itself, is practically a character with its small café, prolonged Irish wakes, boisterous bar, festival celebration, and church gatherings.

I liked Morrie’s slow, deliberate way of judging the situation. The bookworm in me loved all his literary references, and his ability to cite an appropriate passage, seemingly plucked out of thin air. Make no mistake, he’s no milquetoast librarian; Morrie can (and does) take care of himself, though he’s decidedly uncomfortable with firearms.

Grace is a marvelous strong woman. Principled, kind, compassionate, feisty, courageous and conflicted. Doig’s skill at character building shows in the way her actions reveal her inner struggles.

I need to go back and read The Whistling Season … heck, I need to read ALL of Ivan Doig’s works.

Finished Paul Tremblay's SURVIVOR SONG.

Must stop reading virus/pandemic/end of the world literature, it's not great for peace of mind.

At least Tremblay's book has a beating heart at its core, a tale of humanity and friendship in response to extreme conditions.

Engaging summer read.

Larry Brown's THE RABBIT FACTORY.

Interlocking stories, featuring a recurring cast, set in Tennessee and Mississippi.

Brown is especially adept at portraying the motivations and mindsets of people acting out of loneliness and desperation.

Heart-breaking and wise.

Something Fresh – P G Wodehouse
Digital audiobook performed by Jonathan Cecil.
3***

Book One in the Blandings Castle series, featuring the elderly Lord Emsworth, his son Hon. Freddie Threepwood, and his trusty secretary, Baxter. The basic plot involves Lord E’s neighbor, the wealth American, Mr Peters, and his prize collection of scarabs. Ashe Marson is a writer of a popular mystery/adventure series, who is in need of inspiration – and funds. Joan Valentine is Marson’s lovely neighbor – a young woman who is struggling to find herself and soon takes a “position’ as lady’s maid to her old school chum, Aline Peters (daughter of Mr Peters, and engaged to Hon. Freddie T.)

Wodehouse excels are writing ridiculously plotted societal comedies that poke fun at the aristocracy and just about everyone else as well. There are unlikely disguises, attempts at hiding identities, and a variety of funny missteps along the way. Of course, true love will win out and everyone will be happy in the end.

I had grown tired of the Jeeves series and stopped reading Wodehouse, but I’m glad I gave the author another try. This was a delightful romp and crime caper/comedy. Just great fun to read … or listen to.

Johnathan Cecil does a fine job performing the audiobook. He has a lot of characters to deal with and is up to the task. I particularly like the way he voices Lord Emsworth, the Hon Freddie, and the blustery Mr Peters.

>2 mejix:, I'm going to try Proust next year, English translation in book form. I like to linger over things, I think I'd find audio too rushed for my preference.

UTOPIA AVENUE by David Mitchell.

Zipped through this baby as soon as I picked it up from the library.

I would almost call this the most un-David Mitchell type book David Mitchell has published to date.

Biographical account of fictitious 1960s band that makes a splash, then falls from grace with the gods of music.

Impressive in places, nice dose of atmosphere...but the author never seemed to take it to another level. There are too many conventional scenes and exchanges.

A good novel, not a great one.

Which makes it minor Mitchell.

Wish I could do that. Let us know how you liked it!

Woof! Not many posts on this thread this month.

Folks must be enjoying their backyards and cabins (don't you take books along?).

Just finished Paul Tremblay's HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS.

I would call it a loving (and knowledgable) homage to the various possession/exorcist-related books and movies. The man clearly knows his stuff.

I don't tend to post that often as to be frank the depth of reading achieved by some folk in this group does intimidate me a bit. I would call myself an intelligent 'middling' sort of reader with quite wide tastes so I'll leap in here.

As a fan of 19th C literature and in line with choices on another LT thread I am currently re-reading Martin Chuzzlewit. I have been a Dickens fan for most of my life but am happy to admit that this is not his best. He uses his characters to illustrate particular characteristics such as selfishness and hypocrisy, but in a rather heavy handed way. I do love the comic characters however such as Pecksniff and Mrs Gamp and I love immersing myself in his sprawling, dirty, noisy London.

Reading it again I am awestruck(and not in a good way) by his almost wholesale negative views on the U.S.A. He was lionised when he visited and treated with the greatest generosity. In return he caricatures an entire nation, fails to see the positive differences between the old world and the new
and criticizes American materialism as if England was free of the money taint.

My guess would be that this does not top the Dickens reading list for American students.

One last book for August, THE LIGHT OF FALLING STARS, by J. Robert Lennon.

Nice slice of Americana.

Commuter plane crashes in the woods near Marshall, Montana, inspiring or setting in motion a series of epiphanies and transformations among the local citizens.

Engaging cast of various ages, the tale convincingly told.

Finished reading A Distant Mirror in August, hadn't read Barbara Tuchman before. Excellent overview of the 13th century in Europe, mostly examining the latter half (Black Plague, Hundred Years War, etc.).

>11 Maura49:, MC isn't among my favourite Dickens, but it features one of his nastiest villains, at least in terms of getting under my skin.

>13 Cecrow: A Distant Mirror was also my first Tuchman, way back in college when I was really getting into medival history. Indeed an excellent overview; reread it again not to long ago and still enjoyable and informative. I have read most of her work but somehow I missed proud tower about the decades just before WWI. Liking it but she does go on abit too much with English politics.
but like how she is busting the myth of the Belle Epoca. Also interesting that this was in the days of the anarchists, that at first just wanted to solve the huge gap between the rich and the otherwise,and ultimately chose violence when no one was listening. The more things change the more things stay the same, it seems