What are you reading the week of March 30, 2024?

I believe things have finally turned around for me. I read Fletcher Knebel's Night of Camp David. The premise was intriguing. A young US senator is convinced that the President of the United States has become mentally unbalanced. The symptoms presented in the text resemble a manic phase of bipolar disorder coupled with paranoia. Written in 1965, the book is dated and sometimes cringe inducing, but it's still thought provoking. Knebel never really finds a way to come to grips with his premise, and the book ends ambiguously when the President voluntarily steps aside for health reasons related to his heart.

I'm now about a quarter of the way into Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here. Written in 1936, Lewis imagines the rise of a populist President who turns the country into a Fascist dictatorship.

Two-thirds of the way through Lost Things. The coming week's line-up is The Blue Beautiful World, The High Sierra, and U.S. Navy Attack Aircraft, 1920-2020.

Having made great progress on the above books, No One Avoided Danger and The Tainted Cup are now on deck.

I've started The Curragh Incident by Sir James Fergusson. Published in 1964, this is a history of a 1914 incident in Ireland wherein officers of the British Army announced their refusal to take action against organized Ulster militia should violence arise over forcing the northern Irish counties to take part in Home Rule in Ireland. The officers felt that the Ulster Volunteer Force's loyalty to the Unionist cause represented same loyalty to king and country that they themselves had sworn to, regardless of what Parliament might have to say about who had to take part in Irish Home Rule. I'm reading details about this tiny sideshow (in the grand scheme of things), as Irish history of this era is very interesting to me in general.

The Edge of Light
Elizabeth George
4/5 stars
This is the final book in the Whidbey Island Saga. I enjoyed the series but I was disappointed in the ending. Becca/Hannah who was sent to Whidbey Island to stay with her mother's friend because she and her mother were on the run from her mother's husband Jeff Corrie. There was scant information about Jeff and her mother in this book. I would have liked to see what happened to them. Though everything seemed to work out for Becca/Hannah and she had a good support system regardless that she had not reunited with her mother. I wonder if a 5th book was intended but I never found one.

I'm still reading If It Bleeds by Stephen King. I'm on the third story. I loved reading the second one this week.

>4 JulieLill: I found more info on the Whidbey Island series. "as for wrapping up the series, Elizabeth George has not yet concluded it. While she plans to eventually finish the Lynley/Havers saga, the exact timing remains uncertain. Perhaps the enigmatic allure of Whidbey Island will continue to inspire her storytelling, leaving readers eagerly awaiting the next installment."

Started this audio via Libby ~

Wrong Place Wrong Time
by Gillian McAllister

Now reading
The Personal Librarian
and
Too Much Happiness, short stories by Alice Munro

Dial A for Aunties – Jesse Q Sutanto
Digital audiobook read by Risa Mei
3***

From the book jacket: When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate – especially when it is inadvertently shipped in a cake cooler to the over-the-top billionaire wedding that Meddy, her Ma, and her aunties are working, at an island resort on the California coastline.

My reactions:
This was really ridiculously implausible, but still quite fun to read! The aunties steal the show at every opportunity, but I mostly liked the relationship between Meddy and her Ma. The way that Ma SOoooo misinterpreted the basics of social media (especially alternative meanings to emojis) was hilarious. Makes me glad that my mother had the patience to wait for me to find the man of my dreams rather than take matters into her own hands. (Although, it helped that I lived five states away from her, and cell phones weren’t a thing when I was still single.)

I’m glad I finally got to this book which so many of my book-loving friends have enjoyed. It was the perfect escapist light read during this time in my life.

Risa Mei does a great job of voicing the audiobook. I particularly loved the way she interpreted Ma and the Aunties.

The Women by Kristin Hannah. Difficult book to read since I came of age during the Vietnam War and I remember the horror we witnessed on our home televisions.

Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens
Eddie Izzard
4/5 stars
This is the autobiography of Eddie Izzard, comedian and entertainer who was born in Yemen but also lived in Wales, Northern Ireland and England. Raised by his dad after his mother died which greatly affected him. He has come out as genderfluid. He is also involved in politics. Very interesting! A Dozen Film and TV Books

You, Again – Kate Goldbeck
2.5**

This is a retelling of the very popular (and brilliant) film, When Harry Met Sally. Ari is a wannabe stand-up comic, making do writing bar mitzvah and father-of-the-bride speeches, serving at catered events, and gathering petition signatures. Josh is a chef from a wealthy family who definitely does NOT want to follow in his father’s footsteps and take over the famous deli he runs. They meet when Ari is collecting signatures in the park. They meet again when Josh shows up at the apartment Ari shares with her friend Natalie, ready to cook a romantic dinner for two. They dislike each other. Three years later … etc.

I really disliked these two characters. Ari, in particular, is a hot mess. Insecure, prickly to the point of being antagonistic, full of self-loathing and wallowing in pity, the front she portrays is what she thinks is an independent woman who loves to have meaningless sex with random strangers and who lives her life on HER terms. BUT … hot mess, remember?

Josh is kinda full of himself. He’s so concerned with making it HIS way that he runs roughshod over anyone who gets in his way. The result is that he also fails.

Well, you’ve seen the movie, so you know what’s coming. Do yourself a favor. Skip the book and re-watch the movie.

The new thread is waiting for you over here.