Mouth to Mouth

Thoughts by Antoine Wilson , Harper Collins Publishers 2022, 248 pages

Challenge: TOB

Genre/Theme: Adult Literature / Mystery-Thriller?

Type/Source: Tradeback / Purchased at Indie bookstore

What It’s About: Our narrator runs into an acquaintance from college and they have a drink (or ten) while waiting on delayed flights. The college dude tells everything that has happened to him since they last saw each other.

The quick plot – and I must say the that the format of the story as a retelling is part of the “WHA?!“- do we trust this guy? Why shouldn’t we? Anyway, he graduates and thinks he is going to marry his long time sweetie but she dumps him. He’s morose, goes to sit at the beach before dawn and wa la! Someone is drowning. Our dude saves him, then stalks him, then gets a job in the guy’s art gallery, then falls in love with the guy’s daughter. Till finally, they go on a ski trip and someone (the guy, the drowning survivor) does NOT survive an incident – a heart attack? on a challenging slope. The end.

Not quite.

Thoughts: Storms the castle! Charms the Queen – Marries the Princess – Becomes the King. (I think it was Ruthiella who described the plot in this way.) I was quite liking this through most of it; as I encountered interesting (high-falutin’) vocabulary choices and the curious way the story was unfolding. But wham-O! Not sure what I think of the ending. It felt . . . cheap, somehow.

Rating: I think I first-impulse gave this 4 stars in goodreads, NOPE — it shows I didn’t rate it at all. But my personal google sheet track shows 4. I’m resetting to 3.

Copyright © 2007-2023. Care’s Books and Pie also known as and originally created as Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

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Now is Not the Time To Panic

Thoughts by Kevin Wilson, Harper Collins Publishers 2022, 248 pages

Challenge: #ReadICT category time

Genre/Theme: Adult Literature / Childhood friendship, Coming of Age

Type/Source: eBook / Libby

What It’s About: Frankie is 16 and never been kissed. She doesn’t have any friends but unlike what you might expect, she is not a sniveling feelin’-sorry-for-herself, annoying wretch. She is just perplexed. She meets a new kid at the pool during the first week of summer vacation and they hit it off. This also, is rather perplexing. Is he a boyfriend? What do they “DO” exactly? Well, it turns out they secretly spawn mayhem and world confusion! It’s called ART, people! Of course, most don’t get it. And they are not about to attempt to explain.

Also, subnote, Frankie has a half-sister that was given her name. Yep, her dad had an affair, left her mother, spawned a child, a girl, and gave her the SAME NAME as his already born living now-abandoned daughter. I find this perplexing and F%&#-up.

And when Junie burst into the room, holding a half-full box of Milk Duds, absolutely zooted on sugar and instantly explaining the plot of the movie they just saw, I thought, Oh, thank god.

Thoughts: I adore Kevin Wilson. He is an excellent story builder; with lovable smart characters. He adds some delicious comedy but keeps it real. Loved this.

Rating: I think I first-impulse gave this 4 stars in goodreads, but as I write this, I think I just might have to give it a big ol’ FIVE. Hey, it has Oatmeal Creme Pie snacks, so why the hell not?

“I decided I wanted some of those Little Debbie snack cakes, and my mom brought over two boxes, Star Crunch and Oatmeal Creme Pies, and I ate two of each very quickly, and for some reason this made my mom smile.”

Copyright © 2007-2023. Care’s Books and Pie also known as and originally created as Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Mid-February Mini-Reviews 2023

Summing up January – I read 10 books and reviewed ALL of them here at this Books and Pie blog. I then slacked on the slide into February? So I’ll do some mini-reviews of the 5 books read so for:

My Volcano by John Elizabeth Stintzi Challenge: for TOB2023 and fits #ReadICT categories of Time and LGBTQIA+

My favorite of today’s post, this has been considered Science Fiction and I might put it into the Mythology genre. In 2016, a volcano rises out of the lake in Central Park and becomes a global story. We meet lots of interesting people and follow their reactions and adventures. It’s quite wacky!! at times comic, at times somber – the chapters are interrupted by names of victims of 2016 incidents, often police brutality and mass violence. It is set across time, multiple time realities; it dips back and forth, and includes a time travel storyline of a boy who goes to 16th century Mexico. Not at all melodramatic, all the characters inspired positive reactions and I was invested in hope they all end up OK. A morality tale to wake up and pay attention? Four slices of pie, no pie mentioned.

Zenith Man by Jennifer Haigh Challenge: #WiaN2023 QXZ category / Audible

Selected because it was free and I recognized the author’s name – this is my first experience of her work. The goodreads reviews are NOT HAPPY that she published this and never attributed that it is based on a true story; some feel she stole it. It was VERY short; I had originally assumed it was a full-length fiction novel.

It’s about a man who is accused of killing his wife because no one in town even knew he HAD a wife! She never ever left the house and had zero contact with other people. How does that even happen in today’s world?! Fascinating but not that fascinating. Three slices of pie, “cookies and pie” mention.

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin Challenge: for TOB2023, #ReadICT LGBTQIA+ category / Audible

I had originally decided that this book was NOT going to be my cup of tea – that if I read the first 10 pages or so, I could satisfactorily cross it off the list. But then I ended up with physical books of all my remaining TOB unreads — except this one, and had one credit to burn at Audible. I couldn’t not listen to this audiobook! – especially, considering how many of this year’s slate have been books that I just couldn’t give proper due. (I want my Completist status, at least, to be considered TRUE EFFORT) so … and DONE! However. I sped this up to 200% for the last third or so until the last 30 minutes. I think I got (had?!) enough of it. Three slices, only raspberry pi technology mentioned.

In your face sex and violence with trans-representation.

Challenge: for TOB2023 / Audible

A very interesting book, a short book, with one man experiencing a current crisis that provokes memories of past trauma, and trying to hold on the best he can. The ending is a gut punch!

Three slices of pie. No pie mentioned.

Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley Challenge: for TOB2023 / eBook / Libby

I didn’t give this book the attention it deserved. I wanted to be totally captivated but I was distracted by book-slump-disease, too-many-books-at-once-disorder, and guilt. I ended up reading reviews that praised it and I would go back and read 2-3 pages before life intervened and I was off doing something else. I ended up giving it the skim-skip, touching here and there to keep the story-thread alive if possible and then, finally, I read the ending. BAD CARE. I called it done and now apologize to the author and my readers that this “time and place” was not this book’s ‘day‘. BUT I do promise to watch for this author and read her next (this was her debut and she wasn’t even 20 when she wrote it!) Perhaps, I will come back and read Nightcrawling with full attention in the future. I am giving it 4 slices. Yes, it had pie! Sweet potato pie.

It shouldn’t be a crime to be poor in America.

“My hands are resting on the glass counter, the sweet potato pie symmetrical and staring up at me, taunting.”

Chocolate Cherry Pie made for the Super Bowl and because February 20 is Cherry Pie Day. YAY Chiefs!

Copyright © 2007-2023. Care’s Books and Pie also known as and originally created as Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

The Book of Goose

Thoughts by Yiyun Li, Macmillan Audio 2022, 9 hours 2 minutes, narrated by Caroline Hewitt

Challenge: for TOB 2023

Genre/Theme: Adult Literature / Childhood friendship

Type/Source: Audiobook / Audible

“SOMETIMES YOU HEAR PEOPLE say so-and-so has lived well, and so-and-so has had a dull life. They are missing a key point when they say that. Any experience is experience, any life a life. A day in a cloister can be as dramatic and fatal as a day on a battlefield.”

What It’s About: A French woman who married an American and moved to the US, never had children, tended to her garden and her geese… receives a letter that drops news from the old village that her childhood Fabienne died in childbirth. She reminisces and shares the story of her relationship and adventures with Fabienne. I probably missed some things because I wasn’t captivated by it at all.

Thoughts: I decided about half way that I didn’t care for the characters and I didn’t care what happened to them, as I wondered really where the story was going. So I skipped through the chapters and sampled some words, connected a few dots along the way, listened to the end and said FINIE!

Rating: Two slices of pie. No pie mentioned. I’m sure this went over my head and I failed to give it proper due. I was not in the mood for a meandering mean girl tale. Many reviews compare this to My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. I wasn’t enamored by that one, either. It’s me.

Copyright © 2007-2023. Care’s Books and Pie also known as and originally created as Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

2 A.M. in Little America

Thoughts by Ken Kalfus, Highbridge 2022, 256 pages/ 6 hours 25 minutes, narrated by BJ Harrison

Challenge: for TOB2023, #WiaN2023 – Category punctuation

Genre/Theme: Speculative Fiction

Type/Source: audiobook / Audible

What It’s About: Ron Patterson is American but America is no longer a safe place to live. He is a migrant worker, trying to survive, trying to find a country who will allow him to live within its borders. Americans are often not welcome.

Thoughts: When I said Babel was “ambitious, carefully crafted, clever work”, I could say the same of this; much slighter in size but equally thoughtful of its elements and construction. However, this one needs more discussion and clarification to explain to me what Kalfus was trying to do! or rather, why he chose what he did to tell this story.

Ron comes across as a good guy, trying to keep his head done, to go along to get along and be left alone. But he suffers from faceblindness — usually or only memorably when applied to women. Other reviews state this to be on purpose; to show his confusion and wish that he could go home to America/motherland aka MOTHER. Yet others call this blatant disregard and disrespect for women. I can’t figure out where I stand on trying to understand that dichotomy. It is suggested that the confusion of being a migrant and not having personal identity – to be always grouped into that “MIGRANT = unwanted” category was what Kalfus was attempting to show. Yea, I dunno.

What would happen if America descended into civil war and became a violent unruly unsafe scary place to live? How would the world treat Americans?

This book had violence and many unnamed elements – some places were described but never identified. But Target the retailer and McDonalds, and Skittles even, were named as super-American things of the past. (One review stated that Target is a supporter of the publisher and this was total name placement for marketing purposes! That makes me laugh but I don’t not doubt it!!)

Points in its favor was that I kept listening, I was interested and curious and gave enjoyable time to the THINKING-ABOUT – rather than being frustrated. Weird when that happens, right? Why do some unknowns frustrate and vagueness/confusion in other situations be of intrigue? #shrug

Rating: Three slices of pie. No pie mentioned.

Copyright © 2007-2023. Care’s Books and Pie also known as and originally created as Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Babel

Thoughts by R.F.Kuang, Harper Audio 2022, 545 pages/ 21 hours 46 minutes, narrated by Narrated by Chris Lew Kum Hoi, Billie Fulford-Brown – fabulous!

Challenge: TOB2023, #ReadICT: FULL TITLE: Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution — one that would be an excellent fulfillment to the long title category, but also works for the Secret Society category…

Genre/Theme: Historical Fantasy

Type/Source: audiobook / Audible

What It’s About: A young Chinese orphan boy is taken from Canton and becomes the ward of a noted Oxford professor of languages at the revered Translation department aka Babel. Mayhem ensues. OK, not really — Well, it takes a few years; eventually, young Robin begins his studies in the heralded translation school and makes friends, finds truths, and learns the ways of the world. This book is dense, transportative [boo – I’m being warned that this isn’t actually a word but I say it IS], linguistically-entrancing, at times comic and at times a teensy-weensy melodramatic. But hey! it is Victorian England. I’m keeping transportative. AND melodramatic. It works.

“This is how colonialism works. It convinces us that the fallout from resistance is entirely our fault, that the immoral choice is resistance itself rather than the circumstances that demanded it.”

Thoughts: This is an ambitious, carefully crafted, clever work of Historical Fantasy – showing how colonial capitalism is oppressive, but also exploring the concepts of language itself from beginning to its ever-always updating-changing & morphing into a slippery power struggle for those who attempt to own it all.

Word nerds should love it. I am finding my appreciation for it growing as I attempt to write this and yet… it does has its flaws. It is long. I grew tiresome of the main character’s inner doubts and confusion that contrasts with his daring-do only a page or minute before. Still, I never skipped! (I may have zoned out or paid more attention to traffic in a necessary safety moment or two since I was audio-driving most of it.)

“How strange,’ said Ramy. ‘To love the stuff and the language, but to hate the country.’

‘Not as odd as you’d think,’ said Victoire. ‘There are people, after all, and then there are things.”

But I loved the ending. I loved that this ends with the struggle continuing! OF COURSE! Being set in the 1830s, addressing most of the world’s ills, and knowing history since,…. of course the struggle continues. Shall we suspect a setup for a sequel? One I just might read. If you notice that I don’t even mention the fantasy portion [silver bars magically powered by words], it was not a heavy feature but a significant metaphor perhaps. Am I right or wrong to consider it as such? Don’t know. I’ll just say it worked for me and it didn’t distract nor take up all the oxygen in the book.

Rating: Four and a half slices of pie.

“something something something…. caught with his thumb in a pie… something something”

HEY. I was driving! I can’t capture quotes when I’m driving! audible should make this easier… it shouldn’t be this hard to capture a note and have it become a goodreads update somehow…

I learned about the word STRIKE. I learned about the word NICE. I learned and geeked out on a lot of the language-y things. And the audio had footnotes in a different WONDERFUL voice offering the updates/history/pronunciation/etc. The main narrator was AMAZING, too. Well done. I would, if I had had the time to make this a project, done the eBook with audio to get the full of everything.

Copyright © 2007-2023. Care’s Books and Pie also known as and originally created as Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance

Thoughts by Alison Espach, Henry Holt & Company 2022, 340 pages

Challenge: for TOB and for #ReadICT: Grief category

Genre/Theme: Adult Fiction; grief, sister relationships

Type/Source: Hardcover / Library

What It’s About: A sister talks to her dead sister, the few years prior, the immediate aftermath, and the years following.

Thoughts: I loved it. Sally was such a devoted little sister, adoring her older sibling. How she grieves and attempts to understand and work through her parents grief, as well as be totally besotted with her sister’s boyfriend. Her outlook on life, attempting to throw humor at everything, only makes her feel odd and empty; it was just heartbreaking and felt very real to me.

Rating: Five slices of pie. Apple pie mentions.

“Then it was over and all the people came to our house and ate apple pie and swirled around our mother at the kitchen table, who was catatonic in her chair.”

Page 97

Copyright © 2007-2023. Care’s Books and Pie also known as and originally created as Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

The Patron Saint of Liars

Thoughts by Ann Patchett, Mariner Books (first pub’ 1992), 402 pages

Challenge: for #WiaN2023, category 7 Deadly Sins

Genre/Theme: Adult Fiction; mother-daughter relationships

Type/Source: eBook Libby

What It’s About: Rose accepts her sign from God to marry, but she prefers to drive.

Rose marries a fine man. She loves her mother. But she just cannot live the life as presented to her and she flees to a far corner and accepts where she lands. She is pregnant and accepts those terms, SORT OF. She finds a place for her in the midst of this somehow and . . .

SPOILER ahead –> just highlight to read it:

when the old life encroaches on the newly established, she drives off again. She leaves a daughter distraught with questions and confusions as to what comes next.

Heartbreaking!

Thoughts: Patchett knows “people”, knows the ache of longing and frustration against the pull of responsibility. I love her.

Rating: Four slices of pie. LOTS of pie mentions! Lots of whipped cream.

“”In the hospital,” Rose said, pinching in the edges of a pie crust, or maybe it was a tart. Nothing was a plain old pie with her anymore.”

many other pie mentions, including apple…

 

 

The Passenger

Thoughts by Cormac McCarthy, Knopf 2022, 385pages

Challenge: for March 2023 Tournament of Books, #ReadICT #Grief category

Genre/Theme: Adult Fiction; physics, mental health, grief

Type/Source: eBook Libby

What It’s About: Two divers investigate a plane crash, looking for survivors. The pilot’s case and the black box are missing. The whole scene feels “off”. Later, they find out that one of the passengers is unaccounted for. One of the divers turns up dead, and the other is hunted by the law and has to go on the lam; reliving memories of his dead sister, grieving her fiercely and wandering around having conversations about physics, mathematics and other existential stuff.

Thoughts: This was just … odd. I felt it meandered, opened plot paths and then confused me if they got closed or not. Characters, too. Just pop up conversations and happenings and if/how they were related, I couldn’t quite figure it out. I’m sure it was me.

Rating: Three slices of pie. One pie mention:

“They went down to the cafeteria and had coffee and pie. They sat at a table by the window. Outside a few people were walking the grounds. The first warm days. The trees still bare. Her skin was like paper. Eyes so pale. She sat at his left and ate with her left hand. Her right hand still holding his. Her forearm drawn and thin and blue.”

63%

 

 

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Thoughts by Gabrielle Zevin, Alfred A Knopf 2022, 401 pages

Challenge: for March 2023 Tournament of Books

Genre/Theme: Adult Fiction; friendship, gaming industry

Type/Source: Hardcover, loaned to me by a friend (thanks SuzP!)

What It’s About: Sam, age 12, is a lonely boy in a hospital, recovering from a car accident with extreme long-time physical and emotional repercussions when he meets Sadie, age 11, and they become friends, bonding over games. They are both smart, both go to Boston from California to attend college, and both are ambitious to create their own game, together. They grow up in the process. It all reminds me of the motto of Kansas, “Ad Astra per Aspera” Latin for “to the stars through difficulties.” This is about the creative process, captures a particular time for a unique industry, but basically, it is about love and friendship.

Thoughts: I had that comfortable feeling of being in the hands of a talented writer. I believe that the thread-count of this one exceeds her prior novel that I read (and enjoyed but seemed, fluffier, rather than tight?, AJ Fikry – which, by the way, Zevin wrote the screenplay for and subsequent film has been adapted! Who has seen it?!)

A truly enjoyable read. Lots of lovely vocabulary words that were fun to look up. Trenchant, collogue, sere, nihilism, echt, ersatz…

Rating: Five slices of pie. One boring mention of (pizza) pie and that is good enough:

“Sadie hadn’t eaten since the plane that morning, and she ended up eating almost the whole pie.”

39%

Finally, just want to share a fun link that a dear friend brought to my attention (Thanks Stef!)

Stuck on Your Novel? Bake a Pie! “Cliche Chicken Pot Pie”