A Gathering of Old Men

Thoughts by Ernest J. Gaines, Vintage Books Random House 1983, 214 pages

Challenge: Classics Club SPIN due April 19, 2023

Genre/Theme: Adult Literature / Race Relations

Type/Source: Tradeback / Library

What It’s About: Set in the 70s in rural Louisiana, this tale looks at friendship and loyalty, race relations, changing times that rail against ingrained attitudes, and dreams versus regrets. What a fabulous telling! Tautly paced, calm before coming dreaded storm, we get quick glimpses of real people and all treated relatively respectfully. Well done Author Gaines, a master of story craft.

A man is shot dead and friends rally around the man assumed to have done the deed because he has always been a rock to his beliefs, standing up for my himself. So all the old men grab similar shotguns, shoot and bring the spent shells so that “proof” of who done it is not so easily conclusive. The dead man is white, the group confessing to the killing are all black, except for the white woman who also wants to protect and rally for her own rules of justice (which is not in agreement with the sheriff.

All are more in fear of the family, the father and friends of the dead man coming to claim their own brand of justice. The sheriff is also hoping that won’t happen, but can he stop it?

“I ran out on the front garry and seen it was Miss Merle, and looked like a heavy load just fell off my shoulders.”

Thoughts: This was tense and well plotted. I loved seeing all the perspectives and outlaying of viewpoints black and white, the hopes and dreams over the decades that brought all these people to this point. I am looking forward to watching the movie. It’s got a great cast.

To be honest, I had no prep and it was challenging to figure out with certainty who was white and what was their role and relation to the community and who was black; when it came to the side players and how Gaines introduces everyone, I was challenged and I appreciate that. I really admired the subtleties.

Rating: I think I might raise my rating at a 5 slice of pie. Apple pie is mentioned rather frequently. Could pie be a metaphor? That we assume pie can heal the worlds ills and yes, why can’t it? Sadly, this situation is not easily fixed by apple pie but the ending was more positive than I ever expected.

I had Lucy bake me an apple pie, because I knew how much Jack just liked his apple pie. I told Lucy when she came to work that morning if she baked me the best apple pie she ever baked in her life, I would give her half the day off.

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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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…

 

 

Status ⬥ Slow September ⬥ 2022

 Monthly Recap Time! September

• 5 books; 77 for the year
• 1346 pages, 1 hours | 22474 total pages, 170.3 hours for the year so far

Hardcover, Hardcover, Audio, Tradeback, Tradeback
Purchased, Purchased, Audible Freebie, Target Purchase, Half Price Books

Actually, truth be told, I DNF’d Liar’s Club because I just couldn’t deal with any more Texasness and I skimmed to the end of Nightbitch because it just wasn’t what I needed at this time. It took me to Sept 24 to finish the first book(!!!)of the month. WHOA.

And my audiobook game faltered. Sigh. I listened to what is probably called a “Short Story”: Dispossession, a well done Audible Original by Tayari Jones . (It was good! and filled an entire dog-walking session to the minute. Jones is on my list of authors to read whenever I get the opportunity.) I’m 2/3 through my October Audible credit now and have a Libby audio lined up for after so I think October numbers will be better for print AND audio. I might even do a review post of that last book I read because it satisfies a What’s in a Name category. Amazing. (Nightbitch does, too, but I’m hesitant to use it since I really didn’t give it 100%)

I enjoyed Evelyn Hugo but it had that separation of author-to-reader, where I know I’m reading a book, rather than being immersed within the story. Book club discussion on Tuesday. My favorite was Lucy By the Sea by my favorite Elizabeth Strout.

“We had kidney beans from a can and two hot dogs each, an I made an apple pie, and the day felt so cozy.”

lucy by the sea, pg 224

It’s been a month of full-strength blowing of the winds of change. I was given unsettling news about my job and it sparked a job search process which resulted in me getting an offer which I accepted. I start tomorrow. In other news, WordPress alerted me that it is bloggivesary time! I’m been yapping about books-and-stuff at this space for 15 years!

October has a couple of pie days. The 12th is Pumpkin Pie Day and Boston Cream Pie Day is Oct 23. Something I’ve always wanted to make a Boston Cream Pie Pie (rather than a cake.) It wouldn’t be that hard; make a cake layer in a pie crust and then layer some cream, — or maybe bake a round cake and split it horizontally, place on in a pie crust (blind baked, probably), layer in some cream, top with the second cake layer, and pour a chocolate ganache on it… MmmmmmmmMMMMMmmmmmm

Yesterday, I declared I would make Apple Pie today but I think I’ll post this and sit on the couch watching football, read my World Piece book by Beth M Howard (and is it FULL of pie as you would expect) and continue to think about maybe making pie this afternoon.

What was YOUR favorite book of September?

Copyright © 2007-2022. 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.

Status ⬥ The Month After July ⬥ 2022

 Monthly Recap Time! August

• 7 books; 72 for the year
• 2740 pages, 28.5 hours | 21128 total pages, 169.3 hours for the year so far

“… a party being made better because of the pie you brought…”

LESSONS in CHEmistry

Pie for the win. EVERY BOOK I READ HAD PIE! Pretty impressive..

“Maria helped herself to the last bites of Eddie’s apple pie and unfolded her notes on the table, but instead of Devil’s Bargain she found herself thinking of the scale model of Mercury.”

– MERCURY PICTURES PRESENTS

And my audiobook game has returned. THREE audiobooks finished and meaty books, too — not just a 1 hour created-for-Audible nibble.

My favorite was Bonnie Garmus’ Lessons in Chemistry. Hands down, my kind of book. Strong female character, touches all the ugly bits of reality yet balanced with love and humor, plus a cool dog. Some reviews recommend print over the audio, though I didn’t catch the mispronunciations or chemical terms …. oops. I did notice a long “e” sound for the word “been” and something else with an eeeee sound that to me should be more of an “i” sound like “bin”.

I read French’s The Searcher for book club. It was good but not my favorite of hers. And another book that suffered I HOPE! from bad mood and poor timing, was Anthony Marra’s Mercury Pictures Presents. I want to try it again someday.

“He finds a café and gets himself a slice of apple pie and more coffee to pass the time till his laundry is ready.”

the searcher

Perhaps, August was just meant to be devoted to nonfiction? I really liked Destiny of the Republic by Candace Millard. She’s good! and she wrote a lovely tribute to David McCullough, a favorite of mine for readable fascinating enjoyable history, who died August 7. I’ve not read near enough of his oeuvre and now I need to add all of Millard’s.

I read The Sum of Us. Fascinating and sad how systematic racism is sneakily argumented away and seems invisible to sum. Why don’t towns have a city pool? because they didn’t want to share with ALL the citizens of the town. Stupid. Evil.

Which brings me to share that I finally finished brown girl dreaming by the lovely Jacqueline Woodson! Here memoir in verse, my mid-year, many months, poem-a-day project. LOVELY.

“…Remember the time, they ask,
when we stole Miss Carter’s peach pie off her windowsill,…”

brown girl dreaming

Then I listened to Taste by Stanley Tucci, because I think celebrity memoirs are a great way to break a slump. Plus, the lack of audiobooks in prior months meant I had credits to burn. I have a print of this at the library to pick up so I can get the recipes. (His cookbooks have hold lists but this I got right away.)

What was YOUR favorite book of August?

September has a couple of pie days. The 15th is Butterscotch Cinnamon Pie Day! (A healing pie in the video game UnderTale.) Sept 23 is Pot Pie Day (Lessons in Chemistry has pot pie! and a terrific explanation of pie pastry. KFC’s chicken pot pie is decent, too. Look for a coupon.) Sept 26 is Key Lime Pie Day – read a book set in Florida! LOL — and Raspberry Cream Pie Day is Sept 28.

Today, as I write and prep this post, I’m contemplating a Grape Galette. You can see a photo (it’s readable! perhaps I should add a link to my pie page… Hmmmmm) of my recipe in a post from 2017; enjoy.

Copyright © 2007-2022. 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.

Half Done 2022 Six Months to Go

 Monthly Recap Time! JUNE

• 11 books; 60 for the year
• 2940 pages, ~3.3 hours | 16749 total pages, 140.8 hours for the year so far

My favorite was Either/Or. Or, at least according to scores given and slices of pie (and I don’t even think this book HAD pie?!) I also gave 5 slices of pie with no pie mentioned to Choice by Jodi Picoult. I’m just baffled and boggled and sad about what the SCOTUS is up to these days…

Morning is smarter than night.

(Updating this entire post the next morning! LOL had to include this because for me, it is very true.) TRUE BIZ, pg 205

True Biz

The Miranda Obsession

How High We Go in the Dark

Sea of Tranquility

Hearts & Minds

All of the above QUITE GOOD AND I might even say GREAT!

Sorry Friends, I just haven’t had the motivation to write. I’m sad; I love this blog and I was doing SO WELL through MOST of the pandemic and now? I am feeling the changes. LOL. HA

I didn’t even use my audio credit this month. yikes. If you want to see what I’m hoping to read in July, you’ll just have to visit Litsy. Whatever.

Same as in May, I read both of the Litsy Spin Books and completed one *BINGO*. My list of 20 for July includes many if not most of the what I had on the last list. Still reading for #CampLitsy.

“Ms. Sweet Potato Pie costumes wait for no woman.”

True Biz, Pg 203

I don’t even care about checking on how many books had pie. I can’t seem to keep it easy to figure out. Or maybe TRUST that I really accounted and tracked accurately? I would be THE WORST accountant! check again, double check triple check and doubt some more. According to my google sheet tracker, I noted that pie was mentioned in two of this month’s reads. In fact, in How High We Go in the Dark, it was mentioned a LOT. CONTENDER for PIE BOOK OF THE YEAR?! (I also said this in my notes for True Biz! [Updated to Add])

Maybe my favorite was How High We Go? It won #CampLitsy book for June. (nifty)

“- how they’d come to my door with their pies and casseroles, ask for my help capturing their children or spouse as they used to be.”

HHWGitD, pg 285

I made Strawberry Rhubarb Pie as promised in June. I have to! It’s June 9’s Pie Day! Keep watching that hashtag, cuz I continue to use the #CaresPieShow hashtag at Litsy.

What was YOUR favorite book of June?

June 12 is Pecan Pie Day. My hub’s favorite.

Copyright © 2007-2022. 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.

Burning Questions and The Candy House

Thoughts by Margaret Atwood, Doubleday 2022, 496 pages

Challenge: n/a

Genre/Theme: Essays

Type/Source: Hardcover / Gift from a friend

What It’s About: Wonderful essays on the climate, politics, book reviews and author tributes, bits about poems; reminisces on her childhood, her marriage, and husband, lectures she has given, etc and more.

“However, this does not make The Handmaid’s Tale a “feminist dystopia” except insofar as giving a woman a voice and an inner life will always be considered “feminist” by those who think women ought not to have these things.”

Thoughts: She’s Margaret Atwood!

“She came by her perky Mom voice and her “Howdy Stranger“ tropes honestly. She was a refugee, not to America but from within America: a mom and Apple Pie America, and America of the past that was being rapidly transformed by material inventions, …”

Rating: Five slices of pie.

“My own mother was of the non-interference school unless it was a matter of life and death. ___ She later said that she had to leave the kitchen when I was making my first pie crust, the sight was so painful to her.”

-Polonia (2005)

 

Thoughts by Jennifer Egan, Scribner 2022, 334 pages

Challenge: TOB Summer Camp

Genre/Theme: Linked Short Stories, 2nd in the Goon Series

Type/Source: Hardcover / Library

What It’s About: These stories continue the looks into the lives of characters touched on in The Visit From the Goon Squad. I can’t even pick a favorite. Actually, some seem abrupt or bring up people I would have hoped to explore more or really taxed my brain power! That said, I loved it. It felt SO GOOD to just read and relax and get lost in a story.

“The fact that so many thoughts could have gone through my head in 3.36 seconds is testament to the infinitude of an individual consciousness. There is no end to it, no way to measure it. Consciousness is like the cosmos multiplied by the number of people alive in the world (assuming that consciousness dies when we do, and it may not) because each of our minds is a cosmos of its own: unknowable, even to ourselves.”

Thoughts: I must link in my review of Goon Squad – because I don’t remember it nor was I able to capture its charms exactly – only entertained myself in the attempt. Others have noted that it is a wise plan to keep notes of characters at the start of BOTH these books, something I did not do but recognize it might be valuable advice. Me, I only hope to reread both of these, back to back. Put it on my ‘Retire-to-a-Deserted-{Desserted?!)-Island-Reading-List’.

My kind of story-telling. Five slices of pecan pie.

“… tweezing forkfuls of turkey or pecan pie through a rectangular mouth slot.”

ARthur p.26

In Review October 2021

 Monthly Recap Time!

Total of 13…

Count from the library =  SIX, one book was for my monthly Audible credit and finished with Libby; five purchased, and another library for both eBook and Hardcover

My favorite read of the month is The Soul of Kindness by Elizabeth Taylor. [Link to Review]

These books took me on visits to Colorado, NYC and outer space. I saw the US and some views into Canada. I was in UK-fantasy land. USA again and a half century away in rural England. OPKS was where I lived in the first book (and I’ve lived there in my history, so YAY KANSAS) and ended up in Sweden for the last book of the month.

Five nonfiction – if I count the poetry?) One of the books I read this month is “loosely-based memoir” fiction: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeannette Winterson. SO GLAD to have enjoyed this which had been on my tbr for a long time.

Two featured LGBTQ+, three by POC, one in translation, four classics. Seven female-identifying authors (I might be guessing/assuming) to six by male-presenting.

and…… The Tournament of Favorites was fabulous! The winner is Tsar of Love and Techno over Version Control in the finals. Great fun, much fun, warms the heart and stimulates the brain. I love the tournaments as much as I love pie. Bring on the Long List! Any day now… I haven’t read too many on on the possibly contenders list. Books pub’d this year include: Fugitive Telemetry SF, Meet Cute Diary TransRomance?, Yoga Pants Nation MomLit, (oh yea, I read all the Summer Camp books, too!)

Pie! NINE books out of 13 mention pie.

I made Cranberry Pear Pie, Pumpkin, and some Dutch Apple crumb pies.

• 

  Lattice

• 

  Oct 12 Pumpkin Pie Day

• 

  Dutch Apple

What was YOUR favorite book of October?

Copyright © 2007-2022. 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.

Leave the World Behind

Thoughts by Rumaan Alam, 2020, 256 pages

Challenge: TOB 

Genre/Theme: Literary Fiction / Dystopia

Type/Source: eBook / Amazon Kindle

 Why I read this now:  I don’t know.

WHAT’s it ABOUT:  A family rents a vacation home. The owners show up way before for the arranged time period end date so the vacationers let them in. Seems the power grid has collapsed everywhere but at the house. They ask to be let in. They endure oddities; herds of deer, falling out teeth, a disappearance. With no broadcast news, they really don’t know (and neither does the reader know) what has happened ‘out there’.  Then the book ends.

THOUGHTS:  I wasn’t even on page 2 when I started questioning word choice. Too many pretentious orotund words and phrases. By page 10, I was at risk of injury from excessive eye-rolling. I began to exhibit that twitchy behavior that signifies the kiss of death, a likely DNF:  scrambling to look for critical reviews on goodreads to find out if anyone else was experiencing this same mania. Sure enough.

She bought two tumescent zucchini…  

So, yea, I missed the dread-building, the unease and scary buildup. I decided to skip and read the ending — came in at the point of the disappearance and the chatter about who would go look, then the going & not going to the hospital and the run in with the neighbor who didn’t say anything but assumed they knew everything and nobody was the wiser. Then after a scavenging scene (sorry! spoiler?),  it ended. I felt no dread. I was just glad I didn’t see anymore words that provoked an eye-roll.

“Get something sweet? Like . . . a pie. Get a pie. And maybe some more ice cream?”

RATING:   Two slices. I could be talked into NO RATING since I totally failed to connect with it and thus missed the intended effect or maybe giving it a 3 slice since it DOES HAVE PIE!  That is always admirable.

Remember, two slices means “it was ok”.

When the lights came back on, he had baked an apple pie.

 

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A Children’s Bible

Thoughts by Lydia Millet, 2020, 225 pages

Challenge: TOB and the What’s in a Name: Possessive Noun category

Genre/Theme: Contemporary Lit

Type/Source: eBook/Library to Kindle

 Why I read this now:  Came off hold at the library

MOTIVATION for READING:  I liked the last book I read by Millet. She is an author that brings attitude to her work. I describe it as very slight sarcastic sardonic tone, not sure it is accurate, but that’s what I picture when I think of her – that she writes with a sly smile on her face all the while.

WHAT’s it ABOUT:  As goodreads quickly blurbs:  An indelible novel of teenage alienation and adult complacency in an unraveling world, I say this. This is a story about a collection of families that attempt to vacation together in a huge house on a lake, on the ocean and how the kids prove to be more sane and mature than the parents. It’s a short tale, maybe too short? I liked Evie, our narrator; she’s gritty and contemplative, trying to make the best choices to take care of her little brother and to survive a hurricane and then a disintegrating world.

I agree with Ruthiella’s assessment, “Huh?”

That was how we could tell it was serious. Because they were obviously lying.

THOUGHTS:  I highlight a theme I am seeing in this year’s TOB contenders:  the breakdown of trust in authority. Luster has it – I provided a quote on it!, The Vanishing Half has it, Shuggie Bain has spades of it. Memorial has it in breakdown of faith in their fathers. Maybe all books everywhere have it and I’m just noticing.

Our parents, those so-called figures of authority, roamed its rooms in vague circuits beneath the broad beams, their objectives murky. And of no general interest.

RATING:   Three generous slices of a latticed pie.

The pattern reminded me of pies we used to eat at Thanksgiving, each with a lattice of crust on top. What kind of pies had they been? Apple? Blueberry?

I would love a pie right now, I thought.

Who wouldn’t love a pie right now,  Evie? We all want pie.

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