Modern Critical Interpretations: Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front

Thoughts Edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom, Chelsea House Publishers 2001, 224 pages

Challenge: none, mistakenly thought this WAS the novel it discusses…

Genre/Theme: Critical Analysis / Essays (… other way around?!)

Type/Source: Hardcover / Library

What It’s About: This was Harold, being –what seems to me– a pompous ass. I don’t doubt that he is 3x, 4x, 5x smarter than I am, but his style is major “white man being pompous ass about knowing WAY more about literature…. no, sorry CAPITAL “L” Literature, than you do.” and that is OK. Let Harold, GRHS*, have his respect for his literary prowess. But EYE ROLL – the intro had me laughing! He says,

“After I discussed the Harry Potter fad in the Wall Street Journal, the Journal received eighty negative letters and no positive. JK Rowling, like Stephen King and Danielle Steele, will join the thousands of other writers in the “lumber of libraries” and the dustbin of the ages. Popularity is an index to popularity and to nothing more.”

PS – I almost bought Fairy Tales today… fad?!

Thoughts: First, an admission. I thought I had checked out the classic WW1 novel by EMR. Apparently, no. This was Harold’s collection of essays of critical analysis of the novel that was just not as good as Hemingway’s Farewell to Arms, but the second most famous WW1 novel. I have NOT read FtA. And I likely will NOT. I will ONLY attempt, if ever, to read any more Ernie books, might read Moveable Feast. maybe.

I flipped through this, read the first few pages of most, some I read all the way through. I was fascinated by HOW LONG some of these essays were!

I had questions about how the author had “Maria” as a middle name, and why he was born with lastname Remark, but was known by Remarque… Then in the index, I saw Danielle Steele, –who is STILL publishing stories! I haven’t read her work in over 40 years.

I then started my googling and WIKI-ing and found out that EMR married Paulette Goddard! yikes and wowza. He dated some hot ladies before that, too. But that is the society pages… but still! INTERESTING (to me, don’t know why.)

I returned this to the library and picked up the actual novel. Reading it soon for the WiaN challenge of QZX.

Rating: Three slices of pie. No pie mentioned that I could find.

• _{GRHS – God Rest His Soul, I don’t mean to be an HB hater but he seriously writes just to annoy 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.

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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.

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”

 

 

The Rabbit Hutch

Thoughts by Tess Gunty, Alfred A Knopf 2022, 338 pages, National Book Award 2022

Challenge: for March 2023 Tournament of Books

Genre/Theme: Adult Fiction; decaying town

Type/Source: Hardcover, library

What It’s About: A decaying town, lack of industry, climate change effects such as flooding, lost people trying to survive, kids in the system, contrasts between poverty and privilege, mystics, and weird pie.

Thoughts: I didn’t really enjoy reading it and I was luckily enough to have time to make myself sit with the book and READ. “Just keep reading.” I was both repelled by the behaviors and attracted to any scraps of redemption. Some really great passages, and terrific turns of phrase.

And, OH. The last line. Good, really good.

Rating: Four slices of pie. A pie shop, sour cream pie with black licorice, butterscotch cream pie. Possibly a contender for Care’s 2022 Pie in Literature Award!

“Home is a pie in the oven, live saxophone downtown, and a backyard of fireflies.”

65%

 

 

The Club Dumas

Thoughts by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Phoenix Books 2009 (orig 1993), 6 hours 2 minutes

Translated from Spanish by Sonia Soto, Narrated by David Warner

Challenge: none

Genre: Literary Thriller

Type/Source: Audiobook, Audible

 Why I read this now:  A friend recommended at just the right time.

MOTIVATION for READING:  As I explained right above this, I have a friend – one of those amazing friends who has that crazy skill to make everything you say or do to be acknowledged as just the right thing. Too good for my ego?! She’s one of those people who is uplifting to be around and talk with. So when she asked if I had read this one, I paid attention and almost immediately raced its place up my tbr to number one spot. Yea, I think I did do just that when I realized, “hey, I am not listening to an audiobook right now and I need to be listening to an audiobook and the ones I got, aren’t inspiring me.”  Into my ears, it went.

WHAT’s it ABOUT: A mercenary book dealer is hired to find authenticity on a few rare manuscripts and discovers that the two tasks are related. Along the way, he meets interesting characters that resemble characters in famous stories – and are even named as famous characters in celebrated tales and behave likewise! One intertwined story line is about a chapter in Dumas’ The Three Musketeers. The other book is a possible survivor of a trio of banned books that commune with the devil. Maybe Dumas communed with the Devil?

Our protagonist is named Lucas Corso. Our narrator also tends to break the third veil [upon researching if I had this right, I did not. It’s the THIRD WALL] or whatever it is called when the narrator talks to the reader.  [I could totally be misremembering.*] Corso meets one character who remains an enigma still.**

THOUGHTS: It was good. It was fun! It’s a literary literary thriller!! There are terrific quotes to start each chapter. There are music interludes for the audio version. I just found out while prepping this post that the book is on the 1001+ Books to Read Before I Die. LOVE when this happens without me orchestrating it.

THANKS S.O’N!

RATING: Four slices of pie. No pie mentioned. I rarely catch or note if I do, when pie is mentioned in an audiobook. There might have been a tart…

I would be very pleased if Audible and Goodreads would collab and capture notes...

*  Footnote #1 – It was an audiobook. I am usually yelling at Esther to stop eating acorns or goose poop or I am getting interrupted by my free walking app that tells me when I’m at half-mile + time per mile + calories burned. SHUT UP ALREADY. (I’ve since turned her off since she talks over my audiobooks. No more. Bitch.)

**   Footnote #2 – I had first thought that ‘the girl’ aka Irene Adler (ahem) was Corso’s daughter. I think we (readers) are supposed to imagine she is The Devil.

Copyright © 2007-2020. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Sharks in the Time of Saviors

Thoughts by Kawai Strong Washburn, MCD 2020, 376 pages

Challenge: Known entry for TOB 2021 due to winning Summer Camp 2020

Genre: Contemporary Lit, Hawaiian Lit

Type/Source: Hard Cover, Library 14 Day

 Why I read this now:  It’s time was now. Inspired by the TOB.

MOTIVATION for READING: TOB. For some reason, I don’t seem to find the motivation or timing to participate in Summer Camps. I want to!  But the cards just don’t get dealt that way. I find that my reading has seasons and this just isn’t my kind of summer reading weather. But I’m glad to get a jump on it while we await the long list. Where IS that by the way? [Wrote this but hadn’t yet pub’d; which reminded me when TOB did send it out finally that this post was likely ready, too. So, HERE WE ARE. The long list!] My goodreads 2021-Rooster list is here

WHAT’s it ABOUT:  Family. Legends. Destiny. The middle child is favored – favored by the gods, favored by mom and dad. The family struggles financially while encouraging all the gifts of skill and intelligence within the children. Unfortunately, all carry these burdens as too-much-burden, trapped in comparisons and never articulated, explored, brought to light but left to fester in the dark. Success and the subsequent trappings, wrapped up in ‘a ticket OUT’ betray the rewards of excelling on merits and opportunities. So. much. heartache and misunderstanding and allowing the aggravations and frustrations to get the better of them!

I yearned for Dean the eldest and he got lost, missed a step and couldn’t get his mojo back, he misunderstood what his mojo really was? Or did he find it… And baby sister had such a bright future!  She was so freaking smart and kicking ass as an engineering student in college — but youth and distractions and the tilt-a-whirl of that youth, the constant obsessing “is this love? what IS this” kept getting in the way. The middle kid? Just fate or bad luck – such pain. So much pain.

Noa might be the main character but he was the star that they all rotated around and never quite connected to.

Yet, I felt for them all and tried to understand. The magical realism was an illusion just beyond reach. But love was there. Love couldn’t quite overcome but love was there and the ending offers hope.

THOUGHTS: Did I enjoy this or was I moved by, caught up in? the hope that love would win?

RATING: Five slices of pie. No pie mentioned.

Copyright © 2007-2020. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Olive, Again

Thoughts by Elizabeth Strout, 2019, 289 pages

Challenge: Book Club

Genre: Contemporary Lit

Type/Source: Bookstore purchase / the Concord Bookshop (MA)

 Why I read this now:  Suggested, had on my shelf

MOTIVATION for READING: I loved Olive Kitteridge. 

Almost 11 years ago to the day, I posted my review of Olive, book 1. I adored it.

… the reader will come to appreciate this rough and tough yet tender lady.

WHAT’s it ABOUT:  This is another collection very similar to the first, of short stories either centering on Olive or has her barely mentioned in passing.

I loved the stories with Jack, and how he succumbs to the realization that he enjoys Olive and so takes the chance on a relationship. The way he lets her sit in business class on the flight to Norway was just too perfect. The chapter on the Larkins and their attorney was a gut-punch. As was the one where Olive meets the Poet.

THOUGHTS: Themes of loneliness and knowing yourself. I just love how Olive is so abrupt and blunt and judgmental but also knows the exact right thing to do or say when it is most needed. She is definitely prickly. I laugh at her, with her? and I cried.

RATING: Five slices of pie. No pie mentioned, but that’s OK. I’ll forgive.

No, I still haven’t seen the mini-series starring Frances McDormand…

 

 

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The Paper Wasp

Thoughts  by Lauren Acampora, Grove Press 2019, 289 pages

Genre: Contemporary Lit

Type/Source: Gift from a Friend, to be repaid in kind

 Why I read this now:  Coincide with Author Event

MOTIVATION for READING: Blurb sounded good!

Page 283: “What a sweetie pie”, the woman would say, and Shelby would say thanks as if the sweetness were her doing.”

WHAT’s it ABOUT:  Two friends since grade school reconnect at a high school reunion. One is an actress, a rising star. The other is unhinged.

What goodreads says: “In small-town Michigan, Abby Graven leads a solitary life. Once a bright student on the cusp of a promising art career, she now languishes in her childhood home, trudging to and from her job as a supermarket cashier. Each day she is taunted from the magazine racks by the success of her former best friend Elise, a rising Hollywood starlet whose life in pictures Abby obsessively scrapbooks. At night Abby escapes through the films of her favorite director, Auguste Perren, a cult figure known for his creative institute, the Rhizome. Inspired by Perren, Abby draws fantastical storyboards based on her often premonitory dreams, a visionary gift she keeps hidden.”

The story has a low-level hum of dread, a creepiness that is expressed well in the narrative with Abby telling Elise what is happening – a present tense feel yet immediate past. We can only sense, “this ain’t gonna end well.”

page 198:  I understood that you were gone. I saw that you’d never return to me fully, that we’d forever remain on parallel tracks, never to mesh again, no matter how I twisted and swerved.

   October 2019 Author Event at Brown University, along with poet Jennifer Franklin. I didn’t have a chance to purchase works prior to the event but have both author’s books on order now…

THOUGHTS:  Oh the ending! NOT what I expected but I am impressed. The clues are all there, no lost threads but an exclaimed “OMG! WOW.” from me, thinking in my head that the author was quite clever; fabulously pulled together.

Very smart, imaginative writing.

Four slices of pie.

Page 145: As you spoke, I felt a spiking sensation under my skin. I didn’t want to hear any of it. I tried to tune out your words while I studied the black stone in my hand. I marveled at its weight and warmth. It was solid and eternal, not of this world burning with the patience of the ages. It would outlast your folly and my pain. It would outlast everything.

So…, my friend who invited me to the event gave me her book and thensonow I’m ordering the book to give back a copy to her since she is friends with the author and now they have another good excuse to get together — so Lauren can sign HER book!  too funny. Things we do…  Thanks Kim for inviting me to this.

I can’t wait to read The Wonder Garden. I love linked story collections and the reviews are excellent. Lauren Acampora is an author to watch!

 

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The Idiot

Thoughts by Elif Batuman, Penguin Press March 14, 2017, 423 pages

Challenge: Tournament of Books 2018

Genre: Contemporary Lit

Type/Source: Hardcover / Library

 Why I read this now: It was available at the library (now why I checked this title as opposed to any of the other titles I still have yet to read? no idea…)

MOTIVATION for READING: My reading pal Ruthiella loved it. I saw many other didn’t. I wondered where I would fall on that love/hate divide.

WHAT’s it ABOUT: It’s about Selin who is a freshman at Harvard in the mid 90s, trying to fit in. Or is it? About ‘fitting in’, I mean. She both wonders about it but never obsesses about it (like I did in college.) She’s trying to figure out what to major in, how to achieve what she thinks she wants to ‘do’ in life. She wonders about a lot of stuff. Love, travel, language, words. She has odd thoughts and thinks in a clever witty style.

The author says “part of it (this book) is about discovering email and being really awkward with it.”

Batuman’s bio on goodreads says that her writing has been described as “almost helplessly epigrammatical.” I have to admit, I had to look up epigrammatical to make sure I knew the word correctly and I must say I agree. (I also had to look up parvenu and sinecure; these are words that I have to look up every time I encounter because I have worn pathways in my brain requiring me to mistrust my own definition.)

WHAT’s GOOD: Oh the deadpan humor is fabulous. I would temper that though and say it is MY kind of humor and I know very well that it wouldn’t be many of my friends’ kind of humor. I laughed out loud a lot.

There is a satisfying pie scene. Winner so far of my 2018 Pie in Literature Award. It’s still early, though. Plenty of books to get through yet.

What’s NOT so good: The color of that cover. Yuck.

If you want to read the range of reactions, clicking on that ugly book cover above will take you to goodreads.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Read Roxane Gay’s review. She got it.

 

RATING: Four slices of pie.

“I thought about how wonderful it would be to be eating pie.”

 

Copyright © 2007-2018. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Inside the O’Briens

Thoughts by Lisa Genova, Gallery Books 2015, 343 pages

“Hope is the thing with feathers that reaches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all. – Emily Dickinson”

RATING: Five slices of pie.

FOR:  My neighborhood book club. Meeting is first week of October 2015.

What’s it ABOUT: I hate to assume but I do know many of my readers are familiar with Lisa Genova. She is the author of Still Alice, recently brought to film and hot in the latest Academy Awards race which culminated in a Best Actress win for Julianne Moore. I have yet to see the movie.

Still Alice was Genova’s debut novel and I had the privilege to meet her at a book reading on Cape Cod in 2009. Shocked, I am, that it was that long ago! But not really, considering that THIS book, Inside the O’Briens, is Genova’s FOURTH book. She is on her way to being and remaining a celebrated author and I expect we will be entertained and educated on more neurological disorders in the future.

“A silence fills the room like a flash flood, and they’re all submerged, breathless.”

Yes, she has a genre; could be considered one of the best of the “disease fiction” novelists (the only one that comes to mind at the moment) — if that is a thing. (There are many shelves in goodreads pertaining to this theme.) In all of her books, Genova tackles an issue, usually based on a little known or rare neuropathology, and humanizes the situation extremely well. She brings it to life where we not only understand the problems, consider the heartaches, but also relate to the fear AND hope. Providing HOPE is especially difficult to do and she manages it somehow. She also reminds me to be compassionate and kind.

Still Alice discusses Early Onset Alzheimers. Left Neglected showcases a disorder known a Left Neglect – in this one, the protagonist suffers a brain injury. Love Anthony tackles autism – this is the only book I have yet to read. All are set in Massachusetts.

Inside the O’Briens brings awareness to the rare genetic Huntington’s Disorder (HD). We meet a Boston cop who lives in Charlestown MA and his family and friends. Yes, I cried. And yet I didn’t cry at the end. Maybe I was all cried out by then, but also, Genova leaves us with a plan to be hopeful and knowledgeable. In the epilogue, she provides an opportunity to support the research to find a cure. In my opinion, the most difficult part of these kinds of books is the balance between providing too much information about the disorder and describing what the people are feeling. I never felt that I was encountering an educational treatise (“Here is a scary fact, now go feel something.”). I never felt manipulated. All of it felt real and skillfully plotted and revealed.

We not only learn about HD, we learn about what it is like to be a police officer in Boston. We learn about yoga, we learn about Charlestown. This author is excellent at creating that sense of place. It helps that I am familiar with this area but I don’t think anyone else who hasn’t visited Boston would feel any setting loss. She is that good. I have to admit that one of my slices of pie is for that skill Genova has to allow me into the lives of fictional people who seem totally real; I am inside fully developed characters and immersed into their thoughts and fears and dreams. This is a successful book.

HAVE YOU READ A BOOK BY LISA GENOVA? DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE?  This might be mine. I liked Still Alice a bit more than Left Neglected.

*NOTE* – I read Still Alice as a first book when joining a new book club and this will be the first book for a new club, too. I’m beginning to see a connection! It doesn’t take much for me to see connections… What it might mean, I have no clue.

**SECOND NOTE** – I had a status update in goodreads for page 239 that mentions my concern with the last paragraph but I returned the book to the library. Here’s hoping that edition will be at the club meeting so I can refer to it.

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