Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter
Posted: 2019/07/25 Filed under: Book Reviews, BookLust I, E-Books, Fiction | Tags: 2019, book lust i, book review, e-book, Fiction, humor, july, Mario Vargas Llosa, Peru, relationships Leave a commentLlosa, Mario Vargas. Aunt Julia and the Script Writer. Translated by Helen R. Lane. New York: Avon, 1982.
Reason read: July is the busiest time to visit Peru.
As a struggling writer, eighteen year old Marito (Mario) makes ends meet by writing news stories for a local Peruvian radio station while in law school. He welcomes two new distractions into his life and uses them to spice up his storytelling: his beautiful aunt (by marriage only), Julia, and the brilliant but crazy radio scriptwriter, Pedro Comancho. Thirteen years his senior, Aunt Julia begins a clandestine romance with Mario and at the same time Comancho takes Marito under his wing as his ever-growing confused confidant.
It is the differing point of view narratives that keep the story interesting as the reader bounces between the first person account of Marito and Comancho’s soap opera dramas told in the third person.
As an aside, when Aunt Julia says she’s old enough to be Marito’s mother I just had to do the math. Julia is only thirteen or fourteen years older than Mario. Yes, fourteen year olds have babies. It is possible, but it made me shudder all the same.
Lines I liked, “He was a creature given to short-lived, contradictory, but invariably sincere enthusiasms” (p 10), and “In the span of just a few seconds I went from hating her with all my heart to missing her with all my soul (p 157).
Author fact: Aunt Julia and the Script Writer is autobiographical. Also, Llosa has won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Book trivia: Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter was made into a 1990 movie called “Tune in Tomorrow.”
Nancy said: Pearl called Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter her favorite Llosa novel.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Latin American Fiction” (p 144).
Prelude to Foundation
Posted: 2019/07/01 Filed under: Book Reviews, BookLust I, Fiction | Tags: 2019, book lust i, book review, e-book, Fiction, Isaac Asimov, june, science fiction, series Leave a commentAsimov, Isaac. Prelude to Foundation. New York: Spectra, 1989.
Reason read: to continue the series started in January in honor of Asimov’s birth month.
Prelude to Foundation begins the entire Foundation series chronologically. On the planet Tranton Hari Seldon is alive and well. He has just given a speech on mathematical formulas that could potentially predict the future of mankind. That’s when the trouble starts. The last galactic emperor has gotten wind of this phenomenon and he wants in. Seldon’s advance predictions could potential stabilize his dynasty. Seldon needs to go into exile in order to escape Emperor Cleon’s clutches. As Seldon puts it, “if a psychohistorical analysis is made and the results are then given to the public, the various emotions and reactions of humanity would at once be distorted” (p 17). He needs time to develop his notions further and perfect his psychohistorical technique so that it becomes mathematically valid predictions. With the help of mysterious Mr. Hummin Hari is spirited far away with Historian Professor Dors Venabili. Together they travel to different lands of intolerance like Mycogen where they discover a society that despises hair on adults. Another carries a severe prejudice against women which is ironic since Dors has the responsibility of protecting Seldon.
Best quote, “What is important is what people will or will not believe can be done” (p 497).
Author fact: I’ve already told you twice that Asimov was a professor of biochemistry. The “new” fact is Asimov supposedly coined the word “robotics” in his story, Liar!
Book trivia: Chronologically, Prelude to Foundation is the first book in the series.
Nancy said: nothing specific.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror” (p 213).
Barchester Towers
Posted: 2019/06/07 Filed under: Book Reviews, BookLust II, E-Books, Fiction | Tags: 2019, Anthony Trollope, book lust ii, book review, e-book, Fiction, may, religion, series Leave a commentTrollope, Anthony. Barchester Towers. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2005.
Reason read: to continue the series started in April in honor of Trollope’s birth month.
I will be 100% honest. I couldn’t get into Barchester Towers despite the fact it’s supposed to be Trollope’s most popular novel and many organizations have it on their “Top 1000 books to read.” Yes, it is satirical and it has it humorous parts. I just couldn’t get into any of the characters. I suspect my lack of enthusiasm centers around the fact the novel is focused on religion and the war between the high and low churches. The bishop has died and a new one needs to be appointed. There’s a lot of infighting about how that will be resolved.
The best element of Barchester Towers is the return of Septimus Harding. His daughter, Eleanor, is now a widow and eligible to remarry. The second best character was Mr. Stanhope, a member of the clergy. He has been in Italy for twelve years “recovering” from a sore throat and catching butterflies.
Quote I liked, “They had never, therefore, poured into each others ears their hopes and loves…” (p 252).
Author fact: According to Pearl, Trollope was a postman by day and an author in his spare time. He wrote whenever he could.
Book trivia: My copy contained both The Warden and Barchester Towers.
Nancy said: Pearl’s favorite Trollope is the entire Barchester series.
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Barsetshire and Beyond” (p 15).
Beekeeper’s Apprentice
Posted: 2019/02/08 Filed under: Book Reviews, BookLust I, Fiction | Tags: 2019, book lust i, book review, e-book, Fiction, janurary, Laurie King, mystery, series, Sherlock Holmes Leave a commentKing, Laurie R. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice: On the Segregation of the Queen. Read by Jenny Sterlin. Recorded Books, 1995.
King, Laurie R. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice: On the Segregation of the Queen. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994.
Reason read: January is Female Mystery month. Take that anyway you want.
Such a clever plot. Take an established character like Sherlock Holmes and re-imagine him after retirement, living in the country and tending his beloved bees. Although he is only in his late 50s Holmes wants nothing more to do with solving crimes and revealing the truth behind mysteries…until he meets Mary Russell. She is ever bit the investigator he had been in his heyday and then some. He cannot help but be drawn to her keen sense of observation, her energized brain and her innate talent as an investigator.
Despite being nearly three times her age, it is interesting to watch Homes get closer to Mary emotionally and how she reacts to it. When there is physical contact between them Mary is clutched by sudden awareness of his physicality. There is a subtle shift to their relationship and what each wants from it.
The final mystery in The Beekeeper’s Apprentice threatens the lives of both Mary and Holmes. They are in so much danger people around them start paying the consequences. It takes everything in Sherlock and Russell’s combined powers of investigation to stay alive.
Quotes to quote: ” I refuse to accept gallant stupidity in place of rational necessity” (p 165) and “When in ignorance, consult a library” (p 301)..
Author fact: King is a native to San Francisco, California.
Book trivia: The Beekeeper’s Apprentice is the first of a series of books about Sherlock and Russell.
Nancy said: Pearl says she loves King’s series involving Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell.
BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the great chapter called “Ms Mystery” (p 169).
Call It Sleep
Posted: 2018/10/22 Filed under: Book Reviews, BookLust I, Fiction | Tags: 2018, book lust i, book review, coming of age, e-book, Fiction, Henry Roth, jewish, october Leave a commentRoth, Henry. Call It Sleep. New York: Penguin Classics, 2006.
Roth, Henry. Call It Sleep. Read by George Guidall. Prince Frederick, MD: Recorded Books, 1994.
Reason read: The Yom Kippur War in October.
[For my own state of mind I really should ban reading overly sad books with traumatic endings.] Told from the perspective of six year old David Schearl, Call It Sleep relates the hardships of immigrant life in turn of the century gritty New York City. In the prologue, David and his mother arrive from Austria to join her abusive and angry husband. This is the of the few times the narrative is outside little six year old David’s head. The majority of the story is a stream of consciousness, skillfully painting a portrait of inner city life from a child’s point of view.
As an aside, in the beginning I questioned why David’s father would abhor David to the point of criminal abuse. It took awhile to figure out why.
But, back to little David. His young life is filled with fear. He is overwhelmed by language differences between Yiddish and English, overly sensitive to the actions of his peers, clings to his mother with Freudian zeal. I found him to be a really hopeless child and my heart bled for him. While most of the story is bleak, there is the tiniest ray of hope at the end. The pessimists in the crowd might have a negative explanation for what David’s father does, but I saw it as a small gesture of asking for forgiveness.
As another aside, Roth’s interpretation of the Jewish Austrian dialect was, at times, difficult to hear in my hear. Listening to George Guidall was much easier.
Quotes I liked, “Go snarl up your own wits” (p 157), “David’s toes crawled back and forth upon a small space on the sole of his shoe” (p 186), and “…clacking like nine pins before a heavy bowl of mirth they tumbled about the sidewalk” (p 292).
Author fact: Henry Roth is often confused with Philip Roth. I’m guilty of doing it a few times. The real Author Fact is that Henry Roth didn’t write another novel after Call It Sleep until he was 88 years old, sixty years after Call It Sleep was first published.
Book trivia: Call It Sleep was Henry Roth’s first novel, written when he was under thirty.
Nancy said: Nancy simply explains a little of the plot of Call It Sleep.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “The Jewish American Experience” (p 133).
Entranced
Posted: 2018/03/03 Filed under: Book Reviews, BookLust I, Fiction | Tags: 2018, book lust i, book review, e-book, Fiction, march, Nora Roberts, romance, series Leave a commentRoberts, Nora. Entranced: Donovan Legacy Book Two. New York: Silhouette, 2004.
Reason read: to continue the series started in honor of Valentine’s Day.
Mary Ellen “Mel” Sutherland is a no nonsense private investigator who is more comfortable in jeans and a tee shirt than high heels and a slinky dress. She runs three miles a day and prefers to be alone. Her tomboy ways don’t allow her to enjoy pink toenails or frilly outfits or even the searing looks from admiring men.
Sebastian Donovan just happens to be one of those admiring men. He is a wealthy psychic hired to help Mel find a missing child. Mel is less than thrilled to need the help of a kook she doesn’t believe in, but she has no choice. The missing child is her friend’s infant son, David. As you might have guessed, Sebastian is one of the Donovans, related to Morgana (from book one of the Donvan Legacy) as cousins. He is also a witch and, did I mention devastatingly handsome? Of course Mel cannot help but be drawn to him. It’s cliche, but she is annoyed with him until she isn’t.
Author fact: Nora Roberts has five different pseudonyms.
Book trivia: Morgana, Nash and even Luna the cat make an appearance in Entranced. Morgana and Nash are expecting their first child and throughout the entire story I worried their newborn would be stolen as part of the adoption scam.
Nancy said: absolutely nothing.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust not in the chapter called “Romance Novels: Our Love is Here to Stay” (p 207). I am super annoyed with The Donovan Legacy being the title of the book I was supposed to read. Here’s what I want to know: were the Donovan books published together as one book and then sold separately later? Or were the books published one at a time first and then sold as a package? Which came first, because that is what really matters to me. If I had more time I would research this further. My guess is the latter.
