Kicking Off Another Year

Hard to believe that 2015 is almost over. So many books still left to read, so little time! I have been remiss in blogging recently and as I reflect on what the 2015 year has been and what I am hoping for 2016, developing a discipline and schedule for posting is high on my list. I am also venturing out of my comfort zone (being a self-proclaimed introvert prone to long spells of book escapism) in 2016 and will be actively sharing my blog post to social media. Ekk! I tremble a bit at the thought but see it as a pathway for personal growth. I love reading, am enjoying the freedom to review what I read and hope to grow this blog into a forum for other book lovers to be entertained or even discover a new book/author/genre.

I hope you enjoy exploring my blog and watching it’s growth over the next year!

 

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How every evening should be spent….

Ship of Theseus or more commonly known as “What the heck did I just read?”

Ekk! Where did a month go? The black hole of work-minded routine sucked me in once again along with feeble attempts to enjoy the last blistering days of an uncommonly hot Oregon summer. Why did I think this would be a good time to start half-marathon training again?? Jury is still out…

But in more blog-relevant news, a co-worker gave me a book that she felt was a must-read for an obsessive, intelligent, literary-minded soul such as myself. I admit to confusion as she handed me what looked to be a library book complete with slip cover. As I pulled the book out of the innocent protection case, a postcard fell out. Thinking it was hers, I started to hand it back only to be stopped by the knowing grin on her face.

“It’s part of the book. Story within a story kind of thing.”

Intrigued, I flipped through a few pages and noticed the margin writings and other extras slipped here and there between the pages. What did she just give me?

I admit I let this book sit on the small table behind the couch for a few days. I was intimidated to start such a book but also felt a magnetic pull to dive into the stor(ies) within. I could see myself being sucked in and yet, ill-afford many late night reading escapades. Not as young as I once was! Obviously, I eventually cracked open the front cover and started reading. And know what? The first few pages sucked to read! How in the world was I suppose to process the actually story plot plus the margin “story” and keep it all straight? In addition to that, the book kicks off with an intro that had me even more confused about the nature of the paper journey I was about to embark on. Eventually, I figured out a strategy that kept me sane for the 500 pages SoT encompasses and found myself swept away more by the margin story (hopeless romantic syndrome inserted here) than the actually novel plot which turned out to be climatic way too early in the plot and prose-riddled unto the end.

Given the complexity of this story within a story with various conspiracy theory sub-plots and speculations, and still processing my feelings as I finished the book a mere hour ago, I feel ill-equipped in my (very) young, amateur blogging life to attempt a review of this book and give it the justice and depth it deserves. If you are interested in exploring the inter-workings for Ship of Theseus more, please click the below link for a review I feel appropriately (albeit with a little profanity) summarizes not only the plot but also the mental states and questions you will experience along the reading of this book.

This book is a fresh challenge in the best kind of way and while not the most epic thing I have ever read (not even sure what I would put on that list but may give that more thought for a future post), it was refreshing and captivating because it was different and aren’t we all looking for something to break up the literary mundaneness once in a while?

http://pantheonmag.com/s-by-j-j-abrams-doug-dorst/

Ready Player One- Willy Wonka for the internet age

I’m not sure where the summer has gone. I was happily meeting my goal to post at least once per week and then summer time social craziness happened and here we are in the middle of August. At least the time has been spent creating memories and having a few some adventures.

My boyfriend is once again to be thanked for introducing me to another addicting book although this time he did so with an innocent smile and a glib “want to be hooked on another book?” as he connected his phone to my car stereo and hit play on the audiobook for our camping trip drive up the mountain. 4 hours audio plot twist left me bereft and in withdrawal until I broke down and bought the kindle version. No patience to be 105 out of 105 holds at the public library this go around!

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is a bundle of nostalgia and geekiness for me. 80’s culture, a Willy Wonka- esque story line (many memories of my mom reading that story to me and my brother when we were younger) and a glimpse of the internet future with all its cultural pros and cons. And did I mention geekiness galore!? You should already want to read this book.

But if you need additional convincing/facts/ clues to the location of the holy grail, then read on, my friend! Ready Player One is the story of an eccentric, reclusive brilliant gaming nerd (Halliday) who dies with no heirs, 240 billion dollars and controlling stock in the company he help found. He creates an egg hunt (in reference and homage to the “Easter eggs” hidden in several Atari games) which invites every member of the Oasis (more on that shortly) to search for 3 keys and 3 gates hidden within the Oasis which will lead to the egg, the fortune and control of the company.

Halliday helped create what is known as the Oasis- a massive, multiplayer online simulation game where members sign up for 25 cents, buy a set of haptic gloves and a visor that allows interaction with the environment and away they go. Members create an avatar -aka- who every they wish they were but aren’t in real life (male, female, tall, short, beautiful, ugly, human, non-human) and interaction with the Oasis worlds (Star Trek, Star Wars, Dr. Who, Firefly, Tolkien, Harry Potter, the plants of our solar systems; you get the idea. Why can’t the Oasis exists??) through their avatars including pvp combat, treasure hunting, social platforms, shopping and other nefarious or adult behaviors to name a few.

The Oasis was launched during a time in world history where real life is grim- a 2-year wait list for a job in fast food kind of grim, and many people live their entire lives on the Oasis including finding employment in various positions associated with and within the Oasis. A generation of children are raised by the Oasis similar to what we have experienced with the TV and internet ages of the past and present. **Side note, the book raises an interesting social conversation topic- given what has already been seen with the gaming world and people willing to live most of their lives in virtual fantasy worlds online, is the advance of technology towards an Oasis to be met with excitement or concern?**end side note.

The novel follows the path of one avatar- Wade Owen Watts- aka Parzival as he quest to find solve “the Hunt” as it becomes known. He is 17, poor and has a low level avatar = seemingly no resources to undertake/solve a quest that has baffled people for 5 years after Halliday’s death and the launch of the challenge. Whole clans and corporations have formed to find the first key to no avail but where there is a will, there is a way…

OK cheesey line but this is one story where I actually don’t want to give away any spoilers. If you are into gaming, 80’s culture, geekiness, like the thought of playing in a simulation world, loved Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory or just plain want something epic, adventurous and entertaining to read, then add Ready Player One to your list. Or if audio books are your thing, the book is narrated by the dreamy, uber-nerd Wil Wheaton… you’re welcome.

Warner Bros has bought the rights to movie version with Spielberg slated to direct. Please don’t let them screw this up! I can’t live with another Starship Troopers situation- a beautifully tragic morality tale of sacrifice, war, responsibility and politics that Hollywood bastardized into a gimmicky POS with sequels!! My soul still hurts a little. 😦 And if I have made this reference before in another post, then you understand how deep the hurt goes.

Oh, and if you think I am over-exaggerating the 80’s culture reference, check out this wikia page for a list….

http://readyplayerone.wikia.com/wiki/Ready_Player_One

Coming Soon- Carsick or the fiction/non-fiction crazy combo novel by John Waters which may have scarred me for life.

The capacity to forgive- Railway Man

I’m not sure why I was moved to read this book after seeing a preview for the recently released movie of the same title (starring the dreamy Colin Firth) as I tend to shy away from WWII-related books and movies- especially if based on a real event or is a memoir. Historical events of the 20th century still feel a little too close to current times that I am often discomforted by the reading of such books and rarely force myself to watch war movies as I usually end up crying the entire time. I blame being forced to watch “All Quiet on the Western Front” as a precocious 7th grader. That movie has haunted me.

Cinematically traumatic memories aside, I was intrigued by the story line for Railway Man. Perhaps it was due to my being fairly ignorant to the horrors inflicted on British soldiers within the Asian theater during WWII as more of my history centers around the Holocaust and European theaters of that time. I was also pulled in by the wonders of fate that allowed a man who was so horribly tortured and survived events that most of us can’t even being to fathom, the opportunity to 50 years later meet the man who was the interpreter during his torture and the fixation of his hatred for what he experienced.

Railway Man is an autobiography written by Eric Lomax. Perhaps it is the span of time in between when these heinous events occurred and when he was able to finally write about the events, but the book read with a sense of distance to it. Understandable given the descriptions of torture the author lived through along with his time spent in the Changi prison. Lomax was captured by the Japanese when Singapore was surrendered in Feb. 1942 and eventually ended up with thousands of other POW’s building the Burma Railway (tens of 1000’s of people died in the building of this railway). Lomax was tortured under suspicion of anti-Japanese activities due to his suspected involvement in helping to build a radio while in the POW camp. He was found guilty of this charge and transferred to another Singapore prison where he spent the remainder of the war.

Lomax had a difficult time adjusting back to civilian life and he talks at length in his memoir on this topic as he is able to reflect on how his experiences in the war changed him. He became a patient of Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture in the mid-1980’s where he received counseling to help him both deal with what he experienced and document his experiences as a POW.

The most powerful part of his story is when he is able to meet the interpreter, Nagase Takeshi**, and forgive him for his part in the torture Lomax experienced.

As I finished this memoir, I couldn’t help but cry a little at Lomax’s capacity to forgive a man who was fundamental to the pain and suffering he endured. While you could argue that even if Takeshi had wanted to protest the torture being inflicted on Lomax and others that were being interrogated, this likely would have been a death sentence for Takeshi and probably not changed the outcome of Lomax’s story. My own thoughts also ran along the lines of could I forgive something so great? I think of my daily life and those of people around me and what we choose to focus on, hold against each other and allow to be unforgiven but are they worthwhile things to fall into an “unforgivable” category? Perhaps it is all relative to what we do experience in our lives. I can only hope that I never live through such a brutal and life-altering experience where my capacity to forgive, heal and find peace at what I endured at the hands of my fellow man would be tested. I honestly don’t know what the outcome would be.

Railway Man also reminded me that WWII stories need to continue being present in our 21st century world. More so as fewer and fewer are left to share firsthand accounts, and sadly being replaced with others from different generations who have their own difficult memories to battle.

**Nagase Takeshi wrote his own memoir called Crosses and Tigers and spent much of his life post-war leading people back to the Burma railway to discover the mass burial graves of railway workers. He also financed the construction of a Buddhist temple at the River Kwai bridge as part of his atonement for his part in the war.

Fingersmith- Cleverly Dickens-esque or sadly underwhelming?

The wonderful ladies of my book club and I decided to venture down a new literary path with a novel that was described as being “a hypnotic suspense novel…of Dickensian leitmotifs” and an engrossing tale of lesbian fiction set in the Victorian era. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters is the story of an orphan named Sue who lives in gloomy, dirty London, circa 1862. Her adoptive “mother” is a thief and baby seller (yes, she literally runs an orphan baby mill in her house like a modern person would have a puppy mill) and everyone else in the “family” are also thieves. Sue’s life is destined for nothing until a handsome con man called Gentleman proposes that Sue help him in a scheme to trick a young, wealthy woman out of her fortune. All Sue needs to do is play lady’s maid to this woman, help Gentleman to marry her and then commit her to a madhouse so he can claim her fortune for himself and give Sue a portion. Sue agrees to this plan and off she to goes to the English countryside.

Introduce Maud Lilly to the novel, the above aforementioned wealthy, young woman about to be duped into marriage. She lives a secluded life with her Uncle who is obsessed with writing a “dictionary” and is forced to wear gloves at all times to protect the precious books in the Uncle’s library. Maud is presented to the reader as being timid, delicate and in love with Gentleman, who has been posing as an art instructor to Miss Lilly. As Sue interacts with Maud in her role of lady’s maid and attempts to do her part to encourage Maud to elope with Gentleman, she begins to establish a friendship with Maud beyond that of lady and servant and eventually admits to herself that she has fallen in love with Maud. This causes her to start questioning her role in Gentleman’s scheme but in the end, she assists Maud in her elopement, is present when Maud and Gentleman marry and make the journey to the madhouse to have Maud unknowingly committed.

At this point in the novel, the conclusion of part one comes with a very Dickens-esque twist and the novel continues with Maud as the narrator. For all that I struggled to find a rhythm to this novel and did not devour it with my usually voracious appetite for an engagingly written tale, there were some plot twists and points that made this novel an interesting read:

1) At the end of part one, Sue ends up being the one committed to the madhouse under the name Mrs. Rivers

2) We learn that Maud was aware of the scheme to marry her to Gentleman and have her committed the entire time but her own deal with Gentleman was to have the innocent maid he would bring back with him from London committed in her place so she would be free of her Uncle.

3) Part two is told from Maud’s point of view and we learn that she was born in the same madhouse that Sue is committed to and her mother died there.

4) The “dictionary” her uncle is working on is actually a reference book for all known literary pornography of that time and she is forced to read passages from books of this nature to gentleman guest who have a similar interest in that genre

5) Maud also falls in love with Sue but still goes through with the plan to have Sue committed in her place so she can be free of her Uncle.

Part two ends with Gentleman taking Maud back to London and forcing her to stay with Mrs S., Sue’s adoptive mother. It is at this time that we learn Mrs. S. was the true mastermind of this plan for over 17 years. There is a convoluted storyline where we learn that Sue is really Maud and Maud is Sue meaning that Sue’s real mother was a wealthy lady that had escaped her abusive father and brother  and gave birth at Mrs. S. place. Her family found her and she begged Mrs. S to keep her baby safe with the promise that her daughter and the switched baby would each split her fortune on their 18th birthdays. Mrs. S agrees and gives one of the orphan babies, Maud, to the father and brother who take her and her mother to the madhouse where she is raised by the nurses until her Uncle claims her at a later time. Maud then turns out to be Mrs. S. child and not an orphan child at random. Mrs. S wanted to have Maud brought home so she could see her again and also claim all of the fortune that had been promised by Sue’s mother, the wealthy lady.

Still following? Congrats, because this piece of the novel was an absolutely bear to get through! Felt like I needed to draw it out with crayon so I didn’t lose who was who. The quick summation for the rest of the novel is that Sue manages to escape the madhouse, makes her way to London, perceives that Maud has replaced her in Mrs. S. life, attempts to exact revenge, learns the awful truth about plot and her birth, Gentleman is killed, Mrs. S. is hanged for the crime, Maud disappears, Sue comes into her fortune, returns to the country house, finds Maud living there and supporting herself by writing her own literary erotica and they insipidly declare their feelings for each other.

For a novel that is toted as pushing lesbian fiction to be more mainstream, I found this part of the book to be very lacking in development and not as central to the overall story line as I had thought it would be. My book club members and I picked this novel as we were intrigued by how a suspense novel involving a lesbian couple set in an era where relationships of that nature were kept in secret could be presented and were drawn in by the multitude of praise given to this title. I can praise the author’s historical accurate and chilling description of Sue’s time in the madhouse, but overall, I was underwhelmed by a book that I had high hopes for and that just sucks. At our book club discussion, my friends and I had too many questions that we would love to pose to the author: Why was the literary pornography piece included and written about so much? It didn’t seem to explain anything other than her husband’s depravity and then later give Maud a source a income. Why wasn’t there more development of Maud and Lilly’s relationship? Are our expectations to high in this modern age to appreciate the more subtle shadings of development the author employed to progress their relationship? Why in the hell was the last part so damn long?? 100+ seemingly endless pages on Sue’s escape from the madhouse, her travel to London, stalking Maud for days and then about 12 pages surrounding the culmination of all the cross plots and Gentleman death.

We have since been told that this is not the best of Sarah Water’s novels and while I am intrigued by the summations for her other works- Affinity and Twisting the Velvet- I find myself shying away from attempting a second title after being burned so disappointingly by Fingersmith. Guess I’ll soak my figurative fingers in icewater and see how I feel in a few weeks.

 

2 for 1 book plots

Over my long 5-day holiday weekend, I unabashedly indulged in two of my favorite activities: napping and reading. I think I made it through 4 or 5 books and as many hours curled up on the couch or bed napping. Ahh…glorious staycation.

I had an interesting observation with two of the books I picked up over the weekend and that was the plots seemed to be combination of at least two plots from other books/movies. For instance, Twisted by Andrew Kaufman seemed to be a blend of “Silence of the Lambs” and “Shutter Island.” Take one psychologist working with a serial killer in the wing of a asylum reserved for the top level crazies (the description of some of the other patients instantly reminded me of SotL; the scene where Clarice first meets Dr. Lector….walking down a long hallway because of course the person of interest is located at the end…having to pass by the other “crazies” including the sex fiend jacking off…that chilling first look at the patient/inmate in the cell…key camera zoom in), said psychologist starts to have strange things happening to him at work and at home, starts to believe that the patient/co-workers are plotting against him, goes on destruction mode to prevent patient from accomplishing sinister plot and final twist of the book is the psychologist wakes up in a mental hospital to realize his mind had created an entire fantasy world for a year to avoid dealing with the death of his son and the crazy serial killer in his fantasy was a twisted projection of his own psychologist who was pushing him to come out of his shell and thus became the fantasy villain. AKA- Shutter Island- detective and his partner investigate a missing person on an island that houses a mental asylum, detective suspects there is some crazy, sinister plot afoot between the doctors at the hospital, that they are out to get him so he can’t expose the truth of what happens at the hospital, goes on the, you guessed it, destructive rampage, only for the plot twist to also be that he is a patient of the hospital, his partner is his therapist letting him act out the investigation in an attempt to help him come to terms with killing his wife who had drowned their children. (Side note- at the end of the move, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character ends up being lobotomized.)

I hate to use the word cliché as I feel that has some negative connotation to it but I also think it is fitting. Twisted was an enjoyable read and I wasn’t sure where exactly the storyline was going to go but overall, I was glad that it was one of the $3.99 or less deals for Kindle. Somewhat re-worked plot aside, I would be curious to give one of the author’s other novels a try. My biggest beef with Twisted was at the end when the main character wakes up out of the fantasy and is ready to start living in the real world again, his wife basically says ‘oh honey, it’s ok that you retreated into yourself for an entire year, leaving me alone to deal with my own grief and reality but I don’t have a single iota of resentment against you so now we can just go back to our puppies and sunshine life again.” Ugh. Now before anyone starts posting comments that I’m being insensitive to the effects grief can have a person and that people don’t necessarily consciously choose to retreat from life in such a fashion, I’m more irritated that the author wrote an entire novel dealing with some very serious, deep issues and then tied the book up with a pretty, pink bow at the end in about 3 pages. I’m an absolute hopeless romantic and, generally speaking, love a happy ending but something about this one just bothered me. Anyone else read this story and feel the same?

The other novel, the Einstein Prophecy, well, I think you could argue that it’s a mish-mash of several similar plots- Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Mummy, and Monument Men. If you have seen all three movies, then you can essentially weave together the plot of this book. If you haven’t, honestly, watching each movie will be more entertaining and feel more original than reading this book. Again…thank you Amazon for the $1.99 pre-lease kindle deals. I might have cried if I had paid more

 

The Martian: A Novel by Andy Weir

I have my (amazing) boyfriend to thank for the introduction to The Martian by Andy Weir. The manner in which he sucked me into the book was somewhat cruel, however, as he played the first minute of the audio book format he had downloaded but then left me hanging. Who does that? He knew that there was no way I could not be sucked into a book where “I’m pretty much f**cked” is the opening sentence.

Candid profanity and boyfriend cruelty aside, this story was immensely enjoyable start to finish. The author, Andy Weir, introduces scientific jargon and methodology that was believable* and understandable to laymen (pirate-ninja may be my new unit of measurement for anything outlandish and immeasurable!) while also portraying the main character Mark Watney as behaving and speaking in manner that I would expect from someone in this day and age. The dialogues between Mark and NASA personnel later on in the book are a perfect example of this. The excerpt below occurs when NASA comments on Mark’s planned cut he has to make to the top of one of the rover vehicles by drilling many, many small holes:

[11:49] JPL (aka NASA): What we can see of your planned cut looks good. We’re assuming the other side is identical. You’re cleared to start drilling.

    [12:07] Watney: That’s what she said.

[12:25] JPL: Seriously, Mark? Seriously?

There is also a “giggle out loud” moment where Mark laments the effects avoiding a windstorm has caused to his attempt to travel to a potential rescue site 3,200 km away. To outrun the storm and keep his solar panels recharging as efficiently as possible,  he ends up having to travel due south (vs the desired direct south-west route) and since  “Pythagoras is a dick”   makes 90km progress in one sol (Martian day) but only 37 km closer to his final destination. Thanks, mathematics.

This novel is wonderful example of human ingenuity in life and death situations but also highlights the sacrifices one human being would make for another. The crew that had been part of the mission with Mark in the beginning, and who safely get off the planet, decide to sacrifice years of their lives by changing course en route for Earth to return to Mars on a rescue mission (no warp speed travel in this book!) that could possibly cost them everything.

I would have liked for the ending (spoiler alert!) to be Mark and the rest of the crew’s triumphant return to Earth amid much fanfare, balloons, and confetti. The man survived on Mars for goodness sake! Doesn’t that deserve an epilogue at the least?

My only other disappointment was that the “green-skinned yet beautiful Queen of Mars” was not a significant plot twist but a glib joke mention in only one place. I say disappointment because same said- amazing boyfriend that introduced me to the book, led me to think this was going to be a character of interest. I was let-down a bit to think this novel might head down the  all to stereotypical Mars sci-fi path when it held such promise but then I was disappointment in myself for being gullible after I read the one mention of the Queen in the book. Probably a good thing my boyfriend and I don’t keep a gullibility score card…

All I can say at this point is if you are sci-fi geek, science geek or just everyday nerdy, read this book. Get the pure, untainted plot before the movie is released in October of this year and we see if once again Hollywood take a perfectly good story and “makes it better” to the point of being barely recognizable and full of unnecessary crap…pointing to you Peter Jackson and your Hobbit movie trilogy!

Happy Reading!

* Post Note- I say this book has scientific jargon and methodology that is believable, not that it is scientifically proven or accounts for every other know nuance of information we have on Mars, the sciences and engineering. The author wrote an enjoyable story with a nod to the sciences, not a scientific manual. Fair warning if you want all the facts validated and published in some scientific article before you can enjoy the story.

“Defeated” books and The 100 page rule

As my excitement to re-enter the blogging world increases, my mind has been whirling with books I want to review-some that I have recently finished and others that are on my (long) “to-read” list/stack. But one topic that keeps popping up is an idea to track all the books that have “defeated” me. What do I mean by defeated? Well, I apply this term to those special books that I enter into with a determined mindset to make it through to the very last page but, for one reason or another, just cannot continue to force myself to finish. Do we all have this category of books or am I just special? Even now, a few such books, which should have a “I defeated the reader” bookmark inserted at the last endpoint, stare at me with mocking spines from various locations on my bookshelf. I console myself that if I were to list every book I have read vs. those that I failed to finish, that the numbers would be heavily slanted towards the former category. Ha! Take that Wuthering Heights!!

So, for prosperity (sounds much more important then saying “for no reason at all”), I have created a page where I will list my personal “Defeated” books and the reasons why. I would love your comments on the books I list or to see what your own personal “defeated” books might be.

Least any of you think that a “defeated” books makes this rarefied list without effort on my part, I would like to hit upon the other half of this blog post title: The 100 page rule. I’m not sure how I developed this rule or if it was something I was taught to do back in my early, voracious reading days but with every book that I pick up, I try to get past the first 100 pages. This seems like a fair number of pages to allow for the magic of the plot and characters to capture my interest and hell, with books of 700+ pages, I’ll even generously increase this rule to 200 pages. After I hit the page mark, If I still feel like I would rather be waxing my own body hair (don’t ever attempt this unless you have a penchant for self-inflicted pain) or listening to hipsters talk about their beards over continuing to read said book, then I usually call it quits with clear conscious that I gave it my best.

With the “defeated” books, this can be some of the most painful 100-200 pages of reading a person ever does. It’s a singular kind of pain to attempt to get through a book that you really, really want to read for some random reason (don’t discount the power of personal glory and edification through conquering literature or the even more potent power of “you have to read this book!” peer-pressure) only to fail miserably and then be stuck with a half-read book along with now having to question the merit of you bibliophile status and place in the universe. 😦 Or again, is this just my reaction?

To end for today, I hope you visit the “Defeated” books page. It’s short at the moment but I’ll keep adding I as remember other attempted titles. There has to be a least a dozen right?

Giving this another go….

For some reason, I didn’t think that I had started this over 2.5 years ago. Crazy how fast time flies.

However, wandering thoughts down old paths aside, I find myself once again with a desire to share out to the vast, expansive network of the internet my commentary (both sarcastic and sincere) on the various books that I read/devour/attempt. Hell, I’m finally in a book club so there is the possibility for alcohol-induced and linguistically entertaining post in the near future if that keeps you coming back for more.

The book chosen for this month is “Fingersmith” which is portrayed as a dark, Victorian tale of Dicken-ish themes (orphans, thieves, smelly London, plot twist)…and I just found out the damn book was also made into a BBC mini-series which could have saved me slogging through 582 pages of, well, best to leave the “official” review for after the book club meeting in 2 weeks.

On a different subject altogether, it’s going to be over 100 degrees by Saturday in my neck of the woods. 😦 While this is way outside my temperature comfort range, it will provide a lovely excuse to stay holed up in the house next to an AC vent.

Stay tuned….