Thursday, May 30, 2019

Three on Thursday


Joining Carole and friends for Three on Thursday, today with Three Books. I haven't written about books for a long time, except randomly on Unraveled Wednesdays, so it's high time. Here are the last three books I've read and one bonus.

1. The Things They Carried  
My review - 3 stars

The brother of an acquaintance is in the Reserves, but has recently been sent to Fort Dix, then on to TX, then to the Middle East for two years. With the current saber-rattling around Iran, I think of him every day. And of course, every soldier that the US has placed in harm's way is someone to somebody, so this book stood out to me during a recent perusal of library books. I also thought Memorial Day weekend would be a good time to finally read it. Its raw tales of friendship, soldiering, what those soldiers carried, and what they did are at times hard to read. This book didn't change the way I feel about Vietnam, but I don't think it's possible to make sense of the terror, destruction, and loss of war. Mainly I was reminded of how very young these young men were and how heavy the things were that they carried, both the physical battle armor and those things that were carried within.

2.  The Bright Hour
My review - 5 stars

That is Morning. To cease for a bright hour to be a prisoner of this sickly body and to become as large as the World. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Bright Hour is a beautifully written book that I will place alongside Atul Gawande's Being Mortal. Nina Riggs has written the story of the stages of her life, and while it is sad, poignant, and filled with cancer and death, that is ultimately not what the book is about. Instead, Nina writes about "how to distill what matters most to each of us in life in order to navigate our way toward the edge of it in a meaningful and satisfying way." That makes this a valuable and luminous book, and one that I think might be able to ease my own fears of death.

I am reminded of an image...that living with a terminal disease is like walking on a tightrope over an insanely scary abyss. But that living without disease is also like walking on a tightrope over an insanely scary abyss, only with some fog or cloud cover obscuring the depths a bit more -- sometimes the wind blowing it off a little, sometimes a nice dense cover.
3.  We Need to Talk
My review - 3 stars

If you have an iota of common sense, you can probably guess much of what Celeste Headlee recommends in We Need to Talk: Listen more and talk less. She does elaborate on this point, telling us not to multitask, don't repeat yourself, don't pontificate, be brief, etc. These are all important points, as is the overall premise that conversation skills are important. I'm just not sure there is enough here to fill a whole book. Watch the TED talk and see what you think.

4.  Inland
My review - 5 stars

(I debated not including this book because it won't be published until August 13th, but it's so good that I wanted to give you a chance to place an early hold at the library!)

Inland is a western, but a new and exciting kind (to me, anyway). Think News of the World or The Son, with non-stereotypical characters, exquisitely descriptive settings, and almost fantasy-like plot lines. Obreht writes beautiful sentences that you will marvel at, but her writing never fails to tell a terrific story. 

In the midst of a drought in the Arizona Territories in 1893, we meet Nora, an independent frontierswoman, and Lurie, a former outlaw. Nora is waiting for her husband and sons to return to the parched homestead, while her youngest son is convinced that there is a mysterious beast prowling about. Lurie is haunted by the ghosts of his past who want him to take an epic journey. Nora’s story is told in one long, hot day, while Lurie’s takes place over decades. Their intersection is the perfect combination of magic and realism. 

While the book is densely written, required my attention, and I had to start again from the beginning after I stopped reading for a few days, once I read about the U.S. Army’s camel corps and 
understood that both Nora and Lurie speak to the dead, it was one of the best books I’ve read in quite a while. Read to the very end and you will be rewarded.

How about you? Read anything good (or even not so good)? Let me know!

20 comments:

  1. Hi, Bonny! It's a few months ago now, but I loved Kristin Hannah's The Great Alone and Anita Shreve's The Stars are Fire (those are both stories one could immerse in while healing this summer!). I posted a few other good reads for my Three this week--funny, we were on a similar page :) Good luck with your procedure! Sounds like a good reading summer...

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    1. Thanks for the recommendations! They are now on my list. Too many books, too little time (but that's a good problem to have)!

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  2. I look forward to reading Inland! I'm currently reading The Letters of E.B. White and they are every bit as good as his essays. The book is huge (nearly 700 pages) and I am taking my time savoring each of his letters.

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    1. I was very lucky to get access to a pre-pub copy of Inland, and I think it's worth waiting for! I've never read the Letters of E.B. White, but thanks to you it's on my list now. It sounds like a wonderful book to savor all summer long.

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  3. I'm anxious to read Inland - sounds wonderful. Looks like you have some good ones coming up too.

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  4. I've been wanting to read The Bright Hour for awhile now (maybe this summer), and you already know how I'm just dying to get my hands on Inland . . . ;-) I've read quite a few good books lately (including Ali Smith's latest, Spring) and one real clunker (Harry's Trees). I've just begun Normal People by Sally Rooney. Happy reading!

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  5. I'm currently reading Maybe You Should Talk to Someone and can't put it down! It was well worth the wait for the library book.

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  6. Books like Inland are so worth the wait, but knowing it is going to be as great as expected has made me want it more. Thank you for the great review! I LOVE westerns. That last good one I read was the Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart.

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  7. Thanks for the Inland review. Sounds like a very interesting read.

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  8. The NORA character sounds interesting. We have a family history of naming our girls Nora, so that's even more fun.
    I blogged about it already, but THE DAY THE WORLD CAME TO TOWN was delightful.

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    1. Thanks for the recommendation! I'll be on the lookout for it at the library.

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  9. I love book reviews, Bonny, so you have made my day. I will put these books on my wait list. I love a good western, and they are few and far between these days. I am reading Derek Miller's second book, American by Day, and I am really enjoying it. I liked his first book as well, but I think this one is better. It is very thought provoking, and I always enjoy that in a book. I hope you didn't have to spend time in the basement last night!

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  10. I will listen to the TED talk!! love that topic

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  11. I always love good book reviews and you write terrific ones! I'm currently reading Ali Smith's Public Library and it's giving me all the feels for how important libraries are to our society.

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  12. Inland sounds great! I read your reviews whenever you do one on Goodreads, always helpful so thank you :)

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  13. Adding to my summer reading! :)

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  14. I've started reading Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I figured with knitting all those shawls, I should read the inspiring book. LOL

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  15. I'm reading The Grapes of Wrath and listening to Practical Magic. Hoping for a 5 star of the first and already thinking only 3 on the second! Thank-you for the reviews and I'm also SO in for Inland!

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  16. I've been listening to a lot more podcasts than books lately, but I did catch up on the latest in the Maisie Dobbs series (The American Agent) last week and enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to the new Jackson Brodie - comes out tomorrow!!

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  17. Some good suggestions here Bonny. I surely did think Being Mortal was worth the read so I might give The Bright Hour a try. Funny how reading changes with age. I'd have pushed these books aside a decade ago. Now they seem quite timely. Ah- age.

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