Review 605: Mine Work

Mine Work by Jim Davidson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Quite enjoyed this one. The main character, Markus Cottin is in search of his father's story, and his grandfather's. He knows nothing about their lives. The book becomes the story of Markus talking to people and finding out the Cottin’s story.

His father, Andrew Cottin left the family when Markus and Lucas were young. They almost never saw him. Lucas, not at all, but Markus found him. Andrew is living like a hermit, in the desert hills at a remote hard to get to location, where he works a small mining claim. Lucas had recently committed suicide which prompts Markus to seek out his father for the questions, who is he.

The father is mean and wants to be left alone. He hardly provides any details, but just enough for Markus to get started. The story involves a mining company, Cable Minerals, in a town called Madero. Andrew was convicted of blowing up two different mines owned by Cable Minerals.

Markus goes to the town of Madero to seek some of the answers. He ends up meeting his grandfather, Tom Cottin, which was a surprise as he grew up being told he died. Tom is hardly any help. He is an angry man as well, wants to be left alone, and can barely speaks in logical sentences. His mind seems to have gone. But the clues Markus gets helps. Another surprise is the death of Tom, suddenly and Markus had just seen him a day or two before, taken his picture even. Now he has to clear out the cabin, which provides a few more clues.

Markus returns to his dad. Andrew is not happy to see him. And when Markus tells of what he learns, he gets more grief. Told to leave it all alone.

This happens several times. Markus finds someone who tells more of the story and when he returns to his dad to reveal what he learns he is told to just give it up. But in not so nice of terms. The story is really about Tom Cottin, but Andrew is there, as a young boy growing up in Madero.

It’s an interesting way to tell the story. Although partway through the POV would switch from the person telling the story to the past, as if it was happening at the current moment. It was a bit jarring at first, as how would the characters know these actions. And that is part of a weakness here, that included in these sections are moments that the person telling this would not know some of it.

Review 604: Bookshelf

Bookshelf by Lydia Pyne
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars

This is a short book, knew that going in, but it felt way too short. The book is one of the series in Object Lessons. It stays very close to the subject matter, providing history and various ways in types of bookshelf, such as moveable or fixed, and very short on what can be found on a bookshelf. I did enjoy reading about the history of chained bookshelves, and particularly the library in Hereford.

Some authors in this series take a wide view of the subject and include personal details from their life, but not here. Usually I do like that approach, yet here I wanted a peek at her own bookshelves.

This book felt like it barely scratched the surface of this topic. It had a long bibliography, pages of notes and index that all told are around 20% of the book. One book Pyne quoted from often I do hope to read later this year, The Book on the Bookshelf. I’ve had that book for a long while, perhaps it will provide more of the details that I felt missing from this book.

Unfortunately, another book discussed a little too much, provided spoilers for a book on my to read list, Umberto Eco’s, The Name of the Rose. Ugh. I will have to wait a while longer before reading so as to forget what I now know.

This was good, but ended with wanting more.

Note: First Object Lessons book bought, although read quite a few already.

Review 603: The High Desert

The High Desert by James Spooner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I saw this book at my library I had to read it. I was not a punk, but did listen to some of the music and saw some punk bands play a few times. Also in the 90’s, the era of the book, I spent some time in Apple Valley where this book takes place. I did not go to the high school there, nor knew anyone who actually lived in Apple Valley. But I did have a friend who had a house that he rented out, when empty a group of us would go up for a weekend sometimes. So this book has some familiarity.

Through the whole time reading the book I felt for James Spooner. He had it tough and as a teenager there’s already a lot going on. Moving as often as he did wasn’t helpful for finding long-term friends. On top of it the horrendous racism he encountered, he was a mixed-race kid. Spooner found himself identifying with the punk music and fashion, the way it presented itself, and in this crucial year he was learning.

Over the Christmas break he spent it at his dad’s in New York City. There he ran into a few punks that helped educate him which was pivotal in his life. The more Spooner learned about punk, the more it resonated with him. Back in Apple Valley still feeling lonely, never getting the girl. The attempt at being in a band didn’t work out, his friends were also going through some rough times. It didn’t help that they hung out with racist skinheads.

I was happy to see that SHARP (Skin Heads Against Racial Prejudice) was mentioned, and the history of how skinhead culture got coopted by racists.

This was a personal memoir but it also speaks to being other.

Review 602: Strata: Stories from Deep Time

Strata: Stories from Deep Time by Laura Poppick
My rating: not-rated

The book is a bit more information dense than I was hoping for. It is readable, but you probably need a strong desire in reading about geology, deep time and stratigraphy.

The book is organized into four parts, Air, Ice, Mud and Heat.

I got through much of the section on Air, that contains a discussion on the GOE short for Great Oxygenation Event, or Great Oxidation Event. Scientists are having difficulty in determining when exactly this took place, and how. The rocks have to tell the story since this was such a very long time ago. The evidence is still there, but fragmentary, difficult to decipher. Opinions differ on what the rock is revealing. The details of this are interesting to some extent.

I image the rest of the book will be at the same detailed level and my interest just isn’t sustaining that deep dive at the moment. Perhaps I will attempt the book at another time, but for now I am leaving it here, partially read.

Review 601: The Way People Run

The Way People Run: Stories by Christopher Tilghman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A book of six short stories that are well written. They surprised me, as I enjoyed this collection more than I typically do with short story collections. This book is an exception. I am probably being generous with my rating, but in the genre of short story collections for me this one stands out as better than most.

While a few I really wished they were a start of something more, several others were fine leaving off where it ended, they felt complete. The six short story titles are:

• Something Important

• Room for Mistakes

• The Late Night News

• A Suitable Good-bye

• The Way People Run

• Things Left Undone

These all have a male protagonist. Family was a strong theme in these stories, often with the man seeming to be unsettled and not knowing where he fits in his life. He seems to be floundering, struggling in some way.

The subject matter wasn't the cinch with these stories, no, it was the writing style. How well the characters were quickly developed and felt fully formed and relatable in some way, even though I'm not that gender nor in those situations. Seems like I should search out some of Tilghman's longer works.

Review 600: None of This Is True

None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The book takes place in London, two women meet when they both are celebrating their birthday at the same pub. Turns out they are both exactly the same age, born not only on the same day, but in the same hospital. Alix Summers hosts a podcast about successful women who changed their lives. Josie Fair convinces her to do a podcast about her life on the cusp of change, although not successful she does have an intriguing story to tell. They call it “Hi, I’m Your Birthday Twin”.

Josie’s life is weird, while Alex’s life is fairly typical, married with two young children. Their only problem being that Nathan sometimes goes on drinking binges and ends up not coming home. Josie’s life is one no one would want. Her relationship is highly questionable as it began when her husband was a middle age man and she a teenager. Yet they marry? And all these years later still are married. It’s unfathomable.

They have two girls, both grown. One had left the house at 16 and the other keeps herself locked in her room playing video games and only eats soft foods. Something is definitely off in this family.

Josie is a manipulator and convinces Alix to do a podcast about her life. Given the title of the book you know not to trust everything she is saying.

I listened to the audiobook was had many narrators, sound effects and a great production. It added another dimension to the book. This is a creepy thriller that has tension throughout the book.

I read this for multiple challenges. I seem to be succumbing to these challenges, and well, it did give me a diversion from some of the serious books I’ve been reading.

Review 599: The Wreckage of Eden

The Wreckage of Eden by Norman Lock
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed the language and writing style of the books in this series: American Novels. This is the 5th book, I have not read all of them, and do not intend to, they are all standalone books. They all evolve around American writers, so far in the 19th Century. This one has Emily Dickinson as a character.

The book is written like it is speaking to Emily, perhaps as a letter to her. Robert Winter, a US Army Chaplain of the Lutheran faith, who is in love with Emily, although he does not say it so plainly. Winter asked Emily to marry him but she refuses, staying put in her Homestead with her Father. Yet they remain good friends, she writing to Winter, and him visiting her whenever he is in Amherst.

While I do like the language, it is not direct at times. It does obscure meaning occasionally, and yet I feel like this matches the time period a little more closely than our language of today.

Despite all that I do like, a large part of the book is taken up with Robert Winter serving as a chaplain in several wars or skirmishes. First it is with the Mexican War, then The Mormon Rebellion, and finally with Harper’s Ferry. The descriptions of some of these war scenes and what is taken by these periods of violence were not pleasant for me. Otherwise this was wonderful.

So what should have been a quick read, as this was not a long book, for me was not. I set it aside often. Although I also was away on a work trip then a vacation but I could have found time for the book if I found it more engaging. Perhaps the book deserves a bit more than my rating of 3.5 stars, so I’m rounding up.

Review 598: Wildfire Days

Wildfire Days: A Woman, a Hotshot Crew, and the Burning American West by Kelly Ramsey
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars

This memoir details working as a hotshot and being a woman. Oh, and also being about a decade or so older than most hotshots. Kelly Ramsey found solace in pushing her body beyond the limits in physically. She combined her love of working outdoors with fighting fire and the elite hotshots were perfect for her for going the extra.

The book covered not only fighting fires, but also her relationship at the time and her father who was an alcoholic. book we have Ramsey’s personal life, such as her relationship Josh who was also a firefighter, but not a hotshot. We also get extensive details about her father and growing up. These personal details does make her a more fuller person on the page. Certainly being away from home for weeks at a time doing exhausting work takes a toll on relationships. It’s an unusual job from the regular 9-5 where you come home every day.

The subtitle implies some focus on the “burning American West” but that was only incidental as they were the fires Ramsey and her crew were battling. There was one fire she didn’t fight and that was one that threatened her home at the time. But there was little information about fire in general, just sparse moments.

This seems to be my year of reading these types of books, the second for a memoir of being a hotshot, and a fictional tale of a fire that blows-up written in the 1940s. I have another book or two on my docket of fire related books, next one is another woman hotshot. I’m interested in how their stories compare.

Thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book. However, I listened to a published audiobook copy of the book.

Review 597: Water Moon

Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars




This one was outside of my usual reading genre, but I enjoyed it. The book takes place in another world that mostly only interacts with our world through a pawn shop. The current owner retires and his daughter takes over, however on her first day her dad goes missing. Thus begins the quest, to find her father. Along for the ride is an outsider, one who is from our world.
Very interesting world building here, inventive.

Although this book is a quest theme and fantasy it is also about choice one makes in life. There is this thread running through the entire book about choice and how it changes you, making one decision or another. And sometimes these choices are subtle but lead to a big difference in your life as it goes along. This aspect I enjoyed.

I thought this book was for adults but maybe not, it could be young adult. The writing style makes me think it was more for a younger audience.