Review: Whale Fall

Whale Fall by Elizabeth O'Connor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: Trust

Trust by Hernan Diaz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: Whale Fall

Whale Fall by Elizabeth O'Connor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: Fortune's Rocks

Fortune's Rocks by Anita Shreve
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe

Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe by Bill Bryson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: What We Can Know

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What started very slow for me, a book I nearly gave up on, ended up being something else.

The book starts about 100 years in the future, after many catastrophic events. Tom Metcalfe, along with his sometimes partner, Robin try to teach literature to college kids who have much better things to do and hardly care about the past, let alone literature. Still for Metcalfe, the poetry of Francis Blundy and his wife Vivien, also a writer, are what he studies to endless pursuit. They lived in our times of today. Metcalfe desperately wants to be the one who finds the missing corona poem, the birthday poem Blundy wrote for Vivien.

Certainly the book bogs down with the minutia of Metcalfe’s life, his character is not very appealing. I nearly bailed on the book, but continued on.

Then we get to part two and have a different point of view – it’s Vivien’s diary from the past. Here we learn of her life first hand. She had a curated past for the future researchers, but this diary was the real Vivien, and different than what we knew before.

This is a book that one could have multiple reads and get more out of on each reading. I don’t have that kind of time, too many other books I’d like to get to. But I can appreciate the quality of writing here, despite not really enjoying the main character.

Thanks to Knopf and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.


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Review: What We Can Know

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Review: Ludes

Ludes by Ben Stein
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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Review: The Pretender

The Pretender by Jo Harkin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an interesting historical fiction. The book is based on a figure in history for whom not much is known, however he did play an important role during King Henry VII’s reign.

The book begins in 1483 in the country with a small lad, John Collan. Soon enough his days of serenity and certainty of knowing who he is are over. At the age of ten, John discovers that the man who was raising him was not his father and he is Edward, the earl of Warwick. He is removed from the farm and all he knows and loves to be educated to be the future king, the hope of England.

Through the book, at each stage his name changes and who he has to become. He is not safe, the King spies could be anywhere, so he is moved about from time to time while he grows before all is ready for him to challenge the throne.

I really enjoyed the book. The way the story was told, the language and words used, I mostly enjoyed. The one, well two, caveats, it was fairly crude at times and a lot of cussing. The cursing may have been okay, but at times it was so jarring and modern it felt anachronistic. Yet there were often words such as distroubled, annon, and astonied, which made the book feel like it took place centuries ago.

It was a fairly sad book, for what happened to John, turned Edward, turned Simnel. The later part of the book I did not enjoy as much, how things went, but it seemed inevitable.

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did a fantastic job. He managed the various accents and characters in such a way that I was impressed by the ability and quality. I may just have to look for another book by the narrator.


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




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Review: The Pretender

The Pretender by Jo Harkin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Quite enjoyed this historical fiction account. More thoughts on this soon.


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Review 627: The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street

The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book takes place for roughly six weeks while Helene Hanff finally gets over to London. Her previous book just published and the publishers want to do some publicity with her. Shortly before she left, a slight delay, as she had an emergency operation. This does add complications but she handles it well.

This book is her journal of the trip, starting with the airplane ride.

Since this is the 1970s things are different than today, such as booked two hotel rooms in case one didn't hold the reservation. Or at least that's not how I've been doing things. And as I understand it, I would be liable to pay for both if I cancel one at the last minute, or just don't show up. Anyway, Hanff is very trusting with people. She accepts all sort of invitations, many by friends of friends, but also accepts invitations by fans to go to lunch or something. She is economizing and the more she takes these lunches and dinners the longer she can stay in London.

It's a short book, entertaining but I do prefer her previous book better.

Review 626: 84, Charing Cross Road

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Re-read this short book recently, enjoyed it the second time around as well.

Liked Helene's humor. Felt like the letters included were curated, like some were missing. Made me wish to have a grand correspondence with an overseas bookseller, and get some of those nice books for such a great price. Haha!

Review 625: The Book On the Bookshelf

The Book On the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Earlier this year I read an Object Lessons series book Bookshelf, but it was a bit short for me, left me unsatisfied and curious to know more. Well it happens on my bookshelf for many, many years was sitting this book by Petroski, a book often quoted in the Object Lessons book. I’m glad I finally read it.

Petroski’s book is primarily about the history of the bookshelf, the furniture that holds books. Some history of the book itself is discussed, but that wasn’t the focus and likely there are more detailed books out there.

The furniture for books was varied in centuries past. Early forms were a type of box like a hat boxes when books were scrolls. When the book became closer to today's format there were stored in what we may call a truck but are properly called armaria. They could lock, which was important when books were few.

As books changed, the furniture did too to better hold them. As books became easier to copy, from hands to machines, then more people started to collect books. Libraries started to collect many more, and so the bookshelf came about. Still they were stored differently than today.

While books were still valuable there were chained libraries. The types of furniture and how these books were chained was a chapter or two. Some of the early shelving after the chained libraries had books facing up and at an angle. Often books were stored with the foredge showing, as this was before spines held any information on the book. It took centuries before the standard format of the bookshelf and spine out that we see today.

For most of the history of the book, and shelving, placement of shelving had to account for light. When libraries grew they had to be mindful of how the windows and shelves line up to prove the best lighting for reading. This was particularly important when the books were chained.

I had started to read this via audiobook but quickly realized that was not the best way to read this book. Since I had a print copy, I turned to reading it. Besides with audio I would have missed all of the illustrations that are throughout the book, and they definitely enhance the reading.

This is a quite detailed book, which I did appreciate. Although it is a couple of decades old, the eBook was being developed and is mentioned a few times. What dates the book is more the descriptions of the internet. But these portions are minimal.

The appendix is to be noted as here were listed 25 different ways to shelve a book. Petroski took some fun here, as it was more light hearted, and certainly not exhaustive. I noticed the bibliography at the end contained a long list of books that I could really go down the rabbit hole with this topic, but maybe I will leave it here. This one did satisfy a lot of my curiosity about the history of bookshelves. But it did make me kinda want some ancient book furniture.