CBR 13 # 1 Piranesi

Piranesi lives in a house with many halls, with an Ocean trapped within. There are infinite statues, and birds and fish, and the remains of 13 people who had previously lived there. He lives in isolation save for the Other, who named him and spends one hour, twice a week with him, to talk of his scientific observations. The House is the only place Piransi knows, and he has lived there from the beginning of time. But the arrival of 16, as in the 16th person, would reveal that the Other, the House and even himself, are not what they seem.

The first few pages were a struggle for me. I have been in a years long reading funk (COVID anxiety and my stupid eyes) and I was reading the book trying to make and accurate map of the world in my mind, and it was tripping me up. Finally, I just let the peculiar language and descriptions wash over, to form a nebulous sense of the place, which, I found,  made itself clearer as I read further.

It would do a disservice to those who had not yet read the book to write more of the plot into this review, but that is not to say that the plot is the best thing about it. This book is so different from Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell (the author's first novel, which I also enjoyed immensely).  The first book was quite long, charming and wryly funny. Piranesi is slight, almost a novella.  It is narrated by Piranesi, through his detailed journals, and his writing is odd and formal but also dreamy, especially in the first part.  You will be taken in by his ingenuity, innocence and innate goodness.

I read the book as a meditation on isolation and loneliness, and the exquisite peace it sometimes brings.  But no matter the strength of the pull of isolation, the stronger need to connect with other people always wins out.  I really, really loved this book, and to be honest, I did not expect to be crying by the end, but I was.

CBR 12 #5 World War Z by Max Brooks (redux)

Is it weird that World War Z is one of my comfort reads?  I rarely reread books.  I get anxious when I'm rereading because I keep thinking that I should be reading something new.  I mean, my to be read list is not getting any shorter.  World War Z is one of the few books that I have reread more than once.  The others are The Drifters by James Michener, A Ring of Endless Light by L'Engle and Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Patterson.  I have not reread the other three yet so I might still be ok.  Well, maybe.  The year is still long.

It is a well known fact that the World War Z book so far from the movie that Brad Pitt should just basically be cancelled (this is a joke).  The book is an oral history of the Zombie War,tracing events from the initial outbreak in China until years later when the Zs have been all but defeated.  It features interviews from people from all over the world speaking of their experiences and stitched together to form a coherent record of the events.  There are many stories told.  Some are plot drive, meant to explain how things happened and the timeline.  Some stories are there for the texture, to show hoe different people in different parts of the world survived, or didn't.  

I loved the documentary feel of the book, since it is made up of "interviews".  I love the writing, I love the stories.  Some scary, some heartbreaking, some hopeful, some celebratory, and some, even prescient.  I don't know how to say again and again that I really really really love the concept of the book (it hits all my post apocalyptic and documentary spots), then he nails the execution.  I really think this should have been made as a TV series.  Even like a "mockumentary", but serious and with reenactments.  One can only hope, that like the Zs, this story will rise again, to be told in a visual medium, much better that the last time.

CBR 12 #4 - Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender

I read a review of this book somewhere on the internet, a long time ago.  Maybe on Pajiba, maybe on Cannonball read, I don't really remember.  But I did write the title and the author down in my little notebook, along with the dozens (maybe hundreds) of other books I plan on reading,  and movies and TV shows that I plan on seeing.  This year, before the world changed forever, a few friends came over to hang out and one of them brought the book and said that he feels like I might want to borrow it.  I had not told him that it was on my list, in fact, it totally escaped my mind until he handed me the book.  He just thought that I was the kind of person who would like Willful Creatures and he is not wrong.  So I read it during the first month of quarantine (we are already on our 5th month, the longest quarantine in the world, i think) when I could still focus and mull over and revel in the little morsels of weird that are Aimee Bender's short stories.

This book is a collection of 15 short stories.  Her stories are inhabited by willful creatures, some more melancholy, some more malevolent.  Her world is one in which the surreal just is.  Fantastical elements are not acknowledged as such and the narration is so matter of fact that you don't question it.  The world is just that way in her stories.  It is a world where somebody can purchase a tiny human as a pet, where a family of pumpkin heads can have a son with an iron head, or a boy can have fingers shaped like keys.  Some stories are more fantastical than others, but they are all written in way that makes them feel like fables or fairy tales, or myths.  There is a sort of detachment in the storytelling but at the same time, they feel very real.  Some stories are disturbing and violent which shocked me a little because she often tells the story from the "perpetrators" point of view but imbuing them with familiar emotions just taken to a grotesque level.  I don't know, they're better read than described, I think. 

So yes, my friend was not wrong.  I did want to read this book.  Some of the stories revealed themselves to me, like I get what it was trying to say beyond the weirdness.  Some stories, their meaning eludes me.  Either way, the stories stuck with me, bubbling up in my brain at random times.  I don't think I'll be returning this book.  

CBR 12 #3 Before I Say Good-bye by Mary Higgins Clark

Our local used bookstore chain (Booksale) is littered with Mary Higgins Clark books.  Somehow, in the hours I spent in those stores (all branches), I never thought to pick up the works of the "Queen of Suspense".  My sister is a very different reader than me and our bookshelves rarely intersect.  It was snobby of me but I tended to think of the books she reads as "easier" to read.  Still having the vision problems due to the autoimmune disease that I have, I have taken to raiding her bookshelves for these "easy books" when I'm having trouble focusing on more serious stuff.  Quick reads to the rescue when I am falling behind on my Cannonball reads.

Nell MacDermott. is an orphan (whose parents died in an airplane crash) brought up and groomed by her powerful congressman grandfather to be his successor. But tragedy finds her a second time when her self-made architect husband of three years, Adam Cauliff seemingly blows up and dies in an explosion on his boat, along with 3 other people he was working with on an important new development.  Of course, things are not as they seem.  Allegations and suspicions against her husband regarding corrupt building practices may not only destroy her chances of becoming a congressman, but also her loving memories.  So Nell tries to figure it out.  Who blew up the boat? Was her husband corrupt?  Is he even dead?  

The characterizations, expectedly, is not the focus.  I would imagine that the Queen of Suspense is about plot, plot, plot.  I don't really get much of a sense of who Nell is, as a person really.  But I did appreciate that in the first fourth of the book, it made me vacillate between thinking that Adam was the bad guy  No, it's the secretary.  No, it's the grandfather, No, it's the business partner.  But by the middle of the book, I basically knew how it was going to end.  Even the supposed "twist".  It also did not really deliver on the supernatural elements other than Nell being slightly psychic and able to feel when her parents and grandmother died, and some premonitions.  And a psychic medium.  There is also, a luckluster love interest that I feel was tacked on just for the sake of having a love interest.l  Why did that have to happen?  I don't think that's really necessary in a mystery, especially one where our lead was just newly widowed.  It made a not particularly realistic story even more unrealistic when the love interest (who Nell met randomly) is ALSO somehow connected to the case, albeit in a tangential manner.

So.  It was, indeed a quick read.  It did not merit paying close attention, really, I just speed read through it and don't think I missed anything.  Useful for getting myself out of a reading slump but pretty meh overall.  

CBR 12 #2 The Trespasser by (Dublin Murder Squad No. 6) by Tana French

When I like a book, I have the tendency to obsessively read everything the author has ever wrote.  Such was the case after I read In the Woods by Tana French.  I loved the atmosphere, the mystery, and especially the characters.  I of course, read all the Tana French books I could find.  When I was going through the epub files in my laptop to find a quick read, I was pleasantly surprised to find a French book I haven't read yet.  Or have I?This is still set in the same Dublin Murder Squad as most of the French books are.

The books are not strict sequels to each other but have a shared universe.  Minor characters in a book basically have spin offs and become major characters in the next book.  This particular book focused on Detectives Antoinette Conway and Stephen Moran, who were also characters in the previous book, The Secret Place.  In the secret place, Moran was the main character while The Trespassed focuses on Conway.

Conway and Moran are partners in the Murder Squad (the newests members).  Moran is mild mannered and likeable.  Conway is another matter altogether.  She is of mixed race and had a difficult childhood.  An incident early in her tenure at the Squad had her feeling ostracized and she felt that everyone in the squad except for Moran was after her.  She is prickly and distrustful, building walls and never letting anyone in completely, not even her partner.  In fact, the bullying she felt at the squad was so bad that she was contemplating leaving.

The murder of a young woman, with very little physical evidence but a very good suspect seemed routing at first but suspicions that their perfect suspect seemed too perfect would turn their investigation in different direction.  Gangs, disappeared fathers, and even one of their own.  The case provides not only a good mystery to solve, but an opportunity for Conway for self discovery and growth.

Reading the book, I was struck by how familiar the Squad drama was and even remembered the ending to the drama.  However, while the murder was familiar, I could not remember the end at all.  In the end, I decided that I have read the book before but completely forgot abour it.  I don't know if that says something about the book or myself.  But seriously, Conway is a bit of a struggle to get to like.  She is super prickly and even a tad paranoid.  The story was ok, if a but implausible, but well, aren't all her books, really?  Fortunately they are saved by good writing and characterization.   This is my least favorite among the Murder Squad books that I've read.

CBR 12 # 1 The Stand (Uncut) Stephen King

When I was as kid, like maybe 12 or 13, every Sunday after church, my family would go the the mall where we had a store selling outdoor equipment.  Across our store was a used bookstore.  I would spend hours reading while my parents did errands or whatever.  At the end of the day, they let me choose one book that I could buy.  I was a very fast reader and devoured books so for practicality's sake (to make the book last longer), I always chose the thickest books with the smallest letters.  Which led to me reading a whole lot of James Micheners and of course, Stephen King.  But somehow, I missed The Stand.  I remember enjoying his work a lot when I was a kid, plus, I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic literature so I decided to read it.True to form, I got the longer, uncut version.

An artificially engineered superflu virus has ravaged the US, and most probably the world.  The survivors gather together for human connection and survival but end up having to face an epic showdown between good and evil.  The book follows the different survivors  until they meet up in small groups and finally into two communities, those who follow Mother Abagail and those who follow the Dark Man.

In typical King fashion, there are a lot of digressions and long backstories, which I quite enjoy. I like to guess which ones of the characters that are introduced will ultimately become important to the story. There were some digressions I did not particularly enjoy, like the Trashcan Man parts were not for me (from what I gather those parts were not part of the shorter version, in which case, I probably would have enjoyed that version better).  I enjoyed the the stories that don't really move the plot along but flesh out the post flu world, the horror of it.  I liked the parts when they were travelling and was excited for everybody to meet up.  I liked all of the background stuff better than the parts when they were gearing up for the final confrontation and the final confrontation itself.  There is also a lot of familiar stuff if you've read a lot of Stephen Kings.  The Dark Man, the shining, destiny, supernatural stuff, good versus evil, etc.  

I enjoyed reading it and it didn't feel that long (except for the Trashcan Man parts).  Likeable characters and interesting premise, and lots of backstory.   This is vintage Stephen King.

CBR 9 #2 - Chasing Harry WInston by Lauren Weisberger

Having enjoyed Last Night at Chateau marmont and finding The Singles Game, ok, if a little meh, I decided to read another Weisberger book.  Well, not so much decided as saw that it was the next book in my unread books dropbox folder.  Did I regret my lazy choice?  Yes.  Yes I did.

Emmy, Leigh and Adriana have been best friends since college and have maintained the so-called BFF status even as they approach their 30s.  The girls are of course, so different from each other but are utter stereotypes.  And not pleasant ones either.  Emmy is the "desperate" one who is desperate to get married and have babies.  Leigh is the "cold" one who is unhappy despite a pretty much perfect life because she was not complete without the bad boy married novelist.  Adriana is the "slut", of course.  The Brazilian maneater, superficial and shallow.  

After Emmy's long time boyfriend broke up with after cheating numerous times and giving her STDs, the girls decide to make resolutions for the following year, to do a complete 180 on their tried and true moves.  Emmy was going to fuck numerous guys instead of rushing into yet another long term relationship.  Adriana was going to stick to one man, get engaged and married.  Leigh didn't have a particular resolution yet, but you bet your ass it had something to do with finding her true passionate love.  Who cares if she agreed to get engaged to a perfectly good, even great guy that she didn't love, because she was too spineless to say no?

I really did not like this book.  Seriously.  The characters are ridiculous cliches and so unlikeable to boot.  Emmy is the least worst, though she is whiny as hell.  Leigh is horrible and Adriana is the wooorsstt.  The plot was boring and so unbelievable at the same time.  The writing is so meh.  Adriana says 'querida' every other sentence.  Because she is Brazilian.  Get it??  There was a whole Aruba vacation that was both pointless and boring.

I think that the author was trying to be all girl power with this on in the sense that it wasn't ALL about the romance.  They supposedly learned something about themselves and and their happy ever after was not the fairy book romance happy ever after but a supposedly real-world happily ever after.  But to this, I call bullshit!  Ok, Emmy did get to have some casual sex but still got the perfect guy in the end, on the way to babies and marital bliss.  Leigh broke up with her perfect, sportscaster fiance to be with an asshole author.  But Adriana is what irked me the most.  Her thing was that her ex supermodel mom wanted her to get married to a rich guy before she became to old to snag one.  Never mind that she was already fabulously wealthy.  And how was that subverted?  She decided not to marry a rich guy but became an advice columnist on how to snag rich guys using hard-to-get tactics and basically luying.  I think this is an older book, but it feels really icky in the present climate.  

Oh my gosh, I did not realize that I felt so strongly about this book.  Final verdict:  Did not like, do not read.  Do you guys have any advice on which "chick lit"/ romance books are good and won't make my brain rot?  That won't invoke any feminist rage?  I haven't really read a lot of them but from what I've read, I liked marian Keyes the best.