Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

 Sunday, July 30, 2022--San Antonio

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout was nominated for the Booker Prize this week.  It is the third book I have read by this author who has often won prizes or been short listed for them for her works, but I didn't realize I had read other books by her (Olive Kitteridge and Olive, Again) until I finished this book and saw a list of others she had authored.  I don't normally enjoy reading multiple books by the same author, because too often the stories are too similar and, most disappointing to me, the style of writing is often too similar from book to book.  Oh William! was an easy read and an interesting story with many characters that are connected, often as relatives, from multiple marriages.  The story is told by Lucy and is mostly about her first husband (William) and the connections that have developed over time as their lives have continued after divorcing and marrying others.  But it is also the story of overcoming severe poverty within a lifetime ("living the American dream"), childhood bullying, childhood abuse, family rejection, friendship that remains after a divorce, inspiration and support by a special person in one's life, etc.  I rated this book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Thursday, July 28, 2022--San Antonio

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan was nominated for the Booker Prize this week.  It's a short book (the shortest to ever be nominated for the prize) at 128 pages long, but it is a wonderful book--a well written and an inspiring story set in Ireland during the Christmas season.  Although fiction, it is based on the true story of how the Irish Government, in cooperation with the Catholic Church, ran laundries that took advantage of young girls who had been abandoned or entrusted to the church, especially ones who became pregnant out of marriage.  Emphasis is placed on how this was inconsistent with the statement of human rights adopted by the government, yet the government went many years without apologizing as research turned up large numbers of persons who disappeared (died?) while at these facilities.  (It was an Irish embarrassment much like that faced by the U.S., Canadian, and Australian governments for how they forced indigenous children into schools where rights were abused and atrocities occurred.)  But as I wrote before, the novel is delightful and enlightening while not turning away from the truth of what happened at the laundries.  I gave the book 5 stars out of 5.  

Trust by Hernan Diaz

Wednesday, July 27, 2022--San Antonio

Trust by Hernan Diaz was long-listed yesterday for the Booker Prize this year.  I can see why now.  I started reading what seemed to be a novel pretending to be a "biography" of the life of a great financier (in a string of generations of great financiers) about 2 1/2 weeks ago.  I kept wondering why it had been so highly recommended, and I considered quitting it.  I would pick it up every two days and read just a few pages.  Yesterday, I was only at the 50% point in the novel, but I was still chugging along and thinking I would have to extend my checkout on Libby for another 3 weeks.  (I usually finish a novel in 3-5 days.)  One reason I kept going is that I remembered reading that there was a big change around the half-way point that made it start making sense and made it become very interesting.  Well, in the last 24 hours, I have read the other 50% of the novel.  The first half was rather tedious, but it sets the stage for two more sections with the last being a great surprise twist.  If you are a fan of biographies or autobiographies, it will make you question the authenticity of any of them!  My rating went up from 3 stars to 4 1/2 stars out of 5 in just 24 hours of reading.

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

 Thursday, July 14, 2022--San Antonio

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston is in a unique situation as a novel.  It has had very good reviews as a top novel of the year (which is how I learned about it), has been a New York Times best seller, and has already had its film rights acquired with the actors announced who will play the two main leads.  Yet it is currently only available on the Kindle at  Amazon (and I had to put it on hold at my local library for about 10 weeks before it was delivered that way to me)!  It will be published in hardcover in October with Amazon already selling reserved copies.  It is a light romance story about two young men--one the son of the President of the USA and the other the "spare" heir to the crown of England (3rd in line behind his mother and his older brother)--whose antagonism against each other has created negative publicity.  They forced by their families to be together on a publicity tour to try to quiet rumors by acting as if the stories are made up and that they truly are friends.  Things don't go the way they are planned, and the two begin to become aware of why they have resented and disliked each other which eventually leads to more negative stories and a bigger disruption of their families that could affect politics in both countries.  It was fun to read the book, and I often stayed awake longer than I would prefer to read a bit more before turning out the lights and going to bed.  In general as a novel, I would give it 4 stars out of 5, but as a romance it is a bit better than average, so I would give it 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez

Monday, July 4, 2022--San Antonio

Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez was an interesting story incorporating generations of the same family (that originated from slaves in Jamaica and immigrated to England) with the central characters being Jehovah's Witnesses.  It dealt with topics such as the love that some of the church members have for their religion and the door-to-door witnessing that is so important to it, for being appreciated by the church elders, and with banning and shunning that are used within the religion (not just from/by the church but also from continued association with their family members) who they find has not lived up to their standards.  Much of the novel is built around the life of one of those members who runs away to London at age 17 after being exposed for his sexual orientation and expelled from his fast track of being a leader within the church.  In London, he finds it difficult to make a living, and becomes a male prostitute. Included are topics such as the young man's interest in clients who remind him in age and physical features of his step-father, his establishment of a "chosen" family, his search for the truth about his biological father, etc.  What spoiled the book for me was constant use of references to music.  It's obvious that the author has always loved music, has been the type of person who is always listening to music as he is out and about (like people have done over the years with the Walkman, the iPod, and smart phones today), who has an encyclopedic knowledge of songs and their singers over the decades, and feels it improves his story to have everything happening referenced in detail to the music of that time period and playing in the background.  Yuck!!  I felt I was reading a book written by an autistic nerd.  Without all the unnecessary (many, many often taking up more than a page at a time) music references, I would have rated the book 4 or 4 1/2, but with them, it dropped in my opinion to 3 stars out of 5.