Hello, reader…
A very special guest joined us for our August meeting…Piki!
Not sure why, but Piki found his furry way into our readers lounge and meandered underfoot while we chatted about our latest reads…
Church of the Old Mermaids by Kim Antieau
This novel is about a woman named Myla Alvarez who lives near the desert in Tucson, Arizona.
Every day she walks out into the desert and picks up whatever miscellaneous items she finds.
Once a week she goes into town and sets up a table outside a book store. She lays out her found items, along with a cigar box labelled “Church of the Old Mermaids – Donations”. When people come along and ask her about an item on the table she gives it to them and tells a story around the item, a story always involving the old mermaids who once lived in the sea that dried up and became the desert. When the sea dried up the old mermaids had to learn to live on the land in the desert. The person then puts a donation in the box and goes off with the item.
She uses the donations to help people she finds lost in the desert, undocumented migrants who have been abandoned by their guides, or simply gotten lost. And of course Myla has her own story.
Bernice loved this intriguing novel and intends to read other titles by this author (who also happens to be an RL librarian!).
A Divine Language by Alec Wilkinson
When Mieke was a grad student, she was asked to make a course by the YWCA for math-phobics. She hadn’t until then realized the depth of panic and fear that some people have over numbers – even to tears and running out of the room. So when she saw A Divine Language in the NY Times, she just had to read it.
The author, Alex Wilkinson, was a total failure in math in high school but squeezed through by cheating, he admits. At the age of 65 he was determined to go back and try to learn algebra, geometry and calculus and the book is about his struggles and what he learns about himself and math in general.
Mieke found the book fascinating and joked that it’s not really as dry as it sounds!
Light a Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy
Binchy’s first novel, Light a Penny Candle is about two ten-year-old girls ~ one English, the other Irish ~ whose mothers knew each other when they were young girls and best friends in school.
The Blitz was starting to go full force in London during World War 2, so Elizabeth White was sent to live with the O’Connors in a tiny town near Dublin where she meets Aisling (pronounced Ashleen). They become best friends over the next five years until the war’s end finds Elizabeth headed home.
The story follows both their lives into their 30s, weaving together a story of strong friendship, their trials and tribulations shared mostly through letters.
Goodreads reviews showed mostly accolades for the book by Binchy fans except for the ending which most people said went too quickly and saw Aisling forsake her deep Irish Catholic roots. FireWoman read the reviews before the book which did not spoil anything for her.
She did see what other readers saw with the ending, but felt that maybe Binchy’s writing was showing how quickly life moves as we get older; finding the 30+ year old women being swept up and into chaotic situations that end with them being together again, still fast friends, nearly alone, ready to face the new days ahead of them.
Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates
A novella based on Senator Ted Kennedy, Mary Jo Kapeckne and Chappaquitick that FireWoman also read in the past month. She felt it was a great short example of Oates’ command of words.
Gray Mountain by John Grisham
A young New York lawyer gets downsized and has trouble finding a job. He ends up in a small town in West Virginia, crusading against mining companies.
Its reader, Veyot, commented that Grisham is quite dependable, if you want a legal mystery with good characters.
Still Life by Louise Penny
Poppy decided to sample Louise Penny’s thriller series featuring the Canadian detective, Armand Gamache, who is sometimes described as the Canadian Hercule Poirot. She finished the first book and started on the second but there she got stuck. Verdict: the jury’s still out.
Bernice read the entire series in order and loved them
Orlando by Virginia Wolff
Poppy also read this novel and thoroughly recommends it.
After Orlando, she read Portrait of a Marriage by Nigel Nicolson, Wolff’s son. Virginia and her husband Harold had an open marriage which lasted a lifetime as they gave each other the freedom to have other partners, usually of the same sex, throughout the 1920s. To say it is unusual for someone to write about their parents’ lesbian and homosexual affairs is putting it mildly but he does so with such delicacy. Virginia was widely considered to be frigid. His mother Vita Sackville West was the subject of Virginia’s hero/heroine Orlando who changed sex throughout the book which spans several centuries. Poppy considered this a far easier read than Orlando.
52 Ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time by Annabel Streets
Each chapter of this non-fiction title features a different “walk” – walk to improve your gait…take a foraging walk…walk deep and seek out fractals, etc. Though there’s a chapter on walking with a dog, there’s none on walking with a cat. Zoe is still making her way through it but is enjoying thus far!
A short list of these books may be found here.
Our next gathering will be on Sunday, September 11th at 1pm SLT. All are welcome – bring a friend!
The Reading Room 