RIP Reviews

So far I've had a great R.I.P. Challenge year. Between the group read of Slade House and a few other mysteries that I took on vacation, I'm loving it! I even stumbled upon one that I wasn't reading for R.I.P. at all and was surprised to find a scary mystery within the novel's pages. I've officially finished the Peril the First level, but I'll keep reading anyway. More info here! #ripxii

Slade House

by David Mitchell

Loved reading this creepy book. I'd highly recommend reading The Bone Clocks first as it will give you a much better understanding of what's going on. Mitchell continues to impress me with his writing and the variety of genres he tackles. He doesn't shy away from plots that stretch your mind, but this is definitely one of his most accessible and easy-to-read books.

He manages to capture the eerie feeling of a haunted house while at the same time crafting a great story. It's part of the complex world he created in The Bone Clocks, but it also works as a stand alone story. It's broken up in chapters (The Right Sort, Shining Armor, Oink Oink, You Dark Horse You, and Astronauts). With each new chapter his main character changes, once again demonstrating his ability to right from incredibly different points of view convincingly. He's an awkward young boy, then a jaded cop, then an insecure college girl, etc.

BOTTOM LINE: I loved seeing Mitchell explore a new genre and will continue to be a fan!

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore

by Matthew Sullivan
This one surprised me. I was expecting a quirky bookstore novel, but instead found a strange mystery. Lydia witnesses the suicide of a man named Joey in the bookstore where she works. She ends up going down a rabbit hole searching through the clues that he left behind. Her own troubled past begins to surface the deeper she digs. 

The book explores how a history of violence can travels down through generations. It's about the bad decisions or past traumas we try to hide to protect ourselves but really enough isolating ourselves. Lydia's life is shaped by the horrifying event that shattered her world as a child. From peaceful days spent at her friend Raj's donut shop, to living in a cabin in the woods with her father, Lydia's life has never found its balance again.

There were only a few moments in this book where the plot didn't work for me, mainly when her father was involved. Most of the time I was completely sucked in and I love the way it all came together in the end. 

BOTTOM LINE: A very satisfying read and way darker than the cover and title might suggest.   

The Lying Game 

by Ruth Ware

I really enjoy Ware's style and her books suck me in quickly. This one had a great atmosphere even if some plot points were a bit of a stretch. I wasn't a huge fan of The Woman in Cabin 10, but I loved her first book, In a Dark, Dark Wood.  That one remains my favorite of hers so far.

This one relied a little heavily on the gimmick of "the lying game" which felt like the weakest point of the plot to me. It's part boarding school friendship story and part mystery. It takes place in a secluded spot on the coast of England in a dilapidated house that's only reachable at certain times of the tides, similar to The Woman in Black (which I loved). 

Four girls, Isa, Fatima, Thea, and Kate have a shared secret from their past that has come back to haunt their lives. I really loved the character of Fatima. Even when some of the other's would grate on my nerves, I always enjoyed her. At the same time, she always seemed a little above the struggles of her friends and didn't quite fit with the group. Kate's father Ambrose was also a complex character that never felt like a cliche to me. The little town of Salten felt like a character as well. From the small houses covered in fishing nets to the nosy neighbors, it was alive in every way.

I also just left the stage of having an infant and so I love her descriptions of the the struggles and joys of new motherhood. The main character, Isa, has a six-month-old baby and the book talks about nursing, losing yourself in motherhood, the strain on a relationship, etc. It all felt so accurate and recent to me.

BOTTOM LINE: A quick read that's hard to put down. It doesn't quite measure up to her other's, but she has an undeniable talent for portraying characters and creating tense situations. 

Faceless Killers 

by Henning Mankell

This is the first book in the famous Wallander series. It's set in Sweden, which made it a perfect choice to read during a recent trip to nearby Iceland. The novel is much more about detective Wallander than the mystery itself, but a friend had warned me about that, so that helped set my expectations in the right place. He's a typical detective in so many ways, self-destructive, with a single narrow-minded focus on the case at hand. I love some of the supporting characters at his office, particularly his good friend Rydberg an older detective. 

The case in this one follows the murder of an elderly couple living in the countryside. Even though the novel is more than 25 years old, it delves into the controversy of immigration and refugees and so it felt quite timely.

BOTTOM LINE: I definitely liked this one enough to continue the series. If you read it, just be prepared for the fact that it's much more about developing Wallander's character than the mystery itself and so it's not a fast-paced thriller.

R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril XII

Jumping on board for this fun event. I do love reading mysteries in the fall and already had The Lying Game by Ruth Ware on my radar. Thinking about reading Lisey's Story by Stephen King as well. Also, the whole group is reading David Mitchell's Slade House together! Obviously I love reading Mitchell with a group (see the fun we've had with Cloud Atlas and Bone Clocks). I'm going to attempt the Peril the First level (see below). Happy spooky reading everyone!

Andi and Heather are hosting it here if you want more details! 

Peril the First:

Read four books, any length, that you feel fit (our very broad definitions) of R.I.P. literature. It could be Stephen King or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Shirley Jackson or Tananarive Due…or anyone in between.

The Bone Clocks Readalong Part 2

This post assumes that you have read the book. 

Whoa. So first off, David Mitchell tweeted to a few of us during the readalong, which kind of made my month. 

Now to dive into the second half of the book… 

Crispin Hershey’s Lonely Planet: 2015 – Crispin Hershey 

Crispin is such a self-centered jerk at the beginning of his section. I felt like his character became a bit more grounded over the few years we had with him. I thought it was interesting to see how Holly’s “gift” developed as she got older. It was such a blessing and a curse for her. I was absolutely horrified by how Crispin’s “prank” ended up ruining a man’s life. It was certainly a lesson in choosing forgiveness over revenge. 

Honestly, I was hoping to learn a bit more about Soleil Moore, the woman who shot him. I felt like she came out of nowhere and I wanted to know more about how she’d discovered so much. I thought she’d pop up in one of the final two sections, but she never did. 

An Horologist’s Labyrinth: 2025 – Marinus 

This section felt so different from the others. I liked it because it explained so much of the backstory that was only hinted at before. At the same time, I missed the human connection I felt in some of the other sections. This one felt a bit like watching a movie unfold, if that makes any sense. 

After Marinus explains the history of the Anchorites and Horologists, I felt more invested in the fight between the two warring factions. While reading this section I went back and reread the battle scene from the first section. It made so much more sense. Here’s a brief description I found of the two sides: 

“The good guys are a group of people who get reincarnated 49 days after they die, with full knowledge of their past lives. The bad guys achieve a kind of pseudo-immortality – they stop ageing, but can still be killed by violence or accident – by murdering psychic children, ‘decanting’ their souls into an evil wine." 

That just about covers it. Although in the book it felt much more human to me because by the time we learn all of this we are already invested in Marinus’ story. For me, Marinus was a great character. She gives us a deeper view into the supernatural elements, but she also conveys her loneliness before finding the other horologists and her grief after she loses so many of her friends in 1984. When she searches for Esther in Holly’s memories, I liked the glimpses we gained into Holly’s life. 

This section was full of action, betrayal, backstabbing, and a massive battle. So much happens! 

Sheep’s Head: 2043 

So, I thought it was a strange choice to have everything come to a head in the last section, then we jump forward in time and land on the sedate Sheep’s Head island. It’s interesting to see the turn the world has taken, but for me it felt anticlimactic. I also felt like I was being preached at about climate change, which took me out of the story while I was reading it. 

I did like seeing Holly as an older woman. That was one of my favorite parts of the entire book, seeing Holly’s life at different points. Mitchell created such a rich character in Holly Sykes. I loved watching her mature and grieve and struggle and fall in love. 

BOTTOM LINE: This book is one that will be with me for a long time. It felt like such an experience. Sometimes I read things and a week or two later I realize very little of the book stuck with me. That won’t be the case with The Bone Clocks. Part of that is because of its length, but it’s also because it’s a complex novel. I had to work hard to make sure I was paying attention and catching references in each section. It doesn’t sound fun when you describe it that way, but it really was. I loved the layers of the story. I was constantly thinking about it when I wasn’t reading it.

This is definitely not a book I would recommend to everyone. There were parts and characters that I struggled to connect with, but on the whole, I really loved it. Mitchell doesn’t create light, disposable novels. His books should be savored. He builds worlds that leave you reeling and I was left wanting to read even more of his work.

 

The Bone Clocks Readalong Part 1

This post assumes that you have read the first half of the book.

A Hot Spell: 1984 – Holly Sykes

The Bone Clocks kicks off with Holly Sykes. She’s a British teenager, typically rebellious and in love for the first time. Her story is relatable, even if she’s a bit annoying at first (aren’t we all annoying at that age?).

I loved Holly section. Mitchell made her feel immediately accessible and real. She feels like any teenager you might know, someone young, dealing with heartbreak for the first time. That's crucial because just as you get comfortable in her story, things get weird. We understand her and relate to her and so when the situation turns to the fantastical we can imagine how strange the scenario would be through her eyes. Her section reminded me a little bit of The Dark Is Rising series.

Myrrh Is Mine, Its Bitter Perfume: 1991 – Hugo Lamb

Next in line is a devious university student. Hugo’s lack of a moral code and creativity in his scheming was fascinating. He was a character who you aren't exactly rooting for, but you secretly enjoy seeing what he can get away with. He’s so charismatic, you can see how others trust him and fall under his spell. It was strange, almost a bit out of character, to see him actually care about something when he met Holly. In every scene of his, I just kept thinking, what’s his angle? He always thought through every situation to find out exactly how it would benefit him. So every time he interacted with someone, I was just waiting to see what his true motivation was.

The Wedding Bash: 2004 – Ed Brubeck

Ed is a war journalist working in Baghdad. It’s the same Ed from Holly’s section and now they have a daughter together and he’s home for a short trip for Holly’s sister’s wedding on the Brighton pier. When his daughter Aoife went missing my entire body was anxious. I was terrified for Ed and Holly, and the entire Sykes family, which had already been through this with Jacko.

I loved Ed’s conversation on the pier with Immaculée Constantin. She's so deliciously evil. I also loved the conversation with Holly's great aunt Eilísh. Her experience with Jacko shed so much light on the story. The flashbacks to Ed's time in Baghdad lost me for a minute because it was so different from the rest of the book, but just like the other switches in narrative, after a bit it clicked for me.

A Few Thoughts:

Switching gears between each story was hard. I remember feeling the same way when reading Cloud Atlas. Each section was so different, at first there felt like there was no flow between them. But soon you fall into a new rhythm and somehow it works. By the time I finished the third section it was obvious that Holly was the thread tying all the stories together. I loved that we were able to see her at different stages throughout her life. It reminded me of Kitchens of the Great Midwest in the sense that it is one character’s story, but told through the eyes of so many people around her.

One of the most fascinating things about this book is that it's mainly about normal people, with everyday problems, except there's also a supernatural element threaded through the entire book. The very fact that the characters are so relatable and human makes the supernatural element so readable. Because you were seeing it through their eyes and their incredulity matches your own. I loved the way that was handled.

It is not an easy book to read. It is complicated and at times it’s hard to follow. But for me, so far, the stumbling blocks have been more than worth it. I’m intrigued by the whole world Mitchell has created. Each character adds intricate layers to the story. It's beautifully written. I feel like each section has its own unique tone and cadence. I certainly don’t understand the whole picture yet, but I trust that we’ll get there.

“When a parent dies, a filing cabinet full of all the fascinating stuff also ceases to exist. I never imagined how hungry I'd be one day to look inside it.”

"Power is lost or won, never created or destroyed. Power is a visitor to, not a possession of, those it empowers. The mad tend to crave it, many of the sane crave it, but the wise worry about its long-term side effects. Power is crack cocaine for your ego and battery acid for your soul. Power’s comings and goings, from host to host, via war, marriage, ballot box, diktat, and accident of birth, are the plot of history. The empowered may serve justice, remodel the Earth, transform lush nations into smoking battlefields, and bring down skyscrapers, but power itself is amoral.”

“While the wealthy are no more likely to be born stupid than the poor, a wealthy upbringing compounds stupidity while a hardscrabble childhood dilutes it, if only for Darwinian reasons."

"If an atrocity isn't written about, it stops existing when the last witnesses die."

“Adverbs are cholesterol in the veins of prose.”

The Bone Clocks

In 2012 Care's Books and Pie and I co-hosted a readalong of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. I think that was the first (of many) readalongs we've hosted together. It was the craziest book, layered and complicated, but so beautiful. 

I can't even explain how much it helped to read it with a group. Hearing everyone else's thoughts on the plot helped me better understand it. Each person who participated brought their own unique view and it made the reading experience so much richer. 

So in the same spirit, Care and I have decided to host a readalong of Mitchell's novel The Bone Clocks. Here's a bit about the book...

"This is a feast of a book—perhaps the author’s best to date—a saga that spans decades, characters, genres, and events from Mitchell's other novels. The structure is most similar to Cloud Atlas, with The Bone Clocks pivoting around a central character: Holly Sykes. Each chapter/novella is narrated from the perspective of an intersecting character, with settings ranging from England in the 80s to the apocalyptic future. Each story could stand alone as a work of genius, as they slowly build on Holly’s unwitting role in a war between two groups with psychic powers, culminating in a thrilling showdown reminiscent of the best of Stephen King. Taken together this is a hugely entertaining page-turner, an operatic fantasy, and an often heartbreaking meditation on mortality. It’s not to be missed." 

“One of the most entertaining and thrilling novels I’ve read in a long time.”—Meg Wolitzer, NPR

“Astonishing . . . No one, clearly, has ever told Mitchell that the novel is dead. He writes with a furious intensity and slapped-awake vitality, with a delight in language and all the rabbit holes of experience."—The New York Times Book Review. 

The readalong starts today and loosely goes until the end of February. It's a big book and I don't want anyone to feel rushed. I'll do a wrap-up post in the end (and maybe a mid-way post too). It will be a relaxed readalong, go at your own pace and post thoughts here or on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #boneclocks17.Feel free to grab the button below to use!

Top Ten Authors I'd like to See on a Reality Show

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for the Top Ten Authors I'd like to See on a Reality Show (and which reality show). To be honest, I kind of hate reality TV… a lot. But I looked up a giant list of shows and played along for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday. So I probably haven’t seen most of the shows I mention in this post, but I get the basic idea.

1) Neil Gaiman: Cribs – I don’t know if this show is still around, but I’ve seen photos of his amazing library and I would love to see more of it!

2) Bill Bryson: Survivor – The man is a travel writer, so he should be used to uncomfortable locations and situations… right? Nope, his version of uncomfortable usually includes a pair of shows that aren’t broken in right or a subpar cup of tea. I don’t think he would last long on Survivor.

3) David Mitchell: Jersey Shore – Because after reading Cloud Atlas, I’d like to see this author interact with Snooki and the gang and then watch their little brains implode.

4) John Green: Dirty Jobs – Let’s face it, Green would be great on anything! I think he would make this show both entertaining and educational.

5) Anthony Bourdain: Hell’s Kitchen – I think he and Gordon Ramsay would have a massive show down.

6) Jonathan Franzen: Wipe Out – I’m just not a fan of his and I’d like to see him taken down a notch.

7) Garrison Keillor: American Pickers – Can't you just imagine him talking about each thing they find and its signinficance in American culture as they dig through dilapidated barns and old sheds looking for antiques.

8) Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Krauss: Man, Woman, Wild – This married pair of authors probably wouldn’t fare as well as the married couple on the show, but it would be entertaining.

9) David Sedaris: The Osbournes – I’m sorry, but just picture that for a second. Imagine him trying to have a conversation with Ozzy Osborne. Bahaha.

10) George R. R. Martin: So You Think You Can Dance – He doesn’t strike me as very fleet of foot, so this would be hilarious.

Image from here.

Cloud Atlas Readalong: Final Post

Cloud Atlas: Final Post
by David Mitchell
★★★★☆

What a ride! This was not an easy book to read, but for me it was well worth the effort. Mitchell’s amazing skills as a writer allowed him to take on half a dozen different characters, locations, time periods and still link them all together in a cohesive way. It was enough to leave me reeling.

As we learned in the first half, the book is split into six very different sections. The first five sections stop abruptly in the middle, each one stair-stepping into the next. Then the sixth section, Sloosha, offers a complete story and we work our way back through the five sections in the opposite order, ending where we started with Adam Ewing.

The complicated web of interlocking tales leads us on a wild journey through time and across continents. Here’s a brief breakdown of the sections.

Sloosha’s Crossin’ An’ Ev’rythin’ After
(an old story being told)

Told from the point-of-view of Zachry, who is part of a primitive culture on Hawaii, Sloosha’s section had a difficult to read dialect. Zachry tells of their culture, which worships the god Sonmi. He also mentions Adam multiple times and he meets Meronym, the last of her race.

“Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies, an’ tho’ a cloud’s shape nor hue nor size don’t stay the same, it’s still a cloud an’ so is a soul. Who can say where the cloud’s blowed from or who the soul’ll be ‘morrow? Only Somni the east an’ the west a’ the compass an’ the atlas, yay, only the atlas o’ clouds.”

An Orison of Sonmi~451
(seen as a hologram interview by Zachry)

I found Sonmi’s section to be especially interesting. When we left her, she was on the run and she was learning the truth behind what really happens to fabricants after they “retire.” She witnesses the killing of a fabricant living doll, which underlines the cavalier attitude the purebloods have towards fabricants. We learn more about fabricants in this section, including the fact that they are created to die within 48 hrs if they haven’t had any soap (their food).

Everyone is told that fabricants get to go off into a happy retirement village after they serve 12 years of slave labor. But, as Sonmi finds out, they are actually murdered and recycled as the “soap” food that is fed to fabricants and also as pureblood food. It’s all very “Soylent Green.” This realization elicits the first real response from the archivist who has been interviewing Sonmi. At this point, she does more than ask questions of Sonmi, she shows some shock and outrage at the accusation. She bursts out, “No crime of such magnitude could take root in Nea So Copros,” which shows us just how shocking the accusation is.

*Also, in this section someone is described as “quasi-Falstaffian” which cracked me up.

The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish
(watched as a movie by Sonmi)

At the end of his first section, Cavendish has been checked into a retirement home with no way of escaping. A nurse straight out of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is in charge and she has no intention of letting him out of her grasp. Then Timothy and a few other patients at the nursing home devise a plan and in one wild sitcom-style car ride they crash through the gates and flee. They all start new lives outside of the home.

This section was hilarious! It had, by far, the best one-liners in the book. There’s a bit where Timothy is reading the story of Luisa Rey (which he, a publisher, has received as a manuscript) and mocks it, saying it’s “hippie-druggy-new age.” I loved this cheeky joking because Mitchell is teasing us within his own book about his plots. He points out flaws and holes in the story while we are still reading it!

“A Scot can turn a perfectly decent name into a head-butt.”

“A Titus Andronicus catalogue of threats beat at the door.”

“Ruddy hell, when your parents die they move in with you.”

“Middle age is flown, but it is attitude, not years, that condemns one to the ranks of the Undead, or else proffers salvation.”

Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery
(read as a manuscript by Timothy)

Luisa survived the car crash that ended the first section, but she’s nowhere near being out of danger. She gets fired from her job, which just lets her know she’s closer than ever to uncovering something big. Then, she once again narrowly escapes death when assassin Bill Smoke rigs a bank safety deposit box with explosives.

While on the run, Joe Napier saves Luisa’s life to repay a debt to her father who saved his life years earlier. She is also saved by a woman working in a sweatshop who says something to her in Spanish (anyone know what she said?) So Luisa makes it out of the whole thing alive.

Side note: Sixsmith’s boat is moored in a dock that also has the preserved and restored Phophetess schooner, which Adam Ewing travels on! Each time I made one of these connections, and there are dozens, I got a little thrill. Also, Sixsmith’s daughter, Megan, lives in Hawaii, but I’m not sure any reference is made to that in any other sections.

“Courage grows anywhere, like weeds.”

Letters From Zedelghem
(letters to Sixsmith read by Luisa Rey)

Robert Frobisher’s time in Belgium is complicated when he falls in love with the daughter of the woman he’s having an affair with (while helping her syphilitic husband work on his compositions). It has a distinct “Graduate set in the 1930s” feel to it. He gets his heartbroken and decides to kill himself after finishing his masterpiece.

Frobisher big contribution to the overall plot is the Cloud Atlas Sextet he composes, which mirrors the structure of the novel. The musical piece has six separate solos that are arranged just like the stories within Cloud Atlas.

“Cloud Atlas Sextet holds my life, now I’m a spent firework; but at least I’ve been a firework.”

“Anticipating the end of the world is humanity’s oldest pastime.”

The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing
(a journal read by Frobisher)

After a lot of pontificating about the local life on the island the ship has stopped at Adam finally realizes Dr. Henry Goose has been slowly poisoning him to death. Goose is attempting to steal the money and belongings (estate papers) Ewing keeps locked in his trunk. He convinces Adam that he’s got a worm in his brain, so he’ll continue to take the “medicine” he gives him. Autua, the stowaway that Adam saved in the first section, stands by him even after Goose casts him aside, and rescues him from the poisons and takes him ashore.

END OF RECAP

(Images from Cloud Atlas the movie, being released later this year.
I believe this is their version of Sonmi and Luisa Rey)

Since posting on the first half, I’ve heard that Mitchell confirmed the fact that each of the main characters who share the comet birthmark, are reincarnated souls. He didn’t explore that element as much as I thought he would in the second half, but it was still interesting.

One continuous theme throughout the book seems to be the way society treats those they have power over. In Sonmi’s section it’s the fabricants, in Timothy’s it’s the elderly, in Luisa Rey’s it’s less obvious, but we still see how those who have the power of information treat those without it. As Dr. Goose said “The weak are meat the strong do eat.”

The fascinating thing about this book it that it takes that concept and tosses it on its head. Each time a person, organization, government, etc. take advantage or another person or group, one seemingly insignificant individual manages to stand up against them. Sonmi-451 fought back, Luisa Rey stood up for what was right, even though she knew she might die doing so, Autua protected Adam Ewing and saved his life, etc.

The very end of the book redeemed some of the tough sections for me. Adam sums it all up when he has an epiphany and talks about how selfish may be ugly in a person, but in an entire society, it will destroy everything. We are left with the understanding that each new section in the book was another glimpse of the way our selfish society and creating its own destruction. By the time we got to Sonmi’s section it was the most obvious, because the society had failed to even appreciate other living beings anymore. The next inevitable step was “the fall” in which the world was destroyed.

I will say that I wish the book didn’t begin and end with Adam Ewing’s section. I think it’s an awful deterrent to anyone trying to start the book and it makes for an underwhelming finish. That being said, I think the effort is worth it. It’s not that each of the stories is so amazingly good, it’s that the structure and the writing are unlike anything else I’ve experienced and having to work so hard definitely made me appreciate it more.

I’ll leave you with a few bits from the beautiful passage that wrapped up the end of the book…

“Belief is both a prize & battlefield, within the mind & in the mind’s mirror, the world. If we believe humanity is a ladder of tribes, a colosseum of confrontation, exploitation & bestiality, such a humanity is surely brought into being, & history’s Horroxes, Boerhaaves & Gooses shall prevail…. One fine day, a purely predatory world shall consume itself… In an individual, selfishness uglifies the soul; for the human species, selfishness is extinction.”

QUESTIONS:
So what did you all think was it worth it?

What was your favorite section?

Do you think Mitchell intended us to think of each story as fictional, just part of another story (i.e. Luisa Rey was just a manuscript Timothy reads and Timothy was just a movie Sonmi sees, etc.) or was each one real?

What major points/connections did I miss?

Thank you all for joining in on this readalong and a big thanks to Care for hosting it with me. I had so much fun!

Leave the links to your posts in the comments and I’ll add them all in!

Fizzy Thoughts

Images of Cloud Atlas movie from here and here.